14 DAY TRIAL // Over the centuries, the idea that hypnosis may be a potent medical tool has been widely circulated. However, accounts are filled with tales of quackery, of so-called practitioners that brought a bad fame to the word, similar to what happened to acupuncture. In spite of the efforts some people made to discredit the technique, it's currently beginning to become an indispensable tool for psychologists treating severe cases of depression or anxiety. And there are those scientists who say that, by giving the practice a working chance, we may be able to determine whether it's all a con, or if it actually works.
One such investigator is University College London (UCL) Professor Emeritus David Oakley, who hopes that, by subjecting hypnosis to rigorous scientific scrutiny, he may be able to determine the intricate neural mechanisms that seem to spring into action when people are hypnotized. “I think hypnosis is underaccepted and undervalued, partly because of lurid tales published in books and movies, which lead to views of hypnosis as a strange and unbelievable state. Still many people scoff,” University of Hull psychologist Irving Kirsch, from the United Kingdom, adds, NewScientist reports.
Oakely argues that, if hypnosis turns out to work, it could be used to model a large number of mental conditions, without actually having to look for volunteers, or for people who are really sick. With suggestions, even healthy people could be made to believe they are sick, and scientists would then analyze the condition. After the investigation ends, a simple snap of the fingers would revert the studied person to their original mental-health status, without them even remembering what happened. “It's like reverse engineering. It's only when things break down that you appreciate the mechanism involved,” Cardiff University neuropsychologist Peter Halligan, who collaborates with Oakley, adds.
Among the conditions that could be modeled using hypnosis, the experts include hysterical blindness, hysterical paralysis, prosopagnosia (which prevents people from recognizing faces), the alien limb syndrome, visual neglect, and the Capgras syndrome. The last is a peculiar condition. Patients have the distinct impression that the person they love has been replaced by an impostor, acting like them. The experts are, in fact, trying to determine if and how the activity of the hypnotized brain can replicate the exact conditions inside the mind of someone actually suffering from these conditions. Answering this question could shed some more light on the intricate mechanism that is our brain.