Hypnosis. Any serious research?

[plindboe]

I have been chatting with a previously very depressed and social fobic girl who stopped taking her anti-depressants so she could be hypnotized by a healer. After her first visit at the healer she seems very happy and filled with confidence, which is a dramatic change. She still has two more visits at the healer. Each appointment costs 500kr (About $70 I believe). She told me she was skeptical to begin with but now totally believes(or rather knows) it works, because she definitely got it much better afterwards.

Looking at their site they don't really speak any weird pseudoscientific stuff, they just promise that hypnosis somehow can influence the subconscious. For danish readers: http://www.livsdoktoren.dk/

I can imagine hypnosis might have a severe psychological impact, perhaps even more than actual therapy could have, but why? Have there been any serious research into the matter? I also wonder if hypnosis will work in a less degree on a person who is extremely skeptical about such stuff?

 

[steenkh]

There was an article in Scientific American a couple of years back that addressed these questions. As far as I remember, the drift of the conclusion was that hypnosis could be a valuable tool for a psychologist but dangerous tool in the hands of a quack. Not everybody can be hypnotised, and only very few to the level that you see in shows and film.

When I was a child, I had a book on hyopnotism, and I used it to hypnotise my school mates. It is difficult to say how many were actually hypnotised, because there was a good deal of play involved, but there was especially one boy who seemed to be able to go into a hypnotic state within seconds, once he had got the hang of it. Unless he was pulling my leg. In general, it was rather boring, and mostly disappointing for everyone concerned.

The actual hypnotisation "ritual" consisted of me droning "You are going into a trance, you are going into a trance", sometimes up to a quarter of an hour. I suspect that actually falling asleep has a great deal to do with getting hypnotised.

I definitely never delved into any psychological aspects of my subjects, but I think that much is possible. The website you link to, claims that it is not possible to make people do things they wouldn't do in real life. That is nonsense, because they are in a dream world where they would not harm anybody, but they could still do things that they have thought fully through. You may convince them that they are standing on a ledge, and you can probably not make them jump, but I am sure you can make them step backward, even if there really is a hole behind them ...

If they do not like the hypnotiser, they may not reveal anything at all, but if they do like her, then they might be prompted to reveal where the jewelry is kept at home. And so on.

I think that hypnosis is a form of self-help. People who can be hypnotised are people who are more willing to accept suggestions from other people, and these suggestions might be helpful whether the patient is hypnotised or not. Hypnotisation just opens them up a little bit more.

Whether there really is a subconscious level that can be influenced, I will leave to the theorists.

 

[Hand Bent Spoon]

IMO, hypnosis is little more than pretend for adults. It is little more than the subject being willing to accept the hypnotist as their 'leader', and simply doing what that leader wants them to do. There is nothing more to it than that, IMO.

And hypnosis being dangerous? Rediculous. It is no more dangerous than any imaginative play carried out by children.

 

[geni]

Loads. pubmed lists 540 clincal trials.

 

[plindboe]

Thanks for the replies steenkh, Hand Bent Spoon & geni.

 

[Phrost]

Shermer's got a bit about it in his "Borderlands" book. He labels it a good example of something that might have some merit, but is also muddled by a lot of woo-woo.

 

[JMA]

Hi,

Richard A. Baker (who wrotte many times in the "Skeptical Inquirer") is the auteur of a very good book about hypnosis:

"They Call it Hypnosis"

You can find this book at: http://www.prometheusbooks.com/ (in the section "Science & the paranormal").

Baker, and other famous sceptics like Elisabeth Loftus and Nicholas Spanos, did realy fascinating researchs about hypnosis.

For Wislon, Barber, Baker, Loftus, Spanos (and so on...), Hypnosis do not exist!

Hypnosis is only a mixt between relaxation, mental imagery and suggestibility. There is no such state as "hypnosis state".

They did a lot of experimental works in order to prove that. "They Call it Hypnosis" is a review of all these researchs. It's a very conclusive book for me...

See you,