Entries from May 2008 ↓

Keen to try out hypnosis but don’t know how to go about it? Well, for starters, you need to decide which method of hypnosis you are going to use!

Did you know that there are four main techniques for hypnotizing a person? Briefly, these are:

1) Fixed gaze technique (eyes fixed on an object)

2) Gradual relaxation and imagery technique

3) Forceful commands technique

4) Rhythmic rocking technique

We will cover all these methods over the next few posts. For now, however, let’s look at the first method. It is the most well known technique and is commonly associated with the swinging watch!

Therapists, however, tend to favor the second technique. Not necessarily because it is the most potent method. Research suggests that few therapists are skilled or knowledgeable about hypnotic techniques and so are reluctant to experiment on their clients!

But there are some good guidelines provided for those who would like to try this method. Stamford University has developed the

STANFORD HYPNOTIC SUSCEPTIBILITY SCALE,

which provides quite a good overview of how to proceed and also hypnosis scripts for both easy and more difficult to hypnotize people.

As you will see when you read through the method, two aspects of the hypnosis process are particularly important.

Firstly, it is important that the person to be hypnotized trusts the person doing the hypnosis. Secondly, it is important that the person being hypnotized believes that they can be hypnotized!

More on this in later posts but research has shown that attitude to hypnosis is one factor that strongly influences susceptibility to hypnosis!

A neat experiment has shown that hypnosis works by actually changing the way our brains work. Using a brain scanner, researchers were able to observe how different areas of the brain were activated according to the instructions given to those being hypnotized. For example, subjects were told that the image bellow was gray

COLOR ME HYNOTIZED: Under hypnosis, people saw shades of gray in this pattern of brightly-colored rectangles. Brain scans showed that hypnosis changed the way the brain worked.

According to the researchers, Kosslyn and Thompson:

…the right side of the brain alone responded to what the subjects saw when they were not hypnotized, but both sides responded under hypnosis.

What we have shown for the first time, is that hypnosis changes conscious experience in a way not possible when we are not under hypnosis.

BUT - importantly, Kosslyn and Thompson only got these results for people that they had previously identified as ” highly hypnotizables” They did not get the same changes in brain function or change in perception of color for those that scored low on the hypnotizability scale.

For we mere mortals, we can take two important conclusions away from this experiment.

1) Hypnotism has a real power to change the way people think

2) We need to be able to identify those people that are “hypnotizable” if we are to be successful in using the power of hypnosis. (However, there is some research that suggests we have the power to influence this one - more on this in the next post)

Want to know if someone can be hypnotised? Give them this quiz (developed by some big wigs psychologists- see below):

1. Do you have many vivid memories from your early childhood?
   Yes | No
2. Do you tend to lose yourself in movies, books, or TV shows?
   Yes | No
3. Do you tend to know what people are going to say before they say it?
   Yes | No
4. Do powerful visual images ever trigger a physical sensation in you? For example, do you feel thirsty during the desert scenes in Lawrence of Arabia?
   Yes | No
5. Have you ever zoned out while going somewhere and wondered how you’d gotten there?
   Yes | No
6. Do you sometimes think in images rather than in words?
   Yes | No
7. Do you ever sense when someone has entered a room, even before seeing him?
   Yes | No
8. Do you like to look at cloud shapes?
   Yes | No
9. Do smells evoke powerful memories for you?
   Yes | No
10. Have you ever been deeply moved by a sunset?
    Yes | No

The more “yeses” they give, the more hypnotizable they are! For detailed scoring follow this link

(NB: This quiz was developed by Auke Tellegen, Ph.D., emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis; and Etzel Cardeña, Ph.D., chair of psychology and anthropology at the University of Texas-Pan American, in Edinburg)