Definition - Brain Wave Frequencies - Research
Hypnosis is:
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"A state or condition in which the subject becomes highly responsive to suggestions. The hypnotized individual seems to follow instructions in an uncritical, automatic fashion and attends closely only to those aspects of the environment made relevant by the hypnotist. If the subject is profoundly responsive, he or she hears, sees, feels, smells, and tastes in accordance with the suggestions given, even though these may be in direct contradiction to the actual stimuli that impinge upon the subject. Furthermore memory and awareness of self can be altered by suggestions. All these effects may be extended post hypnotically into the individual's subsequent waking activity. It is as if suggestions given during hypnosis come to define the individual's perception of the real world. In this sense, the phenomenon has been described as a "believed in fantasy." (1990 Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.) |
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Deep Relaxation |
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Focused Concentration |
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Daydreaming |
Brain Wave Frequencies - As they relate to hypnosis
Through hypnosis we are able to relax the physical body, bypass the critical factor or the mind, and utilize the other levels of consciousness. Levels of conciousness are measured through the frequency of electrical brain wave activity (Hertz or HZ), a unit of frequency equal to one cycle per second.
| Beta | 13-30 + Hertz | Awake and Alert |
The beta state is a state of alertness and awareness in which (theoreticaly) we spend most of our waking time. We are able to experience our invironment, thoughts, and feeling. .. |
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| Alpha | 8-12 Hertz | Relaxed |
The Alpha state is a state of alertness and awareness is redirected. It is often accompanied by a sense of drowsiness and compliance. We slip into alpha in that transitional state of being half awake and half asleep; when we are "day dreaming"; distracted by a motion process; driving; or when we are simply engrossed in a fire, a book or a movie. .Return To Top |
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| Theta | 3-7 Hertz | Reverie, Imagery, Near Sleep |
Theta is the state thata occurs between the light drowsiness and relaxation of alpha and the more profound heavy sleep in delta. . |
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| Delta | 0.5 - 2 Hertz | Sleep |
| . The delta state is associated with the deepest stages of sleep. |
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Understanding
Hypnosis:
A
Journey Through Time To A New Psychological Paradigm
John
J. Moore
Abstract
This
is an overview of some of the key factors that have detracted from the
therapeutic uses of hypnosis while at the same time sighting the many positive
outcomes it has produced. It is a
perplexing topic that seems fraught with contradictions.
If it can be such a useful tool to help clients find relief from pain,
relax, lose weight, stop smoking or cope with fears why is there such confusion
about its’ use or value?
History
By
looking at some of the roots or beginnings of the uses of hypnosis it becomes
apparent why there is such a shadow hanging over it’s current application.
Shamans and medicine men used suggestive healing for centuries before Dr. Anton
Mesmer began studying it’s potential in the late 18th century. His
focus on “animal magnetism” that was discredited around 1780 by The French
Academy of Science was still culturally accepted among the masses (Gauld A. A
History of Hypnotism. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press; 1992).
On top of this the fact that many nonprofessionals were using hypnosis as
pure entertainment made it quite difficult for doctors to use it even though the
evidence strongly indicated its usefulness.
Methods
of inducing a hypnotic trance borrowed many of the same techniques used to
induce mesmeric trances. So much so that as late as 1890 William James, the
influential Harvard philosopher and psychologist, used "hypnotic,"
"mesmeric," and "magnetic" trances synonymously (Charcot JM.
Clinical Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System Delivered at the Infirmary
of La Salpariere, III. London, England: New Sydenham Society; 1889).
By maintaining this close association between the basic thinking of the
supposed uncontrollable influences of mesmerism and the more scientific uses of
hypnotism a perpetuated unrealistic conceptualization of what really took place
in hypnotism was maintained.
Sigmund
Freud practiced hypnotism enthusiastically between 1887 and 1892 only to abandon
it for his free association psychoanalytic technique of subsequent years, in
part because he decided that "it conceals from us all insight into the play
of mental forces”. (Freud S. On psychotherapy. In: Jones E, ed; Bernays J,
trans (1904). Collected Papers. London, England: Hogarth Press; 1950:249-263).
The
ideation’s that being hypnotized somehow took away free will conjures up all
kinds of unsavory thoughts. Many perceived hypnotic suggestion and chronic
substance abuse as diminishing, even robbing, a person of free will. Neither
physicians nor polite society wanted patients, even "degenerate
alcoholics,” on whom hypnotism was known to work, to become automatons by
hypnotic suggestion. On top of this
in the religious community the thought of being hypnotized suggested that
somehow you were opening up yourself to demons or some other power beyond your
control.
Many
people have seen cartoons or movies in which a wizard or someone of dubious
character takes a watch or a spinning wheel and places a person into a trance.
