A skeptic's deep dive into hypnosis
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 มิ.ย. 2024
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You're getting very sleeeeeeeeepy. Sleeeeeeeeeeepyyyyyyy. In one form or another, hypnotic trances have been interwoven throughout human history, manifesting in various forms, from the rituals of ancient shamans and healers to the profound experiences guided by spiritual leaders. But hypnosis has also been (and continues to become) a popular tool for use in therapy. But what, exactly, is going on? Is the hypnotic state legit? And if so, what is it? And if not...well then what?
In this deep dive into the world of hypnosis, I'm going to try to untangle this fascinating phenomenon from every angle. There are so many complex mysteries surrounding hypnosis, from the state versus non-state debate to the latest research findings. We'll journey through the history of hypnosis, debunking myths along the way and uncovering the truth behind its efficacy as a therapeutic tool.
But this isn't just an academic exploration, it's a personal journey too. As someone who has been a long-time skeptic, I feel compelled to learn more. I'm pretty surprised by what I found. So whether you're a doubter yourself or a curious believer, join me on this thought-provoking adventure into the realm of hypnosis. Don't forget to share your thoughts in the comments below-I'd love to hear your thoughts and takeaways.
HUGE thanks to Rohin from Medlife Crisis, WonderWhy, and Thomas Rintoul for lending their voices for the amazing voiceovers. Go check out their TH-cam channels! I've linked them in my pinned comment below.
Sources (and links to hypnotherapy demonstrations): bit.ly/Hypnosisvideosources
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0:00 - I'm a non-believer
1:57 - Hypnosis in ancient history
3:04 - Mesmer and magnetic powers
10:35 - The debunking of animal magnetism
12:27 - Hypnosis gets scientific
18:02 - Freud shows up lol
19:36 - A casual mention of stage hypnosis
20:24 - How therapists hypnotize people
25:21 - What hypnosis feels like...and not
26:49 - A significant risk with hypnosis
28:14 - The big debate: state or nonstate
30:22 - Self-report and biological research
33:36 - Psychological research
39:57 - Research supporting a nonstate
44:25 - A deceptive test of hypnotizability
47:45 - So is hypnosis real?
52:07 - Where I land
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Also, There are many things that I wish I could’ve touched on in this video, but simply ran out of time before I had to stop writing and film the dang thing. One interesting area I wish I’d explored further is the unexpected overlap of people involved in hypnosis and people involved in neurolinguistic programming (NLP). I briefly touched on NLP in my EMDR video, too, but I anticipate it will be a future video topic. The short summary of NLP is that it’s a pseudoscience that claims to give people the ability to manipulate their perceptions, behaviors, and communication patterns to achieve whatever goal they want. Hypnosis was adopted as a technique used in NLP, but it makes some people in the hypnosis community very angry because they perceive it as a “bastardization”, total misunderstanding, or oversimplification of hypnosis. As such, they want nothing to do with NLP. But many others dip their toes into both. I’m not sure what other connections exist there, as I haven’t had enough time to further investigate.
@neurotransmissions, you forgot to add the link to the Google Docs with the sources in the description
We would never forget the voice of our favorite cardiologist.
When you were talking about people being "influencable" it got me thinking about the DID video & the cases there where it's (supposedly) also caused by the therapist's influence - is there any connection there?
I would never say that NLP is hypnosis “Not Learned Properly,” but …oh, I guess I just said it. 😂
As someone who is training to be a hypnotherapist currently, I can tell you that we can use NLP during hypnotherapy. They work in conjunction. It’s interesting.
A Navy training incident in 1975 gave me nightmares and intrusive thoughts during the day. It affected my work and home. Finally, a therapist trained in hypnotism gave me EMDR therapy, which is kind of like a hypnotic thing. In 6 weeks, 40 years of nightmares was GONE. Random intrusive angry thoughts: gone. The last eight years have been much, much better.
I did a video on EMDR, too! You may have seen it. Hypnosis and EMDR supposedly have nothing to do with one another, but there might be a back-door connection. I don't want to give anything away, but the founder of EMDR was involved in another field that has a lot of overlap with hypnosis today.
Ooh I love EMDR! I’ve only used TH-cam to engage in EMDR therapy, but it has still helped me with intrusive memories.
I recently did EMDR for my PTSD. It is really amazing! 20 years with PTSD and I’m in a much better place now!
Fun Fact: you have to willingly let yourself be hypnotized, if you don’t believe in it or have an aversion to it, the hypnosis will not work.
@@tenabarnes3269 that's a bummer, sounds like CBT for hippies
it's always good to remember that placebo is one hell of a drug
Drugs are one hell of a placebo
@@mikehawkslong5529 Nope
The placebos in hell are drugs
What is yours? Why does it work? How does it make you feel?
"Just" a placebo effect. Has anyone ever considered how powerful that is? That it is being convinced that a therapy works so therefore it does? How powerful is that? Seems to me that our brains can come up with healing for our body. We just need to figure out how to make that work more reliably.
That was our last video! Alie says a lot of the same things that you’re saying, and more. Check it out if you haven’t yet!
I agree! Unlike with more tangible medical issues, with therapy, if it works via placebo effect, then it may actually just plain work since it may really cure the issue.
Thats the irony of hypnosis and placebo effect in the same sentence...its like dividing by zero in an integrable domain, its nonsense. I mean, its the one and only context where the effect of placebo and the effect of hypnosis are the same thing/in all ways indistinguishable. If someone is hypnotized or something like that and another asks: it could have just been placebo, is a self contradiction. Its the same phenomenon.
Note: im not saying the terms are the same thing/phenomenon, im saying the effects are no different from each other, and are the same thing as effects/forces/vectors.
That isn't really how placebo works though, it isn't actually "working", it is tricking your brain into thinking it is working, there is a functional difference there. Hence why legitimate studies compare the treatment to placebo to see if it has a real measurable effect. Feeling like you are better and objectively being better are 2 different things.
@@rdizzy1 but if you’re treating is depression or PTSD for example, if you begin feeling better and your symptoms reduce and go away then it IS working. It’s not like a medical condition where placebo might make you feel better but your kidneys are still failing.
I went for hypnotherapy and did not have a clue if it helped or not until my friends told me how much my confidence had improved. So it seems it did work. 😊
Yes to a video on hysteria! As a woman disabled by invisible ailments, I'm very interested in how I would have been viewed historically.
Maybe try going carnivore
@@gmw3083 thats a bit silly
@@gmw3083 you gullible fool 😂😂😂
@@gmw3083stop suggesting simple fixes for complex issues that you don’t understand
How are you viewed now? Because I was poisoned by fluoroquinolones + steroids. Couldn't walk for 5 months and have been in constant pain since 4 years later and am viewed as an addict or crazy because I tell Drs I'm in pain. A Dr. told an antibiotic can't hurt me and walked out so I wheeled myself out crying. I've been wondering if hypnosis could help with the pain because the only thing that works is to drink my face off now and nobody cares about that so here I am watching this. I've been nothing but hurt worse than I was by the med industry.
Hysteria went away as an official diagnosis, but very much remained an idea in the culture. Would love to see it unpacked
This. Even now, you have to at least try to avoid certain mental health diagnosis to be taken seriously if you need emergency help as a woman. Because if they see any or certain mental health marks as old diagnosis - your physical pain isn't been taken seriously and you get medicated with sedatives to be silent. Or just said it's hormonal problem. (Unless you pretty much bleed out in other place than between your legs.)
And that is nowadays the best case scenario: In many other countries it's so much worse. Or doesn't even need to be other country you live in, just a luck draw with what hospital you end up and who is at work that day.
But it's not just women, also youngsters (not children) are deemed to be hysteric, without saying the word, and often don't get treated because those are young people so attitude is: they just make up stuff and can walk it or. Their pain isn't real.
