Trance with the stranger: unlocking the secret of deepest part of one’s mind.
It has been said that one of the great medical question of the 20th century – what happens under hypnosis –can be answered in 3 words . “We don’t know .”
Hypnosis is much easier to describe than to explain. People who have been hypnotized enter a sleep—like trance in which the mind remains fully alert yet passive and suggestible . At the hypnotist’s command , the subject will carry out instruction : take fantastic suggestions for reality : reveal secrets from the subconscious : and become insensible to pain . Although it is generally held that people cannot be hypnotized into doing things against their will , the dangers inherent in the hypnotist’s control are obvious.
An obsession with onions :
Effects on memory are particularly eerie . If a stage hypnotist asks subjects to forget every thing that has happened during the trance they generally do. However, during the period of ‘Post-hypnotic amnesia’ they will respond to suggestions planted during the trance; barking like a dog, when the hypnotist gives the previously arranged signal. Casual hypnotism has other perils. In 1994 two drama students in York , England , were hypnotized by a friend who could not then get them out of their trances . Doctors had to call in a hypnotherapist to wake them up.
In Britain and other countries , local authorities have the power to regulate or prohibit stage hypnosis because of its potential dangers. In November , 1994 – a woman won an out- of- court settlement of 20,000 pounds after being hypnotized in a Scottish theater and then falling from the stage and breaking her leg . Dr Prem Mishra , a Glasgow specialist in the subject , has described various disorders resulting from sessions , including fits and persistence of hypnotic suggestions . One man became obsessed with eating onions after a stage hypnotist persuaded him during a show that they were Golden Delicious apples .
Medicine and crime :
Although borrowed from the stage , the modern techniques of hypnotism were actually developed for healing purposes . The great pioneer was the 18th century German physician Franz Anton Mesmer , who tried to cure illnesses by conducting seance-like sessions with his patients.Hypnotism (or mesmerism ) also interested the 19th century french physiologist Jean-Martin Charcot , under whom Sigmund Freud studied .Revered today as the father of psychoanalysis , Freud used hypnosis to treat his patients in his early days. Working with another physician , Josef Breuer , he probed for emotionally charged repressed memories in his patients while they were in a hypnotic state.
Later , although Freud continued to probe for forgotten memories in his patients , he abandoned hypnosis as a form of treatment . He had deduced to tell a patient with an affliction such as a twitch to stop when under hypnosis was like trying to cure measles by painting out the spots. The important thing was to get to the underlying cause of the disorder, not to erase the symptoms Besides , Freud had also discovered that not all patients are readily hypnotized .
Nonetheless, hypnosis is still used in medicine – as a technique for inducing relaxation and reducing reaction to pain, and to unlocking deeper parts of mind. it is sometimes employed as an alternative to anesthetics . It can help burns victims feel less pain , and it has also achieved moderate success in treating phobias and addictions . In clinical hypnosis the subject usually remains mentally alert throughout the session .
Attempts to use hypnosis in crime detection have proved more controversial . ‘Eye witness’ accounts recovered through hypnosis would be too unreliable to be used as evidence in court , but the police have tried to use it to enhance witnesses memories of details , such as the registration number of car seen at the scene of a crime. In one murder case in Britain , in the 1990s , the results were calamitous for the police. Officers arranged for a key witness to be hypnotized , but the procedure confused him and led him to make statements damaging to their case against the accused.
In fiction , the glaring –eyed hypnotist may use hocus pocus to put subjects into a trance , but in real life methods are not especially exotic . A hypnotist , may , perhaps , start by asking a patient to focus on a fixed point and count backwards from 300 . As the patient performs the monotonous task , he or she relaxes : the pulse rate slows . while body temperature and blood pressure both fall . Gradually he or she enters a condition akin to sleep or to day-dreaming , and is ready to accept the hypnotist’s influence.
Research suggests that some personalities are more easily hypnotized than others . Creative people make good subjects . Women are slightly easier to be hypnotist than men , and children of 8-12 age group are the best of all . Thereafter , it seems , to decreases with age.
A special brain state :
Among investigators a hot debate rages between 2 schools of thought. Some believe that the subjects are basically play acting –they have agreed to let the hypnotist ‘write the script’ for them during hypnotism , and are not experiencing anything other than a form of intense concentration . The alternative view holds that hypnotic trance is a special brain state which is cut off or dissociated from normal waking consciousness.
The theory of the special brain state appears to have been confirmed by recent experiments carried out in California , USA .Students sat in front of a TV monitor that flashed lights which normally generate electrical discharges in the brain . Hypnotized students , however , had been told that a box was blocking out the lights. As a result , the researchers found , the brainwaves in the visual parts of their brains were significantly reduced. Hypnotism , it seems , had physically altered brainwave behavior –but still no one could explain why .
