Some people believe that photographs steal their souls. This fear is deep rooted and goes back to before cameras came into use. Which means there’s almost certainly something, deep down, that is causing this fear.
But whether or not you believe in you have a soul, let alone whether or not an inanimate photograph can steal it, today’s world has cameras everywhere. Sometimes a very exclusive club or restaurant will take people’s phones before allowing them to enter. But the rest of the time, you’re open to having your photo taken.
You may even have seen some crime TV shows where they use the images from people’s mobile phones to recreate a scene they’re investigating. That technology is most definitely available – it’s called mobile device forensics – and the amount of data held on our phones is phenomenal.
I’m not trying to build up your fear, honest. Just saying that the cell phone most people voluntarily carry around has information that, a few years ago, would have seemed a James Bond fantasy.
So your fear of being photographed could stem from an inbuilt desire to stay at least a bit private.
Is it how you think you’ll look?
Personally, I’ve always believed that the only correct place to be is behind the lens but nowadays that’s more to do with not wanting to look at myself and see more and more grey hairs and more pounds than I should have.
But in these days of being instantly judged by how we look, there’s a whole generation that thinks they have to be photo perfect before an image of them is posted online. Even to the extent of using apps to “improve” how they look.
Are you worried what others may think of you?
Whilst no-one can accurately count, it’s thought that over a trillion photos are taken every year. Statistically, unless you’re a complete recluse, you’ll be in some of those.
The number may be scary and too big to really comprehend. But there is an advantage – there’s safety in numbers. With so many photos being taken, very few people apart from the original photographer are even going to know they exist.
Some may be posted online but they’re the modern equivalent of having to endure other people’s holiday photos. Most of them are ignored and very unlikely to go viral.
Even if they’re posted on a friend’s timeline, these things scroll by so fast nowadays – and computer algorithms are getting fussier about what they spread to friends – there’s a good chance very few people will see that photo you’d have burned the negative of in olden days.
Truth be told, normally the only person who knows you’re having a bad hair day is you.
Is it a desire for control?
We see “off guard” photos in the media all the time and tend to think that they were taken by some sneaky paparazzi photographer.
Sometimes that’s the case.
But often it’s a pact between the celebrities and the photographers. The celebrities want to stay in the news (otherwise they may no longer be famous) and the photographers oblige by taking almost posed “candid” photos.
it’s a modern devil’s pact (which I suppose comes back to the idea of our souls being stolen).
What can you do to reduce your fear of being photographed?
Given that the chance of being photographed any time, any place, is high the standard suggestion of using a relaxation technique doesn’t hold.
Whilst you can – and probably should – chill out more, that won’t help you worrying when anyone holding a phone could be taking a snap shot of you.
It’s better to attack your fear at its root and the best way to do that is with hypnosis.
This will work with whatever is worrying you about having your photo taken. Whether you can pinpoint the reason or not.
And it will then help your subconscious mind to work around that fear and replace it with more wholesome thoughts. Ideally ones that don’t involve grabbing the offending device and smashing it to pieces and then hacking into the person’s cloud account to delete the other originals.
All you need to do is play the hypnosis audio a few times (the results get better when you do that) and let the hypnosis reduce your fear of being photographed.
