The Controversy Surrounding Hypnosis. By: Mark Bancroft, MA Background: The word hypnosis
originated with the Scottish physician James Braid in the 19th
century. Braid had accidentally left a patient under operating lights for 2 hours. When he discovered what he had done he noticed the patient to be in a peculiar state of consciousness which he termed neuro-hypnosis. Braid rediscovered a phenomenon which had been used throughout history for healing purposes. Prior to Braid, Viennese physician Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) also practiced what was later to be termed hypnosis. Mesmer attributed the hypnotic phenomenon to what he called
animal magnetism, which he considered to be the causative agent. Mesmer placed his patients in a tub of water filled with magnetic filings. After a period of time (sometimes 24hrs) he would command
the patients, "Be Healed!" It has been said that Mesmer often had a line of patients waiting to see him which extended for more than a mile. Coincidentally, Mesmer was eventually denounced for his "strange
and mysterious" healing practices [WCTI, 1994]. The earliest records of hypnosis date back to ancient Egypt which depict the use of "sleep temples". Sleep temples were used for healing of the
body, as well as for resolving emotional troubles. A person visiting the sleep temple would be put to sleep by a high priest with the intent of being fully healed upon awakening. Upon awakening the person
would receive the equivalent of a post-hypnotic suggestion and many times experience complete healing [WCTI, 1994]. From the time Braid rediscovered hypnosis in the West until the present hypnosis
has been considered a strange and bizarre phenomenon with many negative connotations attached to it. Its useful and practical purposes of pain control were replaced when ether was invented in 1721. In the 20
th century hypnosis has been most readily depicted in movies and stage shows.
As a result of the popularity of stage hypnosis, the fear of losing control by potential hypnosis subjects, and the many misconceptions concerning the reality of hypnosis and its usefulness off
stage, hypnosis has received an inordinate share of bad press [Wallace & Fisher, p.82, 1991].
The Controversy: A. Hypnosis is not real: Although there has been extensive research done on hypnosis, a discrete hypnotic state has not been found to exist [Auerbach, 1996]. Because of
the inability to measure and quantify this subjective phenomenon many scientists believe hypnosis is not real. Attributed to being a "placebo" the value of hypnosis as a healing tool often gets reduced to being
another New Age wish-fulfillment product. Attempts to measure the hypnotic state by using subjective accounts has yielded few clues into how hypnosis works. Hypnosis is usually seen to be either
the sheer willingness of the subject to fulfill the suggestions of the hypnotist; or, a state of awareness in which extraordinary events may take place. B.
Hypnosis is a loss of control: Hollywood movies and stage show entertainment depicts hypnosis as a mysterious force which can control unwilling subjects. Research into the manipulation potential of
hypnosis has demonstrated that subjects will not
carry out hypnotic or post-hypnotic suggestions which contradict their moral, religious, or ethical beliefs. Suggestions such as these are either not carried out, or the subject awakens. However, subjects in hypnosis are more likely to carry out otherwise negative suggestions in which the truth of the circumstances have been manipulated [Auerbach, 1996]. Manipulation of facts to influence another person's behavior may have less resistance with hypnotized subjects than subjects in a normal waking state. In addition many have come to believe hypnosis to be a state of unconsciousness for the subject. This is not true. Most subjects remain aware of their immediate surroundings and the words being said to them. Milton Erickson explains,
Today there are still those who think of hypnosis as a healing sleep, a magical force, a kind of demonical power, as has been thought for thousands of years. It is certainly not
physiological sleep, even though it may seem to resemble it and may even be used to produce physiological sleep. It is not some special magical power or magic, nor is it some barbaric force arising from evil
sources. It is, in simple terms, nothing more than a special state of conscious awareness in which certain chosen behavior of everyday life is manifested in a direct manner, usually with the aid of another person
[p.54, 1989].
C. Only certain people can be hypnotized: The urge to validate data to prove something's existence may readily be seen in hypnosis by studying the suggestibility scales. This has
fostered the notion that only certain types of people may be hypnotized. While it is true that the experience of hypnosis varies between individuals, nearly anyone may experience hypnosis. Driving for
extended hours may result in environmental hypnosis. Waking hypnosis occurs when our analytical mind is bypassed, such as when a doctor (authority figure) tells you your foot will take 8 weeks to heal.
Watching a person who appears to be hypnotized can result in disguised hypnosis. The time just before going to sleep at night, as well as awakening in the morning, is often described as being very similar to a
state of "formal" hypnosis. Unexplored possibilities: Most of the controversy surrounding hypnosis has to do with its history. Given its subjective nature hypnosis has been difficult to
describe in concrete terms. Rather than focusing on how hypnosis may be used as a tool
for mental and physical healing the focus has been in proving its existence in objective words and phrases. Physicists know that gravity exists, they know how it effects space-time, it is called a "force", but no one knows what gravity really
is. The same is true for light. Light has been called quanta, photons, a wave-icle which travels at 186k miles/second; yet, like gravity and hypnosis it is unknown what light really is.
The question to be asked regarding hypnosis may need to be revised. Proving that there is a hypnotic realm may help validate its existence, but is this as critical as we are led to believe? To date
a hypnotic realm has not been proven to exist- yet people claim to experience a hypnotic state. This is much like the placebo effect which in no possible way is supposed to illicit a cure, but does. Does
this mean the cure is invalid? Does it mean the person hasn't properly earned their recovery? Does the doctor resent the patient for being a fool, rather than encourage him on to continued days of health and
well-being? References Auerbach, L. Altered States of Consciousness, Lecture, Orinda, CA (1996).
Erickson, M.H. & Rossi, E.L. (Ed). (1989) Innovative Hypnotherapy: The Collected Papers of Milton H. Erickson on Hypnosis, Volume IV. New York: Irvington.
Wallace, B. & Fisher, L.E. (1991). Consciousness and Behavior. (3rd ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon. WCTI, Wisdom Center Technologies & Institute. Lecture,
Sacramento, CA (1994). |
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