ipl-logo

Hypnosis In Popular Culture

701 Words3 Pages

“I had forgotten it all. Though she was reborn and searched for me… I could remember nothing!” said the main protagonist of a contemporary Korean melodrama to his psychiatrist when coming out from hypnosis (Ji-eun, 2016). As we can see, popular culture has granted hypnosis impressive powers, even allowing protagonists to remember “previous” lives and locate their long-dead amours in their present one.
We should not blame the popular media; hypnosis is such a mysterious field that historically bordered the “Four Corners” of science, religion, occult, and fiction. For example, in ancient Greece hypnotism was practiced in the famous temples of Asclepius, the god of medicine. Incoming patients would be made to prepare for days with purifying baths …show more content…

According the American Psychological Association, it is “a procedure during which a health professional or researcher suggests while treating someone, that he or she experience changes in sensations, perceptions, thoughts or behavior. Although some hypnosis is used to make people more alert, most hypnosis includes suggestions for relaxation, calmness and well-being.” (APA, n.d.) Groundbreaking experiments have shown that hypnosis seems to be akin to a “hacking” mode to the brain (Mendelsohn, Chalamish, Solomonovich, & Dubai, 2008), which influences brain activity (Graham, 2005) and not just behavior and experience. Even so, studies have also shown that individuals vary in their susceptibility to …show more content…

(n.d.). Hypnosis Today: Looking Beyond the Media Portrayal. Retrieved from American Psychological Association: http://www.apa.org/topics/hypnosis/media.aspx
Graham, S. (2005, 6 28). Scans Show How Hypnosis Affects Brain Activity. Retrieved from Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scans-show-how-hypnosis-a/
Gurgevich, S. (n.d.). History of Hypnosis. Retrieved from healingwithhypnosis: http://www.healingwithhypnosis.com/self-hypnosis-articles/history-of-hypnosis.aspx
Ji-eun, P. (Writer), Hyuk, J., & Park, S.-H. (Directors). (2016). The Legend of the Blue Sea [Motion Picture].
Klemm, W. R. (1971). Neurophysiologic Studies of the Immobility Reflex ("Animal Hypnosis"). In S. Ehrenpreis, & O. C. Solnitzky, Neurosciences Research (Vol. 4, pp. 169–176). Academic Press Inc.
Mendelsohn, A., Chalamish, Y., Solomonovich, A., & Dubai, Y. (2008, January 10). Mesmerizing Memories: Brain Substrates of Episodic Memory Suppression in Posthypnotic Amnesia. Neuron, 57(1), 159–170.

Open Document