The following text is an excerpt from a conversation with Todd Goodwin, Board Certified Hypnotist at GoodwinHypnosis.com, who was interviewed by Conor Flynn, host of the Rx Podcast (DrinkRxCoffee.com), on July 30, 2018.
This third segment explains how all hypnosis is self-hypnosis and how people in the USA spend more than $60 billion per year to be hypnotized.
CONOR FLYNN: I have a question for you. I’m not sure if I ever asked you this years ago, but I’ve heard this and I don’t know if it’s true for that the more people think they can’t be hypnotized that it’s easier for them to get hypnotized. Is that true?
TODD GOODWIN: That’s interesting. I don’t know.
CONOR: I think I had that feeling when I walked in here years ago. And we did the hypnosis that I thought I can’t be hypnotized. And I went under real quick.
TODD: Well, here’s the thing. I would say that first of all, like I said before, most everyone can be hypnotized. Typically, the more intelligent you are and potentially the more imaginative, the easier it will be to be hypnotized. If people say, and I’ve heard this a lot, “I can’t be hypnotized, because I have a very strong mind or I like to be in control.” That’s not going to necessarily stop them from being hypnotized. Remember that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. So as a hypnotist, I am working with the person to help them achieve a goal. It’s teamwork. It’s a cooperative process. If the person for some reason wants to prove they can’t be hypnotized, they will win every time, they’ll be right. But they must be willing to let me lead them, like dance partners where one person leads, and the other one follows, but both have to be willing to engage in it, and when either one wants to stop, the dance is over. If people see it that way, and they’re willing to not let go of control, because the hypnotist doesn’t control the client. But if the individual’s willing to let go of the lead and say, “You know what, I’m not going to try to take charge of this. I’m going to follow you and allow you to lead me,” then it works great. Usually fear is the only thing that will stop someone from being hypnotized, unless they’re watching the news, of course.
CONOR: I’d assume that people that do a lot of things fitness related might be easier to hypnotize correct me if I’m wrong, because they get into that flow state, whether it’s the running people, yoga, people that lift weights, because you kind of get into this, like a mass hypnosis or meditative state you can reach sometimes it will, especially with yoga. But also running where you reach this flow state where just kind of going through the motions. Next thing, you know, 20 minutes if you’re like a few minutes have passed.
TODD: Well sure, it’s definitely similar to a flow state. I don’t know if I would say people who are in fitness are any more hypnotizable or would go into it easier. Because remember, almost everyone experiences hypnosis anyway. There’s a fun little statistic, the numbers may be a little outdated. But I often quote to people that in the United States, over $60 billion a year is spent on hypnosis. But that doesn’t go to people like me, it goes to the video games and the movies. So if you total up the revenue for the video game industry and the movies, and we’re not even talking about, you know, novels, and certain TV shows, like Netflix, and all that. I’m just talking about classical Hollywood box office movies, and video games, it’s about $60 billion domestically, and people are doing that for the imaginative and emotional experience of experiencing that video game or movie. And so people go to a movie and they play the video game and they get immersed in it. And however much time passes, when you’re in that subjective experience, you kind of forget that you’re in a movie theater, or that you’re sitting there with your video game controller or what have you. And you feel like you’re in the action. When that happens, or when reading a really good story like Harry Potter or a romance novel, you get pulled into it. That is a hypnotic state. You don’t need a hypnotist to do it. You know, again, we’re just talking about how you’re absorbing different content into your mind. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But that’s a hypnotic state. Most people can be hypnotized in that way, and it comes down to having the awareness of what you’re putting in your mind.