Hypnotic Phenomena

Hypnotic Phenomena

The phenomena below are some of the things a therapist can use in hypnosis to help a patient with any issues they may have.

Catalepsy

Is defined as the inhibition of voluntary movement associated with intense focusing on a specific stimulus.

Catalepsy is a natural state that can be seen when someone is intensely focused and it causes temporary immobilisation. For example, they may become absorbed in reading a book while eating and not realise that their hand has been floating in the air holding a fork.

Stage hypnotists used to use full body catalepsy to demonstrate the power of hypnosis by getting the subject to tense all the muscles in their body and then laying the person down across two chairs before standing on them.

Arm catalepsy is when the subject is told to make his arm as stiff and rigid as a steel bar so that he can’t bend it.

Some other well known types of catalepsy used in hypnotherapy are eye catalepsy and hand levitation.

Post-hypnotic suggestions

Post hypnotic suggestions are given in a trance which will be acted on when the client comes out of it.

Time distortion

Have you ever said “Time flies when you’re having fun?” Or have you been bored and time seemed to be going really slowly? If you have, then you’ve experienced time distortion.

Time is subjective, meaning your experience of time is dependent on many factors at any given moment.

The perception of time can be lengthened or shortened using hypnotherapy. For example, shortening the amount of time someone experiences pain, or during a boring activity, or during physical exercise etc. You can also expand time to make pleasant experiences seem longer, have more time to complete tasks, or practise activities many times in your imagination, but it appears to the person that it’s happening in real time and not speeded up. For example, when you dream, you can dream a whole day in a few minutes but the dream seems to be occurring in real time to the person dreaming.

Ideomotor response

Is the physical manifestation of a mental experience. Every thought or emotion we have causes a physical response. Body language experts use this unconscious movement to explain what people are really thinking at an unconscious level.

It is also used in polygraph tests (lie detector tests).

In hypnosis, this phenomenon can be used to get the client’s unconscious mind to use fingers to indicate yes / no responses.

Chevreul’s pendulum is the technique of asking questions of the unconscious mind and getting the pendulum to swing above a chart to find the answers to questions.

Automatic writing is the ability to write without conscious involvement.

Age regression

Is used to regress a client to an earlier time in their life so that they can work through any negative experiences they have had, to enable them to change what the experience means to them.

Age progression

Is used to help the patient see how they would react in the future in certain situations and check whether the changes they want in therapy would help them in future contexts.

Anaesthesia

Anaesthesia is a complete lack of any sensations.

You may have seen on TV, hypnosis being used as an alternative to chemical anaesthesia and wondered why someone would decide to use hypnosis instead of chemicals. Well, using hypnosis means that there is less blood loss, less scarring and a faster recovery time.

In hypnotherapy, the client is taught how to anesthetise their hand and then rub a different body part to make that numb. So, for example, they could rub their arm before an injection or their chin before dental work.

Analgesia

Analgesia is used for the reduction of pain but will not alter other sensations, for example, pressure, temperature and position.

Amnesia

Is a common phenomenon that happens naturally. For example, forgetting someone’s name or a piece of information soon after being told it.

Amnesia can be used to help the client forget something that is hurtful until it has been resolved.

Sometimes amnesia happens spontaneously, without the therapist suggesting it.

It’s used by stage hypnotists to make people forget their name or a number.

Hyperamnesia (heightened memory recall)

Hypnosis has been used in court in America to help witnesses remember information that they could not remember consciously.

It can be used to find lost objects.

Positive Hallucinations

Positive hallucination is seeing something that isn’t there. For example, a stage hypnotist tells the subject that they will see an alien in front of them.

It can be used with all senses, for example, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching.

Negative Hallucinations

Negative hallucination is NOT seeing something that is there.

For example, stage hypnotists tell the subject to see the audience as naked when they are fully clothed.

It can be used with all senses, for example, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching.