Can I retrieve memories through hypnosis?

With hypnosis, it is also possible to regain access to memories that were thought to be lost. Just because we can no longer consciously remember an experience does not mean that we have forgotten it forever. Sometimes we don't need a memory for a long time or we suppress it for a certain reason. These memories can no longer be recalled consciously. However, it continues to reside in the subconscious mind.

That there is a conscious and a subconscious memory system has been suspected since the 19th century. In the meantime, this has also been scientifically recognized. Katharina Henke, professor and director of the Center for Cognition, Learning and Memory (CCLM) at the University of Bern, and her colleagues were able to prove in an experiment that both memory systems even interact with each other. The fact that memories are stored subconsciously is already supported by the fact that once learned skills are never completely unlearned. There are also incidents in which a long-repressed memory suddenly comes back into consciousness. People with post-traumatic stress disorder can even have flashbacks due to certain triggers, which lead to a kind of reliving. Memories of what has been experienced are thus never completely gone.

Through hypnosis or hypnotic regression, it is also possible in principle to retrieve buried memories. This type of hypnosis takes the client back to a certain time in his life, where certain experiences can be relived with all senses. However, it is impossible to predict the likelihood of success. It should also always be clarified in advance whether it really makes sense to dig for old memories. Often there is a reason why one cannot remember certain events. For this reason, all forms of self-hypnosis and self-mediation aimed at regression into the past should be discouraged. Traumatic memories should generally only be brought out if they are subconsciously blocking the client and only in the company of a hypno-therapist.

Hypnosis of hypnotic regression, however, is also used so that the client can draw strength from positive experiences of his life. Some life events have a radiant power from which a person can gain good emotions and new drive long after. That is why one remembers certain events with pleasure even after years. During hypnosis it is possible to relive moments of them.