This person walks around like a mindless zombie carrying out commands
beyond their control. No matter how
hard one might try to explain a more rational understanding of what does and
does not happen under hypnosis these mental pictures remain etched into many
peoples minds.
Paradigm
Shift
Before
anyone who wants to truly get a clear understanding of hypnosis potential, all
previously held preconceptions must be put aside and while strictly looking at this phenomenon from a purely
clinical perspective. In so doing
it will be discovered that hypnosis does not look, or "behave," as you
thought it would. The way it does
work establishes it as a valuable tool that must not be overlooked.
The challenge remains in the difficulty of escaping from faulty thinking
that hinders a clear objective rendering about what is observed
In
the face of a scientific community that desperately wants an empirical means to
explain all psychopathology the tendency to reject otherwise potentially valid
information must be addressed. Richard S. Cowles suggests the need to establish
an alternative existential psychological paradigm (The Journal of Psychology,
July 1998 v132 n4 p357(10)). This existential-phenomenological model emphasizes
the individual's experience over any preconceived notions or diagnoses.
He sights specifically that children are a perfect illustration of how
perception proceeds experience. (Cowles 1998)
He
argues that children are able to experience certain phenomenon differently
because they have not entered the stage of adulthood where there is the mind-body
split. Piaget has shown that children do not have fully developed cognitive
processes and that they reach the formal operational thinking stage at about the
age of 11 or 12. This mind-body
split impacts perception and thus makes the way the child views the world as
being significantly different than that of an adult.
Specifically applied to hypnosis, children are more able to receive
maximum benefit and enter into a trance state more readily because of there
greater suggestibility that is uninhibited by excessive reasoning.
The
fact that clinicians don’t know why hypnosis works coupled with their already
pre-defined schema inhibits full openness to new experiences. The overtone of
misunderstanding from previous inaccurate knowledge predisposes these
individuals to erroneous conclusions.
Research shows that hypnosis does change therapeutic outcomes (e.g.,
complete anesthesia without chemical adjunct and the total recall of events
never consciously retained; Elman, D. (1964). Hypnotherapy. Glendale, CA:
Westwood)
Thus
in children versus adults, phenomena is reported as it is experienced rather
than being filtered through what is expected.
Children are not burdened with the same theories and facts about how the
world works and more importantly how it should
operate in our day-to-day lives. This
is a critical point in understanding how hypnosis is able to have the impact
that is does as will be shown in the course of this paper.
It
is precisely this tendency to hold to our own schemata that gives shape to our
perceived world that can hinder our ability to assimilate new ways of viewing
what goes on around us. Because we
are not personally familiar with or able to believe in another individuals sense
of reality does not preclude its validity.
David
Spiegel explains that the hypnotic state is one in which highly focused
attention (absorption) is coupled, usually, with physical relaxation, heightened
responsiveness to
Research studies show that children tend to be more easily induced into the trance state (Gardner, G., & Olness, K. (1981). Hypnosis and hypnotherapy with children. New York: Grune & Stratton). This finding gives us insight into how hypnosis is able to produce the results that it does. If you think of a group of children sitting in a circle listening to a fairy tale the point becomes perfectly clear. While listening to the tale the children will cover their eyes or shriek with fear in response to the details of the story they are hearing. In their minds eye they actually become involved with the events of the tale. They do not question the merits of possibility or unlikelyness of a given detail they just experience it. Similarly adults who are able to receive maximum benefit from hypnosis are those who are able to suspend disbelief. Thus if an individual has some of the correlates of hypnotizeability such as absorption, creativity, vividness of imagery, social desirability, a dissociative capacity, and others (Plotnick, A., Payne, P., & O'Grady, D. (1991) they will be able to enter a hypnotic trance that is much the same as that of a child. The foregoing comments do not suggest that those who do not have these traits can not be hypnotized it just suggests a greater or lesser degree of skill required by the therapist to induce the client into the desired state. Many practitioners believe motivation is as important as innate capacity for those who desire to be hypnotized.
That
brings us to another mental block for those who are not current with what they
know about hypnosis. Can someone be
forced to do what he or she would not ordinarily do while in a hypnotic trance?
To this issue an understanding of critical faculty is helpful. This is when the
impossible becomes possible. In a
trance a subject will accept a suggestion despite the fact that under ordinary
circumstances he might consider it an impossible idea. (Elman, 1964, pp. X-XI)
Kihlstrom et al. (1989) describing Shor's work (1959, 1962, 1979) states there
is no critical appraisal of this new subjective experience without the general
reality orientation. This allows for "unrealistic" psychological
moments to occur and be sustained. Shor emphasized that this process is
voluntary and motivated by the subject's projects and intentions. The hypnotist
is a "hypnotic operator" (Elman, 1964) who teaches the subject to
achieve the trance state and then, if the subject is willing, stimulates his or
her imagination. Consent is imperative to the process. "Nonviolation is
always an illusion," according to Shor (1970, p.95), as no suggestion will
be accepted by a subject who does not want that particular suggestion.
