What does hypnosis mean?

Hypnotism (which originated from the name of Hypnos, the god of sleep in Greek mythology) is a kind of magic that produces magical effects by using hints and other means to put subjects into hypnosis.

Hypnosis is a special conscious trance psychological state similar to sleep but not sleep, which is induced by people (such as relaxation, monotonous stimulation, concentration, imagination, etc.). ). It is characterized by the weakening or loss of the hypnotized person's independent judgment and autonomous action ability, and the distortion or loss of feeling and perception. In the process of hypnosis, the hypnotized person follows the suggestion or instruction of the hypnotist and reacts. The depth of hypnosis varies with the individual's hypnotic sensitivity, the reputation and skills of the hypnotist. The effect of suggestion under hypnosis can continue to the awakening activity after hypnosis. The method of inducing the hypnotized person to enter the hypnotic state through certain procedures is called hypnosis.

Using special behavioral techniques combined with language prompts, normal people can enter a temporary, sleep-like state. Hypnosis can also be induced by drugs and can be divided into self-hypnosis and hypnosis of others. Self hypnosis is caused by self suggestion. Hypnosis of others is produced under the influence and suggestion of the hypnotist, which can arouse the repressed and forgotten things and tell the medical records, illness, inner conflicts and tensions. Hypnosis can also be used as a therapeutic method (i.e. hypnotherapy) to relieve or eliminate patients' mental and physical diseases such as tension, anxiety, conflict and insomnia.

1. partial regression theory

Hypnosis makes the subjects' thinking degenerate to the naive stage, losing the control they have when they are awake normally, and falling into the primitive way of thinking, so they act impulsively and produce fantasies and hallucinations.

2. Role-playing theory

It is believed that the subjects played another role through excessive cooperation under the guidance of hypnotists. Participants' expectations of the role and situational factors make them do some actions with a highly cooperative attitude. However, many scholars insist that hypnosis is another state of consciousness, not role-playing, because even the most cooperative subjects will not agree to operate without anesthesia.

3. The theory of separation in consciousness.

According to the experimental observation, hilgard thinks that hypnosis separates the psychological process of the subjects into two (or more) simultaneous shunts. The first shunt is the conscious activity experienced by the subjects, which may be distorted in nature; The second shunt is a conscious activity that the subjects are hard to detect and conceal, but its nature is relatively real, which hilgard called "hidden observer". Separation of consciousness is a normal experience that often happens in life. For example, people who drive long distances have had some reactions to the situation on the road, but they can't recall it, because consciousness is obviously divided into two parts: driving and personal thinking.

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Among all the typical hypnotic phenomena, one of the most interesting phenomena is hypnotic logic. The word "hypnotic logic" was first put forward by Aon (1959). Its basic meaning is that hypnotized people can believe incompatible opinions or opinions at the same time without knowing that they are incompatible with each other. Aon (1962) said that if hypnotized people want to imagine the chair negatively (that is, imagine that the chair is not in its original place), they will control themselves not to touch the chair when they are asked to walk indoors with their eyes open, but they still insist that they can't see the chair. This is a manifestation of hypnotic logic. People without hypnotic logic will bump into chairs (Bowles, 1976). In this kind of experiment, it is not clear whether the hypnotized person really believes that the chair is not in its original position; Or the chair is still there, but they can't see it anymore. If they believe that the chair is still in its original place, but they can't see it, then they can avoid it when they can't see it, which is not illogical, because the hypnotized person may remember the position of the chair. If the chair is moved, the experiment will be more perfect. The reason is that after the chair is moved, if the hypnotized person reports that he can't see the chair on the one hand and avoids touching the chair on the other, it will explain the incompatibility of his reaction more clearly, because they can no longer know the position of the chair by memory. Another similar hypnotic logic phenomenon is the "double" illusion reported by some people. Its performance is that under the guidance of the hypnotist, the hypnotized person hallucinates an object, and this object is already in the house; Or seeing a person in a hallucination, this person is entering the room. This is all a double illusion hypnosis logic. However, MacDonald and Smith (1975), Xi Han, O 'Busto and Maikangqi (1976), Xi Han (1977) and others found that not all reports were double hallucinations, and many hypnotized people pretended to see double hallucinations. In addition, the incompatibility of double hallucinations is also questionable. Here we need to analyze the hypnotized person's belief in the authenticity of the illusion object. They can't think that the object of illusion is just the product of imagination. If they really believe that phantom objects exist objectively, it is illogical to see more than one object. Of course, even in this case, there are some reasons that can reasonably explain the coexistence of dual objects. If the hypnotized person knows that one of the two objects is an illusion, there is no compatibility at all. Because when the hypnotized person is told that the hallucination object is hallucination, it can disappear. Transparent illusion is another manifestation of hypnotic logic. The so-called transparent illusion is that the hypnotized person reports that he has seen the real object through the illusion object (Johnson, Maher and Barber,1972; Xi Han et al., 1976). Similarly, some hypnotized people report that this phenomenon is false. It is obviously illogical to see one object completely hidden by another. However, there are not many rules to follow in hallucinations. For most hypnotized people, one of the attributes of illusion may be that the hypnotized person can see the opposite object through it. Hypnotic logic is an elusive phenomenon. Although many people have reported its existence, the more carefully you analyze it, the more difficult it is to grasp it. The main reason is that we don't know whether the hypnotized person really believes that the object he sees is real or an illusion: whether he really believes that there is no object or a negative illusion. It is not difficult to deny the existence of hypnotic logic phenomenon. However, hypnosis logic is still an interesting problem, and I hope that there will be more in-depth research in the future to solve some problems raised here by analyzing the knowledge of the hypnotized person. In these studies, we can adopt a method similar to that of Han Xi and Mai Kangqi (1982).

