42. Is Hypnosis Real? Suggestibility, Meditation and the Science of Trance

In 1780s Paris, patients sat around a wooden tub filled with iron filings and bottles of "magnetised" water, gripping rods that protruded from it, waiting to convulse. The man who invented this spectacle believed he'd discovered a new force of nature. He hadn't, but he'd stumbled onto something real anyway. In this episode, we close our series on states and levels of awareness with two ways of deliberately altering consciousness: hypnosis and meditation. We trace hypnosis from Mesmer's showmanship through Charcot's clinic to the modern scientific debate over what it actually is, then turn to meditation's measurable effects on the brain and its established clinical uses. Ideal for MRCPsych Part A revision and anyone curious about how much of the mind can be deliberately, rather than accidentally, altered. Aligned with the Royal College of Psychiatrists MRCPsych Part A syllabus, paragraph 1.1.10. I would love to hear from you! (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2596662/fa...)