Is Hypnotism for Real?

Ancient Egyptian records show that sleep temples were used to heal emotional problems and some body conditions. However, a Scottish physician called James Braid accidentally rediscovered hypnosis. He had left a patient under operating lights for a couple of hours. On return, he found the patient in a strange frame of mind. He called it neuro-hypnosis. The word hypnosis is from the Greek word hypnos meaning sleep. An Austrian physician, Franz Mesner practiced it in the 18th century. He called it animal magnetism.

Hypnosis has been used in many ways. The main use of hypnosis is hypnotherapy. Certified hypnotherapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists treat disorders, depressions, phobias and post traumatic conditions using hypnotherapy. More specifically, it has been used to enhance memory and to erase traumatic memory. It has been resorted to by smokers to quit smoking and by obese people as a weight reduction tactic. It has been applied to boost the energy and confidence levels in a person. The main objective of hypnosis is self-healing and self-change. Hypnosis is not known to have cured body ailments and diseases like cancer, arthritis.

Hypnotism has many dangers too. The brain seems to obey the hypnotist implicitly. The hypnotist can exploit this to his own advantage. Mental breakdowns have been reported in individuals kept in a hypnotic state for a prolonged period. Some of the facts that have been gleaned from the hypnotic mind may not necessarily be true or accurate

Due to a number of misconceptions surrounding it, many regard hypnosis with suspicion. Hypnotism is state of trance or sleep. In fact, it is a state of heightened mental alertness. Contrary to what many believe, the hypnotized person is alive to what is happening around him in the room. There is absolutely no chance of the person not waking up from his trance. After a time, the person would simply drift to sleep. Hypnotism can work on people of who are strong willed and intelligent as long as they are willing to be hypnotized.

There are people who feel that hypnosis is real. The hypnotized person responds to suggestions more actively. They are unaware of that their actions are response to external suggestions. They think that they are acting independently. During hypnosis, the brain is unable to authenticate incoming information. Its skeptics believe that the phenomenon is not quantifiable or measurable, hence it is not real. We have very little idea of how it works or why it works more easily in some people. Hypnosis requires a lot more research. Its therapeutic use has been medically approved in Britain and the U.S.

For further reading, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnosis.