Hypno-Don: Cognitive Dissonance



The Fox and the Grapes by Aesop. When the fox fails to reach the grapes, he decides he does not want them after all. Rationalization (making excuses) is often involved in reducing anxiety about conflicting cognitions, according to cognitive dissonance theory.


From ye Wiki:

In modern psychology, cognitive dissonance is the discomfort experienced when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting cognitions: ideas, beliefs, values or emotional reactions. In a state of dissonance, people may sometimes feel "disequilibrium": frustration, hunger, dread, guilt, anger, embarrassment, anxiety, etc.

The phrase was coined by Leon Festinger in his 1956 book When Prophecy Fails, which chronicled the followers of a UFO cult as reality clashed with their fervent belief in an impending apocalypse.

Festinger subsequently (1957) published a book called A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance in which he outlines the theory.

Cognitive dissonance is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology.

The theory of cognitive dissonance in social psychology proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by altering existing cognitions, adding new ones to create a consistent belief system, or alternatively by reducing the importance of any one of the dissonant elements. It is the distressing mental state that people feel when they "find themselves doing things that don't fit with what they know, or having opinions that do not fit with other opinions they hold."

A key assumption is that people want their expectations to meet reality, creating a sense of equilibrium. Likewise, another assumption is that a person will avoid situations or information sources that give rise to feelings of uneasiness, or dissonance.

Cognitive dissonance theory explains human behavior by positing that people have a bias to seek consonance between their expectations and reality.

According to Festinger, people engage in a process he termed "dissonance reduction", which can be achieved in one of three ways: lowering the importance of one of the discordant factors, adding consonant elements, or changing one of the dissonant factors.

This bias sheds light on otherwise puzzling, irrational, and even destructive behavior.

It would be most irrational not to believe Hypno-Don.

Kelly Bulkeley Ph.D. Blog: What Does Science Know About Dreams?

El sueño de la razón produce monstruos (The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters) Francisco Goya, aquatint etching, 1797-99. This is plate 43 of the 80 etchings making up the Los Caprichos series. In the etching that might have served as the frontispiece to his suite of satires, Los Caprichos, Goya imagined himself asleep amid his drawing tools, his reason dulled by sleep, and bedeviled by creatures that prowl in the dark. The artist's nightmare reflected his view of Spanish society, which he portrayed in the Los Caprichos series as demented, corrupt, and ripe for ridicule. It consists of a self-portrait of the artist with his head on a table, as owls and bats surround him, assailing him as he buries his head into his arms. Seemingly poised to attack the artist are owls (symbols of folly) and bats (symbols of ignorance). The full epigraph for caprichio #43 is: "Fantasy abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters: united with her, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of their marvels."

by Kelly Bulkeley Ph.D.

I recently attended a public lecture by a famous neuroscientist, with several hundred other people in the audience. The topic of his talk was the unconscious brain processes that shape our conscious mental lives. The lecture was a good introduction to mainstream neuroscience, and the audience clearly enjoyed it.

At the end of his prepared remarks, the neuroscientist took written questions from the audience. The second question he was asked (which the moderator said came from several people) had to do with dreaming. What does science know about dreams?

From where I sat, the neuroscientist looked distinctly uncomfortable trying to answer this question. He started by saying, "Dream content is not well understood."

He brought up hypnosis and meditation as other types of anomalous brain functioning that may have something to do with creativity, but he quickly dismissed them as "parlor tricks" unworthy of serious investigation.

Returning to the question of dreams, he said they were probably just a "mish-mash" of the brain's "machine code" that we can't and shouldn't try to understand. This brought him back to a point he'd made earlier, namely discouraging people from spending too much time delving into their own unconscious minds.

Consciousness, he said, is like a CEO who shouldn't try to micromanage all the lower-level activities of his company because that would be disruptive and distract him from his proper focus on the big picture.

The moderator asked him if he paid attention to his own dreams, and the neuroscientist seemed relieved at finally being able to admit the truth: "You know, I can't stand dreaming. It makes no sense to me." The moderator said something to the effect of, so you're an expert on the unconscious who can't stand his dreams? The neuroscientist shrugged. There was a bit of nervous laughter from the audience, and the moderator went on to the next question.

