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Biweekly Discussion - The Science of Hypnosis

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Brian B. and Frank
Biweekly Discussion - The Science of Hypnosis

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We're currently hosting our discussions at Café Walnut, near the corner of 7th & Walnut in Olde City, just across the street from Washington Square Park. The cafe's entrance is below street level down some stairs, which can be confusing if it's your first time. Our group meets in the large room upstairs.

Since we're using the cafe's space, they ask that each person attending the meetup at least purchase a drink or snack. Please don't bring any food or drinks from outside. If you're hungry enough to eat a meal, they have more substantial fare such as salads, soups & sandwiches which are pretty good and their prices are reasonable.

The cafe is fairly easy to get to if you're using public transit. With SEPTA, take the Market-Frankford Line & get off at the 5th Street Station (corner of 5th & Market), and walk 2 blocks south on 5th and then turn right on Walnut Street and walk 2 blocks west. With PATCO, just get off at the 9th-10th & Locust stop and walk 3 blocks east & 1 block north. For those who are driving, parking in the neighborhood can be tough to find. If you can't find a spot on the street, I'd suggest parking in the Washington Square parking deck at 249 S 6th Street which is just a half block away.

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THE SCIENCE OF HYPNOSIS & THE POWER OF SUGGESTION:

I decided that a discussion on the scientific basis of hypnosis & hypnotherapy would be a perfect way to follow-up from our last discussion on meditation, since many people have compared hypnotherapy to guided meditation -- both induce a relaxed mental state in order to allow negative thought patterns to be decreased and positive thought patterns to be instilled.

While meditation has recently drawn some interest from atheists like Sam Harris who are searching for a replacement for traditional religion, hypnosis is more associated with the skeptic movement. This is probably due to the involvement of many magicians & mentalists in the skeptic movement like James Randi & the Amazing Kreskin who've regularly employed hypnotism in their stage routines. As part of debunking faith healers, mystics & cult leaders, many skeptics have used hypnosis as an explanation for the strange responses that spiritual charlatans are sometimes able to evoke in their followers.

In recent years, the British magician & mentalist Derren Brown has staged a variety of "social experiments" meant to showcase the potentials of hypnosis, and his performances have been taken fairly seriously by many of the major figures in the skeptic community like Michael Shermer, Richard Dawkins & Sam Harris.

However, some of Derren Brown's claims about hypnosis seem so extraordinary they invite some skeptical investigation. For example, in his 2011 documentary "Miracles for Sale", Brown debunked faith healing by helping train a non-believer with no prior training pose as a faith healer with Christian audiences in Texas, and in 2018 Brown replicated faith healing tricks in his Netflix special "Miracle". These tricks produced not just temporary reductions in pain & increases in mobility, but in a few occasions dramatic effects like temporary improvements in eyesight and making someone temporarily unable to read then reversing it.

Brown has also claimed hypnosis, coupled with other forms of conditioning & social engineering, can persuade people to commit violent crimes. In a 2004 TV special entitled "The Heist", he used various suggestion techniques to get 3 people to rob an armored car, and in 2011 he used hypnosis & conditioning to convince a highly suggestible man to fire a blank gun at a speaker in an episode of his TV series The Experiments entitled "The Assassin". He set up a similar fake murder scenario in a 2016 TV special called "Pushed to the Edge" (released in 2018 on Netflix as “The Push"), with 3 regular people being conditioned & manipulated into pushing someone off a rooftop.

After we discuss the basics of hypnotic trances & waking hypnosis in the 1st & 2nd sections of our discussion, we'll dig into whether hypnotism can replicate faith healing and/or turn a normal person into a "Manchurian candidate" in the 3rd & 4th sections.

INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS HYPNOSIS & WHERE DID IT COME FROM?

Before we dive into the academic literature on hypnosis, it helps to try to define what "hypnosis" is and understand where it came from. Hypnosis, is defined by the APA as "a state of human consciousness involving focused attention, reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion." Theories explaining what occurs during hypnosis fall into two general groups:
(1) "Altered state theories" see hypnosis as an altered state of mind or trance, marked by a level of awareness different from the ordinary conscious state.
(2) In contrast, "non-state theories" see hypnosis as a form of imaginative role enactment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnosis#Definitions

Based on the work of anthropologists, we now know that many primitive tribal cultures around the world have ritualistic practices that can induced trance states & utilize the power of suggestion for medical & spiritual purposes. The methods for induced trances often involved chanting, drumming, ecstatic dance, fasting, and the ingestion of psychoactive substances. Scholars now assume that humans have probably been entering into hypnotic-type trances for thousands of years.

