When I first encountered hypnosis, I wondered if this would come into conflict with my faith as an ordained minister within the Eastern Orthodox Church.

I found out that hypnosis is neither anti-religious nor pro-religious. It can be used for good or bad depending on the hypnotist and his subject: most religious groups accept the proper ethical use of hypnosis for helping people.

As such, the Roman Catholic Church, through it’s Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office in 1847, made this statement:
“Having removed all misconceptions, foretelling of the future, explicit or implicit invocation of the devil, the use of hypnosis is indeed merely an act of making use of physical media that are otherwise licit and hence it is not morally forbidden provided it does not tend toward an illicit end or toward anything depraved.”

As if this statement was not enough, Pope Pius XII stated, from the Vatican in 1956, that the use of hypnosis by health care professionals for diagnosis and treatment is permitted! It appears also that most Protestants Churches as well as the Orthodox Churches have no laws or statements against the proper ethical use of hypnosis. As far as I know the Jewish and Muslim faiths have no opposition either to hypnosis as long as it is used for the benefit of humankind.

Needless to say that I, for one, strongly approve of the use of hypnosis as I am concerned for the wellness of my client. I believe that an individual is an indivisible trinity made of body-mind-spirit searching and striving to attain wholeness, unity. As Christians, we are physical, emotional and spiritual beings: one part of the trinity cannot be affected without having an impact on the other two. One’s health involves all three components even when it is so difficult to separate the mental and the spiritual: a good therapist deals with a person’s health in terms of wholeness.

Christ affirms: “I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.” (Jn. 10:10) Abundant life, fullness of life is the life of God’s Kingdom offered us by Christ Himself. Most naturally, a Christian will seek wholeness and holiness through prayer, the reading of the Bible, the lives of the Saints, the teachings of the Fathers of the Church and the means of life-giving grace through the Sacraments/Mysteries. Hypnosis is another tool through which God helps people experience the more “abundant life.”

Can hypnosis be a detriment for a life of faith and devotion to God? Many people have prejudices and misunderstandings about hypnosis. Some will oppose hypnosis because they say it is used by the occult, but do they condemn prayer because prayer is used for occult purposes? I believe that hypnosis and prayer can equally be used inappropriately. Once again, hypnosis is another tool among other means that the Lord provides for us to engage in a better life and to acquire freedom from past wounds, finding healing that will benefit our human life in all its components.

As I will be writing separately about Hypnosis allow me at this point to underline that hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness, a state of heightened suggestibility. Even through prayer, one can often achieve an altered state of consciousness. Whatever we find during religious services: the atmosphere, the architecture, the symbols, the singing, prayers, gestures, sermon, incense, icons… all of these assist the human spirit towards the door of an altered state of consciousness. Hypnosis and hypnotherapy have proven to be highly effective in helping individuals and groups make positive alterations in their lives. When one’s spirit is sick, then it negatively affects the body and mind as well. Similarly, when the mind is healthy, it radiates wellness in the spirit and the body. Our subconscious mind is a storage space to all our habits, whatever we’ve learned and experienced, our emotions, our spiritual heritage but also, to all of our psychological wounds that affect us negatively throughout our daily lives. On different occasions, we may pray fervently and recommend ourselves to all of the saints while it may appear not to bring significant results in our minds and lives. I believe that the use of prayer along with other tools (such as hypnosis), may help us experience that God DOES answer our prayers, if only we allowed Him to reach out to us as He wills and not within the limited ways we welcome His interventions.

Can one use the Bible to support hypnosis (from the Greek God Hypnos, meaning “sleep”)? Well, we could consider that God himself used hypnosis with Adam as found in Genesis 2:21-22: “So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.” It appears, in this incident, that God used hypnosis as a type of anaesthesia so that Adam would feel no pain during the removal of his rib. Other than this verse, I do not believe that we can rely with assurance on other biblical verses that would point in the direction of true and unequivocal hypnosis. However, one will find that hypnosis uses some of the techniques found in the Bible like the laying on of hands or gazing into someone’s eyes.

