Hypnosis and the Potent Power of "No"

By Forbes Robbins Blair


Ever heard that hypnotic suggestions should never contain words like "no" or "can't" or "don't"? That's an
increasingly popular proclamation from self-help gurus and enthusiasts. They say negative suggestions are
bad. That's just not right.

As a clinical hypnotherapist my experience has me convinced that negative suggestions do work and they
have their place in therapeutic hypnotic suggestion.


Examples of Effective "Negative" Suggestions

These are actual real life case studies from my client files:

  1. At the start of the session, a hypnotic subject is tested: the hypnotherapist says, "At the count of three, you will try to open your
    eyes but you'll discover they are so tightly shut you cannot open them. One. Two. Three." The person tries to open their eyes
    but fails to do so.
  2. A hypnotherapist applies the hypnotic suggestion to her client, "You no longer have any interest in cigarettes. You simply don't
    want them anymore." Days or weeks after the therapy, the client reports she has stopped smoking.
  3. A self-hypnosis practitioner tells himself while in trance, "I stop grinding my teeth from now on." The self-therapy is successful.
    And the bad habit abates.

Real life positive result examples of "negative" hypnotic suggestions are common and have been used successfully for many decades.
Classic hypnosis textbooks contain too many negative hypnosis suggestion examples to count.

Still... negative suggestions have their place in clinical therapeutic hypnosis. Where did this idea that "negative suggestions are bad"
come from?

Some Law of Attraction and NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) proponents have recently indicted hypnosis professionals who utilize
negative suggestions in their daily practices. That's the new fad. Some of these new wave hypnotherapy critics seem to want to lump
traditional direct suggestion hypnosis (like mine) with techniques from their supergeek-studies of hit-or-miss possibilities-of-hypnosis
library files.

Here's one idea I have for them: While hypnosis shares many things with NLP and the tenets and techniques of the Law of Attraction --
they are very different.


The Law of Attraction and Hypnotherapy

Law of Attraction advocates say we should not concentrate on conditions we do not want to manifest.

They say we should focus on the new conditions we do wish to experience. But even well-known Law of Attraction gurus recognize the
value of first acknowledging what it is you DON'T want (a Law of Attraction technique known as "contrast").

While it is true that the emphasis of post-hypnotic suggestion is to establish new positive behavioral patterns, the mind is clearly
capable of understanding corrective suggestions (see examples 1-3 above). In fact, it is often necessary to include authoritarian
suggestions to inform or teach the subconscious what behavior or belief would need to be discarded.

Here's one more example: a former "alpha child" personality type usually would need a father-oriented (authoritarian) therapeutic
approach to the pretalk, testing and hypnotic suggesting -- or -- they just usually wouldn't respond as strongly.


NLP and Hypnosis

In NLP, many would argue that negative words or suggestions are ineffective because the subconscious mind is supposedly incapable
of picturing a negative state. For example, the NLP practitioner often suggests that because there is no such state as "not smoking,"
that trying to instruct a person's subconscious to "stop smoking" would be counterproductive to the process.

Wow, how different this is from hypnotherapy!

In all of the examples given above it is clear that under hypnosis the unconscious mind DOES understand the idea of what quitting
smoking is -- regardless of the imagery evoked. Well-crafted posthypnotic suggestions would help here.


Different Approaches Can Often Confuse the Hypnosis Enthusiast

The NLP and the Law of Attraction movements produce great ideas that work well within their fields. But it's important that we not
confuse them with hypnotherapy.

There are times we need to use negative suggestions in hypnotherapy. The key is in knowing how and when to use them. And the
hypnotherapist (or self-hypnotist) must know how to carefully balance them with POSITIVE and nurturing suggestions.



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Forbes Robbins Blair is the author of two self-hypnosis books: the popular Instant Self-Hypnosis and the
new book The Self-Hypnosis Revolution. His website http://www.instant-self-hypnosis.com helps people
understand benefits of hypnosis. He produces his own series of hypnosis audios. And Mr. Blair offers
professional hypnosis-by-phone and in-office client hypnotherapy services.
masthead: instant-self-hypnosis.com





copyright 2010 Forbes Robbins Blair