Hypnosis

Sam Cruz
But before anything else…

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 What is Hypnosis?
⋆ Swinging watches, making people quack like a duck
⋆ Makes hypnosis questionable
⋆ isn’t just a party trick
⋆ Being hypnotized is possible and can cause real
changes in your brain
⋆ Used as a therapy
⋆ Hypnosis is definitely real

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The History of Hypnosis
⋆ Early Forms
⋆ Franz Anton Mesmer
⋆ James Braid

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 Early Forms
⋆ Meditation was first developed in India
⋆ 5th to 6th century BCE — Taoist China and Buddhist
India
⋆ Yin and yang
⋆ Awakening, liberation, and salvation
⋆ Enlightened wisdom
⋆ 10th and 14th century AD – Eastern Christian
⋆ Repetition of the Jesus prayer

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 Franz Anton Mesmer
⋆ A physician from Austria
⋆ In 1770, he studied animal magnetism/mesmerism
⋆ Magnetic fluids that flowed in animal bodies
⋆ Developed his theory from magnets stopping
bleeding
⋆ Moved to Paris and became a hit
⋆ Induced a trance-like state
⋆ Some of his patients actually got cured

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 Franz Anton Mesmer
⋆ French Academy of Science investigated this animal
magnetism
⋆ Animal magnetism was not a real thing
⋆ Mesmerize – to hypnotize | to spellbind
⋆ magnetic sleep or artificial somnambulism by
Marquis de Puységur
⋆ Dim lights, playing of harpsichord, magnets,
hand gestures
⋆ *induced hypnosis rather than animal
magnetism
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Mesmer and
…until
histhe
research
mid 1800s
were discredited

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 Father of Hypnotism
James Braid
⋆ a skeptic of animal
magnetism/mesmerism
⋆ participated in a session by Charles
Lafontaine
⋆ confirmed his prejudices
⋆ inability of a client open his eyes
⋆ a form of sleep
⋆ Hypnos – Greek god of sleep
⋆ monoideism

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 a state of
procedure
suggestibility,
clinician,
“
focused
in which attention,
a researcher,
absorption,
or hypnotist suggests lack of a
that
voluntary Hypnosis
person willcontrol over behavior,
experience changes andin
suspension
sensations, of critical faculties
perceptions, thoughts,
feelings, and/or behaviors

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Hypnosis. Hypnosis?!
Can hypnosis make you tell
secrets?
No. Information you want to divulge in
will always be within your control.

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Questions Often Asked About Hypnosis
⋆ Who can be hypnotized?
⋆ Who is susceptible?
⋆ How is someone hypnotized?
 Who Can Be Hypnotized?

ADULTS AND SUSCEPTIBILITY

⋆ not everyone can be easily hypnotized
High Medium Low/Resistant
⋆ not correlated with introversion,
extraversion, intelligence/emotional 15%
20%
quotient
⋆ correlated with imaginative suggestibility
⋆ i.e. consent and belief
⋆ almost all children are susceptible
65%

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 “
quality of being inclined to accept and
actImaginative Suggestibility
on the suggestions of others where
false but plausible information is given

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 Who is Susceptible?

⋆ standard test: 1. Hand lowering 8. Arm immobilization

⋆ hypnotize a person 2. Moving hands apart 9. Anosmia
⋆ give a fixed set of
suggestions
3. Mosquito hallucination 10. Hallucinated voice

⋆ Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility 4. Taste hallucination 11. Negative visual

Scale 5. Arm rigidity 12. Posthypnotic suggestion
⋆ hypnotic induction is the 6. Dream 13. Posthypnotic amnesia
process used to hypnotize a 7. Age regression
person

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 How is Someone Hypnotized?
COMMONLY USED METHOD
⋆ different processes are used, but (the hypnotist…)
most use the following for hypnotic 1. creates a sense of trust
induction
⋆ hypnotic induction: inducing 2. suggests that the subject concentrate on a tangible
hypnosis by first asking a person to object
either stare at an object or close
their eyes then suggesting that the 3. suggests what the
person is becoming very relaxed subject will experience
during hypnosis

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How is Someone Hypnotized?
⋆ works on individuals and/or groups
⋆ during hypnosis, subjects are:
⋆ awake
⋆ have control
⋆ aware
⋆ adhere to moral standards
⋆ saying “no”/stopping hypnosis

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 Theories of Hypnosis
⋆ Altered State Theory of Hypnosis
⋆ Sociocognitive Theory of Hypnosis
⋆ hypnosis is not imitation, but real brain
activity

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 Altered State Theory of Hypnosis
⋆ Michael Nash
⋆ hypnosis puts a person into an altered state of
consciousness, during which the person is
disconnected from reality and so is able to experience
and respond to various suggestions
⋆ i.e. hypnosis disconnects a person from reality so that
the individual does things without conscious intent
⋆ hallucinations, compulsions, memory loss, etc.

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 Altered State Theory of Hypnosis
(explained)
⋆ hypnosis is an altered/disconnected state.

