Hypnosis, meditation and prayer: trainable states with measurable brain changes
David Spiegel's hypnosis research, Andrew Newberg's brain scans of prayer and meditation, and Sam Harris's meditation practice all describe altered states that can be learned and that change brain activity. These practices offer drug-free ways to work with pain, stress and attention.
How does David Spiegel define hypnosis? Show answer
As a state of highly focused attention, like a telephoto lens: great detail, little context. Most people enter similar states daily, as when absorbed in a movie.
What did Spiegel's trial of self-hypnosis during medical procedures find? Show answer
Patients cut their pain by 80% compared with standard care while using half the opioids, with fewer complications and shorter procedures.
What three brain changes does Spiegel's lab see in hypnosis? Show answer
The alarm region quiets, the executive control area links more to the insula that senses the body, and it disconnects from a self-reflection region.
How does Spiegel's stress technique work? Show answer
You imagine your body floating somewhere safe and picture the problem on an imaginary screen, keeping the body comfortable whatever you see.
What does Spiegel say is the essence of trauma? Show answer
Helplessness, not fear or pain. Self-hypnosis is something you switch on and off yourself, so it restores a sense of control.
How many people are hypnotizable? Show answer
About a third of adults are not, and about 15% are extremely hypnotizable. The trait is largely fixed by the early twenties.
What happens to the parietal lobe in deep meditation or prayer, according to Newberg? Show answer
Its activity drops. It normally builds the spatial sense of self, so the boundary between self and world seems to dissolve.
What did Newberg's study of older adults who began meditating show? Show answer
Their brains changed, which he takes to mean that anyone, from 85 to five, can change their brain in positive ways.
What is Sam Harris's first step in practice? Show answer
Being able to notice thought as thought. When you see angry thinking as thinking, the anger has a short half-life and fades.
What does paying close attention to pain reveal, in Harris's account? Show answer
That much of the suffering came from resisting and worrying about the sensation, which breaks into shifting sensations when fully felt.
What brain system links all three practices? Show answer
The default mode network, tied to self-talk and mind-wandering. Meditation seems to suppress it, and Spiegel found hypnosis does too.
Where do the three differ on the strength of evidence? Show answer
Spiegel cites randomized trials with large effects, Newberg says the data are pretty clear, and Harris calls much of it provisional.