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Amir Raz gets some funny looks when he talks about using hypnosis and meditation techniques to build attention spans in a hyperactive MTV world. "Mention contemplation to a lot of people, and all they think of is some kind of (wacky) spiritualism, people sitting around a darkened room with candles, chanting," says Raz, a McGill University professor who holds the Canada Research Chair in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention. "Our ideas are shaped by Hollywood movies. So you talk about hypnosis, and people see something out of a Woody Allen movie, a guy in a turban with bushy eyebrows who wants to put you to sleep." But "trim away the folkloric fat," and Raz, a cognitive psychologist who worked his way through graduate school doing magic tricks, sees mindfulness training as a valuable, drug-free tool in the struggle to foster attention skills, with positive spinoffs for controlling our emotions and even...

Hypnosis has a "very real" effect that can be picked up on brain scans, say Hull University researchers. An imaging study of hypnotised participants showed decreased activity in the parts of the brain linked with daydreaming or letting the mind wander. The same brain patterns were absent in people who had the tests but who were not susceptible to being hypnotised. One psychologist said the study backed the theory that hypnosis "primes" the brain to be open to suggestion. Hypnosis is increasingly being used to help people stop smoking or lose weight and advisers recently recommended its use on the NHS to treat irritable bowel syndrome. It is not the first time researchers have tried to use imaging studies to monitor brain activity in people under hypnosis. But the Hull team said these had been done while people had been asked to carry out tasks, so it was not clear whether...

Professor David Spiegel, of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at Stanford University, wants the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) to sanction sweeping changes. He will tell the Royal Society of Medicine on Monday that Nice should add hypnotherapy to its list of approved therapeutic techniques for the treatment of conditions ranging from allergies and high blood pressure to the pain associated with cancer treatment and bone marrow transplantation. Nice has already approved the technique for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome. "It is time for hypnosis to work its way into the mainstream of British medicine," says Professor Spiegel. "There is solid science behind what sounds like mysticism and we need to get that message across to the bodies that influence this area. "Hypnosis has no negative side-effects. It makes operations quicker, as the patient is able to talk to the surgeon as the operation proceeds,...

(NaturalNews) There is a lot still to be learned about emotions. Approximately 20 years ago, researchers were under the impression that emotions and feelings originated with the heart, not the brain. They also believed that emotions could not be measured with scientific research. In more recent years, researchers have found that emotions can play a major role in a person's overall health. A non-invasive way to study feelings and emotions is through the use of hypnotherapy and brain images (Brain & Emotions Research).

 

Wife of New England Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen delivered her son Benjamin in a Boston bathtub in a water birth, claiming that after an 8 hour labor she experienced no pain, and was walking and doing dishes the following day.NO DOUBT her supermodel status has brought attention to the circumstances of Gisele Bundchen’s delivery; however there is a growing number of women who now opt for a gentler way to bring a child into the world. Among the methods used during pregnancy are yoga, meditation, hypnosis and ultimately a water birth, in order to avoid the use of medication and epidurals that affect both mom and baby.According to the national center for health statistics approximately 1 percent of births in the United States occur at home. In their consumer publication, “your pregnancy and birth”, the American College of obstetricians and gynecologists describes the process of water births, even though...

As part of the continued growth and evolution of the Association Seán Weafer will help facilitate a day of focus and planning for the future. On this day we would hope to 'form, storm and norm' the volunteers who offer to serve on the various committees and help give them a say in continuing to create an Association based on co-operation, co-creation and excellence.

This is your chance to be heard and to get involved. We are looking for your ideas to bring the ICHP PGA into the next decade as an organization we can all be proud of. If you don't get involved then who will!