Just suppose someone considering hypnotherapy were to say: “I would like help with my anxiety, but I do not want you controlling my mind.”
It is a reasonable concern. If your understanding of hypnosis comes from films, you might expect the hypnotist to issue a command, your eyes to change and your personality to go on annual leave. Considerable nonsense follows, usually accompanied by sinister music.
The scientific picture is rather different. Hypnosis has not been shown to give someone irresistible control over another person. However, that does not mean everything done in the name of hypnosis is harmless, or that people cannot be manipulated within a hypnotic setting.
That distinction matters. Reassurance should help you make an informed decision. It should not require you to overlook how authority, trust and suggestion can influence people.
So, can hypnosis make you lose control? To answer properly, we need to unpack what “control” means, what a hypnotic response can feel like and what responsible practice should involve.
What are you worried about losing
“Will I lose control?” can mean several quite different things.
You might be asking whether you will remain aware, whether you can reject a suggestion, or whether you could be persuaded to disclose something private. Perhaps you worry about behaving against your values, becoming dependent upon a practitioner or being unable to end the experience.
There is also a subtler concern: “If my hand moves without feeling deliberately moved, does that mean someone else has taken over?”
These questions deserve separate answers. Remembering a session is not the same thing as consenting to it. Experiencing a movement as automatic is not the same thing as being unable to object. Feeling comfortable with a therapist does not establish that their explanations are scientifically sound.
Before a session, you should be able to name your particular concern and receive an intelligible answer. “Just trust the process” is not much help when understanding the process is precisely what you are asking for.
What hypnosis involves
For practical purposes, hypnosis involves using suggestion within a context designed to support changes in experience or behaviour. Those changes might concern sensations, perception, emotion, attention or the experience of movement.
The influential (but not undisputed) APA Division 30 definition emphasises focused attention, reduced peripheral awareness and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion (Elkins et al., 2015). Researchers continue to debate how best to explain hypnosis, so this is a useful definition in some respects rather than the final word on every mechanism.
Expectation, imagination, motivation and the relationship with the practitioner can all contribute. Integrative accounts examine these interacting influences rather than attributing every response to one mysterious ingredient (Lynn et al., 2015).
Someone might imagine a hand becoming lighter and experience a surprising reduction in effort as it rises. Another person might respond to a suggestion of coolness or find an upsetting image less emotionally gripping. Responsiveness varies between people and between suggestions.
None of this establishes that a hypnotist has acquired ownership of another mind. Equally, a genuine change in experience should not be dismissed as “only pretending” because imagination helped bring it about.
Automatic does not mean someone else is in charge
You do not consciously plan every finger movement when typing a familiar word. You can sing the next line of a well-known song without assembling it syllable by syllable. A story can move you emotionally even though you know it is a story.
These are everyday illustrations of how much experience develops without continuous, detailed conscious direction. They are not proof that ordinary habits and hypnotic responses have identical mechanisms.
They do, however, help us question an assumption: that anything not experienced as deliberately produced must have been imposed by someone else.
Hypnotic responses can feel involuntary. Research examines how suggestions alter perception, cognition and the experience of agency, with several competing explanations still under discussion (Terhune et al., 2017). The feeling that something is “happening by itself” is an aspect of the experience to explain, rather than evidence of an external controller.
You might deliberately begin engaging with a suggestion and then find the response develops with less apparent effort. That does not make the experience fraudulent. Nor does it demonstrate that your capacity to choose has disappeared.
My preference is to help people become curious about these differences. What changed? How did you engage? What happened when you changed your approach? Those questions are more useful than trying to determine whether your mind has been successfully confiscated.
The problem with the obedient unconscious
One explanation I would like us to retire is that hypnosis bypasses the conscious mind and gives the hypnotist direct access to an obedient unconscious. (I’ve written about this a great deal over the past 20 years, here is one video I recorded on the topic a few years ago if you’d like to delve further into why I think hypnotherapists should stop explaining hypnosis in terms of a conscious and unconscious mind)
There are plenty of psychological processes outside immediate awareness. That does not establish the existence of a helpless inner person who accepts whatever a hypnotist says.
The ethical concern is straightforward. If I tell you my words bypass your judgement, I am encouraging you to regard your judgement as irrelevant. If I then describe doubts as “resistance”, I have made questioning me look like a psychological defect.
That is a poor foundation for a therapeutic relationship.
Metaphors can sometimes help people understand an exercise. They should be explained as metaphors, particularly when taking them literally would exaggerate the practitioner’s power. “Let the idea develop without monitoring every detail” conveys a useful invitation. “Your unconscious must obey me” conveys an authority claim that needs challenging.
Can you reject a hypnotic suggestion
People can decline suggestions, respond partly, interpret them differently or report that nothing happened. A participant might ignore an instruction, change the imagery, speak to the practitioner or end an exercise.
