Giuliana Rancic's hoarding was a central theme on the latest episode of "Giuiana & Bill." It had become a huge issue of concern for virtually everyone in her life. Her husband, Bill, saw her stockpile unused strollers at home in their garage. Their nanny saw Giuliana refuse to donate any clothes that baby Duke had grown out of. And her office at work was filled with cardboard boxes full of stuff.

So, Giuliana's friend Robbie organized a rather unique sort of pseudo-intervention. Rather than surround Giuliana with loved ones who could voice their concern and get her to face her problem, he brought in a hypnotist named Tom to "cure" her.

“The more you can remove the clutter, the more freedom you have to lead a simpler life," Tom said during her session.

Giuliana certainly seemed to feel that the hypnosis netted a positive result. "Oh my gosh. I am so excited right now. This whole hypnosis thing was amazing," she said. "I feel like I can go in there and get rid of some stuff.”

If she did clean things up, that would be a great relief to Bill. He told Larry King earlier this summer that Giuliana's hoarding was his biggest pet peeve. "“She’s messy as hell ... I call her car the dirty diaper. It’s not normal, Larry. She collects things. She has 12 strollers. She’s on the borderline of being a hoarder."

Giuliana repeated on Twitter that she thinks the hypnosis did work. She also denied having a problem, saying that she was a "collector" and not a "hoarder."

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Method used on allergic patient dates back to 19th century
(By Elisa Cecchi). Padua, August 21 - A woman in Padua had surgery to remove a skin tumor by hypnosis instead of anesthesia in a groundbreaking anesthesiological method which updates 19th century techniques used for minor pathologies, a medical journal said Wednesday. The finding will reportedly enable other tumor patients who have had allergic reactions to anesthetic agents or are considered at risk of an anaphylactic shock to go under the knife by hypnosis The patient in Padua is reportedly allergic to a number of chemicals and had a previous anaphylactic shock under local anesthesia. Her case is described by Enrico Facco, an anesthesiologist and professor at the neuroscience department of the University of Padua, in the September issue of medical journal Anaesthesia. "The patient, a 42-year-old woman, had several allergies to chemical substances and previous anaphylactic reactions to local anesthesia," Facco said. "She had a skin tumor removed from her right thigh with hypnosis alone as a form of anesthesia. "The hypnosis was induced by making her close her eyes while at the same time giving verbal suggestions to achieve a relaxed state and sense of well being", the anesthesiologist said. The hypnosis was continued by "immersing the patient in the image of a pleasant landscape, a tropical beach, and by creating an hypnotic analgesia focused on the location where surgery was taking place according to hypnosis protocols already used for orthodontic sedation". The operation reportedly lasted 20 minutes during which the patient's blood pressure and heart rate remained stable. She did not feel any pain as the tumor was removed with an incision of 6x3 cm, Facco said. After being replaced by pharmacological anesthesia, hypnosis could now be used again in specific cases to control anxiety and raise the threshold of pain, the doctor noted, adding that hypnosis can be used alone or together with medication for a more effective treatment. "This case confirms that hypnosis is effective as the only anesthetic method in selected cases by preserving the patient from pain and surgical stress on the same level as commonly used anesthetics", said Facco, citing James Esdaile's 1846 work 'Mesmerism in India and its practical applications in surgery and medicine' which described over 300 cases of patients who had surgery by hypnosis.

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Tall, graceful, with a gentle smile, hypnotherapist Danijela Radonic Bhandari (38) is someone who puts you at ease instantly. The effervescent lady has a mission on her hands, to spread awareness on hypnosis and give it due recognition as a form of psychological therapy. 

Having been through some harrowing times as a teenage Serbian refugee being brought up in Croatia, she believes that war and pain were the catalysts that made her take to spiritualism and alternative medicine. The lady, who has made Bangalore her home for last one year, remembers how she picked up the book Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse when she was still in primary school and went deep into the world of prayer, meditation and humanitarian service. After medical school, Danijela worked in a dental clinic for eight years but always wanted to know more about alternative medicine.  Exploring better prospects she moved to Dubai and then to Nepal where she would sneak time out to study healing courses, while continuing with her regular job. She also did a course at the Indian Institute of Alternative Medicine in Kolkata.

