Can Hypnosis Blast Me to the Past?

Hypnosis may not make you younger, but it can make you feel and act younger. It may not take away pain, but it may fool around with your pain sensors so that pain may virtually be nonexistent. For all the fallacies and myths surrounding hypnotism, there are still a number of things hypnosis can do that are beneficial and scientifically proven. In general medicine, psychology, surgery and dentistry, and even in the legal system, hypnosis has been known to help people gain better understanding of the situation and themselves.

Age Regression

Wise men have said: “Those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it. Whatever you are now, the skills you possess, the ailments that bother you, may have something to do with your past.”

In regression, the person that initiates your hypnotism dips into a particular period in your life – say, when you were still in kindergarten. This suggestion triggers you to seem to live out significant incidents in that period. Since you are “re-living the past,” it will relatively occur that you think, talk, or act as you were in kindergarten. Your therapist and you can then determine how a particular incident in that particular period may have connection with a condition affecting you presently. Reliving a part of your past may help you recover some vital information, establish insights, or aid you to know yourself better and how to cope with the present.

Past Life Regression

Stretching the theory further, some have claimed regression can make them go into the past deeper – and can let them experience their lives when they were in the womb. Still an area of contention, more so because this theory touches on religion, the concept of a past life or reincarnation is relative to a person’s faith. Scientifically, it is not possible, as scientists say that the brain is still underdeveloped during pre-natal stages to store memories.

Still, thousands of cases have been documented of people going back to their past lives. These people were convinced because they found accurate connections between their past and present identities. As in age regression, it is believed that getting to know what you were in the past may help you understand and eventually cure a certain condition. A stereotype case would be, for example, a woman who is afraid of going near bodies of water may have died due to drowning in her past life.   

Tool for Surgery

Painless surgery and dentistry has been proven to be possible with just the help of hypnosis. Probably the most natural form of anesthesia, mothers about to give birth, soldiers wounded in the midst of a battle, or children nervous of a tooth extraction – have benefited from hypnosis as an anesthetic.  

During the operation, the hypnotized patient is reported to have remained relaxed and at ease. Post-surgery hypnosis is also known to aid in prevention of infection or to relieve discomfort or post-surgery pain.

Increased recovery speed is also a known benefit of hypnosis. One case study, a research by a psychologist, states: “In one case, doctors had to graft skin onto a patient's badly damaged foot. First, skin from the person's abdomen was grafted onto his arm. Then the graft was transferred to his foot. With hypnosis, the patient held his arm tightly in position over his abdomen for three weeks, then over his foot for four weeks. Even though these positions were unusual, the patient at no time felt uncomfortable.” 

Behavior Modification

Making someone act like a chicken is only icing on hypnosis’ cake. There are other pleasant and useful cases wherein its ability to modify behavior is vital.

Mental patients who are disturbed or nervous may be helped to be calm through hypnosis, rather than experiencing the side effects of sedatives or be forced into submission through a straitjacket.  On a long–term basis, hypnosis can then be used as a central part of treating psychological conditions such as anxiety, depression, trauma, or phobias. 

Long-term therapy with the aid of hypnosis is also required in curbing problem habits such as smoking, drugs, eating disorders, or dilemmas in socialization.

Treating Physical Problems due to Psychological Factors

A lot of our physical problems are linked with our psychological condition, given the direct link of the brain and the nervous system to the separate processes of the other parts of the body. That’s why some doctors believe there is no other way to treat a physical condition more efficiently than to go directly to the brain.

               Psycho-physiological conditions are ailments of the body that can be rooted from psychological factors. Usually, a person vulnerable to a certain illness, when faced with stress, will likely catch a psychosomatic illness. A medical definition usually states that a psychosomatic illness is a condition in which the state of mind (psyche) either causes or mediates a condition of actual, measurable damage in the body (soma).

               Columbia Encyclopedia further notes a psychosomatic disorder as an “emotional disturbance that is manifested as a physical disorder,” such as childhood asthma, ulcers, hypertension, endocrine disturbances, and possibly even heart disease. In most cases the illness occurs only when both physiological predisposition and psychological stress are present. 

In this formula, predisposition pertains to your mental and medical history. Stress concerns with elements that make you feel anxious or bothered, as well as outside stimuli such as problems in the family or society, eventually triggers the onset of illness. These include death, conflicts (personal or social), emotional problems, and financial worries. 

Other conditions that result from psychological stress are problems that affect vital organs: the heart, stomach, lungs, liver and the nervous system, triggering the onset of cancer, stroke, arthritis, multiple sclerosis and pain.

A typical script when using hypnosis as a form of aiding the treatment of psychosomatic illnesses is similar to other hypnosis techniques that aim at changing or asserting a certain condition. First, the hypnotist guides the subject into deep relaxation – until the body and mind are completely at ease. The patient is then encouraged to imagine each and every part of his personality that is ailing – physically and mentally.  

Using visual imagery that promotes well being and lightness, the hypnotist tells the patient to ease away his pain, anxiety, and other thoughts that bother him. The hypnotist may also identify each body part, giving particular importance to the affected ones, and helps the patient handle, overcome, or come to terms with the pain.

Legal Aid

The mind’s capacity to store information is astounding. It can even act like a video camera that zooms in, pauses, fast forwards or slow motions a certain event. The problem is, we tend to “forget” because however big its capacity, it is not limitless; it compartmentalizes and organizes memory so it can accommodate more. This is where hypnotism comes in. 

Hypnosis helps a person archive and retrieve relevant information that may have been discarded or neglected in normal everyday activities. Pinpointing critical data is especially important in solving crime cases. Hypnosis has been used to help witnesses and victims of crime sort out information from the crime scene. By intensely focusing through hypnosis on memories relating to the crime, a significant detail, a vital clue, or an element previously looked upon may aid in the investigation.

Still, police do not usually rely heavily on hypnosis in solving crimes. The mind is tricky, and people can be tricky too. As we said before, people under hypnosis can still decide for themselves. People under hypnosis may lie, or prefer not to divulge a secret.