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Hypnosis, Hypnotism, & Hypnotherapy Glossary: |
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“...the state of the art is such that it [group hypnosis] may be offered with confidence as a method of treatment for overeating and for such addictions as those of alcohol, narcotics, and nicotine...” --Ira A.Greenberg, Ph.D., Camarillo Ca. State Hospital, Group Hypnotherapy and Hypnodrama, Nelson-Hall, Chicago, 1977
"...hypnosis has something positively uncanny abo
ut it; but the
characteristic of uncanniness suggests something old..." Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.
"Group hypnosis has been employed effectively for stutterers, alcoholics, and those afflicted with headaches. However group hypnosis reaches its greatest potential in relieving pain in obstetric patients and in the therapy of obesity." --William Kroger, M.D., Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology, UCLA School of Medicine, Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. Philadelphia and Montreal: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1963.
--William S. Kroger M.D., op. cit.
"Part of what may be contained in the "contagion" that Kroger speaks of may involve the sense of security that individuals get from each other when entering a new experience. --Ira A. Greenberg, Ph.D., Camarillo Ca. State Hospital, Group Hypnotherapy and Hypnodrama, Nelson-Hall, Chicago, 1977
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WEIGHT-WATCHERS DIET, BARRY SEARS' ZONE DIET, ATKINS DIET, ORNISH DIET
COMPARED BY SCIENTISTS
by Don De Grazia
Scientists at Tufts University have conducted a study comparing the effectiveness of four of the top diets that are currently popular. Equal numbers of patients were assigned to the ATKINS DIET (high protein, low carbohydrates), Dr. Barry Sears' ZONE DIET (somewhat high protein and low carbohydrates), Dr. Dean Ornish's LOW-FAT DIET, and the WEIGHT WATCHERS moderate fat diet.
After 12 months those who remained in each group were tested to see which group was most successful in achieving the following four goals:
Here are the results in each of the above four categories:
The winner: Ornish diet: 6.2%
The winner: Ornish diet: 16%
.
The winner: Ornish diet:
19.9 This diet was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association to result in 2.5 times fewer cardiac events such as heart attack, stroke, bypass surgery, and angioplasty. The tragic thing about high-protein, low-carb diets like the Atkins diet is that most people who go on them increase their intake of meat, eggs and dairy products, which increases their risk of cancer and other illnesses while at the same time they reduce their intake of carotenoids, catechins and other polyphenols from fruits and vegetables, which would have reduced their risk of cancer and other illnesses and improved their appearance in numerous ways. We will be reporting soon on recent studies that further demonstrate these points. You don't have to take that risk because you can lose even more weight on a healthful diet as the Tufts University study shows. Atkins died (overweight) a couple of years ago, and the Atkins company has finally gone bankrupt, but the publishers of high-protein diets still continue to send press releases to the media saying "studies have finally proved that high-protein diets really do work. People really do lose weight on them." They don't mention that people can lose more weight on other diets without increasing their cancer risk the way most people do when they go on a high-protein, low-carb diet. A lot of important new information such as the above, which could be very helpful to anyone that wants to lose weight, is published every month in scientific journals. Much of this information does not make it into the general news media. We at Outreach Counseling Center of Oak Park, Illinois, are going to be passing along to you from time to time some of the more interesting and important information from these publications. I hope you find it interesting and useful. If you have any questions, phone 708-383-1700, and I'll be happy to try to find the answers. The above study was presented in November, 2003, to the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in Orlando, Florida, by Dr. Michael Dansinger, MD, Assistant professor of medicine at Tufts University.
EMOTIONAL Contagion in Group Hypnosis
by Don De Grazia
--William S. Kroger, M.D., Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology, UCLA School of Medicine, Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. Philadelphia and Montreal: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1963.
"Part of what may be contained in the "contagion" that Kroger speaks of may involve the sense of security that individuals get from each other when entering a new experience."
--Ira A. Greenberg, Ph.D., Camarillo
Ca. State Hospital, Group Hypnotherapy and Hypnodrama,
Nelson-Hall, Chicago, 1977 As Dr. Kroger pointed out in the above quotation, it is relatively easy for people to enter a state of hypnosis when it is conducted in a group environment, if it is conducted correctly. This is largely due to a phenomenon that scientists sometimes refer to as emotional contagion. Hypnosis originated independently in many parts of the world, generally as a group phenomenon, and is closely related to other group instincts. In many parts of the world where hypnosis-like practices are conducted, they are to this day done only in small groups. Many authorities believe that more people will go into hypnosis, and into a deeper state, when it is conducted in a group environment, due to the close relationship between hypnosis and certain group instincts and to the emotional contagion referred to by Dr. Kroger and Dr. Greenberg in the above quotations. If the groups are too large, though, that could reduce the success rate. "...an individual immersed for some length of time in a group in action soon finds himself—either in consequence of the magnetic influence given out by the group, or from some other cause of which we are ignorant—in a special state which much resembles the state of 'fascination' in which the hypnotized individual finds himself..."
