Pain Control

Alternative Methods

PET (positron emission tomography) and (MRI) brain scans on volunteers has pinpointed a frontal lobe region of the brain called the cingulate gyrus which controls behavior and monitors mistakes appeared to be working differently than in hypnotized people and subjects who were not hypnotized.

Psychologist Dr Peter Naish, from the Open University in Milton Keynes, “The evidence really, really, is there. Hypnosis is not miraculous, it is for real. Something is going on. The brain is doing quite different things during hypnosis than it does in ordinary everyday existence.”

This is what scientists are studying for alternative pain control.

Being hypnotized should not be thought of as losing control. Hypnosis is a way of enhancing your own control over your body and mind.

It's not a matter of a hypnotist putting the whammy on someone and saying, 'Go do this.' It's a matter of teaching someone how to restructure their approach to their problem and manage it better."

In the past many experts had dismissed the effects of hypnosis as nothing more than an elaborate form of compliance behavior.

The idea was that people who performed ridiculous acts in hypnotist stage shows were basically acting a part and doing what was expected of them.

Modern equipment shows evidence that proved the compliance theory wrong.