I was just about to do my best to figure out if hypnosis was worth studying and how.
I trust the judgment around here pretty well. Am I wasting my time, or is this something worth pursuing? If so, what for, and do you have any recommended sources?
Your suggestion that hypnotism is intrinsically better learned in person makes a lot of sense to me, so maybe the reason there aren't that many written how-to guides is because capable hypnotists recognize that and try and push would-be students towards in-person lessons. Unfortunately, I'm rural enough that getting in-person training is somewhat troublesome.
Have you read "Reality Is Plastic"? I haven't, though I have read two books on the subject which both had the same problem of spending almost all their wordcount on details too advanced of where my skills were at and not enough wordcount in the basics. "Popular" doesn't equal "useful" unfortunately :\ (You'd think this would be one area, like marketing, where you could equate popularity with author skill, but oh well.) If you have read it and think it would be useful, I'll likely pick it up.
Hypnotism is definitely something you have to see done and do it yourself. I didn't do any in person trainings, but since I cut my teeth with text hypnosis and found someone a couple years ahead of me to function as a mentor/peer, I was still had the opportunity to see what it looks like when it works, try doing it myself, and then get detailed feedback after the fact. I don't necessarily think you have to have anyone in the "instructor" role if you've read enough, but you can't really expect books to be enough in the same way you wouldn't expect... (read more)