Hypnotherapy

Continuing the discussion from http://psiencequest.net/forums/thread-an...rgy-healer (where it was off-topic) ...

There is a reference to a report in the Medical Journal of Australia of the use of hypnosis as the sole anaesthetic for a range of dental and surgical procedures during the Japanese occupation of Singapore in 1945, when the availability of conventional anaesthetics was severely restricted:

An abstract of this is available here:
http://anesthesiology.pubs.asahq.org/art...id=1972570

On Skeptiko, Wormwood posted an interesting YouTube video about lucid dreaming, and commented on a case related by Patricia Garfield, in which a woman regained her ability to walk following a severe ankle fracture, by going inside her ankle in a lucid dream and "removing a bunch of junk".
http://www.skeptiko-forum.com/threads/dr...ost-123972

I'm posting it here because it sounds similar to the visualisation techniques sometimes used in hypnotherapy. For example, in his book "If This Be Magic" Guy Lyon Playfair discusses a case in which it was claimed that a cancer patient had restricted the flow of blood to a tumour by visualising a boiler room full of valves and pipes, and turning off the flow in the relevant pipe.

The video also mentions a case related in Robert Waggoner's book "Lucid Dreaming", in which a man who experienced a cigarette burn during a lucid dream, woke with a burn mark in the same location on his hand. Again, this is similar to claims made about blisters being produced by hypnotic suggestion:
http://psiencequest.net/forums/thread-un...abreaction

On Skeptiko, Wormwood posted an interesting YouTube video about lucid dreaming, and commented on a case related by Patricia Garfield, in which a woman regained her ability to walk following a severe ankle fracture, by going inside her ankle in a lucid dream and "removing a bunch of junk".
http://www.skeptiko-forum.com/threads/dr...ost-123972

I'm posting it here because it sounds similar to the visualisation techniques sometimes used in hypnotherapy. For example, in his book "If This Be Magic" Guy Lyon Playfair discusses a case in which it was claimed that a cancer patient had restricted the flow of blood to a tumour by visualising a boiler room full of valves and pipes, and turning off the flow in the relevant pipe.

When I told him about this, a friend suggested there could also be a link to storytelling therapy, which is discussed in this Huffington Post article:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-c...10115.html

On Skeptiko, Wormwood posted an interesting YouTube video about lucid dreaming, and commented on a case related by Patricia Garfield, in which a woman regained her ability to walk following a severe ankle fracture, by going inside her ankle in a lucid dream and "removing a bunch of junk".
http://www.skeptiko-forum.com/threads/dr...ost-123972

I'm posting it here because it sounds similar to the visualisation techniques sometimes used in hypnotherapy. For example, in his book "If This Be Magic" Guy Lyon Playfair discusses a case in which it was claimed that a cancer patient had restricted the flow of blood to a tumour by visualising a boiler room full of valves and pipes, and turning off the flow in the relevant pipe.

The video also mentions a case related in Robert Waggoner's book "Lucid Dreaming", in which a man who experienced a cigarette burn during a lucid dream, woke with a burn mark in the same location on his hand. Again, this is similar to claims made about blisters being produced by hypnotic suggestion:
http://psiencequest.net/forums/thread-un...abreaction

The GLP book is very interesting. Funnily enough I am working my way through it at them moment.

An interesting article on Folklore Thursday, about Arthur Spray of Bexhill, Sussex (1889-1961), a healer who claimed to have "natural magnetic powers", apparently meaning hypnotism. The article is based on "Spooky Spray's" autobiography published in 1935, and other documents at Bexhill Museum:
http://folklorethursday.com/urban-folklo...r-bexhill/

The author - Julian Porter, the curator of the Museum - makes the point that without Spray's autobiography very little would be known about him, with the implication that there may have been many such people whose careers are largely undocumented.