Hypnosis is the same as talking about the ‘Flash-Back’ method. At first often leads to rejection but has never experienced, especially because often associated with some television shows and theater and the reality is that, out of all this, it is a very useful or used tool in the field of health and medical. We want to give you some more information about this method, and we encourage you to learn more about this topic used to treat some mental conditions; you will surprise!
What is hypnosis?
Hypnotism is defined as the “method for producing the artificial sleep by personal influence, or adequate equipment”. This method is carried out with due regard to the needs of stakeholders and enhancing their will. The method is basically relive past moments or memories that can assume to be a source of problems in our present.
What are the uses of hypnosis?
All of us have many memories that, both good and bad, sometimes determine us at the time of confronting present situations, most of these memories are always confusing and often mixed in space and time. You can say that through hypnosis come to relive those memories we have stored in the subconscious and reach a state called “individual conscience”.
The way to get to this point is through relaxation techniques, but more importantly if you want to submit to this method is to choose well where, how and who will perform us such hypnosis, because it is not a game and can sometimes be complicated and dangerous. However, the methods of regressions carried out in principle serve to alleviate certain mental disorders.
How does it affect you?
When hypnosis investigations are conducted, people are usually divided into two groups: very hypnotizable people and non-hypnotizable people. As you have probably heard, hypnosis does not work at all.
But why? Well, research shows that very hypnotizable people actually have different brain structures.
A study conducted by researchers at the University of Virginia, revealed that subjects who tend to be hypnotized tend to have a 31.8% corpus callosum plus a part of the brain involved in the allocation of attention and transferring data between prefrontal cortex.
It seems that being hypnotized has at least something to do with the corpus callosum. So people more susceptible to hypnosis have small differences in brain structure. This does not necessarily mean that hypnosis affects the brain.
Does hypnosis affect brain activity?
There have been several studies that show how brain activity affects after hypnosis. Researchers sought to realize this by giving people post-hypnotic amnesia (PHA). Basically this means that the hypnotist asked people to forget something specific after being hypnotized until they heard a trigger in the real world to remind them again.
In the study they caused a group of people susceptible to PHA and a group not to watch a movie. A week later, they proved how much they remembered after receiving PHA.
The most susceptible group obtained a much lower score on the test than the non-PHA. They also discovered in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that the non-susceptible group showed high levels of activity in the areas responsible for visualizing the scenes and verbally analyzing the presented scenarios.
What is especially interesting about this study is that after the PHA was canceled with the trigger, the susceptible group had results as good as the other group. Another fMRI study also analyzed hypnosis and discovered similar results.
Myths of hypnosis
The problem that occurs with hypnosis is that it is associated with a series of events that make it a phenomenon outside the rational and away from science. We must distinguish between mere entertainment and psychological technique that can benefit us considerably.
To get away from that hypnosis that is associated with the paranormal and the occult sciences, it is necessary to deny certain myths that arise around this practice. First, it is believed that hypnosis involves the loss of our consciousness. In clinical practice, if this happens, it is because the patient has fallen asleep. In fact, the person actively participates in the whole process, concentrating totally on what the therapist indicates.
On the other hand, it is believed that the person performing hypnosis has “special powers”. This is not the case, the psychologist has therapeutic skills that he starts, just like when he uses other techniques in the treatment. It is also thought that if we are hypnotized we cannot lie. Another false assumption. Under hypnosis we will reveal the information we want, as we do in the rest of the situations.
Another myth is that the hypnotist will be able to do whatever he wants with us if he hypnotizes us. Absolutely. In fact, it is proven that the subject is carried away by what the therapist tells him where he wants to go and not beyond. It is also thought that we will lose all capacity to control our behavior, but in reality we will not be hypnotized if we do not want to be. Like we can leave the state of hypnosis when we decide.
Finally, it is believed that under hypnosis, we remain totally passive and allow ourselves to be done by the hypnotist. While it is true that we should get carried away by what the therapist tells us, we are going to have to work our attention and our imagination, as well as our emotional involvement.