Youngsters don't even need mental health marks to be dismissed as hysteria.
It just got rebranded under conversive disorders (F44.4) category
We debated this topic in uni. Very interesting. Conversion disorders, or FND, seems to have most overlap with it today, although it was more culturally sexist biased in the past.
they just changed the name to FND
@@AdamBlack That's not a name though. Those are three letters that don't make a word.
Just had to pause to comment on the hilarity of the Jesuit priest being called Hell
Old Norse "Hel" (from Proto-Germanic *halija "one who covers up or hides something")
Seems appropriate :p
I immediately though of Maxmilian Schell.
hell means bright / fair / pale / light / clear in german, but yeah XD
Also noticed it! BTW, I'm a fan of yours!!
How do you have time to be doctor, father and TH-camr and still fucking comment on every video?? Give me the time sauce pls
From the context of the Victorian era, I've always been under the impression that hysteria was just polite Victorian word for horny.
It’s not NOT a polite Victorian word for horny 😂
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
No haha, unfortunately it was more of a word for “woman with emotions and needs that we find inconvenient”. Horny would have been more fun
I though one treatment was a hand job from a doctor
That's what Freud said
My mother urged me to see a hypnotherapist in my twenties, she was very concerned about my crippling anxiety and depression. I had no life outside my house, I had horrible self esteem. I hated myself and hated my brain, I felt defective. I saw the hypnotherapist and was instructed to move a finger for yes or no. Apparently I talked during the session too. I have zero recollection of the entire 2 hour hypnosis session. Afterwards, the hypnotherapist stated that he had asked me my earliest memory about my fear. He said I responded “it was dark, I could hear my mom. She was scared about a smell and worried I would be damaged”. I asked my mom about it and she broke down crying. She said she was anxious throughout her whole pregnancy. She inhaled the vapours from moth balls and thought she had damaged my brain. She obsessed about it for months.
Did it help with your anxiety and depression?
Just before that Brilliant ad dropped I was 110% sure I was gonna get Rick Rolled.
I'm a therapist who uses hypnotherapy in some (fairly limited context) cases. Particularly with clients who have a high level of symbolic thinking and often with highly artistic or creative minds. I like using for myself on occasion to help with specific behaviors. I like your take, and your research. It is useful, and yes, it's not the "magic bullet" that some of my clients want it to be. Thanks.
Most people think all medicine is a magic bullet too. Oh I'm gonna go the doctor and he's gonna make me better! No he will just say you need to rest and call me if a rash appears because that's something bad.
Nothing just makes you all better mentally or physically
@danieliler886 well, no, sometimes you can just take a pill and your illness goes away. People just overextend the perceived simplicity of that to too much other stuff
Every thinking is inherently symbolic, it’s not a trait that some do or do not have. Also, what are the “creative minds”? Your whole presentation reeks of pseudo science, and I would not find it surprising that you also cultivate some other questionable “therapies”.
@piaget3021 not to be "that guy" but i can't tell if you're roleplaying as piaget or are just passionate about psych. I do like the thought of how he would react to yt comment sections though
@@dreadwolfrising I’m passionate and educated in psychology. I resent the many pseudo-science crap that infiltrated the field, or stayed in it after it has been debunked.
I once "accidentally" hypnotized a patient. I'm a retired certified nurse-midwife and have delivered somewhere north of 3,600 babies. I studied hypnosis as a possible adjunct to "natural" childbirth techniques. I didn't formally induce hypnosis in labor, but I did incorporate many of the techniques of hypnosis as I coached laboring women to help them to remain calm and relax.
Some years ago, I was seeing a woman for a new OB history and examination. She had never had a Pap Smear before and was very fearful since her sisters, "told me how much it would hurt." While I was preparing my equipment for the examination, I began talking to her in a soothing, sing-song voice, suggesting a deep sense of calm and relaxation. When I looked at her again, I noted that her eyes were half-closed and she was exhibiting blepharospasm, a twitching of the eyelids that is a sign of entering a hypnotic state. I realized that she was one of those 10-15% of people who are highly hypnotizable. I deepened her trance and proceeded with the examination. The exam went smoothly, and when finished, I brought her out of the trance while suggesting that she would feel rested and relaxed. She seemed a little confused and asked, "Did you do a Pap Smear?" I assured her that I had. She said, "I'm going to have a talk with my sisters."
On leaving the exam room, my nurse caught my arm and said, "What did you do to her?" I said, "You were there, I just talked to her."
Yes what did you do to her.... fear of the unknown... people have many different thoughts of hypnosis... it's a tool no different than a hammer is a can be used for good to build or destroy....
I have 40 years experience as a hypnotist still learning new uses for it as the imagination is the only limitation....
As an expert, I've not seen a video more honest and direct about hypnosis. Great job, man.
When I was 13, I had a problem with sleeping so deeply I would sometimes wet the bed. My mother took me to the family doctor looking for a solution, and the doctor hypnotized me, which cured me of the problem. I didn’t realize until I was much older that I had been hypnotized, but eventually I became aware of the memory of the doctors visit. I’m 65 now and I remember it clearly. I haven’t wet the bed since that day.
Sure.
Maybe you got tired of passing your bed- most people do when they are 12 or 13.
I used to dream about peeing and pee the bed.
Now I get up.
I remember that happening every once in a while- Between ages 8 and 10.
My own perception of hypnosis as a non-psychologist, hypnotic trance and all trance are just different forms of dissociation/depersonalization. I came to this conclusion with my own experience in the BDSM community and reading research on "subspace" and it made me immediately think of my experience with "hypnotic trance". That article described subspace as a form of dissociation.
This also explains why some people just don't go under trance. They A) don't believe in it but also B) don't consent to it and will likely have little rapport with the hypnotist. Dissociation is a highly vulnerable state. That's also why "subs" in BDSM can only go in subspace while in a scene with a "dom" they trust.
This also further reflects in how the hypno community talks about steps towards hypnosis, Rapport, Rapport Rapport. Hypnosis without consent is impossible.
I'm a neurobiology student...and also into BDSM lol. This is an interesting concept, any way that you could send me in the direction of that article? TH-cam usually deletes outside links, but I can probably find it if you could remember any details.
This is a comment I expected to get eaten by the censor bots. Goodonya, matches my limited findings as well in (mostly) different verticals
This is actually a really interesting take on this! Ditto on what the first commenter said, I'd be curious to look up those papers too
@@dreadwolfrisingagreed!
@@dreadwolfrising Every time I've posted info on a publicly available paper or another resource, not just a link but any name, YT has deleted it from the thread. Apparently YT prefers to dissuade viewers from fact checking sources and connecting with each other in a mutually supportive way. We're free, of course, to post the most ridiculous bs in our comments.
I've dated a lot of people who fancy themselves expert hypnotists (I did not seek them out on that grounds, but I am in a subculture that a significant number of people in it are incidentally also interested in hypnosis) and played along with it. It never worked for me. The moment I gave myself permission to question whether the control was real or not it broke. Just instantly. I came to the conclusion that it's not that it only works on the weak minded like some people think, it's that it only works on people who unquestioningly believe it works.
Now, years later, I find this video and find out about non-state theory and every conclusion I've drawn from personal experiences aligns with non-state theory of hypnosis.
You're right - but not for the reasons you assume. It's effectively impossible to hypnotise someone who does not want to be hypnotised because hypnosis is a collaborative process.
Hypnosis is no more than a state of focus & concentration where we suspend our disbelief and enter a world of believed-in imaginings.
If you don't want to to that - or if you're too weak-minded to be able to that - then you won't be able to be hypnotised, no.
I feel sorry for you, because life must suck without the naturally-occuring states of hypnosis that everyone else on the planet enjoys every day.
