I studied Ericksonian Hypnotherapy at Harvard Medical School.

The most impressive demonstration I saw was when our professor put someone into a trance and told them that it was 120 degrees (49c) in the room. It was closer to 68 degrees, but my classmate began to sweat!

You can’t fake that.

It proves the efficacy of hypnosis and illustrates the body-mind connection.

Another memorable demonstration was when he hypnotized a female medical student and regressed her to the age of ten. He asked her what gifts she received on her tenth birthday, and she answered in a British accent! Previously her accent was as Massachusetts as mine!

After she was brought out of the trance, she was asked about the British accent. She admitted being surprised by it and said that her family moved to England when she was nine years old and lived there until she was eleven. She had no idea that she had picked up an English accent by the time she was ten.

Some of my classmates use hypnosis on patients undergoing surgery. However, I don’t expect you could fake being conscious and not feeling pain during surgery.

In my own practice, I’ve used hypnotherapy so that someone with ‘stagefright’ (and little time) could perform for or address a crowd. I’ve used it for people with agoraphobia who had to sit through their child’s graduation or wedding later that weekend.

Stage hypnotists never successfully hypnotized me. TV and movies tend to portray hypnotism unrealistically. The hypnotist is not in any unnatural control over you, and they can’t make you do anything you wouldn’t want to do.

But, yeah, hypnotism is genuine. It’s not a panacea… not a ‘cure all,’… but it can be an effective tool.