a journey or a treatment

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Permalink Reply by Hazlerig- www.HypnosisAustin.com on November 21, 2011 at 1:43pm

I studied shamanism before I studied hypnosis, and I've since come to the conclusion that a hypnotist is a shaman with a necktie. (That will be the title of my biography, if I ever warrant one . . . )

 

One important difference is that in shamanism (Harnerian shamanism, of which soul retrieval is one of the techniques), the shaman engages in the trance, gathers the missing soul pieces or interacts with the guardian spirits, and then "breathes" the needed energy into the client. The client may or may not experience trance--typically the shaman recounts the details of the trance experience to the client afterwards.

 

Of course, on some occasions, the trance is more interactive, with the shaman and the client describing what they see in their mind's eyes to each other--I've actually had some interesting hypnosis sessions that worked out to be essentially the same as this.

 

But the big difference is that most of the time, the hypnotist is guiding the client through a trance experience (possibly very similar to a shamanic journey) but the client is doing the work; whereas a shaman works on a passive client, who is simply the recipient of the changework. In that sense, most shamanism is more akin to reiki or surgery.

 

I have found that people who are experienced in reiki and other forms of energy work comment that a hypnosis session is more intense than other energy work, even when my imagery is all about energy moving through the client. I believe this is because most energy workers direct energy by visualizing. When I guide a client in hypnosis, both of us are visualizing the same energy flow, thus doubling (or possibly squaring) the effect. At least, my woo-woo half believes that.

 

My logical half doesn't believe in energy at all. ;-)

 

James

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