Hypnosis

Even though the term ‘hypnosis’ is drawn from the Greek word ‘hypno’ which literally denotes ‘sleep’, it is not this meaning professional hypnotherapists associate the term with it. On the contrary, during the course of hypnosis sessions, the individuals subjected to hypnosis are fully alert yet due to their transiting themselves into a heightened state of mind they are not disturbed by the distracting thoughts that surround their mind and reach a state of internal concentration which makes them prepared to receive suggestions willingly. It is possible individuals can be in mental states which may resemble like they are being in a ‘trance’ as reflected in some of their actions, as for instance, missing the correct turn in a highway while returning home after a tense day in the office or walking into a room forgetting as to what purpose they had entered into the room, but such a state is not considered as hypnotic trans. This is because these are all only ordinary mental state and in no way they can be said to be in a hypnotic state of mind. The trance that is talked of in hypnosis is the one in which your mind while being open, yet is unoccupied and quiet. Under normal circumstances, a qualified hypnotherapist would subject to his client to three steps, viz, (i) predicting (which is the approaching signs of trance), (ii) observing (as to what is happening with the client), and (iii) directing (subtly implanting suggestions on the hypnotized mind of the client to accomplish the desired outcomes).

Meditation is a conscious act of individuals to put themselves into a Trans. The term is derived from the Latin word ‘meditate’ which conveys a literal meaning of being moved to the center. In such a state, the activities of the brain moves from the outer cortex to the Hypothalamus which is situated at the center of the brain. Meditation typically involves three following steps, viz (i) focusing attention on a mentally conceivable object or on one’s breathing, (ii) remaining in a passive state of mind which allows passing of random thoughts and (iii) constantly repeating a word or term which could be associated with a mantra as believed in eastern world or a prayer in a western context. The primary objective of meditation is to achieve a quiet state of mind through which it is established to bring about positive benefits to the health and welfare of individuals.

Even though hypnosis is considered to have a wider applicability when compared with meditation, practicing meditation is also known to confer conceivable health benefits on its practitioners. This is because those who practice meditation also gain access to the automatic mind which has the ability to bring under control breathing, heart rate, undesirable habit formation and perpetuation of such habits, perceptions of brain towards pain stimulus. Through these methods, meditation enables the realignment of a person’s conscious repetitive routines to unconscious routines. It has, for instance, been scientifically established two brief sessions of meditation each day can significantly lower high blood pressure.

Further, hypnosis and meditation are considered to be complimentary to each other or have similar features which would become clear when we put forth the following facts.

• Hypnosis and meditation put the individuals in a natural state that can be compared to a situation which is similar to the one which is felt before awakening and falling asleep.
• Both of them have the ability to make the individuals fully absorbed into whatever they are doing at a particular point of time, say, similar to being completely absorbed in a movie.
• Whether it is hypnosis or meditation, those who are plasticising either of them would come out of the trance stage. There has not been even a single case in which this action of their not returning to the original state of mind that has been reported so far.

Nonetheless, at least in the following respects, hypnosis and meditation differ from each other.

It is possible in hypnosis for an individual suffering from obnoxious habits to get rid of them in just two sessions where as it may take a lot more number of sessions and practice to achieve the same in meditation.

Further, since the scope of hypnosis is considered to have far wider applications in treating a number of dis-eases whether it is physical, mental, or psychological, it has attracted wider interest in the medical field.  The aim of a professional hypnotherapist is to improve the wellbeing of their clients by relieving them from the distressing conditions from which they are suffering by following a systematic and scientific steps already described. When a state of hypnotic trance is achieved, the chattering nature of mind is brought to a stop. The previous unruly busy-ness observed in the form of wandering thoughts is brought to a halt. This prepares the state of mind to transit from a troubled state to an observant state. When the observant-self takes over the individuals who are hypnotized, they become ready to relieve their perceived fears, painful memories that are stuck in their mind due to unpalatable happenings at some point of time in their lives which they are unable to bear in their weakened state of mind and an expert hypnotherapist accomplishes exactly the goal(s) which he/she wants to bring about in their clients after a conversation with them when they are in their natural state of mind.