The scientific study of hypnotic trances, however, dates back to their accidental discovery in the late 18th century by Franz Mesmer, a German physician who was experimenting with the medical benefits of magnet therapy. Initially, he had patients swallow solutions of iron, placed magnets on their bodies, and found they reported various sensations, but by 1774 he found could achieve the same effect with his bare hands. He developed a method where he would stare into his patient's eyes and use a variety of manual procedures such as pressing the patient's thumbs in his hands, pressing on the area below their diaphragm, and passing his hands in front of their bodies. Many patients reported peculiar sensations or had convulsions that were regarded as crises and supposed to bring about a cure. He concluded that certain human beings - including himself - possessed a vital force he called "animal magnetism", and his methods became known as "mesmerism".

In 1784, at the request of the French King Louis XVI, a Board of Inquiry started to investigate whether "animal magnetism" existed. Among the board members were founding father of modern chemistry Antoine Lavoisier, Benjamin Franklin, and Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, an expert in pain control & inventor of the guillotine. They investigated the practices of a disaffected student of Mesmer, Charles d'Eslon, and though they concluded that Mesmer's results were valid, their placebo-controlled experiments using d'Eslon's methods convinced them that mesmerism was most likely due to belief & imagination rather than to an invisible magnetic energy.

Even after this debunking, many physicians in the early 19th century were still intrigued with the responses in patients that "mesmerism" produced and continued experimenting with it. The Scottish physician James Braid was an early pioneer that advocated "rational mesmerism" based on empirical methods in the 1840s. He is perhaps best known for developing an "eye-fixation" technique for hypnotic induction using a swinging pocket watch or other bright object, and he coined the term "hypnosis" for the deeper trances he produced. Braid's main therapeutic strategy involved directing the patient's attention to different regions of the body in order to try to stimulate or reduce physiological functioning. (Braid also appears to be the first to make the connection between hypnotism & meditation. Upon hearing stories from colleagues in India of the seemingly miraculous physical feats of the "yogi", he surmised their meditative practice must be a form self-hypnosis.)

One of Braid's contemporaries, the French physician Hippolyte Bernheim, experimented with issuing verbal suggestions to hypnotized patients, and he was the first to conceive of hypnotism as a cure for psychological problems rather than physical illnesses. Bernheim is credited with noticing that patients varied in their "suggestibility" under hypnosis. He also realized hypnosis could be used implant to false memories.

Interestingly, both Braid & Bernheim, and other Victorian-era pioneers of hypnotism, saw hypnotic suggestions as being addressed to the subject's conscious mind. However, once Freud's theories about the unconscious mind became popular in the early 20th century, many hypnotists explained the efficacy of hypnotic suggestion by alleging that it allows "subliminal" suggestions that bypass the conscious mind.

In the 1880s, the French psychologist & pharmacist Émile Coué discovered that subjects could not be hypnotized against their will and that the effects of hypnotic suggestion waned when the subjects regained consciousness. However, he also noticed that he could increase the apparent effectiveness of his drugs by praising their efficacy to his patients, i.e. what we now call the "placebo effect", and he surmised this may be due to an indirect form of hypnotic suggestion. By 1901, he developed a new approach to hypnotherapy that did not emphasize induction or deep relaxation and focused instead on "direct hypnotic suggestion" via talking to his patients about their thought patterns & encouraging them to harness the power of belief. Coué also developed the idea of "autosuggestion", a form of self-induced suggestion in which patients learn to guide their own thoughts, feelings & behavior.

The prestige & practice of hypnosis declined in the first half 20th century with the rise of Freudian psychoanalysis and it's emphasis on "talking therapy", and the rise of behaviorist in the 1930s saw hypnotism relegated to a minor form of classical conditioning. However, with the "cognitive revolution" in psychology in the 1950s, hypnosis experienced renewed interest.

