Hypnotherapy Online Blog

Hypnosis can be, no doubt, successfully employed in teaching how to master the following skills:

To swim
To skate
To ride a bicycle
To ride a horse
To drive a car
To dance
etc., etc.,etc.

Suggestions Daily Updates

Auto-suggestion is of considerable assistance in correcting personality faults. Though E. Coué, whose popular acclaim fifteen or twenty years ago still lingers in many minds, had little to contribute to our understanding of the nature of suggestion, practically he was on the right track in urging his followers to cultivate self-confidence as the key to a successful life. He used to say:6"Whoever starts off in life with the idea: 'I shall succeed', does succeed because he does what is necessary to bring about this result. If only one opportunity presents itself to him, and if this opportunity has, as it were, only one hair on its head, he seizes it by that one hair. Further, he often brings about unconsciously or not, propitious circumstances."He who on the contrary always doubts himself never succeeds in doing anything. He might find himself in the midst of an army of opportunities, with heads of hair like Absalom, and yet he would not see them and could not seize a single one, even if he had only to stretch out his hand in order to do so. And if he brings about circumstances, they are generally unfavorable ones. Do not then blame fate, you have only yourself to blame."

Suggestions Daily News

To put it more specifically, hypnosis as a curative agency should be applied only to those bodily disturbances and mental ailments which are directly or closely connected and regulated by the autonomic nervous system. Suggestion does not perform miracles, let it be understood once for all. It is completely helpless in maladies rooted in anatomical defects or in physiological troubles basically independent of the involuntary system. It is, indeed, foolish to hope that hypnosis will cure diphtheria, syphilis, or appendicitis. Fully recognizing these obvious limitations, we should not at the same time forget that there exist cases, quite numerous in fact, in which the symptom has merely the appearance of an anatomical defect, as in hysterical blindness, deafness or paralysis. The physician should remain strictly scientific in his diagnosis and know how to differentiate between these psychic ailments and similar organic maladies that require ordinary surgery or are totally incurable.

Hypnosis Research News Blog

Scientific literature is full also of isolated instances of successful treatment of other diseases; but such cases require further observation and verification. Anyway, the above list is long enough to give us a general idea as to the possibilities of hypnotic research and practice. Not being a physician and having made, consequently, few medical observations of my own, I shall limit myself to a single illustration. Several years ago I was closely associated with a distinguished scholar, Professor F., who suffered from a grave case of asthma. The disease took finally an acute form that threatened to interrupt a fruitful career. For months he was forced to abstain from all work and tiresome exercise, and still physicians failed to help. Then one day, as I was informed, he came across a Christian Scientist. I presume Dr. F. had despaired of medical assistance and was ready to try something new. People do become prone to be converted in the days of a health crisis. What transpired between the two, I do not exactly know. What is important here is that a prestige-and-faith relationship was evidently established between them, and suggestion was sufficient to effect a cure where medicine had failed to help. I regret only that the means of effecting it was not scientific.

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Hypnosis Blog Updates

Let me cite a more detailed passage from one of my hypnosis subject's reports: "There is no other state comparable to it. It is somewhat between a waking and a sleeping state-a drowsy, comfortable inertia envelops one. Regardless of the position taken, whether sitting, slouching, or reclining, during the state I feel utterly at ease. I have never had the desire to awaken nor to fall asleep-merely to continue in that state. There is no consciousness of the body, of the chair, of the room, of anything, except the voice, speaking, speaking, speaking. Under this state I am conscious of nothing, yet acutely aware of everything. The tick of the clock, the dropping of a pin, the window shade moving, the opening of the door, the mere change in pitch in Dr. Winn's voice-no change in the environment escapes me."

