Radio ads in our community have announced seminars that claim to enable you to control weight and stop smoking through hypnosis. Hypnosis is a condition that can be artificially induced in people, in which they are very susceptible to suggestions from the hypnotist; you relinquish control of yourself to another. Hypnosis involves the transfer of control away from us to another person.

The Bible makes it very clear that we are to yield ourselves—body, soul, and spirit—to God. Romans 6:16 – Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? II Corinthians 10:4-5 – (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; The scriptural formula leaves no room for hypnosis – yielding ourselves to a fellow human being.

Hypnotism is often promoted as a simple way of “refocusing” ourselves and finding the answer within us. For the Christian, the focus is to be on the Savior, not on ourselves or anything else. We know that the answers do not lie within us; the solution we need is found in Christ. 

Hebrews 12:2 – Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.