The psychiatrist Milton Erickson was a major innovator in hypnotherapy in the 1960s, and like Émile Coué he used hypnotic suggestions on patients without employing standard inductions. Erickson believed that the unconscious mind was always listening and that, whether or not the patient was in trance, suggestions could be made which would have a hypnotic influence, as long as those suggestions found resonance at the unconscious level. Erickson developed new methods of induction by using metaphors & analogies, "double binds" (two irreconcilable demands or a choice between two undesirable courses of action), and various confusion techniques - most notably several unusual & unexpected types of handshakes. He emphasized the importance of tailoring the treatment to each individual patient rather than relying on formulas. The difference between Erickson's methods and traditional hypnotism led many of his contemporaries to question whether he was practising "hypnosis" at all, and his approach remains in question.

In the 1970s, the psychology student Richard Bandler & the linguist John Grinder drew upon Ericksonian hypnosis to create a new type of psychotherapy called "Neuro-Linguistic Programming" (NLP). However. As we'll see in our discussion, NLP is also viewed as questionable by most of the psychological profession.

Today, hypnosis is not as commonly used as counseling, but it's still sometimes used as a supplemental method by practitioners of "Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy" (CBT), which is the most evidence-based form of psychotherapy practiced today. As we'll see in our discussion, research shows that hypnosis is effective in treating several psychological conditions, even though - as with meditation - we don't completely understand how it works. This mystery is due in large part to the fact that neuroscientists & psychologists have not yet solved the "mind-body problem", i.e. they don't fully understand how the brain produces consciousness & cognition.

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DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR OUR DISCUSSION:

The videos & articles you see linked below are intended to give you a basic overview of the existing research on hypnosis & the placebo effect, how these concepts can be applied to explain some seemingly "paranormal" phenomena, as well as the plausibility of brainwashing & various conspiracy theories about "Manchurian candidates". As usual, I certainly don't expect you to read all the articles & watch all the videos prior to attending our discussion. The easiest way to prepare for our discussion is to just watch the numbered videos linked under each section - the videos come to about about 57 minutes total. The articles marked with asterisks are just there to supply additional details. You can browse and look at whichever ones you want, but don't worry - we'll cover the stuff you missed in our discussion.

In terms of the discussion format, my general idea is that we'll address the topics in the order presented here. I figure we'll spend about 30 minutes on each section.

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I. THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF HYPNOTIC TRANCES, SUGGESTIBILITY TESTS & THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STAGE HYPNOTISM & HYPNOTHERAPY:

  • HAVE EXPERIMENTS WITH EEG & fMRI FINALLY VERIFIED THE "ALTERED STATE THEORY" OF HYPNOSIS?

  • HOW DOES SELECTION FOR SUGGESTIBILITY AND PRIMING SUBJECTS WITH EXPECTATIONS ABOUT HOW A HYPNOTIZED PERSON ACTS FACTOR INTO STAGE HYPNOSIS?

  • DO THE BRIGHT LIGHTS OF A STAGE & STAGE FRIGHT FROM BEING IN FRONT OF A CROWD MAKE PEOPLE MORE SUGGESTIBLE OR JUST MORE LIKELY TO CONFORM?

  • ARE ANY PARTICIPANTS IN STAGE ROUTINES ACTUALLY ENTRANCED, OR DOES THE VENEER OF HYPNOSIS JUST GIVE THEM PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY TO BE AN EXHIBITIONIST?

  • HOW CAN HYPNOTISM BE USED TO TAKE AWAY A PERSON’S ABILTY TO READ, AS IN THE STROOP EFFECT EXPERIMENTS? CAN THIS BE DONE IN STAGE HYPNOSIS USING THE ADDED STIMULUS OF STAGE FRIGHT?

  • IS IT EASIER FOR HYPNOTISTS TO INDUCE TRANCES IN A CLINICAL SETTING? HOW DO THEY TREAT PEOPLE WITH LOW SUGGESTIBILITY?

  • HOW EFFECTIVE IS HYPNOTHERAPY IN CURBING ADDICTIONS LIKE SMOKING, ALCOHOL & JUNK FOOD?

  • IS HYPNOTHERAPY AN EFFECTIVE TREATMENT FOR ANXIETY, DEPRESSION & PTSD?

  • IS IT TRUE THAT HYPNOSIS CAN BE USED IN LIEU OF ANAESTHETIC FOR SURGERIES?