I'm not using the neuroscientist's name because the problem I want to discuss isn't just about him, but about an unfortunate combination of bias and ignorance I suspect is more widespread than it should be in the neuroscience community.

The problem starts with the assertion, "Dream content is not well understood." That's simply wrong. Several decades of scientific research on dreaming has identified a number of basic patterns in dream content, giving us a reasonably clear view of the meaningful features of dreaming experience.

Many questions still remain and more research needs to be done, but it's misleading at best and intellectually lazy at worst to suggest there is no good scientific evidence about the nature of dream content.

What, then, does science actually know about dreams?

1. Most dreams turn out to be rather mundane. Contrary to the common misconception that dreams are nothing but a "mish-mash" of random nonsense and bizarre fantasy, research shows that dreams usually include fairly realistic portrayals of familiar people, places, and activities. (David Foulkes was one of the first researchers to make this point.)

2. Many aspects of dream content are accurate, honest reflections of people's emotional concerns in
waking life. Whatever you care most about in waking life, it's likely to appear with special frequency in the content of your dreams. (See, for example, G. William Domhoff's work on the "continuity hypothesis.")

3. The graphic, repetitive nightmares suffered by victims of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often change, in the course of healing, to more ordinary nightmares with a more diffuse range of imagery.

As Deirdre Barrett says in her 1996 edited book Trauma and Dreams: "[A]s time passes, and especially for those whose PTSD is gradually improving, the dream content begins to make the trauma more symbolic and to interweave it with concerns from the dreamer's daily life." (p. 3)

These are three straightforward findings of contemporary dream research. They are not esoteric or obscure. They have been produced by well-trained psychologists, published in reputable books and journals, and cited frequently by other scholars. Combined with other solid scientific findings (see the additional references below), they suggest that dreaming is creatively structured by a network of emotional and cognitive processes that also operate in waking consciousness and have meaningful connections to our health and development.

It's okay if neuroscientists aren't interested in their own personal dreams. But it's not okay to shift from "I don't understand my dreams" to "Dream content is not well understood." The shift to a passive voice makes this claim sound like a fact-based conclusion of mainstream science, whereas it really indicates a failure to engage with the abundant evidence generated by more than half a century of empirical dream research.

Note: All quotes unless otherwise indicated come from my hand-written notes during the lecture.

Other good sources on the science of dreams include works by Patrick McNamara and Deirdre Barrett, Edward Pace-Schott et al., Ernest Hartmann, Milton Kramer, Rosalind Cartwright, and the journal Dreaming.

Hypno-Don

I would like you to make yourself comfortable... put your feet on the floor, rest your hands on your thighs... and half-close your eyes.

I would like you to be aware of your breathing... notice the shallow and uneven way you are breathing. I wonder if you can consciously make your breathing slower, and deeper?

So take a deep breath in, and let it out... you will notice that with each breath you take, your body is relaxing... inhale... exhale... take a deep breath, in and out. Let your body relax... and while you are breathing, you may notice that all the tension is going out of your body, and you are feeling more and more relaxed, comfortable, and at ease.

And as you continue to pay attention to your breathing... I would like you to imagine that you are hovering over an ocean. I would like you look down at the beautiful water... to look down at this vast boundless ocean... notice its color... pay attention to the emotions you feel when you look at it.

And as you continue to look at this ocean of stillness... allow your awareness to expand indefinitely... until it too becomes like a vast, deep ocean of calmness.

And I wonder if you can consciously allow this boundless ocean of calmness to expand even further. Knowing that every feeling thought and body sensation will allow you to go even deeper into a boundless and unlimited calmness. Knowing that every noise outside of this room, and inside of this room, will help you to relax even further.

Knowing that every noise is just a signal for you to relax.

Imagine that you at the very bottom of this vast, infinite ocean... and your every thought, feeling and body sensation drift on the surface... passing by unaware of your presence underneath.