Urge sleep and sleep.

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Although everyone wants to sleep, obviously no one can get a lot of sleep knowledge from his own experience. In this field, it is precisely because of the birth of scientific research methods, especially the invention of electroencephalogram (EEG), that the knowledge about sleep and dreams has exploded. When doing EEG recording, the electrode should be placed on the scalp to measure the changes of EEG activity. Dement and kleiman (1957) identified four different stages of sleep by recording EEG. During sleep 1 period, EEG showed high frequency and low amplitude waveform, which was similar to that in awake rest state (0 period), but more irregular. During sleep, people doze off. And if you wake up from this period of sleep, people even deny that they are dozing off.

The EEG in the third stage of sleep is characterized by large and low waveform, and occasionally there are short-term rhythmic low-frequency waves (called "prismatic" waves). The second stage of sleep is deeper than the first stage or sleep. The third stage of sleep is deeper than the second stage of sleep. During this period of sleep, the waveform of EEG is more irregular, and there are spindle waves, but their amplitude is higher; Occasionally, large and slow waveforms appear. The fourth stage is the deepest sleep, which is characterized by large and slow waves (6 bits) in EEG. When people dream, they also have REM sleep. During a night's sleep, people experience an average of five REM sleeps, with an interval of about 90 minutes. Rapid eye movement sleep is interspersed between various stages of night sleep.

The EEG waveform of hypnotized people seems to be very different from that of sleepers in the second, third and fourth stages (Evans, 1982). For example, there are almost no signs of phase IV 6 waves during hypnosis. Chetok and Krauz (1959) discussed the similarity between phase I sleep and hypnosis in brain waves. Of course, this similarity is partly due to the hypnotist's suggestion that the subjects feel sleepy, are closing their eyes, and even write 1-2 seconds. Or as Evans (1979, 1982) pointed out, it is caused by the insensitivity of EEG recording; There may be differences in EEG activity between hypnosis and sleep, but this difference is covered up by excessive interference in EEG recording. It can be expected that if the subjects are induced by "awakening" instead of "sleeping", their brain waves will be very different. (Banya, Meszaros, Gregus, 198 1)

It is clear why hypnosis was once considered as the same state as sleep. In the eyes of others, people who are sleeping are similar to those who are hypnotized by "sleep" in performance reports; Both can obviously produce involuntary activities, such as vivid dreaming. Another possible similarity between sleep and hypnosis is that some people (Evans, 1977) found that the scores of subjects in the test of Harvard Group Hypnosis Susceptibility Scale A were related to their ability to fall asleep at night. Evans (1982) believes that this correlation may be due to the existence of a mechanism to control the level or state of consciousness in the human body; And this mechanism plays a role when people enter hypnosis or sleep. In addition to the above similarities, it is generally believed that sleep and hypnosis are two completely different States.

