But unlike most patients, she was not given any anaesthetic – instead, the 67-year-old claimed she used self-hypnosis to control the pain.

She told surgeon Ahmed Shair of the private Orthopaedics and Spine Specialist Hospital in Cambridgeshire that she could feel only tugging and pulling.

Despite much research, nobody knows exactly how the technique works but Mrs Coady says anyone is capable of using self-hypnosis to control pain if they train their mind.”

(BBC News – Monday, 7 July 2008 (Video available))

What a shining example of the power of self-hypnosis, and hats off to Bernadine, not only for doing it all on her own – but also having a film crew in the operating theatre with her every step of the way.

Hypnosis has been used as a form of pain control for centuries, but fell out of popular use when modern anaesthetics were developed. However, some progressive modern surgeons (notably Irish surgeon, Dr Jack Gibson) have continued to use it in their work. Dr Jack, now 92 (and still working!), has performed over 4000 procedures using hypnosis instead of anaesthetic.

Modern neuroscience suggests that hypnosis works the same way as an anaesthetic – by blocking or altering the way the mind processes the pain signals coming from the body. MRI scans show the physical brain activity actually changes as a person goes into self hypnosis. Unlike anaesthetic, however, Hypnosis has no side effects, and studies show that patients actually recover much faster.

From our perspective, it is great to see yet more unquestionable proof that hypnosis works – helping to dispel further the hollywood myths and stage show shenanigans that have dogged its past. The mind is a powerful thing, and hypnosis allows each one of us to tap into its full power to make change in our lives – if we will allow ourselves to do so.

Until now.

The long-controversial practice of inducing a trancelike state through suggestion is getting a modern makeover by scientists armed with the latest neuroimaging tools and techniques. These researchers are beginning to offer evidence that, neurologically at least, hypnosis is entirely real.

“It makes sense that we are using modern tools of neuroscience research to understand what is a fascinating phenomenon,” said David Spiegel, a psychiatrist at Stanford University. “It’s good for hypnosis, and it’s good for neuroscience.”

Read the full article – (Seed Magazine – 20th October 2006)

(New York Times – 22nd November 2005)