*Sorry about the bump. I forgot about this thread! =)
TimeWinder, it’s been proven, with the help of a fMRI camera, that hypnosis increases activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), where conflict management takes place. Hypnosis supposedly “overloads” that area of the brain which results in lower neural activity in the cerebral cortex where pain is registered. I don’t know, that sounds pretty definitive.
I remember watching a documentary on stigmata and they mentioned that while under hypnosis if you were told a room-temperature poker was red hot and touched with it, there will be swelling as if the poker was really hot. Maybe it only works on highly susceptible people, but if hypnosis is capable increasing suggestibility to that level, it’s legit as far as I’m concerned. (Of course not the past lives bs)
I have twice had “professional” hypnotists try to hypnotize me and fail utterly. THis either means that I an unhypnotizable, or that the whole thing is bunk. I honestly don’t know which is more likely true.
My pet theory is that it suggests a kind of Emperor’s Clothes situation; you have to believe in hypnosis in order to be hypnotized. Since I remain consciously skeptical throughout the process, I’m somehow able to see the Emperor’s ass. So; a combo of both: I’m unhypnotizable, AND hypnosis is bunk. At least, it requires the willing–if not necessariliy conscious–connivance of the subject.