Does Hypnosis Wear Off?

(Excerpted from What Is Hypnosis? Really by Drake Eastburn)

There is a myth that hypnotic suggestions only last a short time, or they will only last for 48 hours. I am amazed that there are still some hypnotists who believe this. I have heard other hypnotists say that you must get back to their office within 48 hours of your first hypnosis session, so that they can compound the suggestions before they wear off. Again, false.

Andrew Salter, in his book What is Hypnosis, quoted a piece by George Estabrooks recounting a suggestion given to soldiers during WWI that was still effective more than twenty years later. There are also examples of Milton Erickson giving suggestions that lasted more than ten years.

Suggestions that serve a purpose in our lives tend to have a good shelf life, as long as that suggestion is serving us. Suggestions that have no real purpose or meaning for us tend to be short lived. For example, if a stage hypnotist gives you a suggestion that every time the phone rights you will bark like a dog, that may be fun in the moment, but it serves no long-term useful purpose and will shortly disappear. A good stage hypnotist will remove any non-useful suggestions before ending their show, just as a courtesy. The two examples in the preceding paragraph were suggestions given more for entertainment purposes and yet maintained a long shelf life.

Another component impacts the length of a suggestion’s duration. Once the subconscious mind has learned a new pattern through suggestion (or any other way) it continues doing the same thing over and over. Now the length of the effectiveness of the suggestion becomes a moot point, since the behavior is likely to continue regardless.

A nice example of this phenomenon is a woman who came to see me to stop smoking. She had been in to see one of our other therapists almost a year prior. When I asked her what had happened, she said, “Everything was fine for about eight months and then the hypnosis just wore off.” I asked her what was going on when she had the first cigarette and she said she was out having drinks with some of her friends and they were smoking and offered her a cigarette, and she decided to try it. I asked how it was. She said it was awful, she said it made her dizzy and nauseous, and she even threw up. I said, “So the hypnosis wore off, huh?” She looked at me like, “oh, well maybe it didn’t.” I asked her what she thought the hypnosis was supposed to do beyond making her dizzy and sick and vomit. Whether or not the hypnosis wore off is irrelevant because her subconscious had already accepted a new behavior and she had become a non-smoker. The hypnosis was working fine, but I am not sure about the client.

I’ve heard other somewhat similar comments over the years that go something like this: “I went to a hypnotist to stop smoking and it didn’t work.” When I question the individual further, I find out something like this: “I left the hypnotist’s office and I was still smoking, but a few weeks later I just stopped on my own.” What people don’t often realize is that the hypnotist’s suggestions didn’t just stop the minute they got up and left the office. For the next few weeks those suggestions continued to grind away in their subconscious until they somehow “magically” ended up no longer smoking. I usually give suggestions that are deliberately meant to continue working on the client’s subconscious mind long after they have left my office.

So, the conclusion turns out to be variable. The life of a suggestion is not definite; it can have a very long life, but other than for entertainment purposes, it is never extremely short.

If you’re interested in learning more about hypnotherapy and how it could help you, feel free to contact us anytime.