@@Stevebarker66 Sounds like a load of bunk to me. Hypnosis is just roleplay, whether those involved are conscious of it or not. The moment you question it, it breaks.
@@BerryTheBnnuy Of course hypnosis is roleplay - as is all therapy.
But hypnosis requires focus, concentration, imagination & willpower to sustain, so I can see how some people would dismiss it as 'bunk'
Whatever you do, please don't tell my thousands & thousands of clients who have changed their life through hypnosis.
I'm sure they wouldn't want all their depression, anxiety, PTSD, phobias, linlmiting & negative beliefs, chronic pain and excess weight to come back.
I also do a lot of work helping people overcome sexual dysfunction - just in case you're interested...😉
@@Stevebarker66 When I say it's bunk, I mean the way it's described by most hypnotists is bull. It's like how "chiropractic adjustments" can have actual benefits, but that doesn't mean that "subluxations of the spine are the root cause of all illness". All evidence is that what chiropractors actually do is no better than a good massage from a licensed masseuse.
What I'm saying is it has its uses, but that doesn't mean it's mystical, or that it can compel behavior that the subject doesn't want to be compelled, and it sure as hell isn't mind control like most "hypnotists" I run into pretend it is.
As far as the state vs non-state debate, you missed some important research "Cerebral activation during hypnotically induced and imagined pain". They found that participants were given the suggestion that, following a cue, a painful heat stimulus would be delivered to their right hand. In one, the heat stimulus was administered, creating an actual pain experience, whereas in the second the cue was not followed by the stimulus and acted as a suggestion to experience pain. In the third condition, the participants were told that there would be no pain stimulus following the cue but that they should “imagine the pain as clearly as possible.” Pain ratings taken after each trial demonstrated that the participants experienced pain in the first two conditions (physically induced and suggestion-induced pain). In addition, they confirmed that they imagined pain clearly in the third condition. The fMRI data showed activation of pain-related areas in the first two conditions but not in the imagined condition.
I got hypnotized once sort of, a guy on the street did this thing to me where he touched my arm and then made me hold something and give it back in these weird motions. It started with him asking me for a cigarette and ended with me handing him $30 and standing there for a minute wondering what had just happened. He robbed me in the strangest, yet non violent or threatening way. As it was happening I consciously knew I was being robbed, but I watched my hands open my wallet and hand him the money. It felt like a dream
Like the Derren brown video where he did that?
@@Roshkin yes! Pretty much exactly like that. It was so strange
@@78deathface I honestly thought that he made up the story as a believable lie.
@@78deathface Is there a name for this thing?
@@RoshkinI think it's called gullibility
My greatest gripe with hypnosis is that it's so incredibly easy to abuse. Human memories are easy to manipulate when you're 100% awake and conscious about what's happening to you. Hypnosis just makes the process that easier. Remember Satanic Panic? It was brought by fake memories "recovered" by a dude who would sleep with his "patient"
All you have to do is asking leading questions. Instead of "did something happened that day" you ask "what happened to you that day" and brain starts generating a story. You can traumatize someone by creating fake trauma
I don't think it's as powerful as you think. And if you can have a false memory implanted by hypnosis, then can't that memory be uncovered as false under further hypnosis?
@ZER0--
How would you know it's a fake memory? Without a suspicion in the first place it would be incredibly difficult
Imagine - someone comes to you with a traumatic memory they can't deal with. Would you assume it was made up or try helping them with your hypnosis?
Fake memories feel like real memories - that's the issue. It doesn't matter what the subject of those memories is. Maybe it's death of your grandma, maybe previous lives, maybe Satanic abuse, maybe alien abduction. Many people with recovered "memories" are 100% sure that their often wacky memories are true
I took part in a study on hypnosis and pain not so long ago! Suuper fascinating stuff! Conducted in a cognitive neuroscience research center in my city. The core of the study was a day in their lab, in a jacket sitting in a comfy armchair with electrodes on my head and a little elsewhere. I especially had an electrode on my leg that sent me painful electric shocks. While I was under hypnosis, they would send cycles of shocks of varying intensity (from imperceptible to almost unbearable) accompanied by different suggestion techniques to see I would feel the intensity shocks differently throughout my body and how the effect of hypnosis varied under different amount of pain.
At the end, the hypnotherapist told me to get up and sit on a chair further back in the room at the snap of his fingers. But I stayed sitting in my chair because I did'nt feel like moving and it felt a bit awkward to just watch her snap her fingers and then stare at me as I just stayed silent in my big armchair. But after I'd put my clothes back on, as a researcher was escorting me out, she told me with a smile that the electric shocks were constant, that they'd never changed during the session.
I was stunned. I went in there because I found the idea of being hypnotized fun, and I certainly felt a very pleasant state of flow while I was there. But I was still thinking reflexively I felt in control. I thought hypnosis had slightly changed my perception of pain, but I never expected that simply with a woman talking reassuringly to me, unbearable pain could become as subtle as a mosquito bite.
Yes, it all happened in my head and I imagined it all because I wanted to please the researchers and because I wanted it to be real. But the effect on pain perception was wild and as real as a sensation can be. And I guess that's the point.
so did it make any difference then?
The deep dive on this is INSANE. Hypnosis has such a weird affect on the brain.
Recently, I’ve been hearing about ayahuasca, ayahuasca retreats, and how they’re really popular for some reason. Can you please talk about it in a future video?
I use hypnosis within a non-state, neo-braidian theoretical framework - psychosocial that is - and in conjunction with CBT, that is Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy (CBH) among other things. I found your video accurate and very informative and kudos to you for this scientific divulgation effort. I wish more of this quality content could be found in the field of psychology today! You actually inspired me to go and read Braid, to whom we owe the word "hypnosis", as well as "psychophysiology", I always wanted to read his diaries and collected works, but never got around to do so. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I remember there was a hypnotipst during my college freshman year. I volunteer just to try it out.
The hypnosis by no means worked, but i remember thinking id feel bad for just ruining the guys gig so i just went along with it. I always wondered about any time id see people "hypnotised" on tv or whatver if theyre doing the same thing lol
Yeah I think in the rare cases where the whole thing wasn't an act, It would create such a socially awkward moment that you'd just go along with it. Though I doubt anyone with a large audience or a tv-camera would allow the chance of someone not playing along or worse, going crazy and blaming everything on the hypnotist.
Ditto, my mum sent me to one as a kid and I just.... made shit up
Yes. They are.
They're very careful in their selection. Usually the first trick is asking for someone to demonstrate their suggestibility, by interlocking fingers, which they 'can't' take apart, then they gradually weed out about half or more, so only 'sure things' remain onstage.@@melusine826
From what I've been told, many hypnotists will try to hypnotize several people at once. That way if someone isn't being hypnotized, they can send them back to their seat and try focusing on the other people.@@98Zai
I paid good money for smoking cessation one on one hypnotherapy. It worked so well that I went back for weight loss. That didn’t work nearly as well.
Because it takes EFFORT AND WORK.
Effort and work and perseverance are real and have real long lasting results.
@@rdallas81 you mean like counting calories and going to the gym several times a week? Yes, I was doing those things. I was hoping hypnosis would help me to feel less hungry all the time.
Thanks so much for your eye-opening advice.
@@lisadoes part of the problem is that it becomes harder to lose weight once you quit smoking. 😂
Apparently you did them in the wrong order. 😂
People, you go in and out of trance all day long: watching tv? you're in a trance, playing computer games? you're in a trance, driving your car? you're in a trance, staring into space disassociated? you're in a trance, concentrating on anything? you're in a trance. So trance states are normal and nothing to be afraid of. Hypnosis is ONE means to entering a trance state for a specific purpose. And if you don't want other people putting you into a materialist propaganda trance and programming you to desperately want things you don't need - TURN OFF THE TV.