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Hypnosis Suggestions Daily Helpful Hints

We are justified in concluding, therefore, that the resistance of a person in a trance to improper suggestions is strong only as long as he is asked directly to violate his economic, moral, religious, or aesthetic convictions and interests. But he can be influenced to go against these convictions and interests, if his senses are deceived, if he acts under false assumptions, or if he is unaware of the implications of his conduct. His mistake-that is what it amounts to-may be disastrous, though natural, under special circumstances. The plain truth of the whole problem is, in the words of C. Baudouin, that any subject will follow a suggestion if he "imagines it to be possible." But he will resist or disobey a suggestion to do anything that he would not do ordinarily, if the act is presented as such.

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Hypnotic Experiments Info Blog

An interesting passage is found in one of Munthe's books, who wrote: "Most of the accusations against hypnotism are greatly exaggerated. So far I know of no well authenticated proof of a criminal act committed by a subject under hypnotic suggestion. I have never seen a suggestion made under hypnosis carried out by the subject which he or she would refuse to carry out if made during normal waking state. I affirm that if a blackguard should suggest to a woman under profound hypnosis that she should surrender herself to him and she should carry out this suggestion, it would mean that she would as readily have done so had the suggestion been made to her in a normal condition of waking life. There is no such thing as blind obedience. The subject knows quite well what is going on the whole time and what he is willing or unwilling to do. Camille, Professor Liégeois' famous somnambulist in Nancy, who would remain impassive and indifferent when a pin was stuck full length through her arm or a piece of burning charcoal put in her hand, would blush scarlet when the Professor pretended to make a gesture as if to disarrange her clothes, and wake up instantaneously. This is only one of the many baffling contradictions familiar to students of hypnotic phenomena and most difficult for the outsiders to understand. The fact that the person cannot be hypnotized without his or her will, must not be overlooked by the alarmists. Of course all talk about an unwilling and unaware person being hypnotized at a distance is sheer nonsense."

Hypnotic State Blog Update

Clinical literature is full of examples of such hypnotic conditioning. The subject is asked, for instance, to wake up on the following morning precisely at three o'clock, to take a book and read for fifteen minutes. In order to make the experiment conclusive and convincing, he may be instructed to forget about the order, but to execute it as it were spontaneously. True enough, the subject wakes up at the indicated time and does everything exactly as instructed. Afterwards, if asked why he did it, he will, in all probability, retort that there was really nothing extraordinary about his actions. He simply woke up and, feeling that he would not be able to go back to sleep immediately, decided to take a book and to read for a while. The human power of rationalization is truly amazing, and men tend to explain away anything that does not suit their purposes or evades their comprehension.

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The Hypnotic State Helpful Hints

When the practician loses his confidence, for example-that it is difficult to arouse the subject from the trance. The situation may be quite disconcerting and, if the sitting is performed in public, highly embarrassing. Nevertheless, there is no ground for worry. The trance normally passes into natural sleep, out of which the subject emerges spontaneously or can be easily awakened after a while. The few cases on record of an exceptionally prolonged sleep (lasting for hours or even days) represent rare exceptions and have really nothing to do with hypnosis: they must be considered as due to hysteria.

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Hypnosis Suggestions Daily News

Unless you give these or similar pre-hypnotic suggestions, the subject might develop uneasiness and manifest unpleasant sensations from which the practician ought to protect him. There is no reason why the hypnotic state should not be effective as well as pleasant. I remember my first attempt at hypnotizing, when I knew very little of what to expect. The subject, a young man of twenty, entered the state surprisingly easily but immediately afterward began to groan and to move about. Naturally, I became somewhat frightened and decided immediately to awake-him. But for a minute or so, neither could he get out of the trance nor could I arouse him. Nothing more serious happened, of course; nevertheless, I promised myself to take, henceforth, every precaution against similar accidents.

