STOP SMOKING HYPNOSIS CHICAGO AREA Stop smoking in two hours.  No withdrawal.  No weight gain.  No irritability.  708-383-1700  24/7 CLICK FOR DATE & LOCATION

 

HYPNOSIS TO QUIT SMOKING CHICAGO AREA Stop smoking in two hours.  No withdrawal.  No weight gain.  No irritability.  708-383-1700  24/7 CLICK FOR DATE & LOCATION

          Hypnosis has the highest success rate of the top 15 methods of quitting smoking. The 15 methods were compared in an exhaustive meta-analysis of 633 scientific studies of smoking-cessation programs.
          This was the largest study of its kind ever undertaken and involved 71,806 smokers.
          The results were published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, which is published by the APA, America’s main professional association of psychologists.
 

          This is an extremely extensive and inclusive study.  Chockalingham Viswesvaran and Frank L. Schmidt at the University of Iowa compared the results of 633 scientific studies of the success rates achieved with 15 different methods of quitting smoking.  71,806 smokers were included in these 633 studies, making it the largest study of it's kind ever undertaken. 

 

          Using the techniques of meta-analysis (Hunter and Schmidt, 1990) they calculated the average success rate for each method of quitting smoking.

 

          The methods of quitting smoking that were compared in this analysis include Hypnosis, Acupuncture, Nicotine chewing gum, Medication, Smoke aversion techniques, Other aversive techniques, Educational programs, Physician advice, Physician intervention including more than mere advice, Group-withdrawal clinics, Five-day plans, and Self-care programs, along with various other smoking-cessation methods.

 

          Within each of the methods of quitting smoking, the success rates vary considerably, with some programs having success rates many times as high as the success rates achieved in other programs using the same basic method.

 

          Of all the methods of quitting smoking, hypnosis had the highest success rate according to this exhaustive comparison of 633 scientific studies.

 

          Of the 48 studies of smoking-cessation programs using hypnosis, including the best and worst hypnosis programs analyzed, and involving 6020 smokers, the average success rate was 36%.  Ten percent of the hypnosis programs had success rates greater than 60%.

 

          Wide ranges of variability were found in the success rates for all methods of quitting smoking. 

 

          So regardless of what method  of quitting smoking one chooses, the specific program needs to be selected very carefully. 

 

          The average success rate for all 633 studies with a sample size of 71,806 was 25%.

 

          The category referred to as Group-withdrawal clinics included “the quit-smoking clinics conducted by the American Cancer Society (eight two-hour sessions over a four-week period) and various clinics offered by local chapters of the American Lung Association (e.g., the 8-week group program called UNsmoke.)” 

 

          This category had an average success rate of thirty percent.  The 36% average success rate of hypnosis programs is one-fifth, 20%, higher than the average success rate of the Group-withdrawal category (30%).

 

          The average success rate for hypnosis programs (36%) was twice as high as the average success rate for programs using medication (18%) and more than twice as high as the average success rate for nicotine chewing gum (16%).

 

          By Self-care programs they were referring to programs in which smokers quit by themselves with the help of self-help books or other printed manuals for quitting smoking.  (Cummings, Emont, Jaen, and Sciandra, 1988).  The average success rate for hypnosis programs (36%) was almost two and one half times as high as the average success rate for self-care programs (15%).

 

          One of the findings that most surprised Viswesvaran and Schmidt, the authors of this study, was the low success rate of programs based on physician counseling--only 7%.  The authors speculated that “this finding may merely reflect the fact that physicians typically do far less extensive counseling than other health-care professionals.”

 

          When the subjects were already ill, however, the success rates were higher, presumably because the patients were more highly motivated. 

 

          Programs limited to cardiac patients, for example, had an average success rate of 42%, only slightly higher than the average success rate for hypnosis programs, which had the highest success rate for programs involving people who were not already seriously ill.  A meta-analytic comparison is needed to determine the average success rate achieved in hypnosis programs that are limited to cardiac patients.

 

          Programs limited to patients with lung disease had a higher average success rate than most other programs (34%) but that was lower than the average success rate of hypnosis programs even though the hypnosis programs were for the general public and not limited to people who were already seriously ill.

