🚀 go-pugleaf

To: alt.hypnosis
From: steve.crabtree

In article <1992Dec13.004405.12206@ultb.isc.rit.edu>,
rxv9839@ritvax.isc.rit.edu (Bob Vogel) writes,

  << Hypnosis levels description etc. deleted >>

BV> Don't you all think (with due respect for the menatl anguish that may
BV> cause some of the "flame" experts reading) that the lack of
BV> correlation between trance phenomena and EEG's and any number of
BV> the other comments that have been posted here {when we weren't
BV> talking about NLP} point strongly in the direction that there is
BV> a part of our psyche (soul, most basic uniquness, & 50 other
BV> terms for that same essential "us-ness") that is both seperable from
BV> the body and not observable, at least with our current crude
BV> instruments? Many people's out of body experiences would seem to
BV> point in this direction.  Such a separate self would possibly
BV> account also for some of the anamolies discussed herein. Comments??
BV> observations that tend to support or detract?? Anybody in hypnosis
BV> had anything to say about this?

The same thought has occurred to me. If there is no unique brain
state which underlies what appears to be a unique set of behavioural
phenomena, you're left with the options of denying the existence of
hypnosis and accusing people of acting, assuming that the states of the
brain can change without affecting EEG, or with the tantalizing
possibility that hypnosis may act not on brain but on mind (soul etc.)

Most of my information about hypnosis comes from reading about 19th.
century experiments wherein phenomena such as travelling clairvoyance
and community of sensation appeared frequently in deep trance. Since I'm
fairly firmly convinced that psychical phenomena exist and also fairly
firmly convinced that they cannot be explained on the basis of a
material brain/body, it appears natural to assume that hypnosis affects
a non-material part of us, revealed in psychic experiences.

One recent example; last year, I attended a presentation in which the
presenter claimed that he could consistently demonstrate precognition
with an excellent trance subject. The procedure is to suggest that the
time is 10 minutes later than now and to show the subject a blank piece
of paper on which a drawing will later be made and to request them to
copy it. The subject, of course, is told that the drawing already has
been made.

According to this source, this results in a remarkable match with what
is later (randomly) drawn. (This work is not intended as a formal
experiment but as exploratory work).

What puzzles me is that so little work seems to be done these days
exploring the possible links between hypnosis and parapsychology with a
view to exploring the nature of humankind.