Changes in mismatch negativity across pre-hypnosis, hypnosis and post-hypnosis conditions distinguish high from low hypnotic susceptibility groups

The role of alterations in mismatch negativity (MMN) in hypnosis was examined by recording MMN of the auditory ERP at frontal (F3, Fz, and F4) and mastoid (M1 and M2) placements. Frontal MMN is believed to reflect activity in right anterior cortical generators, whereas MMN at mastoid leads reflects generators located bilaterally in the temporal auditory cortex. MMN recordings were obtained in 11 low and 12 high hypnotically susceptible participants in three successive blocks; pre-hypnosis, hypnosis and post-hypnosis. Frontal (but not temporal) MMN showed a significant quadratic trend across testing conditions. It increased during hypnosis and then dropped post-hypnosis for both susceptibility groups. Linear trends for frontal and temporal MMN showed directly opposite patterns of change in the interaction between hypnotic susceptibility and testing blocks. Frontal MMN built up linearly over the test blocks in high relative to low susceptibility participants. Temporal MMN showed the reverse pattern and increased linearly across test conditions in those with low relative to high hypnotic susceptibility

Low self-directedness (TCI), mood, schizotypy and hypnotic susceptibility

Relationships between personality and mood variables in a non-clinical sample were investigated using 80 medical students divided into two groups according to their Self-directedness (SD) scores from Cloninger’s Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Those with low SD proved to have significantly raised scores on hypnotisability, absorption, Self-transcendence and significantly lower scores on Co-operativeness. Both the schizotypal variables of Cognitive Activation and Withdrawal were raised. Further, the combination of low SD, low Co-operativeness and high Self-transcendence points also towards a schizotypal personality style. These results corroborate a previously established link between schizotypy and hypnotic susceptibility. Low scorers on SD also had significantly higher mood distress, anxiety and perceived stress. Low SD, with its history of identifying personality disorders, in this data set appeared to be identifying those medical students who were distressed in all measured aspects of mood as well as having indications of higher levels of absorption, hypnotic susceptibility and aspects of schizotypy. The generality of distress shown by these students raises important questions about their eventual competency in communication skills and, indeed, decision making when they graduate as doctors involved in the treatment of patients

A qualitative study of the experience of self-hypnosis or Johrei in metastatic breast cancer using interpretative phenomenological analysis

In this paper we explore the meaning and experience of living with breast cancer that had returned after conventional treatment. We focus on the process of learning and applying a specific psychological intervention to aid with the coping process. Of sixteen women who were randomized to self-hypnosis training, Johrei training or a control wait-list group, eight agreed to be interviewed. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and then analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The major themes that conceptualized living with the return of breast cancer were self-identity, self-blame, social isolation and feelings of being constrained. The themes relating to psychological intervention were gaining a sense of control and empowerment, normalizing and re-attribution, and a powerful military metaphor for dealing with the actual cancer

The Influence of 10min of the Johrei healing method on laboratory stress

Objective Johrei has been shown to decrease exam stress responses but its immediate effects have not been assessed. Design In a randomised, blinded, counter-balanced design, 33 medical students were asked to calculate mental arithmetic in the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT), which served as an acute stressor prior to two conditions, 10 min of Johrei or a control resting condition involving10 min without Johrei in a cross-over trial; after each, saliva was collected and mood tested. Setting University EEG laboratory. Intervention Johrei, a non-touch healing method. Main outcome measures Profile of mood states (POMS-Bi); state anxiety (STAI); salivary variables: cortisol, DHEA, IgA. Results Mood scores on 5/6 of the POMS-Bi subscales were slightly but significantly more positive in the Johrei condition. State anxiety was similarly decreased. IgA levels were unchanged but cortisol levels were found to be slightly but non-significantly lower after Johrei than after the control condition and DHEA levels slightly but non-significantly raised, with a negative correlation between cortisol and DHEA levels. Conclusions This study gives some indication that Johrei can reduce negative mood and increase positive mood states after the acute effects of a laboratory stressor in comparison to a resting control condition

The impact of self-hypnosis and Johrei on lymphocyte subpopulations at exam time: a controlled study

n a prospective randomised controlled trial, 48 students were randomly assigned to stress reduction training before exams with self-hypnosis, Johrei or a mock neurofeedback relaxation control. Peripheral blood lymphocyte subpopulations and self-reported stress (Perceived Stress Scale) were measured before training and 1–2 months later as exams approached. Absolute number and percentages of CD3+CD4+ and CD3+CD8+ T lymphocytes, CD3−CD56+ Natural Killer cells (NK cells) and NK cell cytotoxic activity was measured from venous blood. Stressed participants showed small but significant declines in both CD3−CD56+ NK cell percentages and NK cell cytotoxic activity levels while CD3+CD4+ T cell percentages increased, changes supported by correlations with perceived stress. The effects of stress were moderated in those who learned Johrei at exam time; 11/12 showed increases in CD3−CD56+ NK cell percentages with decreased percentages of CD3+CD4+ T cells, effects not seen in the relaxation control group. Stress was also buffered in those who learned and practised self-hypnosis in whom CD3−CD56+ NK cell and CD3+CD4+ T cell levels were maintained, and whose CD3+CD8+ T cell percentages, shown previously to decline with exams, increased. The results compliment beneficial effects on mood of self-hypnosis and Johrei. The results are in keeping with beneficial influences of self-hypnosis and provide the first evidence of the suggestive value of the Japanese Johrei procedure for stress reduction, which clearly warrants further investigation

Relations between Hypnotizability And Psychopathology Revisited

Inspired by a first episode of schizophrenia following within a week of stage hypnosis, we examined relations between schizotypy and hypnotizability with the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (HGSHS), showing positive associations with 15 items mostly consisting of positive aspects of schizotypy. Here this was re-examined in two further samples. First, with the more cognitively loaded Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C, administered individually to Italian, female psychology students. In the second the HGSHS was administered to British medical student volunteers in stress reduction studies. In the first replication 12 correlations were disclosed, all with positive features of schizotypy, nine consisting of unreality experiences, with six items relating to psychic experiences. In the second replication of the 13 positive associations, seven were negative items belonging to the withdrawn syndrome, with six belonging to the social anxiety subscale, a non-specific feature of schizotypy. Across the series of studies, all but one item was interpreted as consistent with associations between hypnotizability and positive schizotypy and social anxiety. Though the items mostly varied from study to study, and despite sampling and scale differences, the outcome clearly merits large scale studies to investigate further the relation between hypnotic susceptibility and psychopathology