Legendary hypnotist Dave Elman is credited as being responsible for this phrase, which is still largely misunderstood nearly 60 years after he first claimed this.
Yet it is vital for people to understand this to be true because the misunderstanding and ignorance regarding what is and is not hypnosis causes so many people to miss out on its benefits due to them being either scared and/or aware of its amazing benefits in every aspect of mental and physical health and wellness.
Dave Elman is widely considered one of the great hypnotists of all time. Born in Fargo, North Dakota in 1890. Elman’s father was a stage hypnotist who and owned a huge collection of books on hypnosis. The young Dave Elman became engrossed in these books, eventually mastering hypnosis to the point whereby his school classmates were absolutely terrified of what he could do.
Yet Elman’s legend is built on his contributions outside of stage hypnosis. Between 1949-1962, he travelled across America teaching his “Medical Relaxation” hypnosis course to doctors and dentists.
In 1964, Elman released his book Hypnotherapy. In it, he claims that there is actually no such thing as a hypnotist and that any practitioner using this tool is simply showing a patient how to transition from a normal waking state to the transformational state of mind known as hypnosis.
Elman goes on to say that a more accurate term than hypnotist would be a “hypnotic operator” who helps to willingly guide patients into the state of hypnotic trance required for the patient to achieve the desired result.
At this point, you may be asking yourself: “What about stage hypnosis?” For example, you may have seen some examples of stage hypnosis shows during which people do things they normally would not ever do, simply because the stage hypnotist suggested they did so.
The truth of the matter is that stage hypnotists carefully select their subjects before inviting them up on stage. They want to ensure that their subjects comply with their every suggestion without any inhibitions whatsoever. So typically, they use specific processes or routines to identify the extroverts in the audience and then invite them up on stage to take part in the show. With the skilled stage hypnotist to guide them, these subjects enter a deep state of hypnotic trance easily and deeply, without any conscious resistance at all.
This makes the job of the hypnotist very easy since all he does is set up the scenarios and provide the instructions. It is then up to each of the subjects to use their imaginations and create the hilarious scenes that follow. This is why every single hypnosis show is different and varied. Despite what the billing may say, it is always the subjects picked from the audience who are the real stars of the show.
So hypnosis cannot ever be used to make people do anything they do not want to do. Human beings are equipped with survival purposes to be subconsciously aware of anything that would cause them danger or harm. This is why we get “bad gut feelings” about certain people or situations where we somehow know that something isn’t right. Even if you were in the deepest hypnotic trance, therefore, you would immediately emerge from this state if the hypnotist was to suggest something which was not in your best interests.
This is why it is so important to have good rapport with a hypnotist before doing a session together. When it comes to hypnosis in a therapeutic setting, for example, there must be first be full agreement between the hypnotist and the patient before the session starts regarding the suggestions that the hypnotist will give to the patient. This ensures full rapport is established and that the patient will be comfortable all throughout the session. This is an essential component of every successful hypnosis session, enabling the hypnotist (or “hypnotic operator” as Dave Elman used to say) to guide the patients into a state of transformational hypnosis, during which they can make all the changes they want to make.
After all, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis.
