More and more studies prove that hypnosis is effective in relieving pain, helps to get rid of fears, anxiety after surgery. Brain scans confirm that hypnotic suggestion is not fiction, but a real phenomenon. About the prospects of this method.
The experience of suggestion
“I was a heavy smoker. The addiction threatened to ruin my life, but giving up on it was dangerous. Those two or three months that I did not smoke, I was overcome with inner suffering, I could not concentrate, it affected my ability to work, communication with others, - this is how a psychotherapist from New York, Gary Alskog, describes his story.
Classes with a psychoanalyst helped to understand the cause of the disorder, but did not cure. One day Alskog dialed the number of the first hypnotist he found in the directory and for fun went to visit him. Sitting comfortably in a chair and relaxing, he heard the command to raise his hand and immediately thought: "Nothing will come of it, these things don't work for me." To Gary's surprise, the hand rose by itself. It became obvious that the body obeys external influences.
It seemed to Alskog that he was immersed in an orange glow, he did not want to think. At that moment, the question was asked: is he ready to quit smoking? Internally, Gary agreed and said yes, although it was perceived as someone else's answer. By the end of the session, it seemed to him that he was listening only to his inner voice, and not to the hypnotist. And he was spoken of as a different person.
After the session, he did not want to smoke. The sight of people blowing smoke did not arouse desire either. However, skepticism persisted: how long would the effect last? A weak trance state persisted until evening. The next morning, it turned out that he was not attracted to cigarettes, and an awareness of deep internal changes appeared.
Promotional video:
In sleep and trance
“Psychotherapists are not very fond of the word hypnosis, they often use the term“human trance state”. I agree with my colleagues: I believe that there is no hypnosis as such, there is self-hypnosis. People in certain situations can enter themselves into a special regime and give in to suggestion, for example, so as not to feel pain. Only ten to twelve percent of the population has this ability, they are called highly hypnotizable,”says Konstantin Olkhovoy, a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist from Moscow.
Hypnotizability is partly an innate trait, it is characteristic of people of some psychotypes. For example, the coding method for treating alcoholism is inherently hypnotic. It is effective because among people prone to addictions - smokers, drug addicts, alcoholics - the number of highly hypnotizable reaches 80-85 percent. At the same time, this ability can be developed.
Scientists consider hypnotic trance in a number of other altered states of consciousness: such as sleep, meditation, shamanic withdrawal from reality. Electroencephalograms of the human brain under hypnosis and during REM sleep are similar. Unlike a sleeping person, a person in a hypnotic trance can be contacted.
“Hypnosis by itself does not heal anything. However, in this state, the patient becomes more susceptible to suggestive influences - suggestions. Hence the official name for this method: hypnosuggestational therapy. For example, you can instill not feel pain. But a person must accept it himself, the doctor only gives him the opportunity to tell himself that there is no pain,”the expert continues.
In his practice, he uses Ericksonian hypnosis, developed in the USA in the 1950s. Now it is one of the modern methods of psychotherapy. It is milder than classical directive hypnosis; up to 90 percent of patients respond to the effect.
“Classical hypnosis is effective for coding for alcoholism. The Ericksonian method uses the capabilities of a person, it helps to deal with problems yourself, often remember something from the past, disconnect from disturbing thoughts. This is part of a systematic psychotherapeutic work,”explains Olkhovoy.
Why hypnosis relieves pain
Functional MRI has shown which areas of the brain are active during hypnosis. When immersed in this state (without performing tasks), the areas of the frontal cortex and thalamus are involved, which are responsible for imagining movements, relaxation, cognitive conflict, and pain. This is evidenced by the data of several studies, summarized in the work of scientists from McGill University (Canada).
Experts see hypnosis as one of the treatments for pain. It is inexpensive, takes little time, and the risk of side effects is minimal. For example, a researcher at the Royal London Hospital believes that hypnotherapy, or as it is also called "medicine of the imagination", can be used in dentistry to treat dental phobias in order to reduce the use of analgesics.
Employees at the University of Copenhagen Hospital (Denmark), after analyzing the results of ten clinical trials, noted that hypnosis helped to reduce the use of painkillers for 21-86 percent of test participants. In some studies, a sharp decrease in pain and anxiety was noted, in most cases this effect was insignificant.
Scientists from Italy and the UK have studied these trends with brain scans. They invited 20 volunteers, placed them in a scanner and asked them to lower their left hand into a container of ice water. At the same time, some of the subjects were introduced into a hypnotic trance. If people in the normal state felt pain, then those who were under hypnosis did not experience it, the areas of pain in their brain remained inactive.
Active parts of the brain during hypnosis. Areas of the anterior cortex are involved in the work of imagination, pain, cognitive conflict, relaxation.
There are known attempts to study hypnosis to help cancer patients. However, the results here are inconsistent - for example, researchers in France observed 150 women who underwent minimal surgery for breast cancer between 2014 and 2016. Some of them underwent a 15-minute session of hypnotherapy before general anesthesia. After the operation, all participants in the experiment were asked to rate the level of pain: there was no difference in perception. On the other hand, those who went through hypnosis experienced less nausea and fatigue.
In general, most researchers of this method in clinical practice point to the lack of scientific data on the mechanism of the onset and action of hypnosis, the lack of generally accepted hypotheses explaining its action.
The topic of hypnotherapy in wide scientific circles remains a taboo, which is partly to blame for the image spread in popular culture. This negatively affects the influx of young researchers and the funding of projects in this area.
“There are a lot of myths around hypnosis. But everyone can master it. Many actors and orators know how to lead the audience into a hypnotic trance. When a good lecturer speaks, half of the audience goes into a trance. The patient on the couch, not seeing the psychoanalyst, giving out free associations, is also, in fact, in a trance. But fraudsters often benefit from maintaining the belief that hypnosis is something mysterious. In fact, this is a person's own work with consciousness, deep relaxation. There is nothing mystical or magical here,”notes Konstantin Olkhovoy.
Traditionally, hypnotherapy was practiced in France and the United States, new methods were developed in Australia, but now this area is unpopular, like psychotherapy in general, the expert believes. They lose out to psychopharmacotherapy, where big money is spinning. Medication is faster, often cheaper, and requires no internal effort.
“People expect the therapist to snap his fingers and everything will pass, but it is not. There are few miracles in psychotherapy, it is a long painstaking work,”the specialist explains.
Tatiana Pichugina