It Works
As
was mentioned earlier history is full of the efficacy of hypnosis.
For example, in 1898, C. Lloyd Tuckey reported that he had hypnotized 93
patients with alcoholism. Twentyfive remained
sober during a 2-year follow-up. He
also suggested to his patients, while
they where under trance, that they would vomit if they drank alcohol
subsequently, a cue that other practitioners adopted and found favorable in
limiting recidivist drinking (Tuckey CL. Treatment by Hypnotism and Suggestion
in Psychotherapeutics. 4th ed. London, England: Balliere Tindall and
Cox; 1900). No hypnotist came close to the results of
M. Tokarsky, MD, from Moscow, who reported that after hypnotizing 700
patients with alcoholism 80% remained sober for at least a year.
In
1996 a 12 member panel gathered information from 23 experts and reviewed
extesive medical literature and concluded that there is strong evidence
supporting the effectiveness of hypnosis in alleviating chronic pain associated
with cancer (JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, July 24,
1996 v276 n4 p313(6)..) In addition, the panel was presented with other data
suggesting the effectiveness of hypnosis
Marcia
Greenleaf, assistant clinical professor of psychology at Albert Einstein
Physiological
Explanations
Hypnosis has been hypothesized to block pain from entering consciousness by activating the frontal-limbic attention system to inhibit pain impulse transmission from thalamic to cortical structures, JAMA 1996. Helen Crawford, a psychology professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, says the sensation of pain is like any other mental process that can be controlled to some degree. Her tests of people experiencing hypnosis -- she's been mapping brain waves and measuring cerebral blood flow -- have shown increased activity in the brain's frontal region, which is known to inhibit sensory information. The pain still registers in other areas of the brain, but the hyped-up frontal cortex blocks its ascent into consciousness.
Crawford has observed
that electronic tracings of the brain waves of people undergoing hypnosis have a
surge of theta waves, which are associated with enhanced attention.
In two recent studies, measurements of blood flow and metabolic activity
by positron emission tomography (PET) have shown that hypnosis activates a part
of the brain involved in focusing attention, the anterior cingulate gyms. There
is also evidence that it enhances the activity of dopamine, a neurotransmitter
involved in planning, memory, and movement. Thus hypnosis is a
neurophysiological reality as well as a psychological and social one, David
Spiegel 1998.
Discussion
It
is unfortunate that hypnotherapy has had such a shaded past.
With all the documented examples of its proven usefulness it becomes
apparent that those who have not taken its therapeutic value seriously need to
look again at their reasoning. Do
clients have to miss out on receiving any potential therapeutic approach because
of a practitioner’s unwillingness to use better and more efficient ways of
addressing a given condition?
It's
easy to imagine the advantages. Once a client becomes proficient at hypnotizing
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Source:
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Title:
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Source:
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Title:
Hypnosis: trick or treatment? You'd be amazed at what modern
Author:
Jean Callahan
Source:
JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, Feb 26,
Title:
Hypnotism's medical heyday.(JAMA 100 Years Ago...In Perspective)
Author:
Robert L. Martensen
Gauld
A. A History of Hypnotism. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University
Charcot JM. Clinical Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System Delivered
Freud
S. On psychotherapy. In: Jones E, ed; Bernays J, trans (1904).
Tuckey
CL. Treatment by Hypnotism and Suggestion in Psychotherapeutics. 4th
Source:
The Journal of Psychology, July 1998 v132 n4 p357(10).
Title:
The magic of hypnosis: is it child's play?
Author:
Richard S. Cowles
Elman,
D. (1964). Hypnotherapy. Glendale, CA: Westwood.
Gardner,
G., & Olness, K. (1981). Hypnosis and hypnotherapy with children. New
Kihlstrom,
J., Register, P., Hoyt, I., Albright, J., Grigorian, E., Heindel,
Plotnick,
A., Payne, P., & O'Grady, D. (1991). Correlates of hypnotizability
Shor,
R. E. (1959). Hypnosis and the concept of the generalized
Shor,
R. E. (1962). Three dimensions of hypnotic depth. International Journal
Shor,
R. E. (1970). The three-factor theory of hypnosis as applied to
Shor,
R. E. (1979). A phenomenological method for the measurement of variables
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(Eds.), Hypnosis: Developments in research and new perspective (rev. ed.,
Hypnosis
- Harvard Mental Health Letter
Source:
Harvard Mental Health Letter, Sept 1998 v15 n3 p5(2).
Title:
Hypnosis.
Author: David Spiegel