Hypnotherapy, or medical hypnosis, has a long history as a controversial treatment for physical and psychiatric ailments. Many leading medical figures since the 18th century (including Austrian physician Franz Mesmer, for whom the verb "mesmerize" was coined) experimented with putting patients into trance states for healing purposes. Determined to know whether this new medical treatment was genuine or a hoax, King Louis XVI of France commissioned a panel of experts, including Ambassador Benjamin Franklin, to investigate Mesmer's claims. In 1784, the "Franklin commission" released its report, which found "mesmerism" to be "utterly fallacious" and without merit.

"It has taken centuries for medical hypnosis to regain credibility," said Penn State psychology professor William Ray. "In the 1950s, reliable measures of hypnotizability were developed, which allowed this research field to gain validity. We've seen more than 6,000 articles on hypnosis published since then in medical and psychological journals. Today, there's general agreement that hypnosis can be an important part of treatment for some conditions, including phobias, addictions and chronic pain."

Ray's own research uses hypnosis as a tool to better understand the brain, including its response to pain. "We have done a variety of EEG studies," said Ray, "one of which suggests that hypnosis removes the emotional experience of pain while allowing the sensory sensation to remain. Thus, you notice you were touched but not that it hurt."

Despite increasing recognition by the medical establishment, popular myths about hypnosis persist, such as the belief that it is a truth serum, that it causes subjects to lose all free will, and that hypnotists can erase their clients' memories of their sessions.

In truth, hypnosis is something most of us have experienced in our everyday lives. If you've ever been totally engrossed in a book or movie and lost all track of time or didn't hear someone calling your name, you were experiencing a hypnotic trance.

The hypnotized person is not sleeping or unconscious - quite the contrary. Hypnosis (most often induced by a hypnotherapist's verbal guidance, not a swinging pocket watch) creates a hyper-attentive and hyper-responsive mental state, in which the subject's subconscious mind is highly open to suggestion. "This doesn't mean you become a submissive robot when hypnotized," Ray asserted. "Studies have shown us that good hypnotic subjects are active problem-solvers. While it's true that the subconscious mind is more open to suggestion during hypnosis, that doesn't mean that the subject's free will or moral judgment is turned off."

Examples of various applications with medical hypnosis Medical Hypnosis: An Underutilized Treatment Approach

From Medical Research News Ways to make hypnosis a more effective therapeutic technique

For more information on using alternative solutions in medical situations,  call my associate Dr. James C Jensen MD,DABR 760-460-7726.