Hypnotized
Galina Thurby
I've never tried it, but I've always assumed it would be difficult for me to be hypnotized. I'm somewhat of an anxious person, and it's nearly impossible to for me to shut down my mind - so much so that I got a C minus (a C minus!) in the "techniques of relaxation" class I took in college. (It was the only C I ever got as an undergrad. I'm still bitter!) What I recently learned from a Stanford psychiatrist who treats patients with hypnosis, though, is that hypnotizability is not linked with any specific personality trait; it is, as David Spiegel, MD, told me, "less about personality variables and more about cognitive style."
(Two other interesting nuggets supplied by Spiegel: About tw0-thirds of adults are very capable of being hypnotized, and a person's hypnotizability is unlikely to change in adulthood. He calls it an "amazingly stable trait.")
Now, Spiegel and those in his field are on the verge of identifying a brain signature of being hypnotized. In an imaging study (subscription required) published in the current issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, he and colleagues show how the areas of the brain associated with executive control and attention tend to have less activity in people who cannot be put into a hypnotic trance. I explain more in a release:
NORTH PORT, Fla. -- The families of three high school students who died after being hypnotized by a former principal will receive $200,000 each from the Sarasota County School District under a settlement agreement unanimously approved by the School Board on Tuesday.
The Herald-Tribune reports that the $600,000 settlement closes a bizarre, years-long case that began after former North Port High School Principal George Kenney admitted that he hypnotized 16-year-old Wesley McKinley a day before the teenager killed himself in April 2011.
A subsequent investigation found that Kenney hypnotized as many as 75 students, staff members and others from 2006 until McKinley's death. One basketball player at the school said Kenney hypnotized him 30 to 40 times to improve his concentration.
Among those who were hypnotized were 17-year-old Brittany Palumbo and 16-year-old Marcus Freeman. Palumbo killed herself in 2011. Freeman was in a fatal car crash after apparently self-hypnotizing, a technique Kenney taught the teenager, also in 2011.
This paper presents phenomenological research conducted following Woodard's phenomenological and perceptual research methodology for understanding hypnotic experiencing. The research emphasizes examining the internal experiencings of individuals involved in hypnotic experiencing. Examples are presented of Individual Situated Structures and the General Structures from both a group of 8 participants who hypnotized their clients and another group of 17 individuals who volunteered to be hypnotized. The explicated themes identified in hypnotic experiencing (the hypnotic relationship, phenomenology of trance, use of imagination, problem with psychic energy, a gestalt of experiencing, and linear-nonlinear experiencing) are discussed. The author discusses limitations of this study and suggestions for further work.
Hypnosis is a trance-like mental state. When hypnotized, you have a high level of focus and concentration on your inner thoughts. You feel relaxed and calm, which helps you block out distractions and focus completely on a certain thought, memory, or feeling.
Even though hypnotized people are more open to suggestions, they still retain their free will. Hypnosis does not make people lose control over their behavior. Unlike things you may have seen in the movies, a hypnotist can't make you do things you don't want to do.
Even though hypnotized people are more open to suggestions, they still retain their free will. Hypnosis does not make people lose control over their behavior. Unlike things you may have seen in the movies, a hypnotist can't make you do things you don't want to do."
"Even though hypnotized people are more open to suggestions, they still retain their free will. Hypnosis does not make people lose control over their behavior. Unlike things you may have seen in the movies, a hypnotist can't make you do things you don't want to do."
Thanks for checking out this Wonder about being hypnotized, Team McNeil 17! We really enjoyed hearing the great facts and vocab words you learned! We think some people expect a lot from being hypnotized because they have tried other things to break bad habits or improve their health. Some people need help when these things, and they look to hypnosis to give them the assistance they are seeking. :-)
The school district began investigating Dr. George Kenney, the former principal at North Port High School in Sarasota, after he admitted that he had hypnotized Wesley McKinley, 16, a day before he killed himself in April.
Fox 13 says no one is linking the hypnosis with the deaths of the students, but The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports that the school district put Kenney on leave in May pending an investigation into whether he broke the law when he hypnotized students.
"There's never been a brain signature of being hypnotized, and we're on the verge of identifying one," said David Spiegel, MD, the paper's senior author and a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. Such an advance would enable scientists to understand better the mechanisms underlying hypnosis and how it can be used more widely and effectively in clinical settings, added Spiegel, who also directs the Stanford Center for Integrative Medicine.
Spiegel estimates that one-quarter of the patients he sees cannot be hypnotized, though a person's hypnotizability is not linked with any specific personality trait. "There's got to be something going on in the brain," he said.
That's right. During therapeutic hypnosis, your attention can drift inwards as you focus on the contents of your own thoughts and imaginings. Worrying is so hypnotic that we can be very inwardly absorbed for a few seconds and not hear someone calling our name. So, reflecting inwardly 'can I be hypnotized?' is a light hypnotic experience in itself!
So if you have ever had a night-time dream (and believe me, you have, even if you've never remembered one), ever learnt anything, ever had your mind wander and forgot to pay attention to someone talking, or ever worried about something, or got deeply absorbed in a task, you have been hypnotized.
As I've said, we can all be hypnotized by situations. The situation of sleep sends you into a hypnotic dream; the situation of shock or surprise (3) puts you into a radically altered state of consciousness - a more open and easily conditioned one. But to try to go into hypnosis, to voluntarily change your state of mind (or let someone help you do this) - that is what some people feel they might not be able to do.
We train our therapists to tailor their hypnotic inductions to the unique needs and personality of the person being hypnotized. The downloads on this site also reflect this flexible approach and we urge therapists who buy our scripts to use them for inspiration and ideas, and not read them to their clients.
People assume that if they stop hearing the hypnotherapist, they must have fallen asleep; but if they hear them all the time, they weren't really hypnotized. Sure, some people fall asleep, but if the person comes back at the end of the session to suggestions to open their eyes, then they certainly were not in a deep sleep and were probably just in a deep state of hypnosis.
Those who can still hear the hypnotherapist (yes, you can still hear when you enter hypnosis) might think they haven't been hypnotized, assuming that the conscious mind has to go away completely for hypnosis to happen.
Someone may believe themselves unhypnotized, but find after a session that they no longer wish to smoke or suddenly feel a lot more relaxed in a previously troubling situation. So, being hypnotized may feel different, like 'entering a new world', or it may feel quite normal because, well...it is.
Creative people tend to make great hypnotic subjects, as they can already focus their minds and make connections. Those who can concentrate or who are high performers tend to also enter hypnosis easily as they are naturally able to focus and block out distractions. In this way, having strong willpower helps you become hypnotized; so ideas of "I'm too strong-willed to be hypnotized" don't really mean anything.
Hypnotized makes the wielder become hypnotized. It will cause the wielder's over-all behavior to become erased. It can easily be used against hostile enemies to neutralize them. Objects can be hypnotized via a Magic Cane or a Hypnotic object.
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