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LiveScience
The true nature of hypnosis has eluded scientists. It's clear people can be hypnotized, but it's not clear how this happens. New research offers a clue.
By recording the eye movements of a hypnotized woman, and comparing them with those of nonhypnotized people, researchers say they have found evidence that hypnosis involves a special mental state, fundamentally different from normal consciousness.
First some basics: When under hypnosis, a person becomes more capable of hallucinationand susceptible to suggestions, perhaps intended to help him or her stop craving cigarettes, say, or prompt him or her to hear music that isn't actually playing. If no suggestions are given, a hypnotized person will sit still and his or her mind will enter a calm state, like that associated with meditation. After a session ends, the person doesn't remember it, according to study researcher Sakari Kallio, an associate professor at the University of Skövde in Sweden and University of Turku in Finland.
Some believe these things happen because of a change in brain activity that alters a person's state of consciousness. Another camp believes that under hypnosis, the brain functions just as it would at any other time while awake, and that other, normal processes — like an active imagination — are at work.
Solving this debate by measuring brain activity is dicey, since our brain's electrical activity can vary significantly from moment to moment during its normal state. But the identification of a behavior associated with an altered state of consciousness — something no one could fake — would go a long way to supporting the idea that hypnosis involves a change in consciousness.
And that's exactly what a team of researchers says they have found, by looking at the eye movements of an easily hypnotized Finnish woman.
This woman, identified in the study published in the journal PLoS ONE on Oct. 24 only by her initials TS-H, is 43, an office worker, right-handed, and "as normal as can be," said Kallio, the lead study researcher. TS-H has no history of any neurological or psychiatric illnesses and a normal psychological profile, he and colleagues wrote. [10 Controversial Psychiatric Disorders]
She is, however, also unusually responsive to hypnosis. Kallio said that while TS-H was hypnotized, he could easily induce her to see or hear things that weren't present, and that she forgot the session when the hypnosis ended.
Using three different visual tests, they found that while hypnotized, her pupils became smaller and she blinked more slowly and less frequently — about 10 times less often –- than normally. When moving her gaze to a new point on a screen, her eyes "crept" along, moving in shorter jumps, when normally they would have moved swiftly. And, when watching the middle point of a field of moving bars, her eyes made fewer, smaller, slower movements back and forth.
Because people have little conscious control over these kinds of movements, it is unlikely someone could fake them, according to Kallio.
He and colleagues gave 14 nonhypnotized volunteers the same tasks, and asked the volunteers to perform them naturally, and to try to mimic hypnotized eye movements. While in some instances, such as with blinking, the nonhypnotized volunteers did well, overall, none came close to matching the hypnotized eye movements.
The results don’t come without precedence; a change in the eyes, or a unique sort of stare, has long been associated with hypnosis.
Measurements of electrical activity in TS-H's hypnotized brain taken in separate research also indicate something was going on. In three different experiments, researchers found changes they would not expect in a normal brain, according to Kallio.
In one study, the connections between the frontal area and the rest of the brain diminished dramatically, which typically happens during sleep. Then hypnosis also made her brain's right hemisphere more dominant, although this finding is difficult to interpret, Kallio told LiveScience in an email.
While a bit trickier to interpret, brain measurements further support the idea that something unique happens in TS-H's brain during hypnosis, according to Kallio.
Have you ever been hypnotized? Leave a comment telling us about the experience.
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I went to a hypnotist to try to help a disorder I have, as suggested by the latest research for that disorder. I was UNABLE to be hypnotized.
The world's foremost hypnotherapist of the 20th century said it took him almost 20 years to get his wife in a deep trance.yet he did hypnotherapy with and researched hypnosis for many years. Nearly all of his adult life.
Isn't it a tad early to conclude, " Woman's stare reveals secret to hypnosis," as the headline stated?
Let's see it replicated on several dozen "easily hypnotizable" people before drawing any conclusions about the nature of hypnosis.
I cannot be hypnotized.
Stokes, and several other top line Casino Hypnotist have tried.
Neither can my sister.
I will sit there in a row of chairs with people and when I open my eyes, they are often in my lap out cold.
