In the 2004 film ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, an estranged couple separately take the decision to erase each other from their memories. Forever.
An appealing idea?
For many of us, the concept of simply erasing snippets or even whole chunks of our past seems an eerie notion. But what if you feel you can’t move on? If you have experienced a significant trauma or upsetting event in your life (that then continues to disproportionally affect and to dominate your life many years or even decades later) then the idea of erasing that memory understandably becomes all the more appealing.
So is this possible? Can hypnosis and hypnotherapy actually delete or erase a past upsetting memory?
No, it cannot. No type of hypnotherapy treatment of which I am aware is able to delete, erase or un-do a past event or memory – what’s happened has happened and there is no magic delete button.
But I am very happy to say that curative hypnotherapy can in fact do something even better….
Curative hypnotherapy has great success in correcting the effect that such an incident is continuing to have for the individual. To quote Epictetus: “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters”. It is the present effect, rather than the past event itself that often causes upset. And it is this present effect that can be changed with curative hypnotherapy – naturally disposing of the hold that the event or memory is having for the individual in the present day and thereby allowing them to move on positively with their lives.
Life can be a funny old thing, to say the least. As much as we might all hope to be blessed with good fortune, prosperity and happiness at every turn, this cannot possibly be the case for all of us all of the time. So upset, hurt and trauma are an inevitable part of the human condition (sorry!), and it is the rough as well as the smooth that forms and shapes us. It is therefore perfectly natural and normal for all of us at times to be upset or hurt in varying degrees by life’s twists and turns, or even on occasions to be utterly knocked sideways by significant events.
Recent breakup or bereavement? You’re meant to feel shoddy for a time and my heart goes out to you. That immediate impact and effect is normal and the very visceral rawness of it all hopefully fades or changes over time. But if that rawness doesn’t fade? If that immediate impact turns into a long term lingering effect? Then that needn’t be put up with. Yes, the past forms a part of us, but it really needn’t dominate our present.
Curative hypnotherapy seeks to correct that disproportionate, upsetting and unnecessary lingering effect, allowing the individual to get on with their current lives and leave the past in the past where it belongs. Working in this way, the past memory is not ‘deleted’ as such, simply shown its rightful place! In my opinion and experience, this is even better and more empowering than a magical delete button.
