“How hypnosis can colour the mind”

This article was posted on The Guardian in London UK on February 18th 2002:

“How hypnosis can colour the mind”

Monday February 18, 2002
The Guardian, London, UK

US scientists have been able to peer inside the brain to watch hypnosis in action. The research
could settle a 200-year-old debate about whether hypnosis is a genuine psychological state or
stage show gimmickry.
A high proportion of adults can be hypnotized, although there has always been an argument about the nature of the experience. David Spiegel, a psychiatrist at Stanford University, used positron emission tomography (PET) scans to watch changes in brain function in volunteers who were highly hypnotisable.
They were told to perceive colour, whether or not they were being shown colour. The areas of
the brain used to register colour then fired up. Activity in the same area declined when the
patients were told to see "grey" objects, even if they were being shown a coloured grid.
"When they believed they were looking at colour, the part of their brain that processes colour
vision showed increased blood flow," he told the American Association for the Advancement of
Science yesterday. "This is scientific evidence that something happens in the brain, that doesn't
happen ordinarily, when people are hypnotized," Professor Spiegel said.
The study once again raises questions about a role for hypnosis in pain relief. "There are
tremendous medical implications," he said. He and colleagues monitored brainwave patterns while applying electrical shocks to the wrists of volunteers.
Children could easily be hypnotized: the capacity often disappeared with maturity. Hypnosis had proved helpful in painful treatment that required catheters in the bladders of children who could not be given anaesthetics. The children were asked to focus on a visit to Disneyland. The
treatment was less distressing, and over 20 minutes sooner.
"Hypnosis is a state of aroused attentive focal concentration with a relative suspension of
peripheral awareness. It is a mental state that is something like looking through the telephoto lens of your camera, which you see with great detail, but you are less aware of the context," he said.
"You can shift into the hypnotic state in a matter of seconds. It is not sleep, it is a form of highly
focused attention," Prof Spiegel said.
He argued that every doctor should be taught simple techniques of hypnosis. It did not take
control from the patient; instead it helped enhance self-control. "So you can teach people to
manage their anxiety, how to manage their pain, and they are grateful for it."