She was managing one of Nepal’s biggest spa and holistic centres before moving to India. Fate took a harsh turn when she was diagnosed with acute arthritis. Danijela opted for homoeopathy and hypnotherapy to rescue cure herself. The therapy worked beautifully and the pain vanished miraculously. This inspired Danijela to do a course in clinical hypnotherapy in New Delhi at the Indian branch of the California Hypnosis Institute.

“Going through hypnosis and doing the intensive one year course have made me learn more about myself and now it’s my turn to spread awareness about this much misunderstood therapy. Unfortunately, magicians and so called mass hypnosis have given it a bad name and there is fear attached to it,” says Danijela.

Being a practitioner of regular meditation and visualisations, Danijela holds free meditation sessions at her home every Thursday. She combines some spiritual practices with her clinical hypnotherapy sessions. Her gentle sense of humour, compassion and sensitivity makes her session productive and joyful for her patients.

Danijela is eager to dispel some popular myths and misconceptions about hypnosis. She says it is a completely safe and harmless form of psychological therapy. It is a state of altered awareness, not sleep or unconsciousness. Your conscious mind gives a large degree of control to your sub conscious mind. You are in control of your body and mind during hypnosis. It is officially recognised and approved by the British Medical Association and American Medical Association.

Danijela says hypnosis relaxes you completely and many feel a deep inner calm. “Deep hypnosis is similar in many ways to the kind of profound trance felt by yogis or meditation experts. The best way to learn about it is to experience it,” she says. It is a branch of psychotherapy; it is not an occult or esoteric science. Registered clinical psychotherapist sometime uses hypnosis as well to achieve results and breakthroughs with patients. Danijela uses an integrated approach and combines direct verbal suggestions or visualisations and even past life regression techniques.

The most common fear is that someone will get ‘stuck’ in a hypnotic state. What if the therapist gets a heart attack during a session? “You never get permanently stuck day dreaming, do you? Everyone comes out of hypnosis in a relaxed state, no matter what. People fear that they are going to expose themselves by spilling the beans, so to speak, but that is not the case. A client has the freedom to speak aloud or remain silent during sessions. Anyone who is capable of focused attention and truly wants some help in their life can and will get hypnotised. However we hypnotise only those who want it,” asserts Danijela.

Hypnosis can even be used on older children to help alter or improve their study habits; it is commonly used by her to sort out relationship issues, all kinds of addictions and more.

She uses a voice recorder to record what has been said by the patient. Getting to the point of origin of the problem and removing deep set fears helps in healing.

The mind is a very powerful tool, make it your friend and trust in the process of life. Trusting one’s therapist is vital and one can be assured of total privacy and confidentiality. 

Wife of a jet setting hotelier, Ranvir Bhandari, Danijela manages to balance her work and inner life with parties and hectic socialising, with amazing grace and elan. She turned vegetarian a decade ago and you will find her holding a glass of chilled green tea instead of white wine at many a party! When she’s not hypnotising people, she likes to go scuba diving or dancing. Making time for social work and charity is also what Danijela does on a regular basis. Being a former refugee, she knows what it is like to have nothing literally overnight.



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Hypnotic relaxation therapy can help the sex lives of postmenopausal women who are experiencing moderate to severe hot flashes, according to a new study.

The findings demonstrate yet another benefit to hypnotic relaxation therapy, shown in other studies to reduce anxiety, relieve stress and help with insomnia. With hypnosis, a person is drawn into a deeply relaxed state, with the suspension of their critical faculties.

For the study, conducted by Baylor University researchers, 187 women were randomly assigned to receive either 5 weekly sessions of hypnotic relaxation therapy or supportive counseling, said lead researcher Aimee Johnson, a doctoral student in psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University, in a press release.

Those in the hypnotic relaxation therapy group were hypnotized, and heard suggestions for relaxation, coolness and mental imagery. Those who received counseling talked about their symptoms with a therapist but did not receive hypnosis.

