It ' s important to understand that cataleptic numbness is a natural part of hypnosis for many people , whether the hypnotist suggests it or not . This is because hypnotic trance is akin to the rapid eye movement ( REM ) state we all enter when we dream . During this natural state of hypnosis , you become psychologically dissociated from the body lying on the bed .
And because nature doesn ' t want you actually acting out your dreams , you experience the temporary paralysis and loss of feeling known as catalepsy . So simply by inducing hypnotic trance you may be halfway there as far as pain diminishment is concerned .
But we can make further suggestions for numbness .
Evocation and revivification
I will often use evocative language and talk about how " some people " have had the experience of playing in snow as a child and having forgotten to put gloves on . We can simply describe what this experience might be like with " those hands " freezing to numbness and so forth .
I might ask someone to imagine what it might feel like to try to tie shoelaces with numb hands , or even just put a key in a door . I might evoke times when we have sat for such a long time that a leg goes numb , or slept on an arm and woken up with it numb . Once we feel the client is responding , we can suggest that this numbness spread into afflicted areas .
Hypnosis can be used to calm people pre-surgery and also to help them postsurgery .
If you are helping a client for acute pain after surgery , which is of course part of the healing process , you can make hypnotic suggestions for greater comfort and faster healing after surgery . Orthopaedic hand surgery is notoriously painful , yet in one study , conversational hypnosis reduced post-surgical pain and was associated with fewer complications generally .[ 6 ]
The scientific pedigree of hypnotic analgesia ( diminishment of pain without actual anaesthetic numbness ) is strong .[ 7 ] Hypnosis may also be an effective adjunct to the treatment of cancer pain and the nausea that cancer treatments such as chemo often produce ,[ 8 ] though more research is needed in this area .
You can do more for people than you may currently realize , so I urge you to help you pain clients through a blend of the hypnotic principles I ' ve described here .