‘I could never “do” hypnosis, I wouldn’t be in control,’ said a friend, when I told her how I help people.
‘Hmm… I said. ‘I see. But how are you in control now?’
She looked at me, confusion flicking across her face.
‘If you can’t hand over what you see as control to someone else, how can you be control?’
That’s the funny thing about ‘control’ isn’t it. It controls you. Think about it. How can you have control, if you need control? Control has control. You don’t.
And let’s not even take into account that you are always in the driving seat in trance, should you choose hypnotherapy as the route to freeing yourself from what’s holding you back.
You tell your therapist what you’re ready to disclose. We go at your pace. You can even lie to your therapist if you want to (although don’t advise it, it’s not going to help). It’s not a truth serum, though. You are certainly never in a position where you’re revealing information involuntarily.
But do you want to hear something even funnier? You’re in and out of trances all the time. Whether you’re aware of it or not.
Ever wondered how you can drive home and not remember half the journey? You can be in a trance with your eyes open.
When you watch a film. When you watch TV. When you watch advertisements. Oh yes, advertisements. Mass hypnosis.
Ever wondered why you buy the brands you buy? Advertisers are masters of the craft of persuasion. Although whether they use their influence skills for the greater good is questionable.
Maybe because mass media trance is so frequent and so pervasive, you don’t notice you’re making choices that aren’t really your choices.
But of course, you’re in control.
I know.
Ironic.