Porferio Madelo Jr

Dreamer

Porferio Madelo Jr., Ph.D, Crim.

Childhood Memoir:

Born in September 2, 1977 in the majestic province Bohol, Philippines. The second child  of the seven children of Arsenia Madelo and Porferio Madelo Sr.. He is noted as the black sheep of the family, oftentimes causing trouble in the neighborhood and in the school where his mother used to teach. He was only ten years old when his father passed away leaving the full responsibility of raising the orphans to thy mother. Despite being stubborn, he shows eagerness to learn and his early academic recognition was just one motivating factor for him to not to stop his studies. 

Photo inset was taken during the closing ceremony at Abijilan Elementary School, summer of  1988. 

Academic endeavors:

While his teachers in elementary seem to have seen a promising future ahead of him his high school teachers saw the opposite. On his second year in High School he proved his leadership and planning skills when he lead a group of Boy scouts from Tabuan National High School in a National Jamboree held in Carmen Bohol. At the culmination of this event his team bagged the second place for structural design contest using indigenous materials where he built together with his teammates a thirty (30) feet pyramid made of bamboo grass. Though he developed more skills in his high school years e.g drawing and shirt-printing, he well-nigh get expelled few months before graduating high school due to serious violation of school code of conduct after being found intoxicated while attending classes. 

Success: The sweetest fruit of all sacrifices made.

The First Step:

Always if not most of the time the hardest part - taking the first step is very crucial, as it is the point where you make the decision to face the challenges ahead and the decision to take the risk.

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How Lucid Dreaming Works

If you could control your dreams, what would you do? Grow wings and fly, talk to God, travel toancient Rome, dine with Marilyn Monroe, open opera season at the Met? Instead, we dream of showing up naked at work or falling or getting lost. But there's one type that offers the promise of control:lucid dreams.

When you dream, you generally don't know you're dreaming. The events of a dream feel real, regardless of how fantastic they may be. You awaken and wonder how those ideas even came to be inside your head. What do they mean?

In a lucid dream, you're aware that you're dreaming. There's a moment of clarity where you realize that you don't, in fact, have wings, and that you can't possibly be having dinner with Marilyn Monroe, because she's dead.

Lucid dreaming is somewhat controversial because it sounds "New Age-y," like reading crystals or undergoing color light therapy -- things not everyone believes in. There's science behind lucid dreaming, though. One study monitored subjects withelectroencephalograms (EEGs -- a test of the electrical brain activity) as they slept. The participants motioned with their eyelids when they were in the middle of a lucid dream. The EEGs confirmed that they were in REM sleep while they signaled their lucid dream state [source: LaBerge]. The fact that people can have lucid dreams isn't under dispute. The question is whether or not people can control their dreams. Some scientists claim an enthusiastic yes, while others dismiss it as nonsense.

So how does it work? In this article, we're going to investigate lucid dreams. We'll explore both the science and the fantastic, and we'll find out how to put you in control.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/7399-sleep-video.htm

Background of Lucid Dreams

Dreams have been of paramount importance to cultures throughout the ages. Native Americans viewed dreams as portals to the spirit world, paths      to prophecy and quests. The Aborigines refer to the stories of the world's very beginning as their dreamings.
Lucid dreaming isn't new, either. Aristotle may have been the first to write about lucid dreaming, although he didn't have a term for it. And some Tibetan Buddhists have been practicing something like lucid dreaming for a very long time: dream yoga.

The objective of dream yoga is to probe your consciousness and bring you to a constant state of awareness. A big part of the belief system of Buddhism is recognizing the world for what it is, free from illusion. A lucid dreamer recognizes the dream world for what it is -- a dream. As you're dreaming, you follow along the winding pathways of your own mind, making discoveries about the way you think and the obstacles your mind puts in the way of achieving clarity. Mystics have their own name for this altered state of consciousness: nondual awareness.

Yoga can bring about a new kind of awareness.

Ken Chernus/Taxi/Getty Images

A Dutch psychiatrist named Frederik van Eeden came up with the term for lucid dreams in 1913. He claimed that there are nine well-defined types of dreams in all, including ordinary, symbolic and vivid dreams. He recorded several of his own lucid dreams, and his thoughts during them and upon awakening. He remarked that they often involved flying. Many lucid dreamers report pleasurable erotic dreams -- though van Eeden missed out.

Nowadays, many people have heard of lucid dreaming because of a man named Stephen Laberge, a psychophysiologist with a Stanford degree who heads up the Lucidity Institute, which is dedicated to the study of lucid dreams and their application to daily life. LaBerge calls himself a dream sailor. He runs workshops that aren't cheap (upward of a few grand) to teach people how to have lucid dreams. He claims that lucid dreams can do everything from making you more creative to helping with grief.

So what's it like to have a lucid dream? If lucid dreaming occurs when we're asleep, how could we possibly know we're dreaming? Read on to find out some theories about lucid dreaming.

What's lucid dreaming like?

What's a lucid dream like? Think of your normal dreams, the bizarre plots and non-narrative structure that leaves you scrambling for words to try to explain it to a friend. Now put yourself back in the dream but imagine the details. You're flying through the air, but you can look at the clouds and the ground below, feel the wind whooshing against your skin, smell the clean air. And in the dream, you think, "I'm dreaming that I'm flying."

