Reveri: Self-hypnosis 17+

Skeptic to Fan - Reveri changed my belief in hypnosis

I though giving hypnosis a try after learning about Reveri in Huberman Lab podcast. I used to think hypnosis was just a pseudo science . Wasn’t very enthusiastic. But after doing the track for quitting smoking I found my cigarettes consumption dropped from 20 to 10 . I have tried mindfulness based habit change approach before for quitting but it was taking too long .
I applied for Reveri for Good as I live in the developing world and currently unemployed. Now I am using it for many things . One track I use regularly is the Be Present . It brings me to the present moment and in a positive state of mind better than meditation. I suffer from depression so it’s a great addition to my day .
Thank you all in the Reveri team.

Might work, but too expensive for what it is.

At first I found the app (specifically within the exercises) to be kind of confusing, or the pace to be off-putting. I think you have to do each one a few times because the directions are not always clear or consistent the first time through, and you can find yourself getting pulled out of it, which seems detrimental to the goal. I upgraded my rating to 3 stars from 2, because after you get the hang of it, it might be helpful. It was somewhat relaxing, but whether it’s more effective than just taking 5 minutes to meditate I’m not sure. I’m on the free trial and haven’t noticed much difference in admittedly little time. Frankly, I don’t want to pay what they’re asking for something that may not work for me, especially because there isn’t much there, and the app isn’t very prescriptive. There seems to be 1 unique short audio clip for a given problem you’d like to address, and then a bunch of shorter (many 1 minute) more generic ones. Perhaps if you are really good at self hypnosis, you can get yourself into the hypnotic state for a 1 minute clip to do something for you, but I just don’t believe that would work for me, and I’m not willing to pay to find out. Hopefully this app works for some people.

Developer Response ,

Hey Eduardo, thank you for your thoughtful review. I'm glad to hear Reveri has helped you to a certain degree. Some people do indeed require a bit more consistent practice to experience great benefits with self-hypnosis. Many people like to start with our Interactive sessions because they are much more variable than the Listening Only versions, and it's like being in a 1:1 setting with Dr Spiegel. Have you tried this version? I'm curious to know what your primary goal is with Reveri, if you are willing to share, so that I can better guide you and also work with our team to make the app more intuitive and helpful for people like you. Please send me a note if you'd like to work directly with me on making the most out of your Reveri experience: support@reveri.com - Shelby from the Reveri Team

Some toxic diet culture messaging in here..

It’s not a bad app, but there are some sentences that I find problematic and distracts me from being able to really drop in to the self hypnosis mode that would be most beneficial. For example, he says (paraphrasing here) “Learn to eat like a gourmet. Enjoy eating more while eating less. Most gourmets are average or even *under weight*.” Excuse me, I’m not trying to be under weight and I don’t think it’s wise to encourage people to be under weight. This is harmful messaging, especially to someone susceptible to an eating disorder. He also says we should be eating low fat and low carb. Eating is not a one size fits all prescription and while he says “dieting doesn’t work, don’t diet” he then proceeds to tell you not to eat carbs and fat, which is stereotypical diet advice that we have seen fail time and time again. I do like the parts about respecting one’s body and treating it with care like you would a baby. There’s also just one self hypnosis session per modality (besides the 1 minute ones, which I don’t even count because those are completely useless) so it gets repetitive real quick. There is potential her to be a great app, but it’s not there yet.

Developer Response ,

You raise a good point – that some who are already restricting eating too much could take it as a direction to further restrict. Our suggestion is coupled directly with “eating with respect for your body” and thinking how you would feed a child or a pet you were responsible for. We hope that important portion of the instructions would make it less likely that someone who was already overly restricting their food intake would take it as further encouragement in the wrong direction. Our team has discussed your feedback and made note of it for future improvements.
We appreciate your taking the time and effort to contact us, and we would love it if you sent us a message at feedback@reveri.com so we can discuss this feedback further.
-- David Spiegel, M.D. and The Reveri Team