--Gustave Le
Bon
Many of our past clients had previously been unable to become hypnotized in private sessions with several hypnotists, but easily went into a reasonably deep state of hypnosis in a small-group session. One way to gain a better understanding of hypnosis is to examine its origins. There are many theories as to why human beings have the faculty we call hypnosis, but clearly it serves a beneficial purpose, or natural selection would not have preserved it so universally. Forms of hypnosis are found in almost every culture in the world, from the most primitive to the most advanced. Some experts believe hypnosis began when ancient primitive societies discovered that people sometimes enter a trance state as a result of rhythmic drum beating, dancing, chanting, or other rhythmic group activities. “Hypnosis has something positively uncanny about it; but the characteristic of uncanniness suggests something old..."
"Sigmund Freud One of the ways scientists try to discover the most central, elemental, and essential forms of social practices is by examining the way the earliest cultures originally conducted those practices. Since scientists cannot travel back in time to examine the origins of cultural practices, and because the earliest cultures left no written history, one way that scientists attempt to get back to the origins of a cultural practice is by examining the customs of contemporary stone-age cultures, of which there are still a few remaining in our present-day world. Let's follow that approach now in an effort to get a glimpse of the origins of hypnosis. The Kung Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert in Africa, for example, one of the few remaining groups in the world that still exist as hunter-gatherers, practice a trance ritual that is surprisingly similar to modern hypnosis. It is very widespread throughout Africa's Kalahari desert region, and it is always done in a group. In Bali, the traditional sangiang hypnosis-like trance ritual is widely practiced and is always done in a group. Zar is a hypnosis-like ritual that is practiced in various parts of the middle east. It is always done in a group. I could go on and on. Even when hypnosis was evolving in western civilization, it was very often seen as a group activity. The western scientist to whom hypnosis is usually traced is Viennese physician and hypnotist, Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), who used a very group-oriented induction technique in his famous sessions in Paris. Group hypnosis was all the rage among the fashionable set in eighteenth-century Paris and Vienna when Mesmer was "mesmerizing" groups in those cities. His circle included the composers Haydn and Mozart, whose first operetta, Bastien et Bastienne, was first performed in Mesmer's own garden theater. Group hypnosis is currently experiencing a resurgence of popularity in Europe and America. If you search for the keywords "group hypnosis" on Medline, you will be presented with a large number of scientific studies using group hypnosis—many of them fairly recent—which have been conducted at major universities and hospitals all over the world. Obviously many scientists have found group hypnosis to be a powerful technique. Psychologists and sociologists have shown that we have instincts that cause us to be powerfully influenced by the presence of others and to react to things differently when we are in a group setting--even a group of strangers. This is true even when there is no conscious interaction between members of the group. Just the group presence seems to be all that is necessary. A group of scientists in the UK recently conducted an interesting study that was set in a snack bar. This was a self-service snack bar based on the honor system, where everyone was expected to drop the correct amount of money into a cash receptacle, corresponding to the food or beverages they had taken. As you might expect, some of the patrons did not drop the right amount of money into the box. At the end of the day the amount of money in the cash receptacle was often not as high as it should be, based on the amount of food and beverages that were missing. But when scientists displayed large images of eyes on the walls of this snack bar, the pilfering diminished dramatically. Other scientists have actually discovered a place in the human brain that responds specifically to the sight of eyes, not only human eyes but the eyes of other creatures as well. This is an interesting example of group instincts. You are not exactly the same person when you are in the presence of another creature’s eyes. You don’t respond to things in exactly the same way as you would if you were alone. When the images of eyes are replaced by real people instead of lifeless images, the effect is much stronger. I believe there are several different reasons why it is so easy to induce hypnosis in a small group. One of these reasons is related to the phenomenon known as entrainment--the tendency of human physiological and psychological cycles to become synchronized with the cycles of the people surrounding them. Our bodies communicate with each other outside of our awareness through body language, pheromones, and in unknown ways which are not yet understood. This unconscious communication is the cause of a large part of the emotional contagion that causes hypnosis to be so relatively easy to induce in a group environment, as Dr. Kroger pointed out. Scientists studying the effects of recreational drugs have often documented the phenomenon sometimes known informally as a "contact high." People who have not taken any drugs but who are surrounded by people who are under the influence of a drug, often tend to experience after a while the same psychological and sometimes physiological effects as those surrounding them who have actually ingested, injected, or inhaled the drug.