Research on resistance and hypnotic behaviour does not support the popular picture of universal, irresistible obedience (Lynn et al., 2020).
However, “people can reject suggestions” must not become “nobody can ever be manipulated in hypnosis”. Those claims are very different.
Consider a client who feels uncomfortable but worries about disappointing a respected therapist. They may continue because they assume the therapist knows best. Someone else might accept a questionable explanation because it is presented confidently at a vulnerable moment.
Those examples concern trust, pressure and the interpretation of a situation. They do not require supernatural control. They still deserve serious attention.
This is why a practitioner’s job includes making refusal easy. Explaining that a client may stop is helpful; responding respectfully when they actually disagree is the more revealing test.
If someone has experienced coercion or abuse, telling them “you could have said no” is not an adequate response. A theoretical capacity to refuse does not erase intimidation, deception, unequal power or responsibility for misconduct.
Can hypnosis make you act against your values
“You cannot be made to do anything against your will” is a familiar reassurance. I understand its intention, but it promises more simplicity than human behaviour allows.
People have competing motives. You might want to avoid an exercise and also want to be a good client. You might agree to an action because its purpose has been misrepresented. An initially harmless request may be followed by a gradual erosion of boundaries.
Classic experiments by Orne and Evans (1965) challenged claims that apparently dangerous behaviour demonstrated special hypnotic control. Non-hypnotised comparison participants also complied within the experimental setting, highlighting the importance of how people understood the research context.
The lesson is not that hypnosis makes everyone obedient, or that everyone secretly wants whatever they do. It is that behaviour must be understood in context. Laboratory demonstrations cannot provide a blanket guarantee about every real-world relationship. Neither can Derren Brown’s TV specials!
The defensible conclusion is that hypnosis has not been shown to confer irresistible mind-control powers. Ordinary routes to influence remain available, and practitioners must take responsibility for how they use them.
Consent to hypnosis is not consent to every suggestion that follows. Agreement to relaxation is not agreement to intimate questioning, touching, filming or an unrelated intervention. New proposals need appropriate explanation and consent.
What stage hypnosis actually demonstrates
A volunteer behaving outrageously on stage can look like compelling evidence of lost control. But the performance gives us an incomplete view of what produced the behaviour.
Consider the setting. People volunteer for an entertainment event. They have expectations about what participants do. A performer may use preliminary exercises to select those responding readily. The audience provides attention, encouragement and pressure, while the entertainment frame offers unusual permission to behave differently.
Genuine suggested experiences may also occur. Explaining the social setting does not require assuming that every volunteer is acting or lying. Reviews of hypnosis myths caution against equating striking public behaviour with a unique surrender of control (Lynn et al., 2020).
Television adds another limitation: unless you have seen the full process, you cannot know what selection, preparation or editing preceded a clip.
The appropriate question is not simply, “Would I normally do that in the supermarket?” It is, “What did this person expect, experience and understand in this particular situation?”
My consulting room has rather different aims from a stage show. A client should know what an exercise is intended to achieve and should not have to perform enthusiasm for anyone’s entertainment.
Can hypnosis make you reveal secrets
Hypnosis is not a truth serum. It does not turn speech into an automatically accurate transcript of someone’s past or private thoughts.
A person may withhold information, give an incomplete answer, deliberately mislead or say what they think is expected. They may also speak sincerely and be mistaken. Sincerity and accuracy are different matters.
Kihlstrom’s (1997) review shows why hypnotic memory reports require caution: suggestions intended to improve recall can increase false recollections and confidence without reliably improving accuracy.
There is therefore no sound basis for treating “they said it under hypnosis” as a certificate of truth.
Privacy nevertheless deserves explicit discussion. Before sensitive work, ask what will be recorded, who can access records and what limits apply to confidentiality. You should not have to disclose intimate material merely to demonstrate that you are cooperating.
Memory needs particular care
Memory is reconstructive. Remembering involves assembling information, rather than retrieving a perfectly preserved video file. The questions we are asked and the interpretations we are offered can influence that reconstruction.
In an influential experiment, Laurence and Perry (1983) showed that a suggested event could later be reported as a memory by some highly hypnotisable participants. This does not mean every memory discussed during hypnosis is false. It shows that a convincing recollection can arise without establishing that the event happened.
One risk is source confusion: an image or idea introduced during an exercise may later feel like something remembered. Another is confabulation, where gaps are filled without deliberate deception. A practitioner who assumes that symptoms must come from a particular hidden event may inadvertently steer the client’s account towards that explanation.
Kihlstrom (1997) cautioned against using hypnotic memory enhancement or age regression as methods for establishing historical events. Subjective vividness does not validate a recovered account.
For practice, the implications are substantial. Leading questions such as “Who hurt you?” can introduce an assumption before an event has been established. Repeatedly asking someone to search for an explanation can suggest that an expected answer exists and ought to be found.
