Spaces are limited, so book yours now to avoid disappointment!

Date:
19th June 2010

Venue:
St John’s Hotel, 651 Warwick Rd, Solihull, B91 1AT

This one day event is not just an opportunity to meet with colleagues and to be entertained, educated and informed; this is also an opportunity to learn from arguably the most prolific researcher on hypnosis in the world. It’s been a long time coming but I think you can agree with me that it’s been worth the wait. I hope you can make it.

Each topic will be presented by internationally renowned experts in their field, some of the ideas you will find challenging and some of the practical demonstrations fascinating.

Subjects covered will include

• Hypno-surgery and Pain Control
• Performance Coaching Techniques
• The Placebo Effect

We are holding a members dinner in the evening to finish off this incredible day. The dinner is only open to NCH members. The numbers for the dinner are strictly limited so book early to avoid disappointment.

Speakers

Professor Irving Kirsch PhD

Irving Kirsch is professor of psychology the University of Hull.  He has published 10 books and more than 200 scientific journal articles and book chapters on hypnosis, suggestion, placebo effects, and the treatment of depression.  His meta-analyses on the efficacy of antidepressants were covered extensively in the international media and influenced NICE guidelines for the treatment of depression in the United Kingdom.  Recent books include: The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth, (The Bodley Head, 2009), Essentials of Clinical Hypnosis (American Psychological Association, 2006), and the 2^nd edition of the Handbook of Clinical Hypnosis (American Psychological Association, 2010).

Dr John Butler PhD (Lond.), MBSH, CHT, MA, BA(Hons.), BSc(Hons.), FNRHP

Dr John Butler is a highly regarded hypnotherapist with over 28 years and over 30,000 hours of practice as a successful clinical practitioner. He is an instructor in hypnosurgery, teaching clinical hypnosis applications to surgeons and anaesthetists in a course accredited by the Royal College of Anaesthetists. He has made more than 20 television appearances as an expert in hypnotherapy with several programmes focussing on his use of hypnotherapy as an anaesthetic for chronic pain and in invasive surgeries.

Keith Antoine

Keith Antoine is a Performance Coach In the 90’s he was appointed as the youngest GB National Coach for sprints & relays, Paralympic Team Coach, Senior Sprints/Hurdles Coach for the Midlands, as well as personally coaching athletes to medals in the European & World Junior Championships, and onto teams for the Commonwealth, European, World & Olympic Games. Keith will be showing you how you can use some of his coaching techniques to help your clients towards their goals. These techniques are used by some of the top athletes in the world, why not your clients too?

Prices and Booking

• Delegate – NCH member £60
• Delegate – Non NCH member £100
• Evening member dinner £20

All prices exclude VAT

Don’t delay – space is limited and the last Extravaganza was a sell out, so make sure you get in quick.

To book call 0845 544 0788 or visit the page below,

http://www.hypnotherapists.org.uk/1359/nch-extravaganza-cpd-event-19th-june-2010/

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The National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) now have nearly a thousand “fans” following them on their Facebook page.  Visit the link below to become a fan and receive free updates on hypnosis-related news, articles videos, discussions, and research, updated daily.

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Reproduced from the NCH publication The Hypnotherapy Journal, Issue 3 Vol. 9, Autumn 2009

Donald Robertson & John Harrington

In accord with NCFE’s guidance, now that it’s been in use for several years, NCH have been reviewing the existing Hypnotherapy Practitioner Diploma (HPD) award in an attempt to make necessary updates and improvements.  We have already developed a draft document which clearly shows how the existing HPD learning outcomes might be merged into a smaller set of more generic outcomes.  NCFE have changed their standard format for the specification of learning outcomes since the original HPD was designed and they have advised us that a qualification of this kind would typically be comprised of 20-30 outcomes, whereas the existing HPD has about 86 individual outcomes.  Some of the Version 1 HPD outcomes were quite “high-level” and generic, whereas others become much more concrete and specific.  This created some inconsistency in the award which seemed to complicate the assessment process, e.g., one learning outcome seems to be trying to cover the whole history of hypnosis theory, and could be evidenced by a long essay-type answer.

3.3 How the models and concepts in your area of practice have evolved and developed, how these tend to change with time and the similarities and differences between different versions.

Whereas others focus down upon very specific areas of practical concern which require a small amount of very specific evidence, e.g.,

15.4      When to touch the client and when not

For the sake of consistency, we’ve tried to subsume more specific issues under a simpler set of broader headings and set the learning outcomes at similar levels of abstraction.  We’ve also tried to minimise jargon, and to substitute theoretically-biased terminology with more generic language.  The “range” (explanation) of each outcome can then be used to provide further specification where needed.  Organising the HPD in a more structured way makes it much easier to read the document and work with the outcomes.  We can now outline the learning outcomes more simply in a single-page document, which provides a clear outline of what must be covered on an HPD training.

            There were also some typographical errors and minor corrections made, and some proposals for additional outcomes which seem to have been missing from the original HPD.  Version 2 of the HPD will be quality-assured by NCFE as meeting the same standard of competence, but easier to read and implement and hopefully as generic and “streamlined” as possible, to make it easier for different training schools to implement.  (To be clear, the number of outcomes has no bearing on the volume or level of work required for the award, which will remain the same.)  Below is the current draft, which is very much under discussion, and has been developed with advice from NCFE on the wording, etc.  The whole award pack provided for students and trainers will be much more comprehensive, hopefully, this is just the list of learning outcomes. 

