So I’ve been doing some genealogical research for a few years, and the conventional sources of information are starting to run dry. There is a major open question that I can’t crack.
My father recalls meeting an old man about 50 years ago who, as he remembers it, said something that could shed a lot of light on said question. In fact, if true, it would cause a radical rethinking of one fourth of our family history. The trouble is, my dad is 76, and his memory has never been absolutely reliable. And this particular memory does not fit at all with other accepted facts about our family history.
I’ve been thinking about having him hypnotized to try to recover the memory in a more reliable form. Would this be remotely worthwhile? I know all the problems with falsely recovered memories, but in this case there is really no compelling reason for the truth to be one way or the other, so I don’t think there would be any intentional bias. Plus, with more information I could devise ways of checking the truth. Without getting too much into the specifics, what he remembers goes against everything else we know about this particular issue. Ideally, he would be hypnotized, and basically say “No, that was Uncle Fred he was talking about, not Uncle Ralph”, and I could then discard this confounding piece of data.
So, has anyone out there been hypnotized to try to recover a memory? Did it work? Were there any ill effects? How do I find a hypnotist? How do I avoid quacks?
We are also considering having the hypnotist say “By the way, you don’t like cigarettes any more”, but that’s another thread.
My dad did the stop smoking hypnotizism thing about 15 years ago, and it worked well.
As for the family history, have it done at one hypnotist, and then go see another one without letting out the answer that the first one found. If the answers match, you have your answer.
From my own personal experience with hypnotism… people in an altered state tend to be highly suggestible. I think there’s quite a good chance in this situation, (if the hypnotist knows anything at all,) that if your father can’t access the true memories of this old man from his subconscious, he would be cued into unwittingly making something up.
Not sure about the ‘ask two different hypnotists’ idea either, because it’s the same subject. When the second hypnotist asks, whatever part of the subject’s subconscious mind would probably begin with the same false memory, elaborating certain portions of it and deleting others, but likely still close enough to make a ‘match’
My wife does hypno-therapy as part of her psychotherapy practice. I asked her and she said it probably won’t help, but can’t hurt (provided you can find someone willing to do it).
Agreed that it won’t hurt. But the older you are the less llikely it is that hypnosis will work. But, heck for $150 it sounds like it’s probably worth it.
BTW, make sure it’s someone qualified. There used to be a group called the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis which was excellent. Don’t know if they are still around.
Assuming the money spent is not an issue, and there’s no negative consequences of having the wrong answer, then it doesn’t seem like a bad idea.
The bottom line, I guess, is that no-one seems to know how reliable the memories recovered from hyponosis are, since the process itself doesn’t recover the memory, but may only cement whatever created memory was generated later into the mind more clearly. I don’t think it’s a matter of suggestibility to outside influences… the hypnotist can be completely neutral and still get a false memory out because the bias is coming from the subject’s mind.
I took several classes on hypnosis back in college. The technique is absolutely lousy at recovering lost or fuzzy memories; the subject is likely to make something up if he cannot recall exactly what happened. And there’s no way to distinguish between his early memories, and what he’s reinforced over the decades. Hypnosis just doesn’t work that way.
That being said, there wouldn’t be any ill effects.
If you want to find a hypnotist, check with your local shrinks, or try the Association of Ethical Hypnotists (my prof was the head for a number of years…)
But if you want to use hypnosis to reinforce your desire to quit smoking, that’ll have some effect.