“The Harvard Mental Health Letter”, April 1991
Although it has become familiar through more than two hundred years of use as entertainment, self-help, and therapy, the hypnotic trance remains a remarkably elusive, psychological state. Most of us may think we know what hypnosis is, but few could say if asked. Although even experts do not fully agree on how to define it, the usually emphasize three related features: absorption, or selective attention, suggestibility, and dissociation. Sometimes one of these is more prominent, sometimes another. Persons in a trance tend to focus their attention narrowly; they perceive certain things clearly and vividly while excluding other stimuli from awareness and ignoring context. As a result, they often have blank faces, speak softly, and move slowly; they express their feelings and thoughts easily and my lose awareness of time and place. They sometimes have a sense of tingling, numbness or lightness. A few hypnotic subjects can produce such vivid, unusual effects as automatic writing and age regression (talking and acting like a much younger person, even a child).
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As reported in the November 2007 issue of Harvard Women’s Health Watch, “Hypnosis before breast cancer surgery eases pain and cuts costs.” The article is based on a study reported in the September 5, 2007, Journal of the National Cancer Institute. It continues by stating, “Hypnosis induces a state of deep relaxation and focused concentration. Exactly how it works to ease pain and anxiety isn’t fully understood, but neuroscientists have shown that it changes activity in brain areas involved in pain perception and the response to pain.”
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