            We are publishing these proposals at an early stage for the sake of transparency and to encourage NCH members to consider them and comment, especially trainers, who may have to implement them in relation to their existing courses.  We promise to acknowledge any feedback received and will be happy to discuss any comments or suggestions.  This is not a “final draft” until we’re satisfied everyone has had a reasonable and bona fide chance to comment.  According to NCFE, the original HPD was not formally mapped against the National Occupational Standards for Hypnotherapy published by Skills for Health, although it was very closely based upon them.  However, the Version 2 will be systematically mapped against the NOS, we hope, in a manner approved by NCFE.  There is some indication that the National Occupational Standards for Hypnotherapy will be revised themselves next year, in accord with recent revisions which have made other CAM NOS more generic.  The plus sign (+) Indicates an outcome which was previously absent from the HPD, or not clearly stated, but has been proposed for inclusion in version 2.

UNIT 1: ASSESS & PREPARE CLIENT (INITIAL CONSULTATION)

1.         Assess the suitability of clients for treatment.  (Contra-indications, motivation, circumstances, nature of problem, etc.)

2.         Interview the client to assess their needs.

3.         Build rapport and a sound working alliance.

4.         Assess hypnotic susceptibility.

5.         Provide a rationale and explanation for hypnotherapy treatment.

UNIT 2: PLAN & DELIVER HYPNOTHERAPY TREATMENT

6.         Design a treatment plan and agree it with the client.

7.         Employ hypnotic inductions and related techniques.  (Deepeners, tests, emerging, etc.)

8.         Deliver hypnotherapy treatment.

9.         Teach and assign homework techniques.  (Self-hypnosis, CDs, etc.)

UNIT 3: EXPLAIN HYPNOTHERAPY THEORY

10.       Explain the main therapeutic approaches used in modern hypnotherapy.

11.       Evaluate the elements of psychopathology relevant to the practice of hypnotherapy.

12.       Evaluate the factors which might help or hinder the working alliance.

13.       + Explain and evaluate the nature of hypnosis.

14.       + Explain and evaluate the principles of effective hypnotic suggestion.

UNIT 4: EXPLAIN ETHICAL & PROFESSIONAL ISSUES

15.       Evaluate the key elements of the NCH or UKCHO codes of ethics and practice.

16.       Explain the scope and limits of your sphere of competence as a hypnotherapist.

17.       Explain the role of CPD and reflective practice in maintaining professional standards.

18.       + Evaluate the benefits of different forms of clinical supervision.

19.       Evaluate the role of confidentiality in hypnotherapy

20.       Evaluate the legal issues relating the practice of hypnotherapy.  (Criminal and civil law.)

21.       Evaluate the risks attached to hypnotherapy treatment in general and specific interventions.

22.       Evaluate common ethical dilemmas in the practice of hypnotherapy.

The National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) is the largest not-for-profit hypnotherapy organisation in the UK, with almost 2,000 members at present.  It is a member of the UK Confederation of Hypnotherapy Organisations (UKCHO).  The NCH publish The Hypnotherapy Journal, edited by Rob Woodgate, one of the best and widest-circulation hypnotherapy periodicals in the country.  It holds an annual hypnotherapy conference, probably the largest in the country, and runs regular low-cost continuing professional development (CPD) workshops for its members and other hypnotherapists.  I am the current research director on the NCH committee and provide regular monthly research snippets on the main NCH website below.

www.hypnotherapists.org.uk

The NCH also have a very active “fan” page on Facebook where we post a constant stream of articles, research, video clips, etc., and where our members frequently contribute comments and chat.  Click on the link below to visit the site or become a “fan” and receive regular updates through Facebook.

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Cognitive-Behavioural Hypnotherapy’s Return to the Original Hypnotism

 Originally published in Changes magazine, Summer 2009

www.anglo-american.co.uk

The Return to Traditional Hypnotism

Over the past few decades there has been an increasing shift toward cognitive-behavioural theory and practice in the research literature of modern hypnotherapy.  This can be seen as something of “back to basics” approach and a return to the more down-to-earth origins of hypnotherapy.  Although hypnotism has often been associated with pseudoscientific and paranormal theories, it actually originated out of a sceptical approach to psychology called the Scottish school of Common Sense, which dominated British philosophy in the mid-nineteenth century. 

The Real Hypnosis

Many people still believe that hypnotism originated in the work of Franz Anton Mesmer.  However, Mesmer never actually hypnotised anyone.  His many followers emphasised the notion of “animal magnetism”, a supernatural force emanating from the body of the mesmerist.  However, their claims were widely rejected and repeatedly debunked.  James Braid introduced the term “hypnotism” in contrast to “mesmerism” to describe the opposing view: that the effects upon their patients were due to ordinary psychological and physiological factors such as relaxation, focused attention, and suggestion, etc.  From the 1840s onwards, Braid’s hypnotism gradually eclipsed mesmerism in popularity and became the basis of modern hypnotherapy. 

Popular Misconceptions

Throughout the twentieth century, hypnotism became confused in the public imagination with notions derived from mesmerism.  The most common fallacies about hypnosis are that it is a state of unconsciousness and that the subject is completely under the control of the hypnotist, who can make him do what he wishes.  Research has shown that holding these misconceptions actually makes people less likely to benefit from hypnosis.  However, these are both notions derived from mesmerism.  Braid tried to refute from them by emphasising that in his “hypnotism” subjects remained conscious nine times out of ten, and that their consent and collaboration was required.  Indeed, Braid soon concluded that his method of hypnotism bore considerably more resemblance to meditation than to mesmerism, and that it was largely self-induced by the subject focusing their attention upon a single dominant train of thought, and doing so with the expectation of producing certain responses. 

