Scams & Dangers of
Hypnosis Tapes, CDs, Hypnotists and Hypnotherapy by Unqualified People

What you need to know!
by Dr. Margaret Gedde, MD, PhD

As with anything, there are con artists preying on unaware innocent victims shopping for hypnotherapy and hypnosis audio recordings. 

I don't mean to say that anyone who isn't a real doctor isn't qualified to do hypnotherapy. Some people certainly are. But anywhere there's money to be made, you'll find lots of liars willing to fleece you.

And in this case, it isn't just an issue of your money. It can be at the expense of your mental and physical health - even a matter of life and death.

WebMD.com is a very medically conservative site. Search for things like hypnotherapy, hypnotherapists, clinical hypnosis or whatever you can think of. You can find research there about proven benefits of hypnosis used in the right hands.

Bottom line - before you buy something, and especially before you USE it, there are a number of things to think about, and check on.

Here are a few (some you can read about below):

• Credentials
   

• Get rich quick guarantees
   

• Gimmicks
   

• Hard to find or confusing prices
   

• Websites designed to load viruses or "spyware" on your computer
   

Credentials

First, what qualifications do they even claim to have? Frankly, just because someone has been doing something for a long time, or claiming to, doesn't make their product good OR safe.

People can also "buy" a degree from online "universities", or use wording like "certified" or "approved" by a state or some agency that may or may not exist, and may or may not be legit.

For instance, one of the Universities I went to, Columbia, had an online counterpart that virtually sold doctor degrees (PhDs) to anyone with the money - until they were shut down by the FBI. Unfortunately, neither the FBI nor any other law enforcement conducts "diploma mill" stings anymore.

I know of another incident in which a retailer I couldn't get my money back from on a $2000 defective product claimed to have a masters degree from Yale University. A call to Yale turned up the fact that it was a lie.

Gimmicks

• Claims of having a "secret technique":
  
  Frankly, if it is secret, it can't have any legitimate scientific evidence that it works, because research studies on hypnosis, brainwaves, EMDR or other such neurological or methods of psychology or therapy are published in journals.
   

• Magician's tricks:
  
  Magicians Penn & Teller recently had a show about the fallacies of hypnosis. Unfortunately, it wasn't scientific, and didn't separate professional studies, and the use of hypnosis by MD's or legitimate PhD's, from charlatans and frauds.
  
  I've even seen an optical illusion, a spinning spiral, performed on TV. Watching the spiral makes your eyes and brain see movement and enlargement after you've stared at it for a while, then look at something else, like your hand. Anything you look at will seem to move, get bigger or smaller, wave, etc. THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH hypnosis, or what kind of a hypnotic subject you are. It is an optical illusion involving the eyes and brain.
   

• Using flashy names:
  
  Catchy phrases and names don't make a product good. I can't name names here without getting sued, but "mind melds" or whatever "systems" people come up with to call something, make potential customers think it is more believable.
  
  Sure, even I had to come up with something, because products must have a name. I chose TheraSounds™, but it is simply a logical, scientific name for the product based on what it is - "Therapy" using "Sound". There is science behind the product name. Read more about how it works on the TheraSounds™.

Get Rich Claims and Guarantees:

How many times have you or I seen infomercials or ads claiming "get rich quick and easy"? Too many. And how many work? The only people getting rich are the ones selling the get rich quick schemes.

Yes, your subconscious programming can adversely impact your success, and correcting it to positive programming can help you be successful. But no one can guarantee that. You still have to make it happen and do things yourself.

Hard to Find or Confusing Pricing:

Some people make you click and click and read and read to find the price. Some never give you a price - you have to send off for info or a quote, and you just end up on a mailing list they sell and you get spammed to death with emails selling you something.

Why? Well, the last reason is obvious, but the first is because they are charging so much that it will scare you off if you see it, so they want to make sure they have you hooked REAL WELL before they try and reel you in.

We make it clear and easy, and list it on our home page, product pages, and everywhere it makes sense to put it.

Science, Myths, Professionalism:

The fact is, visualization is also a component of prayer too, and both work. But people need to keep science separate from their personal or religious beliefs, or they can't be scientific about what works, what doesn't, or how well.

That's what clinical studies are for. Check out what web MD comes up with when you type in "hypnotherapy" for instance.