Is hypnotism real?
Suggestion measurably changes pain, perception and brain activity, and helps some patients with pain and IBS. No record read shows hypnosis overriding a person’s will or reliably bringing back true memories, and whether it is a special trance state is still disputed.
- ✓ ConfirmedTheoryHypnotic suggestion measurably changes pain, perception and brain activity
- LikelyTheoryHypnosis is a real medical treatment
- DisputedTheoryHypnosis is a special trance state, different from ordinary suggestion
- UnverifiedTheoryThe stage hypnotist takes control of volunteers’ minds
- UnverifiedTheoryHypnosis can make a person act against their will, up to assassination
- ✕ DisprovenTheoryHypnosis reliably unlocks accurate buried memories
Hypnotic suggestion changes how people feel pain and what their brains do, and it helps some patients. The records do not show a hypnotist taking over anyone’s will, or hypnosis bringing back true buried memories.
The question Does hypnosis really do anything, and which of the famous claims about it hold up?
What the records say
The documented story holds up: 13 of 13 timeline steps are Confirmed by the records (score 100).
6 theories checked: 1 disproven, 2 unverified, 1 disputed, 1 likely, 1 confirmed. A theory is rated by its key claim.
A Cochrane review finds no reliable evidence that hypnotherapy helps people stop smoking
confirmedConfirmed as a record of what this document says, not that it is true. See the step
Down the rabbit hole
The ground line is the documented timeline. Each tunnel is a theory that branches off it; every chamber is a step, coloured by how well the records support it. The deepest chamber is the theory’s key claim. Tap one to open it.
Main timeline
Oldest first- 1784confirmed
A French royal commission including Benjamin Franklin tests Mesmer’s “animal magnetism” and puts its effects down to imagination
In blindfold tests the effects followed what people believed was happening, not the magnetising. The commissioners concluded: “Compression, imagination, imitation are therefore the true causes of the effects attributed to this new agent.”
T1Franklin commission report, 1784pp. 97, 105–106 (1785 English translation) - Jun 1843confirmed
The Manchester surgeon James Braid names “hypnotism” and says it comes from the patient, not from the hypnotist
His book “Neurypnology” defines it as “a peculiar condition of the nervous system, induced by a fixed and abstracted attention”, arising from the patient’s own condition “and not from any emanation or principle proceeding from others”.
T3Braid, “Neurypnology”, 1843Introduction (definition); contents of Part I, ch. 1 - 1953–1964confirmed
The CIA’s MKULTRA programme includes eight hypnosis research subprojects
The CIA’s director told the Senate in 1977 that MKULTRA included “research on hypnosis, eight subprojects, including two involving hypnosis and drugs in combination.” Most MKULTRA files were destroyed in 1973 (see the MKULTRA case).
T1Senate hearing on MKULTRA, 3 Aug 1977p. 10involved party: US government (the CIA and the government it belongs to) - Nov 1983confirmed
A Science study by J.-R. Laurence and C. Perry plants a false memory under hypnosis
27 highly hypnotisable people were told under hypnosis that loud noises had woken them on a night the week before. “Posthypnotically, 13 of them stated that the suggested event had actually occurred.”
T1Laurence & Perry, Science, 1983abstract - Apr 1985confirmed
The American Medical Association’s science council warns that hypnosis makes memories less reliable
Its report in JAMA found that recollections under hypnosis can include made-up details and pseudomemories, and “not only fail to be more accurate, but actually appear to be less reliable than nonhypnotic recall.”
- 22 Jun 1987confirmed
The US Supreme Court rules on hypnotically refreshed testimony in Rock v. Arkansas
It struck down Arkansas’s blanket ban on a defendant’s own hypnotically refreshed testimony, while listing the risks: suggestibility, confabulation and “memory hardening”. It wrote that “scientific understanding of the phenomenon … is still in its infancy.”
T1Rock v. Arkansas, 1987opinion of the Court, Part III - Nov 1992confirmed
A study by H. J. Crawford’s team interviews 22 people who went on stage at hypnosis shows
The 15 later tested were mostly moderately to highly hypnotisable, and their scores tracked how many stage suggestions they passed (r = .68). Five of the 22 believed the hypnotist had control over their behaviour.