My position is that a therapist should take distress seriously while remaining careful about conclusions. An image can be emotionally meaningful without being historically verified. Supporting someone does not require confirming an unverified interpretation of their past.
If a distressing recollection arises, the immediate priorities are support, stability and appropriate assessment. Turning the session into an improvised investigation is not a responsible next step.
Can you get stuck in hypnosis
Hypnosis is not a sealed neurological chamber requiring a specialist to find the exit.
Research on what happens when a hypnotist becomes unavailable undermines the idea that a participant must remain indefinitely hypnotised until released (Orne & Evans, 1966). An audio recording stopping unexpectedly does not leave someone permanently trapped.
When an exercise ends, attention can return to the surroundings. A tired person might become sleepy; someone else might open their eyes, become bored or decide to get on with their day. There is no need for a dramatic rescue countdown.
That reassurance should not dismiss discomfort. If you feel drowsy or unsettled, pause. Open your eyes if comfortable, move gently, look around the room and name familiar objects. Speak to the practitioner if one is present. Allow time to become fully alert before doing anything demanding.
Persistent distress, confusion or feelings of detachment deserve appropriate professional assessment. Describing them as evidence of being “stuck in trance” is unlikely to help someone understand what they need.
Does hypnosis mean losing consciousness
Hypnosis is not normally unconsciousness. You may hear the practitioner’s voice, notice sounds in the room, remain aware of your body and have thoughts about the exercise.
The fact that you can still hear the traffic does not mean you have failed. Nor must you eliminate every unrelated thought before a suggestion can have an effect.
Absorption can alter what receives attention, and some suggestions specifically concern remembering or forgetting. But amnesia is not an inevitable consequence of hypnosis (Kihlstrom, 1997). Remembering a session is entirely compatible with having responded to it.
There is also a practical distinction between reduced attention to the room and a medical loss of consciousness. Actual fainting or unexplained unresponsiveness should not be casually labelled “deep hypnosis”.
Could you become dependent upon a hypnotist
This is a question about the relationship and the way therapy is conducted. My view is that good therapy should increase your ability to cope outside the consulting room.
I would question a practitioner who claims that only they can hypnotise you properly, that their explanations must never be challenged or that you require indefinite sessions because they alone can keep your mind under control.
Other warning signs include treating every doubt as resistance, claiming exceptional access to your unconscious and suggesting that ordinary professional boundaries stop applying once hypnosis begins.
You are entitled to ask what you are learning, how progress will be reviewed and what the plan is for using those skills independently.
This is one reason I teach self-hypnosis as a skill. In our systematic review of clinical trials, Ben Parris and I identified promising applications while also noting substantial differences between studies. The findings supported the value of teaching self-hypnosis as an independently practised activity, although the evidence cannot guarantee an outcome for any particular individual (Eason & Parris, 2019).
The educational aim is competence. I want someone to understand how they can work with attention and suggestion, rather than believe that my voice is the only thing holding them together.
Try the ‘Choose – Change – Cancel’ exercise
This simple exercise lets you explore participation and choice. It is not a validated assessment of hypnotic ability, a treatment or proof that you are immune to social influence.
Practise seated somewhere safe, with your eyes open if you prefer. There is no need to force a sensation or produce an impressive result.
- Choose a mild suggestion. Rest your hands comfortably and select something neutral, such as imagining your right hand feeling slightly warmer. Avoid painful sensations, distressing memories or anything that worries you.
- Develop the idea. For about 20 seconds, imagine comfortably holding a warm mug. You can use words, remembered touch or a general sense of warmth; a vivid mental picture is optional. Notice what happens without trying to pass a test.
- Change one feature. Imagine the warmth becoming gentler or shifting towards the fingertips. Alternatively, change your wording and notice whether that changes your experience.
- Cancel the task. Say to yourself, “I am finished with that suggestion now.” Let go of the imagery and attend to the actual contact between your hand and its resting surface. You can imagine an ordinary, neutral temperature if helpful. You do not need to force an immediate sensory reversal.
- Move and reorient. Move your fingers, look around and notice where you are. Return to ordinary activity once fully alert.
- Record what changed. Did the sensation alter? Did effort or attention change? Was modifying the suggestion easy, difficult or unremarkable?
No noticeable change is an acceptable result. Warmth can also fluctuate for ordinary physical reasons, so this is not a controlled demonstration of a uniquely hypnotic effect.
The useful learning is in noticing how you approached the task and what choices you made. If anything becomes uncomfortable, stop and return your attention to your surroundings.
Questions to ask before a professional session
You should be able to ask practical questions without being made to feel awkward:
- What qualifications and relevant clinical training do you have?
- Are you appropriately insured, and what complaints or accountability arrangements apply?
- What method are you proposing, and why is it suitable for my goal?
