Frank’s Sunday Question
by Frank Murphy
I have been teaching my brother to drive. Every day we go through the same procedure - we go out to the car, I hand out the keys and say “do you want to drive?”
He always says “no,” so I drive to a quiet estate, swap places, he drives round for a bit, we swap places and go home. Same routine everyday.
One day not long ago he booked a ‘proper’ instructor as I told him he is not far away from being ‘test ready.’ I asked him does he want me to spend 5 minutes to hypnotize him and get rid of the hot flushes, panic attacks, hot sweats and to ‘make’ him pay more attention to things I picked up on that could use more attention -mirrors, handbrake, etc.
I spent literally 5 minutes with him before we went out for a lesson.
We went out and I asked the usual “do you want to drive?”
He said “yes,” took the keys, got straight in the driving seat and took off at the speed of light STRAIGHT AT A PARKED VEHICLE, which to make matters worse was my hypnobile!!
On another occasion, I visited a client going through a divorce, whose husband was bullying her and still controlled her life.
The day after I worked with her, the police brought her back home after she had gone round to his house, and, for the first time in her life she stood up for herself.
I re-thought my approaches after that and put emphasis on due control and caution!!!
So, with these occasions in mind, my question is this:
Can a person have too much hypnosis/hypnotherapy? Even though it is used for a right reason and used properly, can it still be dangerous?
June 1st, 2008 at 9:23 am
I wouldn’t say “dangerous” exactly, but the possibility of unintended consequences is always present. We do what we can — word things precisely, keep it simple, avoid too-general statements — but ultimately there are so many variables that it’s never a question of if someone will eventually take a suggestion in an unintended way, but when.
<MR>