Health & Fitness
Hypnotherapy and Spirituality
Does accepting a therapeutic healing art as practice mean you are defying your faith?
Growing up in the South, and especially in the Baptist church, it wasn't uncommon for me to hear the beliefs, and the fears, expressed by people who were overwhelmingly afraid of anything that was outside of the box.
As a child of the '80s, things like Yoga and Hypnosis were hardly heard of among what I considered to be "normal" adults, and these behaviors were only natural after so many terrible associations with witchcraft and the occult. Granted, there are those that will muddy the waters in any ideology, even in the church.
There are churches inside any particular denomination that make other churches of the same denomination look horrific and put scars on the very belief system that has tried to have been preserved since the early ages, particularly since the birth of Christ.
The same goes for the healing arts. In the '60s and '70s, meditation and hypnosis were often affiliated with drugs like LSD. The so-called hippies often "tranced out" and spoke of having out of body experiences with the aid of substances like marijuana and Heroine. But, these experiences were rarely, if ever, conducted by a legitimate therapist, and certainly, a reputable hypnotherapist would not conduct therapeutic sessions this way.
Much like home birthing situations or homeopathic medicine, there is going to be a reaction that is the societal norm when hearing about something that has been recognized as an odd, strange or unusual practice. But in the same way that all Christians aren't hell, fire and brimstone, all of the healing arts aren't bad or immoral things. Meditation often involves prayer. Taking control of your own mind isn't defying spiritual significance or disregarding times of divine intervention. In the same way that we use science in the form of medicine to heal our bodies, we can use hypnotherapy to heal our minds.
Acceptance of one practice does not necessarily negate another, and most intelligent people realize this. We feed and medicate our bodies, so why not feed our minds? By using a respected hypnotherapist with an appreciation for creation and recognizing the given ability to take control and responsibility of our own minds, transformation can begin.
It is my goal to educate the public on the truths about hypnotherapy and to replace the negative connotations with positive and constructive practices.
Learn more at www.hopewithhypnosis.com.