I lost both my engagement ring and my wedding ring. I was so desperate I went to a hypnotist to see if he could help me remember what happened to them. He did help me remember where I last had them, but not to find them. Womp womp.
That's not surprising, memory is rather tricky like that. It's relatively easy to corrupt the memory accidentally, or for the information to just not be in memory at all. For example you may have really had the rings at that location, but they could have been stolen at the time, or somebody may have taken them later or the location may have been completely wrong.
Personally, I wouldn't recommend going any further than just hypnotizing so that the brain considers it safe to remember things, going much further runs risks in terms of contaminating the memory or implanting false ones as memories can be very fragile and just remembering them can alter them.
I like that we chalk things up to placebo like we have any idea what's really going on. But yeah, appreciate you sharing and diving into it
This reminds me of a survey result I came across once..
When being surveyed, 100% of the participants answered 'I don't mind taking surveys', while a shocking 0% answered 'I don't like taking surveys'
Hysteria was one of the biggest pop metal albums of all time.
This was so interesting! I would also love a video on hysteria. Listening to you is so relaxing, you could talk about anything and you would have my full attention. Great pacing of the video, love the "soft" but effective editing style too
I'm currently doing CBT with Hypnotherapy for personal stuff. I'm two months in, and it is working well for me. I love everything shared in this video. My therapist shared the issue with using hypnosis for smoking (not my issue).
Totally agree that this is not for everyone, but I have tried just about everything else. My sessions are wonderful. Note that I have had meditation practices my whole life.
To me, hypnosis is a guided state of meditation. I love it.
Great video essay. Thank you.
I was fully prepared to be super-irritated by this video, but this was great, very fair.
I think non-state theory is definitely where it’s at, and that the experience of the classical “hypnotic trance” can be a byproduct of suggestion and expectation, but also not required.
I’m glad you mentioned the ability to train receptivity to hypnosis as well, that is something really cool. In most hypnosis as I learned it, there was a conception that anyone could be hypnotized, but coming from a state-based theory it was more of the hypnotist being skillful in finding out how to do it, rather than explicitly training the client, which is so cool. I know people who have gone from almost zero hypnotizability to being highly hypnotizable.
For an analysis of hypnosis and memory, Daniel Craig’s “Memory, Trauma, Treatment and the Law” goes VERY deep into the debate over recovered memories, how both sides of the debate generally make simplistic arguments for political reason, and looks at the science itself, and looks into both usefulness (or not) in therapy and factual reliability.
Have to admit, I was surprised about smoking. I was definitely under the impression that it was helpful. That’s too bad.
I got rid of a lot of childhood trauma with hypnotherapy. It helps, it works if you want it to, iIt is all up to you. How badly do you want it and are you really willing to give up the trauma by accepting the change. A lot of people don't want to, they fight it. You/they don't want to lose the sympathy, I have a sister like this she is the perennial victim. I didn't want sympathy or anyone's pity, i wanted the pain to stop. It depends on how much trauma you are willing to give up. The therapist only tells you what you ask her to say prior to the sessions, it is a list YOU give her/ him of what you want to change, remove or reprogram . If they give you a post hypnotic suggestion , it is in keeping with your wishes. You are in control, you don't lose your mind like they show on TV you are fully awake, but relaxed. Kind of like when you wake up and are in that "soft" phase half awake/half asleep, it's then that you yourself can reprogram your mind. Just be careful what you say, think this out during the previous day just before you go to sleep is best. What do I want to say, what do I want to change?
You are as suggestible as you want to be.
44m "There is some research showing hypnotisability is associated with absorption, like someone's ability to become really engrossed in activities"
This is key. A problem I have with the video is that it seems to define the phrase "altered state of consciousness" so narrowly as to disconnect it from what people generally mean by that phrase. I think it's a mistake to require an altered state of consciousness to be distinct and sharply delineated in order to qualify as such. We can get a better handle on the subject by examining how hypnosis relates to other states of consciousness that we experience in our everyday lives, of which absorption is an excellent example.
as a former professional mentalist back in 2010 i ve practised hypnosis a bit. I was sceptical too. Once i ve practised and performed some hypnosis routines i realised that there are two schools of hypnosis.
The pseudo hypnosis which gives the illusion of a real hypnosis and the medical hypnosis which is nothing more than a relaxed state of mind similar to meditation which is legit.
The pseudo hypnosis is nothing more οf self suggestion. A play between the hypnotist and the participant. The hypnotist gives the rules of the game and the participant folows the rules giving the illusion to the participant and the audience that everyone is experiencing an effect of hypnosis.
I realised it was an ad read fairly early on, but the first 15 seconds were actually quite good! Excellent mini-relaxation, and for that it was worth watching.
OMG HOW DID I NOT SEE THE AD COMING YOU LITERALLY SAID BRILLIANT SEVERAL TIMES AND I DIDN'T CATCH ON JVKDJDHRKFJF
More seriously - all this really just seems to confirm how I already felt about hypnotherapy. For context, I was sent to a hypnotherapist to fix my sleep (because it's better than actually trying to find the root issue, eh?). After the first session, she told my mom that I was very receptive to hypnosis.
After the second session, she just looked confused.
The first time, I had mobilized a huge amount of willpower to sit perfectly still. I had gone along with her suggestions and metaphors, and stepped outside very much intending to use the tool she had given me during the session to help me sleep.
Next time I showed up, I hadn't used the tool once. It had completely slipped my mind - just like every. fucking. time. i did something like that - bc what she had suggested was something I had tried over and over again my whole life, and it had never worked a single time after I first established it. That second session, I sat down, and I was unable to mobilize as much effort to sit still, and couldn't concentrate one bit.
Years later, I have realized I can use meditation to put myself in that 'state' on my own in fifteen minutes when it had taken her an hour to take me there. And turns out my sleep issues are mostly bedtime procrastination, and the fix so far seems to be to do more during the day so I don't feel like I've missed out on life when bedtime comes around. Wow. I felt very helped lol
Also, meditation is deceptively easy for me. And trying to guide me through visualization just breaks me out of pretty much anything because it'll get me thinking stuff like _aw, why are we going into the cabin, I wanted to sit in the pine needles...why are we lying in a hammock when i'm used to a bed...why did you just describe the sea, when you said we were in nature i was picturing a forest..._ because I'm so used to visualizing things on my own for fun that unless you're one of my favorite writers, it feels like you're holding forcing me to walk with crutches when I walk fine on my own...
Yeah, no. If it helps some people, that's good - but it's not for me. Also, I always reexamine everything after the fact - so expect anything you do to try to help me to be heavily scrutinized until I put it into the "does not ring true" box (or, if you're lucky, the "i'm not sure whether this rings true" box). I may go along with it in the moment, but you can be sure my skepticism will trigger after the fact and destroy anything you've built if the foundation isn't solid enough 😬
Edit: I do want to reiterate that if it works for a person, that's good. I just. I think I'm mostly just salty that I had to figure out all the solutions with only the internet and myself as resources because nobody seemed to be able to understand what the problem was. The solutions that I was offered were so off that I can't help but be reticent to get a therapist now - because by the time I learned about CBT, I was basically already doing it, and by the time I was shown talk therapy, I already journaled, and by the time I'll be diagnosed with OCD, I'll already have found ways to stop my repetitive behaviours from physically wounding me, and by the time I'll be diagnosed with autism, I'll have already made friends, and by the time I'll be diagnosed with ADHD, who knows, I might even no longer be late to places. I hate that I had to figure out my path on my own for all this time. I hate that everything got just got blamed on giftedness or had people just shrugging and trying different methods like shots in the dark. It was exhausting. And turns out, after all this time, most of the problems have fixed themselves - but not by any internal change of mine, but by me changing my environment, and my environment changing on its own.