Hypno-CBT^® & Evidence-Based Practice

Braid passionately emphasised the scientific approach to hypnotherapy.  He based his own method upon well-established or common sense principles such as the effect of expectation and vivid imagination, the role of social imitation, and the power of focused attention to increase the effect of certain dominant ideas.  These are also emphasised in the modern cognitive-behavioural theory of hypnosis.  Braid’s down-to-earth approach therefore provides an ideal foundation for modern scientific study of hypnosis and practical hypnotherapy. 

            A hypnotist who has never read James Braid is a bit like a psychoanalyst who’s never read anything by Sigmund Freud.  Anyone with an interest in modern cognitive-behavioural hypnotherapy, such as our own Hypno-CBT^® approach, should start by reading about the “common sense” origins of hypnotism.  It’s remarkable that most of Braid’s writings have been out of print since his death, especially his more mature writings which are most relevant today. 

Author

Donald Robertson is the editor of The Discovery of Hypnosis: The Complete Writings of James Braid, the Father of Hypnotherapy, published this year by the National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) and available from Anglo-American books.  Donald is the principal of The UK College of Hypnosis & Hypnotherapy. 

www.UKcognitive.com

There are several research journals in the field of hypnosis. The most important is the International Journal for Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis (IJCEH). The good news is that the publishers of IJCEH provide a superb “advanced” search facility, free of charge, on their website. It contains the abstracts from every single article published since the launch of the journal in 1953. Full copies of the articles can also be purchased online (this is not cheap). The abstracts will usually contain a brief report of the results of the study, though. See the link below. If you’re looking for research on hypnosis and diabetes just type “diabetes” in the search box under the picture of the journal cover (4 hits),

Search IJCEH for hypnosis research online

The American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis (AJCH) is perhaps the second most influential research journal in the field of hypnosis. Many of its articles are available via the website below,

Search AJCH for hypnosis research online

You can also search PubMed, the public medical resesarch database of US Government’s National Library of Medicine, which contains citations for most of the studies published on hypnotherapy. This database also contains many links to full PDF copies of articles available online, and its archive goes back to 1948. Just type in “Hypnotherapy diabetes” to find research, for example, on hypnosis and diabetes (31 hits).

Search PubMed for hypnosis research online

There are many other journals and search engines available online, including the excellent Google Scholar, where you can easily find references to most of the published articles about hypnosis.

Google Scholar Search Online

Donald Robertson
NCH Research Director

Visit the link below to purchase a copy or review the book at Amazon. We hope to shortly make available a browsable online PDF version through Amazon and Google books. The Discovery of Hypnosis: The Complete Writings of James Braid the Father of Hypnotherapy Several excerpts from this book have been published in the Hypnotherapy Journal of NCH, and a recent article has been published in the International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis (IJCEH). Click the link below to view the IJCEH abstract, or order a PDF of the article online. Braid’s Lost Manuscript, “On Hypnotism” (1860)

James Braid on Hypnotic Meditation

Copyright © Donald Robertson, 2009.  All rights reserved.

Mental equanimity may be attained by regulating the exhalation and restraint of the breath.  Or the wayward mind may be pacified by focusing attention upon a single object. […] Alternatively, one can meditate by focusing attention upon the experience of dreaming, or the state of dreamless sleep [yoga nidra]. – Patañjali, Yoga Sutras, c. 250 B.C., § 1.34-38 

The development of hypnotism, as opposed to Mesmerism, in the middle of the 19^th century, involved a number of comparisons made with Oriental meditation techniques such as Hindu yoga.  James Braid saw the similarities between the effects of meditation and hypnotism, both psychological and physiological, as providing indirect support for his claim that they were produced by the mind and behaviour of the subject rather than by “animal magnetism” or any special power of the operator, as the Mesmerists had formerly maintained.  Though Braid himself had access to very limited information about eastern meditation practices, he perceived a close analogy with self-hypnosis which appears to have influenced the early development of hypnotherapy theory and practice. 

In his book Magic, Witchcraft, Animal Magnetism, etc. (1852), James Braid, the founding father of hypnotherapy, defined hypnotism as a state of focused attention upon a single idea or mental image. 

I feel pretty confident that whoever will undertake the investigation of hypnotic phenomena with a candid mind, and untrammelled by any previous prejudices in favour of the mystical and transcendental, may very soon satisfy himself that the real origin and essence of the hypnotic condition, is the induction of a habit of abstraction or mental concentration, in which, as in reverie or spontaneous abstraction, the powers of the mind are so much engrossed with a single idea or train of thought, as, for the nonce, to render the individual unconscious of, or indifferently conscious to, all other ideas, impressions, or trains of thought.  The hypnotic sleep, therefore, is the very antithesis or opposite mental and physical condition to that which precedes and accompanies common sleep; for the latter arises from a diffusive state of mind, or complete loss of power of fixing the attention, with suspension of voluntary power. (Braid, 1852) 

As Braid was eager to clarify, although the Greek word hypnos does mean “sleep”, in his view hypnosis was fundamentally a state of conscious attention, virtually the opposite of normal sleep.  Moreover, Braid quotes the following colourful account from a book written by one of his own subjects, the doctor and author J. J. G. Wilkinson, 

The atom of sleep is diffusion; the mind and body are dissolved in unconsciousness; they go off into nothing, through the fine powder of infinite variety, and die of no attention; common sleep is impersonal.  The unit of hypnotism is intense attention, abstraction – the personal ego pushed to nonentity. […] Patients can produce the hypnotic state upon themselves, without a second party; although a second will often strengthen the result by his acts or presence, just as one who stood by and told you that you were to succeed in a certain work would nerve your arm with fresh confidence.  (Wilkinson, 1851) 

Hence, this is one of the earliest reports by a hypnotised subject reflecting upon their own experience, having actually undergone hypnotisation.  