"...in the mental operations of a
group the function for testing the reality of things falls into the
background in comparison with the strength of wishful impulses..." Hypnotherapists aren't the only ones who can learn to harness this power. Gifted public speakers have sometimes intuitively learned to harness it to a lesser degree when they are addressing groups, even though they are not consciously using any formal hypnotic induction technique. Sometimes it even occurs spontaneously in the form of mass hysteria.
"Just as primitive man survives
potentially in every individual, so the primal horde may arise once
more out of any random collection;”
"But we expect even more of this
derivation of the group from the primal horde. It ought also
to help us to understand what is still incomprehensible and
mysterious in group formations—all that lies hidden behind the
enigmatic words 'hypnosis' and 'suggestion'.... I have noticed over the years that the breathing of the subjects in a group-hypnosis session becomes more synchronized as the session progresses. I had been intuitively using the changing respiratory patterns as a cue for the pacing of the induction and post-hypnotic suggestions for many years before I realized consciously that I was doing this. Stretching and yawning often spread through a group like wildfire. One of the most powerful techniques a hypnotherapist can develop is the ability to recognize, influence, and harness these group synchronizations, of which there are many. “...the state of the art is such that it [group hypnosis] may be offered with confidence as a method of treatment for overeating and for such addictions as those of alcohol, narcotics, and nicotine...” --Ira A. Greenberg, Ph.D., Camarillo Ca. State Hospital, Group Hypnotherapy and Hypnodrama, Nelson-Hall, Chicago, 1977
© Copyright 2007 Don De Grazia
RHYTHMIC SOUNDS AND MOTIONS IN THE INDUCTION
OF HYPNOSIS
by Don De Grazia I mentioned in the article about emotional contagion in group hypnosis that some authorities believe hypnosis originated when primitive societies noticed that people sometimes enter a trance state as a result of rhythmic drum beating, dancing, chanting or similar rhythmic group activities. The use of rhythmic sounds and motions in the induction of hypnosis is not limited to the ancient past. Trance dancing is still practiced in some primitive societies, and is currently being experimented with in some avant-garde circles in the U.S. and Europe. The ability of rhythmic sounds and motions to aid in the induction of hypnosis is a theme that turns up repeatedly throughout the history of hypnosis. Some hypnotists have used metronomes or swinging pocket watches in the induction of hypnosis. This can be very effective when the eye-fixation induction technique is used. More recently a device called a brain-wave synchronizer has been used by some hypnotists. This is a form of strobe light. I do not recommend this because strobe lights can trigger seizures in some people. This is true of between three and five percent of persons that have been previously diagnosed as epileptic as well as many people who have no history of seizures. Other hypnotists have devised special recordings of rhythmic sounds, and some hypnotists have devised special rhythmically flashing goggles to be worn by the person being hypnotized. I don't recommend any of these gadgets. Instead of adding any benefit, gadgetry just tends to dilute the purity and power of classical hypnosis. The rhythms that matter most in hypnosis are the rhythms in the hypnotists voice. Not only the cadence of his words but also the rhythm of the changes in pitch and the rhythm of the changes in volume, and the counterpoint between those rhythms and the rational path his words are following.
© Copyright 2007 Don De Grazia
Relative Success of Self Hypnosis, Private Sessions, & Group Hypnosis
by Don De Grazia Self hypnosis is sometimes helpful but it is not true hypnosis because it lacks the central element of hypnosis, another mind that can partially take the place of your own cerebral cortex which is deliberately inhibited during the induction of hypnosis. Self hypnosis is nowhere near as effective as true hypnosis. Private sessions of one-on-one hypnosis can be effective but they lack the power of emotional contagion and other group dynamics which are an integral part of the primal form of hypnosis, i.e., group hypnosis, from which self-hypnosis and one-on-one hypnosis evolved. Another advantage of group hypnosis is that it is almost always done live, whereas most therapists who do a large number of private sessions ask the client to wear a headset through which they play a recording of all or large parts of the induction and/or post-hypnotic suggestions. In other words a large part of their one-on-one session consists of simply listening to a CD or tape recording.
