Hypnosis

Reaper 392 said:
i've seen a program about this. it was not hypnotism, but the placebo effect that cured him of the disease. i cant remember what the disease was either (possibly something to do with elephant skin), but he certainly wasnt cured through hypnotism. he was given some medicine that he was told would clear up the disease, and this medicine cured him. many doctors wanted the medicine that cured the doctor gave him, but the doctor showed that it was something that really shouldnt have cured him

along the same lines as hypnotism but not quite the same


either that, or there were two similar cases
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Cool, I'll have to have a google when I get home and see what I can come up with :)

icecold said:
I saw a self hypnosis CD that claimed to build your ideal physique by using your body's own holographic image of itself.

This is how I've become so jacked.
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As daft as it sounds I am pretty sure there has been test studies where people imagined themselves lifting weights etc. Obviously they didn't have as much as an impact as the exercising group, but there was an improvement over the control group that did nothing.

It was in an old Mens Health magazine from several years ago, i'll see if I can dig it out :)
 
ennogs said:
Of course NLP works. Derron brown uses it a lot in his tricks.
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(Edit - as don't want to divert too far into talking about magic tricks)

He's certainly not a fan of NLP - in fact he's quite critical of it if you read his book. Most of his tricks just use psychology as misdirection, they're often just magic tricks and any supposed influencing of people or spectacular mental feats are part of the 'act'.
 
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AHarvey said:
Hypnosis can be used to cure warts believe it or not.

I also remember reading about a case where a hypnotist cured a patient of what he believed was warts but the doctor informed him it was actually some skin disease that couldn't be cured. I only found the one report however so not 100% convinced.

During my A level psychology I read a case report about a young boy with with 7 personalities, one of which had a allergic reaction to oranges while none of the others did. Shows that the power of the mind alone can have odd effects on the human body.
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You believe things quite easily don't you.
 
dowie said:
You believe things quite easily don't you.
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May I suggest you do some reading on the matter before trying to belittle people to make yourself feel better?

Hypnosis is well documented to aid or cure warts, go and have a google and look for yourself.

I've scanned through some of my old A-level psychology notes and there's note to a "Dr. Bennet Braun of the International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality, in Chicago" regarding the MPD and orange juice. Without digging all the books out of the attic I won't be able to find the full article. I've seen people have skin reactions under hypnosis simply because they've been told to when someone touches them, it was a very odd experience.

The person being cured of a skin disease is also in my text books but had a google and here: http://icanheal.webs.com/hypnosis.htm under "Curing the Incurable". This is the one area that even at A-Level seemed hinky due to the fact that a) as far as I am aware it's the only recorded case of it and b) it wasn't done as a study but perhaps as a media stunt, but who really knows!
 
AHarvey said:
Really depends on the level of intelligence. You will get levels of intelligence (or lack of) that will be unable to be hypnotised. But you are talking seriously thick.
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You're missing the point.
The stage hypnotist will tell the audience, or more to the point the 20 volunteers, and then tell them that thick low intelligence people can't be hypnotised.
This virtually guarantees that some will go along with it because they won't want their friends thinking they're thick.
At one evening me and my mate jumped up and just said 'We must be thick then' but the whole of the audience knew we weren't (it was a factory do).

As most of us know it is actually the other way round and low intelligent people who are easily hypnotised.
We used to have a lot of parties at the factory and used to hire a hypnotist called Eddie Burke and one workmate always became the main attraction.
He'd only ever seen Eddie Burkes show on video and decided this night to stand outside during the warm up until Eddie had got his subjects.
Chris came in, went to the bar, ordered some drinks and as soon as he heard Eddie's vocie he was under.
I took great delight in taking him to the stage and once again he never got to see the show because he was the show.
 
ennogs said:
Of course NLP works. Derron brown uses it a lot in his tricks. For example the trick where he convinces somebody their hand is stuck to the table is done with NLP and nothing else.
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Firstly that wouldn't be NLP, it would be hypnosis.

Secondly, even Brown himself says NLP is rubbish. I kind of feel like the guy who tells a kid that Santa isn't real but the vast majority of Derren Brown's tricks don't use psychology at all but rather basic magic dressed up as hypnosis. Especially in his stage shows where no trick relies on 'genuine' hypnosis.

Take his last stage show for example where he 'hynpotised' someone into drinking vinegar, In reality he was using a trick bottle and the person on stage was only ever drinking water but I bet most of the audience went home thinking it was a genuine show of power of suggestion.
 
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There's no difference between hypnotism and just persuading someone to do something.

If I asked you to grab an item from the side and pass it to me, and you did it you wouldn't say I hypnotized you into passing me something from the side and yet psychologically this isn't much different to asking someone to act like a chicken when they're at a stage show.
 
Quite a good episode of Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends on this, ends up with him being hynotised and he isn't surer whether it is peer pressure or he was hynotised.
 
I have a lot of experience with hypnotherapy and have come to the following conclusion for myself.

It works under the right circumstaces - the therapist needs to be good, and you need to trust said person and be open to their suggestions.

Practical example of this:

I have a phobia of being injected, blood taken, stictches... needly things, but not the needle in itself. No - not a fear, but an actual phobia, with unconciousness and involuntary convulsions being the end result.

* About 16 years ago my surfboard flew into my face, gashing my open from eye to cheek, meaning that I needed stitches. The doctor said that I could lose my eye if infection sets in, and I have no choice but to get stitched.

I explained to him my situation and that stitching me will be "impossible"and that I've tried to get over my phobia when my parents sent me to a Hypnotherapis before, who didn't really achieve anything. It so happens that the doc knew my previous therapist (i dont come from a big city) and he mentioned that he's done a similar course, though his methods are more agressive.

