Hypnosis
...condition of altered attention in the subject that may
be induced by another person," (Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia) but there is
still much about hypnosis that is not understood. Because it resembles normal
sleep, it was studied and was found that the brain waves of hypnotized people
are more similar to the patterns of deep relaxation than anything else. Rather
than a psychic or mystical idea, hypnosis is now looked upon as a form of
highly focused concentration in which outside influences are ignored.
The most known feature of the hypnotic trance is that hypnotized person
becomes easily influenced by the suggestions others-usually the hypnotist. They
retain their abilities to act and are able to walk, talk, speak, and respond to
questions; but their perceptions can be altered or distorted by external
suggestions. At the command of the hypnotist, subjects may lose all feeling in
a place on the body, and any kind of pain will not cause them any pain. The
heartbeat can be slowed or quickened, and a rise in temperature and perspiration
can be created. They can be commanded to experience visual or auditory
hallucinations or live the past as if it were the present. Also, recently a
scientist discovered that the way the subject's mind experiences time can be
altered so that hours or even weeks can pass in second, from the subjects point
of view. Subjects may forget part or all of the hypnotic experience or recall
things that they had forgotten. The hypnotist may also make "posthypnotic
suggestions" that are instructions to the subject to respond to a something
after awakening. For example, the hypnotist might suggest that, after the
subject wakes up he will have an urge to remove his left shoe, and the more the
subject resists, the greater the urge to remove it will be, and once it is
removed the urge leaves. These suggestions are sometimes used by...
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