hypnotists

[Buzzard]

I'd like to hear of anyone's experience with a hypnotist or hypnotherapist, good or bad. Would you recommend them? Waht is your opinion of the practice...even if you havn't been? I'm thinking of a possible consultation with one.

[troutman]

http://www.skepdic.com/hypnosis.html

Hypnotherapists. While it is true that some hypnotherapists can help some people lose weight, quit smoking, or overcome their fear of flying, it is also true that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can do the same without any mumbo-jumbo about trance states or brain waves. There have been many scientific studies on the effectiveness of CBT. For example, one systematic study found that CBT improves weight loss in people who are overweight or obese. Another systematic study found that CBT appears to be an effective and acceptable treatment for adult out-patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. Finding high quality scientific evidence for hypnotherapy, however, poses a major problem. As R. Barker Bausell says: hypnosis and the placebo effect are "so heavily reliant upon the effects of suggestion and belief that it would be hard to imagine how a credible placebo control could ever be devised for a hypnotism study" (2007: 268). Even if you could devise a hypnosis study that isolated the role of suggestion and belief, how would you do "fake" hypnosis?

Hypnotherapy is said to effective for such things as helping people lose weight, quit smoking, or overcome a phobia. Most of the evidence for the effectiveness of hypnotherapy is anecdotal, despite the claims of such groups as the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH). Not surprisingly, all the anecdotes are positive! Nobody collects examples of failures or tells the world about their "incomplete successes." If one compares the characteristics of the placebo effect and those of hypnotherapy it is hard to distinguish the difference between these two ducks. Both work because participants believe they work and they occur in a clinical setting where the client is highly motivated for the therapy to work and the provider has all the accoutrements of the healing arts. Suggestion is the heart and soul of both.

[jolinar of malkshor]

I haven't done it but my brother and cousin have and it is the real thing.

[icecube]

In my personal experience it definitely works. If you are inclined buy a book on self hypnosis and a tape recorder and try for yourself. Cheaper than paying someone and just as effective.

[Dion]

My aunt used hypnosis to quit smoking and it worked quite well.

[Dartem]

Its just a bunch of BS. Pure willpower will take you further

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Dartem

Its just a bunch of BS. Pure willpower will take you further

I'm inclined to agree. Placebo effect.

[Bobblehead]

I was talking to a guy who used it to quit smoking, but he actually tried 3 different people before he found one that worked for him.

He said with the first it worked a couple weeks. The second didn't do a thing. The third didn't call himself a hypnotist, but they sat, chatted, and when he left he didn't have the urge to smoke. And that was 15 years ago.

I know one other person who I would have thought was a for-life smoker that hypnotism worked.

Maybe it is purely suggestion and the placebo effect, and I don't think I'd want to spend a lot of money to try it. But for the people who it does work for, good for them.

[icecube]

Originally Posted by Dartem

Its just a bunch of BS. Pure willpower will take you further

Disagreed. Willpower is hard to come by. Especially when habits and patterns happen unconsciously. Hypnosis is like a shortcut to get the subconscious to listen faster. Willpower is great but only works when you can remember to use it.

[Dartem]

Originally Posted by icecube

Disagreed. Willpower is hard to come by.

Only for the weak.


You dont need a 'hypnotist' to stop smoking. You need to first, get the nicotine out of your system, and second the pure determination not to let it back in (and control you.)

Addiction is a ty thing, but once the chemical part of the equation is solved, only a weak person needs to go back to it to feel better.

[flylock shox]

Originally Posted by Dartem

Only for the weak.


You dont need a 'hypnotist' to stop smoking. You need to first, get the nicotine out of your system, and second the pure determination not to let it back in (and control you.)

Addiction is a ty thing, but once the chemical part of the equation is solved, only a weak person needs to go back to it to feel better.

I think you have too much sympathy for addicts.

Shoot them I say. About time someone skimmed the crap off the gene pool.

[icecube]

Originally Posted by Dartem

Only for the weak.


You dont need a 'hypnotist' to stop smoking. You need to first, get the nicotine out of your system, and second the pure determination not to let it back in (and control you.)

Addiction is a ty thing, but once the chemical part of the equation is solved, only a weak person needs to go back to it to feel better.

Hypnosis can be used for many more things than just quitting smoking

[Dartem]

Originally Posted by flylock shox

I think you have too much sympathy for addicts.

Shoot them I say. About time someone skimmed the crap off the gene pool.

I wouldnt say I have any sympathy for them. If they dont have the willpower to get over something once the chemical is gone, then thats their own fault for being weak people.

