Hypnosis is Used in Study of Emotions

There is a lot still to be learned about emotions. Approximately 20 years ago, researchers were under the impression that emotions and feelings originated with the heart, not the brain. They also believed that emotions could not be measured with scientific research. In more recent years, researchers have found that emotions can play a major role in a person’s overall health. A non-invasive way to study feelings and emotions is through the use of hypnotherapy and brain images (Brain & Emotions Research).

Feelings and emotions are created from one’s own perception. When a person feels a specific emotion, it is usually triggered by a thought and this thought is triggered by a past experience. This process can occur consciously or unconsciously without a person realizing it. Examples of emotions include happiness, joy, and contentment which are all positive emotions. Negative emotions include fear, anger, and pain.

Basically, there are good emotions and bad emotions. Emotions reside in the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind tells the conscious mind how to feel. Of course, people would rather feel good emotions instead of bad emotions. The subconscious mind can be accessed using hypnosis to change negative emotions into positive emotions (Oso).

One study looked at hypnotic suggestion, emotions, and pain. Hypnotic suggestion was used to induce specific emotions. Then, the researchers looked at how the various emotional states affected pain. They found negative emotions such as fear and sadness increased the level of perceived pain in participants. However, when positive emotions were hypnotically induced, the positive emotions that resulted were static and did not continue to increase. The significance of this study is that certain emotions can be created with hypnosis without side effects. The induction of hypnosis gives more control to the researcher and does not create secondary emotions.

Other studies have used hypnosis on the study of emotions using both highly suggestible and low suggestible participants. When highly suggestible participants were given hypnotic suggestions to be ’emotionally numb’ or unaffected by either positive or negative emotions, researchers found that they were not susceptible to the emotions and that the hypnotic suggestions were able to produce a numbing affect on their emotions. When comparing highly suggestible people to low suggestible people, the highly suggestible participants experience more emotional numbing (Rainville, 2002).

The study of hypnotic suggestions plays a positive role in studying the science of emotions. It gives researchers control over what emotions to induce. By studying both highly suggestible people and low suggestible people, it gives researchers greater insight into the study of emotion.