Healing whispers, where mind, body and soul are one
Hypnosis
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People have been pondering and arguing over hypnosis for more than 200 years, but science has yet to fully explain how it actually happens. We see what a person does under hypnosis, but it isn't clear why he or she does it. |
This puzzle is really a small piece in a much bigger puzzle:
how the human mind works. It's unlikely that scientists will
arrive at a definitive explanation of the mind in the
foreseeable future, so it's a good bet hypnosis will remain
something of a mystery as well.
But psychiatrists do understand the general characteristics of
hypnosis, and they have some model of how it works. It is a
trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation
and heightened imagination. It's not really like sleep, because
the subject is alert the whole time. It is most often compared
to daydreaming, or the feeling of "losing yourself" in a book or
movie. You are fully conscious, but you tune out most of the
stimuli around you. You focus intently on the subject at hand,
to the near exclusion of any other thought. this special mental
state, people feel uninhibited and relaxed. Presumably, this is
because they tune out the worries and doubts that normally keep
their actions in check. You might experience the same feeling
while watching a movie: As you get engrossed in the plot,
worries about your job, family, etc. fade away, until all you're
thinking about is what's up on the screen.
