<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > preface</h1>
In the early days of the development of psychology, scientific research was not yet the mainstream, so various mysterious theories and therapies appeared, such as psychoanalysis, dream interpretation, telepathy, etc. Hypnosis is a kind of thing that is mysterious and mysterious, and some people still believe that it is a shortcut to the depths of the subconscious mind, and even can travel through past lives and future lives in hypnosis. There are also pragmatists who suggest that hypnosis can cure psychological problems and can help police witnesses recall the truth of crimes, etc.
However, science has already ruthlessly dismantled the diorama of hypnosis, and the study found that hypnosis is actually a performance of "one willing to fight, one willing to be beaten" between hypnotists and hypnotized people, and has no magical effect. The so-called "effect" is only a hint of the "placebo effect" produced by people, although they receive ineffective treatment, but "expect" or "believe" that the treatment is effective, so that their problem symptoms are improved through psychological and physiological mechanisms. Even The "Father of Hypnosis", Maismar, has been confirmed by scientists to be a medical liar.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > unbelieving hypnotists cannot be oxytovanized</h1>
Hypnosis requires the hypnotist to work together with the person who is willing to be hypnotized. A person to be hypnotized to do 4 points:
1. High mental concentration;
2. Complete relaxation of body and mind;
3. Strong belief in cues;
4. Be full of expectations for hypnotic states.
As a result, people are worried about being hypnotized by bad people
Hypnosis is a kind of performance
Things like bank card passwords don't exist, and the police have repeatedly debunked the rumors that "gangsters use ecstasy incense to make victims obediently obey the arrangements to the bank withdrawal" - in other words, it is possible for bad people to faint and stun you, but it is almost impossible to control your thinking.
Someone measured it with the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale that 5% of the population could not be hypnotized, while 10% of the people could be hypnotized to a deep trance state, even sleepwalking, seeing or hearing hallucinations, when their eyes were even open. Scientific research has found that the more a person indulges in fantasies, the easier it is to be hypnotized; conversely, people who think that hypnosis is garbage cannot be hypnotized. But whether it is easy to be hypnotized has nothing to do with people's personality, such as introversion or extroversion, whether neurotic or not.
There is a simple way to judge whether a person is easy to be hypnotized: grab his wrist, let his hand follow your hand up and down, after doing a dozen times, you quietly release his wrist: the person who is easy to be hypnotized is strong in compliance, and will also follow your hand up and down; the person who is not easy to be hypnotized is weak in compliance, and soon does not follow you to do the action.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > "father of hypnosis" is a liar</h1>
Some people may say, "As long as it works, it won't work?" It doesn't matter what his principle is. Pragmatism does not excuse hypnosis, because treatments based on science are more effective and often cheaper. Honest hypnotists may be able to solve some small problems for people, but there are also many hypnotists who are charlatans, and if the person who is looking for them happens to have a serious physical and mental illness, it is very dangerous.
Moreover, treatments such as hypnosis that rely on the placebo effect can make patients dependent. They are fooled into feeling that they have hypoglycemia, allergies, fungal infections, etc., and then they are hypnotized during treatment, feel the power of "qi", or are controlled by aliens... All in all, the mysterious "therapies" that exploit the placebo effect open the door to pseudoscience.
Franz Anton Messmer
The 18th-century Viennese physician Franz Anton Messmer was later known as the "father of modern hypnosis", and initially he used magnets or magnets to perform hypnosis and therapy, which was similar to many of today's "masters" who used "spiritual power" to treat people, and was once supported by King Louis XVI and his queen. He soon discovered that hypnosis could achieve the same effect without magnets. Later, a French scientific committee investigated Messer, including the famous scientists Franklin and Lavoisier, and the investigation reported that the effects of Messe's hypnotherapy were entirely derived from the patient's imagination and strong belief in miracle expectations. The French medical community also denounced Maisme, calling him a liar and revoking his license to practice medicine.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > perform hypnosis: a double reed play of your heart' desire</h1>
Performative hypnosis is usually carried out in bars, clubs, and exhibitions, and the hypnotized subjects usually have the experience of being hypnotized and know very well what will happen in hypnosis, for example, the hypnotist will let them learn to call chickens, then return to their seats in the audience, and then stand up and shout a few times. The audience is also often arranged with the hypnotist's "trust". Hypnotists performing on stage often play a little trick of dressing up as a plank of wood, that is, supporting it only by the back of their head and two heels — a stiff movement that isn't hard to put on. These hypnotized people often drink alcohol in advance, and alcohol has an inhibitory effect on the brain, so it often appears out of control in hypnosis.
