Hypnosis

Hypnosis


     The British Medical Association and the American Medical Association has

called it "a temporary condition of altered attention in the subject that may

be induced by another person," (Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia) but there is

still much about hypnosis that is not understood. Because it resembles normal

sleep, it was studied and was found that the brain waves of hypnotized people

are more similar to the patterns of deep relaxation than anything else. Rather

than a psychic or mystical idea, hypnosis is now looked upon as a form of

highly focused concentration in which outside influences are ignored.

     The most known feature of the hypnotic trance is that hypnotized person

becomes easily influenced by the suggestions others-usually the hypnotist. They

retain their abilities to act and are able to walk, talk, speak, and respond to

questions; but their perceptions can be altered or distorted by external

suggestions. At the command of the hypnotist, subjects may lose all feeling in

a place on the body, and any kind of pain will not cause them any pain. The

heartbeat can be slowed or quickened, and a rise in temperature and perspiration

can be created. They can be commanded to experience visual or auditory

hallucinations or live the past as if it were the present. Also, recently a

scientist discovered that the way the subject's mind experiences time can be

altered so that hours or even weeks can pass in second, from the subjects point

of view.  Subjects may forget part or all of the hypnotic experience or recall

things that they had forgotten.  The hypnotist may also make "posthypnotic

suggestions" that are instructions to the subject to respond to a something

after awakening. For example, the hypnotist might suggest that, after the

subject wakes up he will have an urge to remove his left shoe, and the more the

subject resists, the greater the urge to remove it will be, and once it is

removed the urge leaves.  These suggestions are sometimes used by specialists

to repress or suggest away symptoms in a patient such as anxiety, itching, or

headaches.

     Hypnosis is produced essentially by creating a deep relaxation and

focused concentration in the subject. They then become mostly unresponsive to

ordinary forms of stimulation, and although they are sometimes told to sleep,

they are also told to listen and be ready to respond to commands made by the

hypnotist.  The word sleep is used in hypnosis not to induce actual sleep, but

in practice it is understood that sleep is simply the hypnotic trance.  The

prefix hypno- is named after the Greek god Hypno which means "sleep."  In this

state they will accept commands, even if the suggestions are illogical. In

general, however, subjects cannot be made to do something that conflicts with

their moral sense. This is because there are beliefs that are impossible to

change, because that person feels so strongly about it, subjects would not be

likely to commit murder or robbery even if the instructer told them to do so.

There are hypothetically two layers of "morals" that, of course cannot be seen.

On the first layer is the morals that were installed throughout the life of the

patient.  The second layer is generally called the "fixed" morals.  The

classical methods used to produce hypnosis are usually simple and frequently

employ direct commands or monotonous suggestions repeated continuously.

Subjects are requested to concentrate on the hypnotist's voice, or they may be

asked to concentrate on some object or to concentrate on some repetitive sound.

The hypnotist tells the subject over and over again to feel relaxed, or to let

his or her eyelids grow heavy and close, to breathe deeply and comfortably, and

to go into a deep sleep. The degree of hypnosis is tested by challenging

subjects to perform some simple task while suggesting that they cannot do it.

For instance, the hypnotist may say, "You will be unable to open your eyes no

matter how hard you try, and the more you try, the more tightly they will be

closed." The process of induction may 
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