A friend of mine however, is so susceptible to this that he can be in the audience (not on stage) and he falls out too.
Funny stuff.
And it's real.
That sounds like an episode of "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "My Husband Is Not a Drunk" (Original Air Date: 31 October 1962).
I have never been hypnotized but i have been able to do it to someone else. I told my subject they would hear a bell every time someone said their name. It was funny the first few times because even I did not know it had worked until the third time they got up to answer the door when nobody was there, I figured out they were hearing a doorbell. Lucky for me I planted a trigger so I could send that person back into the hypnotic state with a touch and remove the suggestion. I won't even go into detail about the kitten. I personally believed it was real.
I don't believe this data for one second. I bet this fluff science gets passed as "real data" for a few years until its disproved just like multiple personality disorder just was. Yes, you can meditate and be in a very relaxed almost sleep state but I would not refer to it as " hypnotized". No one can take over your mind. Please let the record state that I think this whole thing is B.S.
Nobody, and I mean nobody, is keeping any sort of records of the things you think or say, just FYI,
Oh Mark, don't be an such an a$$, it was just a figure of speech. I don't believe in hypnosis but you shouldn't take it so personally. You can believe in all the mumbo jumbo you want. I actually came back to re-read the article for some soft (very soft) public health research; so it wasn't a total loss of my time. AND FURTHERMORE, you have NO IDEA what I do for a living or if I am male or female. grow up
You came back... but you lie, it was to see if you had stimulated any response from another reader. The rest of us are not as out of touch as you seem to think we are Kallie.
The fellow is reporting some preliminary results of his research. The news people picked it up in what is essentially their blog section. There are people who can be hypnotized, but there are a lot who cannot. If you are someone who cannot, then it is likely that you would find such information BS since you seem to be the sort of person who thinks that your perceptions determine reality.
Some people are more susceptible to hypnosis and probably also fall asleep more easily--I expect that they might have some kind of very mild psychological issue or perhaps some kind of high or low activity center in their brains. I am perfectly willing to accept that some people can, with a combination of light/shadow, rhythmic chanting or repetitive speech, fall into a trance-like state that is half awake and half asleep.
I can't do it--but I accept that not everyone is like me. This is called being "open-minded." Open-minded people often learn things that are new and interesting because they are not terrified of occasionally misinterpreting and being wrong. Dr. Kallio appears to be someone who is interested in investigating what he doesn't understand and is somewhat skeptical of (notice that he was actually fairly surprised to be able to find that there was a woman whose behavior doesn't appear to be "fakeable") rather than just rejecting it.
It's a good thing we have open-minded people in the world. If everyone was closed-minded and believed that there was only one way of being and only one way of perceiving the world--hers--then I think our culture would stagnate pretty quickly. Just FYI
This article was good for proving what exactly?
Nothing.
What a lousy title.
Your response contributed exactly what ?
Nothing !
What a lousy response,
unless it was intended for FOX NEWS, then it was intelligent, by comparison to the norm .
LOL...comparing it to fox news?? No surprise you are a looney libbie LOLOL. Go vote for the messiah again moron...a hypnotic trance maybe?? What a goon. Oh...and how is that Fox news has more viewers than msnbc and cnn combined?? BAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAH!!! Obummer is a one-timer...deal with it looney!!!!
OBumBum--thanks for demonstrating the level of language ability, critical thinking skills, and maturity that is characteristic of those who reject President Obama's every action.
Every time you post, you make the case that those who have a knee-jerk rejection of President Obama, everything he says and does, are down on your level. This is extremely helpful to people who would like everyone else to at least intelligently evaluate his successes (and even Republicans have praised his action on several military/security issues) as well as his weaknesses. This usually leads people to a realization that while President Obama is not perfect, he is better spoken, better read, and a better leader than the present Republican candidates.
So, carry on, my friend--you are doing great work in providing aid to the Democratic party. Carry on.
I am an excellent subject for hypnosis. My first experience was one session to help me retain information I was studying at evening classes after a full day of work. My scores on the final exams (classroom and state board) were in the upper 90s.
The second time (again one session) was to help me sleep through the neighbor's roosters that used to start crowing around 2:00AM. It worked so well that if I was working at my desk or computer in my home office during the day and they started crowing I'd start to nod off.
