How Hypnosis Freed a Housebound Woman

In all the years I have been practicing hypnosis in Atlanta, the case of the housebound woman has to be one of the most unusual. “Frances” called me because she had been almost unable to leave her home for three years. The problem was that every time she heard music, she would start to cry uncontrollably. And, even though she did not know it, she gave me the solution to her problem within the first three minutes of the first time we spoke.

So, she was unable to go shopping, because there might be music playing somewhere, especially during the Christmas season. Her husband had to watch TV with the sound off in case there was background music playing on some program. Frances could not even attend a church service because of the singing.

When we first spoke Frances told me that when she heard music she saw a mental image of her childhood home and started crying. And, that gave me the solution.

I guided Frances into hypnosis, and had her imagine a black curtain behind which was the image that made her cry. I then had her push the image away at the speed of light so that it disappeared at the same time she raised the black curtain. After she had practiced this a few times, raising the curtain automatically made the image disappear. At that point, even when she tried to get the image of her childhood home back, it immediately disappeared over the horizon.

You may have noticed that Frances has not revealed any past childhood traumatic experiences, or had to dig for a “root cause” to her problem. And, you may be wondering if she needs to do so.

To find out if there was anything more to do, I had Frances bring herself out of hypnosis. And, then tested the effectiveness of the work we had done in hypnosis by singing Yankee Doodle to her. Her response surprised me.

Frances looked amazed, startled, and overjoyed. It was the first time in years she had listened to music without crying. All it took was a few minutes of hypnosis, and Frances was free to go back to church, the mall and watch TV again.