- Can I decline or stop any exercise, and how will we communicate that?
- What will you do if I become uncomfortable or distressed?
- How will sensitive information and any recordings be handled?
- Do you use hypnosis to recover memories, and how do you avoid treating suggestion as evidence?
- What boundaries apply, including any proposed touch?
- How will we review progress and decide whether to continue?
A clear answer does not need to be a lecture. It does need to make sense. A competent professional should welcome informed participation.
Practising self hypnosis sensibly
Choose a physically safe setting and a manageable goal. Never practise while driving, operating machinery or doing anything that requires continuous attention to your surroundings.
Start with brief, ordinary exercises rather than trying to manufacture an overwhelming experience. Allow time afterwards to become fully alert before returning to demanding activity.
If an exercise produces significant distress, stop. You do not need to push through it to prove commitment or responsiveness. Self-hypnosis should not replace necessary medical or psychological assessment and care.
If you have severe symptoms, complex trauma, a history of destabilising experiences or uncertainty about whether an exercise is suitable, discuss it with an appropriately qualified clinician. The relevant question is what is appropriate for your circumstances, rather than whether a generic recording carries a reassuring label.
You can adapt imagery, change position, open your eyes or stop listening. A recording is a resource. It is not an instruction you owe obedience to.
What practitioners need to get right
For hypnotherapists, explaining hypnosis responsibly is part of the intervention. If our explanation exaggerates our power, we may create precisely the anxiety we subsequently promise to remove.
Informed consent should include the proposed method, its purpose and relevant limits. Feedback should be invited throughout, and withdrawal of consent respected without argument or humiliation.
We also need to distinguish an invitation to experience automaticity from an instruction to surrender judgement. “Notice whether the movement begins to feel easier” does not require a claim that the client has become powerless.
Careful memory practice, appropriate boundaries and awareness of authority are professional responsibilities. They cannot be replaced by saying, “Nobody can do anything against their will anyway.”
My standard is that the client should leave with a better understanding of their own abilities and how to use them. The therapist should not need to become more mysterious for the therapy to seem valuable.
You remain part of the process
Hypnosis can change how a thought, sensation or action is experienced. Sometimes those changes are subtle; sometimes they are striking. Neither experience transfers ownership of your mind to a hypnotist.
You remain a participant with preferences, boundaries and the right to stop. At the same time, responsible practice recognises that influence is real and that consent must be supported in the actual relationship.
If you would like to explore that approach, my book The Science of Self-Hypnosis and my research-informed self-hypnosis teaching explain how to develop these abilities through active participation and practice. You can explore my self-hypnosis protocol at this page: Learn Self-Hypnosis.
The same principle guides my hypnosis recordings: you remain free to adjust the imagery, reject an unsuitable suggestion, change position, open your eyes or stop listening. The aim is to help you use your psychological abilities. An audio file has no business becoming the boss of you.
For prospective practitioners, ethical influence requires serious training. Consent, evidence, memory, expectation and boundaries belong at the centre of that training. My hypnotherapy practitioner diploma at the Anglo European College of Therapeutic Hypnosis teaches a collaborative approach to hypnotherapy, with clients actively involved in their care.
There is plenty to be interested in without inventing unconscious mind control.
References
Eason, A. D., & Parris, B. A. (2019). Clinical applications of self-hypnosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, 6(3), 262–278. https://doi.org/10.1037/cns0000173
Elkins, G. R., Barabasz, A. F., Council, J. R., & Spiegel, D. (2015). Advancing research and practice: The revised APA Division 30 definition of hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 63(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207144.2014.961870
Kihlstrom, J. F. (1997). Hypnosis, memory and amnesia. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 352(1362), 1727–1732. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1997.0155
Laurence, J.-R., & Perry, C. (1983). Hypnotically created memory among highly hypnotizable subjects. Science, 222(4623), 523–524. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.6623094
Lynn, S. J., Kirsch, I., Terhune, D. B., & Green, J. P. (2020). Myths and misconceptions about hypnosis and suggestion: Separating fact and fiction. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 34(6), 1253–1264. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3730
Lynn, S. J., Laurence, J.-R., & Kirsch, I. (2015). Hypnosis, suggestion, and suggestibility: An integrative model. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 57(3), 314–329. https://doi.org/10.1080/00029157.2014.976783
Orne, M. T., & Evans, F. J. (1965). Social control in the psychological experiment: Antisocial behavior and hypnosis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1(3), 189–200. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0021933
Orne, M. T., & Evans, F. J. (1966). Inadvertent termination of hypnosis with hypnotized and simulating subjects. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 14(1), 61–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207146608415895
Terhune, D. B., Cleeremans, A., Raz, A., & Lynn, S. J. (2017). Hypnosis and top-down regulation of consciousness. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 81, 59–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.02.002
