WHAT IS HYPNOSIS

HYPNOSIS IN A NUTSHELL

Simply put, hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness characterized by heightened susceptibility to suggestion. Under hypnosis, suggestions bypass the critical faculties of normal consciousness and directly enter the subconscious mind–where “if accepted,” they are acted upon. The deeper the level of hypno- sis, the greater the subject’s suggestibility.

This entire process is based upon the fact that while our conscious thought processes use inductive reasoning, our subconscious uses only deductive reasoning. Once a suggestion is accepted by the subconscious, it is automati- cally transformed into reality. It does not matter if the suggestion originates from an internal source (ie. self-hypnosis) or an external one (the operator). Indeed, the distinction between autosuggestion and heterosuggestion is considered to be both arbitrary and superficial.

SCOPE OF HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA

The wide range of phenomena possible with hypnosis was best summed up many years ago by Dr. Bernard Hollander, M.D., in his book, “Hypnotism and Suggestion in Daily Life, Education, and Medical Practice.” His observations are as relevant today, as when his book was first written. Here they are in Dr. Hollander’s own words:

In response to your direct and specific suggestions, your subject may be rendered happy and gay, or sad and dejected, angry or pleased, liberal or stingy, proud or humble, pugnacious or pacific, bold or timid, hopeful or despondent, insolent or respectful. He may be made to sing, to shout, to laugh, to weep, to act, to dance, to shoot, to fish, to preach, to pray, to recite a beautiful poem or to excogitate a profound argument.

The expression of the subject during these responses while in hypnosis is most important as its very earnestness is profound in its appeal. The attitudes and gestures are equal to, or surpassing, the best efforts of the most accom- plished actor, although the hypnotized subject may actually be a person of limited intellectual cultivation, and show no particular talent for acting or mimicry in the waking state.

The hypnotized subject is not acting a part in the ordinary sense of the word. He believes himself to be the actual personality suggested. The subject will impersonate to perfection any suggested character with which he is familiar. One of the most striking and important peculiarities of the subconscious mind, as distinguished from the conscious, consists in its prodigious memory. In all degrees of the hypnotic sleep, this exaltation of the memory is one of the most pronounced of the attendant phenomena.

One of the remarkable effects of hypnotism is this recollection of circum- stances and the revival of impressions long since past, the images of which have been completely lost to ordinary memory, and which are not recoverable in the normal state of mind. All the sensations which we have ever experienced have left behind them traces in the brain, so slight as to be intangible and imperceptible under ordinary circumstances, but hypnotic suggestion, address- ing itself to the unconscious (or subconscious) side of the mind, and such being the storehouse of memories can bring into recall these otherwise lost memories at the command of the operator. Everything learned in normal life can be remembered in hypnosis, even when apparently it has long been forgotten.

Of course, false memories can also be suggested, as for example when you say to a subject, “You remember we drove to Richmond yesterday.” The suggestion will take effect and he will at once begin to relate all that he believes we did in Richmond. This is an example of a retroactive positive hallucination, because the subject believes that he experienced something that really never occurred.

Memory may also be obliterated. Nothing is easier than to make the subject forget his name and condition in life. This is one of the suggestions which most promptly succeed, even with a very new subject. The subject may forget whole periods of his life at the suggestion of the hypnotizer.

Sense delusions are likewise common in hypnosis; either as hallucinations or illusions. An illusion is the false interpretation of an existing external object, as, for instance, when a chair is taken for a lion, a broomstick for a beautiful woman, a noise in the street for orchestra music, etc. An hallucination is the perception of an object which does not exist as for instance when you say to your subject, “Sit down in this armchair” where there is really no chair at all; yet the hallucination is so perfect that he does put himself in exactly the same attitude as if he were sitting in a real chair, only if you ask him after a time, “Are you comfortable?” he may reply, ‘Not particularly,’ and ask for a chair that is more comfortable. It seems incredible that an hallucination could be so real that a person would assume an attitude so strained, but it is so.