On the other hand when it comes to meditation, many forms of meditation presuppose your acquiring a manta because it is the one that is used to chant repeatedly during the process of meditation in order to invoke inner quietness. In fact, there are individuals who are prepared to part with a substantial amount of $$$ to their masters (gurus) to acquire a particular mantra which they believe would confer the benefits on them. However, hypnosis does not presuppose the acquiring of any such watchword to practice it.

We may then conclude both hypnosis and meditation in their own ways have devised methods to create a state of mind where focused attention is made possible to enable human being to suppress their negative thoughts, activity, and perceptions or sensation wherein the outcome is realization of inner fulfilment. When a an inner fulfilments is achieved, it is manifested outwardly in health, wellbeing and a positive outlook towards life and an ability to face challenges it poses. However, hypnosis because of its broader scope offers more practical value visa-vis meditation.

The beauty of hypnotherapy, according to the venerable psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, could be appreciated in its  providing  the avenue for subjects (patients) to experiment, thus making humanity  to realize “one of the most fervent wishes of humankind,” viz, “to experience something twice.” If there is one hypnotic area in which it could be seen to have taken numerous forms, it is stage hypnosis. Stage hypnosis could be in the form of reenactments of historical, social, or individual experiences or mesmerism and or role playing (also known as RPG). In the recent past, it has also become a hype to the level of getting into cheap comedy as portrayed in the media every now and then to improve their ratings (TRPs) but we would refrain from discussing about it because here we have taken up hypnosis is a validated scientific theory and whenever we state about its artistic characteristic, it is at a level of refinement that is not associated with cheap thrills.

Perhaps, the Milgram Reenactment carried out in the year 2002 by artist Rod Dickinson in Glasgow could be given as an example of a controversial experiment in social psychology. The background of this is explained briefly here. In the year 1961, a 27 year old youth then holding the position of Assistant Professor at Yale University carried out an original experiment, called ‘Milgram Experiment’ through which  he had analyzed the crime of ‘National Socialism’ from a social perspective. The objective of the experiment was to test the obedience levels of the audience towards those in authority including the extent to which the ordinary persons of a society placed in a similar situation would follow orders despite knowing well that it is contradictory to their conscience. The Rod Dickenson experiment reconstructed parts of the original experiment and reenacted the same through a stage play during which time the audience saw the play for a consecutive period of 4 hours through one-way glass windows. The uniqueness of the event was to make such an audience to identify themselves as the subjects living in that period and to what extent they would have submitted to the authority. The relevance of pointing out this here is that it represents the moral dispositioning in regard to the applicability of stage hypnosis which could probably be replicated in political debates.

A  more relevant and ideal example of stage hypnosis  in the form of reenactments could be found  in Tom McCarthy’s novel” Remainder”, played through the character of the chief protagonist of the novel. He becomes disabled due to an accident, but becoming wealthy from the consequences of that in terms of getting a large chunk of money by way of compensation, reenacts in public places and even apartment blocks specially bought for this purpose, attempting to  recapture a specific feeling which he had felt when the accident had occurred. The resemblance to stage hypnosis could be seen in the attempts of the protagonist, albeit not in strong terms, to repeat his role in a past situation as exactly as it could be described observing it from a past while being fully conscious of the present.

Even though stage reenactments fall into category of experiments in social psychology, whose objectives could be to enable the audience to relive the past by recreating history in relation to famous wars, controversial social actions (as described), in general, the audience witnesses such events as disinterested observers and at best reflect upon the events by applying their imaginations as to how they would have reacted had they been living during that past. Nonetheless, stage reenactments cannot totally be dismissed from the ambit of stage hypnosis because the engagement in the playing of roles creates the scope for self-exploration also in the forms of alteration of identities, problem solving when the stage artist who also happens to be a qualified and experienced hypnotherapist can establish trust through which connect with the group and achieve the desired results.

