Dr. David Spiegel

You increase functional connectivity between the prefrontal cortex, particularly on the left, and the insula, you know, the little island of tissue in the frontal lobe that has to do with mind-body connection.

So you intensify your ability to control and perceive your body.

And the third is inverse functional connectivity between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate, part of the default mode network.

That's, you know, the part of your brain when you're not thinking or doing anything in particular, you're just kind of ruminating.

And it tends to keep you on track sometimes, but it also can inhibit you.

And so you're disconnecting from the part of your brain that says, you should be doing this, things ought to go like that, and allowing yourself to try out being different.

They are.

I mean, they're not unrelated.

And there's neuroimaging evidence, for example, that meditators over time reduce activity in the posterior cingulate cortex and part of the default mode network, which is where in hypnosis you can also inhibit activity.

But meditation is about being and hypnosis is about doing.

So in meditation, you're taught to have open presence, to just don't try to change anything, just allow feelings, thoughts and feelings flow through you like a storm passing by.

It's a way of being, which I admire.

I think it's a wonderful tradition, but it's not a problem-solving tradition.

By definition, it isn't.

With hypnosis, you're altering your state of focused attention, turning off your

the part of your brain that triggers this reactivity to something that is troubling you, you're able to better control what's happening in your body.

No.

Most children are very hypnotizable.

You know, you call them in for dinner, they don't hear you.

But as we go through what are called formal operations in adolescence, where we start to value analysis over experience, which is part of maturation, some people lose some of that ability.