 

          Viswesvaran and Schmidt concluded that (with the exception of programs that are limited to patients who are already sick) “drug-based and medically sponsored programs appear to be the least effective” having success rates of only 17% and 11% respectively.

 

          This meta-analytic comparison was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, 1992, Volume 77, Number 4, pages 554 through 561.  The Journal of Applied Psychology is published by the American Psychological Association, America’s main professional association of psychologists.

 

 

References

Cummings, K.M., Emont, S.L., Jaen, C., and    Sciandra, R. (1988). Form and quitting instructions as factors influencing the impact of a self-administered quit-smoking program. Health Education Quarterly, 15, 199-216.

Hunter, J.E., & Schmidt, F.L. (1990) Methods  of meta-analysis, Correcting error and bias in research findings. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

 

 

 

 

HYPNOTISTS

& HYPNOSIS,

THE MODERN ERA

 

by Don De Grazia

 

Dr. James Braid (1795-1860), a Scottish neurosurgeon, is sometimes called the father of modern hypnosis, and I believe he deserves this title.  He is the one who originally coined the terms hypnotism, hypnotize, and hypnotist in his 1843 book Neurypnology: or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep. 

He thought at that time that hypnosis was a form of sleep, so he named it after Hypnos, the personification of sleep in Greek mythology. 

Hypnos lived in the pitch-black darkness of a cave that was filled with mist from Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, which flowed through the cave and watered a patch of poppies at the entrance.  He lived there in the misty darkness with his brother Thanatos, the god of death, and with his children, the Oneiroi, the personification of dreams.

Braid later realized that hypnosis is not a form of sleep and tried to change the name to monoideaism, but it was too late because the name hypnotism had already caught on.

I'm glad it was too late for him to change the name.  Otherwise I would have had to spend my life bringing people into a state of monoideaism.  I don't like the sound of it.  I much prefer Hypnos and the mythology that goes along with him.

Braid knew that something important was happening when Mesmer and his fellow believers in animal magnetism were achieving their sometimes dramatic cures, but he recognized quickly that the phenomenon had nothing to do with magnetism.

He believed that staring intensely at a target fatigued some part of the brain which caused the state we know as hypnosis.  This is reminiscent of the modern theory that hypnosis involves inhibition of the cerebral cortex, but there are important differences.

Staring, or eye fixation, is still widely used as a technique for inducing hypnosis.

Ambrose-Auguste Liebault (1823-1904) was a poor country doctor at Point-Saint-Vincent in France, who used hypnosis in his practice with quite a bit of success.  He became famous and attracted the attention of many famous people.

Dr.Hyppolyte Bernheim (1840-1919) a French physician and neurologist, was a lecturer at a university near Liebault’s home and became interested in his work with hypnosis.  He originally was critical of Liebault's work with hypnosis, but after observing the success Liebault had using hypnosis, he became a supporter and colleague. 

Liebault and Bernheim expanded on Braid's theories about hypnosis and together they treated more than 12,000 patients using hypnosis. 

Braid was the father of modern hypnosis, but Liebault and Bernheim were the fathers of modern hypnotherapy.  They both identified hypnosis with suggestion.  This was especially true of Bernheim.

Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893), a famous French neurologist used hypnosis for the treatment of hysteria and believed that hypnosis was a form of hysteria.  He and Bernheim, both leading neurologists, and both leading authorities on hypnosis, became hostile toward each other.  History remembers Charcot as overly theatrical in his work with hypnosis.  Most of his theories have been completely discredited.

Rudolph Heidenhain (1834-1897), Professor of Physiology and Histology at the University of Breslau, studied hypnosis and conducted experiments with hypnosis and eventually came to a physiological understanding of hypnosis.  He believed that  hypnosis is brought about by partial inhibition of the cerebral cortex.

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936) is remembered by most Americans for his work with conditioned reflexes but he did considerable work with hypnosis as well.  Pavlov had been a student of Professor Heidenhain at the University of Breslau in 1864. 

