The Power of Hypnosis

Hypnosis has intrigued people since the 19th Century. Before the advent of chemical anaesthesia, surgeons experimented with it to render operations painless. During that period, the wicked (and fictional) hypnosis-practising Svengali was invented, and Charles Dickens was taking instruction in the new phenomenon. Today, hypnosis is used to combat pain - and it has lost none of its power to intrigue. People are often ambivalent about it, on the one hand believing that it might generate strange, fascinating experiences, but at the same time fearing that they will lose control. Are these beliefs and fears justified?

By the end of the 20th Century, most psychologists working in the field would have said that neither belief in ‘strangeness’, nor fear about control were justified: hypnosis was something of a non-event. However, a growing body of evidence, including information gleaned from brain-scanning, is beginning to support the notion of hypnosis being a genuinely altered state of consciousness.

Peter Naish will draw comparisons between hypnosis and both schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease. There is absolutely no doubt that patients with either condition can suffer marked changes in their experience of consciousness. Peter will describe the surprising parallels between these conditions and hypnosis, in particular detailing the impact of them all upon our ability to make accurate time estimates. The close parallels with diseases known to modify consciousness suggests strongly that hypnosis too can be described as a consciousness-changing condition. Its impact upon our timing ability gives clues as to how conscious experience is changed.

Event organised by:
The European Dana Alliance for the Brain

Speakers

Peter Naish, Open University

Chair:
Dr Brid Hendron