  • CAN HYPNOTHERAPY HELP CURE DISEASES BY AFFECTING PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES, E.G. IMMUNE RESPONSE, BLOOD PRESSURE, DIGESTION, ETC.?

1a) SciShow, "The Science of Hypnosis" (video - 9:16 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWMYNTnoEyQ

1b) Darren Marks, "What's The Difference Between Stage Hypnosis & Hypnotherapy?" (video - 4:13 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHeo7zD7NWQ

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II. ERICKSONIAN HYPNOSIS, NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING (NLP) & THE DEBATES AROUND INDIRECT/CONVERSATIONAL/COVERT HYPNOSIS:

  • WAS ERICKSON RIGHT THAT THERE'S NO BRIGHT LINE BETWEEN WAKING CONSCIOUSNESS & TRANCE STATES AND THAT WE'RE SUGGESTIBLE EVEN WITHOUT BEING PUT IN A TRANCE?

  • DO THE SURPRISE & CONFUSION THAT COME WHEN AN UNEXPECTED STIMULUS BREAKS OUR FAMILIAR ROUTINE (I.E. "PATTERN INTERRUPTION") HEIGHTEN OUR AWARENESS & ALLOWS US TO BREAK BAD HABITS AND/OR LEARN NEW INFORMATION?

  • DOES ERICKSON'S HANDSHAKE INDUCTION REALLY WORK? IF SO, IS IT BECAUSE IT ACTS AS A "PATTERN INTERRUPT" OR MERELY BECAUSE THE POWER OF SUGGESTION CAN LEAD SUGGESTIBLE PEOPLE TO THINK IT WORKS AFTER THEY'RE TOLD WHAT IT'S SUPPOSED TO DO?

  • DO INDIRECT SUGGESTIONS ("MILTON MODEL") WORK BETTER THAN ENDLESS QUESTIONS ("META MODEL") TO OPEN PATIENTS UP, OR DOES IT DEPEND ON THEIR PERSONALITY TYPE?

  • CAN RAPPORT BE BUILT THROUGH MIRRORING SOMEONE'S POSTURE & SPEAKING STYLE? IF SO, DOES RAPPORT HEIGHTEN SUGGESTIBILITY?

  • DO PEOPLE HAVE "PREFERRED REPRESENTATIONAL STYLES" (VISUAL, AUDITORY, KINESTHETIC) THAT SUGGEST THE BEST WAY TO RELATE TO THEM, PERSUADE THEM & HELP THEM LEARN?

  • WHAT SHOULD WE THINK OF NLP’S USE OF PRIMING FOR SUGGESTION IN LIGHT OF A LOT OF PRIMING RESEARCH FAILING TO REPLICATE RECENTLY?

  • CAN NLP TECHNIQUES ALLOW SALESMEN TO COVERTLY PERSUADE PEOPLE TO BUY PRODUCTS THEY DON'T WANT AND PICKUP ARTISTS TO SEDUCE UNSUSPECTING WOMEN?

  • SINCE NLP HASN'T FOUND MUCH SUPPORT IN RESEARCH OVER THE LAST 40 YEARS, DOES THAT MEAN ALL OF ITS CONCEPTS & TECHNIQUES ARE PSEUDOSCIENCE?

2a) Anthony Scannella, "What is Ericksonian Hypnosis?" (video - 3:58 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqGUMadTj4o

2b) TYT Science, "Debunking NLP - TYT Science" (video - 11:26 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKGnsPBogo8

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III. THE PLACEBO/NOCEBO EFFECTS & PARANORMAL PRACTICES AS HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA:

  • CAN EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY SUGGEST WHY HUMANS MIGHT'VE EVOLVED AN INTERACTION BETWEEN BELIEF & PAIN PERCEPTION?

  • CAN THE PLACEBO & NOCEBO EFFECTS ACTUALLY AFFECT OUR IMMUNE RESPONSE, OR DOES IT MERELY CHANGE OUR PERCEPTION OF SYMPTOMS LIKE PAIN?

  • HOW DOES THE PERCEIVED AUTHORITY OF THE PHYSICIAN, THE CLINICAL SETTING, THE PHYSICIAN'S EXPLANATION, AND THE TYPE OF INTERVENTION (SURGERY, SHOT, PILL, ETC.) AFFECT THE PLACEBO EFFECT?