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Hypnotic Experiments News Blog

Nevertheless, comparatively simple experimentation shows that, in many instances of light hypnosis, it is hardly noticeable at all. The subject, on being aroused from the state, will commonly report on what has been said by other persons during the experiment. He might even spontaneously react to their remarks. We must conclude, therefore, that, whereas the prestige-and-faith relationship is absolutely necessary for successful hypnotizing, rapport is merely a common concomitant. As a matter of fact, such was essentially the view of Braid who pointed out long ago that rapport is not a necessary condition of hypnosis, but is created by suggestion. This position was recently confirmed by P. C. Young and others. As E. S. Conklin briefly puts it, "rapport is but a form of partial anesthesia, the subject being limited in his sensory responses to those aroused by the hypnotizer."By combining both aspects of hypnosis, physiological and psychological, we arrive at the following definition of the hypnotic state: it is a prestige-and-faith relationship in which the practician uses his advantageous position to influence by suggestion the subject's autonomic nervous system, in order to effect desired bodily inhibitions and excitations and to condition his mind accordingly.

Hypnotical Experiments Info Blog

"I place five new postage stamps upon a white card and ask (a hypnotized Hindu subject) to count them, which he does correctly pointing his finger to each in turn. I then point to two of the stamps and tell him they will be no longer there when he again looks at the card. I then ask him to count the three stamps again, and he points to and counts the three stamps and denies that the others are there. I then shuffle the stamps, while hidden from his vision, and ask him to count again. In spite of the changes of position of the stamps. still neglects and denies the two tabooed stamps. This illustrates two points: first, that the two stamps are really in some sense perceived; secondly, that they are perceived and finely discriminated from the other three; for, if they were not thus perceived and discriminated, they could not be singled out for neglect. But nevertheless, the two stamps are, in some sense, really invisible to the subject."The paradox that the stamps are seen and yet not seen by the patient," concludes Professor McDougall, "can only be resolved by the hypothesis that he at the same time is a divided personality, one part of which sees the two stamps and prevents the other from seeing them." This supposition, so appealing to the mystic or the animist and so convenient for hasty interpretations, is devoid of scientific meaning, as it cannot be, or at least has never been, translated into physiological terminology. In absence of any alternative hypothesis, scientists may be forced to resort to it.

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Hypnotherapy Online Blog

Much and varied evidence is available in support of the belief that the bodily mechanism underlying hypnosis is identical with that involved in ordinary waking suggestion. It is hardly necessary to embark upon a detailed theoretical discussion of the problem, or even to study countless medical records. It will be sufficient to consider the following simple facts, to recognize this identity.A number of years ago, I entered a grocery store to buy a few tomatoes, my favorite vegetable. As I was selecting them, I happened to turn over one large tomato, right in time to see a large, fat worm crawl out of it. It was silly, of course, to allow myself to be influenced by this sight-I did not buy that tomato, after all-but the fact remains that I could not eat any tomatoes that day and for the subsequent year. The mere sight of tomatoes would invariably bring back the recollection . . . and disgust. Even today I have not completely regained my former predilection for the vegetable. As a psychologist, I should have known how to combat the unpleasant association created by my experience in the grocery store. But psychologists, I presume, are as helpless in fighting some mental weaknesses as physicians are in overcoming some bodily ailments. Anyway, the auto-suggestive influences generated by the memorable tomato were powerful enough to modify my taste for a long time, if not for ever.

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Hypnotherapy Scoops

Scholars already begin to transcend their distrust of hypnosis and to realize the coming importance of the study of suggestion. In their natural caution, they are inclined to be conservative in estimates and expectations. Perhaps this should be so. Yet every person having relevant and up-to-date knowledge feels that the theoretical and practical discoveries awaiting us, as soon as research gains in courage and depth, are likely to transcend our best hopes. In the words of one of the few scientists now devoting their time and effort to the study of suggestion, "the first and last words which M. H. Erickson, "Possible Detrimental Effects of Experimental Hypnosis," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1932Blankfort, Michael, "Why We Don't Know Much About Hypnosis," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1932. A similar position was taken, among other psychologists, by T. Ribot, H. Muensterberg, W. McDougall, and C. Hull can be said of hypnosis is that it is the most interesting and most profound of all psychological material which has merited so little attention."Are the above claims justified? Does hypnotism, indeed, offer data of genuine scientific importance and a method of great practical value ?

