EEG Recordings of Experiments in Hypnotic Age Regression

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that certain subjects, highly susceptible to deep hypnosis, display neurological and electrical activity similar to that of a newborn infant. This was accomplished with appropriate suggestions introduced during hypnosis. In this study, four out of five subjects with a high susceptibility to hypnosis showed a remarkable quantity of high amplitude EEG theta and delta waves (2–4 Hz), reaching 50 to 150 microvolts. Coincidentally all subjects demonstrated behavioral and neurological reflex symptoms appropriate to the infancy state. No similar changes were observed with the same subjects who were given identical suggestions, but without hypnotic induction. A second group with only a slight susceptibility to hypnosis were used as controls. Under hypnosis these subjects did not show any change in their EEG patterns or the appearance of any neurological reflexes. The possibility exists that under hypnosis we were able to stimulate the subjects' unconscious memory of infantile reflexes. Under the influence of very deep hypnosis, subjects revived their memory in some unknown way, producing the ascribed reactions and EEG patterns.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Mirzoyants

H. C.

, The Psychology of the Higher Nervous Activity of Infants' Brains, Medgiz, Moscow, 1969.

Shepovalnikov

A. N.

, The Development of Bioelectrical Activity in the Infant's Brain during the First Months of Age, Medgiz, Moscow, 1963.

Stankevitch

C. A.

, Citoarchitectonics of the Human Cortex, Medgiz, Moscow, 1949.

Evans

F. J.

, Hypnosis and Sleep: Techniques for Exploring Cognitive Activity during Sleep, in Hypnosis: Developments in Research and New Perspectives, Fromm

Shor

R. E.

(eds.), Aldine, New York, 1979.

Raikov

V. L.

, Hypnosis and Potential Abilities of Man, Problems of Pathogenesis and Therapy of Psychiatric Diseases, 15, pp. 371–372, Moscow, 1972.

Kupfer

H. J.

, Hypnosis and Transference, Japanese Journal of Psychoanalysis, 8, p. 136, 1961.

McCranie

E. G.

Crasilneck

H. B.

, The Conditioned Reflex in Hypnotic Age Regression, Journal of Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology, 19, pp. 120–123, 1955.

Tart

C. T.

, States of Consciousness, Dutton, New York, 1975.

Fromm

, Spontaneous Autohypnotic Age Regression in a Nocturnal Dream, International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 13, pp. 119–131, 1965.

10.

Gidro-Frank

Bowersbuch

M. K.

, A Study of the Plantar Response in Hypnotic Age Regression, International Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 107, pp. 443–458, 1948.

11.

Lozanov

, Deviation from Herrinc's Law of the Movements of the Eyeballs, Bulletin of the Institute of Psychology, 10, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, pp. 13–17, 1966.

12.

Raikov

V. L.

, Age Regression to Infancy by Adult Subjects in Deep Hypnosis, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 22, pp. 156–163, 1980.

13.

Raikov

V. L.

, Hypnotic Age Regression to the Neonatal Period: Comparisons with the Role Playing, Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 30, pp. 108–116, 1982.

14.

True

R. M.

Stephenson

C. W.

, Controlled Experiments Correlating EEG, Pulse, and Plantar Reflexes with Hypnotic Age Regression and Induced Emotional States, Personality, 1, pp. 252–263, 1951.

15.

Cheek

D. B.

, Sequential and Shoulder Movements Appearing with Age-Regression in Hypnosis to Birth, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 16, pp. 261–266, 1974.

16.

Barber

T. X.

, Hypnosis: A Scientific Approach, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1969.

17.

O'Connell

D. N.

Shor

R. E.

Orne

M. T.

, Hypnotic Age Regression: An Empirical and Methodological Analysis, Journal of Abnormal Psychology Monographs, 76:3, p. 2, 1970.

18.

Raikov

V. L.

, Psychological Potential Personality in Hypnosis, International Colloquium on the Problem of Applied Psychology, Tbilisi University, Tbilisi, USSR, 1970.

19.

Delgado

, Brain and Consciousness, Progress, Moscow, 1971.

20.

Fromm

, Age Regression with Unexpected Reappearance of a Repressed Childhood Language, International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 18, pp. 79–88, 1970.

21.

Raikov

V. L.

, Hypnotic State as the Special Function of Psychic Activity, Psychological Journal Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 3, pp. 104–114, 1982.

22.

Hilgard

E. R.

, Divided Consciousness: Multiple Controls in Human Thought and Action, Wiley, New York, 1977.

23.

True

R. M.

, Experimental Control in Hypnotic Age Regression States, Science, 110, pp. 583–584, 1949.

24.

Raikov

V. L.

, On the Non-Homogeneity of the Somnambulic Stage of Hypnosis, Collected Scientific Works, Medgiz, Moscow, 1969.

25.

Orne

M. T.

, On the Social Psychology of the Psychological Experiment with Particular Reference to Demand Characteristics and Their Implications, American Psychologist, 17, pp. 776–783, 1962.