Xu Zhenlei, associate professor of the Department of Medical Psychology at Peking University Medical College, revealed that once he was invited to the stage to perform with a hypnotist, the hypnotist "hypnotized" him and "stole" his watch in order to show his magic. The audience thought he didn't know, but in fact he knew it very well, and immediately after the hypnosis ended, he went backstage to ask for his watch.
Hypnotists also have mysterious behaviors, such as repeatedly chanting a certain sound, making a certain movement, saying soft and relaxed words, and making noises from the fingers, counting down from 10 to 1. The hypnotized person makes a trance-like appearance - these are actually pretending to be ghosts, in order to increase the sense of mystery.
Hypnosis allows for otherwise inappropriate behavior—the usually cowardly Sven woman, after being hypnotized, can accept vulgar and obscene words and even blatant sexual provocations. In extreme cases, when others make them obey everything they do, they claim to have "amnesia" afterwards, and they are not responsible for their actions. Behind this is a social convention that aims to gain the attention of others.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > past life hypnosis: pretending to be a ghost + thinking about wrong</h1>
This hypnosis claims to allow the hypnotized person to "regress" to a past life, or "enter" into an afterlife, but studies have confirmed that what the hypnotized person recalls is all in this lifetime.
Some scholars believe that the hypnotized person enters a trance mental state, based on the fact that the brain waves change in the hypnotic state, unlike when awake. However, this is not enough to say that hypnosis is special, because a person is daydreaming, thinking intently, imagining red in his mind, sneezing, etc. will change the electrophysiological state of the brain.
Nicholas Spanos, professor of psychology at Carleton University in the United States and director of the Hypnosis Laboratory, believes that past life hypnosis is very similar to the so-called "ghost upper body" in the past, and hypnosis affects the hypnotized person's motivation, expectations and explanation of things by indirectly changing their behavior. In hypnosis, their behavior is not really in a trance state, nor does it open the channel of the subconscious mind, nor does it return to the past life. They are really just reacting accordingly to the hypnotist's cues. A submissive hypnotist, induced by a hypnotist, can have fantasies about the afterlife. For example, depending on the needs and wishes of both the hypnotized parties, the hypnotized person can imagine himself in the arena of ancient Rome two thousand years ago, or on an alien planet a thousand years later.
British psychologist Elizabeth Marianne Thornton even believes that the hypnotized person is clumsily mimicking the symptoms of epilepsy patients. In order to satisfy their deep emotional needs, they play their fantasies under the hint of a hypnotist.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > recall hypnosis: fictional stories when you can't remember them</h1>
Many people hope to awaken repressed memories through hypnosis and discover the "truth" that exists in the subconscious. Hypnotists use hypnosis methods and some suggestive techniques to discover the "experience" of the hypnotized person being violated by relatives or abducted by aliens as a child— it must be painful, or sensational, otherwise neither side of the hypnosis is satisfied, so hypnosis creates some false memories that may never have happened. However, studies have found that people rarely have repressed trauma in their hearts, and false memories will only cause people irreparable damage.
Some are hypnotized by victims or witnesses of crimes, and sometimes the police encourage them to recall the details of what they experienced during hypnosis. However, a little careless hypnosis can also form false memories, so it is very dangerous for the police to use hypnosis to "induce confessions". The American Medical Association report says there is no evidence that recall in hypnosis is more accurate. Moreover, the hypnotized person is extremely susceptible to suggestions, and it is easy to fill in missing memories with imagination. For example, in an armed robbery in the United States, three witnesses came up with a lot of detailed descriptions after being hypnotized, but the descriptions of the three people did not match and were far from the facts. As a result, hypnotic testimony is difficult to be recognized by a court, such as the U.S. Superior Court of Minnesota, which explicitly rejected.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > therapeutic hypnosis: the efficacy is trusted by the patient</h1>
People who receive clinical hypnotherapy hope to solve their own problems of one kind or another, such as losing weight, relieving physical pain, overcoming tobacco addiction, fear of flying, etc. Some hypnotists seem to be able to really help, and their core operation is to suggest that the hypnotist will let the patient relax and guide them to focus on an object. However, there is no solid scientific evidence to support the efficacy of hypnosis, and the so-called "effective cases" are mostly legends, while more ineffective cases have not been collected.
Film stills about hypnosis
Scientists have studied hypnosis for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome, nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy, etc., and believe that the efficacy is not accurate. A large amount of scientific evidence confirms that the mainstream psychotherapeutic technique "cognitive behavioral therapy" (CBT) has achieved tangible results on many of these problems, and does not need to be as mysterious as hypnosis. According to R. Buck Bowsell, a biostatistician at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), hypnosis relies heavily on the hypnotist's cues and the hypnotized person's beliefs, and that this is difficult to distinguish from the placebo effect — if it works, only because people believe that the hypnotist has the ability to cure themselves.