Long story short, I agreed to be stitched - thinking that the doc will "calm me down" using hypnosis and then when I've settled, proceed to stitch me. I recall him taking me through "the steps" and putting me in my "safe calm place" and felt him cleaning my face off. When he brought me back up again, I told him that he can go ahead and sew me up. One of the happiest moment in my life followed, when he told me that he'd completed the stitching while I was under.

In this scenario, hypnosis was like a miracle to me, however I have a contradicting anecdote as well.

Fast forward 14 years and I'm back at the same doctor, hoping he can help me mentally prepare for a medical procedure, for which I will need to be sedated for. (catch 22 situation - being sedated because of my phobia, but the only way to sedate me is by putting a needle in my hand). I havent seen this doc in that time, but when I saw him, I didn't recognise him and thought to myself that he doesn;t look like the man I was in awe of when I was a 16 year old kid. I thought he looked like a weedy nerdy type in fact. I went ahead with the therapy regardless and during the time I was in my safe place again, he put a needle in my hand to simulate the sedation needle. This lead to the worst and nigh on instantanious convulsions I've ever had. When I woke up from the attack, I was drenched in sweat like I had jumped into a swimming pool fully clothed.

So I guess all of the above is "cool story bro", but as I said, it's lead me to the conclusion that it does work, but depends entirely on you and your perception of the person administering the therapy and their skill as a therapist.

For what it's worth, through the years I've actually gotten better, and I put it dopwn to seing hypnotherapists sporadically through my life.
 
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I gave one of Paul Mckenna's confidence "tapes" a go to help with my IBS which wasn't being helped by being quite a nervous person.

The audio was in two parts a conscious one that you can listen to in the car to work or whatever with various positive thinking techniques and NLP. The second part was a relaxation type affair that you listen to with your eyes closed in bed or on a comfy chair.

I found they actually really helped and I haven't had a bout of IBS caused by nervousness since, maybe one or two wobbles but nothing bad.

Now I don't think it was some sort of supernatural mind control, rather I was just taking time to relax and listen to someone rationally convince me that there's really nothing to worry about, any problem or situation that you do come across can be solved, if it can't be solved it's out of my control and shouldn't worry about it. As everything was logical after a while of hearing the same thing I convinced myself that being nervous doesn't have any positive use and it's always better to use that time and energy for something positive.
 
I'm hlad ennoogs is here to give 'proper' voice ot this subject.
I've related my experiences before, some believe me, some don't.
Here goes,
My uncle was the Chariman of the National Council of Psychotherapists for about 6 years. He resigned about 6 years ago (i think) purely because he stopped practising.
However, he used to hypnotise me every week for about 2 years. I was his guinea pig and we did loads of stuff which were truly amazing experiences; past life regression (although wasn't very successful with me), guided imagery, anger management.
I was also stage hypnotised years before i first went to my uncle. My experience of it then was that hypnotism releases your inhibitions, but only to the limit that your sub-conscious will allow. I goofed around on stage (certainly wouldn't normally) pretending to be Elvis singing into a carrot for a microphone....in front of 600 people!
It felt....natural, like i did it everyday. There was no weird deep trans-like state.
Years later my unclce explained that hypnotism can be as effective as your imagination is broad.
He became chairman of the NCP after he'd earned a reputation as a hypnotherapist by successfully treating bulemics. Every one of his patients was cured.
Oddly enough, he joked that he had no luck with smokers, yet his colleauge never failed to cure them.
He was also very good with relieving anger, in me and in one guy he told me about (funny but longer story).

He also helped cure a guy who had osteo-arthritis in his arm for 23 years. He used amongst other techniques, guided imagery and had the patient imagine himself walking down the inside of his own arm (inside the bones), down into each finger (as if in a tunnel). He patient describes the walls of the tunnels (fingers) like badly plastered walls of a house. He was asked what he wanted to do and he replied that he would send in a team of plasterers to fill the holes (osteo-arthritic holes). He did this for about 2 years and at the end his arm was good enough to allow him to work again.

My uncles explanation was that most physical conditions original mentally (somehow). He also likened it to a scar on your skin. Your skin replaces itself every few days, yet the scar remains, why? Because our DNA encodes each cell with the information that is already in the cell its about to replace.
He explained that the technique was to 'reprogramme' the mind to change the purpose of the cell being sent to replace the old one.....if that makes sense.

My uncle himself had to have a hernia operation, he took 2 weeks prior to his op to focus on minimising the blood flow during the op. The surgeon only needed to use one swab. He did say that he'd wanted to go without anaesthetic, but felt that he'd not given himself enough time to prepare for that.

I find the whole subject of hypnotherapy fascinating, and first hand know how effective it can be.
 
Funny you should mention about the skin/tissue.
When the doc who stitched me up/put my under hypnosis, saw me again he was amazed at the fact that I dont have a scar on my face from the stitching. He said he left a suggestion in my subconcious that the scarring will dissapear, though I must admit at the time I was sceptical about his claim. Admittedly, it was a big old long gash out my face and it's not visible at all today.
 
AHarvey said:
May I suggest you do some reading on the matter before trying to belittle people to make yourself feel better?

Hypnosis is well documented to aid or cure warts, go and have a google and look for yourself
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Erm the onus is on you to do that - provide evidence to support your ridiculess claim.

Not really belittling more pointing out that you're a bit credulous.
 
Lol I listened to one of Isabella Valentines ones a while back (I was bored ok... haha!). It's about "riding a bike with no hands". Didn't work so hand to use my hands.
 
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