Reviewing Health Syndrome And Hypnosis
In 2001, the British Psychological Society concluded, “There is encouraging evidence demonstrating the beneficial effects of hypnotic therapy procedures in alleviating the symptoms of a range of complaints that fall under the heading of “psychosomatic illness.” These include tension headaches and migraines; asthma; gastro-intestinal complaints such as irritable bowel syndrome; warts; and possibly other skin complaints such as eczema, psoriasis and urticaria [hives].” Two years prior, hypnosis sessions were “effective for panic disorders and insomnia.” Although, Harvard professor Stephen Kosslyn says American scientists have not been so quick to jump onboard. “Hypnosis has a contentious history,” he concedes. “Some insist it’s a state of mind that differs from normal states and involves unique consequences; others say it’s nothing more than state-show gimmickry.” Even so, a number of Americans who feel they have exhausted other options are reporting the benefits of being hypnotized in treating ailments like chronic bed wetting, childbirth pain, high blood pressure, asthma and migraines. Some even say hypnotic sessions have helped them quit smoking or lose weight.
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.”
In another study conducted in 2004, researchers at the University of Iowa, the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and Technical University of Aachen, Germany, measured blood flow in the brain under clinical hypnosis. They asked participants to touch a hot surface and report pain on a scale from 0-10. Next, under hypnotic suggestion, all subjects reported reduced pain (3/10) at previously 8/10 temperature levels. Additionally, assistant professor Sebastian Schulz-Stubner M.D. reported, “The major finding from our study, which used MRI for the first time to investigate brain activity under hypnosis for pain suppression, is that we see reduced activity in areas of the pain network and increased activity in other areas of the brain under hypnosis.”
In recent years, hypnosis has been linked to cures for gastrointestinal disorders, psoriasis, mitigating migraines, slowing cancer progression and improving psychological disorders like anxiety, depression and insomnia. Some call it “the power of positive thinking,” where the hypnotist plants helpful suggestions to train the mind to think in a new light. Researchers insist they are not meddling in the human psyche, that no suggestion can change the unwilling. In fact, government research during the fifties substantiated that argument when the brainwashing program (dubbed “MK Ultra”) was closed down. Even so, the mind works in strange and mysterious ways and seems willing to adopt new paradigms as necessary to ensure survival.
Tags: Hypnosis NLP