Lucid dreaming occurs during REM sleep, the fifth sleep stage. The body is basically paralyzed, with the exception of the eyelids. In the experiment we mentioned before, subjects took advantage of this quality of REM sleep, using prearranged eyelid movements to signal that they were dreaming. Tiny movements from a test subject paired with an EEG to confirm the sleep stage are, so far, the only way that scientists have been able to study lucid dreamers.

We aren't sure what's going on in the brain during lucid dreaming. According to Dr. Matthew Walker, director of a sleep lab at Berkeley, the lateral prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that deals with logic, may be responsible [source: The New York Times]. During REM sleep, this part of the brain is supposed to be "asleep," but it's possible that it "wakes up" so that dreaming and logic are both working at the same time, enabling the dreamer to recognize the dream situation for what it is.

The grand idea of lucid dreaming is all about control. In your dream, you could consciously decide to visit a specific place, say, Provence, France -- and your dream self would obey the waking mind. The possibility of controlling the mind even in sleep has led some researchers to consider lucid dreaming as a treatment fornightmares. One study showed that lucid dreaming exercises caused a group of chronic nightmare sufferers to have nightmares less often [source: Spoormaker and van den Bout]. The practical implications for dream control are enormous. People suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or children plagued by bad dreams could be taught to salvage their sleep and get some rest. You could even take it a step further to a scarier conclusion -- think of the CIA's mind-control experiments with LSD and hypnosis. Imagine what kind of control a government may have if it could figure out how to manipulate the enemy's dreams.

The science community is divided on the subject of dream control. The majority of scientists say that it's not possible. But there are some scientists who argue that there's so much we don't know about the human mind that we can't make any conclusive judgments one way or the other.

How to Have a Lucid Dream

If you'd really like to try to have a lucid dream, there are different suggested approaches. Dream recall is important. You may have heard of people keeping dream journals. As soon as you wake up from a dream, you record as many things as you can remember, even if you've woken up in the middle of the night. The idea is that by focusing on your dreams each day, you'll get into the habit of remembering them and start to see certain rhythms in how you dream -- once you're attuned to your process of dreaming, you'll become a better observer of your own dreams.

Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreaming (MILD) is one of LaBerge's techniques. When you wake up from a dream, try your best to remember it fully. When you go back to sleep, keep telling yourself that you're going to remember that you're dreaming during your next dream. The next step is to picture yourself back in the dream that you just had and look for a sign that the dream is a dream and not reality, like the fact that you're flying through the air with wings (LaBerge calls these dreamsigns). At this point, remind yourself that you're dreaming and continue the visualization. Keep doing this until you fall asleep.

Another method that might help involves napping. You wake up extra early, stay awake for a half hour or so, and then go back to sleep. Something about the interruption of sleep seems to blur the border between being asleep and being awake.

Reality testing, or reminding yourself throughout the day that you're conscious, is another approach. It also has connections to the Buddhist concept of mindfulness. This repeated acknowledgement of the state you're in is supposed to help you explore the other extreme -- the more you realize what consciousness is like and when you're conscious, the more likely you'll be to recognize when you're in a dream state. After all, how do you know you're conscious? Your actions have a logical reaction -- you flip on a light switch and the light turns on. When you flip the switch down, the light turns off. In dreams, actions don't tend to follow a logical pattern.

As far as gadgets go, the most notable might be the NovaDreamer, another Lucidity Institute innovation, which looks like a cross between a sleep mask and goggles. It's supposed to help you with lucid dreaming by letting you know when you're in REM sleep. Sensors track your eye movements and trigger a light that shines on your eyes. When you see the light in your dream, you'll know you're dreaming. LaBerge has also experimented with the use of galantamine, a drug sometimes used to treat Alzheimer's that's supposed to help the ability to think and remember.

For more information on lucid dreams, sleep and other cool stuff you might be interested in, try the next page.

How Marijuana Works

How Marijuana Works

Ganja. Bud. Herb. Call it what you will, there's no question that marijuana has become a divisive issue in U.S. politics. Whether for its role in supporting drug cartels, its tendency to worsen the impact of unbalanced drug laws, or simply its position in the    center of the drug legalization movement, the sticky icky has become a rather sticky wicket.

Although banned by the U.S. government in 1937, marijuana has been the subject of much legal wrangling since the 1980s, gradually opening the way for medicinal use in 20 states and the District of Columbia as of January 2014. Colorado and Washington also have approved recreational use. Meanwhile, more than a dozen states have decriminalized holding of small quantities of weed [sources:Rabin, Cassidy].

Even though support for legalization has doubled in the past 20 years or so, usage has remained relatively flat [source:Saad]. According to a July 2013 Gallup poll, roughly 38 percent of Americans had tried marijuana, and 7 percent, or 22 million people, partook of the drug. The United States drug market is one of the world's most commercially viable and attracts drug traffickers from every corner of the globe. Depending on location and quality of product, marijuana can cost anywhere from $1.77-$17.66 per gram ($800-$8,000 per pound) [source: Wilson].

Typically, marijuana refers to the buds and leaves of the Cannabis sativa or Cannabis indica plants. The cannabis plant contains more than 500 chemicals, including delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive chemical [source:Mehmedic et al.]. Cannabis impairs memory during and between uses, although the restorative effects of long-term abstinence remain unclear. In addition, during use, it adversely affects motor coordination, attention and judgment, increases heart rate and raises levels of anxiety. Studies also show that marijuana smoke contains irritants and cancer-causing chemicals typically associated with cigarettes [sources: Hall and Solowij; NIDA]. In this article, you will learn about marijuana, why this drug is so popular and what effects it has on your mind and body.