Thanks for the help, guys. Much appreciated. Amd no thank you to hypnotherapy from now on, I can do this shit on my own, thanks.
(Don't mind me I'm just salty)
Very AUDHD/OCD coded
@@milaberdenisvanberlekom4615 Nvjfkdlnvfjk I mean there's a reason I think I have those lol. Gonna go see a therapist soon (gonna try to find one that's specialized in this stuff), but I'm still reeling from finally finding a therapist that I vibed with only for her to get bad health issues and have to stop (hopefully she's okay...)
45:16 "Imagine yourself in a place of tranquility and calmness."
Me: Imagining a walk in the forest.
Background: Changes to fire.
Me: ...
I think hypnosis has to do with two things, how "good" we are at dreaming and how socially conscious we are. Have anyone researched if people who don't care about social standards are easier or harder to hypnotize? Simply put, I think if we care a lot about what others think we are easier to hypnotize.
I would very much love to see a video about hysteria. It seems that historically (and to some extent today) any illness that wasn’t physically apparent or men didn’t directly experience was labeled “hysteria”.
Men also has hysteria. It was like depression for Victorians. Sometimes some disorders become more common in populations
Yes 👍 on the hysteria vid please
+1
All I know about hysteria is it was sometimes treated woth herion and masturbation which to me lots of things should be treated by!
1.Preparation
•Introduced the concept in a non-bias social form
2.Induction
•Had the audience focus on the history and origins
3.Deepening
•Invited us to deepen our understanding of modern practice
4.Suggestion
•Then Asking us to imagine a version of ourselves that either does or does not believe that we might be highly suggestible.
I also would like to note that he does not list the actual on screen text of the final part of the modern process which would be something like 5. “Reawakening” or whatever.
So essentially he’s leaving us in the state of suggestibility and intentionally not taking us out at that point which is the halfway point of the video❤
🪄👾😵💫👾⏳
When I was a child I helped my father push his car out of the snow. He couldn't shift it on his own so just thought, "Why not ask the son" without expecting much, I was probably only about seven or so. I imagined, I had a very active imagination, that I was a superhero. Together we shifted that car and my dad was shocked. Ever since then, I didn't think myself special, I knew I'd accessed something in imagination and became fascinated by the psychology of it. Hypnosis and suggestion, given that the study showing participants could act hypnotised through essentially play proves it relates to imagination.. It seems related to that ability we have to "virtualise" reality in order to solve problems, imagine new outcomes or push ourselves out of negative patterns enforced by our material conditions.
What I'm gonna describe here refers to an observation I made regarding my own response to a mid-ad bumper.
I think I witnessed and experienced a form of hypnosis. When I used to watch the BBC World New on cable TV, they would always start with a 60-second countdown. Initially the video images would pan and transition between things landmarks and scenery (London Bridge, Big Ben, nature, etc.) while a countdown timer was displayed in the corner. Towards the end of the countdown you'd see a large globe with thin circle radiating from the center and at that point it seem to all be a stylistic choice. All the while they'd be playing the BBC World New Music with the cool drum beat. Okay, so far so good.. You'd get the final drum-beat, followed by the news anchor's introduction, followed by proceeding to read the news. Read-on to jut a little longer for the fun part.
During the commercial break (TV ads), there would be a point where you'd see the BBC logo w/ the spinning globe (if memory serve me right). Radiating from the central circle would be thin circular lines Juts kind of expanding and fading away one after another. It was basically the same graphic and animation that you would see at the tail-end of the intro/opening. So from the top: you're watching commercial ads, and after the 2nd or 3rd ad you see the BBC glove and the radiating circles, sometimes accompanied by the cool drum beat. Now, here's the important part. By the time you have seen the 2nd or 3rd ad during the commercial break, I would be looking down at my laptop screen focusing on whatever I was doing. However, upon hearing the "badum-badum-badum" drum beat, I would look up to see the BBC logo and radiating circles. At this point I am expecting the commercial break to come to an end, but instead this is followed by additional commercial ad spots. I found this interesting because it appeared to me that the countdown and radiating circle pattern animation played during opening/intro had produced a conditioned response from me.
I explained this to my friend and although he had a skeptical attitude, he did acknowledge that he did have same conditioned response to the mid-ad bumper. I don't know if the was the intent, but it sure was effective. Before I started actively noticing, the mid-ad bumper effective re-took my attention away from my laptop and was effective at getting me to watch the remaining ad spots for the current commercial break.
Maybe it's not intentional hypnoi, but it was definitely an involuntary conditioned response.
This is the first video I’ve ever seen from you/this channel, and when you said “until next time, I’m Micah-“ I went: “what!? No! I’m Micah! What kind of hypnosis did you do on me to get my name!?”😂
In all seriousness though, this was so well put together! I’m definitely going to have to subscribe if all your videos are this well done!!!💛
You did an amazing work on this! I’m actually more interested now myself as I have some issues that might be helped with this tool. Thank you 🙏
Take for instance the US military veteran told he will never walk again, 10 years later he is running. The power of the mind is limitless.
For 30+ years I was addicted to several substances, nothing helped me quit, how I quit was me. One day I decided to quit and really wanted to. I wasnt trying to convince myself nor be persuded by others nor data. It took me to actually want to quit and I did, I just stopped, I suffered zero withdrawl and have not looked back since and have never felt any desire to go back to it like I used to, I simply quit, just stopped and treated it like any other day.
Thank you so much for covering this topic!!
Love how you prefaced the video and how you present information!
I learned that some therapists conflate the term hypnosis with guided meditation. It's kind of weird but.... some of them really do mean guided meditation. A therapist did it with me and I had the same thoughts as you. But again, it was just me sitting there counting the breaths with my eyes closed. So yeah, it depends on the context.
All the methods described in this video are methods for meditation in yogic and Buddhist practices, even the staring at a candle or at a fixed point above the forehead, etc
I found that interesting
In Buddhism especially there’s devotional meditation, when you meditate to a Buddha statue it’s not about the statue or Buddha being magical it’s about concentrating deeply in the Buddha to acheive a specific state of consciousness, usually someone who respects the Buddha a lot can find it easy to focus on him rather than on another random unimportant object
Well, what's the difference,? 🤷
@@amazinggrapes3045 Usually the post hypnotic suggestions and having some sort of specific purpose to it. Typical meditation is for a more general mental wellbeing, whereas hypnosis is usually something that folks use for a more specific goal. Also, hypnosis can be done in ways that are decidedly not relaxing. For example, making a loud noise can put somebody in an appropriate frame of mind for hypnosis, albeit usually a very brief one.
Hypnosis was used on me and my brother when we were young children and the hypnotist did tell us to forget certain things, and it took us about 5 years to regain our memories of it and regain control of our own minds. When our parents found out, they called the hypnotist to return because they'd used the hypnotist to keep us under control and from exposing their crimes. We both refused to go under hypnosis then (we were 8 and 9 years old) so he arranged with our parents to return at 3:45am and sit me up in bed and hypnotize me while I was in a more suggestible half asleep state of mind, then he went to my brother's house and did the same. Although I have been gradually breaking that up, I still have ongoing lasting effects on my life decades later.
I'm really angry about it because I didn't want that. It's like mind-rape or -rape. Authority had a lot to do with it, especially when we were 3 and 4 years old. We stood up to the authority when we were 8 and 9 years old and refused to be hypnotized. However, when he was telling my parents that he would come over at 3:45am, he mentioned something about rem sleep and brain waves (theta? gamma?)
This scientific video is interesting. Something did happen to my brother and I.