I'm currently using CDs for self hypnosis almost daily. Because I am repeatedly being hypnotized I now go completely "under" to the point where I consciously remember very little. The hypnosis causes complete relaxation.
PS...I close my eyes during the sessions.
All glory to the Hypnotoad! @_@
I'm another person who can not be hypnotized. I went to the VA hospital to try hypnosis as a tool to stop smoking cigarettes. The person who tried to hypnotize me was a trained professional but her attempts were to no avail.
Could it be that I'm one of those who does not trust people enough to go under hypnosis? Someone said that this could be the reason why therapy failed.
I would like to find out if this is the case.
I am another person who cannot be hypnotized, much to the annoyance of the hypnotherapists I saw..... I am also the highly skeptical type with a higher than average IQ, both of which I think contribute to this inability to be hypnotized.
I worked for an ENT who dabbled in hypnotherapy. A nurse wanted him to hypnotize her to help her lose weight. i sat in out of curiosity , convinced I could not be hypnotized as I did not believe in it and I was very thin and certainly did not need to lose weight. Nevertheless, on his first suggestion, to check if she had achieved suggestibility, I found my arm rising when he said to raise it in spite of not having cooperated mentally with the process. It was a weird feeling almost out of body to watch my compliance.
If you cannot be hypnotized, it is usually due to your having an overly analytical mind. Your continuous inner dialog regarding the validity of the experience prevents the necessary focused concentration.
Oh Mark, don't be an such an a$$, it was just a figure of speech. I don't believe in hypnosis but you shouldn't take it so personally. You can believe in all the mambo jumbo you want. I actually came back to re-read the article for some soft public health research, so it wasn't a total waste of my time. AND FURTHERMORE, you have no idea what I do for a living.
Unnecessary, unpleasant and thoughtless double post. We got you point the first time (however much there was to get... pretty clear you are snarky and unhappy with Mark's comment, but other than that...). He didn't say anything about your career choice, so not sure what prompted that bit of your tirade... Clearly, you have an ax to grind. It just isn't very nice for you to subject the rest of us to it twice. Though, I guess there is a slight difference as you did not bring up your sex in this comment, like you did last time... Pretty sure that omission is not enough to qualify this as a new comment.
I have been hypnotized to stop smoking. It helped, but did not make me stop craving cigarettes. It took a lot of restraint on my part, but I have quit smoking with this method many times. I quit for long periods of time; once 3 1/2 years. I have started smoking again, but it was not a fault of the hypnotism, just weak moments on my part. I believe this method can truly help. My hypnotist, who was 2 hrs. away, has retired and am having trouble finding a new one. This only works for me if I have complete trust in the hypnotist. The first time or two, I took my daughter in the room with me to make sure it was on the up and up. After the trust was gained, it really helped. Sure wish he hadn't retired. I need help now and don't know where to turn...
So why aren't the suggestions permanent Nan ?
I've been hypnotized a couple of times, and remember every bit of it. Very strange to feel your mind almost split into two totally separate entities, the hypnotized experiencer and the passive observer, watching the "other" self almost like a movie. I was guided to memories buried so deep I didn't even know they were still there. Very interesting experience. Maybe some or most people have no recollection, but that isn't universally true.
even Einstein said he would welcome the day when his theories were disproven (because that would mean that science had progressed)....I agree that the title of this article is misleading but I found the observations interesting....especially the part about increased activity in the right hemisphere of the brain...we have a lot to learn about everything in this world...bravo to the researchers for tacking this area of study in the first place....it is obviously an unpopular topic with some but hopefully, these negative reactions will not deter the pioneers on the planet...
People who have seen Dracula think this is how you hypnotize people into a trance where they become mindless zombies who will obey any and all commands. I know a woman who had a baby with a married man, while she was also married to someone else. She claims he "hypnotized" her into having sex with him. I swear, she really uses this as an excuse for screwing her friend's husband.
I went to a hypnotist for dyslexia and now "I see voices and hear visions".