The Marijuana Plant

The history of marijuana use reaches back farther than many would guess. Cultivation of the plant dates back thousands of years. The first written account of cannabis cultivation (ostensibly used as medical marijuana) is found in Chinese records dating from the 28th century B.C.E. And a nearly 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy contained traces of THC, the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana, as well as other drugs [source: Parsche and Nerlich].

Cannabis sativa is perhaps the world's most recognizable plant. Pictures of the ubiquitous, green cannabis leaf show up in the news media, textbooks and drug-prevention literature. Its shape is made into jewelry, plastered on bumper stickers and clothing, and spray-painted on walls. The leaves are arranged palmately, radiating from a common center, like the fingers of a hand spreading apart. Although most people know what the cannabis plant looks like, they may know very little about its horticulture.

Believed to be a native plant of India, Cannabis sativa possibly originated in a region just north of the Himalayas. It's an herbaceousannual that can grow to a height of 8-12 feet (4 to 5.4 meters), with reports as high as 20 and 25 feet (the indica variety tends to be squatter). The plant has flowers that bloom from late summer to mid-fall, when grown outdoors. Of course, plenty of people grow cannabis indoors, too. (See How Grow Houses Work for more information.)

Cannabis plants usually have one of two types of flowers, male or female, and some plants have both. Male flowers grow in elongated clusters along the leaves and turn yellow and die after blossoming. Female flowers grow in spike-like clusters and remain dark green for a month after blossoming, until the seed ripens. Hashish, which is more potent than marijuana, is made from the resin of the cannabis flowers.

As we mentioned, marijuana plants contain hundreds of chemicals, 109 of which fit into a category called cannabinoids [source:Mehmedic et al.]. THC, of course, is one of these cannabinoids, and it's the chemical most often associated with the effects that marijuana has on the brain. The concentration of THC and other cannabinoids varies depending on growing conditions, plant genetics and processing after harvest. You'll learn more about the potency of THC and the toxicity of marijuana next.

Marijuana in the Body

Every time someone smokes a marijuana cigarette or ingests marijuana in some other form, THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) and other chemicals enter the user's body. The chemicals make their way through the bloodstream to thebrain and then to the rest of the body. The most powerful chemical in marijuana is THC, which is primarily responsible for the "high" associated with the drug.

The most common way to use marijuana is to smoke it (more on how people do that later). Smoking is also the most expedient way to get the THC and other chemicals into the bloodstream. When a person inhales smoke from marijuana, the THC goes directly to the lungs. Your lungs are lined with millions of alveoli, the tiny air sacs where gas exchange occurs. These alveoli have an enormous surface area -- much greater than that of your skin -- so they make it easy for THC and other compounds to enter the body. The lungs absorb the smoke just seconds after inhalation. Vaporizers, which heat the cannabis sufficiently to vaporize its active ingredients without burning it, provide an inhalable alternative to smoking.

You can also eat marijuana. In this case, the marijuana enters the stomach, and the blood absorbs it there. The blood then carries it to the liver and the rest of the body. The stomach absorbs THC more slowly than the lungs. When users eat marijuana, the levels of THC in the body are lower, but the effects last longer. Some people who use marijuana therapeutically drink it in tea, but the process tends to dilute the amount of THC available for absorption [source: Gieringer and Rosenthal]. Since Colorado voted to ease its marijuana laws, the state has seen an uptick in the number of kids accidentally ingesting pot brownies, cookies, candies and drinks [source: Kelly].

Marijuana and the Brain

After you inhale marijuana smoke, its chemicals zip throughout the body. THC is a very potent chemical compared to other psychoactive drugs. Once in yourbloodstream, THC typically reaches thebrain seconds after it is inhaled and begins to go to work.

Marijuana users often describe the experience of smoking the drug as initially relaxing and mellow, creating a feeling of haziness and light-headedness (although those feelings may differ depending on the particular strain). The user's eyes may dilate, causing colors to appear more intense, and other senses may be enhanced. Later, the user may have feelings of paranoia and panic. The interaction of the THC with the brain is what causes these feelings. To understand how marijuana affects the brain, you need to know about the parts of the brain that are affected by THC. Here are the basics:

• Neurons are the cells that process information in the brain.
• Chemicals called neurotransmitters allow neurons to communicate with each other.
• Neurotransmitters fill the gap, or synapse, between two neurons and bind to protein receptors, which allow various functions in the brain and body to be turned on and off.
• Some neurons have thousands of receptors that are specific to particular neurotransmitters.
• Foreign chemicals, like THC, can mimic or block actions of neurotransmitters and interfere with normal functions.

Your brain has groups of cannabinoid receptors concentrated in several different places (see picture). These cannabinoid receptors can affect the following mental and physical activities:

• Short-term memory
• Coordination
• Learning
• Problem-solving

Cannabinoid receptors are activated by a neurotransmitter called anandamide. Like THC, anandamide is a cannabinoid, but one that your body makes. THC mimics the actions of anandamide, meaning that THC binds with cannabinoid receptors and activates neurons, which causes adverse effects on the mind and body.

