A new study points to specific areas of the brain affected by hypnosis. The technique could be a tool for exploring what happens in the brain when we suddenly forget.
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Amanda J. Barnier, Rochelle E. Cox and Greg Savage are researchers at the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.
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17 Comments
Add CommentSo, what this actually boils down to is highly hypnotizable people have a kind of brain 'defect' that can be made to act like psychological trauma or actual physiological damage. High hyptotizability is very often associated with extreme gullibility to all kinds of woo woo. What we're staying here is that 'true believers' are so susceptible to belief in all the nonsense because their brains are wired goofy. That would explain a LOT. Heh.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMakes me even happier to be among the non hypnotizable!
Yeah, well maybe you were just hypnotized to think that.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOh crap... I didn't think of that... maybe I was hypnotized into thinking that and to then hypnotized into not considering that maybe I had been hypnotized to think that?! Or ... oh man... maybe I was hypnotized into thinking that and then hypnotized into thinking that I was hypnotized into thinking that and then hypnotized into not considering that maybe I had been hypnotized into not considering that I might have been hypnotized in to thinking that I had been hypnotized to think that... OR!?? ....Oh GOD!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis illuminating article demonstrates that Israeli scientists are making a major contriubtion to knowledge. Well done, Avi Mendelsohn and colleagues, and congratulations to Weizmann Institute.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOf course hypnosis is real. It's been around for over 2,000 years and have helped millions of people with everything from memory recollection, to addictions to public speaking. It's guided meditation with specific goals. There's nothing "woo woo" or "goofy" about it. The brain is changed to influence the mind and actions redirected into doing what the intelligent and mindful subject wishes to do differently, better, or more of.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"The brain is changed to influence the mind and actions redirected into doing what the intelligent and mindful subject wishes to do differently, better, or more of."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUh... what? The brain is changed?! Not! This just doesn't even make sense. "...redirected into doing what the intelligent and mindful subject wishes to do..." What exactly is getting "redirected" if the "subject wishes" to do something in the first place? If a person wants something to happen, some change in his or her life, he or she is going to take the actions, whether consciously or unconsciously, to get there. The act of hypnotism only serves as a focusing piece for the otherwise unfocused.
I'm sorry, but a genuinely intelligent and mindful person usually doesn't need some kind of woo woo, yes, it actually is rather woo woo, hokum in order to make changes to his or her actions or attitudes. At best you are talking about placebo affect. Intelligent and mindful people evaluate the benefits of making changes and simply, or with much work, as the case may be, take action to bring them about.
2000 years. Wow thats a long time. Hey, acupuncture has been around for about 4000 years, and it is hokum too. Astrology has been around since we could look up. 2000 years of gullible subjects doesnt lend legitimacy to a process. If hypnotism works it is only because the "subject" is impressionable, probably gullible, and possibly not completely rational of mind.
The only thing this "research" really demonstrates is that impressionable people can, as we already well know, be woo-wooed into believing pretty much anything. It also provides some confirmation of the correlation between high hypnotizability and tendency toward gullibility.
No hypnotism has been proven to be pretty much bunk and no one TRULY legitimate uses it for anything butn entertainment purposes.
I think if you look at the research literature you will find that it can be used for far more than entertainment purposes. Reduction of pain, reductions in medication, increases in activities of daily living with people living with dementia...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWelden S,Yesavage J A. Behavioural improvement
with relocation training in senile dementia. Clin
Gerontol. 1982;1:4549.
Dyas R.Augmenting intravenous sedation with hypnosis,
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Hypn. 2001;18:128134.
Witz M, Kahn S. Hypnosis and the treatment of
Huntingtons disease. Am J Clin Hypn. 1991;34:
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Liossa C, Hatira P. Clinical hypnosis in the alleviation
of procedure-related pain in pediatric oncology
patients. Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2003;51:428.
Duff, S. & Nightingale, D. (2007) Alternative Approaches to Supporting Individuals With Dementia: Enhancing Quality of Life Through Hypnosis. Alzheimer's Care Today, vol 8 issue 4, 321-331.
We also have a long history of rubbishing good ideas.
It "can" be used for these things, but is anything but reliable. It is placebo effect, nothing more. There is plenty to indicate that relaxation and meditation can ease some kinds of pain. It is plainly amazing what meditation can do with a stress related headache. Test with dementia patients is suppose to distinguish between genuine physiological effect and placebo? Pain is almost impossibly subjective under the best circumstances.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Research" doesn't automatically imply GOOD research. There is all manner of "research" supporting everything from homeopathy to shark fins. There are WAY too many people out there with PhDs and MDs that I wouldn't trust with a finger bandage. Anyone touting hypnosis is already working behind the legitimacy curve. It will take a LOT more than a few small studies.