Pavlov studied the physiology of the hypnotic state and explained it in terms of the partial inhibition of the cerebral cortex.  This explanation of hypnosis was very similar to the explanation of hypnosis that his old professor, Rudolph Heidenhain, had arrived at about thirty years earlier, but Pavlov's version of this theory was greatly refined and expanded.

Pavlov was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine in 1904.

Pierre Janet (1859-1947) the famous French psychologist and neurologist was a former student of Charcot.  He was at first skeptical about hypnosis but gradually became a staunch advocate.  He stressed the psychological factors in hypnosis.  Dr. William S. Kroger, M.D., in his book Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis,  has quoted Janet as saying, “If my work is not accepted today, it will be tomorrow when there will be a new turn in fashion’s wheel which will bring back hypnotism, as surely as our grandmother’s styles.”

Dr. Clark L. Hull (1884-1952), a professor of psychology at Yale University applied rigorous scientific standards to the study of hypnosis.  His research at Yale led to his important 1933 book on the subject, Hypnosis and Suggestibility.

Dr. Milton Erickson, M.D. (1901-1980), a famous American psychiatrist, became a living legend for his dramatic inductions of hypnosis.  His approach to hypnosis was extremely unconventional.  He believed that people can go into hypnosis through indirect inductions and slip in and out of a state of hypnosis throughout each day without knowing it.

He believed that hypnotic suggestions can be slipped into a person’s mind during normal conversations.

Dr. Ernest R. Hilgard (1904-2001), longtime professor of psychology at Stanford University, did much research in the field of hypnosis.  He developed the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, which along with the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility is one of the two most important tests for measuring a person's hypnotizability.

He is famous for his dissociation theory of hypnosis often referred to as the neodissociation theory to distinguish it from the dissociation theories of hypnosis developed by other scientists, particularly Janet. 

Hilgard believed that under hypnosis one's mind becomes dissociated between an experiencing ego and an observing ego, the latter of which acts as a hidden observer watching the experiencing ego experience the hypnotic suggestions.

 

 

 

 

 

The Power of

emotional Contagion

in Group Hypnosis

       

by Don De Grazia

 

" ...hypnosis is relatively easy to establish in a group.  The reasons for this are: (1) There is an emotional 'contagion' that takes place with other members of the group; (2) persons identify with what they see..."

--William S. Kroger, M.D., Clinical  Professor of Anesthesiology,

    UCLA School of Medicine, Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. Philadelphia and Montreal: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1963.

 

"Part of what may be contained in the "contagion" that Kroger speaks of may involve the sense of security that individuals get from each other when entering a new experience."

--Ira A. Greenberg, Ph.D., Camarillo Ca. State Hospital, Group Hypnotherapy and Hypnodrama, Nelson-Hall, Chicago, 1977
 

As Dr. Kroger pointed out in the above quotation, it is relatively easy for people to enter a state of hypnosis when it is conducted in a group environment, if it is conducted correctly.  This is largely due to a phenomenon that scientists sometimes refer to as emotional contagion.

Hypnosis originated independently in many parts of the world, generally as a group phenomenon, and is closely related to other group instincts.  In many parts of the world where hypnosis-like practices are conducted, they are to this day done only in small groups.

Many authorities believe that more people will go into hypnosis, and into a deeper state, when it is conducted in a group environment, due to the close relationship between hypnosis and certain group instincts and to the emotional contagion referred to by Dr. Kroger and Dr. Greenberg in the above quotations.  If the groups are too large, though, that could reduce the success rate.

"...an individual immersed for some length of time in a group in action soon finds himself—either in consequence of the magnetic influence given out by the group, or from some other cause of which we are ignorant—in a special state which much resembles the state of 'fascination' in which the hypnotized individual finds himself..."

     --Gustave Le Bon
         La Psychologie des Foules

 

Many of our past clients had previously been unable to become hypnotized in private sessions with several hypnotists, but easily went into a reasonably deep state of hypnosis in a small-group session.