High concentrations of cannabinoid receptors exist in the hippocampus, cerebellum and basal ganglia. The hippocampus sits within the temporal lobe and is important for short-term memory. When the THC binds with the cannabinoid receptors inside the hippocampus, it interferes with the recollection of recent events. THC also affects coordination, which the cerebellum controls. The basal ganglia direct unconscious muscle movements, which is another reason why motor coordination is impaired when under the influence of marijuana.

Other Physiological Effects of Marijuana

Along with the brain, the side effects of marijuana reach many other parts of the body. Overall, users may notice the following short-term side effects:

• Problems with memory and learning
• Distorted perception
• Difficulty with thinking and problem solving
• Loss of coordination
• Increased heart rate
• Anxiety, paranoia and panic attacks

The initial effects created by the THC in marijuana wear off after an hour or two, but the chemicals stay in your body for much longer. The terminal half-life of THC can range from about 20 hours to 10 days, depending on the amount and potency of the marijuana used. This means that if you take 1 milligram of THC that has a half-life of 20 hours, you will still have 0.031 milligrams of THC in your body more than four days later. The longer the half-life, the longer the THC lingers in your body.

The debate over the addictive capacity of marijuana continues. Ongoing studies now show a number of possible symptoms associated with the cessation of marijuana use. These symptoms most commonly include irritability, nervousness, depression, anxiety and even anger. Other symptoms are restlessness, severe changes in appetite, violent outbursts, interrupted sleep or insomnia. In addition to these possible physical effects, psychological dependence usually develops because a person's mind craves the high that it gets when using the drug.

Beyond these effects, marijuana smokers are susceptible to the same health problems as tobacco smokers, such as bronchitis, emphysema and bronchial asthma. Other effects include dry mouth, red eyes, impaired motor skills and impaired concentration. Long-term use of the drug can increase the risk of damaging the lungs and reproductive system, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). It has also been linked to heart attacks.

Although marijuana is known to have negative effects on the human body, there's a raging debate over the use of medicinal marijuana. Some say that marijuana should be legalized for medical use because it has been known to suppress nausea, relieve eye pressure, decrease muscle spasms, stimulate appetite, stop convulsions and eliminate menstrual pain. Because of its therapeutic nature, marijuana has been used in the treatment of several conditions:

• Cancer and AIDS (to suppress nausea and stimulate appetite)
• Glaucoma (to alleviate eye pressure)
• Epilepsy (to stop convulsions)
• Multiple sclerosis (to decrease muscle spasms)

Others believe the negative effects of marijuana usage outweigh the positive. As of February 2014, in contrast to moves by several states toward medical marijuana statutes, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency listed marijuana as Schedule 1 substance. Schedule 1 is reserved for "the most dangerous drugs," substances with "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse... [and] potentially severe psychological or physical dependence," including heroin, LSD and Ecstasy.

TESTING FOR MARIJUANA

In 2011, 57 percent of U.S. businesses required prospective employees to pass a drug test, according to a poll conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management. Drug tests detect the fivemetabolites that THC breaks down into before passing into urine. Detectable amounts can remain in the system for several days or weeks following use, depending on potency and amount consumed.

One of the most common tests is the immunoassay, in which urine is mixed with a solution containing an antibody specific to certain metabolites, typically tagged with fluorescent dye or a radioactive substance. The amount of fluorescent light or radioactivity indicates the concentration of metabolites in the sample.

Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry may also be used to test for THC metabolites.

  

Marijuana Potency

Whether marijuana is more potent today than it was 30 or 40 years ago is at the center of much debate. The U.S. federal government has said that the levels of potency have risen anywhere from 10 to 25 times since the 1960s. Is this a myth or reality?

"There's no question that marijuana, today, is more potent than the marijuana in the 1960s. However, if you were to look at the average marijuana potency which is about 3.5 percent, it's been relatively stable for the last 20 years. Having said that, it's very important that what we have now is a wider range of potencies available than we had in the 1970s, in particular."

That's from Alan Leshner, the Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, while he was testifying in front of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Crime in 1999.

Those who support the legalization of marijuana say that the data are skewed because testing was only performed on marijuana of specific geographic origins in the 1960s and 1970s, and therefore isn't representative of marijuana potency overall. Officials obtained the samples from a type of Mexican marijuana that is known to contain low levels of THC -- 0.4 to 1 percent [source: Kuhn et al.]. When these levels are compared to other types of marijuana, it looks as if potency levels have risen in the last 30 years.

Typical THC levels, which determine marijuana potency, range from 0.3 to 4 percent. However, some specially grown plants can contain THC levels as high as 25 percent, leading to a call by some users for producers to put out mellower Mary Jane [source: Marris]. Several factors are involved in determining the potency of a marijuana plant, including:

• Growing climate and conditions
• Plant genetics
• Harvesting and processing
• Desire by small growers to maximize profit

The time at which the plant is harvested affects the level of THC. Additionally, female varieties have higher levels of THC than male varieties.

As a cannabis plant matures, its chemical composition changes. During early development, cannabidiolic acid is the most prevalent chemical. Later, cannabidiolic acid is converted to cannabidiol, which is later converted to THC when the plant reaches its floral maturation.

To determine the average potency levels of marijuana, researchers need to examine a cross section of cannabis plants, which wasn't done in the 1960s and 1970s. This makes it difficult to make accurate comparisons between the THC levels of that period and the THC levels of today. Moreover, establishing a clear relationship between THC levels and impairment is not as straightforward as with, say, blood alcohol content.