The women were asked to complete questionnaires at the start of the study, at the end of treatment and at a 12-week follow-up. They were asked about everything from their hot flashes to their ability to experience sexual intimacy.

“The most common complaints are being too tired, anxiety, depression, hot flashes and the fear of close contact,” said Dr. Gary Elkins, director of Baylor's Mind-Body Medicine Research Laboratory, in a press release. Because warmth that comes from closeness can trigger a hot flash, some women begin to fear intimacy, he said.

Elkins noted that, as a result of the study, women might have an alternative to hormone replacement therapy, which has a risk of cancer and heart disease.

At the end of treatment, women who had received hypnotic relaxation therapy reported significantly greater sexual satisfaction and pleasure, as well as less discomfort. This improvement also was evident at the 12-week follow-up assessment.

“Women’s sexual health improved, whether because of sleeping better, less stress or fewer hot flashes, or perhaps other unknown mechanisms,” Elkins said.

Researchers noted that many factors besides hot flashes can impact postmenopausal sexual health including fatigue, self-esteem and a lack of interest.

For many women -- such as those who have had breast cancer -- hormone replacement therapy is not an option for menopause-related symptoms. Estrogen, for example, has been associated with more rapid growth of breast cancer.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

A previous study, also by Baylor University, found that hypnotic relaxation therapy can reduce hot flashes by 80 percent.

What do you think? Have you tried hypnotic relaxation therapy? Let us know in comments.

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A woman in Italy was successfully anaesthetised via hypnosis ahead of undergoing skin cancer surgery, in an operation hailed Thursday as a landmark by local media.

The procedure was performed in Padua by Enrico Ferro, Professor of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at the northern Italian town's university. It took 10 minutes to hypnotize the 42-year-old patient, while the surgery lasted 20 minutes.

"When the patient was de-hypnotised, she reported no pain and was discharged immediately," Ferro wrote in an article on Anaesthesia, a scientific journal.

"Our case confirms the efficacy of hypnosis and demonstrates that it may be valuable as a sole anaesthetic method in selected cases," the professor added.

Speaking on RAI radio, Ferro explained his method. "You concentrate (the patient's) attention on a single thing," so as to distract them from everything else, including pain, he said.

Hypnosis is unlikely to work on 10 to 15 per cent of the population, he indicated. A further 10 to 15 per cent is "highly" sensitive to it, while the rest of the population has "average" sensitivity.

The woman who was operated in Padua fell into the "average" category, Ferro said.

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As HSC student Cristian Pagano looks at the exam paper in front of him, he feels completely relaxed. The final high school exams do not start until October, but the 17-year-old is already mentally rehearsing the nerve-racking experience through hypnosis.

In response to the stress often associated with the high pressure exams, some high school students are turning to hypnosis for help.

Fairfax Media spoke to a number of hypnotherapists from Newcastle to Thornleigh who said they had worked with HSC students recently and expected to see more in the coming weeks.

Janine Rod, a psychologist and hypnotherapist at Bondi Junction, says she is working with more than 30 HSC students.

Students are induced into a relaxed and focused state through muscle relaxation and calming suggestions spoken by the hypnotist. The initial trance is often described as being similar to meditation.

''It's almost like a daydream,'' Ms Rod said. ''So you're not wide awake or fast asleep. You're sort of in a zoned-out kind of state.''

Stress management techniques encouraged by the NSW Board of Studies include a solid study plan, regular exercise, a balanced diet, sufficient sleep and study breaks.

Associate Professor Amanda Barnier from the department of cognitive science at Macquarie University said hypnosis could also be a very effective therapy tool for people suffering from anxiety. ''But it doesn't work for all people, for all problems, all of the time,'' she said.

Since visiting hypnotherapist Julie Phillips-Moore at Woollahra, Cristian says he copes better with stress and has less trouble sleeping.

''In the exams I would freak out, lose concentration and come out getting all angry,'' the year 12 student from Marrickville said. ''But now I'm able to sit there and focus and I stress a lot less. I was a bit sketchy about it at first, but I was willing to give it a try.''

