Under hypnosis

Hypnosis has had a troubled past in the medical fraternity because of the strong powers of suggestion that can be wielded on a subject when under hypnosis. A certified hypnotist can, using the powers of suggestion available to him, cause a subject to 'see' colours when there are none, or to feel sensations where there aren't any. This has allowed practitioners to use hypnosis as a tool in medicine since the earliest of times, even though most of them had little or no idea about the actual methodology of making hypnosis work.

Hypnosis was used in early medicine by ancient Indian doctors as an anaesthetic. Complex medical procedures were performed with the patient under hypnosis, with records stating that even limb separation was one of the operations performed. Hypnosis continued to be the preferred anaesthetic of the doctors, until ether and its uses were discovered.

In the Modern Age of Medicine

Modern doctors aren't far behind in the field of research and usage of hypnosis in medicine. The early 18th century German physician, Dr. Franz Mesmer was one of the first to experiment with hypnosis, although his methods of mesmerizing people by infusing them with an invisible fluid while ethereal music played on a glass harmonica wasn't exactly classic medicine. He was eventually discredited, but he is still regarded as the first person to display the control of the mind and its suggestions over the body.

Mesmer's work was resurrected by the English scientist James Braid and he laid the foundation for the usage of hypnosis in modern medicine.

When Under Hypnosis

In the hands of a medical practitioner, hypnosis is not laughing matter. Hypnotic treatment has been used as a tool in the 1950s to cure pain, and later was developed as an effective cure for depression, trauma, bowel trouble and eating disorders.

Hypnosis has also been used by magicians and tricksters to generate awe for the public's amusement. Volunteers from the audience are made to dance, sing, and perform at the will of the 'magician' when they are under hypnosis, although the validity of these claims is still a grey area for most people in the medical fraternity.

The Science Of Hypnosis

Experts present a scientific view of this mystifying art to make it simpler to accept. When the senses accept the photons of light and sound, the powers of hypnosis and suggestion can be used to alter this perception during the relay of information from the basic nerve cortex to the secondary ones. This, in turn, changes the subject's idea of being and induces a state of trance. As doctors put it simply, if the top level of understanding is altered, automatically, the bottom levels lose credibility and all information stored from past experience, like those of smelling a flower, are changed, and reset to the ones instilled by the suggestive powers of the practitioner of hypnosis.

Generally, most top-down information relay is a mirror image of the bottom-up information. Hypnosis gives this a slight twist by creating a mismatch.