Oh, no, it wasn’t like that at all, really. He spent half the time telling me that with a problem like mine it might not work at all. He was very up front about how it all works - I was pretty impressed, actually.
I was hypnotised to stop smoking. Worked great, it’s been over 15 years.
At no point during the session was I not aware of everything. In fact, I thought it wasn’t working because at one point I was uncomfortable in the chair but was afraid to move because I felt it would mess things up. It didn’t. The session took about an hour total. I would do it again.
I think word of mouth is a good indicator, but in the end it’s all about how “suggestable” you are. That’s what I hear, anyway.
I’m not sure how apocryphal this story is, but a hypnosis expert was on a stage giving a lecture to an auditorium full of students. He had a few volunteers on stage. He hypnotized one young lady, then told the audience that you could never give a hypnotic suggestion and have it work if it went against the subject’s ethical belief system. You couldn’t get a pacifist to kill, for instance.
He then demonstrated by telling the young lady to take her clothes off. And she started to. He aborted the suggestion immediately.
As it turns out, the young lady was working as a stripper on the weekends.
Yeah, I did that too. About four hours after the session I thought, “Wonder what happens if I light up anyway?” So I did.
This was a place that gave you your money back if you didn’t remain smoke-free. They should have done the opposite.
That’s not just apocryphal, I think it’s a short story.
Well, I went - I dunno, how do you know if it worked? I mean, of course after you spend money on it you’re hyperconscious of whether it’s working or not, so you do what you’re supposed to do. (Today wasn’t a running morning for me anyway.) It was very relaxing, though. There was a machine, although he cautioned me that there was a ton of woo-woo crap about them online. He gave me a CD of the session, so I can listen to it again on my own and reinforce. I dunno, I mean, it can’t hurt.
I would think that reinforcement is the key thing here. I’m pretty skeptical of hypnosis that’s a one-off. But repeated messages tend to sink in deep.
I’m doing three sessions, too.
At any rate, it was a good pick-me-up. It kind of felt like when a massage is over and you go blinking out into the world.