Brain scans show how hypnosis can paralyze a limb
By MALCOLM RITTER – 1 day ago
NEW YORK (AP) — How can a hypnotist paralyze your hand just with words? By making a part of your brain butt in on the process that normally makes your hand move, a study says.
So the brain region that's ready to move your hand ignores its usual inputs and listens to this interloper, which says, "Don't even bother," the research concluded.
It's "a kind of reconnection between different brain regions," said Yann Cojan, a researcher at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.
He's an author of the study in Thursday's issue of the journal Neuron. It used brain scans to show what happened when 12 volunteers tried to move a hand that had been paralyzed by hypnosis.
Results showed the right motor cortex prepared itself as usual to tell the left hand to move. But the cortex appeared to be ignoring the parts of the brain it normally communicates with in controlling movement. Instead, it acted more in sync than usual with a different brain region called the precuneus. That was a surprise, Cojan said.
The precuneus is involved in mental imagery and memory about oneself. Cojan suggests it was brimming with the metaphors the participants had heard from the hypnotist: Your hand is very heavy, it is stuck on the table, etc. So, he said, it might have been telling the motor cortex, "Oh, but your hand is too heavy, you can't move your hand."
It's as if the motor cortex "is connected to the idea that it cannot move (the hand) and so ... it doesn't send the message to move," Cojan said.
For the research, 12 participants had their brains scanned while doing a task that required them to push a button with one hand or the other. For some sessions, they were hypnotized and told their left hands were paralyzed. For other sessions, their mental status was normal. For comparison, six other participants simply pretended their left hands were paralyzed.
Dr. Richard Frackowiak, a brain expert at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland who didn't participate in the study, called the new work a "very valuable addition" to research into hypnotic paralysis.
Amir Raz, who studies hypnosis and the brain at McGill University in Montreal, said he found the work interesting. But he wondered if the results might partially reflect general effects of being under hypnosis, rather than the paralysis suggestion itself.
On the Net:
Neuron: http://www.cell.com/neuron/
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

How I got into hypnosis

As long as I can remember, I have been interested in hypnosis. I can remember checking out hypnosis books from the library when I was in grade school. I don't know what sparked this interst. I don't believe that I has a desire to control anyone. Of course, I had no idea what hypnosis was.

AS time went on, I recall reading an paying attention to things related to hypnosis. At the age of 37, I returned to college as a second semester freshman and got my Batchelor's Degree in Psychology and my Master's Degree in Counseling Services. I served a two year internship and went into private practice.

Sometime early in private practice, I saw an ad in a telephone book for hypnosis certification training i a town about 75 miles from where I lived. I called and made arrangements to take classes every Thursday for 200 hours of training. Eight hours a day.

The training was horrible. Ny license as a counselor allowed me to practice hypnosis but I thought I would be more comfortable getting certified. This particular instructor had his own agenda. He had problems with the whole mental health and nedical system I, myself, believe that both systems are broken but I was paying for training and not to hear the instructor pontificate. At least two different times I explained to him that I paid for training and if he was not able to provide that on that particular day, I could leave and come back nest week when he was prepated.

I completed the training and got my certification. I felt like I really didn't have a clue as to what hypnosis was all about. I started going to trainings and conventions ( my favorites were in Las Vegas ). I also read all the books I can find on hypnosis and search the web for relevent articles. That is the purpose of this blog - to share information of value to the publec and the professional.