Is Hypnosis Real?

Hypnosis isn’t just in the movies- science proves it alters brain activity and consciousness! Discover how the mind transforms under hypnosis.

Hypnosis changes activity in the brain’s large-scale functional networks, according to three research conducted at the University of Zurich. Additionally, it alters the neurochemical environment in particular brain regions.

Up until now, hypnosis has been somewhat of a mystery from a scientific standpoint. Thus far, we have lacked the data necessary to determine whether hypnosis is merely a figment of the subject’s imagination or an unusual condition of human awareness. However, many people are still fascinated by it.

Recently, hypnosis was the subject of a whole dossier in a renowned women’s magazine. Occasionally, we will hear of an amazing success story involving hypnosis. In 2018, for instance, a 45-year-old man underwent hypnosis alone at the Hirslanden Klinik St. Anna in Lucerne to have a metal plate removed from his lower arm without the need for an anesthetic or painkillers. The Swiss public broadcaster SRF Puls health magazine program stated that the man did not suffer any severe pain during or after the operation, much to the surprise of the surgical team.

Reducing Discomfort and Anxiety with Hypnosis

Hypnosis appears to be a highly positive experience in a regular hospital setting. Clinical hypnosis is available at Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) to supplement traditional therapy modalities. According to HUG’s website, it also provides appropriate training for its employees. Additionally, hypnosis is sometimes used to help children who are anxious about an impending treatment feel less anxious before an evaluation.

It appears that hypnosis reduces fear and pain. As a result, it is occasionally utilized in dentistry, burn treatment, and prenatal care.

Changes in Consciousness

The precise effects of hypnosis on the human nervous system have not yet been determined. What, if any, alterations in the brain can be seen during hypnosis? In three investigations, neuroscientists Mike Brügger, Nuno Prates de Matos, and Philipp Stämpfli set out to address these problems alongside other researchers. Two of them were carried out at the University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich (PUK), where Stämpfli is the director of the Center for Magnetic Resonance Imaging. The other study was place in UZH’s psychology department.

One of the biggest problems in neuroscience is currently figuring out how to study and characterize the various states of human consciousness. Changes in consciousness are likely to be reflected in the brain’s functional networks as well. As a result, researchers postulated that any hypnotic effects would manifest in these networks and that imaging technologies would be able to map and quantify them.

How Hypnosis Affects the Human Brain

In each of the three identically constructed investigations, the neuroscientists used a different imaging technique. This enabled them to use a multimodal approach to examine how hypnosis affects the human brain. According to the researchers, it was the world’s first standardized, multimodal hypnosis scientific project. For the first time, it also examined two distinct hypnotic depths.

The magnetic resonance spectroscopy study was published in Scientific Reports, the EEG study was published in Cortex, and the fMRI study was published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (1, 2, 3).

Each time, a little more than fifty individuals were chosen as participants by the researchers. They were all in good health, had undergone hypnosis, and were acquainted with both hypnotic states. Using the same, standardized spoken text, participants were initially put into a minimally hypnotic condition (HS1, somnambulism) inside the MR scanner. After that, they were placed in a very profound hypnotic state (HS2, Esdaile).

All of the subjects had hypnosis experience, so once they reached the appropriate depth, they could provide the study leads with a signal from the scanner. They stayed in this state for around 20 minutes, which is how long it took to use one of the three imaging techniques to look at their brain.

The sample used in the three experiments was quite selected, as the researchers are aware. They are eager to stress that their results are not generalizable because of this. Instead, according to Mike Brügger, “we wanted to determine basic principles, in other words whether there are differences in the brain when people were hypnotized to two different depths.”

Therefore, rather than looking into hypnosis as a potential cure, the three hypnosis research sought to develop a basic understanding of what occurs during hypnosis.

The three investigations demonstrate that scientists may differentiate between two levels of hypnosis based on reliable evidence and varying methodological viewpoints.

The cerebral cortex’s areas implicated in attention and body awareness processes showed variations in activity, according to the fMRI study. Every participant reported experiencing a profoundly relaxed condition, which in certain instances was linked to a loss of time and space sense.

At both hypnotic intensities, theta brainwaves rose. Sleepiness and deep relaxation are indicated by theta waves, which are also present during other deep relaxation processes like meditation or hallucinogenic states. Although they are not predominant during sleep, they are known to occur at various stages of the sleep cycle.

In fact, the participants also stated that they had been far from falling asleep despite feeling quite calm. Rather, they tended to be very focused, researchers discovered.

Subjects under hypnosis also had slower heart rates and breathing, which is another sign of profound relaxation.

Is Hypnosis Fake or Real?

The researchers freely acknowledge that although the three studies have collected a vast amount of scientific data, it is challenging to evaluate it. However, according to Stämpfli and Brügger, two questions have already been addressed by the investigations.

The first is that hypnosis actually alters the brain in some way. There is nothing fake or fabricated about the hypnotic effect. The second is that hypnosis can occur at multiple depths. “That has been a really contentious issue in professional circles up to now, and there was little scientific evidence for it,” Stämpfli said.

Can Hypnosis be Used for Therapeutic Purposes?

These latest findings are a step forward, but the researchers are clear that further studies are needed to get a comprehensive knowledge of how hypnosis works. Further research is also necessary to determine why hypnosis can be therapeutically effective for ailments like pain or anxiety.

For the three hypnotherapy investigations, researchers employed three distinct measuring techniques.

They monitored shifts in the frequency bands of brainwaves and spatial patterns in the collective electrical activity of millions of nerve cells using electroencephalography (EEG). To find and display changes in communication between different parts of the brain, they used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), they were able to explore important brain regions at a more profound, molecular level, building on these fMRI results.

References:

1. Investigating functional brain connectivity patterns associated with two hypnotic states
   (Nuno M. P. de Matos et al, Investigating functional brain connectivity patterns associated with two hypnotic states, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (2023). DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1286336)




2. An interhemispheric frontoparietal network supports hypnotic states
   (Maria Niedernhuber et al, An interhemispheric frontoparietal network supports hypnotic states, Cortex (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2024.05.008 EEG)




3. Neurochemical dynamics during two hypnotic states evidenced by magnetic resonance spectroscopy
   (Nuno Miguel Prates de Matos et al, Neurochemical dynamics during two hypnotic states evidenced by magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Scientific Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-80795-3)

Source-Medindia