T1Crawford et al., J Abnorm Psychol, 1992abstract - Aug 1997confirmed
A Science brain-scan study by P. Rainville’s team changes how unpleasant pain feels using hypnotic suggestion
Suggestions altered “the unpleasantness of noxious stimuli, without changing the perceived intensity”, and PET scans showed matching changes in the anterior cingulate cortex but not in the primary somatosensory cortex.
T1Rainville et al., Science, 1997abstract - Jul 2005confirmed
A PNAS study by A. Raz, J. Fan and M. I. Posner finds suggestion quiets a brain conflict area
Told to see words as nonsense strings, highly hypnotisable people showed reduced activity in the anterior cingulate and visual areas on fMRI, compared with no suggestion or with less hypnotisable people.
T1Raz, Fan & Posner, PNAS, 2005abstract - 2008confirmed
England’s health guidance body NICE recommends considering hypnotherapy for hard-to-treat IBS
Its guideline says referral for psychological interventions, hypnotherapy among them, “should be considered for people with IBS who do not respond to pharmacological treatments after 12 months”.
T1NICE guideline CG61 (IBS)recommendation 1.2.3.1involved party: NICE (the body that set this guidance) - Jul 2016confirmed
A Stanford fMRI study led by Heidi Jiang with David Spiegel as senior author maps brain changes during hypnosis
From 545 people screened, 57 with very high or very low hypnotisability were scanned. During hypnosis the dorsal anterior cingulate was less active and links between control and self-reflection networks changed.
T1Jiang et al., Cerebral Cortex, 2016–17abstract - Apr 2019confirmed
A meta-analysis of 85 trials by T. Thompson’s team finds hypnosis reduces laboratory pain
Across 3,632 healthy volunteers, highly and moderately suggestible people given direct pain-relief suggestions had 42% and 29% reductions in pain. “Minimal benefits were found for low suggestibles.”
T1Thompson et al., meta-analysis, 2019abstract - Jun 2019confirmed
A Cochrane review finds no reliable evidence that hypnotherapy helps people stop smoking
Across 14 trials and 1,926 people there was “insufficient evidence to determine whether hypnotherapy is more effective for smoking cessation than other forms of behavioural support or unassisted quitting.”
Branches
Go down oneA branch is only as strong as its weakest step so far. The count is how many sources back each step.
Does hypnosis change the brain?
Does hypnosis measurably change what people feel and what their brains do?
Braid’s “Neurypnology” first described hypnotism as “a peculiar condition of the nervous system”. Brain imaging tested it from the 1990s.
- 500,978 YouTube views, “Using Hypnosis to Enhance Health & Performance | Dr. David Spiegel” (Huberman Lab) as of 30 Oct 2026 T3YouTube: Huberman Lab with David Spiegel
Brain scans show hypnosis is a real, distinct brain state
Spiegel, in Stanford’s release: the three changes appeared “only in the highly hypnotizable group and only while they were undergoing hypnosis.”
T2Stanford Medicine release, Jul 2016involved party: Stanford Medicine (the study authors’ own university, promoting its own study)T3YouTube: Huberman Lab with David SpiegelThe premise: confirmedThe changes are real in that study (57 people, one lab). The 2006 Stroop study found suggestion works without an induction, so the scans show what suggestion does, not that a special state is needed.
T1Jiang et al., Cerebral Cortex, 2016–17abstractT1Raz et al., Psychological Science, 2006abstractHypnosis treats smoking addiction
Stanford’s 2016 release lists “treating smoking addiction” among things hypnosis has been shown to do.
T2Stanford Medicine release, Jul 2016involved party: Stanford Medicine (the study authors’ own university, promoting its own study)The premise: disputedThe 2019 Cochrane review found no reliable evidence of a benefit over other support, and at most a small one. A 2025 review counting studies reported mostly positive results. See the medical-use branch.
T1Cochrane review, smoking hypnotherapy, 2019abstractT1Ekanayake & Elkins, IJCEH, 2025abstract
- confirmed
Raz’s 2002 study: a posthypnotic suggestion stops a reading reflex
In the Stroop colour-word test, “posthypnotic suggestion eliminated Stroop interference for highly suggestible subjects”; less suggestible people showed no significant change.
