Deep Hypnosis Research Articles

Hypnotic treatment of headache and vertigo in skull injured patients.

Abstract Symptoms of headache and vertigo were treated using direct hypnotic suggestions of symptom relief in 155 consecutive skull injured patients. Posttraumatic headache and vertigo were completely relieved after an average observation period of 1 year 10 months in 50% and 58% of the patients, and partially relieved in 20% and 16% respectively. Most of the relief was achieved after about 4 weekly sessions and, particularly with the headaches, only if treatment began within a few weeks of the injury. Therapeutic outcome was correlated with depth of hypnosis achieved for both headache (r = .44, p < .0001) and vertigo (r = .47, p < .0001) symptoms. Patients who could not even achieve light hypnosis obtained no therapeutic improvement, but patients who experienced only light hypnosis were as clinically responsive as those achieving deep hypnosis.

Theoretical substantiation of deep hypnosis.

Abstract Under certain conditions, hypnosis may assist the activation of a person's latent creative potentials. This may be due to a blocking of access to information and memory during a person's state of consciousness, which is unblocked during hypnotically-induced altered states.

Hypnotic exploration of amnesia after cerebral injuries.

Abstract Amnesia resulting from cerebral injury i not always absolute. Retrograde amnesia can, to some extent, dimininh spontaneously. Further, barbiturates are known to sometimes influence posttraumatic amnesia. Cases are reported in which amnesia resulting from cerebral injury has been canceled by hypnosis. The present paper concerns 20 cases of fairly serious head injuries where, after recovery, anterograde and retrograde amnesias were explored by hypnosis. In 7 of these cases residual amnesia appears to have been canceled during deep hypnosis. The duration of the post-traumatic coma or amnesia did not seem to have an efiect on the outcome of hypnotic exploration. The problem calls for further investigation both in theory and practice.

Transformations of Rorschach content under two hypnotic trance levels.

Summary Changes in Rorschach responses obtained in an unhypnotized state, a medium hypnotic trance and under deep hypnosis suggested that content can be interpreted as symbolizing important unconscious processes. As the depth of hypnosis increased, content tended to become sufficiently transparent to verify and extend the meaning of the original, unhypnotized response. Other alterations in the Rorschach related to the depth of the trance level were noted.

Principles of cognitive reverberation.

A series of experiments was carried out as part of a continuing program of research based on a conceptual model of the mind. The specific function under empirical scrutiny was a cognitive feedback loop presumed to sustain network activity autonomously for a period of time until the loop gradually dies down. This reverberatory process was explored intensively in a female subject by means of a salience technique consisting of the oral presentation of a string of six consonants, to which she merely listened, and her subsequent report of whatever consonants spontaneously “popped into mind.” The interval between stimulus presentation and her report contained various filler activities, such as counting beats of a metronome or looking at colored travel slides, and varied in duration. The key experimental intervention was a brief excursion into deep hypnosis at some point during the interval, which served to disrupt cognitive processing and permitted inferences to be drawn concerning reverberation. The following principles were derived from the data:. 1. Reverberation consists of autonomous reactivation of a network by the signal transmitted from that network at the time of its original activation. 2. Reverberation takes place independently of conscious awareness. 3. The reverberating signal is strongest at the time of network activation and gradually decreases until it dissipates. 4. Barring disruption, a single series of reverberations from a transient network apparently can last for hours. 5. Reverberation acts to retard, in proportion to its own intensity, the intrinsic rate of decay in network strength. 6. The course of reverberation is a direct function of current amplification level in the system. 7. For a given level of amplification, strength of the reverberating signal is an inverse function of the strength of competing signals in process.

The effects of hypnosis and motivational instructions on kinesthetic learning.

Abstract Twenty-four male volunteer undergraduate students were equally divided into four groups—(a) hypnosis and task motivating instructions, (b) deep hypnosis and task motivating instructions, (c) task motivating instructions alone, and (d) control. Kinesthetic learning, as measured by a 10-choice-point stylus maze, was unaffected by the experimental conditions. Possible interpretations in light of recent work on physical endurance tasks are discussed.

INFLUENCE OF THE HYPNOTIC TRANCE ON PLASMA 17-HYDROXYCORTICOSTEROID CONCENTRATION.

