Hypnosis on TV

[Sophie]

Hi

Did anyone see the programme on hypnosis on the BBC last night?  A Doctor was trying to find out if hypnosis worked on any level and whether there is such a thing as trance.  Of course we all know the answers to this, but I found it interesting.

The things that stood out for me was when they hypnotised someone and then showed him a black and white picture (of various black, grey and white shapes) and asked him to make it colour.  He did indeed make it colour.  They then asked him to do the same thing unhypnotised.  He managed to make the black and white picture colour again.  They then
did brain scans on him, one hypnotised and one not.  The results were that when hypnotised and asked to see colour, the part at the back of his brain that deals with colour was being used.   When not hypnotised and asked to see colour, various other parts of his brain were being used (areas that deal with imagination) and not the colour part of  his brain.

The other thing I found interesting was that Hypnotherapists took half an hour to get people into a trance.  They then showed a man who had quite obviously done the Bandler/McKenna et al Practitioner course.  He put someone in a trance in seconds (as we were taught).  Does a paying client want to spend half an hour getting into trance when it could be done in minutes?

Also, I couldn't believe the woman who had her two front teeth out with no pain drugs and just hypnosis.  Amazing!

I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Sophie

[Jay Budzynski]

Hi Sophie

I did not catch the programme yet- yet I will with in the next few days-

If you live in the UK you can watch the programme here for the next 6 days http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b009jcrj.shtml?src=ip_potpw there is a gobble filter so if you live outside the UK you wont be able to view it-

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3204/01.html you may like to check out the small 14 minute film on mirror neurons this may open up some ideas as to why the brain works the way it does- very cool-


J
 

[Summer]

I really enjoyed this program.  Kathy Sykes also did a series of programmes about 2 yrs ago looking at acupuncture and the power of belief - also interesting.

The Dentist was also the best part for me.  He had such lovely energy.  There's a Doctor in a local hospice here in the north of england who's a trained NLP practitioner.  He's heading towards his 60th birthday and I'm impressed

[Kayleigh]

I thought it was really interesting about the different brain part activation too!

Thought it was a bit of an unfair experiment asking someone to do something after having just done it under hypnosis. Surely this makes them more likely to be able to do the same thing with "just the use of the power of suggestion" (ie. no trance)?

[Sophie]

I agree Kristen.  I found myself telling the TV, "you can't do that.  You should do the test without hypnosis first and with hypnosis after".  But I assumed the person would tap into exactly the same thing as he tapped into under hypnosis.  I was proved wrong when they showed the brain scans.  I'd be interested to know if he saw the colours as vividly or the same without hypnosis as with it.  Maybe I'll try it myself (just need to find someone hypnotise me).  I suppose I could record a hypnosis I could use on myself for this.

Thank you Jay.  I wished I had recorded the programme but now I can watch it again.  I'll also go to the other link you sent later.

Although I completely believe in the power of hypnosis, I don't think I would be brave enough to have dental work like that without drugs!  I have noticed more dentists using hypnosis, but surely it must make it very expensive.  The lady on the programme had had sessions beforehand as well as the time it took to relax her properly in the chair.  Also, would she need painkillers for a few days after.  Surely the pain must have come on later that day.  Interesting.

Sophie

[Clark]

Hi Sophie,

I think the time it takes a subject to go into trance is largely based on the model of hypnosis the hypnotist is using. A direct "interupt" method (a la Bandler) is quick (and Bandler expects it to be quick) while a progressive relaxation technique could take quite a long time (because the hypnotist thinks it will). A lot is based on the expectations of the hypnotist--even though all hypnosis is self-hypnosis

Clark

[Jay Budzynski]

Hi Sophie

I caught the show the other day and I think Kathy did a good job, I thought the smoking session with police officer- was a bit of a let down- as the session was not shown in full- then I don't know if there was an ecology/future pace built into the session- I am guessing not- which is why in part the session was not as successful as it could have been- the chocolate guy with the corn beef- that was also lacking a future pace- yet the trace induction was much faster- which is a help when your in a group session like he was- 

I think the tooth extraction was a fantastic demonstration of the power of hypnosis- I feel that it put hypnosis in a good light- I thought the guy who was the adding colour to the B/W picture- I thought the session were to close together- I feel that they should have been at least and hour between each test- as with well documented that trace as a residual effect that last up to 20 minutes or so- so would like to see that  experiment- again yet with a bigger gap between test-

All in all I thought the show can Hypnosis a better press than it's had in a while.


Jay