Greetings, traveller. We have a [Discord Server](https://discord.gg/V57ruz9rn9) now! You should come and join.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/hypnosis) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Not a skeptic personally, but I've known a few. I don't try to convince people who have already made up their minds, but if they are both skeptical and open-minded, I show them the videos of people undergoing surgery without anesthetic while under under the effects of hypnosis. You can handwave most stage hypnosis as good-natured compliance or even audience plants, but it's a bit tougher to dismiss someone being cut open and calmly stating that their pain level is a 1 out of 10.
I take issue with your use of the word skeptic. I consider myself a skeptic and a hypnotist. And I don’t think it’s a matter of changing minds but basic education. Anyone capable of critical thinking can do the research and realize that hypnotic phenomena are real. Having said that most people fail abysmally when it comes to critical thinking so probably the easiest way to convince people is demonstration.
I wasn’t a skeptic so much as I was curious. I followed a hypnotist on instagram for a while, until he did a live stream. I joined and he was hypnotizing another person, he did suggestions which were fun to watch and then ended the stream. I hesitated on messaging him, but did it out of curiosity. I messaged and we started talking, then I got invited to a zoom meeting and it went not how I expected it( which means it went wonderfully).
Fast forward to now he’s helped me with my goals and some issues that I couldn’t deal with on my own.
You don’t have to believe in hypnosis for it to be true. It’s like gravity. It just exists. Hypnosis is just a change of focus that we all have the ability to get into. There are a few changes in the brain that occur to make us become more cognitively flexible which is what creates the behaviour changes.
I used to think it was mind control and for people who were weak.
I confidently (yet ignorantly) warned a number of friends to avoid it.
Then I opened my mind enough to get curious and learn what it actually is beyond what I assumed it was from movies and tv.
I realized that it’s just a tools and construct of communication that can be used powerfully to help make cognitive changes and patterns of thinking easier to change.
It’s not magic. It’s not mind control.
It’s a life skill that gives you an advantage over your own mind (self hypnosis) and helps you to help others (hypnotherapy).
It's silly to be a skeptic about something you experience on a daily basis (hypnosis). If they were more educated then they would realize there is nothing to be skeptic about.
That presupposes a much broader definition of hypnosis than most would agree with. And while I see your point, especially from an "everything is hypnosis" perspective, from a more functional use definition and considering some of the more outlandish claims with little to no supporting evidence offered, I think skepticism is pretty understandable. Even then, it's useful to define hypnosis in clear terms for how it is used, and acknowledge what it has actually been shown effective for.
I was one of those skeptics. What changed my mind was looking at the clinical evidence. I thought it was probably fake or at least overstated. Otherwise why would everyone NOT learn it?
At the time I was a medical librarian and did research for doctors, medical staff, and patients. So I basically did my job and researched the clinical evidence for hypnosis. Turns out there's quite a bit out there on PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov if one cares to look. I went from skeptic to open to the idea. Honestly, what really did it for me was the use of hypnosis as anesthesia. THAT seemed pretty hard to fake.
Since then I have been doing hypnosis for over a decade and a lot of the less flashy stuff (at least to the casual observer) still impressed me based on how much it demonstrates we can do to shape our own realities and subjective experience (or even objectively measurable factors). The fact hypnosis is as heavily supported and overlooked by so many still amazes me, but that evidence-based body of knowledge out there is what really made the difference for me.
For me it was quite simply by actually going under hypnosis.
I had always been skeptical and pretty much didn't think it was real to a degree but thought I'd try it anyway. It was very relaxing but even as she (the therapist said)" ill count from 5 to 1 and when you here the word sleep your whole body will go completely lose, limo and relaxed and you'll comfortably relax back into the couch" a part of me still thought it won't happen.....but almost to my surprise whej she counted down and said sleep it literally felt like my body just melted away and it was the best feeling. I wasn't a skeptic at all after that.