Yet another debate that dominates stage hypnosis is whether it could be equated with ‘mesmerism’. Mesmerism is associated with an Australian physician named Franz Anton Mesmer, who sought to treat the illness by what he called ‘animal magnetism’. He placed magnets over the heads of his patients to heal them believing that they would charge his patients’ nervous systems with the magnetic fluid (which he equated with animal body susceptible to the influence of celestial bodies which could be compared to a magnet, and hence animal magnetism) of which the mesmerist as well as the patients become conductors when they transit in to a stage of total rapport (“en rapport”). Some contend that it cannot be equated with hypnosis because while ‘mesmerism signifies a physical phenomenon in the of physical fluids’, ‘hypnotism refers to a psychological phenomenon’, denoting a function of suggestibility which points towards an action wherein a hypnotherapist, when he/she performs in a stage, demonstrates his/her ability of influencing their clients through their mastery of hypnotic techniques. However, some synthesis, between mesmerism and hypnotism has taken place with the coining of a term, mesmeric state, by Townsend as early as in 1845, which has enabled the scholars and the practitioners in the field over a period of time to accept the psychological connotations which we associate now a days with hypnotism because, mesmerism was defined by him in a figurative sense as ’alternative stages in consciousness’.

Although role play is associated more with leisure activities than as professional stage hypnosis, yet when we go deeper into it we would understand the significance of it as a tool of stage hypnosis. It is so because, all story telling revolves around objectives teaching about the past, understanding the present, and preparing for the future.

At a psychological level, role playing involves three processes, viz, (i) identity attraction, scenario building, and establishment of a sense of sharing in an intimate environment which develops between a hypnotherapist and his clients who here are constituted in the audience which is denoted by the term ‘communitas’. The term gets applies when the first two processes are achieved to signify them as a currently prevalent ritual practice.

Here, the stage hypnosis is used as a form of therapy whether it is to help improving any skills which the people in the audience desire, or to better understand the subjects to instruct or enable them to undergo new experiences in behaving. Thus, role playing as stage hypnotherapy technique could be applied in soft skills training or clinical environment or even to the children to enable them to learn how to make friends, feel and talk about various issues as for instance, their likings and disliking,  handle anger or pain and in short prepare them to lead a life as healthy adults.

Thus, role playing is also a form of’ ego alteration’ but at a self-conscious level. It is true to an extent it contradicts the hypnotic principle where problems are attempted to be solved through alteration in the ego status. Nonetheless, role players overcome the limitations by explaining that through ‘self-conscious ego alteration’ in which  the role player assuming he/she is a  professional hypnotist  exploit the personality strengths of the audience by modulating his/her voice, attitudes and the manner anecdotes are narrated to the audience. The role players quickly alternate between what is described as ‘double consciousnesses’ to bring in the outcomes they want from their audience. It is this characteristic of the hypnotherapists which enables them to adopt alternate identities thus providing the much desired room for the audience to get their different emotional needs fulfilled. In essence, the alter-ego is developed out of an RPG session without changing the identities of the audience in a subtle manner.

By way of conclusion, it may be stated while there is no doubt that hypnotism deserves the status of a science yet because of the mysterious nature in which it works, obtaining scientific explanations to unravel all its mysteries may either be a distant dream or may never take place at all. But for these reasons, none can dismiss it from its scientific status.

