What Exactly Goes On In Your Brain Under Hypnosis?

What’s really happening once you’re taken away by a swinging pocket watch has been quite a mystery. You might have heard about the growing clinical treatment made possible under hypnosis, like some disorders, post-traumatic stress or simply as a form of ‘pain management’. 

It all starts with a patient and therapist discussing goals. In a relaxed state of focus the patient is then once again retold his or her goals in order to imagine and visualize them. For some patients, mostly ones that can easily be hypnotized, such sessions are effective in reducing chronic pain or quitting bad habits.

So far so good, but nobody really knows what’s happening in the bizarre realm associated with hypnosis. You cannot even draw conclusions for all patients, because some people are highly hypnotizable and others almost impossible to put under. Simply put, the state of the brain wasn’t clear yet.

Wouldn’t it be truly fascinating then to simply know which brain regions and connections switch on or off during hypnosis? Scientists did just that and uncovered that a brain put under a hypnotic trance changes in (at least) three ways. Continue reading.

Originally posted on Pionic.