Hypnosis Induction example essay topic

"I shall use hypnosis to turn you into my slave!" roared Dr. Drake, as a bolt of lightening split the sinister sky behind him, to his defenseless victim who curled into a quivering ball at his fearful threat. This is a common theme in many horror movies involving hypnosis. Not only is "Dr. Drake" over-exaggerating on his statement, his declaration is simply ridiculous in the reality of hypnosis! It is essential to wipe out those common misconceptions of hypnosis encouraged by those fictional tales, and get down to the truth of hypnosis, its real power, its techniques, its role in the medical field, and its relationship with hypnotherapy.

Sadly, an average person's knowledge of hypnosis generally turns out to be common misconceptions promoted by the Medias and fictional books. One of the most popular misconceptions of hypnosis suggested that a hypnotized person naturally falls under the control of the hypnotist, which is completely false for he can only be hypnotized if he agrees to be. In some supernatural films, a hypnotized person is even portrayed to possess supernatural power under hypnosis. Once again, it holds no truth; hypnosis does not play a role in increasing or decreasing physical strength at all. As for those who have seen an adult subject remembering the details of his childhood toy, memory is not at all more accurate under hypnosis.

The same guy who may be describing his childhood toy is still completely capable of lying to his hypnotist. Although he may be "reliving" his childhood while under hypnosis, most often the patient tends to go beyond the childhood stage and into their past life making it impossible to select a specific age in their stage of youth (Franzoi 184). These are the most common misleading pieces of information on the abilities of hypnosis on its patient. Before going in depth on the true abilities of hypnosis, the origin of hypnosis must be unraveled. Going back almost 4000 years ago, hypnosis first originated in China, India, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and other ancient civilizations (Chaves 212). However, modern hypnosis traces more directly back to Franz Anton Mesmer, a German physician of 18th Century who "rediscovered and popularized hypnosis" (Smith 173).

He believed that there was a "subtle fluid" that made up the universe including the human body. He concluded that when a person fell ill, whether emotionally or physically, it was due to the ends by re balancing their "subtle fluid", which became known as Mesmerism. He seemed to have cured many ll nesses by simply exposing "his patients to magnetic objects and fluids to restore their bodies to a 'magnetic balance'". A Portuguese priest later discovered that Mesmerism was not related to magnetic chances but to suggestions. Mesmerism soon led to the word "hypnosis", which was taken from the Greek God of Sleep - Hypno - by a Scottish surgeon James (Smith 173). Due to the mystifying power of hypnosis, it is now used widely throughout the world.

Although hypnotizing a patient is broadly viewed as putting him to sleep, this is actually another popular false belief. It is actually a state of relaxation in which the subject displays "heightened suggestibility and distortions of perception or memory" (Smith 174). The term commonly used for applying hypnosis on a subject is known as hypnotic induction - "the procedure used to induce hypnosis in a responsive person" (Franzoi 183). When under the hypnotic induction, the patient is not considered to be asleep but instead in a state of daydreaming or a sense of "losing oneself"; he would still be fully conscious but tune out most of the stimuli around him except for the voice of the hypnotist.

As a result, it makes him super attentive to the suggestions given by the hypnotist due to his selective attention (Harris 2). There are two major elements of hypnosis - deep relaxation and imagery - in which the patient will experience while under induction. According to George Mitchell and Richard Lundy, the combination of relaxation and imagery produced the best hypnotic induction while imagery alone is not as effective as relaxation alone (Smith 174). When the patient's sense of imagery increases, his imagination and "enriched fantasy" also amplifies; this encourages him to imagine situations "dissociated from reality" (Franzoi 237). Since the patient becomes very relaxed during the induction, he does not like to initiate activity and would rather wait for the hypnotist to suggest an action for him (Franzoi 236). Consequently, he is willing to accept anything the hypnotist suggests as the truth without the urge to confirm its validity.

Thus, to hypnotize a subject merely means that his attention and alertness are increased, and his concentration becomes more selective than usual forcing him to obey his therapist's suggestions more than usual. While hypnosis induction may appear easy, amateurs are strongly urged not to conduct it due to the vulnerability of the subject's emotions under hypnosis. Particularly during the deepest stage of hypnosis, "the hypnotist's words can be as destructive as they can be helpful" (Heap 1). This is due to the fact that the patient regards suggestions of the hypnotist as reality (Harris 1). When a hypnotist tells the patient he is eating an ice-cream, the patient would regard it as a truth and can taste the ice-cream as though it is there.

The patient is aware that all these suggestions are merely imagery but goes along with it, which is often compared to a child who is "playing pretending" (Harris 2). The patient can also be instructed quite easily to forget the hypnotic session by the hypnotist, which is regarded as posthypnotic amnesia (Franzoi 237). Therefore take in mind that under the process of hypnosis, a patient's selective attention can easily cause him to be emotionally upset if not treated properly. Knowing that a patient can become super attentive under hypnotic induction, it becomes necessary to understand what methods and techniques a hypnotist uses to achieve that result. It is essential to understand that the only kind of subject that can be hypnotized is the one that is willing and cooperative before any kind of hypnotic methods can be applied onto the subject. A conventional way of putting a subject under the hypnotic trance is to ask him to focus on a small target while gradually becoming relaxed, such as the classic example of swaying a chain-watch back and forth in front of the patient's eyes.

This procedure is similar to putting a patient to sleep but in this case he is only relaxed (Atkinson 235,236). Another method is to request that the patient close his eyes while the hypnotist slowly counts the numbers and telling him to be relaxed (Knight). Generally, hypnosis is usually used on people who have previously been exposed to a hypnotic induction procedure though not always (Chaves 211). These methods and techniques have worked together to help the hypnotists successfully hypnotize a patient to the stage of induction they desire. Given that hypnosis simply means "a physical and mental state of relaxation", it is no surprise that self-hypnosis occurs in a person's everyday life. According to Milton Erickson, the premier hypnotism expert of the 20th Century, "people hypnotized themselves on a daily basis" (Harris 2).

