Question

How does hypnosis work? Why do you believe it seems to work more effectively with some individuals than with others?

Answer 1

• The American Psychological Association describes hypnosis as a cooperative interaction in which the participant responds to the suggestions of the hypnotist. Hypnosis has also been clinically proven to provide medical and therapeutic benefits, most notably in the reduction of pain and anxiety.It has even been suggested that hypnosis can reduce the symptoms of dementia.
• According to psychologist John Kihlstrom, "The hypnotist does not hypnotize the individual. Rather, the hypnotist serves as a sort of coach whose job is to help the person become hypnotized."
• While hypnosis is often described as a sleep-like trance state, it is better expressed as a state characterized by focused attention, heightened suggestibility and vivid fantasies. People in a hypnotic state often seem sleepy and zoned out, but in reality they are in a state of hyper-awareness.
• In psychology, hypnosis is sometimes referred to as hypnotherapy and has been used for a number of purposes including the reduction and treatment of pain.
• Hypnosis is usually performed by a trained therapist who utilizes visualization and verbal repetition to induce a hypnotic state.
• The experience of hypnosis can vary dramatically from one person to another. Some hypnotized individuals report feeling a sense of detachment or extreme relaxation during the hypnotic state while others even feel that their actions seem to occur outside of their conscious volition.
• Grownups and children who are prone to misunderstand or drag their feet when asked questions are the hardest to hypnotize because their imaginations are rudimentary or stunted and only the most exquisitely crafted hypnotic suggestions will serve to involve them.
• For the study, Spiegel and his Stanford colleagues performed functional and structural MRI scans of the brains of 12 adults with high hypnotizability and 12 adults with low hypnotizability.
• The researchers looked at the activity of three different networks in the brain: the default-mode network, used when one's brain is idle; the executive-control network, which is involved in making decisions; and the salience network, which is involved in deciding something is more important than something else.
  
• Both groups had an active default-mode network, but highly hypnotizable participants showed greater co-activation between components of the executive-control network and the salience network. More specifically, in the brains of the highly hypnotizable group the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, an executive-control region of the brain, appeared to be activated in tandem with the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, which is part of the salience network and plays a role in focusing of attention. By contrast, there was little functional connectivity between these two areas of the brain in those with low hypnotizability.
• Its more related with cognitive aspect of the person than personality aspect.People who meditate regularly can go into as deep a trance as a trained hypnosis practitioner can facilitate. The reason a trained hypnosis practitioner is needed is to ask the right questions to attain a therapeutic result.The primary reason people resist a facilitated trance state is a fear or a similar emotion. When resistance is removed or bypassed by educating the person anyone can be hypnotized.