“The problem with that technique was that it often didn’t work when the patient actually had to face the situation in the real world. Often, a patient would revert back to his former tendencies with respect to the object of the phobia.
“We were researching a different therapy method. It was based on some of the same underlying principles as systematic desensitization, but we took everything a step farther with the hope that our results would be absolute, long term and faster.”
“What did your method involve?” Torrie asked.
“It was based on a combination of what is now known as flooding and exposure therapy . . . uh, Ed, these are two other techniques. In flooding, the patient is asked to imagine situations related to the phobia that the therapist describes, situations that are designed to cause severe anxiety.”
“You throw the patient into the deep end to teach him to swim, right?” Ed said.
“Yes. How did you . . .” Dr. Austin started to say, sounding surprised. “Are you familiar with exposure therapy too?”
“It has something to do with gradually exposing the patient to the object of their phobia until the fear dissipates,” Ed said. “I must’ve seen something about it on the Discovery Channel or something like that.”
“I must’ve missed that episode,” Dr. Austin said while looking suspiciously from Ed to Torrie. “Our method was based on using hypnosis for both providing the imagery to the patient and controlling his anxiety level in combination with, at times, physically placing the patient in the phobia related situations.”
“Hypnosis?” Ed said. “Isn’t that just a bad cliché stolen from a Fu Manchu movie? I didn’t think hypnosis was used for anything outside the entertainment field . . . or to stop smoking now,” he joked.
“Actually,” Dr. Austin said, “hypnosis has been practiced in various forms by many cultures since ancient times, for thousands of years. Look at some of the current Eastern religions that use meditation. Meditation is a form of self-hypnosis. Even the relaxation techniques practiced in traditional systematic desensitization are a form of self-hypnosis. In fact, the hypnotic state can, and does, occur naturally and spontaneously on a daily basis. Have you ever been typing at your computer and began staring off into space, momentarily lost in a daydream?”
“Sure, who hasn’t?” Ed said.
“That’s also a form of self-hypnosis,” Dr. Austin said. “See, hypnosis is simply a method of inducing a trance or dream-like state, an altered state of consciousness, if you will. It’s designed to induce a relaxed and suggestible state of mind characterized by an extreme or intense state of concentration, suggestibility, receptiveness, responsiveness, relaxation and heightened imagination. Once the subject is hypnotized, he is hyper-attentive and hyper-suggestible. The subject is fully conscious, but he tunes out most of the stimuli surrounding him and narrowly directs his concentration on a particular focal point to the near exclusion of all other thought. It’s not as hokey as you think.”
“Okay, I’ll keep an open mind about it, but how effective can hypnosis be?” Ed asked.
“Under traditional hypnosis methodology, its effectiveness varies from person to person depending on a multitude of variables too numerous to explain,” Dr. Austin said. “But even under traditional techniques, there have been exceptional cases where, for example, major surgery has been performed without anesthesia. Hypnosis can produce unusual feats of attention control and strength, physiological regulation, improved memory recall . . . it can even produce a hallucinogenic effect where the subject believes he is able to see and feel objects that aren’t really present or experience events that aren’t taking place. The imaginary events can cause real emotions, like fear, as if the events were actually happening.”
“I’ve seen that done on stage in comedy clubs,” Ed said.
“There you go,” Dr. Austin said. “You’ve seen how effective hypnosis can be.”
“How does it work?” Ed asked.
“You might as well ask how the human mind works,” Torrie commented.
“It’s not as esoteric as that,” Dr. Austin said. “We know the basics of how hypnosis works.”
“Explain,” Torrie said.
“Sure, but I apologize in advance to Ed if I get too technical,” Dr. Austin said. “You see, the brain has different levels of consciousness ranging from fully alert to drowsy to deep sleep, with variations in between. When you’re in a state of complete wakefulness, the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex is more active; the left hemisphere is the logical control center of the brain responsible for activities like deduction and reasoning. However, when the brain is calm or in a state of sleep, activity in the right hemisphere increases; the right hemisphere is the imagination and creativity control center.
“Under hypnosis, the brain undergoes a physiological change. This has been documented. If you look at the EEG pattern produced under hypnosis, you can see a boost in the lower frequency alpha waves associated with dreaming and sleep and a decrease in the higher frequency waves associated with full wakefulness.”
“So, when you’re hypnotized, the brain acts as if it’s asleep,” Ed said.
“In a sense,” Dr. Austin said. “Hypnosis is primarily a special psychological state with certain physiological attributes resembling sleep superficially and marked by the functioning of the individual at an extremely heightened level of concentration. It works more like an override system to inhibit the critical faculties of the cerebral cortex to directly access a person’s subconscious mind.”
“You’re losing me, Doc,” Ed said.
“Sorry,” Dr. Austin said. “See, a person has an active, conscious mind that evaluates and processes information as it’s received; the conscious mind performs decision-making functions. Conversely, the passive, unconscious mind takes care of things you do automatically, including breathing, regulating your heartbeat, constructing sentences out of a vast storeroom of words or locating keys on a computer’s keyboard when typing. In reality, the subconscious mind performs most of your everyday thinking and executes most everyday functions. The subconscious mind is also the seat of imagination and impulse; it regulates bodily sensations, touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing; emotional feelings; and is the storehouse for memories.