Some hypnotists simply integrate the content of cognitive behavioral therapy into their own therapy, combined with the placebo effect, to achieve such and such a curative effect in very cooperative patients. For example, a hypnotist, Rhonda Graf, found that visual cues and imagination worked for most people by asking smokers to see themselves as non-smokers and fat people to see themselves as thin. When tempted by cigarettes and good food, people have to say to themselves, "No, no, no, I can control myself." Even if this is effective, how much role does hypnosis play in it? Or is it the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy? Or is there a strong willingness to change?
Author: Wu Junyi
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > further reading</h1>
Is hypnosis really that mysterious? Uncovering the Truth
Author: Skeptical Explorer
Someone asked: After a person is hypnotized, does he really have no consciousness of himself? What do you feel about it? It is often seen on TV that there is hypnosis, and the hypnotized person will do a series of things according to the requirements of the hypnotist, but after all, it is acted, what is the real hypnosis? And when is it mainly used?
Hypnosis is not magical
In fact, hypnosis is not so magical, and it has nothing to do with mysticism. The effect of hypnosis is very limited and not exaggerated at all. I am a senior national counselor who has carefully studied hypnosis and can answer this question to my friends.
Hypnosis (derived from the greek myth of hypnos), a state of substitution of consciousness triggered by a variety of different techniques. The hypnotized person, who is extremely responsive to the suggestions of others, is a highly suggestive state and responds accordingly in perception, memory, and control. Although hypnosis is very much like sleep, sleep is actually not related to hypnosis, and if a person is really asleep, there will be no response to any hints.
For ordinary people, hypnosis is a particularly mysterious and magical thing. In all kinds of movies, in television, in various legends, on the performance stage, there are all kinds of magical phenomena about hypnosis. For example, hypnotizing chickens, making people do all kinds of things, making people unable to move, making people's bodies hard as iron (human bridges), making people suspended in the air, making people recall things from "past lives"... Are these true? Is hypnosis really so magical?
In fact, hypnosis is not so magical. Some exaggerated phenomena reported by gossip media are either completely fictional and imaginary, and have not even been performed, such as levitating, which is completely impossible; or they are performed through some means, such as hypnotizing chickens, human bridges, etc.; or pseudoscientific explanations of phenomena, such as past lives.
After a person is hypnotized, in fact, the mind is awake, and it does not mean that after being hypnotized, there is no consciousness, and the person is not asleep. It is an unusually awake state of consciousness, when people's thinking is clear, they become sensitive to their surroundings, and even a little sound cannot escape your ears. If you think about it, you sit quietly in a room, close your eyes, and after a while, in silence, do you feel that your hearing seems to have become a little more sensitive? This is normal, several human sensory organs, if the use of one sensory organ is reduced, then other sensory organs will be more sensitive. However, it should also be remembered that this sensitivity improvement is not beyond the laws of biological physics, it is very limited, and the real increase in sensitivity is not much, but more of a psychological effect. This point requires special attention. Some people say that after I was hypnotized, I saw some mysterious phenomenon, which was just an illusion in my brain. The human brain has this mechanism, and once the silence is too long, it will produce hallucinations. This is related to human physiological organs, and in science, there is also a solid scientific basis.
Hypnosis, first of all, is the person who is hypnotized, his whole body is asked to slowly relax according to the steps, follow the hypnotist's instructions, slowly imagine, see a picture in his mind, as if he is in it. At this time, the body will undergo subtle changes, become less sensitive, a person who is very afraid of itching, at this time will become not afraid of itching, and the pain is also shielded, and the pain is reduced. At this time, the hypnotized person feels very comfortable, does not want to be woken up, and is very relaxed. The body seemed to be pasted to a chair or bed, and the eyes did not want to open, did not want to move. Of course, the hypnotized person did not lose the ability to move, but he did not want to move because he was more comfortable. The effect of hypnosis ends here. We have done many examples of hypnosis, hypnosis is not as exaggerated as in film and television dramas, film and television dramas are derived from life and higher than life, just an artistic exaggeration. And science is not art, but seeking truth from facts.
There is a misconception about hypnosis, which is that it can control people's behavior. We often see such a scene in movies, through hypnosis, you can make someone obediently listen to you and honestly explain things to you. If only the world really had this magical effect! First of all, the comrades of the police were happy. But in fact, hypnosis is simply unable to control a person's behavior, and it is impossible to make him do something against his will. Hypnosis is to make people relax, to open up the subconscious mind that is usually suppressed, just like drinking alcohol can make people relax, but they will never do things they don't want to do. Therefore, do not regard hypnosis as particularly mysterious and exaggerated.