Hypnosis

What state of Consciousness Is Hypnosis? A relaxed suggestive state in which one person the subject suggest to another that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will occur –Posthypnotic amnesia: temporary memory loss that can take place after a hypnotic state has occurred The question then becomes are they really unable to recall or do they distract themselves to meet the hypnotic suggestion

Who gets the Credit? Been around since antiquity Anton Mesmer –Animal magnetism –Passing magnets over ailing people while they lapsed into a trancelike state Inquiry led to Mesmer’s cures = imagination Mesmerism/Hypnosis Grand Claims that proved to be false when studied Facts & Falsehoods –Subject must be willing –Engage people’s ability to focus on certain images or behaviors

Facts & Falsehoods Cont. Who can experience hypnosis? –Nearly everyone is suggestible –Anyone who can turn attention inward & imagine is able to experience some degree of hypnosis –Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale Can Hypnosis enhance recall or forgotten events? –Age Regression In the beginning people agreed 60 years of research dispute this –Witness Testimony Thrown out if brought back through hypnosis

Acts Against Their Will An authoritative person in a legitimate context can induce people, hypnotized or not to perform some unlikely acts –Studies done have shown the overt behaviors of hypnotic subjects are well within normal limits

Therapeutic Posthypnotic suggestions have helped alleviate –Headaches –Asthma –Warts –Stress related skin disorders Problems with self-control –Works with some but not with all –70% improvement Hypnosis & positive suggestions both seem to have the power to change people’s expectations

Pain Alleviation Hypnosis can relieve pain 10% of people can become so deeply hypnotized that surgery can be performed w/out anesthesia ½ of us can gain at least some pain relief from hypnosis Dissociation: a split between different levels of consciousness Selective Attention –Attention is distracted from the immediate pain –PET scans reveal that hypnosis reveals reduced pain activity –On some level pain is felt –Blocks attention stimuli & not sensory input

An Altered State of Consciousness Social Phenomenon –Reflects workings of the normal consciousness –Hypnotist’s ideas become the subject’s thoughts & the subject’s thoughts produce the hypnotic experiences & behaviors –Motivation can affect whether a person can be hypnotized –Subjects are imaginative actors caught up in playing the role of hypnotic subject Divided Consciousness –Social & cognitive processes play a part in hypnosis –A combination of social influence & a special state of dissociation –Autopilot takes over –Subjective experience & not a trance –Hidden observer: passively aware