Marijuana Usage

People typically use marijuana in one of the following different ways:

• Cigarette -- Dried marijuana buds are rolled into a cigarette, also called a joint.
• Cigar -- Slice open a cigar, remove the tobacco and refill it with marijuana. Often called a blunt.
• Pipe – Tobacco pipes are also used to smoke marijuana.
• Bong -- Water pipes, typically with a long tube rising out of a bowl-shaped base, trap smoke until it's inhaled, raising the amount of THC taken in.
• Food -- Marijuana is sometimes baked into foods, such as brownies, or brewed as tea.

With millions of users, marijuana use isn't limited to one demographic. However, marijuana use is highest among younger people. Marijuana use in teenagers doubled from 1992 to 1999, when one out of every 13 kids aged 12 to 17 was a current user. In 1998, according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (NCASA), half of all 13-year-olds said that they could find and purchase marijuana, and 49 percent said that they had first tried marijuana at age 13 or younger.

Since that time, emergency room mentions of marijuana among 12- to 17-year olds have jumped 48 percent, possibly due to the drug's increased potency. In 2004, NCASA reported that children and teens were "3 times likelier to be in treatment for marijuana than for alcohol, and 6 times likelier to be in treatment for marijuana than for all other illegal drugs combined" [source: NCASA]. Following the teenage years, young adults are the most likely demographic to regularly toke up, although the percentage of people who have tried it remains higher among baby boomers and their children [source: Saad].

As of January 2014, 20 U.S. states have decriminalized or legalized marijuana for medical purposes. Colorado and Washington have legalized growing and possessing small amounts of the drug for recreational use, with Florida, New York and other states considering looser laws. Meanwhile, there is evidence of backlash in some counties and towns, which are moving to ban sales within their boundaries, much as some counties are dry [sources: Johnson; Reuters]. In places where possession and/or use remain illegal, the following factors typically affect sentencing.

• Quantity - Penalties vary based on the amount of marijuana found in the person's possession.
• Selling - Penalties are more severe for those intending to sell marijuana.
• Growing - Penalties are also more severe for those cultivating cannabis.
• Location - A person arrested for selling marijuana near a school will often face harsher penalties.

(There's a state-by-state guide to facts about marijuana penalties at NORML.)

Jail sentences and fines have done little to suppress the use of marijuana in the United States. Despite health and legal risks, pot continues to be the illegal drug of choice for many Americans.

How Hypnosis Works

When you hear the word hypnosis, you may picture the mysterious hypnotist figure popularized in movies, comic books and television. This ominous, goateed man waves a pocket watch back and forth, guiding his subject into a semi-sleep, zombie-like state. Once hypnotized, the subject is compelled to obey, no matter how strange or immoral the request. Muttering "Yes, master," the subject does the hypnotist's evil bidding.

ittle resemblance to actual hypnotism, of course. In fact, modern understanding of hypnosis contradicts this conception on several key points. Subjects in a hypnotic trance are not slaves to their "masters" -- they have absolutefree will. And they're not really in a semi-sleep state -- they're actuallyhyperattentive.

Our understanding of hypnosis has advanced a great deal in the past century, but the phenomenon is still a mystery of sorts. In this article, we'll look at some popular theories of hypnosis and explore the various ways hypnotists put their art to work.

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/31646-conspiracy-test-recalling-abductions-with-hypnosis-video.htm

What is Hypnosis?

People have been pondering and arguing over hypnosis for more than 200 years, but science has yet to fully explain how it actually happens. We see what a person does under hypnosis, but it isn't clear why he or she does it. This puzzle is really a small piece in a much bigger puzzle: how the human mind works. It's unlikely that scientists will arrive at a definitive explanation of the mind in the foreseeable future, so it's a good bet hypnosis will remain something of a mystery as well.

But psychiatrists do understand the general characteristics of hypnosis, and they have some model of how it works. It is a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination. It's not really like sleep, because the subject is alert the whole time. It is most often compared to daydreaming, or the feeling of "losing yourself" in a book or movie. You are fully conscious, but you tune out most of the stimuli around you. You focus intently on the subject at hand, to the near exclusion of any other thought.

In the everyday trance of a daydream or movie, an imaginary world seems somewhat real to you, in the sense that it fully engages your emotions. Imaginary events can cause real fear, sadness or happiness, and you may even jolt in your seat if you are surprised by something (a monster leaping from the shadows, for example). Some researchers categorize all such trances as forms of self-hypnosis. Milton Erickson, the premier hypnotism expert of the 20th century, contended that people hypnotize themselves on a daily basis. But most psychiatrists focus on the trance state brought on by intentional relaxation and focusing exercises. This deep hypnosis is often compared to the relaxed mental state between wakefulness and sleep.

Early Hypnohistory People have been entering hypnotic-type trances for thousands and thousands of years; various forms ofmeditation play an important role in many cultures' religions. But the scientific conception of hypnotism wasn't born until the late 1700s. The father of modern hypnotism is Franz Mesmer, an Austrian physician. Mesmer believed hypnosis to be a mystical force flowing from the hypnotist into the subject (he called it "animal magnetism"). Although critics quickly dismissed the magical element of his theory, Mesmer's assumption, that the power behind hypnosis came from the hypnotist and was in some way inflicted upon the subject, took hold for some time. Hypnosis was originally known as mesmerism, after Mesmer, and we still use its derivative, "mesmerize," today.