One way to gain a better understanding of hypnosis is to examine its origins.  There are many theories as to why human beings have the faculty we call hypnosis, but clearly it serves a beneficial purpose, or natural selection would not have preserved it so universally.  Forms of hypnosis are found in almost every culture in the world, from the most primitive to the most advanced.

Some experts believe hypnosis began when ancient primitive societies discovered that people sometimes enter a trance state as a result of rhythmic drum beating, dancing, chanting, or other rhythmic group activities.

“Hypnosis has something positively uncanny about it; but the characteristic of uncanniness suggests something old..."

               "Sigmund Freud
                 Group Psychology and
                 the Analysis of the Ego.

One of the ways scientists try to discover the most central, elemental, and essential forms of social practices is by examining the way the earliest cultures originally conducted those practices. 

Since scientists cannot travel back in time to examine the origins of cultural practices, and because the earliest cultures left no written history, one way that scientists attempt to get back to the origins of a cultural practice is by examining the customs of contemporary stone-age cultures, of which there are still a few remaining in our present-day world.  

Let's follow that approach now in an effort to get a glimpse of the origins of hypnosis.

The Kung Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert in Africa, for example, one of the few remaining groups in the world that still exist as hunter-gatherers, practice a trance ritual that is surprisingly similar to modern hypnosis.   It is very widespread throughout Africa's Kalahari desert region, and it is always done in a group.

In Bali, the traditional sangiang hypnosis-like trance ritual is widely practiced and is always done in a group.   Zar is a hypnosis-like ritual that is practiced in various parts of the middle east.   It is always done in a group.   I could go on and on.

Even when hypnosis was evolving in western civilization, it was very often seen as a group activity. 

The western scientist to whom hypnosis is usually traced is Viennese physician and hypnotist, Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), who used a very group-oriented induction technique in his famous sessions in Paris.

Group hypnosis was all the rage among the fashionable set in eighteenth-century Paris and Vienna when Mesmer was "mesmerizing" groups in those cities. 

His circle included the composers Haydn and Mozart, whose first operetta, Bastien et Bastienne, was first performed in Mesmer's own garden theater. 

Group hypnosis is currently experiencing a resurgence of popularity in Europe and America. 

If you search for the keywords "group hypnosis" on Medline, you will be presented with a large number of scientific studies using group hypnosis—many of them fairly recent—which have been conducted at major universities and hospitals all over the world.  Obviously many scientists have found group hypnosis to be a powerful technique. 

Psychologists and sociologists have shown that we have instincts that cause us to be powerfully influenced by the presence of others and to react to things differently when we are in a group setting--even a group of strangers.  This is true even when there is no conscious interaction between members of the group.  Just the group presence seems to be all that is necessary.

A group of scientists in the UK recently conducted an interesting study that was set in a snack bar.  This was a self-service snack bar based on the honor system, where everyone was expected to drop the correct amount of money into a cash receptacle, corresponding to the food or beverages they had taken. 

As you might expect, some of the patrons did not drop the right amount of money into the box.  At the end of the day the amount of money in the cash receptacle was often not as high as it should be, based on the amount of food and beverages that were missing.

But when scientists displayed large images of eyes on the walls of this snack bar, the pilfering diminished dramatically.

Other scientists have actually discovered a place in the human brain that responds specifically to the sight of eyes, not only human eyes but the eyes of other creatures as well.

This is an interesting example of group instincts.  You are not exactly the same person when you are in the presence of another creature’s eyes.  You don’t respond to things in exactly the same way as you would if you were alone. 

When the images of eyes are replaced by real people instead of lifeless images, the effect is much stronger.

I believe there are several different reasons why it is so easy to induce hypnosis in a small group.  One of these reasons is related to the phenomenon known as entrainment--the tendency of human physiological and psychological cycles to become synchronized with the cycles of the people surrounding them.

Our bodies communicate with each other outside of our awareness through body language, pheromones, and in unknown ways which are not yet understood. 

This unconscious communication is the cause of a large part of the emotional contagion that causes hypnosis to be so relatively easy to induce in a group environment, as Dr. Kroger pointed out.