“When you’re awake, the conscious mind will relay certain information to the subconscious mind to act on as well as evaluate some of the subconscious mind’s decisions. During these processes, the conscious mind, among other things, acts as a filter of behavior; it’s the inhibitory influence; it puts on the brakes, so to speak. But when the subconscious mind is in control, normal repressions are lifted—you feel much freer and more creative.
“Hypnosis acts as a way to access a person’s subconscious mind directly; it calms and subdues the conscious mind so the unconscious mind can take over. Once the filter of the conscious mind is eliminated, a very simple suggestion can produce the same physical or emotional sensations in the hypnotized individual as if he were actually experiencing them. The mind and body are inextricably intertwined, allowing a simple suggestion to turn an imaginary event into a real one, as far as the hypnotized subject is concerned; suggestions become real, the subject embraces the idea completely. For example, there have been cases where a person under hypnosis has been induced by mere suggestion into producing allergic reactions, sunburns, blisters, cure diseases . . . there have even been cases where a subject has shown signs of the stigmata and began bleeding from the head as if he were wearing Christ’s crown of thorns.”
“A simple suggestion can produce all this?” Ed said in amazement.
“Yes, but under traditional hypnosis methods, not everyone can be put into the deep hypnosis state of hyper-suggestibility,” Dr. Austin said. “That was one of the goals of our research, to find out how and why some people have a greater propensity towards becoming easily hypnotized, as well as finding out why some people are more suggestible than others. Our hypothesis was that if we could more easily induce hypnosis
and obtain better control over our patients when hypnotized, then we could cure the phobia faster and more effectively than by using the methods in use at the time.”
“Any luck?” Ed asked.
“Yes,” Dr. Austin said. “We started by trying to figure out how and why the mind, body and emotions communicate. Through a series of observations and experiments that I won’t bore you with the particulars of, we discovered that there are certain bio-chemicals, now known as neuropeptides or messenger molecules, that circulate throughout the body in the blood, lymph and cerebrospinal fluid and regulate almost all life processes on a cellular level, thereby linking all the body systems. Although almost every tissue in the body produces them, they’re produced primarily in the brain. Neuropeptides send chemical messages from the brain to receptor sites on cell membranes throughout the entire body and influence all systems in the body by altering the input signal and forcing the body to accommodate the new signal. Bottom line is they can alter our perception of the environment.”
“Okay, I’m kind of following,” Ed said, “but what do these, um, messenger chemical-things have to do with whether the conscious or unconscious mind is controlling a person’s behavior?”
“Neuropeptides are the key to everything,” Dr. Austin said. “Regardless of whether the conscious or the unconscious mind is in control, the brain controls the body by releasing these chemicals. If you can control the messages sent to various regions of the body, you control mind, body and emotions just like a puppeteer controls a marionette.”
“How do you control the brain’s release of these chemicals?” Torrie asked. “Drugs?”
“We had no success with any drugs in existence,” Dr. Austin said. “But we discovered that neuropeptides are mood specific. Every change in the mental-emotional state, whether conscious or unconscious, causes a change in the body physiology; it’s the source of the mind/body connection. Some people are more emotional than others depending on which area of their brain produces the majority of the neuropeptides that are distributed throughout the body. The significance of this finding was that it explained why certain people are more easily hypnotized or more suggestible than others. There’s a genetic-biological component; some people are just born that way. We were able to isolate the area of the brain that produces the neuropeptides that are associated with placing a subject into a state of deep hypnosis and hyper-suggestibility.
“Once we knew the location of the brain where the desired hypnotic neuropeptides originated from, it was a matter of finding a way to maintain control over how to release them into the body, thereby obtaining complete control over the subject. You could say that we were searching for the key to open the lock of the subconscious mind.
“During this part of our research, we made another important discovery that brought us closer to finding the key. We found that people respond differently under hypnosis depending on the wording used by the hypnotist. The most efficient means to achieving a high degree of receptivity, or hyper-suggestibility, is to allow the subject to choose the imagery and suggestions that comprise the hypnosis. By using these techniques, we were able to directly tap into that area of the brain that produced the hypnosis-related neuropeptides and were able to place anyone into a deep hypnotic state of hyper-suggestibility. We found the key to opening the subconscious mind.”
“So, let me get this straight, you can basically control anyone through these hypnosis techniques you developed?” Torrie asked.
“Even that segment of the population who were previously considered resistant to hypnosis,” Dr. Austin answered. “But our research didn’t stop here. We knew how to place anyone into a state of hyper-suggestibility, but we still couldn’t figure out why certain people went into that state quicker than others. This was our next area of focus.
“I stumbled onto a hypothesis about the reasons for this quite by accident. I saw an article in the newspaper about some religious cult whose premise seemed particularly ridiculous to me. It made me wonder how the spiritual leader of the cult was able to convince so many people that his absurd ideas made sense. From there I began wondering why certain evangelists, or even salesman, were more successful than others. Was there some sort of minor hypnotic effect taking place?