Braid explains that a great many effects may be induced in this “state of mental concentration”, by means of spontaneous ideas or those suggested by the hypnotist.  Again, he illustrates this with a quotation from Wilkinson’s own account after being hypnotised, 

The preliminary state (of hypnotism) is that of abstraction, and this abstraction is the logical premise of what follows.  Abstraction tends to become more and more abstract, narrower and narrower; it tends to unity, and afterwards to nullity.  There, then, the patient is, at the summit of attention, with no object left – a mere statue of attention – a listening, expectant life – a perfectly undistracted faculty, dreaming of a lessening and lessening mathematical point, the end of his mind sharpened away to nothing.  What happens?  Any sensation that appeals is met by this brilliant attention, and receives its diamond glare, being perceived with a force of leisure of which our distracted life affords only the rudiments.  External influences are sensated, sympathized with, to an extraordinary degree, harmonious music sways the body into graces the most affecting; discords jar it as though they would tear it limb from limb; cold and heat are perceived with equal exultation, so also smells and touches.  In short, the whole man appears to be given to each perception, the body trembles like down with the wafts of the atmosphere, the world plays upon it as upon a spiritual instrument finely attuned. (Wilkinson, 1851) 

However, Braid qualifies Wilkinson’s account slightly by adding, 

The above is a beautiful description painted in elegant and most felicitous language, of the phenomena manifested by a certain class of patients, and at a certain stage of the sleep; but at another stage the very opposite state manifests itself: for the abstraction may be so intense as to render the patient unconscious even of inflictions the most severe; and the muscles may be locked in immovable, cataleptic rigidity, or dissolved in the most entire passive flaccidity according to predominant ideas or impressions on the senses, which immediately preceded the full intensity of the all-absorbing abstraction. 

As is the case in reverie or abstraction, so also is it in the hypnotic state – there are different degrees of mental concentration; so that from some of them, the patient may be aroused by the slightest impression – whilst in other stages, he can only be influenced by very powerful impressions on the organs of sense.  Moreover, in the hypnotic condition, as in the state of reverie or abstraction, the subject may be so partially engrossed in his train of thought as to be susceptible of receiving suggestions from others – through words spoken or movements made in his presence – which shall involuntarily or unconsciously change his current of thought and action, without entirely dissipating his condition of mental abstraction. (Braid, 1852) 

So how does this state of heightened mental concentration relate to the practice of meditation?  Ornstein’s survey of meditation practices, in The Psychology of Consciousness (1977), concluded, 

The common element in these diverse practices seems to be the active restriction of awareness to a single, unchanging process and the withdrawal of attention from ordinary thought.  It does not seem to matter which actual physical practice is followed; whether one symbol or another is employed; whether the visual system is used or body movements repeated; whether the awareness is focused on a limb or on a sound or on a word or on a prayer. […] The instructions for meditation are always consistent with this surmise: one is instructed always to rid awareness of any thought save the object of meditation, to shut oneself off from the main flow of ongoing external activity and to pay attention only to the object or process of meditation.  Almost any process or object seems usable and has probably been used.  (Ornstein, 1977: 171-172). 

The analogy with hypnotism is obvious.  However, Braid only became acquainted with literature describing oriental meditation techniques around 1844, three years after his discovery of hypnotism, and a year after publishing his best-known book on hypnosis, Neurypnology (1843).  He first discusses the relationship between hypnotism and meditation in some detail in a lengthy serialised article, published in The Medical Times between 1844 and 1845, entitled “Magic, Mesmerism, Hypnotism, etc., Historically & Physiologically Considered.” 

Braid seized upon the similarity between certain yogic meditation techniques and his own method of hypnotism as evidence in favour of his theory and against that of Mesmer.  He rightly pointed out that most traditional accounts of Oriental meditation resemble self-induced hypnosis, without the aid of another person.  The Mesmerists, who claimed that the effects they produced were due to a magnetic force channelled from the body of the operator into that of the subject, found it awkward, though arguably not impossible, to explain self-hypnosis in such terms.  Braid, who objected that the effects of Mesmerism were due to focused attention, expectation, imagination, etc., could easily account for self-hypnosis, or the existence of similar experiences in solitary meditation.  Indeed, though it was left to later hypnotists to introduce this phrase, Braid appears to argue that all hypnosis is essentially self-hypnosis.  This emphasis upon what he calls the “subjective” nature of hypnotism is central to Braid’s attack on Mesmerism.  However, once he discovered these apparent parallels with eastern meditation techniques, Braid began to consistently assert that hypnotism was more closely related to them than to animal magnetism. 

Inasmuch as patients can throw themselves into the nervous sleep, and manifest all the usual phenomena of Mesmerism, through their own unaided efforts, as I have so repeatedly proved by causing them to maintain a steady fixed gaze at any point, concentrating their whole mental energies on the idea of the object looked at; or that the same may arise by the patient looking at the point of his own finger, or as the Magi of Persia and Yogi of India have practised for the last 2,400 years, for religious purposes, throwing themselves into their ecstatic trances by each maintaining a steady fixed gaze at the tip of his own nose; it is obvious that there is no need for an exoteric influence to produce the phenomena of Mesmerism.  […]  The great object in all these processes is to induce a habit of abstraction or concentration of attention, in which the subject is entirely absorbed with one idea, or train of ideas, whilst he is unconscious of, or indifferently conscious to, every other object, purpose, or action.  (Braid, 1846) 

Braid’s interest in meditation really developed when he was introduced to the Dabistān-i Mazāhib, the “School of Religions”, an ancient Persian text describing a variety of Oriental religious practices.                                                                                            

Last May [1843], a gentleman residing in Edinburgh, personally unknown to me, who had long resided in India, favoured me with a letter expressing his approbation of the views which I had published on the nature and causes of hypnotic and mesmeric phenomena.  In corroboration of my views, he referred to what he had previously witnessed in oriental regions, and recommended me to look into the “Dabistan,” a book lately published, for additional proof to the same effect.  On much recommendation I immediately sent for a copy of the “Dabistan”, in which I found many statements corroborative of the fact, that the eastern saints are all self-hypnotisers, adopting means essentially the same as those which I had recommended for similar purposes. (Braid, 1844) 

However, Braid felt that the effects of yogic meditation, like those of Mesmerism, were better explained in terms of established psychological and physiological principles. 

