[Question:]{.underline} Is hypnosis permissible as a medical therapy?
[Answer:]{.underline} Hypnosis is a deliberately induced state of reduced consciousness. It is widely recognized as a means of therapy for a variety of conditions of a psychological nature, including drug and alcohol addiction, insomnia, anxiety, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, However, its most frequent and most successful use is to enable persons to give up smoking who are otherwise unable to do so. The effectiveness of the treatment depends upon the responsiveness of the subject to the therapist’s power of suggestion, which is highly variable, depending upon the depth of the hypnosis, the individual character of the subject and the authority of the therapist. Suggestions not opposed to the will of the individual subject are imprinted deeply into his subconsciousness, thus strengthening his weak affectivity, so that he can think, act and feel as he desires.
The morality of this method of treatment is dependent upon the modification of the voluntariness of the subject. The loss of voluntariness depicted in the Hollywood representations of hypnosis, rarely if ever happens. Experienced hypnotists know full well that nobody can be hypnotized if he does not want to be, and that if the hynotherapist makes a suggestion opposed to the will of the subject, then the person immediately leaves the state of hypnosis. However, if it were possible through hynposis, it clearly would be immoral for a person to deliberately allow the voluntariness of his acts to be destroyed, so that he would then act in a programmed way, without responsibility or morality in his acts. This is not the case.
In fact, the modification of voluntariness that hypnosis gives is an increase of voluntariness. It is the willing choice of a method that will increase the effectiveness of the will over the emotional faculties, and the feelings in particular. The therapist repeatedly inculcates the desired feelings, such as the hatred of drugs or alcohol, detestation of smoking, the feeling of happiness and the like. He is thus an extension of the person’s will, indirectly enabling him to have a greater power over the lower faculties that he cannot directly control. Thus a person’s feelings come more in line with what he wills, and his actions that follow as a consequence are more deliberate, more willful, and more positively moral than they would have otherwise been.
It is certainly true that like any other therapy, there can be a danger with hypnotherapy. However, this will only take place in the case of particular immature individuals, who do not know what they want, have very little direction and who are highly suggestible. Consequently, young persons who could fall into this category ought to be accompanied by a parent for hypnotherapy sessions. It is certainly also possible that a therapist could follow a New Age philosophy, but it is neither necessary nor common.
The ideal of course would be to find a hypnotherapist who shares the Catholic Faith. For the effectiveness of this treatment is based largely upon trust and confidence, and it is difficult to show such trust and confidence towards those who do not share our religious convictions. This being said, there is no reason why a mature person ought to be afraid of going to a non-Catholic hypnotherapist for the treatment of a particular psychological condition, such as drug addiction, since he knows ahead of time that the suggestions will be limited to that domain, and he will exit the hypnosis if the therapist goes beyond his limits.
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.