Hmmm… It was tough attempting to explain what todays blog post is about in the title, mainly because I wanted to vent my spleen and make it relvant at the same time… I was alerted to a story in the South Yorkshire Star newspaper whereby a hypnotherapist has been regressing himself to uncover memories that are forming part of his book…
If anything has been repressed and uncovered here… It was some majorly repressed idiocy, in my opinion.
This hypnotherapy article states:
HYPNOTHERAPIST Neil Murphy found the perfect way to dig into his past when he was researching his autobiography. He hypnotised himself!
Waiting until all was quiet late at night, he would wrap himself in a couple of duvets to create a womb-like atmosphere.
Neil, of Keppel Road, Scholes, near Rotherham, said: “It worked beautifully.
” It would take a few minutes to enter deep trance and as I began talking, my voice-activated tape recorder would switch on.
Personally, when using self-hypnosis, I advise and teach people to avoid dealing with the past in self-hypnosis… All of you students of mine know this, all those of you that have read any half decent book on the subject know this… The hypnotherapist in this article seemingly knows this because the article continues to say:
But the trip down memory lane was not without its dangers.
“Hypnotherapy, particularly regression, can help but it must be carried out with the utmost care. My clients would occasionally become locked into the world they were visiting, unwilling or unable to come out of a trance.
“The risk when putting yourself into a deep hypnotherapeutic state is that you might also get locked in with no one to bring you out. This did happen to me on a few occasions and it was very frightening.
Why on earth are you promoting the notion in a newspaper article then? Why do it? Why continue? The article goes on…
“Most people will have had an intense dream carry on after waking. It is unpleasant but is usually past in a minute. My nightmare continued for perhaps an hour.
“On one occasion I became so desperate I dragged myself out of bed and into the garden. Here in the early hours I stripped off and lowered myself into our fish pond. The cold water shocked me back into reality.
What? Is this for real?? … I am searching for a punchline of some sort… You are openly telling us that you took yourself into hypnosis and you belive that the only way to terminate it, was to nakedly stroll into your garden pond!??! You truly believe that hypnosis was responsible for your nightmare?? What nonsense… Yet, it continues to say:
“It gave me confidence to allow myself to go ever deeper into the regression analysis with some startling results. Events, conversations and descriptions of scenes from those war years poured out.”
It was like completing a jigsaw from which pieces had been missing.
When he was nine he supplied information about boat movements in Cork harbour to Fifth Columnists aiding the Germans, who hoped to use Ireland as a back door to attack England.
He eventually turned himself in and was deported on the personal involvement of Irish Prime Minister Eamon De Valera.
The book continues with exploits in Sheffield. Many memories slipped from Neil’s mind but hypnosis helped bring them back.
Let me offer up some quotations from a couple of authors who fiercely dismiss the notion of repressed memories:
There is no controlled laboratory evidence supporting the concept of repression. (Holmes 1990, p 96)
Laboratory studies… Have failed to demonstrate that individuals can ‘repress’ memories. CLinical studies… must start with the null hypothesis: namely, repression does not occur. (Pope and Hudson 1995, p 125)
After years of research into the issue I have yet to find even one convincing case of massive repression or massive dissociation. (Prendergrast 1999, p 54)
Yet our Hypnotherapist in Rotherham states in the Star newspaper:
“The mind can play strange tricks with people so they can forget very traumatic experiences.
There are many of even the most sceptical cognitive behavioural, evidence based hypnotherapists who agree that past experiences often do culminate in restructuring behaviour and contributing to phobias and anxiety responses, that is not really the point of my blog today.
Aside from the ptoential problems that regression brings in the form of possible retraumatisation of issues and painful experiences from the past, as well as issues raised in some of the biggest litigation cases in US and European psychiatric history in the field of false memory syndrome… All of which raise issues for the efficacy and ethics of ‘regression’ in therapy… There is this notion I have written about before that seems to permeate so much thinking in the field of hypnotherapy whereby things get nominalised.
That is, it is more accurate to speak of the activity of remembering rather than talking about having things called ‘a memory’. This notion is explained in more depth in a January blog entry of mine here.
There is a very large case discussed in much academic writing about the accuracy of recounting memories in this way and that the memories seem to get reconstructed in inaccurate ways depending on the mood and current mindset of the person, in fact many people make a connection between so called repression and self-deception (Coe and Sarbin 1991).
