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Jessica —
Self-hypnosis is really auto-suggestion, which is OK, if done for
a good purpose. Hypnosis by another is dicey.
You are handing yourself
over to something that can influence you, so you should have someone
trustworthy and a witness (like a spouse) to make sure nothing is
suggested but what needs to be suggested. Lamaze and Bradley methods
both aim at relaxation. I personally found Lamaze amazingly effective.
From the Dallas Hypnosis Institute:
A decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office on July
28, 1847 stated in part that, “the use of animal magnetism
(the earliest form of hypnosis) is indeed merely an act making
use of physical media that are otherwise licit and hence it is
not morally forbidden, provided that it does not tend toward an
illicit end or toward anything depraved.”
Objections continued to be raised by some theologians stating that
if not applied properly hypnosis could deprive a person of their
faculty of reason. Saint Thomas Aquinas specifically rebutted this
stating,
“The loss of reason is not a sin in itself but only by reason
of the act by which one is deprived of the use of reason. If the
act that deprives one of his use of reason is licit in itself and
is done for a just cause, there is no sin; if no just cause is
present, it must be considered a venial sin.”
Pope Pius XII is credited as giving the official nod to hypnosis
from the Catholic church. He stated in comments before an audience
of obstetricians and gynecologists on January 8th, 1956, that he believed
the judgment of the morality of hypnosis would ultimately be based
on sound medical opinion.
Mary Ann
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