T1Raz et al., Arch Gen Psychiatry, 2002abstractStartStrength so far:confirmed· 1 source on this step - confirmed
Raz’s 2006 follow-up: the same effect without any hypnotic induction
Suggestion cut Stroop interference “regardless of whether hypnosis had been induced.” The effect belongs to suggestion in suggestible people, not to the trance ritual.
T1Raz et al., Psychological Science, 2006abstract= HoldsStrength so far:confirmed· 1 source on this step - likely
About 10% of people are highly hypnotisable, Stanford says
Stanford Medicine’s release on the Jiang study says “only about 10 percent of the population is generally categorized as ‘highly hypnotizable’”. The figure is not sourced in the release, and it comes from the authors’ own university (party), so it is held at Likely. Higher figures seen online were not traced to a record.
T2Stanford Medicine release, Jul 2016involved party: Stanford Medicine (the study authors’ own university, promoting its own study)T1Jiang et al., Cerebral Cortex, 2016–17abstract (57 of 545 selected)▼ WeakerStrength so far:likely· 2 sources on this step - confirmed
Key claim: hypnotic suggestion measurably changes pain, perception and brain activity
Four independent lines of tier-1 research agree: brain imaging (Rainville 1997, Raz 2005, Jiang 2016) and an 85-trial pain meta-analysis. Each study is one result; the effects are largest in highly suggestible people.
T1Rainville et al., Science, 1997abstractT1Raz, Fan & Posner, PNAS, 2005abstractT1Jiang et al., Cerebral Cortex, 2016–17abstractT1Thompson et al., meta-analysis, 2019abstract= HoldsStrength so far:likely· 4 sources on this step
Bullshit meter
- No step is Unverified or Disproven.
- Key claim contradicted by tier 1? No. Independent tier-1 studies record the effects; what they record is the power of suggestion in suggestible people, which a 2006 study found works with or without a trance induction.
Fluff meter: possibly planted
- Can’t be traced to an original record. Absent: traced to peer-reviewed studies.
- First appeared from new or anonymous accounts. Not measured.
- Coordinated identical wording. Not measured.
- Cited source doesn’t exist. Absent: every study cited was opened.
- Later contradicted. Not measured: no failed replication of these particular imaging studies turned up in the searches run, which is not proof that none exists.
● present · ○ absent · – not measured. Lists signals only. It never accuses anyone.
Personal interest meter
- David Spiegel, senior author of the 2016 Stanford study, is co-founder and scientific advisor of Reveri Health, a self-hypnosis app company, per his own 2025 disclosure. That stake is recorded in 2025; when it began was not checked. T1Tran et al., npj Digital Medicine, 2025 (disclosure)Competing interests
- Stanford Medicine’s 2016 release, promotes its own researchers’ study. T2Stanford Medicine release, Jul 2016involved party: Stanford Medicine (the study authors’ own university, promoting its own study)
“Has a documented interest” only, each one sourced. Never an implication of guilt.
Correlation meter
- MKULTRA, the CIA programme whose eight hypnosis subprojects open the mind-control branch is its own case (mkultra). T1Senate hearing on MKULTRA, 3 Aug 1977p. 10involved party: US government (the CIA and the government it belongs to)
- Human Ecology Fund, the CIA funding channel in the mkultra case also part-funded Orne and Evans’s 1965 hypnosis-and-compliance study. T1Orne & Evans, J Pers Soc Psychol, 1965p. 189, footnote 1
- Suggestibility, the same trait drives the brain effects, the pain relief, stage behaviour and false memories. T1Thompson et al., meta-analysis, 2019abstract
Links to other cases appear once those cases exist.
Who worked on this
This case was assembled by the site from public records. Contributions are not open yet. Nothing here is invented, so the counts are zero.
This is the first published version of the case.