Whilst there is this remarkable coincidence, however, between my own views and theirs, as to the modes of inducing the sleep, and some of the phenomena, in the sequel it will be found that our theoretical views as to the nature and cause of the subsequent and ulterior phenomena, are “wide as the poles asunder.” (Braid, 1844) 

Braid believed that a form of meditation, resembling his self-hypnosis, may have originally developed in ancient Persia among the religious practices of the Zoroastrian Magi, later travelling to India where it formed the basis of Hindu yoga, and being carried westward to the Graeco-Roman world, by sages such as Pythagoras of Samos, in the sixth century B.C.[1] 

So far as can be traced, the Magi of Persia were the first who, by artificial contrivance, for religious purposes, threw themselves into a state of self-hypnotism, or ecstatic trance.  That for the accomplishment of this, they resorted to means essentially the same as those which observation and experience had led me to adopt for the like purposes – and that without any knowledge on my part of their notions or practice – namely, by fixing the sight and thoughts on an object, and suppressing the respiration. (Braid, 1844) 

Braid’s own method, at this stage, also consisted of asking clients to fix their gaze and attention on a single point, while gradually “suppressing” or “restraining” their breathing, a point frequently overlooked by later hypnotists.  This approach had simply evolved from his own experiments with hypnotism, and attempts to provide a more rational explanation for Mesmerism. 

From a very early period of my attention to the subject, I observed the greater difficulty of hypnotising patients who breathed quickly, and therefore desired them to suppress their respiration. (Braid, 1844) 

Once this state of focused attention had been induced it could either be carried on toward a condition resembling sleep or else attention could be transferred onto a single dominant idea for therapeutic purposes. 

Thus, by exciting, and allowing it time to develop itself, any function or emotion which it is desirable to arouse into greater activity; by keeping it in the state of activity, up to the moment of awaking the patient; the impression will be carried into that state, as certainly as a person may be affected the following day by an impressive dream of the previous night. (Braid, 1844) 

Braid saw a striking parallel between his own method of inducing hypnotism and certain methods of meditation described in the ancient oriental texts he had stumbled across.  In his book The Power of the Mind (1846) Braid writes of the meditation techniques used in ancient yoga, “The great object in all these processes is to induce a habit of abstraction or concentration of attention, in which the subject is entirely absorbed with one idea, or train of ideas, whilst he is unconscious of, or indifferently conscious to, every other object, purpose, or action.” 

By the term “abstraction”, which he frequently employs, Braid and his contemporaries simply meant a state of mental concentration in which the attention is given to a single idea or train of thought to the exclusion of others.  We might substitute the phrases “selective awareness”, “focused attention”, or “mental absorption.”  Braid’s “abstraction” has two faces, involving both attention to certain ideas and inattention to others, i.e., a kind of dissociation from any potential distractions.  Braid does not use the term “meditation” himself, but he does quote from another author who does, and Braid equates this account of yogic meditation with his own concepts of hypnotism and mental abstraction.  So we can probably say that Braid saw “meditation” and “mental abstraction” as very similar, if not identical, concepts. 

Braid originally studied the effect of fixing the attention upon the gaze of another person, a practice common in Mesmerism.  He then demonstrated that staring upon an inanimate object had the same effect, to which end he employed the top of a bottle, a cork strapped to the subject’s forehead, a chandelier, the tip of the subject’s own finger, his lancet case, and various ornaments and arbitrary objects.  Braid mentions that the yogis of India are frequently described as fixing their gaze upon a part of their body such as the tip of their own nose, the centre of their forehead, or their navel.  However, Braid recognised that physical fixation of the gaze was not essential, and that the words of a simple rhyme (like an Indian mantra) or the mental image of a bright star could serve a similar purpose as the object of mental fixation for inducing hypnotism.  More or less anything, in fact, can be used as the object of concentration if the aim is to pacify the mind by contemplation of something monotonous, or even to induce a state of sleep.  

All that is required for this is simply to place himself in a comfortable posture in bed, and then to close the eyelids, and turn up the eyeballs gently, as if looking at a distant object, such as an imaginary star, situated somewhat above and behind the forehead, giving the whole concentrated attention of the mind to the idea of maintaining a steady view of the star, and breathing softly, as if in profound attention, the mind at the same time yielding to the idea that sleep will ensue, and to the tendency to somnolence which will creep upon him whilst engaged in this act of fixed attention.  Or it may be done with still more success, in certain individuals, by their placing some small, bright object in a similar aspect with a distant light falling thereon, the party looking at the object with open eyes, fixed attention, and suppressed [i.e., relaxed] respiration.  Other modes of producing a state of mental concentration directed to some unexciting and empty thing, and thus shutting out the influence of other sensible impressions, may also prove successful for inducing calm sleep, by monotonising the mind – just as we see effected in the case of children, who are sent to sleep by rocking, patting, or gentle rubbing, or monotonous, unexciting lullabies – but none are so speedy and certain in their effects, with patients generally, as the modes which I have briefly explained.  Mr. Walker’s method of procuring “sleep at will”, by desiring the patient to maintain a fixed act of attention, by imagining himself watching his breath issuing slowly from his nostrils, after having placed his body in a comfortable position in bed – and which was first published to the world by Dr. Binns, a few years ago – is essentially the same as my own method, which I had promulgated some time prior to the publication of the first edition of Dr. Binns’s work on sleep. (Braid, 1852) 