And as you stay deep down, relaxed, you may become aware of how your body is comfortable and mind calm... how all the tension has gone... how your breathing becomes slower.

And in a few seconds time, I'm going to post another blog... but before I do, I'd like you to remember that you can bring back this feeling of relaxation any time you want. I would like you to know that these feelings of calmness and peace and love will stay with you for the rest of the day... and for all the days and nights that follow.

Every day, you will become more focused on whatever you are doing... consequently your memory will improve... allowing you to remember all the information you need to remember... so every day you will feel more confident... more confident about your knowledge... more confident about your ability to cope..........

Dr. David Spiegel Youtube Mind-Body Interactions Lecture

(March 16, 2010) Dr. David Spiegel, Stanford Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, discusses hypnosis, the mind, and its therapeutic interaction with the body from helping patients stop smoking to prolonging the lives of cancer patients.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlFaIxTv1_w&feature=related

NYT 2010: Herbert Spiegel, Doctor Who Popularized Hypnosis, Dies at 95

Herbert Spiegel, Doctor Who Popularized Hypnosis, Dies at 95

Published: January 9, 2010

Dr. Herbert Spiegel treated pain, anxiety and addictions by putting people into a trance.

Broadway actors sought his help to overcome stage fright, singers to quit smoking, politicians to overcome fear of flying. For years he had a regular table at Elaine’s, as well as his own place on the national stage.

Duane Michals

Dr. Herbert Spiegel in 1974, working with a patient who wanted to stop smoking. Patients from near and far sought him out.

A New York psychiatrist, Dr. Spiegel, who died on Dec. 15 at the age of 95, was far and away the country’s most visible and persuasive advocate for therapeutic hypnosis, having established it as a mainstream medical technique.

Beginning in the 1950s, he described the technique, both its uses and misuses, in magazine articles and in courtrooms. In the 1960s, he developed the first quick and practical test for individual susceptibility to hypnosis; it is still widely used. In later decades he appeared on television programs like “60 Minutes” and he helped treat the woman known as Sybil, whose controversial case became the subject of a book and inspired two television movies.

In a famous course at Columbia University, Dr. Spiegel taught generations of doctors the art and science of hypnosis — how concentrated relaxation and suggestion can have a powerful effect on thinking and behavior.

His son, Dr. David Spiegel, a psychiatrist at Stanford University, said his father had died in his sleep at his home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, not far from Elaine’s, where Dr. Herbert Spiegel’s regular table was near Woody Allen’s at what was a fixture of the New York intellectual and creative scene in the 1960s and ’70s.

A trained Freudian analyst, Dr. Spiegel came to see traditional, open-ended psychoanalysis as too costly and meandering for many patients — and hypnosis as a way to accelerate healing, effecting change in some people even in a single session. As Dr. Spiegel’s reputation grew, performers and politicians in New York and prominent people from around the world made their way to his office in Manhattan.

It was in the early ’60s that he filled in for Dr. Cornelia B. Wilbur, the therapist who had been treating a troubled woman named Shirley Mason, who appeared to communicate through several distinct personalities. Her case became the basis for the popular 1973 book “Sybil,” by Flora Rheta Schreiber, and two television adaptations, one in 1976 with Joanne Woodward and Sally Field and the other in 2008 with Jessica Lange.

Critics later challenged Dr. Wilbur’s methods, saying they had encouraged the woman’s behavior. Dr. Spiegel agreed. He argued that Sybil had disassociation disorder, not multiple personalities, and he voiced his reservations when the book became part of a debate in recent years over the causes of such disorders.

Yet more than anything, it was Dr. Spiegel’s rigorous studies of hypnosis, as well as his easygoing, matter-of-fact presence, that most impressed other doctors and patients.

“He wasn’t Svengali-like; he didn’t have this Mesmer voice,” said Dr. Philip R. Muskin, a psychiatrist at Columbia. “He was a regular guy with this Midwestern accent who explained in a very straightforward way that hypnosis was something you could learn that’s useful. He really took the techniques out of the dark alleys, out of Hollywood and the world of the circus, and moved them into mainstream medicine.”