Hypnotherapy is in vogue since the Victorian era in one form or another to relieve the miseries of human beings. During the earlier periods when there was less scope for scientific experiments, the benefits of practicing  hypnotism was more deep rooted in the beliefs of the people in  that it can relieve them from a number of distresses which probably did not have a clinically associated name for it. Thus, several aliments, associated with pathology or stress related medical disorders, including obesity/over- weight, anxiety, sleeplessness, pain etc, were indeed cured by applying ancient hypnotherapeutic techniques. However, with medical sciences advancing in a rapid manner and clinical and experimental facilities becoming more and available, scientific explanations of the ways in which hypnotism works in human beings for any specific ailment are available. Even though some of them have a degree of definitiveness in proving the efficacy of scientific techniques of hypnosis, yet, it is still in the stages of evolving as a science from an art, and may take some more time to attain maturity. Nonetheless, while trying to find scientific proof for the effectiveness of hypnotherapy in curing specific conditions, as weight loss in this case, it is necessary for us to keep in mind scientific hypnosis currently divides its experimental studies into three broad categories, viz,  (i) empirically supported treatments with ‘specific’ reference to a particular dis-ease, (ii) found to be ‘effective‘  in empirically supported treatments and (iii) can ‘possibly’ be  applied in empirically supported treatments. Some of the examples of first one are anxiety of an impending asthma attack, headaches including migraine, the second one are weight loss, reduction in pain while undergoing surgeries for serious ailments as cancer, and the third one are anorexia, (loss appetite/inability to eat), stage fear (as in public speaking), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), difficulties in stopping smoking, coping and recovering from trauma etc. Weight loss or reducing weight falls scientifically into the category of hypnotism being ‘effective’ in achieving weight loss. The rest of this article is devoted to weight loss/weight reduction (used in an interchangeable manner) and how hypnotherapy as a treatment is found to be useful in being effective in making weight loss to be achieved.

Scientifically,  hypnotherapy   being ‘effective’ in the context of weight loss is taken to be accomplished  if  statistically significant outcomes are found on the control groups in experiments conducted across a wide spectrum of independent research teams. The distinguishing criterion here is that such data supporting the effectiveness of the treatment under reference should be shown to dominate even when there are conflicting data from other studies.

At this stage it is necessary to understand about the weight gain or obesity. Obesity in a large number of people is considered to be a metabolic disease and metabolism is defined as a ‘collection of chemical reactions taking place in one’s body’s cells while they are engaged in the process of converting the ‘fuel’ in the food eaten into’ energy’. The quantity of calories eaten plays a major role in weight loss or reduction and the method applied to identify a person whether he/she is obese is Base Metabolic Rate (BMR). When you are assessed as having a  lower BMR, the weight gain alarm button is pressed because it means you are burning fewer calories while resting/sleeping when compared with those who are burning more calories, assuming both of you are eating the same type and quantum of food. Obesity or overweight is known to be responsible for a number of diseases as diabetes, type II, blood pressure, and behavioral symptoms associated with low-self esteem, depression etc.

The hypnotic techniques when applied to obese individuals  induce relaxation and enable the clients to achieve self-control, improved self-esteem through body image and motivational levels   by reducing the ambivalence that surrounds hypnotherapy and explore the positive benefits hypnotherapy offers are applied to achieve weight loss via practicing hypnotism. There has been a gaining of acceptance on the part of the medical community and clinical fraternity to include therapeutic hypnosis into the area of ‘cognitive behavioral therapy’. The salient features of cognitive therapy via hypnosis as applied to weight loss programmes are:

• Inducing a positive attitude among the subjects of the benefits of healthy eating and exercising
• Implanting positive suggestions on the affected persons as to how weight loss can improve their self-esteem
• Explaining the negative effects the human body undergoes when it is pumped with negative thoughts and actions can bring about emotionally injuring eating patterns resulting in obesity.

Even though scientific pieces of   evidence validating the effectiveness of hypnotism   in realizing weight loss are slow to emerge, yet one significant study proving its effectiveness is worthy of mentioning here. By reviewing  six experiments on the effectiveness of hypnotherapy on obesity, Kirsh, Montgomery and Saperstein concluded that ‘the addition of hypnotherapy in cognitive behavioural therapy  in the treatment for reducing weight gain was found to have enhanced the treatment outcomes in that the group under treatment continued to lose weight even  after the treatment period had ended. This study was criticized by Allison and Faith on some statistical grounds which prompted Kirsh to re-analyze the weight data furnished in the six studies he had reviewed. This made him to reinforce his conclusions that at least in five of six studies, there is substantial evidence to prove the effectiveness of hypnotherapy as a scientific technique to induce weight losses and hence there is sufficient justification to include it within the scope of cognitive behavior therapy.

