Hypnosis & Recovering Memories
If you came here to learn all the ways hypnosis can help you recover long lost memories…
Sorry to disappoint you. This is quite the opposite.
“A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen.” — Edward de Bono
One thing about memory, it’s not necessarily reliable. Memories can be distorted. Consider the amount of influences that can impact a recollection:
Your processing of it (thinking about a happening excessively)
Others asking you about it
Comparing it to stories in the news, books, movies, and others occurrences that may seem similar that you or someone else you may have heard about encountered
Your own imagination
Your dreams and sleep quality
Aging
Physical injuries
Substance use
Context or sensory dependency (being in the same place, or not, with access to certain scents, sounds, etc.)
And so much more
“Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events.” — Albert Einstein
Your brain is smart and tries to protect you. Particularly, if you want to use hypnosis to try to recover lost memories, it is HIGHLY ADVISED NOT TO DO THIS. More importantly, if you are missing periods of time or events that may be trauma-related, DO NOT DO THIS. These memories are missing because your beautiful brain is defending you from further harm the only way that it can by blocking this out. Let it stand guard for you.
“Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.” — Oscar Wilde
I would not recommend using a hypnotherapist that is not specialized in trauma-informed care, preferably a licensed psychotherapist, because abreactions can happen. If distressing memories or experiences emerge, crisis intervention may be needed. The practitioner needs to be fully capable of caring for your mental and physical regulation and de-escalation, if needed in the worst case scenario.
Most importantly, a hypnotherapist should be focusing on helping you navigate a positive journey forward and not root you in the past. Number one rule of practitioners: DO NO HARM!
Why risk putting yourself through such pain?
In hypnosis, if you retrieve a harmful “memory,” it may not be accurate. So, you could have removed that safeguard, carved new neuropathways, and let either accurate, or worse, non-accurate, thoughts retraumatize you. If you are haunted by what you did not know before, perhaps upset and are troubled by the amount of time you spent ruminating about something you cannot remember, imagine how much more time it is going to take from your life if you are obsessively trying to reprocess it again.
Because many clients go to hypnotherapists to recall repressed memories and lapses of time, when I learned from my mentors, it was explained to us that people can unsuppress those lapses and then mistakenly accuse family members or others of crimes at the detriment of the client and destroying other people’s lives from a possible falsehood.
“Memory believes before knowing remembers.” — William Faulkner
Now, to debunk another media myth…
If you have seen shows or movies where they hypnotize people before they go on the stand, while that may be true, it is not portrayed correctly.
Because of how memories can be recalled distorted from personal bias (the factors I listed above), anyone hypnotized can be considered non-admissable.
If you look up the US Dept of Justice Criminal Record Manual, CRM 1-499, 288. Admissibility at Trial, it addresses what is pertinent for hypnotized witnesses to be credible.
“Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin.” — Barbara Kingsolver