Hypnotherapists say their industry is misunderstood and has been tarnished by stage hypnotism, where people are seen humiliating themselves with bizarre behaviour.

Ms Phillips-Moore says there is ''no trickery'' to hypnosis, which is made out to be something magical.

She said most people experience hypnosis many times a day, such as going on autopilot while driving.

''When you're in that daydreamy state you're accessing the subconscious mind, which is very intuitive, very imaginative and highly suggestible,'' Ms Phillips-Moore said.

Ashleigh Flanagan, who is in year 12 at St George Christian School, travelled to Newcastle to see a hypnotherapist before her recent trial exams.

''It just relaxed me and made me feel, not purely nothing, but like I had no worries and no stresses at all,'' she said.



Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/education/thinking-their-way-clear-to-hsc-success-20130824-2sihg.html#ixzz2dBildJ5R


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BENNINGTON -- At the Center for Hypnotherapy and Hypnoanalysis at 160 Benmont Ave., Thomas Lusa, a board certified hypnotherapist by the American Board of Hypnotherapy and the Association of Integrative Psychology, is in the business of relaxing, calming and helping his local clientele live with more clarity.

According to Lusa, hypnotherapy is the oldest natural treatment modality in existence, dating back to the time of ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians, all of whom used hypnosis in some form for the treatment of various ailments.

In 1841, James Braid, a Scottish surgeon, coined the term "neuro-hypnotism," later shortened to hypnosis and stems from the Greek god of sleep, Hypnos.

Later, during the Civil War, surgeons used hypnosis when they didn't have the option of anesthesia. Hypnotherapy was not recognized as a bonafied treatment for illness until 1958, when it was accepted by the British Medical Society, and later by the United States in 1960.

Today, hypnosis and hypnotherapy are commonly practiced methods for pain management, overcoming addictions, weight reduction, and, of course, relaxation.

Lusa says he frequently finds himself at the hospital, working with patients who are about to go into surgery and those in recovery, too.

The four levels of hypnosis can send a patient into a relaxed state at level one, and, at level four, into a state comparable to being under general anesthesia.

After practicing as a registered holistic nurse for most of his professional career, Lusa became interested in hypnotherapy and its perceived health benefits.

He took several training classes throughout the United States and Canada and studied Chinese and Japanese philosophy in great detail.

"I found working with the mind to be much more interesting than any other modality I'd explored over the years," Lusa said, having researched massage and reflexology as well. "Nothing else clicked with me the way hypnotherapy did."

The results yielded from hypnotherapy sessions come more rapidly than with other modalities as well, according to Lusa, which may appeal to many.

A study in alternative medicine showed that after 600 sessions of psychoanalysis, only 33 percent of patients reported recovery from their conditions.

After 22 sessions of behavior therapy, 72 percent of those reported recovery while hypnotherapy has a 93 percent success rate after only six sessions.

However, according to Lusa, it may take a few sessions to simply develop a certain level of comfort and trust with the therapist before one is able to completely relax and reap the benefits of hypnotherapy.

For those who may struggle with anxiety or stress in general, Lusa says hypnotherapy may be the solution you have been searching for.

"For most people, one or two sessions isn't enough," he said. "They're dealing with the anticipation of what's happening, not focusing on relaxing fully."

An initial hypnotherapy session will last for about 90 minutes and will include a complete health consultation.

Subsequent sessions will range from 45 to 60 minutes, and once the therapist and patient determine a certain level of success, a CD recorded by the therapist will be given to the patient to use at their discretion for maintenance purposes.

Lusa holds his private sessions in a small, naturally lit, minimally furnished office. A tiny stone fountain provides the perfect amount of tinkling white noise. Upon entrance to his little oasis of an office, it is impossible not to feel immediately relaxed.

Banner Arts Editor Andrew Roiter, who had never before experienced hypnotherapy, offered to join in on the adventure.

Before beginning the session, Lusa asked Andrew, as he does with every other patient, a series of questions about how he was feeling and explained that, contrary to how hypnosis is sometimes portrayed in movies or on television, you don't lose control over your behavior while under hypnosis, that you generally remain aware of and remember what happens throughout the session.