The hypnotic training sessions to accomplish weight-loss are carried out both in individual and group settings. For example, a Seattle-based qualified hypnotherapist, Katie Evans, conducts hypnotherapy training sessions for obese groups comprising on an average between 8 and 10 persons. She identifies specific issues relating to hunger, then helps her subjects to get relaxed, and when they transit into a hypnotic state, follows it up with implanting suggestions in her hypnotized subjects with suggestions of such foods associated with obesity for which the subjects have craze to cause a feeling of unpleasantness. This helps her client to declutter their minds and heighten their resolve to change. Other techniques associated with such hypnotic training which are implicit in nature relate to improving their motivational levels to sustain their self-control and constantly encouraging them to stay in the new territory through imaginary techniques.

It may be concluded to the extent that obesity or weight gain could be traced to habit formation, life style causes, wherein surgical necessities are not warranted, hypnotherapy can positively help in achieving the weight loss. It is yet to be proved whether hypnotherapy independently can act in achieving weight loss but there is little to doubt it can positively supplement other treatments in bringing about the desired effect on the obese individuals and relieve them from many negative effects and diseases associated with it.

Conversational hypnosis is a therapeutic strategy that has been found to be useful as a form of communication therapy. Known otherwise as ‘narrative therapy, it was devised by Michael White and David Epston in 1982 and relies on ‘reframing’ which stated otherwise means re-storiying. The approach conversational hypnosis follows is to develop an alternative narrative of the life of the clients. The advantage of conversational therapy is that when such a re-storying is narrated by trained hypnotists, the clients find new and unique redescriptions of themselves which helps them in the repairing and rebuilding of their relationships In the process, the previously dominant story that hitherto has been lying deep-rooted in their lives become obsolete. The clients get a new breather of life where they see the problems and relationships in a newer positive perspective, because the negatives that have been disturbing their minds prior to the sessions get relegated to the background.

The uniqueness of conversation hypnosis is that it does not stop with just conversation of the hypnotherapist with his/her clients. They follow it up by writing letters to their clients after the conclusion of each session which redescribe from a new angle what was talked about in the preceding session. It is the recurrent theme contained in the letter that forms the crucial strategy in conversational hypnosis as it helps the clients in not giving up. The conversation combined with recurrent theme has been found to aid the clients in resisting their temptations to give up hypnotherapy sessions in the light of difficulties they face in overcoming their problems. We can illustrate this with a case in example of a youth who has been abused during her childhood by taking a leaf from O’Hanlon, an expert in the field of conversational hypnotherapy. The theme of the letter in this case would be towards reassuring the client by acknowledging that she has been abused but the exemplary courage shown by her would make her to emerge stronger from the ordeal and not weaker as perceived by the society. The contents would be framed something along these lines: ‘You, (the name of the client) have been over time strengthened in spite of the adverse circumstances to which you have been pushed into and while you were trying to overcome such sufferings, everyone around you have been attempting to weaken you by trying to make you a slave of such adverse circumstances, but  paradoxically such attempts had only strengthened your resolve to be your own person wherein your distinct identity has come into the fore’. ‘I, (that is the hypnotherapist) believe an evil has been perpetuated on you on account of which you were degraded, but, at no point of time, you were broken. To my (that is hypnotherapist’s) way of thinking, you (that is the client) are a heroine without your knowledge of being a heroism’.

