Hypnosis - What is Hypnotism

The image of the man dangling the watch back and forth before the patient's eyes and saying "You are getting sleepy... You are getting sleepy... You are getting sleepy" is ingrained into our brains as the primary mode of hypnotizing someone. Once a person goes under, the hypnotist can get the unconscious to say or do just about anything on command. While hypnotism is accepted in the entertainment industry, the scientific community generally snubs such practices. Nevertheless, recent therapeutic trends suggest that the power of the mind cannot be discounted.

Austrian physician Franz Mesmer is sometimes called the father of modern hypnotism, and in the late 1700s, he proposed that it was a mystical force called animal magnetism that flowed from the hypnotist to the patient.

Hypnotists James Braid and Hippolyte Bernheim argued that mesmerism is something far different from hypnosis and that their work centered on the idea of passing a direct suggestion, while simultaneously encouraging deep relaxation, occasionally under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

However, modern Ericksonian hypnosis, popularized by Milton Erickson in the sixties, purports that indirect suggestions have a greater influence over the mind.

While there is much dissension over who is right, the hypnosis techniques are practiced in centers, clinics and living rooms around America to help folks mentally and physically.

In 2000, Harvard researchers sought an answer to the question:

• Does being hypnotized change the brain?

In their study, they asked a group of men to hold a brick out in front of them as long as they could, which was five minutes for most fully conscious subjects. However, under hypnotic suggestion, they held the brick out for fifteen to twenty minutes.

Next, subjects were hypnotized and placed in an MRI scanner. A computer screen showed them patterns of yellow, red, blue and green rectangles and recorded their brain activity. Then they were shown the same rectangles in shades of gray and were asked to imagine the colors. When they were not hypnotized, both activities showed brain activity on the right side only, but when they were hypnotized both the left and the right hemispheres responded. "What we have shown for the first time," lead researcher Stephen Kosslyn concluded, "is that hypnosis changes conscious experience in a way not possible when we are not under hypnosis."

So, if being hypnotized can change the way the brain works, can it change our habitual behavior? Can we use hypnotherapy training to lose weight? While not all studies have been conclusive, there are some signs that a hypnotic suggestion for weight loss really works.

In a 1985 study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, two groups underwent a nine-week weight management program and the hypnotized group continued to lose weight two years later, while the non-hypnosis group showed no future benefits.

In another study of sixty women, the thirty hypnotized women lost an average of seventeen pounds, while the control group only lost an average of half a pound (Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1986). In 1996, it was discovered that adding weight loss hypnosis to a weight loss plan increased weight loss by 97% and increased post-treatment effectiveness by more than 146%!

Hypnosis center therapists use a number of different hypnotic techniques to help their patients. For example, age regression and revivification can help sufferers of mental disorders who need to connect with repressed past memories to regain something.

Folks suffering from insomnia, anxiety or anger disorders will benefit from guided imagery hypnosis sessions instead.

Hypnoanalysis, pioneered by Sigmund Freud, has patients recall moments from the past to confront them and release pent-up emotions. Folks may benefit from direct suggestion and repetition tactics or from confusion and indirect suggestion. Different techniques of hypnosis work for different folks, so it is good that therapists are familiar with more than one technique.

Learn How to Hypnotize Someone

Learning how to hypnotize someone is not a magical experience for the mystics, nor is it a skill acquired through years of schooling. Hypnotherapy training can easily be done with a book or two, a subject and the desire to learn hypnosis techniques. Maybe there is somebody in your life you would like to help through hypnosis.

This method is said to relieve pain, reduce anxiety and help folks with weight loss, smoking cessation and emotional issues. On the other hand, maybe you would like to make some extra money on the weekends performing hypnosis sessions for small audiences. The basic gist of hypnotizing somebody is to get them to relax, at which point their brain waves will slow and their creative, unconscious side will emerge.

Induction is the first step in successful hypnosis sessions. Learning how to hypnotize someone is based on convincing that individual to ditch his or her waking state and slip into a more suggestible state of trance. Not everybody can be hypnotized and definitely not without their permission, but you will discover that most folks are willing to relax, breathe deeply and visualize certain things. A common script for visualization centers on the parts of the body you want your subject to relax. You might say,

"Begin by relaxing all the muscles in your forehead... let all the cares, the stresses, the anxieties of this day melt away... feel your forehead relaxing deeply to feel the tingling of relaxation... feel your neck become warm with the deep relaxation as you take a deep peaceful breath and just let go...”