Lusa then helped Andrew to fully relax into the chair he was sitting on, and asked him to close his eyes and begin taking slow, deep breaths.

For the next 15 minutes or so, Lusa guided Andrew through a relaxation journey.

During this time, my eyes were wide open and my hand were busy taking notes and photos, but at times I found my eyelids drooping just from the deep, lulling cadence at which Lusa spoke.

Toward the end of the session, Lusa told Andrew that he would be tying a balloon to his left wrist (not literally) and to allow the balloon to guide his hand and arm up towards the ceiling.

I was amazed to see Andrew's arm float effortlessly above him, while the rest of his body remained still and seemingly asleep.

Lusa then told Andrew he would be puncturing the balloon and to let the falling balloon guide his arm back down to its original resting place. Again, this was done without second thought.

After counting backwards from 10, Lusa announced to Andrew that he would be awaking in a much more relaxed state.

His eyes fluttered open and Andrew smiled.

"I feel so rested," Andrew later said, explaining that he could feel many of the sensations Lusa was describing in his verbiage. "Everything except for my arm floating up felt like a conscious choice. It was like I had taken a long nap and woken up naturally and completely refreshed. Overall, it was a very pleasant experience."

With a treatment cost range between $60 and $125 per session, Lusa says he works with his patients to find a price that fits into their budget.

"I offer discounts to students and members of the local gyms," he said. "It really depends on what my patients can afford to pay. I'm in this to help people, not to make money."

Lusa said that the most important thing for those new to hypnotherapy to remember is to keep an open mind.

"Just as your mind creates disease, it heals disease," Lusa said. "If you're open to hypnotherapy, it can heal you."

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For well over a century, hypnosis has been used to treat a wide range of conditions including irritable bowel syndrome, post-traumatic stress and eating disorders. But now neuroscientists are using hypnosis to gain insight into medically unexplained paralysis such as hysteria, hallucinations and schizophrenia.


By Peter Halligan, Cardiff University

Despite long standing associations with mysticism and stage hypnotism, hypnosis has also been used for medical and scientific purposes. For well over a century, hypnosis has been used to treat a wide range of conditions. These have included pain, irritable bowel syndrome, post-traumatic stress, phobias and eating disorders.

More recently, hypnosis has began to attract notice from cognitive neuroscientists. They have become interested in understanding hypnosis, and using it to simulate unusual states of consciousness in the lab.

Hypnotic suggestion allows one to harness the effect of attention in the brain. This allows the enhancement, and even production, of a wide range of experiences. In many people, hypnotic suggestion can producecompelling changes in perception and cognition, including temporary paralysis, anaesthesia and blindness.

Hypnosis produces a highly focused state which allows “suggestions” – simple statements communicating changes in a person’s experience or behaviour – to take place, such as “your leg is becoming so stiff that you cannot move it”. It has also been long recognised that suggestions can be effective without a hypnotic induction procedure, but this is rare, only occuring in highly suggestible individuals.

In the labThe ability to experimentally manipulate subjective awareness in the laboratory could have major potential, as I describe in the latest issue of Nature Neuroscience Review.

Current interest in the area can be divided into two types of research. Some are looking to acquire a better understanding of the nature of hypnosis. Others are interested in using hypnotic suggestion to investigate certain aspects of normal and abnormal psychological functioning.

Employing a range of brain imaging technologies, both approaches are using hypnosis to explore the nature of consciousness. They are also gaining insight into the brain mechanisms underlying visual perception, pain, and the putative origins of some clinical symptoms. These include medically unexplained paralysis as seen in hysteria, hallucinations, delusions and alterations in control over thought and actions in schizophrenia.

Understandably, scepticism remains regarding the credibility of reports involving hypnotic suggestion. Participants, however, typically describe the perceptual and behavioural changes experienced as “real”, and beyond voluntary control.

Recent experimental studies support the case for hypnosis being a physiologically credible experience. This is particularly seen where suggestions disrupt well-established automatic, unconscious processes, such as reading.

The findingsThere is a now a growing literature which shows how hypnotic suggestion can be used to create temporary functional changes in a range of ways.