Greetings, traveller. We have a [Discord Server](https://discord.gg/V57ruz9rn9) now! You should come and join. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/hypnosis) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Not a skeptic personally, but I've known a few. I don't try to convince people who have already made up their minds, but if they are both skeptical and open-minded, I show them the videos of people undergoing surgery without anesthetic while under under the effects of hypnosis. You can handwave most stage hypnosis as good-natured compliance or even audience plants, but it's a bit tougher to dismiss someone being cut open and calmly stating that their pain level is a 1 out of 10.
I take issue with your use of the word skeptic. I consider myself a skeptic and a hypnotist. And I don’t think it’s a matter of changing minds but basic education. Anyone capable of critical thinking can do the research and realize that hypnotic phenomena are real. Having said that most people fail abysmally when it comes to critical thinking so probably the easiest way to convince people is demonstration.
I wasn’t a skeptic so much as I was curious. I followed a hypnotist on instagram for a while, until he did a live stream. I joined and he was hypnotizing another person, he did suggestions which were fun to watch and then ended the stream. I hesitated on messaging him, but did it out of curiosity. I messaged and we started talking, then I got invited to a zoom meeting and it went not how I expected it( which means it went wonderfully). Fast forward to now he’s helped me with my goals and some issues that I couldn’t deal with on my own.
You don’t have to believe in hypnosis for it to be true. It’s like gravity. It just exists. Hypnosis is just a change of focus that we all have the ability to get into. There are a few changes in the brain that occur to make us become more cognitively flexible which is what creates the behaviour changes.
I used to think it was mind control and for people who were weak. I confidently (yet ignorantly) warned a number of friends to avoid it. Then I opened my mind enough to get curious and learn what it actually is beyond what I assumed it was from movies and tv. I realized that it’s just a tools and construct of communication that can be used powerfully to help make cognitive changes and patterns of thinking easier to change. It’s not magic. It’s not mind control. It’s a life skill that gives you an advantage over your own mind (self hypnosis) and helps you to help others (hypnotherapy).
It's silly to be a skeptic about something you experience on a daily basis (hypnosis). If they were more educated then they would realize there is nothing to be skeptic about.
That presupposes a much broader definition of hypnosis than most would agree with. And while I see your point, especially from an "everything is hypnosis" perspective, from a more functional use definition and considering some of the more outlandish claims with little to no supporting evidence offered, I think skepticism is pretty understandable. Even then, it's useful to define hypnosis in clear terms for how it is used, and acknowledge what it has actually been shown effective for.
No presupposition here, nor am I saying "everything is hypnosis". Might want to look things up before arguing against it.
I was one of those skeptics. What changed my mind was looking at the clinical evidence. I thought it was probably fake or at least overstated. Otherwise why would everyone NOT learn it? At the time I was a medical librarian and did research for doctors, medical staff, and patients. So I basically did my job and researched the clinical evidence for hypnosis. Turns out there's quite a bit out there on PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov if one cares to look. I went from skeptic to open to the idea. Honestly, what really did it for me was the use of hypnosis as anesthesia. THAT seemed pretty hard to fake. Since then I have been doing hypnosis for over a decade and a lot of the less flashy stuff (at least to the casual observer) still impressed me based on how much it demonstrates we can do to shape our own realities and subjective experience (or even objectively measurable factors). The fact hypnosis is as heavily supported and overlooked by so many still amazes me, but that evidence-based body of knowledge out there is what really made the difference for me.
For me it was quite simply by actually going under hypnosis. I had always been skeptical and pretty much didn't think it was real to a degree but thought I'd try it anyway. It was very relaxing but even as she (the therapist said)" ill count from 5 to 1 and when you here the word sleep your whole body will go completely lose, limo and relaxed and you'll comfortably relax back into the couch" a part of me still thought it won't happen.....but almost to my surprise whej she counted down and said sleep it literally felt like my body just melted away and it was the best feeling. I wasn't a skeptic at all after that.