Braid thought that the tranquilising effect of focusing the gaze, or attention, upon a single monotonous object could, with practice, be carried so far as to induce a hypnotic “coma” state resembling the physiological condition of hibernating animals.  He was particularly intrigued by various stories reported by British colonialists in India regarding the supposed burial alive of fakirs, who could apparently slow down their physiological functioning to the brink of death for many days in order to be resuscitated at a later date.  Braid later published a short book entitled Observations on Trance or Human Hybernation (1850) discussing this alleged phenomenon in some detail. 

Braid interpreted the effects of both hypnotism and meditation from a sceptical or “common sense” perspective, rejecting any supernatural claims and preferring to try a “psycho-physiological” interpretation first of all.  

I have seen no reason to believe, that either hypnotism or mesmerism adds a single new faculty, either mental or physical, to the subject; but, by their influence, we acquire the power of throwing them into new ratios, and producing very different results from the normal condition, by exciting or depressing natural functions, in an extraordinary degree.  This is accomplished chiefly through the law of concentration, aided by the state of the respiration and circulation; increasing or diminishing the force and velocity of the circulation, as well as by altering the quality of the blood, by rendering it either more or less arterialised [i.e., oxygenated] than in the normal condition, and consequently capable of exciting or depressing function in a corresponding degree.  There is no difficulty in demonstrating that we have the power of doing this, to the satisfaction of any intelligent and unprejudiced person. (Braid, 1844) 

Braid’s theory of hypnotism held that by focusing the attention upon a repetitive idea or unexciting object a state resembling profound sleep could be induced, or that the opposite state, of nervous tension could be induced by focusing attention upon the idea of doing so.  Moreover, any number of psychological or physiological changes could be induced by shifting the attention onto specific “dominant ideas” or mental images, which we would now call “autosuggestion.”  Indeed, whereas the Mesmerists had relatively neglected the solitary use of such methods, in Observations on Trance (1850), following his discussion of the trances of the Indian fakirs, Braid provides an account of his own use of self-hypnosis to overcome rheumatic pain. 

It is commonly said that seeing is believing, but feeling is the very truth.  I shall, therefore, give the result of my experience of hypnotism in my own person.  In the middle of September, 1844, I suffered from a most severe attack of rheumatism, implicating the left side of the neck and chest, and the left arm.  At first the pain was moderately severe, and I took some medicine to remove it; but, instead of this, it became more and more violent, and had tormented me for three days, and was so excruciating, that it entirely deprived me of sleep for three nights successively, and on the last of the three nights I could not remain in any one posture for five minutes, from the severity of the pain.  On the forenoon of the next day, whilst visiting my patients, every jolt of the carriage I could only compare to several sharp instruments being thrust through my shoulder, neck, and chest.  A full inspiration was attended with stabbing pain, such as is experienced in pleurisy.  When I returned home for dinner I could neither turn my head, lift my arm, nor draw a breath, without suffering extreme pain.  In this condition I resolved to try the effects of hypnotism.  I requested two friends, who were present, and who both understood the system, to watch the effects, and arouse me when I had passed sufficiently into the condition; and, with their assurance that they would give strict attention to their charge, I sat down and hypnotised myself, extending the extremities.  At the expiration of nine minutes they aroused me, and, to my agreeable surprise, I was quite free from pain, being able to move in any way with perfect ease.  I say agreeably surprised, on this account; I had seen like results with many patients; but it is one thing to hear of pain, and another to feel it.  My suffering was so exquisite that I could not imagine anyone else ever suffered so intensely as myself on that occasion; and, therefore, I merely expected a mitigation, so that I was truly agreeably surprised to find myself quite free from pain.  I continued quite easy all the afternoon, slept comfortably all night, and the following morning felt a little stiffness, but no pain.  A week thereafter I had a slight return, which I removed by hypnotising myself once more; and I have remained quite free from rheumatism ever since, now nearly six years.  Was there the slightest room to doubt the value and efficacy of hypnotism in this case? 

However, Braid was emphatic that hypnotism was essentially an extension of ordinary psychological and physiological functioning.  In particular, the effect of focused attention upon a dominant idea is merely a means of amplifying the familiar effects of suggestion and mental association which we observe in everyday life. 

To a certain extent, this fact of excited attention, altering function, is realised even in the waking condition, as is manifest by the rush of milk to the breast of the nurse on seeing, hearing, or even thinking of her child; the flow of saliva, from the sight, or smell, or thought of savoury food; and the tendency to perform other functions, from mental impressions, associated with them, arising in the mind, by whatever means excited. […] Hypnotism merely enables us to control and direct the natural functions, either exciting or depressing them, as required, with more certainty and intensity than in the normal waking condition. 

I might further illustrate the power of the mind in influencing function: by shedding tears from grief; blushing from shame; pallor and palpitation from fear; fainting from disagreeable sights, odours, or even the thoughts of such; the effects of painful intelligence [i.e., unpleasant information], in instantly destroying the keenest appetite; excessive joy, or sorrow, or anger, suddenly producing most grave diseases, mental or physical, or even death. (Braid, 1844) 

Braid had argued that the real physical and mental effects of “bread pills” and other placebo therapies, including homeopathy, were also due to expectation and dominant ideas. 