Hypnosis has also been used instrumentally to develop and test models for a number of specific psycho-pathologies including delusions, auditory hallucinations, functional paralysis and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

It can also be used to suggest subjective experiences that are similar to symptoms observed in neurological and psychiatric disturbances. These have included chronic pain conditions, and disorders of volition and motor control.

Hypnotic suggestions have been used to induce “synaesthetic” experiences – where one sense triggers the involuntary use of another. In colour-number synaesthesia, people experience colours associated with specific numbers. The reliable effects reported in naturally occurring synaesthesia are commonly considered to be outside a subject’s control. However, one study showed that hypnotic suggestion could be effective in abolishing the apparently automatic experience of synaesthesia.

There is clearly great future potential in this growing field. In addition to scientific advances, the ability to produce neurological symptoms of “virtual patients” in normal volunteers also provides a potential training value. Practitioners could have the possibility of experiencing these symptoms for themselves: through hypnotic suggestion.

Over the past 25 years Peter Halligan has received funding from MRC and other UK research councils and charities, although none specifically for research on hypnosis.

After eight years away from the Premier League, Crystal Palace shouldn't need much motivation ahead of their season opener with Tottenham on Sunday week.

But manager Ian Holloway - taking no chances - has had his players hypnotised before the big match to ensure they're psychologically sharp.

Former world boxing champ Glenn Catley, now a qualified hypnotherapist, has been visiting the club regularly since the players returned for pre-season training last month.
Catley, 41, held the WBC super-middleweight title 13 years ago, bumped into old friend Holloway while out walking the dog and was given the responsibility of preparing Palace for their first season back in the top flight.

He told The Independent: 'I underwent hypnotherapy for 10 years in my boxing career. When I retired eight years ago, I took a course in clinical psychotherapy, hypnosis and sports psychology in Bristol.

'Two months ago I was out walking the dog and bumped into Ian, a good friend from way back in the west country where we both live.


Entranced: The Palace squad have been undergoing the hypnotherapy sessions since returning to pre-season training last month


'After talking to him about what I did, he invited me to meet with his players. He told me they have all the talent but psychologically they were letting a few demons creep in.'

Catley added: 'Now I see them for a few days every week, including the first team squad. We work on a one-to-one basis and part of the therapy is to hypnotise them, putting them in a trance.

'I think it helps to eliminate many psychological problems.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2384708/Crystal-Palace-boss-Ian-Holloway-brings-hypnotherapist-Glenn-Catley-ahead-Premier-League-kick-off.html#ixzz2b5ytxdox 
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Putting patients into a hypnotic trance can be a boon to treating phobias, depression, stuttering, anxiety and many other conditions.

Hypnotism has been practiced for thousands of years, and for most of that time it was associated with magic, witchcraft, meditation, charlatans and entertainment.

Only in the past century have the medical and psychological benefits of hypnotherapy been documented, scientifically proven and significantly utilized to treat a gamut of problems from stuttering, bruxism (teeth grinding) and phobias to painful childbirth, anxieties and psychiatric diseases.

But the layman retains many misunderstandings and myths about hypnotism, and large numbers of people who could benefit have no access because the treatment is not included in the basket of health services.

There are 250 active members in the Israel Society of Hypnosis, chaired by clinical psychologist Dr. Udi Bonstein. Nearly 50 percent of licensed hypnotherapists are clinical psychologists like him, about 30% psychoanalysts/psychiatrists and the rest dentists. All of them have to take and pass a special hypnotism course to be licensed.

The society would like to see other professionals, such as nurses, clinical social workers, midwives and physiotherapists join, but the law would have to be changed – a very complex process.

Dr. Shaul Livnay , a Swiss-born, France-raised and American- and Israeli-trained senior clinical psychologist, licensed supervisor and trainer of hypnosis who has integrated hypnotherapy into his practice for the past 30 years, recalled its background and explained its uses.

In an interview last week with The Jerusalem Post, he said: “I have used it on many hundreds of patients for matters of parental guidance, treatment of children and adolescents, help for adults in their 20s through 50s and through retirement.”

