by Tim Brunson, PhD
The preceding presents a strong case concerning the efficacy of hypnosis to create actual structural changes to the brain and the rest of the body. Of course, this requires the bypass of resistance and the creation of increasingly efficient selective thinking. The latter is the same as the meaning and imagination function found in the R-OFC. It is through the manipulation of carefully selected imagery that the clinician can create appropriate input, which instigates the desired self-learning in the affected patterns. This process transforms neuro-physiological patterns.
These conclusions are evidenced-based and therefore fully supported by research literature indexed by the NIH and made publically available on the Internet through www.pubmed.gov. This includes research that was funded by NIH. The previous chapter cites just a few of the research studies showing how increased attention and visualization during meditation increase neural growth in various parts of the brain. However, the impact of imagery also affects other physiological structures.
A much talked about research project was led by Carol Ginandes, PhD, (2003) a staff psychologist at McLean Hospital, which is part of the Harvard Medical School. She and her colleagues conducted a study to see if hypnosis and the use of specific imagery would accelerate the healing of wounds related to breast surgery in women. In a carefully conducted study the results did show that the use of guided imagery and hypnosis can increase healing rates. While such investigation has been discussed and replicated before and after the Ginandes study, hypnotists have for a long time been aware of the ability for suggestion to heal warts and other skin anomalies. Nevertheless, until the advent of recent reputably documented research, these feats have been predominantly anecdotal clichés.
Fully appreciating how suggestion can be used to affect the structure, encoding, and recall of neuro-physiological patterns will enhance the operator's effectiveness. Additionally, it is vital that any well-intended intervention be done only with the full realization that it is a stimulative, learning event. Promoting the production of the inhibitory neurotransmitter dopamine is the critical element in the therapeutic intervention. The insistence by too many operators that hypnosis cannot occur without relaxation almost always means that any benefit is a byproduct of misapplied protocols, rather than their skills.
As is discussed more in depth in Section Two, if a hypnotic protocol is to inspire the benefits of either neuro or physiological plasticity, resistance both at the aggregate level and within the other neuro-physiological patterns must be increasingly bypassed so that selective thinking can become more and more efficient. This may initially include efforts to suggest and establish relaxation. However, relaxation is only relevant insofar as it mitigates the hyperactive, thought-switching compulsion of the ACC. (Nevertheless, repetitive suggestions for relaxation – or anything else –will serve as a compounding mechanism and further enhance the efficiency of selective thought.) By getting the ACC "out of the way", as mentioned previously, additional cerebral energy is afforded other nearby substrates – to include the R-OFC, which is so vital to the imagination process.
The proposed methodology is a two-step endeavor. Once the operator gets the subject into a state where sufficiently efficient selective thinking can occur, the next goal is to provide sufficient stimulative imagery to promote the self-learning process. The imagery must not be over-stimulative as this may trigger the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) stress response – and create a protective mode reaction that is counterproductive to the intent of transformation. This problem can often be avoided by the clinician performing an adequate intake and avoiding any imagery that may cause an adverse reaction – to include an abreaction. After the new pattern is synthesized, the operator must assure that the subject's stimulation is replaced by relaxation. This is similar to a salesperson avoiding "buyer's remorse" in a customer after a sale is consummated. Once the new pattern is established, assuring that the subject has fully returned to a growth mode environment is critical to completing the encoding.
Since Hebbian Learning – like Elman's compounding of suggestions concept – dictates that these two steps be repeated, the operator must repeat the two-step therapy enough times to ensure that it has been sufficiently impressed onto the subject's learning process. Nevertheless, the relaxing, stress-release step should always be the last.
This process is indicated only when the learning process is required to affect the therapeutic intent. Logically this would include when a dysfunctional pattern (i.e. smoking) needs to be replaced by a stronger pattern. However, it would not be indicated in cases such as stress management or when a patient needs to be in a parasympathetic/growth mode in order to recuperate or heal. Nevertheless, when this technique is employed, the clinician must remember that the strength or intensity (i.e. weight) used to encode the new components of the pattern must be more powerful – without becoming threatening and triggering the sympathetic protection mode – than those used to encode the dysfunctional pattern – which should then be left to whither.
It is through the effective use of suggestion and imagery that the hypnotic operator can inspire the creation of alternate – and hopefully more functional – patterns in the minds and bodies of their subjects. Such imagery can be analogous or metaphoric. However, the more powerful set of imagery takes advantage of the natural propensity for the human entity to harmonize and entrain with its environment. The next chapter covers how this can be used as an extremely potent tool for the clinician.
The International Hypnosis Research Institute is a member supported project involving integrative health care specialists from around the world. We provide information and educational resources to clinicians. Dr. Brunson is the author of over 150 self-help and clinical CD's and MP3's.
References: Ginandes, C. Brooks, P. Sando W., Jones C. & Aker, J. (2003 April 3). Can medical hypnosis accelerate post-surgical wound healing? Results of a clinical trial. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 45(4):333-51.
Posted: 05/13/2013