I saw a hypnotist to stop smoking in 1979. I stopped, permanently, in one session. The experience was amazing, and I remember almost every moment of it, as he said I would. I discovered that if you want to use hypnosis to change some behavior, you really have to want to change. Most other smokers I referred failed because they didn't really want to stop.
Thirty-two years later, I'm seeing a hypnotherapist for another issue, a phobia. I am making significant progress with it, but this issue is more difficult to modify.
There is so much misconception contained in these earlier comments. If you want to be hypnotized, you have to give yourself up to the hypnotist by relaxing completely. You will not (in fact, you cannot) do anything you don't want to do and, no, you won't start quacking like a duck. In my case, my conscious mind becomes a spectator of the sub-conscious mind, and I do stay alert and completely aware of my surroundings. It is immensely calming, peaceful, and restful.
Do some serious research to find the facts.
I think hypnosis is the Debug mode for humans. It lets the operator access the innards without changing state so much, like in the movies when they open up a port in the robot's head and plug it in to a console. Someday we'll learn how to do uploads and downloads and really muck around with peoples' lives.
Kallie,
It's officially on record. It has been posted in three newspapers, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institute, and Mad Magazine.
Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has also released an official statement to our European and Middle Eastern allies to avoid any confusion.
Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has condemned Kallie's position as another American trick to pressure Iran to abandon her atomic energy program.
This just in: CBS adult news correspondent, Mark C. has just announced that the US Department of Defense is launching an investigation into Kallie's inflated sense of self. Film at 11.
So Finnish women are easily hypnotized eh? Mua ha ha ha ha (rubs hands together and starts hatching an evil plot)
I grew up in a violent and abusive home. I was hypnotized in a treatment center by a man who had much success with two sisters I knew who grew up with similar torments. HE suggested I would still remember the twisted events, but it would not bring out the flash backs, vulnerable feelings as though I was reliving the pain at the age it happened, it would be like watching a movie with no feelings or emotions. THANK GOD it worked to this day and that was in 1996. 15 years is a great track record in my book. I don't feel like crying and can tell about the events as though I know they were sad and unfortunate but I don't feel deeply emotional about any of it. Previously, I was reduced to strong and painful emotions, with ugly displays of vulnerability as though the perpetrator was still alive and had the same power and control over me as an adult. (I guess that was a flash back.)I have been to several medical hypnotists but none have been so successful as he was. I wish more was known and understood about a tool that could be so freeing of some many of life's serious challenges. IT is NOT about quacking like a DUCK!
I have never been hypnotized. When I was a teenager, I was having problems and my mother took me to see a therapist who tried to hypnotize me with no results. There were problems in my family. My father had a drinking problem although there was no violence or abuse in the home. Years later I realized after my son was diagnosed with a mild case of OCD, that that's what I had (apparently it runs in families). I don't think I could ever be hypnotized. I also have never fainted. I wonder if it is definitely a brain thang. How your brain is programmed.
I went to a hypnotist to stop smoking. I had smoked for 10 years and nothing had worked. In those days you could smoke at your desk, and I always had a cigarette burning. I came back to the office after the lunchtimes session, put away the ashtray, and didn't smoke or even think about smoking throughout the weekend. It was like I had never smoked in my life. Then on Monday afternoon a co-worker started smoking and offered me a cigarette, and the craving returned. I understand that you need follow up visits, but it would be better to be taught self administered hypnosis, since it was too expensive to go every 3 or 4 days. A later group session with a different hypnotist didn't work. I wish you could buy a hypnosis session over the internet. I bought the DVD's now advertized on TV, and they didn't work on me. I think there has to be a special rapport with the hypnotist, or maybe a more experienced hypnotist. I think I can be easily hyptonized by the right practioner.
I am a hypnotist and have been for 30 years. Almost everyone with normal intelligence can be hypnotized, but only about 20% will go as deep as TS-H. Fortunately, for most people, that kind of depth is not necessary for results. Remembering the session does not mean the person has not been hypnotized nor that they will not have wonderful results. Hypnosis is actually a very relaxing, enjoyable experience and can make a hugh difference in a person's life. However, only a trained, experienced practitioner should do this. On the rare occasion that a problem occurs, a person just playing with it won't know what to do.