Hypnosis Articles

What You Can Do To Get The Most Out Of A Hypnosis Session

An important factor in the success of your first hypnosis session of course is you, and how you mentally approach the session.  It is helpful for you to adopt an easy going accepting attitude for following instructions.

Almost all hypnotic inductions contain some suggestions for relaxation.  Even the instant and rapid inductions have some kind of suggestion for relaxation.  However, contrary to popular opinion, physical relaxation is not required for hypnosis to occur.  Physical relaxation is only encouraged (through suggestion) so that a kind of mental relaxation can occur.  This mental relaxation is a major part of what helps you to experience the benefits of hypnosis.

This mental relaxation is sometimes called “contention.”  This “contention” does not have anything to do with conflict or tension.  In fact it is quite the opposite.  This “contention” is a mental state where, it is as if the person in hypnosis is hanging on the hypnotist’s every word. 

The hypnotist or hypnotherapist cannot relax your mind.  They act in the role of a coach or teacher.  The hypnotic induction is a way of helping you to first (generally), relax your body, and then use that relaxation as a model for relaxing your mind and creating the hypnotic state.  When you follow the instructions of the hypnotherapist, your conscious mind become less critical of the instructions and suggestions given.  Once this has been accomplished your hypnotherapist can help you become successful for whatever you came in to see a hypnotherapist for.  So, it is essential that you do not over analyze the instructions.  Analysis and mental criticism is the opposite of the mental relaxation you want to create.  Just as muscle tension is the opposite of physical relaxation, mental work such as rationalization and analysis is the opposite of mental relaxation.

Now we return to the idea of adopting an easy-going accepting mental attitude.  Analysis and criticism is equivalent to mental work.  If you are doing mental work, you are not relaxing the mind and not relaxing the mind will inhibit you going as deeply into hypnosis as you could otherwise.  The deeper you allow yourself to go into hypnosis, the more benefit you will receive from each hypnosis session.

The above is an excerpt from an article by Cal Banyan

Saving Money With Hypnosis - San Francisco (Reuters Health) Using hypnosis in the operating room could cut costs of some medical procedures in half, Harvard researchers reported Monday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.
"Doing hypnosis on the operating room table certainly makes sense, but unless it saves money, you will not be doing it," said study author Dr. Elvira V. Lang, associate professor of radiology and medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston , Massachusetts .
The National Institutes of Health National Center funded the research for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The study followed 241 patients undergoing various medical procedures such as clearing blocked arteries.
**All the patients were given standard medical care, including the option of self-medicating drugs for pain.
**One-third was also given empathic attention from a health professional in addition to standard care.
**Another third were given self-hypnotic relaxation techniques in addition to standard care as part of preparation for the procedure.
Lang reported that the hypnotized group reported significantly less pain during the procedure. The hypnotized group also took significantly less time to complete their procedures and used half as
much pain medication. Based on these and other findings, Lang calculated that the average
cost for a procedure using standard care was $638, while the cost for a procedure using adjunct hypnosis would cost $300, cutting the cost by more than half. Even if hypnosis added nearly an hour to the preparation time, it would still save money, she said.  "Hypnosis in the operating room is feasible, it is effective and very resource-sensitive," Lang concluded.

Hypnosis Subjects See What They Believe:
Scientists are admitting hypnosis makes people literally see what they believe by affecting the way their brains function.

Volunteers who had their brains scanned while under hypnosis showed they were not merely doing what they were told.  The scans revealed that when they were asked to see non-existent colours, they really saw them.

In the tests by the University of California a burst of activity was seen in the part of their brain responsible for perceiving colour.  The scientists carrying out the study believe it has important implications and a spokesman said: "There has been a whole argument that hypnosis is just an exaggerated form of social compliance - in other words, people just telling you what you want to hear."

The research team is now looking at how hypnosis can prevent pain.  One trial currently under way involves a group of children aged six to 12 with a suspected kidney disorder. It can only be investigated by inserting a catheter probe into the bladder witholaddnaese inic.