IT CAN be used for hypnotic preparation toward birth; emotional adjustment and behavioral problems in the young; bed wetting; training children with serious illness to hypnotize themselves to reduce pain and anxiety; lack of concentration on studies; conflicts with parents; trichotillomania [hair pulling], fear of heights, flying and other phobias; difficulties with military service; relationships; stress; coping as grandparents; adjustment to aging and much more. However, Livnay admits that there are limitations: getting people to kick the smoking habit using hypnosis, for example, is “very complicated and can easily not succeed,” he says.

Hypnosis, derived from hypnos, the Greek word for sleep, is defined as a “special psychological state with certain physiological attributes, resembling sleep only superficially and marked by a functioning of the individual at a level of awareness other than the ordinary conscious state.” A leading founder was Franz Anton Mesmer, an 18th-century German doctor who suggested that there was a “natural energetic transference” that occurred between all animated and inanimate objects that he called “animal magnetism.” His theory was later called “mesmerism,” and “mesmerized” has long been accepted in the English language.

“He believed in ‘magnetic fluid’ that people had to balance against their illness,” said Livnay. “Mesmer made a special bathtub with rods immersed in it to treat mass hysteria.

He was thrown out of Vienna and went to France, where five investigative committees were set up, one of them headed by the American statesman and inventor Benjamin Franklin. But none of them found the device made any difference. They realized that hypnotism was connected to imagination and the power of suggestion.”

Performers claiming to hypnotize subjects, often “stooges,” gave hypnotism “a bad name” for centuries.

The great psychiatrist Sigmund Freud went to study hypnosis in France, said Livnay. “He was very rigid and saw that after hysterical blindness was ‘cured’ in a patient, the condition returned. He didn’t know what to do after the trance ended. Freud had a flirtation with hypnosis, and turned it eventually into free association, but sometimes disliked it because he thought he was not good at it. He also felt uncomfortable when patients stared at him, so he always sat behind the patient, whom he put on a couch. He always preferred that arrangement when dealing with patients.”

ONE OF the most veteran licensed hypnotherapists in Israel, Livnay attended his first hypnosis conference in Jerusalem in 1988. “I felt freed, much more open to patients when I learned it. I began to use it with other techniques, and today I am an integrative therapist.” Asked whether all patients can be “inducted” (urged) into a trance, Livnay said about 10% are not susceptible to it at all, 10% are “always in a trance,” while the rest have to be inducted. “We conduct tests and use scales to determine who can do it. There is no correlation to age, sex, culture, religiosity or other factors.”

Hypnosis, which is a kind of psychotherapy, was in 1892 recognized by a committee of the British Medical Association, the body of experts evaluated the nature and effects of hypnotherapy and decided that it is “frequently effective in relieving pain, procuring sleep, and alleviating many functional ailments.”

Only in 1955 did the BMA officially approve hypnotherapy, and stated that in the previous century that it could be “of great service in the treatment of patients.” The American Medical Association followed with a commission in 1958 that decided “hypnosis has a recognized place in the medical armamentarium and is a useful technique in the treatment of certain illnesses when employed by qualified medical and dental personnel.”

There is no such thing, said Livnay, as doing only hypnosis. “It is a tool to use within your specific specialty.

For example, it can be used on pregnant women to affect the fetus. Babies emerge very calm. Most courses for childbirth include hypnosis without saying so.

“Even though hypnosis has a strong influence on many patients, it doesn’t mean that I use it on everyone.

Some come only for hypnosis, for anxiety or psychosomatic problems, for example. It then takes six to 12 sessions. I tell them it’s part of therapy, even a major part, but never the whole treatment.”

But many people have “more complex problems.

Hypnosis for these conditions usually shortens the number of psychotherapy sessions they need,” he says.

However, he continued, if a person is very unstable “and an untrained therapist opens him up with hypnosis, he could go into psychosis. Untrained people have been sued for harming patients. There was a famous case a few years ago of a Florida high-school principal who tried to help pupils suffering from test anxiety, and a suicide was the result.”

