Hypnosis and its effect on the brain
To many people, hypnosis seems like a floaty thing you have to believe in before it works, but nothing could be further from the truth. There is a difference in people's hypnotizability, but your belief in it doesn't always have anything to do with it. The hypothesis that most researchers have is hypnosis allows the brain to go along more easily with suggestions from the hypnotherapist. The state of trance is also recognized by many people who have been hypnotized, but how exactly does it work in the brain?
In this article, I explain more about how hypnosis affects how the brain works.
Hypnosis and the subconscious mind
The state of hypnotic trance is often described by people who have been under hypnosis before. The hypnotic state resembles that of sleep, but is not the same as sleep is what many people say. The following characteristics are important when you are in hypnosis:
- A sense of deep mental relaxation.
- Mental Concentration.
- A reduced level of judging, monitoring and censoring.
- A break from normal orientation with time, location and feeling for yourself.
- The idea that acting is automatic or beyond your control.
These characteristics provide a clear framework for the state of hypnosis, showing that it is a different experience than usual—a state in which you are more open to suggestions. This also demonstrates that hypnosis works on both the conscious and subconscious mind. You are, in fact, always aware of your surroundings, your location, and yourself; however, people report that when they are under hypnosis, time, their surroundings, and even their sense of self temporarily—that is, only during that trance—become less important. This means people can fully immerse themselves in hypnosis and the associated therapy without worrying about what time it is, where they are, where they might need to go later, or how they look. For example, concerns about whether your hair looks good completely disappear for a moment.
What that state really means was investigated through 4 PET scans before the induction of hypnosis and 4 PET scans after the induction of hypnosis. This study showed that hypnosis affected the cortex cingularis anterior, the thalamus and a part in the trunk brain called the ponto-mesencephalic brainstem.
The anterior cingulate cortex plays a key role in processing emotional stimuli as well as pain stimuli—particularly our desire to avoid pain and situations that cause it. The influence of hypnosis on this part of the brain may explain why hypnosis works so well against anxiety and pain.
The thalamus is particularly important for processing all sensory stimuli. It is therefore crucial for processing touch, smell, sound, sight, taste, and even your emotions. This may explain why hypnosis can help people who have difficulty eating certain types of food that aren’t unhealthy in and of themselves.
The ponto-mesencephalic brainstem is important for your alertness and responsiveness. This part of your brain also controls your reflexes. The influence of hypnosis on this part of the brain may explain why people feel so relaxed that they almost fall asleep. This may also explain why the sense of time and place temporarily becomes less important when you’re under hypnosis.
These parts of the brain also have a lot of influence on the subconscious mind.
Hypnosis and improving performance
The effect of hypnosis and therapy is evident from the following study. 16 people had to indicate the color that described a word, but there was a catch. The colors and words of colors were different. So the color could be red, but the word green, green was the correct answer in that case. This is a psychological tease used more often in mental studies. People who were well susceptible to hypnosis performed significantly better with reciting the correct color than those who were not well under hypnosis.
During hypnosis, people were told that they would have absolutely no problem saying the correct color even if the word writes a different color than the one on display. People who were less under hypnosis took on average 10% longer to say the correct color. Now the question is, why did the people who came under hypnosis do better?
To investigate which parts of the brain are activated and less active by hypnosis, people were examined while under hypnosis with an MRI scan. These scans showed that when you were under hypnosis the part of the brain that processes visual stimuli was less active as well as the part that deals with conflict. So the beauty of it is that the conflict of the color and the word arrives less and the visual processing becomes less active, making the task easier to solve.
As a result, the “dealing with conflicts” aspect is also weakened. This may explain why people under hypnosis are better able to resolve their conflicts than they would otherwise be. Normally, you experience cognitive dissonance. There’s a problem, and you have all sorts of beliefs and considerations that determine how you deal with it and whether or not you can put it behind you. Because you handle conflicts differently during hypnosis, you may be more inclined to comply with or “agree” to the suggestions the hypnotherapist offers, thereby coming to terms with a problem so that it no longer poses a problem for you.
This is just one example of what hypnosis is good for. Other studies show that hypnosis can be used for:
- Changing experiences or viewing past experiences.
- Strengthening or weakening certain neurocognitive processes that enhance the effect of a psychological task (such as the example described)
- Contextual cues for the psychological interaction between the hypnotherapist and client.
- The individual traits that determine how hypnotizable a person is.
The latter in particular shows why it is important to deepen the state of hypnosis. Especially with people who are difficult to hypnotize, deepening hypnosis is important to enhance hypnotizability in the moment. In doing so, there seems to be evidence that suggestions from a hypnotherapist can influence what you hear, see and the pain you feel.
The effects of hypnosis allow people to experience pain differently than usual. It can also alter visual perception, which is particularly helpful for people with eating disorders or a distorted self-image. Hearing can also be interpreted differently, which is helpful for people with tinnitus and other hearing problems. It’s not that the ringing in your ears suddenly goes away, but you can cope with it differently.
In the process, it is also known that people's self-esteem can improve dramatically through hypnotherapy.
In short
PET scans and MRI scans show that hypnosis actually affects the way the brain reacts during hypnosis, which may explain why hypnosis feels the way it does. Hypnosis affects your alertness and handling of sensory and emotional stimuli.
In the process, other research shows that the suggestions people receive during hypnosis actually affect people's behavior after hypnosis. The explanation researchers give for this is that something happens in the subconscious that makes people better able to perform certain tasks discussed during hypnosis.
In addition, research on the influence of hypnosis on the brain is still in its infancy and much research remains to be done. However, research has long been conducted on the causal relationship hypnosis may have on people's emotions and behavior. These research findings are also extremely interesting for even better treatments in the future.
Would you like to learn more about what you can achieve with hypnosis and how you can help others with hypnotherapy? Then check out the courses and events offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands.
Sources:
http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20050627/what-hypnosis-does-to-brain