Hypnosis and Altered States
Derren Brown is an illusionist and amazes people with his apparent ability to read minds and predict what people will do. Some of his tricks are based on hypnosis. In his book
”Tricks of the Mind” he makes a rather startling assertion. He says that when people are operated on, there is very little pain. He implies that this is true of dental procedures as well. I’m sure people who have woken up in the middle of surgery or who have had a dental operation without anaesthetic would be very surprised at this. So why does Derren Brown, an obviously intelligent person, make such an assertion? The answer lies in the same reason as why otherwise intelligent people will tell you that the Earth is only 4000 years old: it is a view based on dogma rather than logic. To explain why this we have to look at some background.
Derren Brown is an affirmed Atheist and Skeptic. He is convinced there is no God and that all claims of mystic or otherwise scientifically unexplainable phenomena are mistaken or fraudulent. In fact many of his acts are of him simulating processes similar to that which he claims psychics do, but he uses scientifically explainable techniques. As a sceptic he does not acknowledge that there is such a thing as an altered state of consciousness. This state is one aimed for in many meditation methods and it is the precursor to control of the body, where one can shut off sensation and control aspects of the mind and body that are normally not under conscious control. As a hypnotist, this creates a problem. If hypnosis is not an altered state of consciousness then what is it? In Derren Brown’s view, it is simply the subject (who is being hypnotised) acting in a way to please the hypnotist. Which raises the question: if that is all it is, then how do we explain such phenomena as analgesia where the subject can no longer feel pain? His answer is that analgesia is not possible and where it appears to be happening it is either the subject not showing the pain (where the pain is mild) or for some other reason. And here lies the crunch: hypnotism has been very successful in major operations. The reason, he claims, is simply because there is no pain in major surgery.
I should note here that many years ago I was mugged in London one foggy night whilst going from my car to my house. One person set on me with a baseball bat whist the other was clearly intending to go for my wallet when I went down. At the time I did karate and as the person hit me on the head with the baseball bat, I lunged at him with a karate kick. What was interesting, and despite being in the midst of a fight I clearly remember noticing this, was that as the bat came down on my head I could feel it as it broke the skin but there was absolutely no pain. I was not anaesthetised as I still had sensation but I didn’t feel pain. I was, no doubt, in an altered state due to the adrenalin. A skeptic would probably argue that I was mistaken. I was not and it is a weak argument.
An examination of
The Skeptic’s Dictionary entry for Hypnosis instructs the true skeptic what view they should adopt on the subject. Such a dogma is worth examining because it shows how atheism (and its little brother, skepticism) is really a religion. It is based on unprovable suppositions and has a set of dogmatic beliefs that its adherents follow. I shall deal more with later.
