Hypnosis, more than just a magic trick

                “You are getting sleepy” are the last words you hear as you close your eyes and shut out the gold watch waving in front of your face. This is the classic image that is conjured when imagining a hypnotist or circus sideshow. Hypnosis is not as simple a phenomenon as circus shows make it seem. How does the brain work to override a person’s better judgment and leave them quacking like a duck on stage? What gives the suggestions spoken by a virtual stranger such power? All of these questions and more have been studied by analyzing the brain and its various regions activated at certain times.

                Hypnosis is a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation, and heightened imagination1. Hypnosis employs the same concentration necessary when one focuses deeply on something. Hypnosis has often been compared to sleeping and dreaming, because both create an alternate reality. The rapid eye movement (REM) observed during hypnosis is similar to that noted in sleep and while dreaming. There is however a major difference between the two, when one is sleeping they are not alert or aware of anything around them. A person who is hypnotized is fully alert and aware of their surroundings. In this sense hypnosis is much more similar to day dreaming; in which a person is alert, but extremely relaxed and focused on something. The brain gives off many types of waves that have been detected by fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) scans. Scans indicated the prominence of different waves which can be used to determine the physical and mental state of a person. fMRI’s detect beta brain waves when a person is awake and doing normal activity. The polar opposite of this is sleep in which the brain gives off delta waves. During hypnosis, when a person is highly relaxed alpha brain waves are detected. Another brain wave noted during extreme relaxation, such as yoga, but not during hypnotism are theta brain waves. When a person is hypnotized the brain exhibits both alpha and theta brain waves, but not delta waves. The fact that the brain does not exhibit the same waves as seen when sleeping shows that sleeping and hypnosis are not the same.

                Hypnosis was used centuries before it had been understood. Early accounts of the use of hypnotism can be seen in India as an anesthetic; patients would be able to have limb amputations with only hypnosis and no pain medication2. Hypnosis was able to seemingly cure a person’s life long phobias or addictions. The power of the simple suggestions used in hypnosis is amazing. It seems to prove that everyone can do anything they set their mind to; because the sky is the limit but conscious thought is the wall inhibiting people from achieving the endless possibilities.

                The first recorded hypnotic study was carried out in the early 18th century by Dr. Franz Mesmer. Dr. Mesmer would create a mystical environment for his patients, he would dim lights and play music on a glass harmonica, he infused his patients with an invisible, "magnetic fluid that only he was able to muster”3.  He would then attach magnets to various parts of the body. His results found that the patient would feel streams of mysterious fluid go through their body. He would move his hands along the patient’s body and stare intently into their eyes. The patients would come out of a session and claim to be healed of pain or a phobia. While this was a very interesting theory it did not impress the scientific world as it failed in its attempt to treat a blind 18-yr-old.  This unsuccessful attempt at understanding the complexities of the brain did not go without notice. This was the first time that the power of suggestion and brain manipulation over the body was studied and recorded. Dr.Mesmer would stare intensely at his patients and ‘mesmerize’ them. In his honor the English word mesmerize, holds roots in Dr. Mesmer’s name.   

                Although Mesmer’s original idea was rejected the idea of hypnosis was still played with by numerous scientists. Kossylan and Thompson, two doctors on the medical faculty at Harvard University hypnotized eight people. The participants were asked to visualize color on grey areas of a paper, and then to drain color or see grey in areas of color on the paper. They observed the participants completing this task first without having been hypnotized and then after hypnotism. Brain scans using fMRI showed that there was indeed a variation in the cerebral activity during each trial. When the participants were not hypnotized the brain scans indicated activity in only the right hemisphere of the brain. When the participant was hypnotized brain scans indicated activity in both the left and right hemisphere.4 The right hemisphere acted in patients who were not hypnotized to see a color or create an imagination of color, independent of the reality they see. When hypnotized the left hemisphere of the brain is also active, indicating that more is involved than just the imagination created by the right hemisphere. It proves that “hypnosis changes the conscious experience.”4 The participants were disillusioned or disassociated with their surroundings and that created an alternate reality.

                Another famous example of the wonders of hypnotism can be seen in a recent study conducted by Dr. Amir Raz from Columbia University. Dr. Raz worked to prove the stroop effect to be inactive when hypnotized. The stroop effect is the belief that since reading is automatic and ingrained in people the natural response would be to read a word more quickly than to note the color it is written in. For example if the word red is written in green. The brain would automatically read the word “red” which would override its ability to say what color the word is written in. The experiment involved hypnotizing patients to test how the stroop effect is altered. It was noted that participants who were hypnotized could more easily say the color the word was written in rather than read the word itself. The brain scans indicated that the visual area of the brain that decodes words was not activated in participants who were hypnotized. Also regions that were towards the front of the brain that normally detect and work out conflicts was dampened. The fact that this area was dampened allowed the hypnotic patient to say the color of the word rather than read the word, because the conflict between the color of the word and the word itself can be dampened. Hypnosis can help in overcoming the stroop effect, through the power of suggestion. This proves that suggestion can be a very powerful tool when the brain is open and susceptible to the hypnosis.  

