Consciousness Consciousness is an illusion of sorts. You believe that you are observing the outside world as things happen around you. In fact however, there are things that you are missing as well as things that you remembering only partially. In fact, everything that you “know” or “experienced” was an interpretation of events and stimuli that occurred in the environment. When the part of your brain that does this stimuli interpretation becomes dysfunctional you may end up with a schizophrenic who “see” people who aren’t there and hear sounds that don’t exist.

In fact, there are times when your consciousness is not even needed and it just goes into sleep mode – even if you are still awake. Daydreaming in a classroom is an example of this. People who are driving and suddenly realize that they are not where they intended (or who cannot remember if the last street light was green or red as they passed it). This is not to say that there is something wrong with you if these things happen, but that humans are not always as aware of their surroundings as they often think they are.

Loftus and Palmer: The experiment with a picture of an accident and then asked about broken glass. a. How much broken glass was in the picture (when there was none) b. Estimates of car speed increased when the questioner used the word “crash” instead of “accident.” Recall: When a person – unassisted – can remember information about a subject (like in an essay test) Recognition: When a person recognizes an answer only when they see it. However, people (when given a set of answers) will tend to choose one of those given, even if NONE are correct. They will choose one that seems closest to what they remember.

Hypnosis Anton Mesmer perfected this therapeutic method. It involves putting a person in such a deep state of relaxation that they are almost asleep (but not quite there). Think of a time that you were very tired, you laid down for a while and then noticed that your arm or leg hurt due to it’s position. However, instead of moving, you just stayed still where you were (and the pain wasn’t that bad). That’s hypnosis. Hypnosis that’s too deep – you’ll fall asleep Hypnosis that’s too light – you’re too awake for anything to happen.

Initially people were afraid that hypnosis would lead to a kind of mind control where the person is being controlled, but is totally unaware of it. Or that a person could become a “hypnosis zombie” and be unable to regain consciousness – ever. Hypnosis can…. Alter your sense of reality Dull pain Alter your sense of time passing Allow better access to old memories Allow you to be open to “suggestion” where the therapist may ask if something has happened to you (it hasn’t, but you may begin to believe that it has). Cases of reportedly remembering sexual abuse that – in fact – never happened. Make you act against your moral beliefs (Acid story)

Hypnosis can’t….. Last for a very long time. If hypnotized (and the therapist passed out) you would just wake up after 5-10 minutes. If you’re hypnotized too deeply, you’ll just fall asleep. Work as mind control where you have no control over your own actions. Make you do something that you are totally against. (i.e., You can’t be made to kill or hurt someone if you are against violence. - caveat)

Hypnosis In fact, even when working with a hypnotist, you must still consciously “practice” the things you’re working at home. For example, you’re working on not doing something (not over eating, or not taking drugs). You must still consciously say to yourself, “I will not involve myself in ____ and think of a more healthy lifestyle,” as part of your therapy. There’s no magic and it still takes work on your part to make it work.

Experiments Orne and Evans: “Boiling acid trick” People were hypnotized. They were told that a paper cup had acid in it. A drop of this “acid” was dropped on the back of their hand. When wiped off, the water had left a red mark on their skin. It appears that under hypnosis that the body can have a significantly higher immune response and that the body reacted to the temperature difference under the water droplet “as if” the skin were being attacked and initiated a inflammatory response.

Experiments Ernst Hilgard: Hidden observer. Hilgard did an experiment where he hypnotized people and then placed their arms in very cold ice water. People who were hypnotized reported almost no pain. Non-hypnotized people reported a lot of pain. Hilgard also noticed that if something in the environment aroused people, they would break the hypnotic spell and wake up. Hilgard came to believe that a part of the temporal lobe is actually always awake and aware even if we are not (this can happen even if we are asleep).

Memory Family Story Constructed memory Made of photographs, verbal tales to fill in memory gaps Constructed memory Made of things that you “think” happened or other logical input. Filling in the gaps to make a whole memory