Myths, misconceptions and errors abound when it comes to hypnotherapy. I have dealt with them in my clinic throughout my career as a clinician. The idea of control and who has it, whether to make someone bark like a dog or crow like a rooster, the idea of crazy staring eyes and swinging pocket watches are perennial concerns.
However, in a recently published paper, BJPsych progress It aims to dispel some of the persistent misconceptions about hypnosis and hypnotherapy. 1
Stephen Jay Lin, a professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Binghamton, along with his colleagues Madeline Stein and Devin Terhune of the King’s College Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, succinctly dispel misconceptions such as that patients cannot resist suggestion, that people who are hypnotized are faking it, and that people are either more or less susceptible to hypnosis (yes, some are more susceptible, some are less, and some respond very differently).
Sadly, they make no mention of the pocket watch or the staring eyes.
I’ve been practicing hypnotherapy since 2004. Before that I was a journalist and copywriter. During that time, almost every article I’ve read about hypnotherapy has started with something like “You’d be forgiven for thinking hypnotherapy involves crazy eye staring and waving pocket watches around,” reinforcing the stereotype that hypnotherapy is about exactly that. There are countless articles like this; in fact, several articles about Lin’s research start out exactly like this:
When I was training to be a journalist, I was taught to avoid clichés like the plague (see what I did there?). So, aspiring and seasoned copywriters, please, once and for all, this isn’t about crazy staring eyes and swinging pocket watches. It’s time to stop tolerating people who think so. And the only people who really do think that are journalists, copywriters and bloggers writing their first hypnotherapy article. So stop, because it’s not. Except that it is, or at least it can be. Sometimes.
Let me explain, but before that I want to talk about the hypnotherapy session itself, because there are different stages in hypnotherapy, the first of which is very much related to what I mentioned above.
First there is the induction (asking the client to close their eyes and relax), then there is the deepener (deepening the trance state to an appropriate level), then there is the actual therapeutic part, and finally there is the part where the client is brought out of the trance.
With all that said, we can attribute the crazy stare to Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815). Mesmer was the creator of a form of hypnotism called “mesmerism,” and believed he could heal people by influencing their bodies (or what he thought were the fluids running through them) with magnets and the power of will. His sessions (more like performances) were often highly theatrical, and involved constant stares at his subjects.
Fast forward to modern times, and under very specific circumstances, you can induce a trance state using a crazy stare. For some people, it can be very difficult to close their eyes and let go, even if they really want to. So you need to make them feel uncomfortable. You need to scare them a little. A very good way to do that is to crouch down in front of them, get very close, and ask them to stare into your wide-open eyes. This is an unpleasant experience, and to escape the discomfort, people usually close their eyes immediately. Then you can deepen the trance state.
Even today, to “captivate” means to capture someone’s complete attention. Mesmer also invented the term “animal magnetism,” so he’s obviously responsible for a lot of it. But the existence of the swinging pocket watch owes its existence to a bona fide medical professional.
Dr. James Braid (1795-1860) was a renowned surgeon and pioneer of hypnotherapy in surgery (at a time when anesthesia was not yet widespread). He discovered that gazing at an object (such as a pendulum or a pocket watch) could induce a hypnotic state in patients, a technique that was quickly adopted by other hypnotists of the time (hundreds of years ago).
During the induction part of hypnotherapy, the best way to get someone to close their eyes is to tire them. There are many ways to do this, including waving an object in front of them. It can be anything: a pen, your finger, your hand, a necklace, or even a pocket watch. I have one myself; a friend bought it for me when I graduated (thanks Michael!), but I’ve only used it once or twice since becoming a hypnotherapist, and then only when asked.
Finally, no more staring and waving around except as I outlined above. I once hypnotized someone with a sonic screwdriver, and Doctor Who I’m a fan and just happened to have it on hand.
