How do you know if hypnosis works?

[Like Ra]

This is a pretty much reliable method - brain scanner!

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140...-possessed

Although I didn’t feel like I was faking it, I ask Walsh whether he is ever concerned his subjects are pretending. He agrees the possibility casts an ever-present shadow over the research. “Anytime you submit a study to a journal, it’s one of the reviewers’ favourite questions,” he says. But advances in brain scanning have begun to lay those concerns to rest. While in the brain scanner, the hypnotiser might tell the subject to see a black and white photograph in colour, for instance – and you would see the areas for colour processing bursting into action as if they were actually looking at a real-life scene. Importantly, when the same subjects are simply asked to ‘pretend’ to experience, or imagine, those feelings, you don’t see the same activity. Such results have converted many sceptics.

[hypno.orgasmatronic]

I think you know hypnosis is working when your behavior starts to change and you knowingly or unknowingly start accepting and following the suggestions of your hypnotist in your behaviors.  Samantha Sez, in my case unlocks some sort of hidden pleasure/mind control switch in my brain allowing me to experience things that I would have otherwise resisted or not even considered.  One way I can tell is that With her style I get the sensation of my mind going completely blank as well as a ‘tingle’ during a successful session, and then I have the need to experience it repeatedly like an obsession.

[Like Ra]

I think you know hypnosis is working when your behavior starts to change and you knowingly or unknowingly start accepting and following the suggestions of your hypnotist in your behaviors. 

I agree, but this is the most difficult thing to prove, that it was caused by hypnosis and not by role playing using the "hypnosis" as an excuse.

[Like Ra]

Maybe trying measuring overall happiness?

You do not need any hypnosis for that. A pretty girl on the street smiles back and you are happy 😉

I personally don't think there is a way to know for sure if hypnosis is working.

See above in the thread 😊

[Zooy]

I think that the biggest difficulty here is how to distinguish any effect from a placebo effect.
The only double blind experiment I can think of at the moment would involve subliminals.

[Like Ra]

If the file is supposed to make changes without me knowing, how will I know I've been tricked!

"Well done propaganda is unnoticeable. If you notice propaganda, it's done wrong". Same for hidden suggestions, that can add a tendency in the decision process, slightly modify behaviour or do nothing. E.g. it can be a simple musical file with no suggestions at all, but the description would say, that the file contains black magic, that will make you STRAIGHT, even if you smoke. And you might begin to "notice" something, that you never "noticed" before.

As for behaviour, I see two options:

o- you must be VERY aware of your actions (think "mindfullness") to notice any non-standard inclinations
o- "unlikelinesses" might be noticed by others, who know you well

However:

Some changes can be explained by other factors, like our natural changes over the time, diet vs exercise, etc.

[Like Ra]

I think that the biggest difficulty here is how to distinguish any effect from a placebo effect.

In fact, ANY hypnosis is placebo, because it's immaterial, non-physical. It's even more placebo than a placebo pill, because placebo pills are made from something, e.g. chalk (what might directly affect the acidity of the stomach environment). The efficacy of placebo pills are based on a "suggestion", and suggestions is an essential part of any hypnosis 😊

[thominhose]

I think that the biggest difficulty here is how to distinguish any effect from a placebo effect.

In fact, ANY hypnosis is placebo, because it's immaterial, non-physical. It's even more placebo than a placebo pill, because placebo pills are made from something, e.g. chalk (what might directly affect the acidity of the stomach environment). The efficacy of placebo pills are based on a "suggestion", and suggestions is an essential part of any hypnosis 😊

I'd just like to throw in a bunch of thoughts about differentiating from a Placebo. From what I've read, hypnosis affects dopamine levels, i.e. tweaks your brain chemistry and in fact only does so by handing over mainly acoustic and perhaps also visual information. If you state that this is even less actual input than a placebo pill, I do not think that this is what should be a parameter in the comparison, because whatever you're ingesting instead of actual medicine is meant to be "neutral", else you would invalidate any study employing placebos. Also, think about daylight. You are not ingesting anything when exposing skin to the sun and yet it affects your essential vitamin D levels and hormones and its definitely not considered a placebo. Or sleep, highly necessary for the human organism, but is there anything coming from the outside that is not also received when in the wake state?
Another difference: placebos fail to work when you're aware of them being used, which is not the case for hypnosis, but then again, hypnosis might also fail if I'm convinced that it won't work??? Oh damnit... 😉

[Zooy]

The situation is even more complex.
A few years ago there was a BBC documentary on placebo's (I cannot find it back. A google search gives many such documentaries but not the one I looked for). The most striking experiment was from Harvard university where they gave a number of people placebo's, telling them that they were placebo's. One of the participants was a medical student with a very bad case of IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). She knew very well what a placebo is. Yet it cured her IBS. Until the experiment was over and she did no longer get the placebo. She moved heaven and earth to get more of the stuff, but because it wasn't a registered medication she could not.

If you say that hypnosis is like a placebo and once you know that it should not work, apparently that may not be the whole truth. We still do not know how the thinking mind can/will influence the parts that operate without us being aware of it, like the whole defence mechanism. It is clear that placebo's can trick the mind into controlling that to some extend. My expectation is that with hypnosis this should also be possible, but how is probably still a big mystery.
There are occasionally cases of cancers that are cured against all expectations of the specialists. Does this involve such a type of control? Could this be achieved with hypnosis?

I am a master of Reiki, and as far as I can figure out, it works on the same level. It gives the (right) patient the confidence to heal themselves. But how that works internally, I have no idea.

It will not be easy to really determine whether an effect is due to hypnosis or something else, because people usually do many other things at the same time. Hence one needs lots of statistics at the least. That is why I said in an earlier post that the only experiment I can think of and that is double blind is something with subliminals where neither the patient nor the therapist knows what is in the subliminals.

[Like Ra]

You are not ingesting anything when exposing skin to the sun and yet it affects your essential vitamin D levels and hormones and its definitely not considered a placebo.

That's radiation in a hugely wide spectrum. Definitely far from placebo.

whatever you're ingesting instead of actual medicine is meant to be "neutral", else you would invalidate any study employing placebos.

If you can disregard the side-effect of the placebo pill, if the working of the actual medicine is very far from the effect of the "placebo material" (which can also be present in the the "real pill"), then everything is OK.

Or sleep, highly necessary for the human organism, but is there anything coming from the outside that is not also received when in the wake state?

Yes, you use internal mechanisms with no external physical or informational influence.

Another difference: placebos fail to work when you're aware of them being used, which is not the case for hypnosis, but then again, hypnosis might also fail if I'm convinced that it won't work??? Oh damnit...

Bingo! Both hypnosis and medical placebo are no more, no less, but provided information. Generally, you do not need any external information, you can concentrate on something internally. This is called "self-hypnosis", "meditation on XXX", etc. 😊