In a culture where alternative medicine has been accepted practise for centuries, I was surprised to find hypnotherapy is just coming into vogue.
Although the somewhat modern age of hypnotherapy was ushered in by Jan Zhou in the 18th. century, it is still commonly referred to as “social constructionism” or “role-playing theory.” This theory suggests that the subject and “hypnotist” are really engaged in a role-play relationship, and therefore there is no hypnotism going on at all ( sounds very much like China ). Today, with no existing laws or guidelines for hypnotists or hypnotherapy training programs, small wonder the subject is a source of hot debate.
The Global Times reports two very conflictng views in the same article from Feb. 26, 2010. On one hand, there’s a quote from an anonymous employee of an eight day hypnotherapy school that charges the equivalent of four semesters at an accredited University stating, “that even a junior high school graduate could master the skills of a professional hypnotist.” On the other, they quote Dr. Wu Rengang, a psychiatrist at the No.2 Hospital in Beijing going so far as to say that, “as far as I know, there are only two qualified hypnotisits in China,” and “Maybe you can learn how to hypnotize someone within a week, but to become a professional hypnotist requires the skills needed to provide proper psychological guidance after hypnosis.”

Here in the United States at least this point is never up for debate. It is crystal clear and emphatyically emphasized not only in the bi-laws of The National Guild of Hypnotists, but also through the accredited course at The Northwest Hypnosis Institute, in Portland, Or. that there is no room for the practise of psychology or psychiatry by a certified hypnotherapist, unless of course, they have a degree in that particular field.

In China, psychotherapy combined with hypnotherapy seems to be gaining ground. The Shanghai Daily recently interviewed Dr. Shan Huaihai, ” a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, has practiced hypnotherapy in China for more than 25 years. Dr Shan says the use of hypnosis in China started in the 1980s following the country’s reform and opening-up policy. The vice chairman of the Counseling Psychology and Psychotherapy Committee of the Shanghai Psychological Society, Dr Shan says hypnotherapy was used in conjunction with some traditional Chinese medicine and qigong (a traditional Chinese breathing and relaxation technique) treatments.”
To the north, in a suburb of Bejing, the oldest clinic in China treating on-line addiction is using hypnotherapy along with other treatment as part of their program relieving “netizens” of their unhealthy dependence on computers. Ironically, on April 8, 2010, the number one search trend around the globe was “Chinese Hypnosis Video Sleep.”
What I saw was boring, not so much sleepy. That trend search, however, may have done a good bit of advertising for German born scupltor Christian Lemmerz’s art installation ” Hypnosis ” that opened in Beijing in August, 2010. The exhibition has the visitor standing next to one of a hundreds of sculptures of skulls hanging from the ceiling while a hypnotic voice attempts to hypnotize the viewer – urging us to think about our lives and eventual death – as the voice goes down from ten to zero. One challenge, it seems, is whether the viewer dares to stay right where they are until the voice hits zero.
In February of this year, the Youtube clip of Miss China hypnotized in Taiwan on Super Sunday was decidedly more upbeat. Going for a past life memory, the hypnotist, through an interpretor, had Miss China regress to her last percieved “incarnation” and then stopped when the memory proved painful. He then asked her ( using a commanding voice) to go towards a pleasant childhood memory from that lifetime, where almost immediately the tone of her voice became clearly more childlike. What she said was not translated, yet she came out of the hypnotic state smiling with the audience clearly impressed. At first it seemed like the hypnotist missed his momemt, but then again he made a very good impression towards the responsibilities that go along with the practise. Allowing Miss China to be hypnotized on television in the first place said more to me about the future of hypnosis in China than anything else.