Your eyes are getting heavy...your body is tired...very tired...you are feeling sleepy...now you shall do anything I tell you to...Or would you not?
The Facts and Myths Behind Hypnosis
Your wish is my command master...
ByAsma Shamshad
Sunday, December 6, 2009
For years now, movie makers across the globe have been successful in fooling their innocent audience, making them believe one could forcefully hypnotize another and once hypnotized use their subjects to rob banks and commit murders. They have made them believe over and over again that there is something mysterious, almost magical about “Hypnotism”. Well here is a piece that will help separate the “facts” from the “myths”.
“The ancients of many countries used hypnosis, especially in India, Persia and Mesopotamia” (1). However, Frank Mesmer (in 1700s) was the one to introduce this concept in popular culture (it should now be pretty clear where the term mesmerize comes from). Mesmer used magnets to mesmerize people, or so he believed. His acts had nothing to do with magnets, nevertheless his popularity in public made scientist study the mysterious phenomenon behind mesmerization, in more depth. In 1842, James Braid gave this phenomenon the name hypnosis for the first time (2). This term originates from the Greek word “hypnos”, meaning sleep. “Hypnosis” however, is a misnomer, since hypnotism is in no way a state of sleep (the EEG pattern of the hypnotized differs from that of a sleeping person, confirming that hypnosis is in no way sleep); rather, it’s the state of increased concentration and focused attention.
Not all psychologists agree to one definition of hypnosis. Some believe it to be a mixture of relaxation, suggestion, obedience, conformity, imagination and role-playing (3).
How hypnosis works
To explain how hypnosis works, let us first take a deeper look at the mind, in terms of the “conscious” and “subconscious”. The conscious is the part of mind that is aware of what is happening at a particular time for example your conscious, at this moment is aware of the fact that you are reading. It is similar to the processor of a computer. It analyzes, decides, exercises will power and solves problems. However, this conscious mind accounts for only 10% of our minds.
The rest 90% of our minds is the subconscious. It is like the hard drive of a computer storing all the experiences that we have had in our lives till now. The subconscious mind stores learning, memories, beliefs, and emotions.
There is another part of the conscious mind called the “critical factor”. The critical factor is like a “guardian at the gate between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind”. It allows the extraction of knowledge from the subconscious mind for the conscious mind to process. “It has the power to accept or reject suggestions from entering the subconscious mind. Since change is seen as a threat to the nervous system, any suggestion that does not match the existing programming automatically gets rejected.” The critical factor is therefore very important as its job is to protect us.
Actions/thought processes repeated over time move from the conscious to the subconscious mind, where one starts to perform them as second nature. Kind of like playing music where which key to press seems to happen automatically.
From the above knowledge we can see that it is possible that our prior beliefs and emotions prevent us from thinking straight and coming to the right conclusion if what we encounter was to interfere with our previously held beliefs.
According to Stephen Gruber (a consulting hypnotist), usually when we talk with other people the critical factor is strongly in place. So any change in the subconscious is very difficult. Hypnosis allows the hypnotist to bypass the critical factor, and to communicate directly with the subconscious mind. Since this is where many destructive habits (like smoking) and emotional problems exist, a hypnotist can therefore discover the beliefs that are negative and dysfunctional, and try to alter them so that next time the memory or experience is retrieved, the patient can feel and behave differently.
What is hypnotic susceptibility?
Dennis Coon writes in his book “Essentials of Psychology”,
“About 8 people out of 10 can be hypnotized but only 4 out of 10 will be good hypnotic subjects. People that are imaginative or prone to fantasy tend to respond well to hypnosis. But those who lack these traits may also be hypnotized. If you are willing to be hypnotized, chances are good that you could be. Hypnosis depends more on the efforts and abilities of the hypnotized person than the skills of the hypnotist.”
“Hypnotic susceptibility” refers to “how easily the subject can become hypnotized”. It is measured by giving the patient a number of suggestions, such as finger lock, and then counting the number of suggestions the patient responds to (4).
How is hypnosis induced?
There are different methods used to hypnotize people but most of them tell the person to relax and feel tired, to “let go” and accept the suggestions that are given, with ease.
Can someone be hypnotized against his/her free will?
Most theorists agree that all hypnosis is eventually self-hypnosis (autosuggestion). That means a hypnotist merely helps another person to follow suggestions. These suggestions in turn alter the sensation, perceptions, thoughts, feelings and behaviors of the subject.
It is not loss of awareness or mind control. The hypnotized person generally remains in control of his/her behavior and aware of what is going on and opposed to what is shown in the movies. A hypnotized person shall usually not act out things that are contrary their moral values or do something embarrassing. The marvelous feats accomplished by the stage entertainers usually have nothing to do with hypnosis at all. Clever tricks and deception are usually used to carry out these performances.
The suggestions most effective during hypnosis are regarding senses. Hypnosis can alter senses such as color vision, time sense and hearing.
What does a hypnotized person feel?
It might amaze some people to know that every normal person goes through the state of trance, to some extent that a hypnotized person feels, almost everyday, for example when we are too focused in watching television that we cannot hear someone shouting our name, or when we are so immersed in thought that we drive right past our house. We are in a state of narrowed focus and increased concentration.
The feelings that a hypnotized person has, can vary for different individuals. Some might have a feeling of floating or a separation from their body or even sinking, where the suggestions are acted about with little or no effort, almost as if they were automatic (5).
One thing to keep in mind is that hypnotherapy (the use of hypnosis in psychotherapy), is no joke, as it does have associated risks. Just like one would preferably visit a certified professional to get medical treatment, similarly only a certified hypnotist or hypnotherapist should be consulted for any treatment related to hypnotism.
