Hypnotherapists are becoming the new transpersonal priests. The Edgar Cayce Institute for Intuitive Studies has a successful hypnotherapy program and enrollment is robust. It is a natural for the Institute, because of the association of Edgar Cayce’s work with his intuitive skills in the hypnotic state. People are now drawn to the idea of being able to help others use hypnosis to contact their higher mind for guidance and healing.

I myself have worked with hypnosis for several years and have experienced great results. I sometimes teach others what I’ve learned, not as a hypnotherapist, but as a “user” of hypnosis myself for spiritual work, not only for channeling the higher self (I wrote much of the book by that title while in hypnosis), but also for recalling soul memories and establishing deep spiritual connections with others. At the same time, I have certain misgivings about hypnosis as it is commonly understood and taught. I am pleased to note, therefore, the arrival of a book that speaks to these concerns in a constructive way. It is Clinical Hypnotherapy: A Transpersonal Approach (EIH Publishing) by Dr. Allen Chips, President of the National Association of Transpersonal Hypnotherapists and an instructor at our Institute.

My first concern is with the use of the word hypnosis itself, because of its unreliable suggestive power. “You are now entering deep hypnosis” doesn’t really tell you anything but is nevertheless subject to wide, imaginative interpretation. Yet I’ve heard many recorded hypnotic induction tapes that contain exactly that statement. If you want to learn the skills associated with hypnosis and to make them your own, you must learn how to relax, to develop passive concentration, as well as gain control over other specific mental processes. If you develop these skills, and apply them constructively, you’ll gain a true competence in harnessing the power of the transpersonal mind. You’ll find these skills to be more like a meditation practice or a yoga exercise than some bizarre state of mind described by the mysterious word, hypnosis. What I find in Dr. Chips’ book is a detailed explanation of the components of the hypnosis skill, relating it both to specific psychophysical processes and spiritual realities. Such an approach helps the hypnotherapist empower the client to learn these fundamental skills rather than keep the power in the hands of the therapist to induce “hypnosis” for the client.

It is fitting, then that Dr. Chips describes his transpersonal approach, in fact, as “client-centered” rather than “authoritarian.” That says it, and more. It addresses another concern: The true power of hypnosis doesn’t come from a hypnosis authority delivering suggestions to the hypnotized client. It comes from the hypnotized client harvesting suggestions from the client’s own higher self. I “finished” smoking, by the way, years ago, not by delivering hypnotic suggestions to my subconscious, but by following suggestions I received from my higher self while in hypnosis.

My third concern is that there develops in hypnosis a powerful bond of rapport between hypnotherapist and client. It can be used constructively. For example, I teach students of counseling how to put themselves into a state of hypnotic rapport with the client as a way of developing a profound intuitive empathy for the client. Yes, in this case, it is the therapist who enters hypnosis, not the client. In the history of hypnosis, in fact, it was common in the nineteenth century for people who were exceptionally skilled at entering into a state of hypnosis with the purpose of having deep rapport with someone else to become “medical clairvoyants” and diagose illness. The story of Edgar Cayce, by the way, has a connection with that history. Today we see its remnants in the activities of trance psychics. As I show my students, however, understanding the components of hypnosis allows them to develop the intuitive power of hypnotic rapport without appearing to fall asleep in front of the client!

On the other hand, that same hypnotic rapport can be a source of contamination in a typcial hypnotherapy session where the therapist guides the client into hypnosis. Hypnotic rapport can be truly telepathic, such that a  hypnotized client can actually experience the subconscious mind of the hypnotherapist. Here is one origin of “false memory” syndrome. For example, the hypnotized person can experience a soul memory belonging to the hypnotherapist and believe it to be his own! Dr. Chips’ book is the only one I’ve read that actually discusses the necessity of the hypnotherapist’s own inner work. The book’s genuine transpersonal orientation extends to instructions for the hypnotherapist’s developing the purest of personal intent, including a period of meditation prior to any hypnotherapy session.

Transpersonal hypnosis can have, God willing, the power of prayer and Chip’s book makes a great missal.