SHARES
“I’ve seen in the movies how a hypnotist can put a person to sleep, make them obey orders, or even make them believe what isn’t true. It appears like brainwashing. Are these true? Will this damage the person’s brain?”
What is Hypnosis?
The word hypnosis originate from the Greek word “hupnos” (means “sleep”) and “-osis” (means “a state”). As the word suggests, this is a process similar to putting a person to sleep. In fact, studies show that people who are under hypnosis have similar brain waves pattern (called theta brain waves) to that of a person during light sleep.
Changes to Bodily Senses
In this mental state, a person feels relaxed, and slowly turns off his or her senses. Therefore, they become less aware of their surroundings. In the deepest stage of hypnosis, a person may exhibit delta brain waves which is similar to our mental state during deep sleep. At such a deep stage, a person can become totally unaware of their surrounding noises, lights, and even touch sensation.
Less Conscious Control Over Our Subconscious Mind
On top of that, at the deep stage of hypnosis, people lose sight of actions, thoughts and attention. As a result, a person under hypnosis can let their imagination, impulse and action run free without much control.
For instance, under the suggestion of a hypnotist, a person may act on their inner impulse and dance wildly on stage, which is something they would normally be too abashed to do. Likewise, when you let your imagination run wild while reading a book or daydreaming, your brain also exhibit similar brain waves. This also explains why we experience vivid dreams during light sleep.
Studies show that under this mental state, we are more open-minded and accept new ideas more readily. This helps in learning and long-term memory formation.
Entering Hypnosis
We are capable of self-hypnosis. We can enter into this state by focusing our attention on something that is fixed or repetitive. Over time, we eventually forget about any other surrounding inputs, inner thoughts, etc and our body gradually relaxes. You are essentially self-hypnotising during meditation and driving. What a hypnotist does is actually guiding us into self-hypnosis. Hence, entering hypnosis only works on people who are willing to do so themselves. There is no brain control nor brain washing involved.
How Hypnotists Put You To Sleep?
1. Fixed-gaze induction
This used to be a popular method practised by hypnotists in the past. Just like what you’ve probably seen in movies, when the hypnotist waves a pocket watch in front of a person’s eyes, he or she is put to sleep. This technique draws the attention of a subject onto a repetitive and boring clock swing for long enough to induce hypnosis. However, the effect is inconsistent.
Photo by Bridget from Flickr
2. Rapid Overloading of Brain
This is a widely used method by stage hypnotists. The hypnotist bombards a subjects with strong, forceful and convincing commands that overload the subject’s mind. Eventually, the subject gives up his or her conscious control over the situation.
3. Progressive Relaxation Technique
Currently, most hypnotherapists employ this method. Usually, the subject lies comfortably on a couch. The hypnotherapist will guide you step by step on how to relax yourself and may ask you to imagine a visual and fix your attention on it.
4. Rocking Chair
You may have been a good hypnotist by rocking your baby to sleep. By getting out of balance, we can easily draw the subject’s attention. Due to its fixed and repetitive nature, the person slowly enters into hypnosis.
Potential Benefits of Hypnosis
Hypnosis can be used to turn off or decrease our awareness on painful sensations. This has been used for pain control during childbirth and in cancer patients. Furthermore, it can be helpful for managing sleep problems, stress, anxiety, and mood disorders. On the other hand, hypnotherapists also use hypnosis to help with smoking cessation, eating disorder, phobia etc, very successfully. For instance, a hypnotist may suggest nausea while smoking. The subject learns so and the thought stays in the memory for a long time. When the subject smokes next time, he or she would feel nauseated.
Hypnosis is also used by therapists to explore repressed memories. The subject is more willing to open up themselves during hypnosis. This can be helpful for subsequent psychotherapy.
Potential Harmful Effect of Hypnosis
Some people may experience some side effects such as headache, dizziness, and drowsiness. Also, instead of feeling relaxed, some people may feel distressed and anxious. The most important and dangerous impact of hypnosis is the risk of creating false memories. The memory itself is naturally plastic (can be moulded). We can recall wrong memories and piece them together unknowingly. For example, we can recall 15cjuik32 wrongly as 15czuic23 and still believe we are correct. Similarly, whatever questioning, directing and suggestions by hypnotist during exploration of repressed memories can risk forming wrong linkage of memories or replacing memory holes with wrong memories (confabulation).
Photo by Burrows Romig from Flickr
Conclusion
Hypnosis is a relatively common and safe phenomena. Many daily activities such as reading, driving, meditating, daydreaming are forms of self-hypnosis. It is associated with benefits like relaxation, creativity, learning and memory forming. However, hypnosis may risk forming false memories. Make sure to work with trusted, properly trained and certified healthcare professionals.
References:
1. Bhandari S. Mental health and hypnosis [Internet]. WebMD LLC. 2020. (Available from: https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/mental-health-hypnotherapy#1; last updated on 2018 Nov 15; last accessed on 2020 Jul 11)
2. Mayo Clinic Staff. Hypnosis [MayoClinic]. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. 2020. (Available from: https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/extrasensory-perceptions/hypnosis.htm; last updated on 2018 Nov 1; last accessed on 2020 Jul 11)
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by Chang Xian
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