Many therapists now use hypnosis to aid treatment, and the National Institutes of Health have financed dozens of studies of the technique to reduce pain and accelerate healing.

Herbert Spiegel was born on June 29, 1914, in McKeesport, Pa., one of four children of Sam and Lena Spiegel. His father ran a successful wholesale grocery business; his mother, the household.

Their only son attended the University of Pittsburgh before enrolling in medical school at the University of Maryland, where he graduated in 1939. After completing his internship at St. Francis Hospital in Pittsburgh, he did a residency in psychiatry at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, where he first learned hypnosis.

But it was during World War II — Dr. Spiegel served as a battalion surgeon in North Africa from 1942 to 1946 — that the young doctor first witnessed the power of hypnosis. “I discovered that it was possible to use persuasion and suggestion to help the men return to previous levels of function” after severe combat stress, he later wrote. He used the same techniques on himself after suffering a shrapnel wound that earned him a Purple Heart.

Dr. Spiegel’s first marriage, to Dr. Natalie Shainess, ended in divorce. In addition to his son, he is survived by a daughter, Dr. Ann Spiegel, a pediatrician in Phoenix; four grandchildren; and his wife, Marcia Greenleaf, a therapist who collaborated with him and who was with him at his death.

Dr. Spiegel received a long list of awards and held academic appointments at a number of institutions, including John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York University and, for more than 20 years, Columbia. His book “Trance and Treatment: Clinical Uses of Hypnosis,” written with his son, is a classic in the field.

But he was, until the end, a therapist. “He saw a patient a few days before he died,” his son said.

Trance and Treatment: Clinical Uses of Hypnosis by Herbert Spiegel

I resumed reading my great book about sleep, The Head Trip by Jeff Warren, and in the chapter on "The Trance," Jeff mentions Drs. Herbert and David Spiegel, and their landmark book Trance andTreatment, so I just ordered a cheap 1978 first edition copy on abe.com.


Trance and Treatment: Clinical Uses of Hypnosis by Herbert Spiegel and David Spiegel

What is hypnosis? Despite widespread misconceptions, hypnosis is not a treatment in itself; instead, it is a facilitator, a useful diagnostic tool that can help the practitioner choose an appropriate treatment modality and accelerate various primary treatment strategies.

The second edition of this remarkable work (first published 25 years ago) is written to provide both beginning and seasoned practitioners with a brief, disciplined technique for mobilizing and learning from an individual's capacity to concentrate.

Putting to rest both exaggerated fears about hypnosis and overblown statements of its efficacy, this compelling volume brings scientific discipline to a systematic exploration of the clinical uses and limitations of hypnosis.

The challenge was to develop a clinical measurement that could transform a fascinating amalgam of anecdotes, speculations, clinical intuitions and observations, and laboratory advances into a more fruitful and systematic body of information.

Thus was born the authors' Hypnotic Induction Profile (HIP), a crucial 10-minute clinical assessment procedure that relates the spectrum of hypnotizability to personality style, psychopathology, and treatment outcome.

Structured to reflect the flow of a typical evaluation and treatment session and highlighted by case examples throughout, this remarkable synthesis describes how to use the HIP, reviews relevant literature, and details principles and short- and long-term treatment strategies for smoking control; eating disorders; anxiety, concentration, and insomnia; phobias; pain control; psychosomatic disorders and conversion symptoms; trichotillomania; stuttering; and acute and posttraumatic stress disorders and dissociation.

Meticulously referenced and indexed, this in-depth work concludes with an appendix on the interpretation and standardization of the HIP. This unique work stands out in the literature because - it is written both as an introduction for practitioners new to hypnosis and as an in-depth guide for practitioners with wide experience in hypnosis.

Unlike current clinical works, it emphasizes the importance of performing a systematic assessment of hypnotizability to identify, measure, and utilize a given patient's optimal therapeutic potential, a process that, until now, has been relegated to clinical intuition.

It describes human behavior phenomenologically as it relates to hypnosis in a probable rather than an absolute fashion. It reviews only specific portions of the literature that are particularly relevant to the important themes presented by the authors. Wherever possible, the authors apply statistical methods to test their hypotheses. The realm of scientific investigation encompassing hypnosis and psychological dysfunction is comparatively new.

