Why do so-called enlightened teachers misunderstand hypnosis?

Vic Shayne
Curated Newsletters
6 min readJan 5, 2025

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Vic Shayne
author
Consciousness: The Potentiality of All Existence: Exploring reality and belief as a subjective experience

Image by Tumisu, pixabay.com

Quite a number of so-called enlightened gurus and spiritual teachers have made ridiculous comparisons between hypnosis and the delusional state of the self. Conflating stage hypnosis, which is a form of entertainment, with clinical hypnosis, which is a valid modality of psychotherapy, is as absurd as comparing psychiatry to magic.

Hypnosis is a word, like myth, that has been so misused that even the dictionary definition accords with the common misunderstanding. A myth is not a lie, it is a metaphorical story that leads the reader or listener back to her own sense of self for enquiry. And hypnosis is a practice of elevating both the conscious and unconscious mind simultaneously to resolve deeper trauma and oft-forgotten memories as a form of of therapy. The BBC recently reported that “Hypnosis is emerging as a powerful medical treatment for pain, anxiety, PTSD and a range of other conditions.”

What exactly does hypnotherapy do?
Psychotherapist Janice Shayne, who has been a clinical hypnotherapist for more than three decades, explains, “Under hypnosis, with both the conscious and unconscious minds engaged but separate, the client and the therapist are able to work directly with the unconscious. The unconscious is elevated because it alone understands what is truly beneficial for the client. Simply, hypnotherapy bypasses the conscious mind that has little influence over real and permanent positive change.”

Shayne notes that “hypnosis, has been recognized since the 1950s as a qualified and approved medical therapy by the American Medical Association (AMA). Today, neuroscience has shown hypnosis to be an efficient and effective way of forging new neuropathways in the brain and being able to do in minutes what other therapies and practices, including meditation, may take weeks, months, or years of practice to accomplish.”

Brain researchers at Stanford University report that “by scanning the brains of subjects while they were hypnotized, researchers at the School of Medicine were able to see the neural changes associated with hypnosis.”

Conflating hypnosis with stage hypnosis
Many of the most celebrated gurus use the word hypnosis in the pejorative because of its portrayal in entertainment and media, which typically focus on stage hypnosis rather than the therapeutic or scientific aspects of the practice. To be clear:

  • Stage hypnosis is designed to entertain and often exaggerates the effects of hypnosis for dramatic effect. It shows participants acting in extreme or silly ways, which can lead audiences to think hypnosis is about losing control or being manipulated. Those encouraged to be a part of the zany onstage behaviors are carefully selected by the stage hypnotist for their willingness to participate in the fun.
  • Movies and TV shows often depict hypnosis as a magical or mind-controlling process where the hypnotist wields total power, creating a false impression of what hypnosis really involves.

Some surprisingly problematic statements from a few very popular spiritual teachers
If anything this should be a reminder not to believe everything you hear; even the most revered gurus can be woefully off-base:

  • “Most people are in a state of hypnosis. They identify so completely with the voice in their head — the stream of thinking — that they are hypnotized by it. True awakening is breaking free from that mental hypnosis and realizing your deeper self.” Eckhart Tolle
  • “To awaken means to awaken out of the self-talk in the head because the self-talk is a form of hypnosis — self hypnosis.” — Eckhart Tolle
  • “In order to awaken, first of all one must realize that one is in a state of sleep. And in order to realize that one is indeed in a state of sleep, one must recognize and fully understand the nature of the forces which operate to keep one in the state of sleep, or hypnosis.” — Gurdjief
  • “You are under the hypnotic trance of your own mind. When you stop believing in the illusion of separation, you can see the truth. The stage hypnotist does the same thing, inducing a trance in you to make you do things you would never normally do.” — Alan Watts
  • “The way you experience life is not because of what is happening outside, but because of the way your mind is. You are hypnotized by your own thoughts and emotions.” — Sadhguru
  • “We are all hypnotized by the mind. The moment we stop identifying with our thoughts, we break free from the trance.” — Adyashanti
  • “So the next time you find yourself hypnotized by your thoughts or emotions and clucking like a chicken, try de-hypnotizing yourself either by watching your thoughts dispassionately or by placing your attention on the gaps between them.” — Michael Rodriguez
  • “I used to sleep on the floor next to the bed, because I believed that I didn’t even deserve a bed to sleep in. And then, one morning, a cockroach crawled onto my leg. I looked at it, and suddenly I awoke from a kind of hypnotic trance in which I had been all my life. “ — Byron Katie

In the least these quotations show that esteemed spiritual teachers are heir to misunderstandings and the misuse of the word “hypnosis,” because they do not know what it really means. The self is not in a state of hypnosis; this isn’t the obstacle to enlightenment. The problem is that the self is the result of psychological conditioning that causes identification and attachment with a body and a host of ideas, beliefs, memories, ideals, emotions, and mental tendencies — none of which has the slightest bit to do with hypnosis.

Clarifying the therapeutic practice
Stanford University researcher David Siegel, MD, whose study on hypnosis and resultant brain changes was published in the esteemed scientific journal Cerebral Cortex, explained, “Hypnosis is the oldest Western form of psychotherapy, but it’s been tarred with the brush of dangling watches and purple capes…In fact, it’s a very powerful means of changing the way we use our minds to control perception and our bodies.”

Therapists who have employed hypnosis as part of psychotherapy understand that hypnosis has nothing to do with gaining control of another person’s thoughts, beliefs, or actions. Nor is hypnosis capable of making people do something against their belief systems, morality, or ethics. During clinical hypnosis, patients are fully aware, focused, and in control, though they are deeply relaxed and more open to suggestions to allow the unconscious mind to become engaged.

This difference between stage hypnosis, black magic, and clinical therapy is not clear to the general public or to the spiritual leaders who flippantly make hypnosis seem like a deceptive and manipulative practice and equate it with the state of the self. If the self were actually hypnotized then it would better see the folly of its own emotional and self-centered beliefs, attachments, trauma, and actions.

If the self were actually hypnotized then it would better see the folly of its own emotional and self-centered beliefs, attachments, trauma, and actions.

The hypnotized patient is always in control
Hypnosis is used to treat anxiety, chronic pain, smoking cessation, and trauma through hypnotherapy. Without a true understanding of therapeutic hypnosis, people are too often wont to assume all hypnosis is the same as what they see in entertainment. The dramatic portrayals in stage hypnosis feed into fears of being controlled or manipulated against one’s will.

When thought leaders state that the self is under a sort of hypnosis they are displaying a lack of understanding about what hypnosis really is. In the therapeutic setting the hypnotized patient is always in control and is engaging a powerful part of her mind for self-benefit.

Hypnosis as a collaborative process
Hypnosis is a collaborative process, and individuals cannot be made to do anything against their values or will. This fear is reinforced by myths and misinformation, preventing people from exploring the actual benefits of hypnosis. Clinical hypnosis is a scientific and therapeutic modality used by psychiatrists, psychotherapists, and others that involves heightened focus and relaxation, not mind control or unconsciousness.

Milton H. Erickson, revered American psychiatrist who specialized in medical hypnosis and family therapy, said, “Allow yourself to see what you don’t allow yourself to see…The unconscious mind is decidedly simple, unaffected, straightforward and honest. It hasn’t got all of this facade, this veneer of what we call adult culture. It’s rather simple, rather childish. It is direct and free…You use hypnosis not as a cure but as a means of establishing a favorable climate in which to learn.”

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Vic Shayne
Vic Shayne

Written by Vic Shayne

NY Times bestselling author writing about reality beyond thought, consciousness, and the self to uncover what is fundamental. https://shorturl.at/mrAS6

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