In a pilot study and a formal experiment, plasma 17-hydroxycorticosteroid concentration was observed to drop to unusually low levels (3 μg./100 ml. or less) at the end of 90 min. of deep, relaxing, hypnotic trance. In the formal experiment on 12 subjects who were very susceptible to hypnosis, the low plasma 17-OHCS levels occurred in 25% of the hypnotic sessions, but only rarely in control periods (p < .0001). This trance-associated phenomenon could not be reproduced consistently in individual subjects, nor was it possible to predict its occurrence from any obvious characteristics of the trance experience. These decreases in 17-OHCS concentration may be related to the tension-relieving or the euphoric aspects of deep hypnosis. It is important to take into account possible physiological effects of the trance per se when evaluating physiological changes during subsequent hypnotic induction of affect.

Yoga and hypnosis.

Abstract The nature of Yoga and Samaadhi (concentration) was described. Two forms of Samaadhi, conscious and unconscious, and the eight aids to Yoga were given some emphasis in the description. A comparison was made between Samaadhi and hypnosis. It was found that whereas the two differ widely in their ultimate objectives, they have many points of functional and methodological similarity. It was suggested that both in Samaadhi and in deep hypnosis, the S is alert, but for all practical purposes, asleep.

Influence of Certain Hypnotic Suggestions upon a Type of Visual Illusion: Preliminary Report

The present report is concerned with an attempt to objectify suggested hallucinations, so-to-speak, and determine the level of such experiences have. For this purpose, we have made use, among other things, of visual illusions which depend for their existence upon the presence of certain specific elements about which hypnotic suggestions can be given. Twenty-six Ss capable of developing a good deep hypnosis were selected by means of the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale ( 1 ) and given equal opportunity to experience a large variety of hypnotic phenomena. They were then presented with a number of visual illusions, one set of which has been described best by Orbison ( 2 ) . It consists in the distortion of geometrical figures by the presence of specific ground patterns, e.g., the Zelner Illusion. Any major alteration of the ground will destroy the illusion. Our experimental procedure briefly, has been to present first a blank card to the hypnotized S, then a card with a cross on it, followed by some cards with small transluscent windows both with and without designs on them and next superimposed upon the first two cards. Each time S is told what he is going to be shown. Following this practice session, S is told that he is again going to be shown a blank card, but chis time a card with a test ground pattern on it is actually shown. If S experienced this suggested negative hallucination completely, on nearly so, various test figures were then superimposed upon the negatedw grounds. Twelve Ss in all, each completely naive with regard to the illusion and each capable of experiencing it under normal conditions, did not experience it when they negated the grounds. To these 12 we feel justified in adding two others belonging to an earlier comparable sample, bringing the total to 14. This represents about 10% of the student population from which we normally obtain Ss. It therefore appears that under conditions which we feel were free of contamination, suggestions aimed at negating a certain visual experience have a at such a level as to affect the existence of a visual illusion which has been generally believed to depend upon definite retinal and cortical processes. W e offer the present data as preliminary evidence in support of the contention that not all hypnotic behavior is pretense or role-playing, that hypnotic experiences in the form of hallucinations can have a reality comparable to that of actual events and objects, and that it is possible to study subjective phenomena in an objective manner. W e must, however, re-assert that both our data and conclusions are tentative and partial, and we reserve our final conclusions to such a time as our study will have been completed.

On the psyche and warts. II. Hypnotic suggestion and warts.

Hypnosis was attempted in 62 patients with warts. Deep hypnosis was established in 15. Within a four-week period after the therapeutic suggestion was given, 8 of these 15 patients showed complete remission of their warts, in contrast to the occurrence of 2 cures in the 47 patients who could not be deeply hypnotized. The findings suggest that the hypnotic relationship may play a significant role in facilitating the curative process in certain patients with warts. The inability to cure some patients under the same or similar conditions, the occurrence of cures under other conditions, and the phenomena of so-called spontaneous cure indicate that factors other than those involved in the specific hypnotic procedure undoubtedly played a role. These factors urgently require further experimental clarification.

Bemegride analepsis to deep hypnosis induced by a variety of hypnotics.

Bemegride analepsis to deep hypnosis induced by a variety of hypnotics.

Propaganda as Psychical Coercion

Aristotle mentions coercion first in his description of the elements of involuntariness: “What sort of acts, then, should be called compulsory? We answer that without qualification actions are so when the cause is in the external circumstances and the agent contributes nothing.” This statement clearly marks the essence of coercion as exteriority, as opposition not only to the higher degree of interiority, of “from-withinness,” which distinguishes voluntary actions, but also to the spontaneity common to all natural processes. Aristotle gives some instances of physical coercion: a man blown from his path by the wind, and a man carried away by kidnappers.But we know that psychical forces can also bring about coercion. For example, the movements commanded of a person in deep hypnosis have their origin externally to him in the will of the hypnotist; the hypnotized person contributes nothing by way of voluntary decision to those movements. He is an instrument moved by the external, psychical force of the hypnotist's will; that is, he is subject to psychical coercion.