Sources
- T1Report of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, and other commissioners, charged by the King of France, with the examination of the animal magnetism, as now practised at Paris (English translation, London, 1785, of the commissioners’ 1784 report). archive.org
- T3James Braid, “Neurypnology; or, The rationale of nervous sleep, considered in relation with animal magnetism” (London, 1843), the author’s own book. archive.org
- T1involved party: US government (the CIA and the government it belongs to) “Project MKULTRA, the CIA’s Program of Research in Behavioral Modification”, joint hearing, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research, 95th Congress, 3 Aug 1977. www.intelligence.senate.gov · copy read: www.prisonlegalnews.org
- T1Martin T. Orne and Frederick J. Evans, “Social control in the psychological experiment: Antisocial behavior and hypnosis”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1 (1965): 189–200. doi.org · copy read: www.psych.upenn.edu
- T1Ernest R. Hilgard, “A neodissociation interpretation of pain reduction in hypnosis”, Psychological Review 80 (1973) (title and record only; the abstract is not published online). doi.org
- T1V. J. Knox, A. H. Morgan and E. R. Hilgard, “Pain and suffering in ischemia. The paradox of hypnotically suggested anesthesia as contradicted by reports from the ‘hidden observer’”, Archives of General Psychiatry, June 1974 (title and record only). doi.org
- T1N. P. Spanos and E. C. Hewitt, “The hidden observer in hypnotic analgesia: discovery or experimental creation?”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, December 1980 (abstract). doi.org
- T1J.-R. Laurence and C. Perry, “Hypnotically created memory among highly hypnotizable subjects”, Science 222 (November 1983) (abstract). doi.org
- T1Council on Scientific Affairs (American Medical Association), “Scientific status of refreshing recollection by the use of hypnosis”, JAMA 253 (April 1985): 1918–1923 (abstract). doi.org
- T1Rock v. Arkansas, 483 U.S. 44 (1987), US Supreme Court, decided 22 Jun 1987, opinion of the Court and dissent. www.law.cornell.edu
- T1I. Kirsch, C. P. Mobayed, J. R. Council and D. A. Kenny, “Expert judgments of hypnosis from subjective state reports”, Journal of Abnormal Psychology 101 (November 1992) (abstract). doi.org
- T1H. J. Crawford, M. Kitner-Triolo, S. W. Clarke and B. Olesko, “Transient positive and negative experiences accompanying stage hypnosis”, Journal of Abnormal Psychology 101 (November 1992): 663–667 (abstract). doi.org
- T1involved party: FBI (the law-enforcement agency whose own failure to find evidence for the allegations the guide explains) Kenneth V. Lanning, Supervisory Special Agent, FBI Behavioral Science Unit, “Investigator’s Guide to Allegations of ‘Ritual’ Child Abuse”, January 1992 (NCJRS scan). www.ojp.gov
- T1P. Rainville, G. H. Duncan, D. D. Price, B. Carrier and M. C. Bushnell, “Pain affect encoded in human anterior cingulate but not somatosensory cortex”, Science 277 (August 1997) (abstract). doi.org
- T1W. Braffman and I. Kirsch, “Imaginative suggestibility and hypnotizability: an empirical analysis”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77 (September 1999) (abstract). doi.org
- T1P. Rainville, R. K. Hofbauer, M. C. Bushnell, G. H. Duncan and D. D. Price, “Hypnosis modulates activity in brain structures involved in the regulation of consciousness”, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 14 (August 2002) (abstract). doi.org
- T1A. Raz, T. Shapiro, J. Fan and M. I. Posner, “Hypnotic suggestion and the modulation of Stroop interference”, Archives of General Psychiatry 59 (December 2002) (abstract). doi.org
- T1A. Raz, J. Fan and M. I. Posner, “Hypnotic suggestion reduces conflict in the human brain”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102 (July 2005) (abstract). doi.org
- T1A. Raz, I. Kirsch, J. Pollard and Y. Nitkin-Kaner, “Suggestion reduces the Stroop effect”, Psychological Science 17 (February 2006) (abstract). doi.org
- T1A. N. Webb, R. H. Kukuruzovic, A. G. Catto-Smith and S. M. Sawyer, “Hypnotherapy for treatment of irritable bowel syndrome”, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, October 2007, CD005110 (abstract). doi.org
