LIES AND TRUTH
Myths and misconceptions about hypnosis and suggestion: Separating fact and fiction – Steven Jay Lynn, Irving Kirsch, Devin B Terhune, and Joseph P Green
Almost every website about hypnosis features a page on the "truth about hypnosis”, and almost every one of them is wrong. And not just wrong, but almost 100% wrong. They usually get the bit about hypnosis not being sleep correct, but I’ve even seen one recently that claimed it was!
So instead, here is Lynn, Kirsch, Terhune and Green in 2020 to right those wrongs, with a peer-reviewed, academic paper exposing the myths of hypnosis.
Now, without university access to academic papers, these nuggets of scientific evidence tend to be pretty expensive. Indeed, in this case, Wiley Online will happily charge you $10 for 48-hour access, $18 for online-only access, and a whopping $42 for a PDF that you can download! Google Scholar doesn’t throw up a free PDF link either, but I am led to believe that there are activist websites containing vast volumes of academic papers that may actually have free copies – and the good ones don’t demand an email address, ask you to sign-up, or require a credit card either. So it might be worth an intelligent search of the web if you want to save some cash.
While the full paper is worth a read for the detail, I thought it would be useful to list the myths here, as a kind of checklist that our visitors can scan through to see how much of what they believe is nonsense.
You could call it a ‘hypnosis myth scale’ if you like – simply score a point for each statement you disagree with and your total out of 22 represents your ‘hypnosis ignorance’! Maybe you could use it to compare hypnotherapists before deciding who to engage for your smoking cessation or phobia cure? Or use it to help you choose a university supervisor if you decide to study hypnosis academically? I’m sure the list of uses is endless…
So, onto the scale items. I’ve retained the original numbering scheme for direct relation back to the paper, but, as I suggest, just score one point for each item you disagree with. Let’s hope you don’t score more than 16, as that would make you highly hypnosis ignorant! (Note, the first item has been divided into two, taking the total number of myths to 22, where the original paper claimed 21.)
1. Myths and misconceptions about clinical hypnosis
1.1a) Hypnosis is a panacea in treatment.
1.1b) Hypnosis is not helpful.
1.2) Hypnosis is typically a stand-alone treatment.
2. Myths and misconceptions about hypnotic responsiveness
2.1) People are either hypnotizable or they are not.
2.2) Hypnotic suggestibility is very different from nonhypnotic suggestibility.
2.3) Hypnosis is associated with greatly increased responsiveness to suggestions.
2.4) People slip into a hypnotic trance.
2.5) A “Hypnotic trait” is robustly associated with hypnotic suggestibility.
2.6) Responsiveness to suggestions reflects nothing more than compliance or faking.
2.7) Hypnotic suggestibility cannot be modified.
3. Myths and misconceptions about inducing hypnosis
3.1) Hypnotic methods require great skill to administer, and responsiveness to hypnosis is greatly determined by the skills of the hypnotist.
3.2) Some hypnotic inductions are much more effective than others.
4. Myths and misconceptions about the “state” of hypnosis
4.1) Hypnosis greatly reduces or eliminates peripheral awareness.
4.2) Focused attention is essential to successful hypnotic responding.
4.3) The effects of hypnosis are attributable to relaxation.
4.4) Hypnosis produces a sleep-like state.
4.5) Hypnosis is like mindfulness.
4.6) There are reliable markers of a hypnotic state.
5. Myths and misconceptions about control
5.1) The perception of involuntariness during hypnosis is the product of a trance.
5.2) People cannot resist or oppose hypnotic suggestions.
6. Myths and misconceptions about memory
6.1) Hypnosis is a reliable method to improve recent memories.
6.2) Hypnotic age regression can retrieve accurate memories from the distant past.
There you have it – how many did you score? Personally I’m a 0, making me an especially low in hypnosis ignorance, but then I’ve been studying this for years. Don’t feel bad whatever you score; just take it as a sign to do more reading. The truth is out there!
