other day and he said after the movie, 'It sounded like the girl in front of us was going to be sick'. And I said, "What are you talking about?" I was so engrossed in the movie that I didn't notice the girl that was sitting directly in front of us," she says. The same goes for hypnosis. During my session I was so relaxed and focused on what Henderson was telling me to do. I didn't notice the construction workers hammering in the room next door. When coming out of a hypnotic state, the client remembers everything that occurred during hypnosis. Another common misconception is that it is possible to get stuck in hypnosis. Henderson says that experiments have been conducted to see what would happen if a hypnotherapist left a client in a hypnotic state and never came back. She says the clients eventually aroused themselves and went home without any harm being done. Because the client is in control during the session, he or she has the power to "wake up" at any time during the hypnosis process.
Even though a client may be safe in this situation, finding a hypnotherapist that you trust is key. According to the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, a state license is not required in every state to perform hypnotherapy. According to Missouri law, permits are only issued to psychologists, registered nurses and clergy. In Kansas, however, the only restriction prohibits hypnosis for entertainment
purposes. Kansas law states that the club owner, the hypnotist and those who participate and allow themselves to be hypnotized will be charged a $50 fine and a misdemeanor will be placed on each individual's record. This law was a revision of a 1965 law that defined hypnosis as "a condition of altered attention, frequently involving a condition of increased selective suggestibility brought by an individual through the use of certain physical or psychological manipulations of one person by another." Some hypnotists avoid this law by calling themselves "mentalists" instead.
The society says there are two types of hypnotists: lay hypnotists, people who are trained in hypnosis but lack a professional health care background, and licensed health care professionals, people who have seven to nine years of university training plus additional internships. The society suggests running a background check on the hypnotherapist to make sure the person is licensed — not certified — in the field; certification can be received after only two days of training at some hypnosis institutes. It also says to investigate what degree the hypnotherapist holds. If he or she does not have a health-care-related degree, the person is probably a lay hypnotist.
Gentry, who is a registered nurse, says to also make sure the hypnotherapist provides individual hypnosis sessions that cater to your particular needs. Michael Doane, Atlanta, Ga., resident, says that hypnosis made him physically ill. Doane was a heavy smoker. When he was living in Santa Barbara, Calif., he saw an ad in the newspaper that said a hypnotist was going to be doing a group session to help quit smoking. Doane says that during the hypnosis everything went according to
When coming out of a hypnotic state, the client remembers everything that occurred during hypnosis.
plan. He went under hypnosis, received suggestions and came out of the state thinking that everything had worked. "In less than 24 hours I was a basketcase," Doane says. Within five hours after he woke up the next day, the effects had worn off and he felt agitated and ill. Doane's son, Guillaume, says he came home from school that day to find his dad sitting in a chair staring blankly at the television. Guillaume, a Jayplay reporter and Kansan copy editor, says his dad pleaded with his mother to give him back all of the cigarettes she had hidden. Doane says this was his last hypnosis experience and he is still a smoker. Gentry says that sessions are not helpful because it is hard to hold more than four or five people under hypnosis at a time. She says that when she hypnotizes a group it is difficult to give one person the individual attention they need for their particular situation. Gentry also says that it is almost impossible to get rid of the habit in one group session because traces of the habit will pop up on daily occurrences. She says the average amount of sessions to alter a client's subconscious is three.
It's now been two weeks since my hypnosis experience and I can still remember every detail vividly, even though Henderson warned me the memories would fade over time. I've played around with the self-help technique for getting over my fear of flying, but I won't know if it works until I take my next trip. The next step: teckling my fear of elevators. Until then, when I board an elevator I hold my breath and pray that one day a sense of calm will rush over me instead of that awful feeling of entrapment.
— Ashley Marriott can be reached at amarriott@kansan.com.