Have you ever met a Hypnotists ? Does he carry dangling watch or a something like soothing voice that can make you hypnotize ? It has a repute in considering "it as a FAKE" . So what does the science say ?
Hypnotism has been described as a type of consciousness where person respond as the attention is enhanced and suggestions are well captured.your brain becomes same as when you watch television or reading a book.You forget the world. I am not a scientist or hypnotist. I haven't done the brain mapping but I have done some research that will give information which you will find interesting maybe ?
Well, You have two type of minds ;
Conscious mind and Subconscious mind.
Our mind is like an iceberg (credit)
Conscious state of mind , also called as "temporary memory", the state where you are having now . The name of members of family, cell number of friends or important person will be in the conscious mind. Your determination towards work, strength of character, dedication or just say "Will power" will be worked by the conscious mind. It makes decisions or look for a solution for hundred of problem every second of your life. Decisions for right or wrong and why do we do things will be verified by this conscious part. Decisions which one makes sense and has some logic is the language of the conscious mind.
Flow Pattern of thoughts on brain to body (credit)
Subconscious mind is also called as "permanent memory" which has the habits of yours weather the bad, ugly or good.Everything that has happened to you via- sound, vision, smell and feelings are recorded in this part of mind.Emotions lie in the subconscious state. When you love a person, love emotions are submerged in it.All the practical habits like moving your legs, biting the nails, playing with your hair, brushing your teeth are regulated by and in the subconscious state of mind. There is the reason for all the problems behind the emotions. The real person lives in the subconscious mind not in the conscious mind. Subconscious mind has the language of imagination. But these imaginations and the emotions that arise are kept suppressed and inhibited by the will power which is the conscious state of mind. It acts as a security and protection.
OK ! When there is the comparison between the conscious mind and subconscious mind, the subconscious mind always wins. Language of imagination wins than the language of logic. In between this two, there is a filter system called as the deciding filter. This filter lets the thoughts filter before entering the subconscious part of mind. When there is some fishy things or like crazy things going around, your deciding filter system don't let the things go inside the subconscious state.
In the cases of small children or growing children , the filter system isn't developed much.They have a kind of fertile mind.They work through subconscious part of mind. Thus we grow seeds of wisdom and good behaviors to them as good things are stored and memorized till the adult phase when they start working with the conscious state of mind. There is not even a barrier.
Lets come to the hypnosis part now !
According to the research I have done so far, hypnosis is making a person reach his/her subconscious state of mind by passing the deciding filter system making the conscious mind aside. Hypnosis is just reaching the part of mind where the power lies.Everybody lives in a trance condition like a type of autonomic pattern of behaviors. In hypnosis, the trance condition is switched off and It shuts down the autonomic responses thereby reaching the subconscious state of mind.
Say the "COLOR" of the following word :
Fig: Stroop effect test for autonomic response (credit)
Above picture is the Stroop effect test picture. It's difficult in saying the color when you are given with the different color name. It just works when our autonomic response is active. In cases of hypnotized patient, if they were said that the given word is chinese or korean, they said the color without any delay or error. The stroop test failed for them. Thus there is decreased in the autonomic response in the visual cortex of the hypnotized patient from this Stroop effect test.
"You probably have gone to this hypnosis state a thousand times. "
While watching some kind of TV-serials or movies, suddenly a sentimental part comes. You are thinking that it is a movie which is the stimulus given by the conscious mind or "logic". But when you start to cry or tear drop arises even though it is not real, your subconscious mind or "imagination" stimulus is given to brain. This is all because that the conscious mind is not active where you are thinking about friends or family, your work or some solutions while watching a movie. All these barriers of deciding filter and conscious state of mind has been bypassed. All these imagination things are changed when we enter the subconscious mind. It plants the seeds which maybe can alters our behaviors, health and even the thoughts and beliefs happening in the person.
What do you see in the brain activity and the connections ?
Hypnosis has been playing with the brain activity related with the pain, stress and anxiety. This has changed the world the way we use our mind in vision, hearing and some senses of our body.
Hypnotized people mind is active towards what the hypnotist is saying.Just an example ; The pain dealing part in brain are activated when the hypnotist suggest and can shut down that part if the patient wants no pain.The more deeper you sleep during the hypnosis, the brain becomes more focused generating high brain-waves which happens to focus on the words that the hypnotist says. What does the "functional MRI" says ?
Fig: adACC labelled part shows Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex ; all labelled figured wholesome denoted ACC ;Anterior Cingulate Cortex (credit)
As I mentioned before, when you are watching some movies, your subconscious mind is active and conscious mind is inactive. During the hypnosis, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex of brain is inactive. This part of brain decides to which we should pay attention more if we are in the worried situations.Which work you should be focused on and decide which is more important is done by this part of cortex of brain. When dorsal anterior cingulate cortex is inactive, we concentrate to the task we are currently doing rather than getting worried to other task. State where You are fully engaged in doing the work occurs. There is emergence of focused type of attention which can be seen during the hypnosis.
Fig: Location of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and Insula [credit] [1],[2]
Another part is the relationship between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the Insula. In these parts, there is the increased connections between them. As during hypnosis, it makes the body regulation perfect. People can be made to picture the conditions that are worried about without making any harm to the body. Example, Picturing the high blood pressure and heart rate just by making them feel comfortable and relax can be done. It helps in dissociating the physical reactions from the mental one and help in handling things much better.
The next part of the brain involved is connection of dorsal prefrontal cortex. This part has decrease functions or inverse relationship with the awareness. Self-consciousness is reduced.
When you are doing anything or engaged in something, you don't really think of doing it, you just do it !
This is the reason why the hypnotist make the person lift their hands or legs even if the person is not conscious about the things he do. People can do some things better without worrying it or without the self-conscious state. Thus hypnosis just works with the self-conscious part of mind by shutting it down and working with the subconscious state of mind.
Conclusively, there have been addiction to the opiates which is considered as the pain relieving drug. Now it is the time to use these abilities in controlling the pain sectors of brain, relieving the anxiety and stress control by dealing with the problems. Hypnotism has been understandable from the neuro-biological phenomena. It can be now used in helping the people around and dealing with all kinds of symptoms.
References :
[Source] from Stanford University School of Medicine, Standford Health care
Neurological Mechanism Behind hypnosis
Hypnotic Pain relief - Institute of Neuroscience, Mental health and Addiction
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