5. Hypnotherapy and Memory. (Draft 1)

During hypnosis, it is common for the hypnotherapists to suggest that the subject either consciously remember or consciously forget certain information.

One common use of hypnotherapy is past life regression (see appendix XXXX for a full discussion). Without a detailed discussion of past life regression, which we will favor the appendix, suffice it to say that many individuals believe that they have lived a life prior to the one they are currently living. Hypnosis has been used with regularity to reawaken these memories, and cause these memories to permanently reside in the conscious mind.

Another, albeit questionable use of hypnotherapy is the recovery of repressed memory. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, many court cases were adjudicated on the subject of repressed memory and parental abuse. Some people actually went to jail as the result of supposedly recalled memories, under hypnosis. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, this evidence was largely determined to be circumstantial at worst, and inadmissible at best. We caution against hastily interpreting recollections alleged repressed memory during the hypnotherapy session. There can be many causes and explanations for the memories being recalled. While they may be recalled memories, they may not have happened to the subject or at the time, or by whom indicated.

We do recommend the use of hypnotherapy to sharpen the recollections of facts which are dimly or vaguely recall it is also the case that under hypnosis, memory is far more photographic than is the memory recall from the conscious mind. Under hypnosis, memories have been scientifically proven to be more accurate and more complete -- in essence more photographic -- because the conscious mind is continuously editing information stored in short-term retrieval. It has been scientifically established that there are at least two levels of memory: short-term memory and long-term. This information which doesn't make it from short-term memory to long-term is not necessarily lost. The data and information are still sore stored and are retrievable by the mind. This however, short-term memories which have been forgot merely have had insufficient mental indexes built to those memories. In a hypnotic state, the short-term to long-term indexes required by the conscious mind, a much busier and more time sensitive, are not required. Basically, unless there is organic damage, most memories can be recovered through hypnosis.