Our history of venerating awful ideas is much more pervasive and dangerous.
Over time, the ones that are genuinely rubbish GET "rubbished." But, we still have to fight against dangerous, harmful junk medicine like homeopathy, chiropractic, acupuncture, theraputic touch, kinesiology, reflexology.. and on and on. They are all crap and they all have many, many seemingly legitimate people touting their virtues, and, of course, much "research."
Hypnosis's 2000 year history has revealed little of any real value. In the more than 2000 years of, say, surgery, we have acquired huge amounts of knowledge and insight. Hypnosis is still the medical version of the parlour trick.
The hypnosis needs to be left in Vegas.
This illuminating article demonstrates that Israeli scientists are making a major contriubtion to knowledge. Well done, Avi Mendelsohn and colleagues, and congratulations to Weizmann Institute.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA major contribution yes, but scary also. Concerning hypnosis, the potential for abuse is obvious, people should remain in the dark about this.
The potential for abuse is everywhere, especially in the sciences. Perhaps we should have kept lobotomies as a scientifically proven method in helping those with "brains wired goofey"?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat's what I call dangerous!
Hypnosis is a legitimate way of studying the way brain works, combining it with of the chemistry and physiology it may open way of easing many symptoms and/or cure for many diseases, as to 2000 years it only lastly began to be a research.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHypnosis is a legitimate way of studying the way brain works, combining it with of the chemistry and physiology it may open way of easing many symptoms or cure many diseases, as to 2000 years it only lastly began to be a research.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishaha. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis, and everyone with above average intelligence has the ability to put themselves into a hypnotic state. During hypnosis, meditation and many forms of prayer, brain wave frequency lowers. If you have never experienced it, it's because you have not yet mastered the ability to reduce the frequency of your brain waves.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOnce you have, you will experience "hypnosis."
Incorrect. At the core, all hypnosis, meditation and prayer are is a lowering of brain wave frequency. When your brain wave frequency is lower than during regular waking activity, the chemicals produced within your brain are altered. These chemicals give you access to neurological connections that, without them, you do not have conscious access to. Gullability has nothing to do with it :)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTake a moment to define the placebo effect for yourself.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs it not the appearance of healing without the use of (exogenous) chemically healing substances?
I think, when viewed from the right perspective, the placebo effect is one of the most amazingly valuable resources known to man.
Ultimately, it allows people to heal withOUT exogenous chemicals, without spending money, and without negative side effects.
If I could heal by way of a sugar pill and strong belief, rather than toxic manmade checmicals I would any day :) Wouldn't you?
Firstly, hypnosis is DEFINITELY NOT mere placebo effect (an effect which also has incredible therapeutic value since it influences whether drugs will work for you etc.)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlacebo is the result of belief something will work.
Hypnosis often works even when the person does not believe it will.
Secondly, advertisers have tried to target us for decades and only had limited success using hypnotic techniques because the way in which each individual uses and experiences consciousness (and their brain) is different. Consider for instance that while many will agree with a war in response to propaganda, many will not.
The reality is that although the potentials of hypnosis are great in many directions, we each inhibit our responses across all of our states of consciousness, most particularly according to personal codes of ethics. This knowledge makes obvious the showmanship of stage hypnosis - usually it works because inhibited extroverts need to show off, basically.
Simply put, hypnosis is a way to optimise your ability to do what you want to do. Brain scans reveal that the brain activity is different in hypnosis to waking, sleeping, visualising, meditating and pretending states. It is more focused, it seems . . . and we can use that.
The placebo effect fails to explain how a thyroid gland can be removed from someones opened neck with no reported pain while the patient is hypnotised but still able to communicate and absolutely no anaesthetic is used. Such was done by Kroger in the 1950's and similar feats are regularly practiced by Faymonville in Belgium, who has carried out over 2000 surgeries with a maximum of 1% of the anaesthetic (if any) normally used. Discharge times were also cut from 28 days to 15 - which has obvious budgetary benefits.
A believer in placebo alone would get a nasty shock on the surgical table, believe me. Hypnosis goes way beyond that, but I am sure placebo could definitely help. It is not essential for hypnosis to work wonderfully, though.
science can be used for good or bad, ergo science should be constrained or abolished. humans can do good or bad, ergo ...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisas long as we are around we must enquire and explore. that also means we have to be able to do science without restriction. any subject which can be well defined is open to scientific enquiry. mendelsohn's work is in that category and its results are very interesting.
unfortunately there are too many people who lack a scientific education and many more who lack the moral compass to use science for the good in this world of ours. but the remedy should be clear.