HERPES SIMPLEX AND SECOND DEGREE BURN INDUCED UNDER HYPNOSIS

A 27-year-old combat soldier was admitted to a general hospital overseas because of hysterical blindness. He proved to be a good hypnotic subject and vision was restored after one session. In a subsequent hypnotic session a second degree burn with blister formation was induced on the dorsum of one hand. The blister was noted at the end of one hour and was fully developed approximately four hours later. A herpetiform lesion, clinically similar in all respects to a true herpes simplex, was made to appear in a specified area about the mouth twenty-four hours after the suggestion was given under deep hypnosis. In both instances there was an attempt made to induce affective changes in addition to the direct suggestions given. Under hypnosis it is possible to demonstrate an inter-relationship between the psychic processes and localized peripheral effects which far transcends the ability of the individual in the conscious state.

THE CONDITIONED REFLEX TREATMENT OF ALCOHOLISM

<h3>To the Editor:—</h3> I read with considerable interest the articles on the treatment of chronic alcoholism by Lemere and others and by Miller inThe Journal, September 26. For the past ten years I have had gratifying success in producing cures of many years' duration in the treatment of chronic alcoholism by establishing a "conditioned reflex" under hypnosis. I wish to call attention to the successful use of suggestive therapy in the treatment of chronic alcoholism. The various combinations of suggestive therapy are used to speed up an otherwise slow process and are used to create an aversion to the sight, smell, taste and thought of alcohol. Briefly, the following procedure is used: A state of heightened suggestibility is induced with deep hypnosis as it is scientifically applied in medicine. With the patient in a deep hypnotic state, the suggestion is made that he will be given a drink of

Sleep and Hypnosis

IN an address on sleep and hypnosis delivered at a meeting of Section J (Psychology) of the British Association at Aberdeen, Dr. William Brown pointed out that although there are marked contrasts between hypnosis and sleep, there is also a close connexion. The muscles in sleep are in a state of relaxation, and in hypnosis in a state of rigidity. In sleep the knee-jerks become less pronounced and eventually disappear: in the hypnotic state, however deep, they remain undiminished. There are other differences; for example, in sleep the subject is unable to respond to a suggestion to perform a simple act, whereas even in deep hypnosis such obedience is readily forthcoming. But in spite of these contrasts, Dr. Brown holds that there is a close connexion between the two states. Sleep can be induced by hypnotic suggestion even to the cure of some forms of insomnia, and the hypnotic state itself readily passes into a state of sleep. Sleep-walking is a spontaneously occurring phenomenon closely analogous to what is induced in a good hypnotic subject. A person who frequently walks in his sleep is, as a rule, exceptionally easy to hypnotise, and in the hypnotic state the dreams of the somnambulist may be recalled and the abnormal condition often rectified.

A. L. Mendelson. The current state of the issue of the treatment of alcoholism by suggestion. - Russian. Doctor 1910 № 31, 32

An irresistible craving for alcohol, according to the author, is the result of mental anomalies: weak will, painful irritability and impressionability of mood swings, in the form of periods of mental depression, etc. Therefore, it is natural to expect that mental treatment will be no less appropriate here than when using mentally -sick. The best results in this regard are obtained by occasional drunkenness, based on the patient's weakness, in the absence of sharp alcoholic changes in the body and psyche, the worst results are typical binge drinking, which is essentially due to periodic psychosis. On the basis of 3500 cases, the author argues that only alcoholism on the basis of severe mental illness is not amenable to treatment by suggestion. An indispensable condition for the success of our treatment should be the sincere desire of the drinker himself to give up drunkenness and undergo treatment, subject to complete abstinence from all alcoholic beverages. Otherwise, the alcoholic needs bed rest and vigorous general treatment. As regards the method of producing suggestion, here the author does not adhere to the calculus. certain rules, advising the use of one or another type of suggestion (with deep hypnosis, its mild degree, suggestion in a waking state), depending on the individual characteristics of the patient. Their frequency: the first suggestion daily, or every other day, then two days later, then less and less. In the 2nd half of the year, in successful cases, 1 session per month is enough.