

MRI evidence on how hypnosis works - mikecane
http://mindblog.dericbownds.net/2010/07/mri-evidence-on-how-hypnosis-works.html

======
gruseom
I missed the point where evidence _that_ hypnosis works has been established.
That is, I know it works from personal experience, but a lot of people have
been claiming that it's hogwash for a long time, and unambiguous empirical
study of the matter has proven rather difficult. Thus it's interesting that
this study takes for granted that the distinction between hypnotic and non-
hypnotic state is well-defined. If that really has been established, it's
news.

~~~
blahblahblah
That's why reading this blog post is inferior to actually reading the paper,
although it's better than most of what passes for science journalism these
days in that they at least bothered to give a proper link to the paper's
abstract. In the third paragraph of the paper's introduction, the authors cite
six prior fMRI studies of hypnotic vs. non-hypnotic states, the first of them
dating back as far as 1997. If those six papers employed careful methodology
and measured a statistically significant result, then I'd say it's pretty well
established. I don't particularly care enough about it to go look up all of
those other papers, but I suspect the phenomenon's neurological basis is
probably well established and the detractors calling it hogwash are probably
not neuroscientists.

~~~
gruseom
Thanks! You're absolutely right about reading the paper. I should have looked
at it before posting; casualty of the constant battle to minimize online
distractions. I appreciate your digging that information up.

------
starkfist
Has anyone here ever tried hypnosis? I got sick from food poisoning a few
years ago, and ever since then have had an on again off again issue with
hypochondria. I've heard that hypnosis can help with this, but as a natural
skeptic I'm... skeptical.

~~~
gruseom
I studied hypnosis intermittently for a couple of years. It's a powerful tool
that can help one make changes. But it's not a mechanical process that
produces the same results every time; there's a lot of mutable state involved.
It's better to treat it as an exploration and see what happens. Skepticism
need not get in your way. Just let it take the form of curiosity for a while.

The most important variable is probably how good the practitioner is (and
whether there's a good fit between that person and you).

