Essentials: Using Hypnosis to Enhance Mental & Physical Health & Performance | Dr. David Spiegel

Andrew Huberman talks with Dr. David Spiegel about what hypnosis actually is: a state of highly focused attention, not the loss of control people fear from stage shows. Spiegel walks through the brain changes during hypnosis, including reduced activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and altered connectivity between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, insula, and posterior cingulate. He describes clinical uses for stress, sleep, pain, phobias, trauma and procedures in children, and shares case studies. They cover hypnotizability testing, the role of breathing and eye movements, and how confronting difficult experiences voluntarily helps people restructure their response to them.

• A study had highly hypnotizable people imagine eating their favorite foods and their gastric acid secretion rose about 87% with no real food.
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• Even after injecting pentagastrin to trigger acid release, hypnosis still produced a 19% reduction in gastric acid.
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• Spiegel says he dislikes stage hypnosis because it makes fools of people and fuels the false fear that you lose control.
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• He recounts treating an attempted-rape survivor who, under hypnosis, realized her attacker had intended to kill her but that her fighting back likely saved her life.
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• A randomized trial out of Israel showed adding hypnosis to PTSD treatment improves outcomes.
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• A randomized Pediatrics trial found hypnosis made children's medical imaging procedures 17 minutes shorter with less anxiety and pain.
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• Spiegel routinely hypnotizes groups, including a weekly group of about 10 women with metastatic breast cancer, all entering hypnosis together.
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• About one third of adults are not hypnotizable, two thirds are, and roughly 15% are extremely hypnotizable.
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• Getting so absorbed in a movie that you forget you are watching it is described as an everyday hypnotic-like experience.
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• Hypnotizability is measured with the Hypnotic Induction Profile and scored on a scale from zero to ten.
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• In the Spiegel Eye-Roll Test, seeing more sclera (white) as the eyes close indicates higher hypnotizability; seeing iris indicates lower.
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• People with OCD tend to fall on the less-hypnotizable end because they over-control and evaluate rather than experience.
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• Reverie offers both ~15-minute sessions and 1-2 minute refreshers, and about two thirds of users report the 1-minute version helps them feel better.
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• State-dependent memory (Gordon Bower) means hypnosis can help trauma survivors by recreating a mental state closer to the one they were in during the event.
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• Cyclic sighing, with longer exhales than inhales, promotes parasympathetic activity and is used in hypnotic inductions.
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• Spiegel argues hypnosis, despite its reputation for taking away control, is actually a powerful way to enhance control over mind and body.
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