Conversational hypnotherapy claims a special place in the field of hypnotherapy because it is found to be equally useful in helping children especially those who have been labeled with the painful term Attention-deficit Hyperactivity (ADHD). Hypnotherapists see it in a different light, vis-a-vis their counterparts viz, the psychiatrists, as for hypnotists it is a social construct that depends to a great extent on the ways they talk about. Narrative therapeutic experts like David Nylund, Victor Corsiglia etc have developed new ways and methods to talk with such children by encouraging them to describe their own views of their conditions to the extent they are able to do so. In their experiments they found varying expressions as in the case of a 15 year old child who stated that his ADHD was reflected in ‘being able to watch two TV-channels at the same time’ and the more significant point of that statement came from his next statement which was to the effect that he was able to pick up something from each channel’. The underlying line of treatment in conversational hypnotherapy whether it is in the cases similar to the one quoted above or others is that the clients are helped by enabling them to reconsider their hitherto held belief that they are incompetent. The suggestive technique followed by conversational hypnotherapy specialists conveys a sense of belief in their clients that they are much more intelligent than they believe and besides not necessarily in what society thinks as skills but in their being vested with special skills of creative talents as, say, capacity to learn and excel in music, sports, dance or anything similar to them which fall outside the narrow definition of skills which the society values in a mundane manner.

Nonetheless, for those who sit on the other side of the fence and has made it a habit to criticize and naildown hypnosis and hypnotherapists, conversational hypnosis is yet another form of manipulation which inherently is embodied in lying, cheating, and manipulations. To them the alternative points of view used by hypnotists is nothing but lying and consequently those who have taken to the field of hypnotherapy become vulnerable to such ethical criticisms. To them, there is no way by which in conversational hypnosis the right can be distinguished from the wrong, a lie can be distinguished from a truth. They refuse to see the point that the use of alternative or redescriptions does not have to rely on lying or cheating.

Again those who would have watched the election campaign of Barrack Obama would be familiar with the criticisms of his using conversational hypnosis in the negative sense of the term. They called the techniques used by him by a variety of terms as ‘pacing’, ‘vagueness’, ‘rolling out  meaningless statistics in a reckless manner’ etc which were all meant to decouple the listeners from rational thinking. Once the rational thoughts were suspended, conversational therapy, according to them, had  achieved its objective by gaining entry into the   emotional state of mind of the listeners/ voters  through the creation of  an ‘inside’-loved group centered on symbols with an ‘outside’-hated group which is used as a scapegoat for all the ills pervading ills of  the society. In order to lend credence to their criticisms, these critics quote examples of other political leaders, famous or disgraced as Adolph Hitler who resorted to occultists to achieve the results which according to them was ultimately responsible in causing misery to humanity. While these critics have not gone to the extent of comparing Obama’s speeches to such crude exercises as mentioned above as according to them he was able to refine them with other techniques as Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) yet there was no watering down of the substance of criticisms.

While we do not subscribe to the above views, the purpose of pointing out this is to keep the readers informed that those who believe and practice ethically the science and art of hypnotherapy would always tell you that it is illegal to subject you to such a therapy without your consent. As informed citizens, you may know well that any therapy relies on trust between the clients and their therapists and the option always lies with you as clients to ignore the communication contained in the conversational hypnotherapy if you think it is insincere. Conversational hypnosis is always contextual in nature in that it contains statements of what is relevant and not relevant and what is important and not important. There is always a value judgment involved because conversational hypnosis sessions are conducted after evaluation of the situation with which a client is faced with and no ethically believing hypnotherapist would impose such value judgments on his/her clients  at any point of time. The import of value judgment is all the communications have an influencing element attached to them and hypnotherapy in general and conversational hypnosis in particular is a double-edged sword which can cut either way. A sword or a knife can be used for a good or a bad cause. Unjustified criticisms is similar to one excusing oneself from taking the responsibility for his/her action which at best can be thought of as an escapist attitude but to lay the blame on somebody else, as on a hypnotherapist in this case,  is a blatant violation of natural justice.