It had started out with Mom asking for hypnosis to help her quit smoking/ cussing and dealing with stress. My brother acted out the post hypnotic suggestion that was given to mom, so she had the hypnotist return to hypnotize him and undo that. Meanwhile I was also watching nearby and I may have also been accidentally hypnotized at the same time. They said that we were very suggestible.
At the ages of 3 and 4, we were learning about life and our brains were like sponges so of course we were suggestible.
It might've been deceptive but I really needed to visualize myself in that situation today. I'm taking your deception as a sign of something good to come my way.
A really good hypnotist will be able to tell by several cues given off by the subject whether they are highly prone to suggestions, symptoms that a person trying to fake being hypnotised will have no knowledge of, and therefore cannot fool them into ever being able to have the wool pulled over the hypnotists eyes, Null experiment, relies heavily on the skill set of the hypnotist and the high suggest ability of the subjects
Yes, “hysteria” would make a good topic for a deep dive. It was definitely a diagnosis, and it is the root of the hysterectomy. As the good ole uterus, and plain ole sexism, was often blamed for many of women’s health issues.
This was a good dive into hypnotherapy. I was in college (psychology) during the late 1980s and also witnessed all the ads for a one-day smoking cessation "clinic" held at local hotels, etc. I looked upon them with skepticism too. I have used hypnosis and hypnotic techniques as a counselor, but in addition to other, on-going, types of therapy. A "one day and done" type of thing will usually not work. And even if it is a role-playing exercise, if it leads to good change and improvements in client happiness, I am happy about that.
Fun, never thought about where the term "mesmerized" might come from - Thanks for enabling me to learn another interesting tidbit among a lot of other useful and entertaining information :)
I went to help out a friend who was training one time and chose to be put off eating crisps,. It worked for a while, but after a month I was happily munching again. Two weeks after , I had bought a bag and the taste was unpleasant- I binned the whole bag. I had visualized the crisps and then replaced the mental image with one of a block of lard. I was sceptical, but also willing to give it a go. Interesting topic!
Having been trained in medical hypnosis, I found it to be a useful tool in therapy with certain patients, especially those with depression, anxiety, pain, and certain physiologic disorders. Since I practiced in a university town, a number students sought help with test anxiety and hypnosis was particularly effective with this group. Like you, I found it not especially effective with addictive disorders, though it could help with dysphoric emotions. Having seen it work in so many cases, I have no doubt that hypnosis can be an effective tool in certain circumstances. For example, in the clinic where I worked one of the social workers arrived one morning with a severed tooth ache and could not see her dentist till the end of the day. She asked if we could do hypnosis to alleviate her pain. Fortunately, she was a good hypnotic subject and we were able to eliminate the pain until she got to see her dentist.
" ALL HYPNOSIS IS SELF HYPNOSIS " it has been claimed. The human brain continues to be the most complex thing of which we are conscious in the entire universe. That our pale blue dot should give rise to the opportunity for you and me to experience our nanoseconds of consciousness is mind-blowing.
I did a hypnobirthing course before child birth. I think it definately kept my calm im not sure it did anything to reduce pain however. Ive also had it done as part of a work team building thing. It again was like a pleasant half dreamy state. I no way was i never out of control and to the best of my knowledge never barked like a dog. In my experience I think it is very useful as a relaxation tool.
You did what every single woman who ever had a baby did- Got HIPnottied.
I honestly don't know what to think but what I can say is that over 20 years ago during a housing boom I was working for a developer whose residential crew included a middle-aged Eastern European expert carpenter who drank & smoked all day, every day & the standing arrangement with the boss was he got a bottle of his favorite vodka every Friday afternoon.
I'd say he was the most functional drunk I've ever met - and very even-tempered no matter how inebriated.
I assumed that's my his drinking was tolerated.
I went out drinking with him just once - and that was more than enough for me.
Years later I found out that someone, probably a new lady in his life, persuaded him to try giving up his bad habits and, so the story goes, ONE, just ONE session with a Ukrainian and he quit drinking & smoking permanently.
Having worked with him for a couple years & witnessing his staggering consumption, that news was as mindblowing as if I'd been told I'd won the lottery
That hypnotism to ad gave me whiplash 😂😂
I was hypnotized the first time when I was 21 in a bar. I didn't feel anything, so when the entertainer came to me to check if I was 'under,' I'd decided I didn't want to go on stage and that I wouldn't do what he told me to do, but he gave me the suggestion that I would not be able to open my eyes and then when he said, "open your eyes" I was incapable of opening them as hard as I tried. The second time I was hypnotized I quit smoking, after 28 years in just one hour of being under the suggestions. If you are a skeptic, it probably won't work for you. It's not a passive thing. You actively take part in it by doing everything the hypnotizer says to you. I would be careful about who I allowed to put suggestions in my head- it absolutely works.
I believe we have instinctive beliefs which can control our actions just like hypnosis. Take a small doll, for example: you may tell a person who is superstitious that by holding a doll for 7 minutes he or she will have good luck for a whole week. If that person believes in such, the brain will think of scenarios to make it a good week. However, if you take the same doll and give it to another person and tell that person that that doll will give him or her bad luck if hold for 7 seconds, their mind will think of ways to make that week a horrible week.
The brain is a very sensitive organ, and the worst par about it, it was not meant to see reality, only the perspective of such. It was built that way by natural selection because it is the best manner in which such organ can protect the body form danger.
hi i came across your channel a few days ago and immediately subscribed. I honestly thought that you were a big youtuber with 1+ million subs just from the quality of your videos alone. what i wanted to say is keep making videos theyre awesome and im sure many others besides me love them as well!! just wanted to say that😁 (sorry english isnt my native language)
That was the first time I heard hypnotism doesn't work for smoking cessation. My Mom's dying of COPD, from lifelong smoking addiction. She finally quit after a hospital stay forced her thru withdrawal & for the first time she didn't just re-start. But she quit long after the diagnosis + after being on oxygen. I remember her paying so much money for smoking cessation programs while I was growing up, including multiple hypnosis efforts. We didn't have a lot of money & I remember a lot of fights & tears over her smoking. She had so much shame about all the times she'd quit, secretly go back to it, get found out, be apologetic for a minute then brazenly chain smoking again, the cycle over + over.
It's infuriating to me the tobacco companies have never been forced to deal with the human devastation (as well as other ones eg environment) despite it being legally proven over & over again they knew what they were doing & who they were doing it to. Yet individual addicts still bear the most cost, the most shame, the most harm.
Don't even get me started on the Sacklers. The shame is so misplaced when it's on the addict & not on the profiteers of despair.
Wow. Didn't know that smokers go through similar hell as drinkers. I am sorry about your family's suffering.
I will continue searching for a "way out" for my father... to release him from his metaphoric pain
Speaking as a recovered alcoholic, drug addiction is rarely about the actual substance. I'm only an alcoholic because that's what I had the easiest access to, in a moment of clairty a few months after I stopped drinking, I realized that anything to take the edge off would have done, I was just lucky that it wasn't something with prison time attached.
I don't know that hypnosis won't work for smoking, but there are usually different routes you can take with hypnosis to achieve an intended goal, sometimes they all work and sometimes none of them work for a client or any client. In cases like your mother, I'd probably want to know what exactly it was that she was getting out of it, because repeatedly quitting smoking, even for a few days, does reduce the amount of smoking. It's not as good as quitting, but it's also a step towards quitting.
This is an excellent video that does describe most of what I do as a hypnotherapist.
But our field has advanced a LOT since the days of Freud and Mesmer.
