Hypnosis- A myth or reality

When we are in the state of hypnosis, which is a trance-like state, we have almost no conscious control over our body, but we are more focused, attentive, and suggestible than when we are in a normal wake state. Hypnotized people may look completely zoned out or sleepy but in reality, they are in a state of hyper-awareness.

Hypnosis is a very authentic procedure that can be employed as a therapeutic tool, despite numerous myths and misconceptions about it. It has been demonstrated that hypnosis offers therapeutic and medicinal advantages, particularly in the treatment of anxiety and pain. According to some of the research, even the symptoms of dementia may be lessened by hypnosis. According to one definition, hypnosis is “a waking state of awareness (or consciousness) in which a person’s attention is diverted from his or her immediate surroundings and is consumed by his/her conscious, subconscious, and unconscious mind. For the hypnosis to occur, the individual has to concentrate and immerse in their imagination. A hypnotic world is created by the physician and patient through the use of suggestions and their acceptance.

Our everyday ‘trance’ states include things like becoming immersed in a wonderful novel, driving down a familiar route without being aware of it, being in prayer or meditation, or engaging in a mindless or creative task. A state of trance can also be when we are in a ‘state of flow’. State of flow refers to being so passionately immersed in activities that we enjoy, like painting, reading, or writing, and completely lose the sense of time and location. Our conscious awareness of our surroundings and inner awareness exists on a continuum, thus even though one’s emphasis is mostly internal in these states, one does not lose all awareness of the outside world. One could think of hypnosis as a type of meditation that one can acquire to enter knowingly and purposefully for therapeutic reasons. Afterwards, suggestions are made vocally or visually with an eye toward the intended result. This could be done to control drug side effects, reduce anxiety by accessing tranquillity and relaxation, or alleviate pain or other symptoms. Hypnosis is typically a calming experience that can be quite beneficial for a patient who is tense or worried, depending on the recommendations made. The main advantages of hypnosis, however, are the enhanced power of encouragement and access to mind-body connections or unconscious thought processes. While hypnosis is not a therapy in itself, it can be a means of making therapy delivery easier, much like how a syringe makes medicine distribution possible.

Hypnosis can assist patients in believing in and experiencing what they might be able to accomplish, but it cannot make the impossible feasible. Since the beginning of human civilization, hypnotic states have been used for healing. But because they can be abused for so-called entertainment, and because hypnosis has been portrayed in the media as a mysterious, magical state that is ostensibly beyond the control of the hypnotized subject, many medical professionals are sceptical of it. However, recent developments in neuroscience have made it possible for us to start understanding what might be happening when someone enters a hypnotic state.

There is growing evidence that hypnosis can be used as a helpful tool to help patients and healthcare professionals manage a variety of conditions, particularly anxiety, and pain.

Brian Weiss in his book ‘Many Lives, Many Masters’ describes how he treated his patient with intense anxiety, phobias, and fear by regressing her to earlier stages of life. While no conventional method could cure her mental state, hypnosis served like a knight in shining armour to better her condition. What was most amusing about it was that she not only regressed to earlier stages of her current life but also deliver conscious instances from her previous lifetimes that caused her pain and trauma. The collective pain and trauma of her many previous lives had accumulated anxiety and phobias in her current life. The book vividly delivers past life experiences and after-death experiences through his patient’s consciousness. Dr. Brian Weiss, who is a conventional psychotherapist, was surprised and dubious when his patient started talking about past-life experiences that seemed to be the cause of her ongoing nightmares and panic episodes. But as she started receiving communications from “the space between lives,” which contained startling disclosures about Dr. Weiss’s family and his deceased son, he began to lose faith. He was able to heal the patient using past-life therapy and enter a new, more fulfilling stage of his profession. However, there are many critics of the claims of Dr Brian’s hypnotherapy sessions with his patient as well.

Three types of hypnosis are typically used. To create a hypnotic state, guided hypnosis employs instruments like music and recorded instructions. This kind of hypnosis is frequently used in websites and apps for mobile devices. Second, mental health experts who practice hypnotherapy, which is the use of hypnosis in psychotherapy, can cure illnesses like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and eating disorders. Last but not least, Self-hypnosis is a process that happens when a person generates a hypnotic state for themselves. It is frequently used as a self-help strategy to manage stress or control discomfort. Self-hypnosis can be induced through a deep state of meditation. It can also be induced by activating a substance called Dimethyltryptamine or DMT in our brain which occurs at only three instances in our life, when we are born, when we are actively having a life-like dream, and before death. However, psychedelic substances like ayahuasca, LSD, magic mushrooms, and other psychedelics are also found to produce this trance state in us.

Hypnosis has the power to significantly modify perceptions, as proved by experiments conducted by scientist Ernest Hilgard. The participant’s arm was submerged in ice water after being told to refrain from feeling discomfort in the arm while under hypnosis. Non-hypnotized people had to take their arms out of the chilly water after a few seconds because of the pain, whereas hypnotized people could keep their arms in the water for a few minutes without feeling any discomfort. The left brain, which could be compared to our “conscious mind,” tends to be more prominent while we are normally awake. The brain has two cerebral hemispheres. The more intelligent, cognizant, and logical side of ourselves, communicates verbally. Our right brain becomes more dominant when we unwind or get absorbed in something. The right brain, which can be thought of as our “unconscious mind,” is the emotional and creative side of ourselves that expresses itself through symbols and imagery. Because words are not the right brain’s language, it is never easy to convince ourselves not to feel irritated or anxious. Yet, by employing metaphor or guided imagery, one can illustrate a point with words.

Hence, Hypnosis can lead people to access parts of their minds that their conscious state cannot access. It can regress to earlier states of life to retrieve forgotten memories that can unconsciously cause maladaptive behaviours, anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. Hypnosis is a way to gain confidence in oneself to know better about their abilities to heal.