What Actually Happens In The Brain During Hypnosis?

Jan 12

This is a stats for nerds post, basically.

If you’re anything like me, you want THE DETAILS.

So I’ll give you some details. Disclaimer though; I’m no neuroscientist so I’m not saying I have all the information about this, I’m certainly no authority on the subject and I’ve never been to a lab where any studies have been done - but there are plenty of articles out there about hypnosis and hypnotherapy (some claiming it working, some claiming it doesn't) and I’ve read most of’em.

I will say this though. There is a heck of a lot of power in you having the intention that it will work, regardless of what a peer reviewed PubMed article might have to say on the matter.

Since you’re here and THIS is the information you decided to go and read on my website, I’m going to assume there’s a part of you that’s still a little bit sceptical and wants THE REASSURING FACTS.

And that’s cool.

I’m big on research. I’m big on ‘proof’. I’m especially big on doing things with integrity and not talk about stuff I don’t believe in. But I believe in this. Not as a cure-all for every illness or condition there is - in fact, if anyone ever claims they can cure it all - run for the hills, but as an incredibly powerful tool for change. Standalone or in conjunction with other modalities. And not just because I’ve read the research about it. Because I use it myself. Because I’ve seen it.

Research and stats are all great tools, but for the analytical-minded among us, I find there’s a very fine line between responsibility (doing the research, comparing the data, pondering the different outcomes) and restriction. Do you sometimes get so caught up in the details that you forget to actually just give it a go and see what happens? (Yup, same)

You can resist going into hypnosis if you want to - of course you can. You’re in charge of your mind, not me. You can spend a whole session dissecting everything that goes on, question every word and find multiple reasons as to why it’s not working.

And what would that prove? Really? I’m not asking from a place of self-righteousness here - it’s a genuine, curious, question. What would it prove? That you’d be right? That it just doesn’t work? That you win?

Well, you certainly can achieve that if you keep deciding that.

And I say this with love, and I say this as a ridiculously stubborn and hard-to-convince person myself. I get it. You certainly can stay stuck in this way of thinking - staying stuck is actually the easy bit, we do it all the time. We like repeating thoughts. It saves the brain energy, and the brain likes that.

But just play along with me here for a bit… Because I’ve found this helpful for me.

What if you decided to just try it. To just go along with it. What if you decided that you WILL get something out of it?

What if this time you allowed your thoughts to get a little more free? Gentle? Creative? To really - truly - get to a state where you allow your thoughts to help you problem-solve. That you ALLOWED it to work this time. Because it is an allowance after all - it’s not a revving and a pushing.

Maaaaybe you allowed things to be easy for once. What if this works? Ponder that thought for a while.

Ok, NOW we can get into the nerdy stuff.

BRAINWAVES

Throughout the day and night, our brains produce a fairly complex mix of electrical patterns, or waves, depending on your physical and/or mental activity. These are called brainwaves, and the most common ones are Alpha, Beta, Theta and Delta. Each brainwave corresponds to a specific frequency (i.e the speed of the electrical pulses/how fast they move) and amplitude (i.e. how intense or strong they are). In hypnosis we ‘play around’ with these brainwaves and utilise them in order to get to different stages of alertness/receptivity depending on the aim of the session.

The brain naturally goes through each of these four states every day though, so it’s never taking you to a place that feels unfamiliar or unusual. The process we use is just taking you there more methodically and quickly. It is, however, a fairly unique state in that you are both hyper-focused (which normally would be associated with a high degree of excitement or stress) and relaxed at the same time.

Normally, neuroplasticity (the brain’s innate ability to learn and create changes in us) is triggered by states of high focus followed by states of rest and relaxation later - that’s how the brain learns new information. In hypnosis we bring both the states together at the same time, which is one of the reasons why it’s so effective in accelerating learning.

What this ultimately means is that we learn quicker in hypnosis - we speed up changing our beliefs, behaviours and priorities WAY quicker than if we did it in a normal waking state.

BETA

Our brain is mostly in beta during our normal waking state - it’s when we’re busy Doing Stuff. Our attention lies on the outside world most of the time; we’re alert, active and concentrating. Beta have quite “fast” brainwaves and help us focus when we process and analyse information, problem solve, make decisions, play sports, give a presentation or learn new things. Hopefully you’re in a Beta state reading this, for example.

Too much Beta, however, can lead to information overload, a state of anxiety, raised blood pressure and increased muscle tension. It’s like driving in fourth gear all the time.

ALPHA

Alpha brainwaves are slower than Beta, it’s when you’re in a state of relaxed alertness (but not quite a meditative state yet) - allowing inspiration, creativity and insight to come to the forefront. Our sense of linear time tends to melt away a bit here too, we’re in a “flow state” and feel very present without a lot of anxiety and second-guessing creeping in. It’s like driving in third gear.

Being too much in Alpha is probably very nice for you and incredibly frustrating for everyone else. You’re in your own world, doing your own thing and have a metaphorical “do not disturb” sign up.

THETA

Is a deep daydreaming state, where you’re feeling drowsy and the brain activity slows down almost to the point of sleep - it’s a very ‘floaty’ feeling. Vivid imagery can flash before your mind’s eye and we’re very receptive to information and insights beyond our ‘normal’ conscious awareness. It’s in Theta you can enhance learning, reawaken intuition, reprogram your neural pathways in a speedier manner than you would consciously, reduce stress and recall memories. It’s a state of deep meditation.

Like driving in second gear.

DELTA

Is a state of deep sleep, to the point where you’re completely unconscious. It is also generally seen as the state where the body heals and repairs itself. Delta is the body’s first gear. Or possibly automatic parallel parking.

