What is hypnosis and how does hypnotherapy work?
Psychologists, doctors, dentists, researchers, and other professionals use hypnosis every day. It is a useful clinical tool, and can help us to understand how the mind works. Sadly, despite all of the great research evidence, the internet is full of misinformation about hypnosis. This site presents the science behind hypnosis and suggestion: everything you need to know about hypnosis.
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A selection of the latest hypnosis news
Evidence for a hypnotic state?
An study has just been published in the high-profile open-access journal PLOS1 purporting to show evidence for a hypnotic state. In it, Sakari Kallio and his colleagues present eye-gaze evidence from a single highly hypnotisable individual which they claim supports the idea of there being a measurable and identifiable hypnotic state.
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Definitions of hypnotizability paper
An interesting article has just been published in Contemporary Hypnosis and Integrative Therapy (disclaimer: I'm one of the authors). It tackles one of the logical inconsistencies in how we refer to the hypnotic ability of an individual. We often talk about the 'hypnotizability' of an individual after we have administered a test of hypnotic suggestibility. The problem with this is that when we administer the same test without a hypnotic induction, people often pass nearly as many items. Where does this leave hypnosis? What should we call this non-hypnotic ability? And how should we refer to the difference between these two scores?
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New Journal Launched: The Journal of Mind Body Regulation
The Canadian Federation of Clinical Hypnosis has just launched a new journal: The Journal of Mind Body Regulation. Professor Amir Raz of the McGill University in Montreal is the editor, and the content so far looks exciting. The journal is online, saving significant costs associated with printing. It is also open-access, meaning that anyone can read the latest science.
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Hypnosis in the New York Times: Using Hypnosis to Manage Illness
There is an interesting article in the New York Times about using hypnosis to manage illness.
"KIRSTEN RITCHIE, 44, is no stranger to surgery — nearly 20 years ago, doctors removed four tumors from her brain. She remembers the operation and its aftermath as “horrific.”
So the news that she needed brain surgery again was hardly welcome. Determined to make her second operation a better — or at least less traumatic — experience, Ms. Ritchie, an insurance marketing representative in Cleveland, turned to an unusual treatment.
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How to explain hypnotic susceptibility: dissociation or imaginative suggestibility?
An interesting question was submitted to the 'frequently asked questions' page of HypnosisAndSuggestion.org last week.
Do individual differences in “imaginative suggestibility” provide a simpler explanation than dissociation in explaining responsiveness to hypnotic suggestions?
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