Hypnosis

1. Hypnosis Is Hypnosis an Altered State of Consciousness?The Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale has factors like postural sway; people who respond to suggestions without hypnosis respond the same when hypnotized. Kirsch & Braffman, 2001(mp110,c109).Hypnotically refreshed memories combine fact with fiction. (Loftus, 1980).Hypnosis does not seem able to force people to act against their wills; (Orne & Evans, 1965)Posthypnotic suggestion can however, alleviate pain. (Kirsch, 1996).Drug, alcohol and nicotine addiction do not respond to hypnosis. (Nash, 2001,mp111,cp110).Hypnosis inhibits pain-related brain activity. In surgical experiments, h-patients required less medication, recovered sooner, and left hospital earlier than non-h-patients. (Askay & Patterson, 2007 (mp112,cp110).

2. Hypnosis Social influence theory of hypnosis. (Spanos & Coe, 1992,mp112,cp111). Milgram, 1974: An authoritative person in a legitimate context can induce people--hypnotized or not--to perform some unlikely acts.Hypnosis is more likely to be an extreme form of dissociation--a split between different levels of consciousness.  See Fig. 9.1mp113,c3.19p112).Hypnosis is another example of selective attention.PET scans show that hypnosis reduces brain activity in a region that processes painful stimuli, but not in the sensory cortex, which recieves raw input. (Rainville et al. 1997,mp113,cp112).