Today I can walk you through the origin event that caused something like a phobia and defuse it at its source. Most clients walk away wondering why they ever had such a silly reaction in the first place! The power of the mind is truly amazing, and yes, hypnosis definitely works. 🌹
It's never worked on me, do you think it's because I'm afraid that false information or memories will be implanted on me? I've heard people say it happened, and some say it's not possible
@@johannesstephanusroos4969 I'm also a certified, albeit not practicing, hypnotherapist and I wouldn't personally go back to memories. Memories, even under the best of circumstances, are rather fragile, just remembering things naturally can corrupt or change them.
Fear definitely does make it hard to hypnotize people, that's one of the reasons why relaxation is often times a part of the induction. When I personally work on things like that on myself, I never bother to go into the past because my brain is already a mess with a great deal of very weak memories that are easily corrupted. I'd be more likely to go for a more present minded I have some reason to not fear whatever it is. Since the past is in the past, it's likely enough just to give somebody some present day self efficacy and call it good. The past is the past, if the client decides that their ability to handle it now would have applied in the past, that's a different matter.
@@johannesstephanusroos4969 Yes, that would do it. The state of mind that hypnosis exploits is something everybody goes into several times a day naturally. So it's not that you "can't" be hypnotised, but that you refuse to participate with the hypnotist. That's why for hypnotherapy it's important to find someone you can feel comfortable working with. Someone you can trust.
Your brain makes false memories all the time anyway, so why not make some that will make you feel happier and healthier? 😉
Brother what is your views about using herbs or other synthetic chemicals to enhance susceptibility to hypnosis. Regards
I really enjoy your content and find it quite informative. Not that you’re taking suggestions, but my only suggestion is to redo the video on psychodynamic therapy. I don’t think many contemporary psychodynamic psychotherapists consider themselves Adlerian, or associate what they do in therapy with a lot of Adlerian theory. I think, on average, psychodynamic therapy is guided by object relations theorists, such as Klein, Winnicott, and Kernberg. There are many self psychologists as well. Maybe read “That was then, This is now” by Jonathan Shedler for a view on the current state of the field.
Heck yeah, I'd love to see a video on hysteria! Old beliefs about it were wild. "Can't have those wombs wandering around, making the ladies go crazy!"
I really appreciate your honesty on this. I'm thinking about whether EMDR (the parts with evidence), meditative practices including breath practices and hypnosis have similar mechanisms. You mentioned theta waves and I was reminded of alpha-theta neurofeedback (increases theta waves like hypnosis) which is used for processing memories as well. I'm not up-to-date on the literature but I have always wondered how much of the effect of neurofeedback on ADHD in kids was the process which requires sitting still and focusing. This starts to bleed into watching a sunset and other focusing practices.
4:44 ...What kind of name is "Max Hell" for a PRIEST??
Just read Andre Weitzenhoffer's THE PRACTICE OF HYPNOTISM. Be sure to get the revised version published in 2000. It's literally 50 years after the first version (1950), and he's pretty bitter that no one has gotten any further about what hypnotism "is".
Also, curses on Stanford for creating a reverse standard: somehow, folks who can ignore distractions and follow the hypnotic suggestions are "suggestible". Seems more like they have a lot of self-discipline.
Now I don’t know if I’m singing up for brilliant because that ad read was so brilliant (pun intended) or because you hypnotized me.
I had hypnosis therapy a few times (different types of hypnosis) and it never went deeper than being relaxed, just like before falling asleep, but I was never in a trance. I saw it working on ther patients much differently, they went much deeper and needed to be guided out.
EDIT: One of the people who were deeply hypnotized was actually one of the therapists who wanted o try it out. She was really gone for a while.
I've tried like 20 times with different supposed "hypnotists" just to see if it was legitimate, and it never had any effect on me at all. It must only work on certain type of people.
@@rdizzy1Yeah, it's like 10% are highly succeptible, 10% almost impossible to hypnotize and the rest are in between. Although there is a big psychological component, if you are a not willing give up control it can't work. Not unlike some soft hallucinogens where you have to let go and if you fight it nothing much happens.
I would really love to know more about self-hypnosis, especially as it relates to pain management. I've always been interested, but to access a therapist cost money which, as a disabled person, I've never managed to collect the appropriate amount.
Great video! Thank you! I love a skeptict's take, even if the have a turnaround. Or, maybe especially if they have a turnaround. :)
I hypnotised myself four times-from infancy through to late adolescence. The first time I decided to fail in everything so as not to be a threat to my father (after seeing his fear of me on his face). The second catastrophe was when I feared mum was going to bash me when I felt intense jealousy of my brother, but instead of being honest, I hid it and became outwardly the good older brother.
I became a robot, but aware that I would awaken in ten or so years hence. Unfortunately, I didn’t, because dad left mum, which set me off on my next disastrous self-hypnotic state.
I have been trapped ever since.
I won’t bore you all with further details.
The mind is both incredibly powerful and pathetically weak.
Parenting is too important to be allowed to be practiced by immature people.
I am not unique-millions, perhaps billions of us are destroyed because of ill-prepared, emotionally immature parents.
You could easily make a modern study with a large amount of people, where you compare "sham" or "placebo" hypnosis to "real" hypnosis (whatever this even means). But they would not do this, because there would be no significant difference between the 2. ANY treatment that is relatively expensive and is based on placebo is inherently a scam, no way around it. (Because placebo is the baseline to see if a treatment has a real, significant effect, it needs to out perform placebo, not be placebo)
First video I’ve seen by NT and I must say it had me relaxed like an ASMR video. Like I was in a trance or something…
What an experience ! You seemed to 'burst in to flames' as I resisted being hypnotized !
What is that music you used for the hypnotic part of the video? I find it very relaxing and much better than other stuff I found online for sleep.
I really loved hearing this. Welcome aboard! I do believe hypnosis is helpful for some conditions. :)
I have often wondered if there's any connection between the effectiveness of placebos and the effectiveness of hypnosis. Wondering if you ran across anything relating the two in your research?
So, two thoughts. One, could something like self hypnosis account for at least SOME accounts of UFO sightings and abductions? It seems like many of these accounts occur while driving at night, and there is sometimes very relaxing and trancelike about driving at night I've personally found. Have there been any studies on this?
Second, since trance-states are an important part of many religious practices (you mentioned meditation in the video, but also prayer and ecstatic dancing and singing spring to mind), has there been any research into what role hypnosis might play in those practices?
Cool video! Thanks!
The part you mention where a person is told they're deaf, then asked if they can hear and they reply 'no' reminds me very much of callosal syndrome. It's fascinating to think how we can hold differing and sometimes conflicting realities within different parts of our brain simultaneously.
The mind and body are one. They are, obviously, physically connected. Psychosomatic effects are real, physical therapy, when the patient truly believes. If the patient doesn't believe, then the physical effects don't happen.
I would theorize that hypnosis is not an altered state of consciousness but a focused state of attentiveness/awareness. We all engage in self hypnosis on a daily basis. We tune things out. We aren't consciously aware of our clothing aginst our skin (unless it's causing discomfort) I know that when I read or draw & focus my attention on that I cannot process auditory information. If noise is distracting or intrusive, I have trouble focusing on what I am trying to read or write & I find it difficult to draw/paint & talk/listen at the same time. Many artists know that they slip into a different head space or" the zone" in which they lose track of time & are very absorbed in their creativity. We are very covetous of this & hate interruptions. Anyway, I figure hypnosis is similar. Your conscious brain can only focus & process limited information/stimulous, tuning out or ignoring anything extraneous. Not dissimilar to a meditative state which usually requires some form of focused attention (breathing, an object, a chant or prayer, etc) I could see hypnosis being helpful for relaxation & focus in the same way as meditation is. So sure, it is potentially a good therapeutic tool if used correctly. There is a lot about our brains that neuroscience has yet to discover.
Very interesting. I've thought about hypnosis for many years, being a mental health worker myself, and I think I came to pretty much the exact same conclusions as yourself. Non-state, but somehow useful for some people.
