The Experts Address the Issue of the Safety of Hypnosis
Leslie La Crome, psychologist and authority on hypnotism, states as to self-induction, many thousands have learned it and I have yet to hear a report of any bad results of its use.
In his book, Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Dr. William S. Kroger states, Platonof, an associate of Pavlov, who used hypnosis over fifty years in over fifty thousand cases, reports as follows ;We have never observed any harmful influences on the patient which could be ascribed to the method of hypno-suggestion therapy, or any tendency toward the development of unstable personality, weakening of the will or pathological urge for hypnosis.
Dr. David Cheek M.D. who has vast experience in the field, writes, We can do more harm with ignorance of hypnotism than we can do by intelligently using hypnosis and suggestion constructively.
Dr. Julius Grinker states, The so-called dangers from hypnosis are imaginary. Although I have hypnotised many hundreds of patients, I have never seen any ill effects from its use.
Pierre Janet, a student of Sigmund Freud who became an ardent practitioner of hypnosis writes, The only danger in hypnotism is that it is not dangerous enough.
Psychologist, Rafeal Rhodes in his book, Therapy Through Hypnosis writes, Hypnotism is absolutely safe. There is no known case on record of any harmful results from therapeutic use.
Dr. Louie P. Thorpe, Professor Emeritus, University of Southern California, in his book, The Psychology of Mental Health, writes, Hypnotism is a natural phenomena, and there are no known deleterious effects from its use.
Hypnotherapist Gil Boyne states, In almost thirty years of clinical practice and teaching, I have never seen a single documented case of harm from hypnosis.
The Experts Attempt to Define Hypnosis
The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. William James .
Actually, the hypnotic state, like the conscious state and the sleeping state, is extremely complex and involves so many psychological, physiological and interpersonal factors that no one theory has yet been able to account for all the intricate operations that take place within its range. Lewis R. Wolberg
Hypnosis is the term applied to a unique, complex form of unusual but normal behaviour which can be induced in all normal persons under suitable conditions and also in many persons suffering from various types of abnormalities. It is primarily a special psychological state with certain physiological attributes, resembling sleep only superficially and marked by a functioning of the individual at a level of awareness other than the ordinary conscious state
.. Encyclopaedia Briticannica (Probably written by Dr. Michael Yapko)
Hypnotism is simply exaggerated suggestibility. George H. Estabroooks.
A state of intensified attention and receptiveness, and an increased responsiveness to an idea or to a set of ideas. Milton Hyland Erickson.
..Nothing but an aspect of conditioning. Andrew Salter.
Hypnosis is largely a question of your willingness to be receptive and responsive to ideas and to allow these ideas to act upon you without interference. These ideas we call suggestions Andrew M. Weitzenhoffer & Ernest R. Hilgard.
Hypnosis is not sleep. Whatever sleep is, hypnosis is not
..to put it succinctly, hypnosis is an altered state of attention which approaches peak concentration capacity. Herbert Spiegel Hypnosis is a consent state of physiological relaxation where the subject allows the critical censor of the mind to be by-passed to a greater, or lessor, degree
. We could even go so far as to say that hypnosis is preventive psychological medicine.
Peter Blythe It is recognised that there is no generally accepted definition of hypnosis, though considerable consensus exists as a descriptive level.
Martin T. Orne
.An altered state within which suggestions have a peculiar potent effect.
K.S. Bowers Hypnosis is a natural state of mind with special identifying characteristics: 1. An extraordinary quality of relaxation. 2. An emotionalised desire to satisfy the suggested behaviour. The person feels like doing what the hypnotist suggests, provided that what is suggested does not generate conflict with his/her belief system. 3. The organism becomes self-regulating and produces normalisation of the central nervous system. 4. Heightened and selective sensitivity to stimuli perceived by the five senses and four basic perceptions. 5. Immediate softening of psychic defences. Gil Boyne