Braid quotes from the English missionary William Ward’s four-volume A View of the History, Literature and Religion of the Hindoos (1811)[2], and inserts his commentary upon the effects of meditation recounted by the ancient teachers of yoga.  Braid claims that these observations confirm “the fact of the Yogi being all self-hypnotisers, by inducing a state of intense abstraction, from a steady fixed gaze at an object, with a suppressed state of the respiration.”  For example, one of the applications of yogic meditation consists of evoking positive emotions to counter-act and oppose negative ones, a strategy frequently employed in modern psychotherapy.  

Through meditation on the opposite of the source of power (as by meditating on benevolence revenge is destroyed), the Yogi is greatly assisted in his efforts to attain perfect victory. (Braid, 1844) 

Braid argues that when a yogi enters into this state of self-hypnosis, or meditation, his expectations and associations to the state, combined with a lively imagination and focused attention, will frequently result in a variety of dramatic subjective experiences, including hallucinations easily confused with supernatural phenomena.  

Now, accordingly, most of the wonders just to be transcribed, and which the Hindus take to be realities, I can very readily exhibit with many patients; but I explain them merely as vivid mental pictures, or dreams. (Braid, 1844) 

The ancient Hindu sages claimed that during meditation they achieved clairvoyant powers which allowed them to see the interior of the body functioning, and built a primitive science of anatomy and physiology derived from these visions and intuitions.  Braid, quite astutely, uses this fact to illustrate how easily subjective experiences resulting from meditation or hypnotism can be mistaken.  These physical theories, for all their sophistication, were demonstrably false.  In fact, despite many sages meditating upon the concept of human anatomy over a period of three thousand years, Oriental theories were no more accurate than those developed in European countries.  William Harvey discovered the circulatory system by experimental means in 1616.  By contrast, as Braid notes, the yogic sages’ meditations had led them to conclude that the arteries were filled with air rather than blood.  

What follow are a small selection of the yogic powers quoted by Braid with his comments, reducing them to subjective feelings induced by self-hypnosis.  Some of these experiences are quite fantastical and probably mere curiosities; however, others probably have legitimate applications in modern hypnotherapy when presented in the “common sense” way described by Braid.  For example,  

The Yogi who has perfected himself in the three parts of samyama [i.e., yogic self-mastery and meditation] obtains a knowledge of the past and of the future; 

While he accepts that these experiences seem to occur in meditation, and can be induced in self-hypnosis, Braid attributes the apparent insight into the past to “quickened memory” and enhanced foresight to “excited imagination.” 

He who applies samyama to discover the thoughts of others will know the thoughts of all. […] He who applies samyama to that compassion which has respect to the miserable, will secure the friendship of all. 

Braid agrees that the subjective feeling of gaining insight into others thoughts can be induced, writing “He will believe and talk as if he did so.”  Of the feeling of compassion, he writes, “The excitement of this feeling of benevolence being carried into the waking condition, as already explained.”  

He who, according to these rules, meditates on the strength of the powerful, so as to identify his strength with theirs, will acquire the same.   

Through mental imagery, imitation, focused attention, etc., Braid believed that people could actually increase their physical strength, albeit within more realistic bounds.  He writes, “Through this and the law of concentration, I have seen a young woman carry a man or woman in her arms as cleverly as if they had been boys or girls.”  

By a similar application of samyama to the cup at the bottom of the throat, he will overcome hunger and thirst by meditating on the nerve cord, which exists a little below the throat, he will obtain a fixed and unbroken posture in the act of yoga;  

As a result of belief and focused imagination, meditation or self-hypnosis may be able to suppress the feelings of hunger or thirst, or to modify one’s posture.  

He who, in the same manner, meditated on the ear and its vacuum, will hear the softest and most distant sounds, as well as those uttered in the celestial regions, etc.   

Braid had carried out many experiments upon the apparent increase in sensitivity induced by hypnotism, and therefore writes, “This accords with my proposition that calling attention to any organ or function will exalt the energy of the function positively, as well as excite ideas connected with such organ or function.” 

Braid’s reading of both the Dabistan and Ward’s account of Hindu meditation practices therefore led him to conclude, regarding the use of self-hypnosis among ancient sages, 

That the extremely vivid state of their imagination, leads them to believe as reality, whatever ideas are suggested to their minds; and their extreme docility, sympathy, and imitation, induce them instantly to manifest themselves as actively engaged in the scene so vividly portrayed before their fervid imagination. 

That this is accomplished chiefly through the law of concentration, and mental impression, changing physical action, according to the quantity and quality of the blood passing through any particular organ or part in a given time.  

That the notion of spiritual abilities, the soul leaving the body on voyages of discovery to the uttermost parts of creation, seeing through opaque bodies, correct thought-reading, universal lucidity, and a host of omniscient and omnipotent attributes, are mere delusions – being nothing more than vivid mental pictures or dreams. 

That the senses may not only be abnormally quickened, as is the case at one stage; but, at another, they may be rendered so torpid, as to be quite unimpressionable to mechanical or chemical stimuli.  That by judicious management this influence is capable of being rendered a powerful therapeutic agent, either exciting or depressing the natural functions in an extraordinary degree. (Braid, 1844) 

Modern practitioners of yoga, or other forms of meditation, may find in Braid’s hypnotism a theory and practice more aligned with Western psychology and physiology.  Despite the fact that hypnotism was, from its origin, compared with yogic meditation, this analogy has been subsequently neglected and has fallen into disuse.  Modern hypnotherapy has evolved in a different direction, and is probably less similar to traditional eastern meditation techniques than Braid’s original method was.  Braid’s definition of hypnotism as a state of concentration upon a single idea (which he terms “mental abstraction” or “monoideism”) lends itself to the comparison with concentrative meditation techniques. 

