Therapeutic hypnosis, psychotherapy, and the digital humanities: the narratives and culturomics of hypnosis, 1800-2008.

Culturomics is a new scientific discipline of the digital humanities-the use of computer algorithms to search for meaning in large databases of text and media. This new digital discipline is used to explore 200 years of the history of hypnosis and psychotherapy in over five million digitized books from more than 40 university libraries around the world. It graphically compares the frequencies of English words about hypnosis, hypnotherapy, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and their founders from 1800 to 2008. This new perspective explore issues such as: Who were the major innovators in the history of therapeutic hypnosis, psychoanalysis, and psychotherapy? How well does this new digital approach to the humanities correspond to traditional histories of hypnosis and psychotherapy?

A brief protocol for the Creative Psychosocial Genomic Healing Experience: the 4-Stage Creative Process in therapeutic hypnosis and brief psychotherapy.

The authors present empirical data on therapeutic hypnosis and brief psychotherapy as a 4-Stage Creative Process of focused attention and positive expectancy in professional training workshops of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, the National Institute for the Clinical Applications of Behavioral Medicine, and the Milton H. Erickson Foundation. The authors developed a brief protocol for assessing the 4-Stage Creative Process, which is the core dynamic of the Creative Psychosocial Genomic Healing Experience. They report that the 4-Stage Creative Process for resolving many psychological problems and symptomatic behavior in a satisfactory manner can be learned within 3 trials during 2-day professional workshops. The theory, research, and practice of private problem solving, stress reduction, and mind-body symptom resolution in professional and public settings is discussed. Immediate knowledge of results, positive peer support, and the development of new psychosocial skills in learning how to appropriately communicate live here-and-now novel and numinous experiences is an exhilarating exercise in creating new consciousness that facilitates the confidence and maturation of psychotherapists.

Transforming grief into peace: The normal grieving mind-Memory construction, deconstruction, and reconsolidation.

On the 19th of September 2020 Ernest Rossi, my husband, professional partner, and best friend of 30 years left this mortal world. His passing was a comparatively rapid process of dissipation extended over a period of approximately six days. In addition to the complex of emotions and physical responses, I experienced grief. This grief affected me more than any prior loss or sadness in my life as my consciousness was altered into fluctuating quantum trance states characteristic of hypnosis while dancing on the spacetime continuum. As I transformed grief to peace, I utilized established "Rossi" principles as guidelines for effective therapeutic hypnosis and developing a satisfying life. In the tradition of our life together, I was the "operator" who had a subjective experience and yet, at the same time, I was also the "observer" who would watch, learn, and discover new knowledge. This paper is the emergent outpouring of the dynamic interplay between the observer and the operator, which is, therefore experiential, revealing, revelational, and numinous.

The future orientation of constructive memory: An evolutionary perspective on therapeutic hypnosis and brief psychotherapy.

We explore a new distinction between the future, prospective memory system being investigated in current neuroscience and the past, retrospective memory system, which was the original theoretical foundation of therapeutic hypnosis, classical psychoanalysis, and psychotherapy. We then generalize a current evolutionary theory of sleep and dreaming, which focuses on the future, prospective memory system, to conceptualize a new evolutionary perspective on therapeutic hypnosis and brief psychotherapy. The implication of current neuroscience research is that activity-dependent gene expression and brain plasticity are the psychobiological basis of adaptive behavior, consciousness, and creativity in everyday life as well as psychotherapy. We summarize a case illustrating how this evolutionary perspective can be used to quickly resolve problems with past obstructive procrastination in school to facilitate current and future academic success.

Electrodynamics of clinical hypnosis.

This paper reconstructs and attempts to verify hypotheses made by Leonard Ravitz, Ernest L. Rossi, and Milton H. Erickson, during their research on the influence of hypnosis on the human electromagnetic field. Original charts measured electrodynamic voltage differences of 44 subjects. These voltage differences from Ravitz, Erickson and Rossi's research were digitalized and analyzed with statistical software to check the significance of four hypotheses about ways hypnosis influences the individual's electrodynamic recording. The results of this analysis of the magnitude of the subject's electrodynamic tracing were: (1) there was a statistically significant difference between the prehypnotic condition and hypnosis; (2) there was a statistically significant difference between hypnosis and posthypnotic condition; (3) there was no significant difference between posthypnotic and prehypnotic condition; and (4) there was a statistically significant correlation between an induction of catalepsy and alterations in the electrodynamic tracing. The significance of these findings is discussed with applications to Rossi's 4-Stage Creative Cycle.

A new bioinformatics paradigm for the theory, research, and practice of therapeutic hypnosis.

In a 2008 pilot study we used DNA microarrays to explore the historical ideo-plastic faculty of therapeutic hypnosis. We documented how to measure changes in activity or experience-dependent gene expression over relatively brief time periods (1 hour and 24 hours) following a single intervention of therapeutic hypnosis (about 1 hour). In the present paper we utilize bioinformatic software to explore the possible meaning and significance of this ideo-plastic faculty of therapeutic hypnosis. Indications suggest that the ideo-plastic process of therapeutic hypnosis may be associated with (1) the heightening of a molecular-genomic signature for the up-regulation (heightened activity) of genes characteristic of stem cell growth, (2) a reduction in cellular oxidative stress, and (3) a reduction in chronic inflammation. We identify these three empirical associations as an initial beta version of the molecular-genomic signature of the ideo-plastic process of therapeutic hypnosis, which can serve as a theoretical and practical guide for clinical excellence by beginners as well as senior professionals. We propose this molecular-genomic level of discourse as a supplement to the traditional cognitive-behavioral description of therapeutic suggestion, hypnosis, and psychotherapy that is consistent with "translational research" currently funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

Hypnosis as Sole Anesthesia for Dental Removal in a Patient with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.