It might be the state you think you might get to during hypnosis, if you’ve never tried it before - where you think I might wave a pendulum around for a while, click my fingers, *lights out* and you wake up an hour later with no recollection of what’s been going on. Not so. Even though there are incredible therapeutic and healing benefits of the brain going into Theta, you get a chance to do that every single night when you go to bed and actually sleep, so it seems silly paying someone for it.

In hypnosis we’re after a state of relaxed alertness, where your brain is completely immersed in creative problem solving, sparking new insight and getting to a state of deep KNOWING. Where your subconscious mind can step forward without much interference and objection from the anxious Beta mind.

What we’re after is Alpha and Theta.

The flow state, and deep meditation.

Interesting side note: It is generally understood that small children (around 0-7 years old) are actually spending most of their time in the alpha and theta brainwave state. It’s almost quite jarring to think that our children are walking around in a permanent state of hypnosis, constantly open to suggestions and being programmed by the environment they are in. But when you think about it - they need to. They need to be in a rapid learning state and need to absorb as much information about the world as they can. And as silly as this may sound, hypnosis is almost like you’re putting yourself back into the type of mind you had when you were little. Full of wonder, excitement and openness, willingness to learn and listen. (Well, at least sometimes.)

WHERE, THOUGH?

But it’s not just about the brainwaves and the ‘speed’ at which the brain processes information, it’s important to see where the activity in the brain is as well. I’d say the most important systems of the brain to look at are these three; The Default Mode network, The Executive Control Network and The Salience Network.

Again - I’m still no neuroscientist. This is just me (using my own Executive Control Network, by the way) piecing together what I’ve found to be the most interesting and relevant bits of information for us.

The Default Mode network

There’s been a lot of buzz about the DMN in recent years, mostly because it wasn’t really noticed until 2001 (new thing! woohoo!), and because it’s at the forefront of many studies about meditation. Thanks to newer technology we’ve finally been able to see what goes on in the brains of meditation Zen masters who could snap into Theta states pretty effortlessly. Laurie Santos makes it one of her key points during her ridiculously popular Science of Happiness course at Yale as well.

So why the interest? Well, initially it was thought that the brain just “was” during times when it wasn’t really thinking about something in particular, and that brain activity slowed down then. But it turns out there’s just as much activity going on in the brain when it’s at rest as it is when it’s focused on something. (We're talking cognitively here by the way, no one ever thought the brain just shut off completely - it’s always busy reminding you to breathe, to regulate your hormone levels, to not stick your fingers into open fire, help you move your legs when you walk and, you know, generally keep you alive).

So what happens is that when we’re not busy thinking about very specific things, the brain defaults into the DMN, the “Mind-Wandering Network”: a state of wakeful rest, where it starts daydreaming. It’s us “pottering about”, thinking abstract thoughts, reading for pleasure etc. It’s basically everything that’s not about you being in the Here and Now. It’s thinking about the past, or ‘hallucinating’ things that may happen in the future.

When you’re in deep meditation, on the other hand, the DMN is deactivated; it’s you instead fully being in the present moment without any self-referential thinking/self-awareness and mind-wandering happening. I.e. a conscious focus on “nothing”.

Then we have;

The Executive Control Network

Which is the part(s) of our brain that governs our focus on tasks and analytical thinking. It helps us plan and logically reason, make decisions and problem solve - and also has our response inhibition.

And, lastly,

The Salience Network

Which is basically involved in sensing and regulating internal bodily processes, but also the part that selects which stimuli are deserving of our attention - i,.e. the brain’s evaluation of worry and errors.

So, during a state of hypnosis, some of these pretty cool things happen in these networks in the brain - and this has been studied using fMRI scans by a team at Stanford by the way. Pretty legitimate stuff.

There’s reduced activity in the DMN during hypnosis, similar to someone in deep meditation. This supports what I mentioned earlier about hypnosis NOT being a state of “unawareness”, of sleep, but instead of conscious attentional absorption where spontaneous insight and creativity can be unlocked.
There’s a reduced connection between the DMN and the Executive Control Network, i.e. between the “planning and action” part of our brain and our self-awareness. In a state of hypnosis, just like states of deep absorption in a task or performance, we act spontaneously without reflecting upon our actions - showing that we’re more likely to actually see ourselves change, and feel genuinely motivated to do so without the usual reasons as to “why it’s not possible for us”.
There’s an increased connection between the Executive Control Network and the part of the Salience Network that governs bodily processes - this may explain the increased control we feel over our physical body and the emotional processes linked to it. Hypnosis is commonly used as pain relief too actually - this could be why.
There’s a decrease in the part of the of the Salience Network that evaluates worry as well, so inspired actions take part more effortlessly.
There’s also quite a lot of activity in the frontal areas of the brain - where our ability to concentrate and keep our attention on one thing is increased.

Ok, so how does this apply to me then?

Well, when we’re in a certain conscious state, it comes with a certain biochemical cocktail associated with these emotions too, and everything you think of - your past, your present and your future - gets coloured or tainted by the state you’re in. Until we step out of this negative state, it can feel very hard to find a new, positive one because your whole system is flooded with chemicals that make you feel it constantly. If you are, or have ever been, depressed you know how true this is. Somehow the present feels bleak and uninspiring, past things that used to give you joy no longer do, and thinking about your future mostly fills you with dread because your brain is wired to think that “this is it from now on” or “I can’t change.” The brain sorts and filters everything by its emotional and biochemical state.

So by getting you into a hypnotic state, not only does it shift the brainwaves (as described above) but it also starts to uncouple the relevant circuits and networks of your brain that are keeping you in this seemingly stuck place. New, more positive, emotional states can start to form and your mind starts to feel “freer” and not performing the same looping thought processes as before, and releasing the biochemicals associated with it. You can start to cultivate new, more insightful and resourceful feelings - and hypnosis is a gentle way to kick-start that.