HYPNOSIS, HYPNOTISTS & HYPNOTHERAPISTS
HYPNOTISTS & HYPNOSIS: THE MODERN ERA
by Don De Grazia
Dr. James Braid (1795-1860), a Scottish neurosurgeon, is sometimes called the father of modern hypnosis, and I believe he deserves this title. He is the one who originally coined the terms hypnotism, hypnotize, and hypnotist in his 1843 book Neurypnology: or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep. He thought at that time that hypnosis was a form of sleep, so he named it after Hypnos, the personification of sleep in Greek mythology. Hypnos lived in the pitch-black darkness of a cave that was filled with mist from Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, which flowed through the cave and watered a patch of poppies at the entrance. He lived there in the misty darkness with his brother Thanatos, the god of death, and with his children, the Oneiroi, the personification of dreams. Braid later realized that hypnosis is not a form of sleep and tried to change the name to monoideaism, but it was too late because the name hypnotism had already caught on. I'm glad it was too late for him to change the name. Otherwise I would have had to spend my life bringing people into a state of monoideaism. I don't like the sound of it. Braid knew that something important was happening when Mesmer and his fellow believers in animal magnetism were achieving their sometimes dramatic cures, but he recognized quickly that the phenomenon had nothing to do with magnetism. He believed that staring intensely at a target fatigued some part of the brain which caused the state we know as hypnosis. This is reminiscent of the modern theory that hypnosis involves inhibition of the cerebral cortex, but there are important differences. Staring, or eye fixation, is still widely used as a technique for inducing hypnosis. Ambrose-Auguste Liebault (1823-1904) was a poor country doctor at Point-Saint-Vincent in France, who used hypnosis in his practice with quite a bit of success. He became famous and attracted the attention of many famous people. Dr.Hyppolyte Bernheim (1840-1919) a French physician and neurologist, was a lecturer at a university near Liebault’s home and became interested in his work with hypnosis. He originally was critical of Liebault's work with hypnosis, but after observing the success Liebault had using hypnosis, he became a supporter and colleague. Liebault and Bernheim expanded on Braid's theories about hypnosis and together they treated more than 12,000 patients using hypnosis. Braid was the father of modern hypnosis, but Liebault and Bernheim were the fathers of modern hypnotherapy. They both identified hypnosis with suggestion. This was especially true of Bernheim. Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893), a famous French neurologist used hypnosis for the treatment of hysteria and believed that hypnosis was a form of hysteria. He and Bernheim, both leading neurologists, and both leading authorities on hypnosis, became hostile toward each other. History remembers Charcot as overly theatrical in his work with hypnosis. Most of his theories have been completely discredited. Rudolph Heidenhain (1834-1897), Professor of Physiology and Histology at the University of Breslau, studied hypnosis and conducted experiments with hypnosis and eventually came to a physiological understanding of hypnosis. He believed that hypnosis is brought about by partial inhibition of the cerebral cortex. Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936) is remembered by most Americans for his work with conditioned reflexes but he did considerable work with hypnosis as well. Pavlov had been a student of Professor Heidenhain at the University of Breslau in 1864. Pavlov studied the physiology of the hypnotic state and explained it in terms of the partial inhibition of the cerebral cortex. This explanation of hypnosis was very similar to the explanation of hypnosis that his old professor, Rudolph Heidenhain, had arrived at about thirty years earlier, but Pavlov's version of this theory was greatly refined and expanded. Pavlov was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine in 1904. Pierre Janet (1859-1947) the famous French psychologist and neurologist was a former student of Charcot. He was at first skeptical about hypnosis but gradually became a staunch advocate. He stressed the psychological factors in hypnosis. Dr. William S. Kroger, M.D., in his book Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, has quoted Janet as saying, “If my work is not accepted today, it will be tomorrow when there will be a new turn in fashion’s wheel which will bring back hypnotism, as surely as our grandmother’s styles.” Dr. Clark L. Hull (1884-1952), a professor of psychology at Yale University applied rigorous scientific standards to the study of hypnosis. His research at Yale led to his important 1933 book on the subject, Hypnosis and Suggestibility. Dr. Milton Erickson, M.D. (1901-1980), a famous American psychiatrist, became a living legend for his dramatic inductions of hypnosis. His approach to hypnosis was extremely unconventional. He believed that people can go into hypnosis through indirect inductions and slip in and out of a state of hypnosis throughout each day without knowing it. He believed that hypnotic suggestions can be slipped into a person’s mind during normal conversations. Dr. Ernest R. Hilgard (1904-2001), longtime professor of psychology at Stanford University, did much research in the field of hypnosis. He developed the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, which along with the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility is one of the two most important tests for measuring a person's hypnotizability. He is famous for his dissociation theory of hypnosis often referred to as the neodissociation theory to distinguish it from the dissociation theories of hypnosis developed by other scientists, particularly Janet. Hilgard believed that under hypnosis one's mind becomes dissociated between an experiencing ego and an observing ego, the latter of which acts as a hidden observer watching the experiencing ego experience the hypnotic suggestions. © Copyright 2007 Don De Grazia
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