Some events in a person's everyday life are found to contain hypnotic inductions such as reading, driving, moving lawn, and watching a movie. All of these tasks have two things in common: the subject is relaxed and is super focused on one target while tuning out the worries and doubts that normally occupies his mind. As plain as it may appear, hypnosis do take on many forms but in the end reflects its definition of increased attention and suggestibility during relaxation. Since the discovery of hypnosis, it has been put to great use even in the modern times due to its legendary power. As Chaves put it, "hypnosis is important for health care providers such as psychology, medicine and dentistry" (Chaves 211). It is used to help many clinical problems: chronic and acute pain management, anxiety and stress disorders, habit modification, mood disorders, psychophsicological disorders, and personality disorders (Chaves 211).

It is also used to reduce blood pressure, pain of childbirth, surgery, and dental work, which may be as effective as biofeedback (Smith 175). A hypnotherapist, Brand a Knight, claimed that she had gotten into the field, solely because of a personal experience that she had with the effectiveness of hypnosis on eliminating pain during one of her surgeries (Knight). Even under the powerful abilities of the modern technologies, hypnosis continues to be a big and influential part of the contemporary medical and clinical field. Not only is hypnosis used in the fields concerning reducing a patient's physical pain, it is also used in those that concentrate on reducing a subject's emotional pain which commonly refers to hypnotherapy.

The job of hypnotherapist is defined as "using various hypnotic procedures in an attempt to reduce conflict and doubt by focusing the individual's attention to modify symptoms through direct suggestions or displacement and to strengthen the individual's ability to cope" (Atkinson 235). The primary focus of a hypnotherapist is to "relieve the symptoms and strengthen ego processes by helping the individual set reality aside and make constructive use of imagery" (Atkinson 235). An example of the usage of hypnotherapy is helping a girl to lose her weight. Since a hypnotherapist works to help his patient create a better self-imagine, and weight gain usually results from daily dysfunctions and stress which decreases one's self-esteem, he will be able to help that girl decrease her stress level while increasing her self-esteem. The aim of his hypnotic induction will be to remove the over-weight girl's stress level, which in turn will encourage her to improve her eating habits and exercise routines. As a result, her extra weight would vanish as her health ameliorates.

(Heap 1) While the patient is under a hypnotic induction, the hypnotherapist acts as a guide to heal the patient at an unconscious level. Then the hypnotherapist would later interpret the possible meaning behind the unconscious feelings and thoughts revealed during the induction (Heap 2). A hypnotherapist is usually very intuitive, he usually sees and feels what the patient is going through during every moment of the induction which enables him to be a better facilitator (Knight). Therefore, hypnosis is used in various ways in hypnotherapy depending on the patient's situation, acting as a tool of hypnotherapy; it is the main ingredient of hypnotherapy rather than a completely different category. While hypnosis is effective on the majority of the population, like most things, there are always exceptions.

Roughly five to ten percent of the population can not be hypnotized (Franzoi 237). A theory that explained this phenomenon declared that a person's susceptibility, the degree at which the subject is hypnotizable, largely relies on one's ability to relax and to some extent on his belief system of hypnosis (Knight). Ernest Hillard conducted an experiment in a university and found that "about 25% of 533 college students easily achieved a hypnotic state while 5 to 10 percent were totally unresponsive". A Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale (S HSS) is typically used to discover a subject's susceptibility. It consists of a series of suggestions made to a patient, and the one who is able to closely follow those suggestions the best is the most susceptible (Smith 174). In general, most people are likely to be hypnotized than not, for nearly everyone can achieve some level of hypnosis.

Having gained the knowledge of hypnosis's true form, the common misconceptions now appeared quite preposterous. Not only was Dr. Drake's threat of turning his victim into a slave absurd, it is an impossible task! All the facts contradicts Dr. Drake's declaration, for they indicate that the only kind of subject that can be hypnotized is the one that is willing and cooperative, and there are even some who are not hypnotizable. Now, the next time a horror movie displays an evil character taking over a victim's mind by using hypnosis, it should be viewed as a humorous suggestion, for it is clearly an antithesis of the traits that truly defines hypnosis. What I learned I discovered hypnosis's genuine identity, its real power, its methods, and its role in the medical arena; its relationship with hypnotherapy was also cleared up.

I learned that not only is hypnosis similar to hypnotherapy, hypnosis is practiced in hypnotherapy. In fact, hypnotherapy derives a certain parts of hypnosis required to be used on a patient. While hypnosis can be used in many different ways, hypnotherapy focus mainly on strengthen an individual's ability to cope with daily life. Obtaining the facts on the relationship between hypnotherapy and hypnosis was the hardest part of this research. I also learned the characteristics of hypnosis and the truth to the common misconceptions.

I gained knowledge of the origin of hypnosis and its history. I also learned various methods of hypnotic induction and the facilitation of hypnosis in the society, although it would have been better if I could go deeper in depth on its techniques. I found out that self-hypnosis is possible and happen in one's daily life, but I do wish that I had the chance to discuss of about its methods and techniques. In addition, I discovered that not everyone is susceptible to hypnosis; in fact, five to ten percent out of the whole population are unresponsive to hypnosis. This was very surprising to me, for I had thought that everyone can be hypnotized in some ways. Through the process of writing this I-Search paper, I enjoyed replacing the old misconceptions of hypnosis with the new genuine facts.