Well . . . regular readers here know I am a big as in B I G science fiction fan, I absolutely love literature of the fantastic . . . science fiction, fantasy, and horror . . . and even teach courses in the stuff at the graduate and undergraduate levels at the university.
I am a fan of the Stargate series . . . from the original film to the long bout at SG1 and Atlantis and now Universe. Actually, despite what seem to be inconsistent ratings in the US, I quite enjoy the SGU series.
Well . . . as a Stargate fan and as a professional hypnotist, it was interesting to see this past week’s episode of SGU – Visitation – with some hypnosis thrown in.
Uh, some realism there . . . but . . . and this is important, our Stargate hypnotist is NOT a very good hypnotist . . . oh sure, she guides her trance partners into hypnosis and she regresses them well and good enough . . . but . . . she’s demonstrating something I’ve seen done time and time again by genuine hypnotists, not just the pretend kind, something which is very definitely not only poor technique but contaminates the session to unreliability.
She leads her subjects . . . and while I normally don’t use that word to refer to hypnotees, that’s what they are with folks like this. They lead. Notice that she regresses to an event and then asks questions but her questions are leading questions which can lead a hypnotized person to confabulate, to imagine, and to create false memories. “I am in the forest and someone is with me” “What does he say” . . . well she is suggesting it is a man (it isn’t) and that he is speaking (he isn’t). While the folks in the television program do not take the bait and instead correct her impressions as they revivify their experiences, a lot of unfortunate folks aren’t able to and instead their unconscious creates false memories to please the hypnotist.
Certainly, anyone working with regression or parts therapy or the like really should take their cue from the forensic hypnotists who know that CLEAN SESSION LANGUAGE that guides but never leads is very very important and I have posted on this blog on this very subject time and time again.
Seriously, this is important stuff. While it’s okay to do research on trends and the like on never ever goes into a session with a predisposition or presupposition of what is going on. Always run the process clean and choose your words to be as neutral as possible when it comes to such things.
Well, despite the hiccup with the hypnosis . . . which really isn’t a hiccup as they’re not misrepresenting hypnosis as there really are a whole lot of hypnotists and therapists who do this sort of thing . . . yes, they should know better, but as they suck at what they are doing they don’t actually realize what they are doing. I’ve seen folks who’ve have a number of books on hypnosis published do the very same thing. Of course, taking a solid training from someone who actually KNOWS what they are doing helps quite a bit in instilling some good solid habits when it comes to hypnosis. Yes, I mean someone like me but not just me. While there are indeed an overabundance of rather incompetent folks practicing and even teaching hypnosis, there are indeed a number of folks who actually know what they are doing and are more than competent at it, they’re pretty damned good at the stuff . . . however, if you’re looking for training make sure you get in with one of those folks rather than one of the others.
All the best,
Brian
http://www.briandavidphillips.com
