# Hypnosis ## History - Franz Anton Mesmer (mesmerize) - Sensing forces within people/animals and shaping them. - Magnets and magnetism - [[freud|Sigmund Freud]] - It's not magnet, it's Mesmer! - Suggesting to patients in a powerful way that they would be better. - Patients believe they feel better, but the trauma is not resolved. - This could be dangerous due to _confabulation_. ## Details - _Confabulation_ - Pushed to tell something that is not in the [[memory]]. - After the trance, they still believe the thing they created. - Relaxation - Imagery becomes much richer. (e.g. hypnotized witnesses) - Similar to relaxation therapy - Modern therapeutic hypnosis - Pavlovian, drawing association between things (e.g. disgust and smoking) - Works very well on some, not on others. Largely depending on the trust on the therapist and comfort level. - Hypnosis as entertainment - Amazing Ravine ## Theories - State theories - Hypnotic inductions produce an altered state of [[consciousness]]. - Responses to hypnotic suggestions are a result of special process in the altered state of consciousness. - Hypnotizability is stable over long period. - Non-state theories - Participants in hypnosis experiments are actively engaged. - People use hypnosis as an excuse to be a bit crazy and wacky. - Both conscious and unconscious are in play - Experiment - Push the behavioral boundaries so far, that we are sure that the participants must be under our control to do these things. - e.g. picking up a snake, or shooting someone - However, due to the ethics restriction, we may never be able to come to definitive conclusion.