Notes - an hypothesis on Amorella / first person storytellers

         You both awoke with the pending sunrise had breakfast and read the paper. As hypnosis has been a basic part of your original experimental writing you found this article on Quora interesting. You did not have a problem performing the Stroop test in the article below. – Amorella

         0737 hours. I underlined what appears most important to me – the unusual use of language in hypnosis. The focus of the article shows me that Amorella may be an automated self-referential segment of my own personality. That is, she is more than pure imagination as in an imaginary childhood friend for your adult self. This helps explain to me why I think she is more than just imagination. This is then another hypothesis, and more likely the case than others I have come up with. Amorella allows me a perspective I would not otherwise have. Like it is easier to see depth with two eyes than one Amorella allows me a depth of thought and imagination I would not have without her because she acts, as it were, as a second outside myself ‘I’ so that for me it is added depth. Other people, who do not have the miss-wiring in the brain to begin with, might not have any use for Amorella. For me she is as a mental crutch to help me get the ‘reality’ of each day as a living human being.

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Selected and edited from - Quora

What is the science behind hypnosis?

Paul King, Computational Neuroscientist, Software Entrepreneur

Hypnosis is a real phenomenon, and even animals can be hypnotized. But what hypnotism is, exactly, remains unclear.

In a remarkable experiment reported in the New York Times [1], subjects were given the post-hypnotic suggestion that they would see words that would appear incomprehensible as if in a foreign language. They were then put in a brain scanner and asked to perform the "Stroop task" in which one reads aloud the color of words but not the text.

Here is an example Stroop task shown in English and Dutch:

[I could not copy the Stroop task but it can be found by clicking the title: What is the science behind hypnosis?]

When the words are in a foreign language, the task is easy. When they are in your native language, it is almost impossible to do correctly (try it!) due to an "interference effect" that causes the meaning of the words to take priority over their visual color.

However with the post-hypnotic suggestion, subjects were able to do this task effortlessly. Not only that, but the fMRI brain scan revealed that the brain region responsible for language did not become activated. So not only did the words "seem" to the subject to be in a foreign language, the brain actually processed them as if they were. This experiment may be the first solid evidence that hypnosis is a real neurological phenomenon.

But what kind of phenomenon is it? This is where the controversy begins.

Hypnosis is generally regarded as an altered state of consciousness, a broad category that includes meditative states, the "flow" state, psychedelic drug-induced states, and psychosis. But since consciousness isn't understood, alterations to it aren't very well understood either.

More specifically, hypnosis is a state of extreme "suggestibility," a phenomenon that includes the placebo effect, advertising, and religious cults, but may also include any context-specific behavior. If a stranger at a train station asks you to take off your clothes, you would call the police. But if a stranger wearing a white coat at a hospital makes the same request, you would comply naturally. Have you been hypnotized?

Hypnotism may simply be the artful manipulation of attention, language, and context to establish an alternate set of temporary beliefs, which then influence perception and behavior.

The hypnotic induction procedure generally involves three components: direction of attention, unusual use of language, and tests. The direction of attention determines what will or will not enter perceptual awareness. The unusual use of language can divide consciousness, so that suggestions are made indirectly while reasoning and skepticism is distracted. The tests are tasks used to create the illusion that the subject has surrendered control to the hypnotist, thereby causing the subject to surrender more control. For example the hypnotist may say your eyelids feel heavy, so that when you feel it, you believe that you are now hypnotized, which causes you to become more hypnotized.

Many trance levels have been identified. In some models, there are more than 30 distinct "trance depths" from lightly suggestible to the ability to forget words, not see an object, see something change color, not notice pain, or "fall asleep" on command. While a stage hypnotist can persuade someone to do something embarrassing, it is generally understood that people will not act against their own value system.

Hypnotic effects do not always require a formal induction procedure. Milton Erickson, perhaps the most effective hypnotherapist who ever lived [2], was once treating a boy who came into the hospital E-R needing stitches on his forehead. Rather than using anesthesia, Erickson explained to the boy how he would sew up the wound if he were to do it. He explained what he would do in great detail, gesturing around the boy's head and going through the motions. The boy became impatient and asked him when he was going to start. Erickson replied that he had already finished.

Selected and edited from - http://www.quoraDOTcom

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         Indeed this is as good a hypothesis as any other. I help you ‘see’ things ‘unseen’ to yourself; things that most other people can readily see for themselves to begin with. I have no trouble with this and can as easily accept this as you can. Post. - Amorella

         Late afternoon. You had Panera/Chipotle for a late lunch, which surrounded by prelude to trip errands. You are packed but for essential tonight but the car is not packed at this point. – Amorella

         1658 hours. This is the way we work; actually the process is quite organized. Carol has been an excellent packer since their days living in Korea and Vietnam. In Vietnam they always had to be able to leave the country within four to six hours if I remember correctly. The fuel in the car was never less than half full. Her mother, with four girls ranging from elementary to high school age was super organized in that fashion. No choice. I know I’ve mentioned this before but it is so cool that her mother is in the Life Magazine (Time) film on the Last Plane out of Saigon. Dad stayed behind to help other high level Vietnamese out. Carol and her mom always said the plane seemed like it was going straight up when taking off. They never had another take off like it before or after.

         That was the memory that almost always comes to mind of that circumstance and you weren’t even there. Isn’t that strange? – Amorella

         1706 hours. I just froze the story in my head trying to imagine how it must have been, and how it was for Dad H. (We heard his stories later. They were dramatic and ongoing. The searching for Vietnam friends Dad had promised to help get out when the time came. Some made it, some did not. How heavy all their hearts must have been. It was war brought home to Saigon. Even servants may have been killed because they worked for Americans. I cannot imagine the horror of those days. All I had to do is watch the eyes of the first person storytellers – the depth reached from their hearts to their souls – no question about it in my mind. I absorbed the words and the humanity leaking from their eyes. So very sad. If I had been on that last plane I would have been crying my eyes out.

         Indeed you would have boy. You have an intensity to live those first person stories in your life as if they had happened to you. Why, because those storytellers got to your heart and also touched your soul. Post. - Amorella