How hypnosis works

Will You Remember Everything After Being Hypnotized?

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Forgetting is not a built-in part of hypnosis. WebMD’s medically reviewed overview puts it simply: unlike some portrayals in films and on television, “you’ll probably remember what happens during the session.” Forgetting can be produced, but it has to be suggested, and the research on it centers on people who are highly responsive to hypnosis.

Why do people expect to forget?

Partly because hypnosis was once judged by it. According to the Wikipedia article on hypnosis, the older clinical “depth” scales tried to infer how deep a trance was from supposed observable signs, such as spontaneous amnesia afterward. Forgetting was treated as evidence of a deep state.

Modern research dropped that approach. Most later scales measure how a person responds to specific suggestion tests instead. In current research, amnesia appears as one element among many: the 2024 review cited below lists it alongside suggestion, relaxation, focused attention and imagination.

The standard definitions reflect this. The American Psychological Association’s 2015 Division 30 definition, quoted in the Wikipedia article, describes focused attention, reduced peripheral awareness and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion. Forgetting is not on the list.

What is hypnotic amnesia, then?

It is forgetting produced by a specific suggestion, such as “you will not remember these faces.” A 2024 review of the cognitive neuroscience of hypnosis describes a study by Jamieson and colleagues in which highly hypnotizable participants were shown faces and then given a hypnotic suggestion to forget them. They failed to recognize faces they had recently seen.

The brain recordings were telling. Only in that condition, the failure to recognize faces after the amnesia suggestion, did the researchers find increased upper-alpha activity in a region of the right parietal lobe that helps control recollection, along with changed connectivity to regions needed for recalling faces. The study was designed to test whether this pattern of brain activity selectively inhibits recall during hypnotic amnesia, and the results fit that idea. The review also describes work by Schnyer and Allen on recognition amnesia after hypnosis in highly hypnotizable participants.

Two limits follow from that research. The effect was suggested, not spontaneous. And it was studied in highly hypnotizable people, who make up roughly one person in ten on standard scales.

Will you remember every word?

WebMD’s word is “probably,” not “certainly.” Two situations make gaps more likely.

You were told to forget. In ordinary hypnotherapy, a suggestion to forget has to come from the practitioner. If one is planned, you should know why before the session starts.

You fell asleep. If drowsiness turned into sleep partway through, you were not taking in that part of the session, so there is nothing to remember from it.

Can hypnosis make your memory better?

This is where the stronger caution belongs. The Wikipedia article notes that memory can be altered by suggestion, and WebMD warns that hypnosis by someone who is not a trained professional could lead to the creation of fake memories. A session that feels vivid and certain is not, for that reason, accurate. Using hypnosis to “recover” past events is the use that needs particular care.

A warning worth acting on

Before you start, ask the practitioner two questions: will they suggest that you forget anything, and will they try to recover memories? A “yes” to either should come with a reason you understand and agree to before the session begins.

This article is general information, not medical or psychological advice; talk with a licensed clinician about your own situation.

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