In conventional hypnosis, you approach the suggestions of the hypnotist, or your own ideas, as if they were reality. If the hypnotist suggests that your tongue has swollen up to twice its size, you'll feel a sensation in your mouth and you may have trouble talking. If the hypnotist suggests that you are drinking a chocolate milkshake, you'll taste the milkshake and feel it cooling your mouth and throat. If the hypnotist suggests that you are afraid, you may feel panicky or start to sweat. But the entire time, you are aware that it's all imaginary. Essentially, you're "playing pretend" on an intense level, as kids do.

In this special mental state, people feel uninhibited and relaxed. Presumably, this is because they tune out the worries and doubts that normally keep their actions in check. You might experience the same feeling while watching a movie: As you get engrossed in the plot, worries about your job, family, etc. fade away, until all you're thinking about is what's up on the screen.

In this state, you are also highly suggestible. That is, when the hypnotist tells you do something, you'll probably embrace the idea completely. This is what makes stage hypnotist shows so entertaining. Normally reserved, sensible adults are suddenly walking around the stage clucking like chickens or singing at the top of their lungs. Fear of embarrassment seems to fly out the window. The subject's sense of safety and morality remain entrenched throughout the experience, however. A hypnotist can't get you to do anything you don't want to do.

But what is it that makes this happen? In the next section, we'll look at the most widely accepted theory of what's going on when you become hypnotized.

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What Lies Beneath

The predominant school of thought on hypnosis is that it is a way to access a person's subconscious mind directly. Normally, you are only aware of the thought processes in your conscious mind. You consciously think over the problems that are right in front of you, consciously choose words as you speak, consciously try to remember where you left your keys.

But in doing all these things, your conscious mind is working hand-in-hand with your subconscious mind, the unconscious part of your mind that does your "behind the scenes" thinking. Your subconscious mind accesses the vast reservoir of information that lets you solve problems, construct sentences or locate your keys. It puts together plans and ideas and runs them by your conscious mind. When a new idea comes to you out of the blue, it's because you already thought through the process unconsciously.

What's in a Name? James Braid, a 19th-century Scottish surgeon, originated the terms "hypnotism" and "hypnosis" based on the word hypnos, which is Greek for "to sleep." Braid and other scientists of the era, such as Ambroise-Auguste Liebeault, Hippolyte Bernheim and J.M. Charcot, theorized that hypnosis is not a force inflicted by the hypnotist, but a combination of psychologically mediated responses to suggestions. In the proper nomenclature, hypnosis refers to the trance state itself, and hypnotism refers to the act of inducing this state and to the study of this state. A hypnotist is someone who induces the state of hypnosis, and a hypnotherapist is a person who induces hypnosis to treat physical or mental illnesses.

Your subconscious also takes care of all the stuff you do automatically. You don't actively work through the steps of breathing minute to minute -- your subconscious mind does that. You don't think through every little thing you do while driving a car -- a lot of the small stuff is thought out in your subconscious mind. Your subconscious also processes the physical information your body receives.

In short, your subconscious mind is the real brains behind the operation -- it does most of your thinking, and it decides a lot of what you do. When you're awake, your conscious mind works to evaluate a lot of these thoughts, make decisions and put certain ideas into action. It also processes new information and relays it to the subconscious mind. But when you're asleep, the conscious mind gets out of the way, and your subconscious has free reign.

Psychiatrists theorize that the deep relaxation and focusing exercises of hypnotism work to calm and subdue the conscious mind so that it takes a less active role in your thinking process. In this state, you're still aware of what's going on, but your conscious mind takes a backseat to your subconscious mind. Effectively, this allows you and the hypnotist to work directly with the subconscious. It's as if the hypnotism process pops open a control panel inside your brain.

In the next section, we'll see how this theory fits in with the characteristics of hypnosis.

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Suggestion Box

In the last section, we examined the idea that hypnosis puts your conscious mind in the backseat, so you and the hypnotist can communicate directly with your subconscious. This theory has gained wide acceptance in the psychiatric community, mostly because it explains all the major characteristics of the hypnotic state so nicely.

Hypnotists say that subjects under hypnosis are a lot like little kids: playful and imaginative, fully embracing bizarre suggestions.

It provides an especially convincing explanation for the playfulness and uninhibitedness of hypnotic subjects. The conscious mind is the main inhibitive component in your makeup -- it's in charge of putting on the brakes -- while the subconscious mind is the seat of imagination and impulse. When your subconscious mind is in control, you feel much freer and may be more creative. Your conscious mind doesn't have to filter through everything.

Hypnotized people do such bizarre things so willingly, this theory holds, because the conscious mind is not filtering and relaying the information they take in. It seems like the hypnotist's suggestions are coming directly from the subconscious, rather than from another person. You react automatically to these impulses and suggestions, just as you would to your own thoughts. Of course, your subconscious mind does have a conscience, a survival instinct and its own ideas, so there are a lot of things it won't agree to.

The subconscious regulates your bodily sensations, such as taste, touch and sight, as well as your emotional feelings. When the access door is open, and the hypnotist can speak to your subconscious directly, he or she can trigger all these feelings, so you experience the taste of a chocolate milkshake, the satisfaction of contentment and any number of other feelings.

