Hypnosis

In 1938 a pregnant woman, Marie Colombos, did not wish to feel the pain of childbirth. She called Robert Gilbert, who specialized in hypnotism. The both of them met at Marie's house. At a certain point, the police were called, and when they arrived, they found Colombos dead, arms folded across her chest and the slightest smile on her face. Gilbert claimed that he had done nothing to the woman and that she simply collapsed onto the floor. Autopsies showed nothing, but Gilbert was still found guilty. He was sent to jail for two to five years, but eventually, the conviction was overturned due to the lack of evidence.

In 1952, Girard Rosenblum was in his room studying. On the second of October, his mother walks into his room only to find him hanging from a joist, dead. The death was ruled as a suicide and put aside. A month passed by, which was when the death was brought to a jury of coroners. The lawyer representing the Rosenblum family put forward evidence that showed Girard, in fact, did not commit suicide. Still, instead, it was a failed attempt at suspended animation through means of self-hypnosis.

Everyone is familiar with the term hypnosis, but the awareness of the downside is something not many people are aware of. The minute someone says hypnosis, the first thing that shoots to your mind is probably a pocket watch hanging from a magician's hand and a person sitting on the chair in front of them in a state of trans staring into the watch. Honestly, the media puts forward the concept, so you are forced to look at it that way.

Hypnosis is considered to be a trance-like mental state characterized by enhanced attention, concentration, and suggestibility. While hypnosis is commonly regarded as a sleep-like condition, it is more accurately described as a state of focused concentration, increased suggestibility, and vivid fantasies.

People in a hypnotic condition may appear tired or zoned out, but they are hyper-aware. This condition is distinguished by an increased receptiveness and responsiveness in which inner experience sensations are accorded the same weight as external reality. The hypnotized person appears to pay attention only to the hypnotist's words and typically replies in an uncritical, automatic manner while ignoring other parts of the environment other than those pointed out by the hypnotist.

A professional hypnotist or hypnotherapist causes a condition of solid concentration or concentrated attention during hypnosis. This is a guided procedure that includes verbal signals and repetition. In many respects, the trance-like state you enter resembles sleep, yet you are fully aware of what is going on. Your therapist will give guided suggestions to help you reach your therapeutic goals while in this trance-like condition.

During hypnosis, two parts of the brain responsible for processing and managing what is going on in your body become more active. Similarly, the portion of your brain that is accountable for your actions and the area conscious of those acts appear to be detached.

Interestingly, hypnosis is also beneficial to the medical care industry.

Most research conducted has attempted to understand the physiological and psychological impact of hypnosis rather than to understand the physiology when one has entered a hypnotic state.

Though there is a growing appreciation for hypnotherapy, little is known in this aspect. Dr. David Siegal, who holds the Jack, Samuel, and Lulu Willson Professorship in Medicine, claimed that the brain has the ability to heal conditions on a physiological and psychiatric level.

Researchers have found that there have been significant effects of hypnosis on pain and perception. A study conducted by Siegal detected a decrease in activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate which is in charge of the brain’s salience network; this happens because the individuals get so absorbed and focused that they don’t worry about anything else, but this doesn’t prove much, does it? It doesn’t talk about how hypnosis can cause a physiological impact enough to make an individual who has been paralyzed hips down to suddenly walk after years of failed treatment, but it does show activation in parts of the brain – the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and insula – that help the brain in controlling processes involved in the rest of the body. This goes to show that hypnosis can lay a hand in medical aid, though not to the same extent the media has led us to believe.

The dramatic and almost fictional depiction of hypnosis in movies decades ago got people interested in it. Unfortunately, this also led hypnosis to be highly misunderstood. But nowadays, its potential is better understood, and hypnosis is found in scientific and professional research of many fields, especially mind/body medicine.