Common misunderstandings and worries about hypnosis

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1 q: does hypnosis just make people sleep? Answer: Hypnosis is not a technique to induce people to fall asleep. There are many differences between hypnotic state and sleep state. Although he seems to be asleep on the surface, in fact, the subject maintains a close inductive relationship with the hypnotist, and his subconscious activities play an active role under the guidance and help of the hypnotist. Although hypnosis is also a kind of rest, the depth and quality of rest are higher than that of ordinary sleep. Sometimes I only sleep for ten minutes, and I feel that I have slept for a long time. Although hypnosis has a good effect on the treatment of sleep problems, it is not limited to this aspect and can comprehensively adjust people's physical and mental state.

Q: Will you wake up after being urged under hypnosis? A: During hypnosis, the subject and the hypnotist maintain a close inductive relationship, so it seems that the subject knows nothing, but in fact he is in subconscious communication with the hypnotist, keeping in touch with the outside world, and will wake up after being awakened by the hypnotist's instructions. Of course, if the hypnotic state continues, you can enter the natural sleep state, and the subjects will wake up naturally after getting enough sleep without any side effects or adverse consequences. Similarly, in normal natural sleep, you can also resort to hypnosis through hypnosis, which is called sleep hypnosis.

Q: Hypnosis means that people don't know anything, and then some magical changes will happen? Answer: Hypnosis does not mean depriving people of their mental activity ability. Although the level of conscious activity is reduced, the level of subconscious activity is more active. At this time, some subjects will feel confused and unconscious, as if they can only hear the voice of the hypnotist; But some subjects feel that they are awake and can hear everything, and even think that they are not hypnotized at all. These feelings may appear under hypnosis and will not affect the progress and therapeutic effect of hypnosis. Of course, the more subjects feel and experience (rather than test) according to the instructions of the hypnotist, the more beneficial it is to get more beneficial things from hypnosis.

Q: Is it true that in many film and television literary works, the hypnotist does what he asks and says what he asks? Will this be controlled by others or expose your privacy? A: The descriptions of hypnosis in many film and television literary works are exaggerated and inaccurate. Everyone's subconscious has an unshakable task, which is to protect this person. In fact, even under hypnosis, people's subconscious mind will protect itself like a loyal guardian. Hypnosis can better communicate with the subconscious, but it can't drive a person to do things that the subconscious doesn't agree with, so there is no need to worry about being controlled or revealing his secrets. Moreover, even if it is not personal, as a hypnotist, it is a basic professional ethics to keep the situation under hypnosis secret for the hypnotized person.

Q: Hypnosis means being hinted, so is it only those who have no opinion or firm will, or those with low education and low quality who will be hypnotized? A: The reasons for hypnosis are quite complicated, and suggestion is only one of the factors, not the whole content. Hypnotic sensitivity is a psychological characteristic of normal people, so it doesn't mean that only people who lack their own opinions will be hypnotized; At the same time, according to the latest research results in the field of hypnosis, the first level of hypnosis is the material level-the function of the cranial nerve system; The second level is the acceptance of personal psychological activities. From this point of view, people who are more likely to be hypnotized are those who have a good functional state of the cranial nerve system, strong psychological activity, high efficiency and keen. Therefore, we can see that people with higher education, good psychological quality and keen can benefit from hypnosis, while too young children, over-aged people and people with mental retardation in life are difficult to be hypnotized because of the poor functional state of the cranial nerve system.

Q: Does hypnosis have a bad effect on mental health? Answer: Hypnosis itself is a very safe psychological adjustment and treatment technology. As long as the operator standardizes the operation, it will not have adverse effects on mental health. Even if you feel uncomfortable after hypnosis, you can get rid of it in the next hypnosis, leaving no "future trouble" for the subjects. Of course, because of the particularity of hypnosis, hypnosis, especially hypnosis with psychotherapy and training content, should be carried out by hypnotists who have received professional training and practical experience. In hypnosis, there are many magical phenomena that are difficult to explain even in theory, such as super-sensitivity (if the hypnotist hints that the hypnotized person is putting a hot metal on him, then the hypnotized person's skin will really show signs of burning), movement and perception. This is one of the reasons why hypnosis is exciting and challenging, and why it is still difficult to be fully accepted by academic circles. Hypnosis at first glance gives people a mysterious and magical impression, which is also reasonable. However, if you study hypnosis carefully, you will know that hypnosis is not an illusory thing like magic and divination, nor is it just a simple hypnosis and hypnosis process. In fact, it has a very strict and complete theory, and it is an ancient and young science with great achievements.