Additionally, the subconscious is the storehouse for all your memories. While under hypnosis, subjects may be able to access past events that they have completely forgotten. Psychiatrists may use hypnotism to bring up these memories so that a related personal problem can finally be resolved. Since the subject's mind is in such a suggestible state, it is also possible to create false memories. For this reason, psychiatrists must be extremely careful when exploring a hypnotic subject's past.

This theory of hypnosis is based mostly on logical reasoning, but there is some physiological evidence that supports it. In the next section, we'll look at some of the physical data researchers have gathered on hypnosis.

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Waves and Hemispheres

In numerous studies, researchers have compared the physical "body signs" of hypnotic subjects with those of unhypnotized people. In most of these studies, the researchers found no significant physical change associated with the trance state of hypnosis. The subject's heart rate and respiration may slow down, but this is due to the relaxation involved in the hypnotism process, not the hypnotic state itself.

Do it Yourself! You don't necessarily need a highly-trained hypnotist to induce hypnosis. With the proper relaxation and focusing techniques, almost everyone can enter a hypnotic state themselves and make their own suggestions to the unconscious mind (check out SelfHypnosis.com to find out how). Some hypnotism experts hold that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. Whether a trance state is brought on by a long, boring drive down the highway or by a skilled psychiatrist, the subject is always the one who initiates the trance. In this view, the hypnotist is only a guide who facilitates the process.

There does seem to be changed activity in the brain, however. The most notable data comes fromelectroencephalographs (EEGs), measurements of the electrical activity of the brain. Extensive EEG research has demonstrated that brains produce different brain waves, rhythms of electrical voltage, depending on their mental state. Deep sleep has a different rhythm than dreaming, for example, and full alertness has a different rhythm than relaxation.

In some studies, EEGs from subjects under hypnosis showed a boost in the lower frequency waves associated with dreaming and sleep, and a drop in the higher frequency waves associated with full wakefulness. Brain-wave information is not a definitive indicator of how the mind is operating, but this pattern does fit the hypothesis that the conscious mind backs off during hypnosis and the subconscious mind takes a more active role.

Researchers have also studied patterns in the brain's cerebral cortex that occur during hypnosis. In these studies, hypnotic subjects showed reduced activity in the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex, while activity in the right hemisphere often increased. Neurologists believe that the left hemisphere of the cortex is the logical control center of the brain; it operates on deduction, reasoning and convention. The right hemisphere, in contrast, controls imagination and creativity. A decrease in left-hemisphere activity fits with the hypothesis that hypnosis subdues the conscious mind's inhibitory influence. Conversely, an increase in right-brain activity supports the idea that the creative, impulsive subconscious mind takes the reigns. This is by no means conclusive evidence, but it does lend credence to the idea that hypnotism opens up the subconscious mind.

Whether or not hypnosis is actually a physiological phenomenon, millions of people do practice hypnotism regularly, and millions of subjects report that it has worked on them. In the next section, we'll look at the most common methods of inducing a hypnotic trance.

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You're Getting Sleepy

Hypnotists' methods vary, but they all depend on a few basic prerequisites:

• The subject must want to be hypnotized.
• The subject must believe he or she can be hypnotized.
• The subject must eventually feel comfortable and relaxed.

If these criteria are met, the hypnotist can guide the subject into a hypnotic trance using a variety of methods. The most common hypnotic techniques are:

• Fixed-gaze induction or eye fixation - This is the method you often see in movies, when the hypnotist waves a pocket watch in front of the subject.
  The basic idea is to get the subject to focus on an object so intently that he or she tunes out any other stimuli. As the subject focuses, the hypnotist talks to him or her in a low tone, lulling the subject into relaxation. This method was very popular in the early days of hypnotism, but it isn't used much today because it doesn't work on a large proportion of the population.
• Rapid - The idea of this method is to overload the mind with sudden, firm commands.
  If the commands are forceful, and the hypnotist is convincing enough, the subject will surrender his or her conscious control over the situation. This method works well for a stage hypnotist because the novel circumstance of being up in front of an audience puts subjects on edge, making them more susceptible to the hypnotist's commands.
• Progressive relaxation and imagery - This is the hypnosis method most commonly employed by psychiatrists.
  By speaking to the subject in a slow, soothing voice, the hypnotist gradually brings on complete relaxation and focus, easing the subject into full hypnosis. Typically, self-hypnosis training, as well as relaxation and meditation audio tapes, use the progressive relaxation method.
• Loss of balance - This method creates a loss of equilibrium using slow, rhythmic rocking.
  Parents have been putting babies to sleep with this method for thousands of years.       

Before hypnotists bring a subject into a full trance, they generally test his or her willingness and capacity to be hypnotized. The typical testing method is to make several simple suggestions, such as "Relax your arms completely," and work up to suggestions that ask the subject to suspend disbelief or distort normal thoughts, such as "Pretend you are weightless."

Depending on the person's mental state and personality, the entire hypnotism process can take anywhere from a few minutes to more than a half hour. Hypnotists and hypnotism proponents see the peculiar mental state as a powerful tool with a wide range of applications. In the next section, we'll look at some of the more common uses of hypnotism.

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For Fun and Profit

In the hypnotism shows of Las Vegas, as well as the traveling hypnotism demonstrations on the college circuit, hypnotism is used primarily for entertainment purposes. It's an amazing experience watching somebody turn ordinary people, perhaps your friends or family, into outrageous performers. The power of suggestion and imagination, and the lowering of inhibition, does make for a fantastic show.

