Last Updated on July 18, 2020
While hypnotherapy has been praised by some to be effective in dealing with addictions and unexplained phobias, there are potential downside to such treatments as well. In this article, we would discuss the downside of hypnotherapy.
1. Manipulation
If a patient is successfully induced to a state of deep trance like state, the patient is open to any form of suggestions by the hypnotherapist. There are claims that a patient cannot be made to do anything against their views or moral code.
However if the patient is suffering from emotional vulnerabilities such as depression, anxiety and lack of self confidence, the patient may be susceptible to any suggestion by the person who is performing the hypnosis. For example, let’s say a very rich but emotionally vulnerable lady goes to seek hypnotherapy treatment from a therapist who is in a financial situation. Using her vulnerable state, would it be possible through auto suggestion that the therapist be able to convince the patient to fall in love with him so that he is able to get through large sums of money from her?
I really do not believe that a person in hypnosis is capable to saying no to anything that goes beyong their moral ethics. Some people who learned the art of hypnosis mis-used them and it is through these reported stories that we can see the potential dangers of hypnosis.
View the video below whereby there is a story of a lady who was being hypnotized and then sexually abused by the lawyer who allegedly have hypnotised other female clients before having sex with them and then erasing their memory. She suspected something amiss and contacted the police, and then brought along a tape recorder. The police managed to catch the lawyer:
Even though it may not be commonly known in US or UK, but believe me, case where hypnosis is being misused is very rampant in Malaysia and Singapore. Most of us here would know of a case of an auntie or uncle who parted with their life savings through hypnosis from strangers in the street. A few of my neighbors had experience of being asked for direction while exiting the bank and the next thing they knew, they took the person back and handed money to them.
Here are some examples of real crimes reported published in the Malaysian local papers:
- China national who ‘hypnotised’ old lady into giving away valuables caught by crowd at Puchong market
- Senior citizen hypnotised and cheated of RM86,000
- Hypnotised into parting with RM56,000
2.False memory
Psychologists and mental health professionals sometimes use hypnotherapy to attempt to help the patient overcome some serious mental problems. There are many cases of severe addiction and mental problems are the result of suppressed memory of sexual abuse during childhood. So sometimes when dealing with a patient that could not be healed by medication, the health practitioner may question…. ‘do you ever recall being sexually abused as a child?’. Perhaps after certain leading question and ideas planted, the patient may awake being convinced that the root cause of her problem is because her stepfather had raped her when she was young.
There is a case I remember reading, about a woman who went to seek therapy because she felt depressed for no apparent reason. Her life seemed to be going well. Through the treatments, she suddenly recalled that she was repeatedly raped by her stepfather. She told her mother about the alleged rape…. and by that time, her mother was taking care of her stepfather who had brain cancer.
Her mother was laden with such deep guilt that she could not protect her daughter that she committed suicide.
There is also a case published that a lady, through hypnotherapy somehow recalled she had been raped repeatedly by her father from the ages of 7 to 14 while her mother watched. Clothes hangers were used as force abortions. Her father and mother denied the allegations.
A gynecological exam revealed that the girl was still a virgin and the fact that her father had underwent a vasectomy when the girl was 4 years old. The clams made by the girl was physically and medically not possible.
3. Spirit and entity possession during the hypnosis session
When a person agrees to undergo a hypnosis, she would become extremely vulnerable as she opens up her being without any conscious control. A spirit, earthbound spirit, entity or dark force could then easily attach or possess the person.
In the case above, where the girl claimed she was sexually abused by her father when physically examination proof that her allegations were medically not possible. She was under hypnotherapy when she had those scary visions…. but what makes us so sure that those visions were not real experiences by a spirit who had possessed her while she was in a trance-like state?
Below is a video by Dr Charles Tremont who is a physician turned exorcist (the first few minutes of the video had some voice interference but after that the video is quite clear). He specialised in healing the patient through past life regression using hypnotherapy. He does not have the psychic abilities hence he obtains answers through entities speaking through the person be it the spirit guide, spirit, entity or even alien attachments on the person,
Why I don’t completely agree in this is because if one chooses to venture in the invisible realm of spirits, one need to be able to have the psychic powers that matches up to the unseen beings that one is up against. In South America, South Africa and Asia, shamans and mediums who worked with spirits are psychics and are able to fully sense or perceive what they are dealing with. They do not depend on answers from asking questions and seeking reply from what they cannot see.
Visualizing protective white light around and asking patients to do the same without really able to see if the protection works can put the practitioner and his/her family in a potential psychic danger. Angry but powerful spirits who are not happy about being ‘sabotaged’, ie by that practitioner intervening and saving the patient may instead go after the practitioner for revenge. If it cannot get to the practitioner (perhaps due to the person have sufficient protection), it may ‘attack’ the weakest person in his family. I have seen this happening before when a person dabbles with the invisible forces that he cannot fully comprehend. It ended up harming his family (ie wife gets cancer, child gets sick or died in a accident, etc).
Conclusion
There may be testimonials from patients who managed to heal from phobias, addictions and trauma through hypnotherapy. While I don’t discount those cases. However, there are possible risks associated with any form of treatments and the aim of this article is to have the reader aware of the potential risks.
In the state of deep hypnosis, one is emotional and spiritually very vulnerable to be manipulated by either seen or unseen beings. Sometimes, a person who have no problems but voluntarily opened up a vulnerability of their psychic through going for hypnosis ‘just for fun’. They may even try it at home through self hypnosis or allowing others to do it on them. If these DIY methods had gone wrong or one is unable to get out of the altered state properly, or one ended up with an ‘uninvited guests’, there may be bad than good.