Scientists studying the effects of recreational drugs have often documented the phenomenon sometimes known informally as a "contact high."  People who have not taken any drugs but who are surrounded by people who are under the influence of a drug, often tend to experience after a while the same psychological and sometimes physiological effects as those surrounding them who have actually ingested, injected, or inhaled the drug.

"...in the mental operations of a group the function for testing the reality of things falls into the background in comparison with the strength of wishful impulses..."
                          --Sigmund Freud, op. cit.
 

Hypnotherapists aren't the only ones who can learn to harness this power.  Gifted public speakers have sometimes intuitively learned to harness it to a lesser degree when they are addressing groups, even though they are not consciously using any formal hypnotic induction technique. 

Sometimes it even occurs spontaneously in the form of mass hysteria. 

"Just as primitive man survives potentially in every individual, so the primal horde may arise once more out of any random collection;”
                      --Sigmund Freud, op. cit.

 

"But we expect even more of this derivation of the group from the primal horde.  It ought also to help us to understand what is still incomprehensible and mysterious in group formations—all that lies hidden behind the enigmatic words 'hypnosis' and 'suggestion'....
                      --Sigmund Freud, op. cit.

I have noticed over the years that the breathing of the subjects in a group-hypnosis session becomes more synchronized as the session progresses.  I had been intuitively using the changing respiratory patterns as a cue for the pacing of the induction and post-hypnotic suggestions for many years before I realized consciously that I was doing this. 

Stretching and yawning often spread through a group like wildfire.

One of the most powerful techniques a hypnotherapist can develop is the ability to recognize, influence, and harness these group synchronizations, of which there are many.

“...the state of the art is such that it [group hypnosis] may be offered with confidence as a method of treatment for overeating and for such addictions as those of alcohol, narcotics, and nicotine...”

--Ira A. Greenberg, Ph.D., Camarillo Ca. State Hospital, Group Hypnotherapy and Hypnodrama, Nelson-Hall, Chicago, 1977

 

 

  © Copyright 2007 Don De Grazia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RHYTHMIC SOUNDS

AND MOTIONS

IN THE INDUCTION

OF HYPNOSIS
 

    by Don De Grazia
 

I mentioned in the article about emotional contagion in group hypnosis that some authorities believe hypnosis originated when primitive societies noticed that groups of people sometimes enter a trance state as a result of rhythmic drum beating, dancing, chanting, or similar rhythmic activities.

The use of rhythmic sounds and motions in the induction of hypnosis is not limited to the primordial past.  Trance dancing is still practiced in some primitive societies, and is currently being experimented with in some avant-garde circles in Europe and America.

The ability of rhythmic sounds and motions to aid in the induction of hypnosis is a theme that turns up repeatedly throughout the history of hypnosis.

Some hypnotists have used metronomes or swinging pocket watches in the induction of hypnosis.  This can be very effective when the eye-fixation technique is being used to induce  hypnosis.

More recently a device called a brain-wave synchronizer has been used by some hypnotists.  This is a form of rhythmically flashing strobe light. 

I do not recommend this because strobe lights can trigger seizures in some people.  This is true of between three and five percent of persons that have been previously diagnosed as epileptic as well as many people who have no history of seizures.

It is not the light that causes seizures.  It is the rhythm of the light flashing on and off.  Some rhythms of flashing on and off are more likely to cause seizures than other rhythms.  This is one example of the power that rhythms have over the human body.

Other hypnotists have devised special recordings of rhythmic sounds, and some hypnotists have devised special rhythmically flashing goggles to be worn by the person being hypnotized. 

I do not recommend any of these gadgets.  Instead of adding any benefit, gadgetry tends to dilute the purity and power of classical hypnosis.

The rhythms that matter most in hypnosis are the rhythms in the hypnotists voice.  Not only the cadence of his words but also the rhythm of the changes in pitch and the rhythm of the changes in volume, and the counterpoint between those rhythms and the rational path his words are following.

 

 

 

           © Copyright 2007 Don De Grazia

 

 

 

 

 

 

HYPNOSIS,

HYPNOTISTS, &

HYPNOTHERAPISTS

 

 

© Copyright 2007 Outreach Counseling Center, Inc.