Hypnosis For Students: New Study Aid Or Unfair Advantage?

Ask most college students if they have experienced hypnosis, and they’ll tell you about a hypnosis show they saw in high school or college. It was funny, and intriguing, but they haven’t thought about it since.

Yet hypnosis can give students far more than entertainment. Some know this personally. They’re just not saying much about it.

In fact, you may be surprised to learn that among top students who want to get the most from their studies, many have recognized hypnosis as one of the most effective secondary study aids available. If you have students in your own household, hypnosis can do more for their success than you or they might have expected.

Hypnosis can:

- Double, triple, or even quadruple understanding and retention of subject matter
- Make studying faster and easier
- Dial down anxiousness during exams, and while studying, supercharging their success
- Enhance test-taking skills, essay writing, attention span, and much more
- Increase confidence in delivering oral reports or speeches and defending theses
- Help develop leadership potential
- Improve athletic ability
- Boost confidence in most areas of student life, including social aspects
- Increase desire to further one’s education and career aspirations
- Decrease self doubt and improve future outlook
- And these are just the beginning. Because once a student is familiar and comfortable with hypnosis, he or she will naturally think up new ways it can help.

(In fact, we are discovering new possibilities all the time.)

Does any of this sound like something you, or the student in your life, could use? Please realize the above list is not exhaustive; there are likely more areas amenable to the assistance of hypnosis that I have neglected to include.

As you read on, and think of others you’d like to suggest, or inquire about, and feel free to write me; contact information can be found in the author box.

Here is more about how hypnosis can impact education at almost any age:

- Self Hypnosis for High School, College, and Grad Students

I was certified in hypnosis more than 10 years ago, but it was only when I co-taught a creativity class with a colleague at a college that I discovered what hypnosis can do for higher-education.

On that day, upon my co-lecturer’s urging, I hypnotized everyone in the class who chose the experience, for improved performance in studies, and greater ease in test taking.

Although the hypnosis itself was the real excitement that day, later conversations with students revealed that they were experiencing less stress, better memory of their subject matter, and a greater sense of well being.

After that, although I no longer taught regularly, I started coming in once a semester to talk about and deliver hypnosis to those interested. The instructor tells me it is the most highly-anticipated and best-attended class session every semester.

- Self Hypnosis for Ongoing Support As Needed

You may be interested to know that a student over 12, all the way up to graduate school and beyond, can also be taught to hypnotize him or herself on a regular or as-needed basis any time a need arises.

Naturally, if self-hypnosis is used to study more efficiently or develop better recall, it’s easy to see the power it and bring to any student’s education.

But even a brief, generic self-hypnosis session can have health benefits and an ongoing influence on self trust and emotional balance.

And any student who is seeing a mental-health professional can empower his therapy himself: if he will simply capture the positive self-talk his counselor recommends and use it in his next self-hypnosis session.

- Hypnosis as New Tool For Education

In my private practice, more parents are understanding the value of hypnosis in education, and marveling at what self-hypnosis can do for their college student.

As one parent said, “Do you know what it used to be like in this house the night before a final? Now, the night before the test, she hypnotizes herself for ten minutes and she’s asleep the minute her head hits the pillow, and she doesn’t wake up till morning.”

The result: a clearer mind and more confidence the next day.

Do students also recognize the possibilities? It’s my experience as a practitioner that when students are simply directed toward the information—like this article and others about hypnosis—they quickly develop interest in the subject as it is inherently interesting to young people.

As a parent, it is important not to force it on them, however, or to connect it with current poor performance. Rather, it should be strictly voluntary and offered as a possibility, useful and fun.

Frankly, a student who learns self hypnosis goes beyond improving poor performance. She is a step ahead in taking responsibility for her performance, her future, and her ability to achieve precisely what she desires.

How relaxing for the parent to let go of worry, force, and nagging, and watch his child take her future into her own hands—and succeed!

It is my experience, incidentally, that the best students are the ones most eager to learn self-hypnosis because they want to take their abilities even further, and do so without added stress.

- Hypnosis for Those Returning To School Years Later

After graduation—whether high school or college—many adults thought they had seen the end of classrooms and papers. But many find themselves returning to school years later, whether for a graduate or post-graduate degree, or a certificate program needed for their field.

If you are among them, do find yourself feeling unsure about your study skills? Or intimidated by younger classmates with better memories or simply more time to study?

Hypnosis can help with all of that, including the confidence that you’ll want to supercharge your progress.

- Finally, the Question Of Unfairness

Until now, I have been begging the question this article poses: Is the use of hypnosis in education an unfair advantage for the students using it?

Well, let’s consider that:

Is getting a tutor’s help unfair because not everyone is willing or able to do the same?

What about a coach helping your child, after school and on your dime, in her athletic pursuits?

Are prep courses unfair—for SATs, GREs, GMATs, etc.?

Or getting extra help from an instructor after class?

Is participating in a study group unfair? What if it’s run by a professional?

And how about simply choosing to join with the smartest group of people studying for a particular exam?

I would argue that hypnosis to empower education is both practically and morally akin to these others.

Yes, hypnosis is acutely effective at focusing the abilities of the subconscious mind on the subject matter, maximizing every moment of study time, and often producing greater, longer–lasting results. But the intention of creating an advantage via time, effort, and money is equivalent to that of prep courses and tutorials.

When you give your child (or yourself) an advantage that will improve her abilities, her standing, and ultimately benefit the lives of those who will reap the advantages of contact with her, is there is real reason to feel guilty? ©2008 by Wendy Lapidus-Saltz. All rights reserved.