Still a Mystery
The human brain remains a mystery, in spite of the major strides in understanding that we've made in recent years. Consider this report on the use of hypnosis to relieve the suffering of cancer patients:
Hypnosis can relieve suffering and improve the quality of life of cancer patients, researchers said on Thursday.
Although it has been used to help people to give up smoking, lose weight and overcome phobias, its real therapeutic potential is still untapped, they believe.
Dr Christina Liossi, of the University of Wales in Swansea, said there is medical evidence that hypnosis helps to relieve the depression, nausea, vomiting and pain suffered by cancer patients.
There have also been suggestions that hypnosis could increase survival in patients with the disease, but she added there is not enough evidence to support them.
Liossi goes on to say that it has been established that hypnosis can affect the immune system, although unfortunately, the article does not cite any references for this. It's one thing to say that hypnosis might alleviate pain. We all know that pain is, truly, "all in your head." But the suggestion that hypnosis might increase cancer survivability or that it can somehow work directly on the immune system seems an entirely different proposition. Hypnosis almost begins to sound kind of spooky or magical.
Of course, there's no reason to interpret such results that way. If the only physiological effect of hypnosis is pain reduction, that alone could account for greater rates of cancer survivability and a strengthened immune system. A body that endures less pain is a body that has been subjected to lower levels of stress, and therefore has additional strength to work through the course of a disease. It seems likely that a stronger, less-taxed body would also have a better immune system.
It's surprising that we don't hear more about a treatment option that offers such benefits. One of the researchers, Professor John Gruzelier of Imperial College London, suggests that the silence has a simple explanation: we don't know how hypnosis works. The medical establishment is understandably shy about dealing with treatments that seem to work, but that can't be explained.
Gruzelier is using brain-imaging techniques to study the changes that occur within the frontal lobe when an individual is hypnotized. Here's hoping that his work helps make the brain a little less mysterious.