A paraglider fails to control his chute and falls to the ground. The lower bones of his leg came through the knee and thighs. The man should have been screaming with pain or fainted from it. But no! Danny Penman had learnt hypnotism before and he psyched himself to believe that he was in a garden of flowers. He felt no pain after that.
This is a true tale. Hypnotism can be used as anaesthesia! Many doctors in Europe are using it. The benefits are obvious. It is cheap and it has no side effects. Some doctors use a local aesthetic while cutting the skin during surgery and nothing more. The patients are hypnotized during the operation and feel no pain.
But there are the non-believers too. They say only the skin has most of the nerves in the body and the ‘hypnotist’ doctors do use local anaesthetic. They also say that hypnotism only works on people who have the capacity to ‘turn off’. Others say the use of ultra sharp scalpels used in operations are the reason there is so little pain. Considering all these arguments, it seems a long time before hypnotism replaces standard anaesthesia (if ever it does).
Whatever be the truth. Hollywood has used hypnotism as the theme in many films and created blockbusters. Come to think of it, we all are being continuously being hypnotized all the time; by TV and video games. A TV advertisement psyches us into believing the message it is conveying. Many of us do get hypnotized into buying useless products we do not need. Experts are worried of the effect of violent computer games on young impressionable minds.
The need of the hour is that hypnotism as a phenomenon is thoroughly investigated, before some suggestible kid goes berserk after playing Tomb Rider or some such game.
Source: Daily Mail