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What is Hypnosis? |
A part of healing from ancient times, hypnosis is the induction of trance states. Hypnosis was a central feature of the early Greek healing temples, and variations of the techniques used by the ancient Greeks were practiced throughout the world. Modern hypnosis began in the eighteenth century with Franz Anton Mesmer, who used what he called "magnetic healing" to treat a variety of psychological and psycho physiological disorders. The therapeutic use of hypnosis in medicine finally came in 1955 from the British Medical Association, which was closely followed in 1958 by the American Medical Association. Whilst the induction of trance is referred to as hypnosis, the use of hypnosis to obtain an therapeutic outcome is called hypnotherapy. Some schools of thought hold that hypnosis as a state very similar to other states of extreme concentration, where a person becomes oblivious to his or her surroundings while lost in thought. An oft used example that most people can identify with is highway hypnosis, when a driver suddenly finds his or her self much further down the road without any memory of driving the intervening distance. Though various conjectures are made about hypnosis, the field has received significant support from the science-oriented psychology community resulting from research of hypnotic phenomena conducted by practitioners and theorists. In 1996, the National Institutes of Health technology assessment panel judged hypnosis to be an effective intervention for alleviating pain from cancer and other chronic conditions. A large number of clinical studies also indicate that hypnosis can reduce the acute pain experienced by patients undergoing burn-wound debridement, enduring bone marrow aspirations and childbirth. An analysis published in a recent issue of the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, for example, found that hypnotic suggestions relieved the pain of 75% of 933 subjects participating in 27 different experiments. Hypnosis can be used in a wide variety of situations to bring about or facilitate change. The mind, after all is a most powerful tool, where thought precedes action which precedes thought! See hypnotherapy for more information. |