  • IS THE PENTECOSTAL PRACTICE OF BEING "SLAIN IN THE SPIRIT" COMPARABLE TO SLEEP INDUCTIONS IN HYPNOTISM?

  • DOES FAITH HEALING UTILIZE THE PLACEBO EFFECT? CAN IT ACTUALLY HELP HEAL ANY KNOWN AILMENTS, OR DOES IT JUST TEMPORARILY ADJUST PERCEPTIONS OF PAIN & PHYSICAL ABILITIES?

  • ARE TOUCHLESS KNOCKOUTS PRODUCED BY SOME EASTERN MARTIAL ARTS MERELY PLAY-ACTING OR A CASE OF THE NOCEBO EFFECT WHICH PUTS STUDENTS INTO TEMPORARY SHOCK?

  • IN CULTURES WHERE BELIEF IN WITCHCRAFT IS PREVALENT, IS IT PLAUSIBLE THAT ANTHROPOLOGISTS WHO REPORT PEOPLE SICKENING & DYING FROM "VOODOO CURSES" AN EXTREME EXAMPLE OF HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION & THE NOCEBO EFFECT? IS IT COMPARABLE TO PSYCHOGENIC DEATH SEEN IN OTHERWISE HEALTHY PATIENTS WHO BELIEVE THEY'RE DYING OF A DISEASE OR SIMPLY LOSE THE WILL TO LIVE?

3a) BrainStuff, "Why Does The Placebo Effect Work?" (video - 3:51 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_l_N-EyV7k

3b) Anthony Thomas, "The Psychology of Faith Healing" (video - 7:43 min, start at 4:32)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gQt_ZRd-dg&t=4m32s

3c) Fox Chicago, "The Human Stun Gun Investigation" (video - 4:26 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdrzBL2dHMI

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IV. HYPNOTIC ASSASSINS, BRAINWASHING & DEPROGRAMMING: REAL OR FICTION?

  • CAN SOMEONE BE HYPNOTIZED TO COMMIT AN ACT THEY WOULD NOT NORMALLY DO? IF NOT, COULD THEY BE HYPNOTIZED TO MISUNDERSTAND WHAT THEY WERE DOING?

  • DID THE CIA REALLY RESEARCH HYPNOTIZED COURIERS & "MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE" ASSASSINS AS PART OF MKULTRA?

  • IS IT PLAUSIBLE THAT SIRHAN SIRHAN WAS HYPNOTIZED TO ASSASSINATE ROBERT KENNEDY & NOT REMEMBER HIS HANDLERS?

  • DO WE SEE SIGNS OF COVERT HYPNOSIS IN CASES WHERE PEOPLE WERE COAXED BY UNDERCOVER LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENTS INTO PLOTTING CRIMES (E.G. TERRORIST ATTACKS) IN WAYS THAT BORDER ON ENTRAPMENT, OR ARE THESE STING OPERATIONS JUST DONE WITH MUNDANE FORMS OF PERSUASION?

  • DID THE COMMUNISTS USE HYPNOSIS TO "BRAINWASH" AMERICAN POWs IN THE KOREAN WAR & FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGE THEIR IDENTITY & BELIEF SYSTEM? OR WAS IT A MORE TEMPORARY CASE OF IDENTIFICATION WITH THEIR CAPTORS DUE TO FEAR-INDUCED “STOCKHOLM SYNDROME”? OR DID THEY JUST ACT SUBMISSIVE TO AVOID TORTURE?

  • CAN CULTS USE SPIRITUAL PRACTICES THAT RESEMBLE HYPNOSIS TO "RE-PROGRAM" THEIR MEMBERS MINDS? IF SO, ARE "DEPROGRAMMERS" ABLE TO STAGE AN INTERVENTION & REVERSE THIS PROCESS WITH HYPNOSIS?

4a) Stuff They Don't Want You to Know, "Project Artichoke" (video - 4:28 min.)
https://youtu.be/eE-JOdzOqxs

4b) Brian Dunning, "Brainwashing and Deprogramming: Both brainwashing and its opposite, deprogramming, are equally mythological" (podcast - 11:44 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4Nz85UAgDY

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