Once your subject has been relaxed into a state of trance and you have learned how to hypnotize, you will need to know what to do with your subject. You may want to plant a hypnotic suggestion that the subject can come back to in his or her waking state. For example, you might tell a story about a beautiful garden and say,

"I am giving you the trigger word 'Eden.' Whenever you wish to relax in the future, you can take three deep breaths; remember your trigger word 'Eden' and come back to this beautiful, relaxing place."

You may also go into the next stage of hypnosis by issuing instructions, such as,

"I want you to try to get up, but your right leg is so heavy you can't move it."

Once the subject is in this deeper level, clinical hypnosis may be performed to alleviate mental and physical pain. Next, you will need to prepare the subject to awaken.

Learning how to hypnotize someone can be a very enjoyable hobby. You will likely find yourself feeling more relaxed and better about yourself as you help others. You may use your relaxation hypnosis techniques to help yourself fall asleep at night too. If you are engaging in this as a hobby, then books and CDs will probably be all the resources you need. However, if you are serious about pursuing a career or making money in hypnotherapy, then it is best that you attend something like the four-day American Society of Clinical Hypnosis workshop to engross yourself in the discipline. Stage hypnotists can benefit from the Ultimate Stage Hypnosis Seminar, which features guest appearances and training from some of the masters, such as Jerry Valley, Tommy Vee and Alex Mitt.

Clinical Hypnotherapy

Today, clinical hypnotherapy is used for acute pain in the cases of burn or trauma victims and women going through childbirth. Clinical hypnosis is also used for chronic pain conditions like cancer and fibromyalgia. Children with migraines and adults with bladder problems are also being treated by this method.

Hypnotic suggestion may help you lose weight, quit smoking, think more positively, open yourself to the possibility of fostering healthy relationships and deal with anger or fear more effectively. While little is understood about the mind's inner workings, many studies are illuminating the way.

The mechanisms behind clinical hypnotherapy and pain reduction are yet to be scientifically proven, although there are a number of viable theories. One school of thought is that the brain shifts its attention to increase its pain threshold. It is possible that the brain can train itself to disassociate from the pain and focus on other things to circumvent the feelings of discomfort. Another theory suggests that the deep state of trance and relaxation induced by clinical hypnosis actually triggers the brain to release neurotransmitters, acetylcholine and dopamine, which is similar to what happens as we fall asleep.

An additional form of clinical hypnotherapy is known as hypnoanesthesia, which is a practice that dates back to the 1800s, before modern day anesthesia was developed.

In 1990, researcher Eron Grant Manusov found that hypnoanesthesia, which is anesthesia without chemical induction, is only possible in around fifteen percent of the population. However, if the patient is suggestible, that number increases considerably.

Different studies discovered that patients who were given chemical anesthesia were able to receive hypnotic suggestions while in a state of trance. This resulted in those folks having reduced hospital stays, requiring less medication and needing less anesthesia in future procedures.

A 2005 clinical hypnotherapy study done at the University of Iowa found similar findings using magnetic resonance imaging, that there is reduced activity in areas of the pain network and increased activity in other areas of the brain.

The primary sensory cortex, the brain's pain center, showed limited functioning. On the other hand, the left anterior cingulate cortex and the basal ganglia lit up with overwhelming activity. The left anterior cingulate cortex is the area of the brain associated with heart rate, blood pressure, reward anticipation and decision making processes. The basal ganglia, which are a group of nuclei in the brain, comprise the motor control, cognition and learning center of the brain. No wonder clinical hypnotherapy can change a person's beliefs and behaviors!

The researchers concluded that these regions maybe an inhibition pathway to block pain signals from reaching higher cortical areas responsible for pain perception. The limitation of hypnosis techniques is that it is believed only ten percent of the population is highly hypnotizable, while eighty percent may be hypnotizable and the remaining ten percent cannot be hypnotized at all.