From traditional meditation practices, hypnotists might learn the value of teaching clients to persevere with concentration upon a single object or idea, especially an idea of therapeutic value, although the state of general tranquillity induced by means of fixed attention upon an unexciting object, such as meditation upon the tip of the nose or a point on the ceiling, may also be beneficial in many cases.  From hypnotism, on the other hand, meditation practitioners might learn more about the role of prior expectation, social imitation, mental imagery, and autosuggestion in determining the outcome of meditation techniques. 

[2] I have changed the transliteration of Sanskrit terms below, quoted from Ward, to be more consistent with modern versions. 

Suggestion & Non-deceptive (“Non-blind”) Placebo Research

Copyright (c) Donald Robertson, 2008

In a sense, the history of hypnosis is all about the discovery of the placebo effect and its relation to verbal suggestion.  The Mesmerists believed that they were placing people in a “trance” and influencing them by means of an invisible energy known as “animal magnetism.”  Physicians and scientists of the day were naturally sceptical.  Mesmerism was, therefore, one of the first major objects, and victims, of early medical placebo research.  The overall conclusion of the early scientific committees studying Mesmerism was that its effects were often real but due to “belief” and “imagination” rather than anything resembling animal magnetism. 

        Ironically, it took several decades before someone, in response to these criticisms, could popularise an alternate system explicitly based upon the assumption that belief and imagination were effective as a technique in their own right.  In the early 1840s, James Braid, introduced the term “neuro-hypnotism”, or “hypnotism” for short, to describe a special state of physical relaxation and nervous fatigue.  Although Braid did not fully recognise the role of belief and imagination, i.e., suggestion, until later in his career, he did categorically reject the theory of invisible energy proposed by Mesmer.

        Some of the areas where research has most strongly established the placebo effect, such as in pain management and the treatment of neurotic disorders, are also areas where hypnosis is proven to be particularly effective.  Indeed, until the introduction of chemical anaesthetics around 1845 the dominant use of Mesmerism was in the treatment of pain, hypnotic anaesthesia, and subsequently its primary use became the treatment of “hysteria” or neurotic and psychosomatic symptoms.

In the 1960s, two researchers called Park and Covi published a groundbreaking article entitled simply ‘Nonblind placebo trial: An exploration of neurotic patients’ responses to placebo when its inert content is disclosed’ in The Archives of General Psychiatry (April 1965, vol. 12).  They selected 15 neurotic patients from the outpatient dept. of a psychiatric clinic, with a variety of mental and physical ailments.  Each patient was seen individually for two sessions only, once for a one-hour assessment and again for a 15-30 minute prescription session.  They were each given a bottle of placebo pills, without any active ingredients, to be taken three times per day.  Patients were each read the following script at the second appointment,

“Mr. Doe, at the intake conference we discussed your problems and it was decided to consider further the possibility and the need of treatment for you before we make a final recommendation next week.  Meanwhile, we have a week between now and our next appointment, and we would like to do something to give you some relief from your symptoms.  Many different kinds of tranquilisers and similar pills have been used for conditions such as yours, and many of them have helped.  Many people with your kind of condition have also been helped by what are sometimes called “sugar pills,” and we feel that a so-called sugar pill may help you, too.  Do you know what a sugar pill is?  A sugar pill is a pill with no medicine in it at all.  I think this pill will help you as it has helped so many others.  Are you willing to try this pill?”  (Park & Covi, 1965)

Only one patient expressed reluctance to take part in the experiment.  Of the remaining 14 patients, 13 showed signs of significant improvement across a battery of self-report and psychiatrist administered measures.  Overall there was a ‘highly significant’ 41% decrease in symptoms reported, on average for each subject, across different measures.  The researchers note that this was greater than the improvement found in previous studies of real drugs, using the same measures.  Four patients reported, indeed, that the placebo medication did them more good than anything they’d previously been prescribed.  By contrast, the one patient who dropped out was subsequently assessed and found to have increased on the same measures of symptom severity.

            Some patients were convinced they were receiving placebos, others convinced themselves that the script was a ruse and assumed the “sugar pill” must contain some active ingredient.  Notably, however, one patient actually compared the non-blind placebo experiment to a kind of hypnosis,

The patient indicated that she was quite suggestible, and she thought the treatment had been effective through a form of ‘hypnosis’ because she had been told so many times she would improve.  (Park & Covi, 1965)

Perhaps she was right; at least her interpretation of the proceedings would accord with Kirsch’s model of hypnosis as a “non-deceptive mega-placebo”, and perhaps even with James Braid’s original perspective on the relationship between hypnotic suggestion and placebo therapy.  Indeed, like Braid, the researchers conclude that the use of non-deceptive placebos could have “psychotherapeutic implications”, by using suggestion to heighten expectation in combination with factors which the researchers term “support and autonomy”,

The present placebo treatment could be viewed as having some affinity to psychotherapy not only in a manner similar to the “non-specific form of psychotherapy” which Rosenthal and Frank describe as “produced by the patient’s faith in the efficacy of the therapist and his technique.”  Two major characteristics of accepted psychotherapeutic techniques were present: on the one hand, support and reassurance were given, while, on the other hand, the responsibility for improvement was thrown back to the patient by means of the paradoxical statement that he need treatment but that he could improve with a capsule containing no drug.  (Park & Covi, 1965)

It is clear to see how this can be related to the role of suggestion and other “non-specific” factors in modern hypnotherapy.  The deliberate attempt to construct a psychotherapy approach based upon an understanding of the placebo effect has been undertaken by a number of authors, e.g., Jefferson M. Fish in his Placebo Therapy: A Practical Guide to Social Influence (1973).