Hypnosis - does it work or is it all BS?

Neost · Post by **Neost** » June 9, 2004, 9:08 pm

Has anyone had any success with self-improvement through hypnosis such as weight loss, smoking cessation, memory/recall gains, pain management or anything else?

Also, if you had hypnosis sessions did they try to teach auto-hypnosis or self-hypnosis for reinforcement of whatever ails you were trying to cure?

masteen · Post by **masteen** » June 9, 2004, 9:38 pm

It's bullshit for weight loss, quitting smoking, ect. It can be a useful tool for shrinks, I suppose, but those seminars are a fucking joke.

Tinkin Tankem · Post by **Tinkin Tankem** » June 10, 2004, 1:15 am

This is purely speculation and I'll say upfront that I have no proof to back it up although I'm sure there is some out there. Hypnosis is simply putting your mind in a state in which you are more susceptable to persuasion. For anyone out there that has tried to or has actually stopped smoking I'm sure most of you had the mental addiction which is nothing more than your mind telling you that you are ready for a smoke or that you want one. If you can over come the mind game you can easily break the physical addiction. I'm positive that there are people with minds that would fall for the _trickery_ involved in hypnosis. Simply put I would venture to say that it's all mind over matter, if you want to believe that it works and you go to a seminar or something like that then you will believe that it worked, ffs there are people that go to the doctor and insist that they're sick so the doctor prescribes them sugar pills as a ploceba but doesn't tell them... they stay healthy. These same people have ran out of there sugar pills and gotten sick because they thought they would and thought so strongly that by choice or not they got sick...I'm going to bed now.

Tinkin Tankem
(Retired)

Kylere · Post by **Kylere** » June 10, 2004, 2:57 pm

I tried hypnosis for Smoking, Weight Loss, and even so that I could be more tolerant of my exwife.

The only thing that let me quit smoking and lose weight was getting rid of my exwife.

Nilaman · Post by **Nilaman** » June 10, 2004, 4:00 pm

I had some friends who all went to quit smoking.

5 of them went, of those 5 only 1 was already a non smoker.

After the session the other 4 continued to smoke. Since then only one other has quit due to other reasons.

icknay · Post by **icknay** » June 12, 2004, 12:08 am

I stopped smoking 9 years ago after going to a hypnotist. The craving was removed for only a couple of weeks but it was enough. Today I VERY rarely crave a smoke.

I quit smoking as a gesture to humanity

Aren't you all lucky?

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » June 12, 2004, 7:00 pm

hypnosis isn't bullshit, although not all psychologists think that the tradeoff of accessing someone'e sub conscious is worth it when there are other methods of therapy.

there are various levels of hypnosis that access different areas of someone's mind and enables the hypnotizer to do more drastic things. the level of hypnosis required to stop smoking or lose weight effectively is way too dangerous to perform on someone who just wants to make a lifestyle change. you can do a subtle hypnotism to suggest to them to stop smoking or over eating, but oftentimes your brain's desire to smoke or gorge on junk food can overpower the suggestion.

I have heard about people being hypnotized and actually planted the suggestion that, say, cigarette smoke tastes unbearably bad or that all junk food has poison in it that will kill you, but of course doing that to people can have some pretty extreme results.