The left brain hemisphere, he explained, controls reasoning and language. The right brain deals with imagery and imagination. “Inducing a hypnotic trance means that the patient leaves the generalized reality orientation and begins to drift, using free associations. He closes his eyes, concentrates and uses his imagination.”

Hypnotists used to use crystals as a pendulum to wave in front of the patient’s face. “We may use it to test the person’s ability to go under or do some investigative work. But today we often use individual colorful marbles; patients choose one and smile, because they have a warm feeling as they associate it with their childhood. When they touch it, it’s so relaxing. Induction can also be verbal. It can take a few seconds to a few hours to get there.”

There are several myths about hypnosis. “One,” says Livnay, “is that the therapist is in control. In fact, the patient is always in control. He might decide to give up conscious control of his left brain and open up the right hemisphere, but the therapist cannot control him like a puppet. A trance can not be used to force a patient to abandon his morals and principles.”

Another myth is that if a patient is inducted, there is a danger that he won’t be able to wake up. Most people close their eyes and become immobile, so they look asleep. But they are still conscious. Some patients fear they will lose their memory, said Livnay, “but they always remember what happened and remain in control during the induction, hearing the therapist and being de-hypnotized.

“If a stage is skipped, and the therapist claps his hands but all stages have not been performed, the patient may go out a bit mixed up and return to reality by themselves. Yet they may be frightened. The hypnotist must make sure to test the patient to ensure that he has ‘come back’ properly. Unless I’m working on a person suffering from insomnia, in which case I put them on a couch or they sit on a lounge chair with their feet up, I have people sit on a regular chair in front of me.”

Although he is not observant himself, he has ultra- Orthodox patients, who he says learn about his service by word of mouth. “I recently treated some yeshiva students who had all kinds of problems caused by their intensive study. I used hypnosis to get them to relax.

Teenagers are complicated, but I got a whole slew of problems yeshiva students who came to get relaxed.”

Phobias are very common. “People are afraid of small or large places [claustrophobia and agoraphobia] or of getting into a plane. There are some people, mostly women, who drive perfectly well in the city and never had an accident but are petrified by the idea of driving on intercity roads.”

Hypnotherapy is very useful for pure medical purposes, including preparing and calming patients before surgery so they are more cooperative with their doctors, Livnay said. For this purpose, many surgeons have learned to do hypnosis themselves.

Some hospitals are strong advocates of hypnosis; Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem, for example, has a hypnosis unit headed by Dr.

Eitan Abramovich.

“With hypnosis, recovery takes less time,” said Abramovich, “and there is less bleeding and less need for anesthesia and pain killers. There was a Scottish surgeon back in the 19th century who performed over 5,000 operations using hypnosis; 500 of them involved major surgery, all without anesthesia. But this use was largely replaced by modern anesthesia.

“I have a colleague in Turkey who performed a hysterectomy on a highly motivated woman. He put her into a trance, and a curtain was placed in front of her.

Fully conscious but with no pain, she talked to the surgeons about a recipe she had made.”

Hypnotherapy can help patients with skin conditions; psoriasis has a major psychosomatic element. So does irritable bowel syndrome; hypnosis is almost the treatment of choice. It can give cancer patients getting chemotherapy some relief from nausea. For pain, hypnosis can help no less and probably more than medical marijuana, Livnay said. “But the technique cannot be used on psychotic or other severely disturbed patients.”

Stroke patients, people with tinnitus (chronic ringing in the ears), hypertension, or those with kidney failure who are on dialysis also can benefit from hypnotherapy.

Many dentists use it to pull teeth, make fillings, treat bruxism and a gag reflex in their patients – or a complete dental phobia. One health fund, he concludes, “has had a hypnosis unit in its dental service for many years.”

DR. UDI Bonstein, a physician who studied hypnotherapy at Tel Aviv University Medical School and has practiced it for 15 years, said he would like to have a day at the Israel Society of Hypnosis national conference next May opened to physicians and other professionals who are interested. But some doctors are “still leery, especially as the therapy is not provided by the health funds free, so they don’t want to take the risk and establish a hypnosis institute. If it were included in the basket of health services, many more would do it. And it should be taught to medical students in their final years of studies.”

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