Hypnosis in the News

Hypnosis has gained credibility in the past five years because of research using the latest brain-imaging technology. PET, MRI, and EEG scans show that hypnotized subjects have altered sensory perception — and they’re not just pushovers, play-acting, or highly imaginative, as once thought. Studies show hypnosis can help treat a multitude of disorders from asthma to warts.

Businessweek, February 2004

“Hypnosis is not mind control. It’s a naturally occurring state of concentration; it’s actually a means of enhancing your control over both your mind and your body.
Dr. David Spiegel, Assoc. Chair of Psychiatry
Stanford University School of Medicine

“Hypnosis can help adult patients control other forms of pain, relieve gastrointestinal problems, stimulate weight loss, clear up skin problems, and accelerate the healing of bone fractures and surgical wounds.”

Consumer Reports, January 2005

Does Hypnotherapy Really Work?

  • - Psychoanalysis 38 percent recovery after 600 sessions
  • - Behavior therapy 72 percent recovery after 22 sessions
  • - Hypnotherapy 93 percent recovery after 6 sessions

From an article by Dr. Alfred Barrios,  clinical psychologist (BS Caltech, Ph.D. UCLA)  in American Health Magazine

From BBC News BBC News

  • - A small study found that hypnotherapy helped psychological treatment in reducing anxiety and feelings of helplessness in students.
  • - Breast cancer patients need less anesthetic during operations if they have been relaxed by hypnosis beforehand, US research suggests.
  • - Man hypnotizes himself before an operation – A hypnotist from West Sussex has undergone surgery on his right hand without a general anesthetic. “At one stage a hammer and chisel was used as well as a surgical saw, but I felt no pain.” Alex Lenkei
  • - Hypnosis ‘can ease bowel illness’ – Hypnotherapy could help people with severe irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), researchers say. Doctors should consider using this and other “psychological” treatments such as antidepressants to help sufferers, King’s College London experts say in the British Medical Journal.

The Mayo Clinic also puts many hypnosis myths to rest. Many people think that under hypnosis, they will have no free will. This is untrue; under hypnosis people have a heightened state of concentration, but they are in complete control. Another myth is that a hypnotherapist can control people under hypnosis. The truth is that a hypnotherapist serves as a guide and cannot make anyone do something that they do not want to do. It is also not true that people can become hypnotized without consent. Hypnosis involves a person`s willingness to participate (Goal Oriented Hypnotherapy).

“I used to be a sceptic, then years ago I took part in a TV programme where pregnant women were taught self-hypnosis to help them sleep.
Determined to prove it didn’t work, I tried it out myself at home – and promptly dropped off. Now I use it every night. “

Dr Miriam Stoppard
Daily Mirror (UK)

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