- T1involved party: NICE (the body that set this guidance) National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, “Irritable bowel syndrome in adults: diagnosis and management”, clinical guideline CG61, Recommendations, 1.2.3.1 (dated [2008] in the guideline). www.nice.org.uk
- T1H. Jiang, M. P. White, M. D. Greicius, L. C. Waelde and D. Spiegel, “Brain Activity and Functional Connectivity Associated with Hypnosis”, Cerebral Cortex (online July 2016; print August 2017) (abstract). doi.org
- T2involved party: Stanford Medicine (the study authors’ own university, promoting its own study) “Study identifies brain areas altered during hypnotic trances”, Stanford University Medical Center release on the Jiang et al. study, as republished by ScienceDaily, 28 Jul 2016. www.sciencedaily.com
- T1C. E. Flik et al., “Efficacy of individual and group hypnotherapy in irritable bowel syndrome (IMAGINE): a multicentre randomised controlled trial”, The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology 4 (January 2019) (abstract). doi.org
- T1T. Thompson, D. B. Terhune et al., “The effectiveness of hypnosis for pain relief: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 85 controlled experimental trials”, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews (April 2019) (abstract). doi.org
- T1J. Barnes, H. McRobbie, C. Y. Dong, N. Walker and J. Hartmann-Boyce, “Hypnotherapy for smoking cessation”, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, June 2019, CD001008 (abstract). doi.org
- T1K. Madden, P. Middleton, A. M. Cyna, M. Matthewson and L. Jones, “Hypnosis for pain management during labour and childbirth”, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, May 2016, CD009356 (abstract). doi.org
- T1P. Langlois et al., “Hypnosis to manage musculoskeletal and neuropathic chronic pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis”, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews (April 2022) (abstract). doi.org
- T1V. Ekanayake and G. R. Elkins, “Systematic Review on Hypnotherapy and Smoking Cessation”, International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (January 2025) (abstract). doi.org
- T1N. Tran et al. (senior author D. Spiegel), “Effects of app delivered self hypnosis on stress management”, npj Digital Medicine (December 2025), Competing interests statement. doi.org
- T2Debra Cassens Weiss, “Lawyer for Sirhan Sirhan Plans to Tell Parole Board His Client Was ‘Hypno-Programmed’”, ABA Journal, 2 Mar 2011. www.abajournal.com
- T2“Sirhan Sirhan Denied Parole”, Associated Press, as published by WBUR, 3 Mar 2011. www.wbur.org
- T3Shane O’Sullivan, “Was Sirhan Hypnotically Programmed to Assassinate RFK?”, WhoWhatWhy, 5 Jun 2018 (by a filmmaker who argues the programming theory). whowhatwhy.org
- T2“Assassination under hypnotic suggestion: Stuart Derbyshire features on Derren Brown’s The Experiments series”, University of Birmingham news archive, 3 Nov 2011. www.birmingham.ac.uk
- T3Michael Heap, “Reflections on Hypnosis 4. Hypnosis on the Stage”, Mike Heap’s Blog, 30 Oct 2025 (a Sheffield psychologist who has given expert-witness reports in stage-hypnosis injury cases). mheap.com
- T3Michael Heap, “Reflections on Hypnosis 6. Stage Hypnosis and Will”, Mike Heap’s Blog, 14 Jan 2026. mheap.com
- T3“Using Hypnosis to Enhance Health & Performance | Dr. David Spiegel”, Andrew Huberman, YouTube, 21 Feb 2022. www.youtube.com
- T3“How to HYPNOTIZE Yourself for Success, Health & Happiness”, GetsetflySCIENCE by Gaurav Thakur, YouTube, 30 Nov 2024. www.youtube.com
- T3“Is Hypnosis Real or Is It Just Another Myth? | MythBusters”, MythBusters, YouTube, 18 May 2026. www.youtube.com
- T3“Can You ACTUALLY Be Hypnotized??”, Tyler Blanchard, YouTube, 2 Dec 2022 (with hypnotist Zach Pincince). www.youtube.com
- T3“INCREDIBLE HYPNOSIS AT VENICE BEACH | FULL UNCUT PERFORMANCE”, Zach Pincince, YouTube, 19 Mar 2019 (the performer’s own video and description). www.youtube.com
- T3“The Real Manchurian Candidate”, E2 Films, YouTube, 5 Jun 2018 (Daniel Brown and Laurie Dusek on Sirhan). www.youtube.com
- T3“Brian Weiss Past-Life Regression Session - YouTube”, uploaded by Thomas R Williams (not Weiss’s own channel), YouTube, 11 Mar 2013. www.youtube.com