This exceptional volume, with its profusion of systematic data, will spark controversy and interest among scientific students of hypnosis everywhere, from psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychoanalysts to physicians, dentists, and other interested clinicians.

Byron Gysin's Dreamachine

I seem to have gone a bit "New Age" nutty lately. I suppose it's the irresistible appeal of enriching my mind, sleep, and mood without the use of those bad, bad "Big Phrama" meds. Do "natural" supplements work? Does hypnosis? How about "New Age" mental training to expand memory, creativity, and feed neural growth and amp up neuroplasticity? My current thinking is that if chronic stress damages neural connections, intense learning, and deep relaxation should reinvigorate them to a great degree. Call me a gullible optimist (More snake oil, sir?). Thus, this "New Age" line of research for me. It's probably just a fad or phase.

Of course, a healthy diet, sound sleep, and regular exercise do most of the good health work. While you're busy at being healthy, you might as well throw in saving more than you spend, and avoid incurring debt.

Herbs, spices, and vitamins? Well, they should work, right? Many medical establishment folks insist they don't, or point out that there's little scientific evidence for any of the bold claims made by many of these supplements and antioxidants. True, but it seems many don't work, until they do work, and then the medical people warn you off. Don't abuse caffeine, weed, or achohol. Beware of Ephedra, tryptophan, and Kava Kava!

γ-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) could be purchased in health foods until it was unleashed as a "date rape" drug by some sickos. As Wiki notes, "GHB has been used in a medical setting as a general anesthetic, to treat conditions such as insomnia, clinical depression, narcolepsy, and alcoholism, and to improve athletic performance. It is also used as an intoxicant (illegally in many jurisdictions) or as a date rape drug." So now we only have access to the highly regulated synthetic drug version of GHB, Xyrem (sodium oxybate), a Schedule III drug.

So, it seems supplements could and do work at times. Be careful, though. Of course, that same advice goes double for any prescription drugs. As we all know, you could go broke fast, buying and experimenting with supplements (Amazon, here we come), and bear in mind they are not a wise substitute for "conventional Western medicine" for any serious medical problem. But for chronic, not-too-severe, "lifestyle" problems, they might just be more helpful than sleep or anxiety meds. I guess cautious trial and error is the only way to find out (and the placebo effect counts!).

Meanwhile, how about mental training such as meditation, autogenic training, guided imagery, relaxtion response, yoga, or self-hypnosis? It seems to me they too could work, and should be explored. They seem much lower risk than the supplements.

And what about training technology such as "bio feedback?" To that end, I watched a trippy documentary about a sixties "Dreamachine" this weekend, FLicKeR.

FLicKeR (2008)

Brion Gysin (Actor), Kenneth Anger (Actor), Nik Sheehan (Director) | Rated: NR | Format: DVD

This award-winning documentary about poet, artist, calligrapher and mystic Brion Gysin, portrays the life and legacy of an artist who believed art could revolutionize human consciousness. FLicKeR chronicles Gysin’s complex ideas, friendships and influence with some of the 20th century’s key counterculture figures, such as William S. Burroughs, Kurt Cobain and Marianne Faithful. Featuring greats like Burroughs (in archival footage), singer Marianne Faithfull, singer/artist Genesis P-Orridge of Psychic TV, poet John Giorno, punk rocker Iggy Pop, filmmaker Kenneth Anger and artist/turntablist DJ Spooky, FLicKeR is a hypnotic documentary. Taking the dream machine as the basis of its explorations, this film asks crucial questions about the nature of art and consciousness, and imagines humanity liberated to explore its creativity in complete freedom."

Brion Gysin's Dreammachine. Yes, it looks a bit like a cheesy lava lamp. With Ian Sommerville, Gysin built the Dreamachine in 1961. Described as "the first art object to be seen with the eyes closed", the flicker device is said to use alpha waves in the 8-16 Hz range to produce a change of consciousness in receptive viewers.