MINOR RANT ALERT!
O.K, so I’m the Hypnosis Without Trance guy, which means…
Many people keep telling me that I am wrong in asserting that hypnosis is not about a special state, and more about how a persons beliefs and everyday cognitive processes are engaged. And what is more, they say, they can prove it!
They tell me that research with fMRI equipment shows an alteration of neurological patterns (see http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20050627/what-hypnosis-does-to-brain), so therefore trance must the real mechanism behind hypnosis.
Excuse me?!?!
How does that logic work?
Well, apparently the fMRI shows an altered state, therefore hypnosis must be an altered state! Simple!
Hmmm….
Now I’ll admit that I haven’t done the research on this (no one will fund me), but I am willing to bet that if you hooked someone up to fMRI and gave them a donut to eat, the fMRI machine would record a shift in brain activity as they ate it, so by the same logic…
Donut eating is an altered state! That is what it is! That is what makes it work!
Donut eating is trance!
So as long as you deepen enough, they will be eating that donut.
I’m glad that has been cleared up and I can formally dismount my soapbox.
Stay Frosty
James
P.S. Please do feel free to post your comments on this, especially if you disagree!
P.P.S. If there are any hypnosis questions that you would like answered, or things that you would like to know more about, please either leave a comment or email me and I will endeavor to give you my take on it right here on the blog!
Hypnosis Without Trance 