I don’t think Jesus ever used hypnosis: this would be depriving Him of His divine power and credit what He did to mere human skill and talent, regardless of how outstanding or extraordinary it may have been: “They were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority.” (Luke 4:32) He often spoke in parables or used stories which still bring to mind vivid pictures which teach something important about life. Something else is evident: not for His own benefit, but rather for the sake of those He helped, Jesus frequently used the power of suggestion in His ministry. In His teachings, Jesus often used metaphors: the message bypasses the conscious mind and goes directly into the unconscious mind. How can anyone miss the message conveyed in Jesus’ statement about faith enabling the individual to cause mountains to be removed! A powerful suggestion this is of self-confidence based not on self-sufficiency, but on divine help. Through many of His signs and wonders, we can see the power of suggestion opening the door to faith.

Reading the New Testament, we observe without a doubt, that most people who were in awe with Jesus’ teachings (“No man ever spoke like this man.” Jn.7:46) were also certainly highly suggestible and for some, in an altered state of consciousness (in other words: in trance*) as they expected Jesus to perform miracles through a single word or a powerful but simple touch (“He healed them all.” Mat. 8:16). Jesus’ followers and disciples had their unconscious mind ready to experience the power of change and healing in their lives. Did Jesus not say that “With God, all things are possible!”(Mat. 19:26)? When man is in communion with God’s grace/action, all doors are open. We can allow God’s grace to work through our lives, healing our unconscious mind and releasing, freeing our lives from the burdens we had acquired from the youngest age. We can break free from addictions, pain, wrong behaviours, low self-esteem, etc. using the tool of hypnosis based upon Christian values as a soul caring practice.

Rabbi William Blank writes:

“4,000 years ago, when Abraham first intuited the Oneness of God and began Jewish history, his experience was an experience of an altered state of consciousness. When Moses spent all those days and nights on Mt. Sinai learning Torah, his mental state was very different from mine when I drive my car down my neighbourhood freeway. When Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel had those amazing visions that have inspired us ever since, their minds and bodies were in a different mode. I would not reduce the magnitude of their experiences to simple hypnosis. However, I do believe that almost anyone could have a taste of their experience by turning inward.”

People have been harmed by the misuse of the Christian faith as well as all other faiths/religions. Should one not to be a Christian because some have misused it? Many of God’s gifts have been used incorrectly, but that should not distract from the gift when used for the benefit of mankind and to the glory of God.

The experience of being in hypnosis is similar to meditation. Whereas prayer is talking to God, meditation is listening to God. Meditation quiets the mind by focusing it on one single thought of experience. One shifts into an alerted state of consciousness in which deep, spiritual truths can be perceived. There are some differences between hypnosis and meditation but their similarities are greater. Through the knowledge of a state of unconsciousness, one can lead another into a profound experience of God: a Christian counsellor remains an instrument, assisting the Holy Spirit and the individual in the arena of regeneration and healing, wellness and wholeness, sanity and sanctity. Since the Holy Spirit does His best work at the unconscious level, trance offers a most helpful process to the Christian minister or counsellor who knows and wants his work to operate in a Christ centered way—in a way filled with and by the Holy Spirit. Accordingly, a Christian counsellor will bathe his or her work in prayer. We do this so that the Holy Spirit will empower our work and enlighten our minds. Prayer functions as trance as prayer involves intense concentration on God: in prayer, all other external stimuli move aside.

This brief assessment about faith and hypnosis is not exhaustive as so much more needs to be researched and interpreted. I hope I may have lifted the veil on the practice of hypnosis which can be most beneficial to any individual, to his spiritual life, beliefs and values. There is a gift God has given us: the power of the mind that can work together with the Power from the Spirit above. Faith can definitely work hand-in-hand with hypnosis as a tool opening the door of the unconscious; allowing God’s touch, His healing light, to assist us in recovering our dignity and freedom as human beings, created in the image and likeness of Himself.

Please Note: Aside from Hypnosis, I remain available for Christian counselling and the Sacraments.

Please read: Orthodox Psychotherapy

(*) Trance
1. A hypnotic, cataleptic, or ecstatic state.
2. Detachment from one's physical surroundings, as in contemplation or daydreaming.
3. A semiconscious state, as between sleeping and waking; a daze.

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