I've been hypnotised to help with Parkinsons disease. I also use self hypnosis for relaxation and for a form of anaesthesia I call "Going somewhere else" This is useful during dentistry (six implants put in in one session) and other medical procedures. For relaxation I use a recording of one of the hypnotherapist sessions which she kindly recorded, or listen to a piece of music (usually "Albatross"by Fleetwood Mac on a repeat of about fifteen minutes. Maybe connected or maybe not, I can dowse, but don't know how. I believe there is more power in our brains than we realise, if only we knew how to apply it.
The lack of magnesium is good if you want to feel blue. ;)
PS. Today I have learned that patient is plural, so I should use THEY for a single person.
My experience with hypnosis is: it is suggestion. With-out auto.
That's why if you want to use hypnosis to solve a specific problem the success heavily depends on the hypnotist's understanding of your problem in the first place...
Which means auto-suggestion / self hypnosis should be far more effective. At least if you understand yourself AND know what would be a good solution but you were unable to apply it until now.
Nice llittle entry level video into this subject, you did well, and a healthy dose of skeptisim (critical thinking) is always "de rigueur" I totally agree. However, the more you delve into the mysteries of the mind/body equation, the more there is still to discover it seems. Shoud you decide to do a part two, may I suggest you talk about Milton H. Erickson. I followed his example in my early days as a therapist before moving on to another ancient technique called Directed Waking Dreams. Robert Dessoille and Henri Corbin are names to look up in that field.
I never used to think I could be hypnotized. I went to a comedy show with a friend once and decided to try and see if I could, following all the instructions and letting myself get into it. I felt something happening and think it might have worked, but my friend shook me because he didn't want to be sitting by himself for the show :)
Super awesome video!!! Really great historical and modern info.
I hope all well in Chicago area! Enjoying the snow today, I am. ha ha
As someone who has been interested and involved in hypnosis for many years, I learned some new stuff from this video and at the same time, relate to your conclusion so much. Hypnosis is just… wild. And the more you think about it, the wilder and more interesting it gets. It's something that feels like it can't be true, and at the same time, we know it is, and when you experience it, it feels completely natural. Whenever i hypnotize someone, it is the weirdest experience, because - like you said - it feels like, there has to be more to it? But if you hypnotize someone, you know what you are doing. You know you aren't using any magic spells. Sure, you use some strategies that you know tend to be more effective, but in the end, you are just confidently guiding someone through an experience - and at some point, somehow, you just… say things… and to the person you are hypnotizing, they become true / they happen. It feels like bullshit, even while you're doing it. That moment where the impostor syndrome is at its peak because I just think "i just said some words, why would this work?" and then it does… It feels close to magic - it isn't, of course, since no laws of physics or similar are broken. I fascinates me. Brains are just so weird.
I am NOT hypontizable. If nothing else I don't have a great deal of trust in people.
Great video, As a trained Clinical Hypnotherapist, I can say whilst you got so much of what's happening, you missed out completely on the Therapy aspect of Hypnotherapy and the idea of Subconscious mind and conscious mind, for example many times when we are emotionally triggered, it has more to do with the past than what's happening in the present, this past lives in your subconscious mind, as a memory and importantly an association. Your conscious mind and subconscious mind is separated by a filter which allows things in and rejects things as not needed or useful. This filter blocks your conscious mind for delving past this, through a combination of progressive relaxation and in a way overloading your conscious mind a Hypnotherapist creates a small overload which allows them to access directly the subconscious or their client too because all Hypnosis is really self hypnosis. In this state, the client can access memories with vivid clarity rapidly. Within the subconscious mind everything is considered True, because otherwise the filter would have blocked it. So if you place a suggestion ... it becomes true ... if as a child when you did not have a protective filter .. you decided the world was not safe and you had to always be careful ... that becomes a truism for you ... which many times expresses itself as Anxiety. When the therapist guides the client back to this child, through what we call Hypnodrama and Rescripting and suggestion / instruction ... We heal that version of the child, remove the limiting belief and replace it with the resource we used to heal it. Like an ability to speak up or ask questions when feeling unsure of a situation. Or knowing it's ok not to be perfect etc ... These new ideas become the new reference points. I have healed people with very serious conditions, people who spent 15 years in and out of Psychologists chairs and we managed to remove for example severe night terrors in 3 months, not nightmares but night terrors due to exposure to extreme trauma. There is a lot more to hypnotherapy than meets the eye, empirically using science you can explain why it works, if you are open to it there is a much more profound level to it. I will say this, in the hands of a trusted clinically trained therapist, it's very safe, very direct and as has been commented on already ... people will notice the difference in you, because fundamentally you will change for the better. I highly reccomend it to everyone, we are all full of limiting beliefs which are holding us back, lurking in your subconscious mind
I really thought the end of this would be "like and subscribe" but you put it over the top with an ad for Brilliant. Well done (I think).
@14:00 Your description reminds me of when police check horizontal gaze nystagmus by moving a penlight back and forth just above your eyes.
People were drinking lots of alcohol back in Mesmer's time too due to lack of clean water. Spirits (alcohol) and hypnosis (mesmerizing) Is there something there?
Thanks for confirming that assent constituted some kind of suggestibility. All of the discussion I've been exposed to on hypnosis seems to rehash the same undefined or loosely defined terms. I like something a bit more concrete. Part of the issue for me is that they don't really know what's going on in terms of hypnotism.
I'm probably not very hypnotizable. I can relax my body and focus on something else all the while maintaining awareness of body position, etc. For example, the one example where they have you hold your arms straight out in front of you, imagine that one arm has weights on it and the other has helium balloons pulling it up, then when you open your eyes one arm has dropped and the other has risen. However, my arms are still straight out in front of me. I can also relax, close my eyes, and listen to someone tell me all kinds of sweet suggestions all the while maintaining a conscious inner dialog analyzing the suggestions, taking notes of the quality of upholstery of whatever thing I'm laying on as well as the operation of the HVAC, the acoustic analysis of the room, and any number of contextual factors. At the end the practitioner may say, "When I count to three you will return to an awakened state," or some other such thing, and I suppose they want me to open my eyes as though I've been "hypnotized" this whole time. I can take or leave anything they said to me the entire session because I've already thought it through.
"I'll count to three and you will open your eyes, but you will not be able to speak. One, two, three."
[I obediently open my eyes.]
"What is your name?"
"Jim."
[surprised] "You appeared to be hypnotized."
"I was just doing what you told me to do."
"I said that you wouldn't be able to speak."
"That wasn't a command and apparently it wasn't a true statement either."
Were you trying to be hypnotized or were you trying not to be hypnotized? If you were trying not to be then congrats!
If you were trying to be hypnotized and I understand it correctly, you are not supposed to be attempting to maintain awareness of your body or the acoustics of the room or an inner dialogue or anything else besides focusing on the sound of the hypnotists voice, that’s usually one of the first commands.
@@TheViktorofgilead I don't know. I'm open, but I don't know exactly what it is to try to or to try not to. If you know what a rope is, then you know you can't push it, you have to pull it. But if you don't know what a rope is, you don't know whether to try pushing it or pulling it. That said, if the success of hypnotism is in large part due the expectation of the one being hypnotized, then they best way to not be hypnotized is to not have any expectations. But if hypnotism is a physiological response to some kind of stimulus, then you would think there would be a physiological predisposition to it that varies from person to person and couldn't be resisted or aided without some understanding of how the physiological response worked. These are the kinds of things I can't seem to find answers for. Using uncertain terms like "state" leads to incoherence. So if I lay back and relax and follow some guided hypnotism, these are the things I'm monitoring in myself (to the best of my limited ability) to see how it works.