There is little evidence to suggest that raising these so-called repressed feelings and venting them is actually of any therapeutic value, but that really is a discussion for another day and another blog…
It is just this notion that someone who claims to be a hypnotherapist of 30 years experience is openly suggesting how useful it was to hypnotise himself to uncover ‘repressed memories’… Whilst simultaneously telling of how he walked into his fish pond to bring himself out of one of his more traumatic episodes… ???
There is no actual empirically supported evidence anywhere to suggest that hypnosis can be responsible for such experiences. None at all. I am open to change my mind if someone shows me some… And no, that does not mean you can describe some subjective experience you had whilst smoking something in a cave with a guy who told you he was a shaman doing hypnosis…
Maybe this is his way of making his book more interesting and a way of generating sales… To me, it is idiocy based on anecdotal supposition and is promoting desperately unhealthy uses of self-hypnosis. I cpould go on, but shan’t… (Exhales deeply)… I had hoped to write about the World Cup today, but I’d only end up moaning about Englands first game and how those vuvuzelas are making football more like tinnitus…
Oh Adam this did make me laugh!! I was thinking exactly what you were and every time I read your comments I was saying ‘exactly, exactly…’ like you were here in the room with me.
Oh NO, I must have a repressed memory of talking to thin air…right, that’s me off to the fish pond then…
Priceless!
Helen
XX
Helen, I have had so many emails today from people saying similar things to what you’ve just said… Thank you for that… Really, if you didn’t laugh, you’d cry.
🙂
Hi Adam, great article!
I totally agree with you on this one.
For example, my children now young ladies, when recalling a particular event in their childhood, their memory of this event is completely distorted.
When they were in their teens, they would recall two events when they had been told off by myself but they would insist I had been unfair, that they had not been naughty. So armed with my home movies, I would prove to them, that I was not the wicked witch of the west, and that indeed they had misbehaved. Watching the recording, the correct memory would re-surface, and they would laugh, a little somewhat embarrassed at their convenient memory editing and life would go on.
Then as young ladies, these two remembered events would come up in conversation and to my surprise, the old wrong memory would be back!!! Then, I would not just show them the recordings but also remind them of the discussion we had when they were teens.
They would be as surprised as myself, how and why had they reverted again to the old incorrect account of events and the feelings that they felt at that time.
I really don’t know what to think about regression, repression but as per above, I have to say very uncomfortable because
1: It is unreliable, 2: Is it really about the reality or more about dealing with our negative perception of the recalled event? 3: Why do we need to know what happened? Is it not the case, if you cannot prove it or even if you can as per above, what really matters is that we change our belief and perception to a more helpful and positive one than the opposite?
Or are we to believe and feel sorry for the tremendous hard work and risk that this hypnotists is putting himself through in order to visit his past, all for the philanthropist action of sharing his inner dark corners and dazzle us with a story that is not a story but a travel into the past, wow! Who knows it might become a Hollywood blockbuster, so who will be laughing then? It certainly will capture the imagination of people but will take away from Hypnotherapy, as a perfectly safe and tested therapy. Lets hope he does not get trapped in his state or we will be missing on a brilliant story!
I blame, as usual, the education system.
Why, I ask you, isn’t every primary school child in the country taught about confirmation bias? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias.
It takes an effort to actually critically survey the evidence on something like repressed memories and the value of regression, rather than just simply absorbing whatever comfortingly confirms what you’ve already been taught and have practiced.
Without the awareness of that bias, and the many others we all have, you can quite easily end up living in a world of your own self-justifying nonsense. With it, you might just make the effort.
Thank you Phil, I enjoyed reading that insight… And Thank you Maria, some reali life quantifying there… Appreciated 🙂
If I had come across the ramblings of this ‘Experienced Hypnotherapist’ as part of a comedy sketch or a scene played out in EastEnders, it would have been very entertaining and humorous to boot. Unfortunately, it is articles like these that give people the wrong impression not just about Hypnosis, but also the people that practice the profession.