“We’d already discovered that certain people were genetically engineered to be more receptive to hypnotic suggestions, so it made sense that certain people were genetically engineered to more easily place people into a hypnotic trance, even if only a minor one. Some people are born with this ability. I’m sure you’ve heard people say, ‘so and so has a hypnotic personality,’ or ‘a hypnotic gaze’ or ‘hypnotic eyes.’ In some of those cases, people are referring to the fact that certain people are more readily able to convince people into their line of thinking, the reason being, that they’re using a method that’s a minor form of hypnosis.”
“Come on,” Ed said. “Are you saying that people use hypnosis all the time without even knowing it? That sounds a little outrageous to me.”
“That’s because you’re thinking of hypnosis only in terms of someone on a stage jumping around and clucking like a chicken,” Dr. Austin said. “As I said before, hypnosis is simply a technique to place someone in a relaxed and more suggestible state, and there are different degrees of hypnosis. Your problem with this hypothesis is a question of semantics, not with its application, which has been observed even by you.”
Ed nodded. “Maybe.”
“During this stage of our research, we were fortunate to have a psychotic patient who believed that he could hear other people’s thoughts,” Dr. Austin said.
“This is telepathy, not hypnosis,” Ed said. “Now you’re venturing farther into the area of voodoo-science.”
“Am I?” Dr. Austin said. “This particular patient was uncanny in the accuracy of his observations, something around an eighty percent success rate. I’m sure you’ve also heard stories of twins who had what some would call a telepathic link? Or how about mothers being more in tune with their children?”
“Yeah, I’ve heard about these stories, but I never believed them,” Ed said.
“Just keep an open mind for a minute,” Dr. Austin said. “As we continued our research, we discovered that this so-called telepathic link wasn’t exactly telepathy. We figured out that what was really going on was that our psychotic patient was able to tune into subtle clues that the other person was giving, seemingly reading the other person’s mind. It wasn’t so much mind reading as being keenly observant. That’s why twins and mothers are so often given telepathic abilities, because they’re more in tune to the mannerisms, etcetera of their other twin or children.”
“So, how was this patient of yours able to accomplish the same feat in people who he was unfamiliar with?” Torrie asked.
“He used a form of self-hypnosis allowing him to focus in on subtle variations in a person’s demeanor that were invisible to others,” Dr. Austin said. “He only thought he heard the other person’s thoughts in his head, but that was due to his psychosis. In reality, he was simply gathering information surreptitiously through subtle but conventional sensory clues.
“Remember, when in a hypnotic state, the subject tunes out the majority of the stimuli around him to the exclusion of one object of focus. In this case, the object of his focus was the person whose mind he thought he was reading. I guess you could compare it to tuning a radio station in clearly so that you’re picking up one distinct station instead of several stations that are close together on the dial. This is also the same technique that successful evangelists and salesmen . . . even trance mediums and those who claim to hear the voice of God use without realizing it; it’s performed on a subconscious level. Being able to read a person to this degree is definitely a unique ability, but it’s not what we think of when we use the term telepathic.
“Trish and I were even able to teach ourselves this ability. I’m still not sure exactly how it works, but I’ll explain as much as I’ve been able to figure out. As near as I c
an figure, we could enter into a state of self-hypnosis similar to meditation, and in this state, we were somehow able to focus in on a subject to the point where we were able to bring the subject into a deep state of hypnosis almost instantaneously because we were so tuned into his reactions to our hypnotic method. In other words, we found out how to access the subconscious mind directly and quickly.”
“Were you born with this ability, was it just something you were able to develop or a little of both?” Torrie asked. “I guess what I’m really asking is, can anybody be taught how to do this?”
Dr. Austin fidgeted nervously in reaction to the question. “I haven’t tested enough subjects to know the answer to that question,” he said, and quickly changed the subject. “Anyway, once we were able to quickly place someone into a state of hyper-suggestibility, we began our research into using this method to help cure patients of their phobias. We had some very promising results, but our research center was abruptly shut down when one of our patients died . . . through no fault of either Trish or myself, I might add. We were exonerated from any wrongdoing, but because of certain, ah, political reasons, we were forbidden from continuing with this type of research.”
“How did the patient die?” Ed asked.
“That’s something that I’m not at liberty to discuss due to patient confidentiality reasons,” Dr. Austin answered, although he refused to look Ed in the eye while he spoke. “But that’s the story of our quote, unquote, experiments. Nothing nefarious about it. I hope this’ll put an end to some of those nasty rumors you’ve heard.”
“If that’s all there is to it, why didn’t you just make all this public a long time ago; why the secrecy?” Ed asked.
“We’re not supposed to discuss our research, or anything else that went on in the clinic back in the sixties,” Dr. Austin said. “In fact, I could probably get into trouble for telling you two about it, but I thought it was time to bring an end to this nonsense. What’s done is done.”
The Fringe Dwellers Page 20