Faculty Member to Discuss the Healing Possibilities of Hypnotism

Richard Schissel, associate professor of speech-language pathology and audiology, will speak on "Hypnosis for Better Health and Healing" on Tuesday, February 25. The fourth talk in the Integrative Health Studies Speaker Series will begin at 7:00 p.m. in Clark Lounge, Egbert Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

Schissel's presentation will include a brief history of hypnosis; a discussion of the myths surrounding it; its use in the areas of health, personal development, and exploration of past lives; an explanation of how it works; the difference between stage shows and clinical application; and the role of faith, belief, and expectation in its success.

Certified by the National Guild of Hypnotists, Schissel maintains a private hypnosis practice in Ithaca specializing in pain management and healing following surgery and physical trauma. Though he works primarily with clients suffering from fibromyalgia and peripheral neuropathy, his experience includes work with weight loss, anxiety, presurgical preparation, phobias, allergies, and past life regressions.

"Hypnosis is experiencing a resurgence in interest paralleling the increased interest in mind/body therapies and integrative health modalities in general," Schissel says.

Typically defined as a relaxed state of focused absorption, Schissel says it is an effortless, noninvasive method of changing feelings and beliefs, altering the perception of pain, facilitating healing of bone fractures, or altering the immune system's response to pollen and dust mites.

"The modality has a checkered history," Schissel says, "from the demise of Mesmer and animal magnetism, through the spiritualism of Mary Baker Eddy, to Dr. James Esdaile working in Calcutta army hospitals doing full arm and leg amputations using only hypnosis as an anesthetic, to the modern work of Clark Hull and Milton Erickson. Over the years hypnosis has been championed as evidence of a powerful healing potential innate in everyone, dismissed as useless quackery, and condemned as demonic. Yet clinical research reports over the past 150 years consistently have affirmed its effectiveness."

Schissel's presentation is sponsored by the Department of Health Policy Studies and the recently established interdisciplinary minor in integrative health studies (see story).