subject: Modern Hypnosis for a Modern Cure [print this page] Some people, unfortunately, still view hypnosis with suspicion. They haven't quite managed to get past the somewhat medieval views (first promoted, incidentally, by doctors afraid that the modern methods would cause patients to lose faith in their own disciplines) that hypnotism is some kind of dark art or witch craft. It is, of course, nothing of the sort. Hypnotism is simply applied psychiatry teaching the mind, in other words, to heal itself through particular techniques.
Hypnosis has come a long way from its roots, in the eyes of the public at least who are now so receptive of the technique that successful hypnotists like Max Kirsten (whose London clinic has cured some extremely famous people of habits and addictions) even have their own forum in major national broadsheet papers. In actuality, the techniques of hypnotism are little different now to the way they were 50 years ago: it's simply that our understanding of the technique and its effects has broadened as has our acceptance of the fact that "alternative" therapies have a lot going for them. Hypnosis, which works by contacting the deepest parts of our unconscious selves in order to address problems, habits and so on that we experience in our conscious minds, is the ultimate alternative therapy offering, and often achieving, the holy grail of all treatment practices.
We've been made all too aware, in the last 50 pill happy years of "traditional" medication and medical practice, that it's easy enough to suppress the symptoms that a person is complaining about without actually doing much to solve their root problem. Hypnosis runs straight to the heart of the issue, rearranging the building blocks of one's psychological makeup to make everything right again. Don't worry, though hypnotism cannot make one's subconscious do anything it isn't already prepared to do. That's the beauty of hypnotism: once it has reached the areas of the subconscious from whence a problem, a habit or addiction for example, is issuing, it gently persuades that subconscious to let go of the damaging behaviours and replace them with constructive ones. In other words, hypnosis convinces patients to convince themselves to get better.
Fears that hypnotism is too invasive have largely vanished with the advent of the 21st century. We are, thankfully and finally, a lot more aware of the potential of "alternative" (i.e. non medical) therapies for real success and an often radical change in lifestyle. Hypnosis, non invasive and completely medication free, allows subjects and patients to attain the lives they want and the behaviours they need. It does this gently and with complete understanding. As the last fetters of a medieval view of the role of medicine and medication crumble, our modern society is able to look forward to an era when any therapy, as long as it is beneficial and non-harmful, can take on the job of making people feel better. Hypnotism is the first step.