Originally Posted by icecube

Hypnosis can be used for many more things than just quitting smoking

So can willpower. Guess which is more effective?

[jolinar of malkshor]

Originally Posted by Dartem

Only for the weak.


You dont need a 'hypnotist' to stop smoking. You need to first, get the nicotine out of your system, and second the pure determination not to let it back in (and control you.)

Addiction is a ty thing, but once the chemical part of the equation is solved, only a weak person needs to go back to it to feel better.

Dude, it is NOT that simple.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Dartem

Only for the weak.


You dont need a 'hypnotist' to stop smoking. You need to first, get the nicotine out of your system, and second the pure determination not to let it back in (and control you.)

Addiction is a ty thing, but once the chemical part of the equation is solved, only a weak person needs to go back to it to feel better.

People who fail to quit are not weak. If pure determination was all you needed then you wouldn't have people failing repeatedly in their attempts to quit. People wouldn't be using the gum, patches or medication for that matter.

[Just Someone]

Originally Posted by Dartem

So can willpower. Guess which is more effective?

Hypnosis. Hypnosis is based on distracting one's conscious mind enough to get message/orders straight to subconsciousness. For example those guys, who make people fall "in the name of God" don't need hired actors, just good eyes to spot the right type from the crowd. Someone who is either believing or completely un-believing are the easiest targets to distract, 'cause their minds are concentrated to believe something to be true or false and are more open for distracting mambo-jambo of heavenly might and so on. The best part of it? That is the basic trick, one of the first things every hypnotist learns and is used to measure, how easy someone is to hypnotize. A hypnotist doesn't actually need to swing a clock in front of one's face. That is for shows and stories, to add something more mystical in the proses. Also it is something to make sure, that someone overly curious self-made "hypnotist" doesn't succeed. Those TV-hypnotists are actually a disgrace. They play around something that can potentially badly injure, even kill a person.

[Dartem]

Originally Posted by jolinar of malkshor

Dude, it is NOT that simple.

It is that simple. Im sorry to hear you dont think so and are probably one of the weak ones.

Originally Posted by Dion

People who fail to quit are not weak. If pure determination was all you needed then you wouldn't have people failing repeatedly in their attempts to quit. People wouldn't be using the gum, patches or medication for that matter.

If they are not weak, then what are they? You dont *need* any of those things. If you cant quit cold turkey, then yes you are a weak willed person. Stop being a vitim and take control of yourself.

Originally Posted by Just Someone

Hypnosis. Hypnosis is based on distracting one's conscious mind enough to get message/orders straight to subconsciousness. For example those guys, who make people fall "in the name of God" don't need hired actors, just good eyes to spot the right type from the crowd. Someone who is either believing or completely un-believing are the easiest targets to distract, 'cause their minds are concentrated to believe something to be true or false and are more open for distracting mambo-jambo of heavenly might and so on. The best part of it? That is the basic trick, one of the first things every hypnotist learns and is used to measure, how easy someone is to hypnotize. A hypnotist doesn't actually need to swing a clock in front of one's face. That is for shows and stories, to add something more mystical in the proses. Also it is something to make sure, that someone overly curious self-made "hypnotist" doesn't succeed. Those TV-hypnotists are actually a disgrace. They play around something that can potentially badly injure, even kill a person.

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/tobacc...obacco_use.pdf

From page 68

"Hypnosis. The original guideline did not conduct a separate meta-analysis on hypnosis because few studies met inclusion criteria, and those that did used very heterogeneous hypnotic procedures. There was no common or standard intervention technique to analyze. Literature screening for the updated guideline revealed no new published studies on the treatment of tobacco dependence by hypnosis that met the inclusion criteria; therefore, this topic did not warrant re-examination. Moreover, an independent review of hypnotherapy trials by the Cochrane Group found insufficient evidence to support hypnosis as a treatment for smoking cessation"

[troutman]

Have you seen, the man they call Reveen?

http://www.reveen.com/

[flip]

Originally Posted by Dartem

I wouldnt say I have any sympathy for them. If they dont have the willpower to get over something once the chemical is gone, then thats their own fault for being weak people.
So can willpower. Guess which is more effective?

Man do I ever hope your son or daughter gets addicted to coke or heroin. Then when they have a relapse you can call them a weak piece of crap.

This line of bashing "weak" people for becoming chemically dependent on a substance is just stupid. Will power is great but it is not the be all end all. You clearly don't have the will power to not be a jerk.

[CaptainCrunch]

These aren't the droids your looking for