Hypnosis for peace

I don’t believe in hypnosis. Although I have had many people insist it was entirely real, I have yet to have much fulfilling proof. Certainly, I believe that the human mind is capable of great things, such as blocking the pain from surgury or speeding recovery. However, I doubt that hypnotism and hypnosis as therapy are useful except to people who already believe these things will help them. In the same way that people who are taking a sugar pill get better faster, so too do people who seek out hypnotherapy recover.
Even licensed and trained hypnotherapists only have to fulfill a 3-day training course to get certified, and every school that teaches hypnosis I have located also offers courses in other bullshit such as "Communicating with Angels" and "Divination".
Has anyone actually been hypnotized? Does anyone else think it’s BS? In a few weeks I’m attending a seminar on hypnosis, and I need to have some idea as to whether I’m going to need to be faking things the whole time!

With regards to this, "Whether you can or you can’t, you are probably right." That statement applies to so many things in life, and hypnosis.

Ask yourself, what in your mind would be considered fulfilling proof? More importantly, how could you confirm it to another skeptic?

You should check your facts about licensing and certification. At present in the US, hypnotism is not regulated at a federal level, and typically different for each state (some not regulated at all.) Any certification body worth it’s weight would not certify for a 3 day course (or ~24 hours of training) A certificate of completion (i.e. a piece of paper with your name on it) is not certification. Getting certified and maintaining certification has requirements that need to be fulfilled, typically with a code of ethics/conduct, continuing education, minimum number of hours in training, etc.

Change the name of the other courses your mentioned to "Communicating with your higher-self" and to "Meditation for Direction" would those be considered less "bullshit?" Do you have the same feeling regarding other things, such as acupuncture? Eastern medicine has been using acupuncture for well over 3000+ years. Just by that time line, there must be something to it. And how long has western medicine been doing things? 250 years? (if that long) Something to think about.

You’ve described placebo effect (aka sugar pill), which if I recall is about 29% if memory serves me correctly. For a drug to be approved and listed that it helps with condition, it has to be higher rate than a placebo, minimum of 31% if I recall correctly (I know it was only a percent or two difference) That I find very disturbing, especially with the known side effects that go along with your typical drug.

So, if hypnosis is a way to stimulate a safe (non-side effect) placebo effect, I say "GREAT." Clients I’ve worked with have had a far greater success that was is required for a drug to be "approved" for general use. So does that mean that hypnosis is BS? My clients would completely disagree with that statement.

What I would suggest to you is go to your seminar with an open mind. But you have already created the expectation that it’s BS. In other words, you’ve already created your own "placebo" effect that you are "going to need to be faking things the whole time!"

"Whether you can, or whether you can’t, you are probably right."

By the way you’ve described things, you’ve already made your decision, and your just looking for approval that your choice is the right decision. Ask yourself why do you need that approval? Ask why are you making your decision before you even see all the evidence (aka the seminar your are going to attend.)

When someone goes looking for a specific conclusion, they will only see the evidence that supports that conclusion.

When someone has no conclusion formed, they view the evidence for what it is, and form a conclusion from what the evidence shows.

Look at it objectively. You might learn that what hypnosis is not what you though it was, and in learning that, you could find that the entire belief you had on hypnosis comes crashing down.

"Whether you can, or whether you can’t, you’re probably right"