                While it is still greatly debated as to the exact process of how hypnosis works, the effects on the brain have been seen through brain scans. As the scientists on the Harvard medical faculty and the scientists at Columbia found; different areas of the brain are activated during hypnosis and during a normal state. It has also been found that people who are more susceptible to hypnosis have a more active cingulate gyrus.  The cingulate gyrus is a portion in the middle of the brain that receives inputs from other areas of the cerebral cortex and analyzes them. This region of the brain is involved with attention, focus, and emotion. I think that if this area of the brain is more active it would heighten a person’s perceptions and analysis of sensory data since there would be an increase in focus and attention to surroundings, which to me seems as if it would impede the hypnosis effect rather than enhance it. If the analysis of sensory data is heightened then it is less likely for someone to see something that is not there. While that seems to make sense to me it turns out that this area of the brain being more active is an indication of being hypnotized on the brain scans of many people.

                One theory of how hypnosis works is based on the top-down or bottom-up method the brain uses to analyze information. In the bottom-up theory incoming sensory data travels to higher regions of the brain for more analysis, in the top-down theory the brain imagines what an outcome will be based on prior experience. Scientists have combined these two theories and hypothesized that the incoming sensory data is interpreted at higher regions in the brain and halfway will meet an output that has been generated from the brain based on previous experience, the top tends to overrule the bottom-up information.  It is as if all of reality is based on prior experience. This brings to light the question of what is reality, and is what we see real? It is amazing how our brain can create a reality based solely on experience. It is this method however that results in hypnosis. “If the top is convinced the bottom level of data will be overruled”2. If the top is convinced through suggestion then the output of what is seen as reality will be altered to fit the suggestion. This is how not only hypnosis works but how placebo pills (fake sugar pills) and other forms of psychologically suggestive medicines work. While they may have no actual chemical or biological effect on the body, the suggestion and the thought that something is there can create the reality of it being there.

                One experiment with hypnosis that was really interesting to me was a study conducted by Christina Liossi at the University of Wales in Swansea. The experiment consisted of eighty cancer patients that were undergoing radiation and chemotherapy. She had a portion of the patients hypnotized and undergo chemotherapy and radiation. It was found that the hypnotized patients experienced much less pain than those who were not hypnotized. I think this is a really interesting concept, it really shows the limitations of the conscious mind. This puts into perspective a person’s conscious ability versus their total ability, or ability shown during hypnosis. I wonder why a person’s ability to carry out something is limited when they are consciously thinking about it but when hypnotized much more can be done. This is similar to the example of how people can hold out a brick for 5 minutes normally but when hypnotized can hold out the brick for 15-20 minutes. One explanation I can come up with for why it is possible to carry out an activity longer when hypnotized is that when hypnotized one is focused on the task at hand, and since the focus is only on that task it is accomplished with much more vigor than normal. Another explanation that I thought was possible, takes the opposite view, that when hypnotized the mind is not focused on the task at hand but rather on something else, so the task at hand can subconsciously be carried out longer without being focused or paid attention to.  

                This brings me to think more about the I-function. The I-function is our consciousness, and is noted through our conscious behavior. This means that when someone is not hypnotized the I-function is in use. For example when someone is actively thinking about how they want to bend their fingers, the I-function is activated and the person is not hypnotized. When a person is driving and drives home without thinking about it or a person zones out, it is an example of self-hypnotism. As we described in class these events are something that happens when the I-function is not activated but is “taking a break”. This is the same phenomenon that occurs during hypnotism. It seems that hypnotism is a method of damping the ability of the I-function in a person, resulting in less of a conscious behavior.

                While hypnotism is still under great controversy in today’s world, it has definitely gained more importance than just a circus side show in today’s society. I think it would be an interesting topic to continue to study. I think it would help understand hypnotism better if it is possible to use a brain scan and analyze the brain as a person transitions from a normal state to one of hypnotism. This way the changes in the state of the brain can be noted clearly. I hope that further research will give way to further insight to hypnotism. Whether it is a magic trick or a mindset it has worked to ease the pain and rid the fears of many people in mysterious ways, and proves the power of suggestion over  the body.

RESOURCES

1. http://science.howstuffworks.com/hypnosis.htm
2. http://www.general-anaesthesia.com/misc/hypnosis.html
3. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/22/science/22hypno.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Organizations/C/Columbia%20University&pagewanted=all
4. http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2000/08.21/hypnosis.html 
5. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6385-hypnosis-really-changes-your-mind.html
6. http://www.counselorsassociated.com/lifechange3c.htm
7. http://www.uncommon-knowledge.co.uk/hypnosis.html
8. http://skepdic.com/hypnosis.html