Research proofs visualization—and is used in Hypnotherapy—activates the same neurons that are activated when we have the real experiences
A team of researchers from UCLA and the Weizmann Institute, in Israel, showed TV programs, such as Seinfeld and The Simpsons, to epileptic patients who were undergoing neurosurgery and who had microelectrodes implanted in their brains.
The researchers showed patients a series of 5-to 10-second clips and made recordings from one hundred neurons that fired as they watched.
They then distracted the patients. After some time, they asked the patients, “What comes to mind when you remember the Simpsons clip?”
The same neurons that fired when they watched that clip now fired when they remembered it. The same thing happened with the Seinfeld clips—the neurons specific for the Seinfeld clips fired.
In other words, the same neurons fire when one perceives an event or visualizes it immediately after the fact.
source H. Gelbard-Sagiv et al., “Internally Generated Reactivation of Single Neurons in Human Hippocampus During Free Recall,” Science 322, no. 5898 (2008): 96–101.]
Because visualization—which is a use of imagination and memory—activates the same neurons that are activated when we have the real experiences, visualizing negative experiences or memories triggers all the negative emotional reactions that we had with the original experience—wiring them more deeply into our brains.
But on the upside, visualizing, remembering, or imagining pleasant experiences activates many of the same sensory, motor, emotional, and cognitive circuits that fired during the “real” pleasant experience.
This is why hypnotists can get a clients to visualize a solution to their issues and are able to help a client to solve their issues in only a few sessions.
It is also why visualizing one’s athletic or musical performance can improve that performance.
If you have the ambition to learn these amazing techniques of Clinical Hypnotherapy why not join us for the 2 day certificate training hypnotherapy.
This 2 day is a workshop that provides you with concrete tools and techniques you could apply the day after and it is a great pre-start for the training that will be starting in September.
2 day certificate https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/2-day-certification-training-in-clinical-hypnotherapy-tickets-56308963626
Have amazing loving days and love to see you in May!
Christoffel Sneijders