The Science Of Hypnosis

Focus your eyes on this swinging watch. You are getting sleepy, and when I snap my fingers you will watch this whole video.

Now, you might have seen hypnotics fall asleep on command, quack like ducks or change personalities like in the movie office space.

Hynosis performances can make hypnosis seem questionable to the average skeptical person.

So, is there really such kind of power in a soothing voice or a moving watch?

Well, it turns out that hypnosis is not just a party trick.

There is scientific evidence that being hypnotized is possible and might cause some real changes to your brain.

Some psychologists use it as a therapy to help people with a bunch of physical and physiological illnesses.

So, hypnosis is not just the exaggerated act you might think.

Different meditation techniques have been documented over the years.

Modern hypnosis began in the 1700s, partly due to a physician known as Franz Mesmer. Mesmer had a theory known as animal magnetism, where he thought that there were invisible magnetic fluids that flowed through living creatures.

He claimed that hypnosis could cure people of all kinds of illnesses by adjusting this flow. By using dim light, magnets and flashy hand gestures, Mesmer induced a feeling in the patients and tried to balance the fluid. Some of Mesmer’s patients got help.

When scientists put the theory of magnetic fluid to the test, they discovered that a magnetic fluid with healing powers was not a real thing.

So, Mesmer and his research were discredited, and many of the scientists did not give the ideology a thought.

It was not until the mid 1800’s, when surgeon James Braid started studying this potential therapy. He found that it was not a kind of sleep state, but is a focused physiological state that resembles meditation.

Clinical hypnosis is simple, unlike the flashy one you might see on TV. It is all about focus. It takes place in a dimly lit room, and sometimes there is some soft music playing. The goal is to remove all distractions.

The hypnotist speaks softly and encourages the client to focus attention on something like a dangling pocket watch. Eventually, they reach a focused state, which means that they are relaxed, calm and more open to suggestions.

So, the hypnotist can guide them through suggested solutions depending on the problem.

Clinical physiologists agree that the relaxed state is the goal of hypnosis. But there are two theories.

Altered state theory

Hypnosis is like sleep, and can be a distinct state of the brain, where your mental processes work differently and you are not necessarily aware of what is happening as if you were awake.

Non-state theory

Hypnosis might be a combination of intense focus and certain expectations of what it means to be hypnotized. Basically, you are still aware of what is happening.

Researchers need more studies to understand what hypnosis means in a physical sense. But it has been found that different people are more or less easily hypnotized.

Hypnosis is a voluntary process, which means that you should agree to have it. 10-15 percent of people are highly hypnotizable. 20 percent of people are resistant to hypnosis.