Certifiable In ads for hypnotism weight-loss treatments, you often see the words "Certified Hypnotist!" in big, bold letters. What does this actually mean? As it turns out, there is no single, official certification process and no regulating body for hypnotists. If you take a two-day course on hypnotism, that's enough to claim you are a certified hypnotist. Some certification programs, the one run by the National Guild of Hypnotists for example, hold their students to strict standards, but many do not. Doctors and psychiatrists who are members of professional organizations are well regulated, however. TheAmerican Psychiatric Association (APA) and the American Medical Association (AMA) both have strict standards for the professional practice of hypnotherapy.

But these demonstrations only scratch the surface of what hypnotism can do -- all the suggestions are intentionally frivolous, to ensure that nobody gets hurt. The hypnotist uses his or her access to the unconscious mind only to play with the subject. More involved hypnotism uses this access to affect long-term changes in the subject.

The most widespread example of this hypnotic behavioral modification is habit-control hypnotic treatment. In this application, a hypnotist focuses on one particular habit that is embedded in your unconscious (smoking or overeating, for example). With the "control panel" to your mind open, the hypnotist may be able to reprogram your subconscious to reverse the behavior. Some hypnotists do this by connecting a negative response with the bad habit. For example, the hypnotist might suggest to your subconscious that smoking will cause nausea. If this association is programmed effectively, you will feel sick every time you think about smoking a cigarette. Alternatively, the hypnotist may build up your willpower, suggesting to your subconscious that you don't need cigarettes, and you don't want them.

Habit-control hypnotism is commonly practiced on a mass scale, in day-long seminars held in hotel suites, or throughaudio tapes or CDs. Since the treatment is not specifically tailored to each subject, and the treatment is rapid, these programs are often ineffective. Even if the treatment does yield positive results in the short term, there's a good chance that the subject will relapse eventually.

Directed, one-on-one hypnotism sessions tend to yield better results. In the next section, we'll explore this therapeutic form of hypnotism.

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I'm Healed!

In the last section, we looked at hypnosis as a means of reversing bad habits. A related application of hypnotism ispsychiatric hypnotherapy. In a therapy session, a psychiatrist may hypnotize his or her subject in order to work with deep, entrenched personal problems. The therapy may take the form of breaking negative patterns of behavior, as with mass habit-control programs. This can be particularly effective in addressing phobias, unreasonable fears of particular objects or situations. Another form of psychiatric hypnotherapy involves bringing underlying psychiatric problems up to the conscious level. Accessing fears, memories and repressed emotions can help to clarify difficult issues and bring resolution to persistent problems.

Hypnotists may also tap dormant memories to aid in law enforcement. In this practice, called forensic hypnotism, investigators access a subject's deep, repressed memories of a past crime to help identify a suspect or fill in details of the case. Since hypnotists may lead subjects to form false memories, this technique is still very controversial in the forensics world.

Another controversial form of hypnotism is medical hypnotherapy. Doctors and spiritual leaders all over the world claim that hypnotic suggestion can ease pain and even cure illness in some patients. The underlying idea behind this is that the mind and body are inextricably intertwined. When you suggest to the subconscious that the body does not feel pain, or that the body is free of disease, the subconscious may actually bring about the change.

There is a great deal of anecdotal evidence to support this idea. Using only hypnotic suggestion as an anesthetic, thousands of women have made it through childbirth with minimal pain and discomfort. Countless cancer patients swear by hypnosis, claiming that it helps to manage the pain of chemotherapy, and some former patients credit their recovery to hypnotherapy.

The success of hypnotherapy is undeniable, but many doctors argue that the hypnotic trance is not actually responsible for the positive results. In the next section, we'll see how many skeptics explain hypnotic phenomena.

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The Magic Feather

In the relatively short history of modern hypnotism, there have been dozens of hypnotic techniques and a wide range of explanations of the phenomenon. The only constant through all of this has been the hypnotic subjects themselves. No matter how you view the art of the hypnotist, it is undeniable that people do enter a special state in which they are abnormally suggestible and uninhibited.

Modern skeptics have a sound and convincing explanation of this unusual state. Hypnotic subjects aren't actually in a trance state, they argue, they only think they are. Social pressure and the influence of the hypnotist are often enough to convince people that they should act a certain way. When they find themselves heeding the suggestions, they think they must be in a hypnotic trance. Proponents of this theory contend that this belief alone may be powerful enough to bring about remarkable changes in a person. If you think someone is compelling you to act a certain way, you will act that way. If you think hypnotic suggestion will ease your pain, your mind will bring about this feeling.

In this view, an effective hypnotist isn't one that can probe the hidden reaches of your mind, but one with strong enough authority and charisma to convince you to go along.

In the general sense, this phenomenon is known as the placebo effect. In numerous studies, people who were given ordinary sugar pills behaved and felt differently only because they thought they should. It's clear that the mind can influence all aspects of the physical body, so it makes sense that a firmly held belief can reduce pain or even help treat a disease.

But in the end, this explanation of hypnosis amounts to pretty much the same thing as the trance theory. When you absolutely convince somebody that you've brought about a change in their subconscious, they register this information as a fact. Like any fact, this information will take root in the subconscious mind. So, even if the hypnotic state is nothing more than a figment of the subject's imagination, hypnotic suggestions can still reform their deeply held beliefs. The end result is the same!