How Medical Hypnosis Is Giving Hope

By David Faratian

woman-under-hypnosis

For many people hypnosis and hypnotherapy belong in the realm of voodoo and hocus-pocus. As more studies are conducted on brainwaves and how altered states can be induced through guided suggestions, there is more and more agreement within the scientific community that positive physiological benefits can be experienced through carefully structured hypnotherapy sessions. More interestingly, studies have found that children and animals who naturally exhibit the brainwave frequencies typically associated with Hypnosis are more prone to Hypnotherapy treatment and are more likely to deal with problems experienced during childhood such as bedwetting and nightmares and lack of self confidence through bullying etc the most exciting area, yet to be explored in depth, is the area of learning and the brains ability to accelerate memory. It is now generally agreed that Hypnosis and self-diagnosis induce the natural states of learning associated with alpha and theta brainwave frequencies. Once these states can be conditioned and triggered at will the ability to retain information long term is dramatically increased.

But studies have gone further and proven that through carefully guided imagery people suffering from pain and in particular burn victims have greatly increased their speed of recovery by visualising cooling images around any affected areas. This would indicate that Hypnosis has a neuro psychoneuroimmunological effect on the individual and is a very versatile alternative therapy which has a scope far beyond simple habit management like losing weight and stopping smoking. This has very exciting implications indeed. As there is a greater understanding of consciousness and in particular the innate intelligence we all understand as the subconscious, Hypnosis opens the gateway to self-healing on a much larger scale than we may at first have appreciated.