The Cognitohazard Within This Common Hypnosis Question

Let me start by saying that cognitohazards are real.

Some of you are already thinking, “LOL, you’ve read too much SCP Foundation.” To which I would say there is no such thing: that site is amazing.

But most of you are wondering what are cognitohazards?

If you separate the term, it is exactly that: something that is dangerous, even harmful, to think about.

Examples of this appear in fiction all the time. I already mentioned the SCP Foundation, where cognitohazards are magical (sorry, ‘anomalous’) images, phrases, or entities that kill you if you think about them.

In most fictions, knowing a demon’s true name allows you to control it. Sometimes thinking of the name just summons them.

In Chase Hughes’ Phrase Seven, the phrase of the same name is a finely tuned psychological weapon, leaving the listener in a hypersuggestible state. The other phrases are just as dangerous to hear.

If you stretch the definition, then ‘Voldemort’ is a cognito-hazard spoken of in the latest Harry Potter book. Since only his most dangerous enemies call him that, his followers use magic to track down anyone who says so.

And, of course, Lovecraft. Simply knowing anything about Cthulhu or the true nature of reality drives mortals insane.

I know I know

Blah, blah, blah, fiction.

Unless space octopuses and wizards are real, none of that is cause for concern.

So let’s talk about some real cognitive dangers.

Or rather, let’s talk around them. Talking about them would be nonsense.

Buddhism and modern science agree: existence is suffering. The default experience of living beings, when everything is going well, is happiness and contentment, as well as fear and pain. To deny this truth is to suppress, ignore, and ultimately enhance your suffering, which is what makes Stoicism one of the most practical philosophies out there.

One of the main causes of this suffering is unresolved trauma. When you were young and frail, you buried your fear, anger, misery, and pain because you couldn’t deal with it.

And unless you’ve since resolved it, it’s still there.

And if you face this mental damage without proper preparation, it is likely to lead to a psychotic break. I’m not saying this to be nervous or exaggerated, I mean it literally. A true psychological snap, in which contact with reality is lost.

In hypnosis circles, we call it abreaction.

It’s usually temporary and can be a healing process… but it can also be dangerous.

So there is a thought that is dangerous to think: your own forgotten pain.

Another example:

A certain online community discusses human thought, rationality, AI and some related topics. A member came up with a thought experiment and shared it. This was not a horror story, a disturbing anecdote, or a troubling line of inquiry. It was purely hypothetical. Still, just hearing it gave some members full-blown panic attacks.

Y:

Ideas can be dangerous. If a thought goes against your social programming, it can be depressing, aggravating, and even painful.

At the extreme end, imagine that your people have been brutally enslaved for generations. No one talks about freedom or rebellion anymore.

Thinking about your freedom is dangerous for all the obvious reasons.

But if you think the only danger comes from your overlords, you don’t understand human nature.

These thoughts draw pain from your fellow slaves…and even from your own mental defenses.

Thinking too far outside the social norm is off-putting, which is why all ‘hipsters’ dress alike. Hipsters, teenage rebels, and goths don’t reject societies, they just stick with smaller ones. Truly individual thinking is painful, dangerous, and destabilizing to your psyche. It is not impossible, of course, but it is better to do it in small doses.

After all, genius and eccentricity tend to correlate…

All of which brings me to the crux of the article.

I’ve been asked a question about hypnosis quite often.

And every time I hear it, I cringe.

I cringe because the question contains a cognito-hazard.

Asking the question, even just thinking about it, is harmful.

It won’t kill you or drive you crazy, but it does damage.

Damage that can last a lifetime.

Unlike the other cognitohazards in this article, I will be specific here. It is important that you can name this beast, so that you can erase it from your life.

The common and dangerous question is some variation of:

“My son is disruptive/won’t sleep/doesn’t eat his vegetables/responds too often. Can you use hypnosis to help him with that?”

They often say this as a joke. Sometimes it’s serious.

Either way, it’s risky to think… and worse to say.

This is why:

It is possible to hypnotize children. But, according to some definitions of hypnosis, it is not necessary. Until adolescence, they are in a kind of trance all the time.

Increased suggestibility is one of the main signs. Children don’t ‘learn’ so much as they ‘absorb’, believing almost everything they hear.

Just because he argues (a lot) doesn’t mean he’s not learning from everything you say and do.

So if you go around saying (or even thinking) that the normal things kids do are a problem that needs solving… well, you’re teaching them that they’re broken.

I know I know I’m not a father, so it’s easy for me to say. Surely you have had times when, between stress, boredom, isolation, irritation and lack of sleep, you wanted to buy them a one-way bus ticket to somewhere else.

You’re not perfect, so there’s no shame in that.

But there is no reason to add to it.

I don’t work with children, but I have met hypnotists who get great results with them. Things like helping a six-year-old girl who threw up everything she ate, or a violent four-year-old girl.

Yes, I work with adults.

I see people who unconsciously hold back. When you were a child, perhaps a tutor or teacher told you that you were stupid, useless, or a burden to them.

Chances are the adult didn’t have to say it. They acted like this long enough for the boy to get the message.

And never let go.

I’m not trying to blame any parent who sometimes wishes their children were different. For one thing, it’s human nature. On the other hand, any thought that creates unnecessary guilt is itself a mild cognitohazard.

But if everyone understood how much they say to their children, even without speaking, there would be much less demand for my services.