Post-Hypnotic Suggestion News Blog

The expression, "post-hypnotic suggestion," is somewhat misleading. Really it refers not to suggestions given after the trance, but to those offered during it to be executed subsequently. Bernheim described the phenomenon in his Suggestive Therapeutics as "inducing in somnambulists by means of suggestion, acts, illusions of the senses, and hallucinations which shall not be manifested during the sleeping condition, but upon waking."The first scientists who studied the phenomenon were Liébeault, Richet, Bernheim, and Delboeuf. Their principle interest was amnesia. They discovered that one of the most common results of deep hypnosis is a complete inability on the part of the patient to recall anything that transpired during the sitting. Soon they found also that an appropriate suggestion during the trance will produce the same effect, even if the state was not very deep.Amnesia was originally regarded as essential to all post-hypnotic suggestion. Even today it is usually asserted that "post-hypnotic commands are as a rule better executed if amnesia is present.

Hysteria and Hypnosis Blog

I concur with J. F. Babinski6 in his conviction that hysteria is a state of abnormal suggestibility. It is generally acknowledged, indeed, that people suffering from this disease react vigorously to outside influences. They are easily carried away by ideas uttered in their presence, they let imagination break the boundaries of the common sense, they are led with facility to the extremes of emotionality. If we are to understand the neurosis of hysteria, however, it is necessary to go beyond the simple assertion that hysterics are excessively suggestible. For it is not enough to grant that hysteria is closely associated with suggestibility or merely to define it as a pathological state of suggestibility. After all, what is the bodily mechanism underlying those after-effects of suggestion, which are separated, as in hysterical or hypnotized persons, from conscious regulation?Suggestion, it is true, is sometimes experienced consciously, and one is more or less distinctly aware of its workings. It has to be experienced to start with-seen or heard, sometimes even understood. On the 6 "My Conception of Hysteria and Hypnotism," Neurologist.

Hypnosis Helpful Hints

"While practising as a young doctor, he had one day been obliged to go out and had deemed it advisable to lock up a patient in his absence. Just as he was leaving the house he heard the sound as of a body suddenly falling. He hurried back into the room and found his patient in a state of catalepsy. Monsieur Burq was at that time studying , and he at once sought for the cause of this phenomenon. He noticed that the door-handle was of copper. The next day he wrapped a glove around the handle, again shut the patient in, and this time nothing occurred. He interrogated the patient, but she could give him no explanation. He then tried the effect of copper on all the subjects at the Salpetriere and the Cochin hospitals, and found that a great number were affected by it."

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Hypnotherapy Update

"The two leffahs, more vigorous and less docile than the buska, lay half curled up, their heads on one side, ready to dart forward, and followed with glittering eyes the movements of the dancer. * * * Hindoo charmers are still more wonderful; they juggle with a dozen different species of reptiles at the same time, making them come and go, leap, dance, and lie down at the sound of the charmer's whistle, like the gentlest of tame animals. These serpents have never been known to bite their charmers."

It is well known that some animals, like the opossum, feign death when caught. Whether this is to be compared to hypnotism is doubtful. Other animals, called hibernating, sleep for months with no other food than their fat, but this, again, can hardly be called hypnotism.

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The Hypnotic Condition Bulletin

Persons in the hypnotic condition have been able to tell what other persons were doing indistant parts of a city; could tell the pages of the books they might be reading and the numbers of all sorts of articles. While in London the writer had an opportunity of witnessing a performance of this kind.There was a young boy who seemed to have this peculiar power. A queer old desk had come into the house from Italy, and as it was a valuable piece of furniture, the owner was anxious to learn its pedigree. Without having examined the desk before hand in any way the boy, during one of his trances, said that in a certain place a secret spring would be found which would open an unknown drawer, and behind that drawer would be found the name of the maker of the desk and the date 1639. The desk was at once examined, and the name and date found exactly as described. It is clear in this case that this information could not have been in the mind of any one, unless it were some person in Italy, whence the desk had come. It is more likely that the remarkable supersensory power given enabled reading through the wood.

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