Despite a number of studies on hypnosis as analgesia and anesthesia in several medical conditions, case studies on patients with multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) are still relatively few. This case study is about a female patient with MCS who underwent dental removal using hypnosis as the sole anesthesia. The paradigm in which we work is psychosocial genomics of clinical hypnosis. We used the mind-body transformations therapy, one of the clinical methods of the psychosocial genomics paradigm. In order to induce not only effective analgesia and anesthesia but also a condition of well-being, problem-solving, effective coping and self-empowerment in our patient, 3 different hypnotic protocols were used in a multidimensional approach. Although further research is needed, our work might open up new scenarios for the application of hypnosis as sole anesthesia in conditions such as MCS.

The future orientation of constructive memory: an evolutionary perspective on therapeutic hypnosis and brief psychotherapy.

We explore a new distinction between the future, prospective memory system being investigated in current neuroscience and the past, retrospective memory system, which was the original theoretical foundation of therapeutic hypnosis, classical psychoanalysis, and psychotherapy. We then generalize a current evolutionary theory of sleep and dreaming, which focuses on the future, prospective memory system, to conceptualize a new evolutionary perspective on therapeutic hypnosis and brief psychotherapy. The implication of current neuroscience research is that activity-dependent gene expression and brain plasticity are the psychobiological basis of adaptive behavior, consciousness, and creativity in everyday life as well as psychotherapy. We summarize a case illustrating how this evolutionary perspective can be used to quickly resolve problems with past obstructive procrastination in school to facilitate current and future academic success.

Novel activity-dependent approaches to therapeutic hypnosis and psychotherapy: the general waking trance.

This paper presents a highly edited version of a videotape made in 1980 by Marion Moore, M.D., showing Milton H. Erickson and Moore demonstrating novel, activity-dependent approaches to hand-levitation and therapeutic hypnosis on their subject, Ernest Rossi. Erickson's naturalistic and utilization approach is described in his very direct and surprising induction in a trance challenged patient. These novel, and surprising inductions are examples of how Erickson was prescient in developing activity-dependent approaches to therapeutic hypnosis and psychotherapy several generations before modern neuroscience documented the activity-dependent molecular-genomic mechanisms of memory, learning, and behavior change. Erickson describes a case where he utilized what he called, "The General Waking Trance" when he "dared" not use an obvious hypnotic induction. It is proposed that the states of intense mental absorption and response attentiveness that are facilitated by the general waking trance are functionally related to the three conditions neuroscientists have identified as novelty, enrichment, and exercise (both mental and physical), which can turn on activity-dependent gene expression and activity-dependent brain plasticity, that are the molecular-genomic and neural basis ofmemory, learning, consciousness, and behavior change. We recommend that the next step in investigating the efficacy of therapeutic hypnosis will be in partnering with neuroscientists to explore the possibilities and limitations of utilizing the activity-dependent approaches to hypnotic induction and the general waking trance in facilitating activity-dependent gene expression and brain plasticity.

What is a suggestion? The neuroscience of implicit processing heuristics in therapeutic hypnosis and psychotherapy.

Neuroscience and bioinformatics research on activity-dependent gene expression and brain plasticity in memory and learning are used to reconceptualize a fundamental question of therapeutic hypnosis, "What is a suggestion?" John Kihlstrom's cognitive-behavioral perspective of implicit (unconscious) and explicit (conscious) memory and Eric Kandel's Nobel Prize winning neurobiological research are integrated for a 30-year update of Milton H. Erickson's "neuro-psycho-physiology" of therapeutic hypnosis. Implicit processing heuristics are proposed as a more general framework for Erickson's concept of permissive indirect suggestions in therapeutic hypnosis and psychotherapy. These perspectives are illustrated by utilizing implicit processing heuristics to facilitate the four-stage creative process in converting implicit to explicit memory in a brain-damaged patient.

The neuroscience of observing consciousness & mirror neurons in therapeutic hypnosis.

Neuroscience documents the activity of "mirror neurons" in the human brain as a mechanism whereby we experience empathy and recognize the intentions of others by observing their behavior and automatically matching their brain activity. This neural basis of empathy finds support in research on dysfunctions in the mirror systems of humans with autism and fMRI research on normal subjects designed to assess intentionality, emotions, and complex cognition. Such empathy research now appears to be consistent with the historical and research literature on hypnotic induction, rapport, and many of the classical phenomena of suggestion. A preliminary outline of how mirror neurons may function as a rapport zone mediating between observing consciousness, the gene expression/protein synthesis cycle, and brain plasticity in therapeutic hypnosis and psychosomatic medicine is proposed. Brain plasticity is generalized in the theory, research, and practice of utilizing mirror neurons as an explanatory framework in developing and training new skill sets for facilitating an activity-dependent approach to creative problem solving, mind-body healing, and rehabilitation with therapeutic hypnosis.