To sceptics, hypnosis is mumbo-jumbo, but scientific evidence now shows that hypnosis and self-hypnosis can help people to overcome problems. It has can help people:
* Stop over-eating and reduce weight
* Stop smoking
* Reduce excessive drinking
* Stop gambling
Of course, you must want to end these problems. During your normal mental state you may not be prepared to take the trouble needed to overcome the addiction - and may not admit it is an addiction - but if you ever think "I want to stop smoking" or drinking, etc, then there is a good chance that hypnosis will help.
How does it do so? Hypnotism - that is the act of being hypnotised - has been shown to alter the mental state. Different electrical signals are produced, and this has also been show with magnetic resonance imaging. However, it is not know exactly what occurs.
All that is known is that the state appears to be closer to sleeping with one exception - you remain completely alert. There are various theories. For example, it is known that there are two aspects of the brain: conscious and sub-conscious.
The conscious is used to work things out logically, and to take decisions about what to do next. The sub-conscious keeps us breathing, keeps our heart beating regularly, and sends out signals to our body to carry out all the routine operations needed to keep us alive.
But it is more than that: the sub-conscious also stores memories and information, and has ready access to these things - even when we have forgotten them. In some cases, the events just happened a long time ago, or were insignificant. In others, they were so uncomfortable that we don't allow our conscious mind to remember them.
Theses forgotten memories can also result in repression, so that we don't achieve what we want, or may make us do things we don't really want to. The hypnotic state can make your subconscious see things differently, and overcome problems.
What happens with hypnosis? Some hypnotherapists induce a feeling of nausea that is associated with smoking or overeating, so that the next time we get a cigarette out, we don't feel good. Another approach is to help the person have more determination to stop smoking.
Increased determination also helps us achieve our goals - goals that we thought were completely out of reach.
Personal problems such as phobias can be overcome with hypnosis, and pain in illness can be reduced - this has been demonstrated in various studies including one involving 80 children suffering from cancer. Overcoming the pain of childbirth is another example.
A group of people who suffered from hay-fever in Switzerland also found reduced symptoms following hypnosis. Half the group were treated this way in the first season, and compared with the others, and the other half of the group were treated prior to the second season. Afterwards, they reported that they needed less medication than before being hypnotised.
EEGs (electro-encephalographs) showed that the right-brain was more active and the left-brain less active during hypnosis. The left-brain is associated with analysis and criticism and the right-brain with creativity.
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