Over the past few months, since I have been on the Hypnotherapy Diploma Course, I have come across several people that have expressed interest in the subject, after they have learnt of my new study. It saddens me to say that the majority of these spoke exclusively of regression, both in this life and past life. It seems to be the aspect of Hypnosis that gains most publicity, or just that it is the most extraordinary angle of the topic. There are other treatments for allergies, depression and weight control etc… but nothing else comes close to regression.
One of those who was full of the wonders of regression was a close family member. They had previously been to see a Hypnotherapist who carried out past life regression with them and took them through eight – Yes 8 – previous lives. They ran me through, in great detail, aspects of their lives on every occasion including details of their deaths. They ‘recalled’ how in the most prominent of these ‘memories’ they had recognised their partner to be the same partner they have today. Whilst they looked fairly different, they recognised the eyes. Now it is difficult, for me at least, to throw cold water on such vivid recollections of someone that you care about, and whose judgement you have not questioned over the years.
I do not doubt for one moment that they truly believe in what they ‘experienced’, just that they are confused about what this ‘experience’ was. It is conveniently not possible for any of the facts to be verified, as the past lives they were ‘guided’ through, contained no names and no specific locations, just areas of the country like Shropshire. Even the post prolific historian would have trouble locating them at that time.
I get very frustrated when I read that those who proclaim to be learned in this field, choose to publicise themselves with such bizarre antics. After all, why would someone who talks about the dangers of being locked into trance and unable to come out again, subject themselves irresponsibly to such risks. Did he think of the trauma to his fish – I doubt it, as he has thought so little about anything else he has said or done here.
Personally I think that people who promote Hypnosis in this manner and detract from the amazing benefits it actually has to offer, would do us all a favour by getting lock in trance and then locked up.
His words are certainly effective though, as we are all busily talking and debating and giving him unjustified publicity. I am going to end it there as I am noticing how i’m striking my keys harder and harder in frustration.
Perhaps I am more enraged as I have seen people I care about taken in by it. I would love to believe that our minds are capable of storing such information as past life experiences or accurate recollection of child hood memories, but by now, there should at least be some research or documentation to confirm this. It is great if people can be encouraged or reassured by such imagery, regardless of it’s accuracy, but not if they base decisions upon it.
Alan, thank you for so eloquently and comprehensively articulating one of the main challenges that we can face as hypnotherapists… I hear you and know preciely what you mean.
ps. Fish trauma?! Hahahaha.
Whenever I read a newspaper article about something I am aware of, or close to, it is invariably wrong in most respects, doubtless this is the same except it is about something that the subject also seems to have a limited grasp of. Is he a registered hypnotherapist? Can we find out? Surely he can’t really know the subject. His ridiculous ramblings have been hyped by the journalist and I’m sure a good hypnosis story depicting hypnosis as dangerous and something to be very wary of even by a “professional”, is good for sales, after all everyone is intrigued by,and a bit unsure of, hypnosis. It’s the equivalent of the old Nationwide ‘pit-bull on a skateboard’ filler.
He’s not going out of his way to get clients if he really is a professional. Maybe he’s someone who has played around with it a bit and failed, or just has a grudge against hypnotherapists and wants to make sure they get a bit of negative press whilst pretending to be one of them, or as you say, he’s just hyping up his very exciting book.
According to the article he was a 9 year old fascist spy during WW2 so that means he’s got to be knocking on 80 years old now. He also has a voice activated tape recorder and I wouldn’t be surprised if he has an Aston Martin with ejector seats in the garage that he’s forgotten about. It says a lot for the newspaper that they gloss over the nazi spying and focus on the mad, roller coaster ride of hypnosis.
It’s just another reactionary story to up sales figures and frighten people to stay within their comfort zones which, after all, is what newspapers want to do to ensure continuing sales, it’s just a shame that this time it’s hypnotherapy in the firing line. I’m sure the good folk of Sheffield will overcome this particular traumatic memory and embrace all the good things that hypnotherapy can do. I don’t imagine there’ll be a positive South Yorkshire Star hypnosis story in the near future. I checked out their website and other stories include “Grappling legend’s grandson pens wrestling musical” and “Fine for dog owner whose pet fouled the streets” so their reporters don’t seem to be in the Woodward and Bernstein mould.
Best to silently fume than pick up the cudgel and start another negative onslaught. Now, about England v USA……..
Tony, you just made me laugh out loud! Thank you! Fantastic contribution…