Hypnosis Instead of Anesthesia

You probably remember those pictures of an Asian surgeon with his hand inside someone’s abdominal cavity, doing surgery while the patient was awake. Western surgeons witnessed operations of this sort, and were amazed – but the rest of us were skeptic. Now, some years later, a similar process has been demonstrated in the UK.

Worthing and Southlands Hospital, located on the South Coast of England, issued a press release this month describing how a man requiring surgery on a bone at the base of his thumb was permitted to self-hypnotize himself, instead of having an anesthetic. Alex Lenkai, aged 61, is a professional hypnotist, so within about a minute he had ‘put himself under’. He said he was completely aware of what was going on around him during the surgery – he could hear the surgeon talking but could feel no pain – he could even hear the cracking of bone. At one point the surgeon use a saw, at another, a hammer.

An anesthetist was on hand “just in case’, but wasn’t needed. How was this possible? The theory is that the patient somehow managed to get his body to release a lot of pain-killing chemicals (like endorphins?) that prevented him from feeling any pain during the procedure. His heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration were unchanged throughout, suggesting he felt no pain.

Score a big one for hypnosis (note: by a professional!). Controlled studies have shown it has possibilities.