“Suggest to a person that a swarm of bees are buzzing about him; he will not only see and hear them, but he will go through violent antics to beat them off. Or tell a person that there are rats in the room, and the word will take up a train of imagery in the subject’s brain which is immediately projected outward in an expressive display of appropriate gestures of aversion and corresponding movements of avoidance. The fear depicted on the face of a subject when he believes he is about to be attacked by a tiger is more impressive. Editor’s Note: Always avoid any experiments involving disagreeable or dangerous situations.

Hallucinations of all the senses and delusions of every conceivable kind can easily be suggested to a good subject. Just how real these effects are to the subject is evidenced in experiments where the image of the hallucination has been caused to double by a prism or mirror, magnified by a lens, and in many other ways behave optically like a real object.

In suggesting an hallucination, say that of a bird, the suggested approach of the object causes contraction of the pupil, and vice versa. At the same time, there is often convergence of the axis of the eyes, as if a real object were present.

Subjects will eat a potato for a peach, or drink a cup of vinegar for a glass of champagne. He may be thrown into a state of intoxication by being caused to drink a glass of water under the impression that it is gin, or he may be restored to sobriety by the administration of gin under the guise of an antidote for drunkenness. In these cases, the expression of the face induced by the suggested perception corresponds so perfectly that a better effect would scarcely be produced if the real article were used.

Various physiological effects can be produced in the state of hypnosis. A subject can be caused to weep and shed tears on one side of the face and laugh with the other. The pulse can be quickened or retarded, respiration slowed or accelerated, or temporarily arrested, and perspiration can be produced–all by suggestion. Even the temperature can be affected. Thus it has been observed that is a subject is told he has a high fever his pulse will become rapid, his face flushed, and and his temperature increased. Or, if a person is told that he is standing on ice he feels cold at once. He trembles, his teeth chatter, he wraps himself up in his coat. “Gooseskin” [goose bumps] can be produced by the suggestion of a cold bath. Hunger and thirst can be created, and other functions increased or retarded.

The mind can be so concentrated upon a physiological process as to stimulate that process to normal activity, so as to produce curative effects, and even to super-abundant activity, so as to produce pathological effects or disease. For instance, a blister can be caused on a sound and healthy skin by applying a postage stamp and suggesting that it it a strong mustard plaster; or placing upon the skin a key or coin with the suggestion that after waking , a blister will appear at the spot where the key or coin had been placed, and of corresponding size and shape. The key or coin is then removed and the patient awakened, having no conscious knowledge of the suggestion given, but at the appointed time the blister appears.

On the other hand, blisters and burns have been annulled by suggestion. Mere local redness of the skin is easily produced by suggestion, and can be seen to appear in a few minutes by watching the subject.

Naturally, several organs can be influenced by suggestion at the same time. Tell someone, “Here is a rose.” At once your subject not only sees, but feels and also smells the rose. The suggestion here affects sight, feeling and smell at the same time.

When the delusion is positive, the hypnotic believes he sees what does not exist; when it’s negative, he fails to recognize the presence of an object really placed before him. An excellent experiment is to suggest to the subject that on awakening he will not be able to see you, although you will remain in the room so he can feel and hear you, and although he will see everybody else. The subject on being awakened can hear and feel you, but he fails entirely to see you. When speaking to him you will observe his head and eyes turn in the direction of your voice, but you are completely invisible to him. This is a negati hallucination of sight. Similarly, it may be suggested that the subject is deaf to certain words, but not to others.

An entire cessation of the functions of any sense organ can be induced in the same way as a negative hallucination. The sense organ affected is unsusceptible of anything. A command suffices to restore the functions. It is certain that the blindness and deafness induced this way are of a mental nature, for the corresponding organ of sense performs its function, though the impressions do not reach the consciousness. In the same way, the sight of on eye can be suspended, though the other can see as usual.

All such phenomena of suggestion can be produced while the subject is in the hypnotic state and also posthypnotically.