1. Hypnotic 2.
3. Hypnosis.
Induction. Susceptibility.

⋆ even though people believe they are in an altered state,

brain research doesn’t show altered patterns of activity

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Sociocognitive Theory of Hypnosis
⋆ Irving Kirsch
⋆ behaviors observed during hypnosis results not from
being hypnotized, but rather from having the special
ability of responding to imaginative suggestions and
social pressures
⋆ all phenomena produced during hypnosis occurs in
subjects who were not hypnotized

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 Sociocognitive Theory of Hypnosis
(explained)
⋆ hypnosis results from special abilities and social pressures.

2.
1.
Imaginative
NO Hypnotic Imaginative
suggestions
Induction. Susceptibilit
without
y
hypnosis.

⋆ hypnosis occurs mostly as a result of people’s expectations about

hypnosis rather than an altered hypnotic state

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 Behaviors
⋆ Hypnotic Analgesia
⋆ Posthypnotic Suggestion
⋆ Posthypnotic Amnesia
⋆ Age Regression
⋆ Imagined Perception
⋆ Conclusions

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 Hypnotic Analgesia
⋆ pain reduction after subjects
have undergone hypnosis,
received suggestions that Posthypnotic Suggestion
reduced their anxiety, and
promoted relaxation ⋆ given to the subject during
hypnosis about performing a
⋆ PET scans showed difference particular behavior to a
in pain perceptions specific cue when the subject
⋆ useful in medical comes out of hypnosis
treatments
⋆ behavior is shown when it is
expected of them
⋆ i.e. stop when subjects
believe they are no longer
observed
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 Age Regression
⋆ subjects under hypnosis being
asked to regress, or return in
time, to an earlier age, such as
early childhood
Posthypnotic Amnesia
⋆ do not relive their earlier days
⋆ play the role of a child ⋆ not remembering what happened
during hypnosis if the hypnotist
suggested that, upon awakening,
the subject would forget what took
place
⋆ experiences have been repressed
⋆ depends on what subjects think the
hypnotist wants them to forget
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 Imagined Perception
⋆ experiencing sensations,
perceiving stimuli, or
performing behaviors that
come from one’s imagination
⋆ used by hypnotherapists to
treat client’s problems
⋆ a self-proclaimed knight Conclusions
brought back to reality
⋆ researchers agree that subjects are
not faking these behaviors
⋆ researchers don’t agree on why
⋆ altered/disconnected state
⋆ imaginative susceptibiltiy
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 Hypnosis. Hypnosis?!
Where and when did hypnosis
start?
Egypt, 1500 B.C. Imhotep, the world’s first physician
used sleep temples to help heal both physical and
mental problems using suggestion therapy

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 Hypnosis as Real Brain Activity
⋆ Amir Raz
⋆ Hypnosis is not imitation, but rather real brain activity
⋆ Hypnosis helps eliminate the Stroop effect
⋆ Highly hypnotizable people were given the “gibberish
suggestion”
⋆ Identified the colors faster
⋆ Less activity in brain areas for word processing

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 Thanks!
Any questions?

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 References
⋆ Alamy/ACI, P. by. (2019, April 26). Was this hypnotic health craze an elaborate
hoax or a medical breakthrough? Retrieved from
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine/2019/03-04/franz-
mesmer-hypnotism-mesmerized/.
⋆ AsapSCIENCE. (2015, November 18). Will This Hypnotize You? Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq9PAguP86o&t=73s.
⋆ Franz Mesmer. (2019, September 27). Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Mesmer.
⋆ Frequently Asked Questions and Facts about Hypnosis, Hypnotists,
Hypnotherary and Being Hypnotized: Ratelle Hypnosis. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.ratellehypnosis.com/faq.php.
⋆ Hypnosis. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/hypnosis.
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 References
⋆ Hypnosis Training Academy, & Hypnosis Training Academy. (2017, May 17).
Hypnosis: Who Is Susceptible? How To Quickly Spot Highly-Hypnotizable
People & The 5 Most Common Reasons Hypnosis Fails. Retrieved from
https://hypnosistrainingacademy.com/hypnosis-who-is-susceptible/.
⋆ Hypnotic susceptibility. (2019, September 22). Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnotic_susceptibility.
⋆ James. (2011, October 5). Musical Hypnosis: Sound and Selfhood from
Mesmerism to Brainwashing. Retrieved from
https://academic.oup.com/shm/article/25/2/271/1739124#25443412.
⋆ James Braid (surgeon). (2019, September 28). Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Braid_(surgeon).
⋆ Mesmer's Baquet - Stock Image - C016/8800. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/527336/view/mesmer-s-baquet.
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 References
⋆ Mesmerize. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/mesmerize.
⋆ Scientific Theories of Hypnosis. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://hypnosisandsuggestion.org/theories-of-hypnosis.html.
⋆ Suggestibility. (2019, November 3). Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suggestibility.
⋆ The History of Hypnosis. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.historyofhypnosis.org/james-braid.html.
⋆ Yeager, J. (2019, August 14). University of Texas Football Team Hypnotized!
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6F4JJCQ0pA.

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