Hypnotherapy languished on the fringes of respectable science for 300 years before it became one of clinical psychology’s first tools at the clinic of the celebrated French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, who advocated hypnosis as an instrument for healing medical disorders. Charcot was one of Sigmund Freud’s first teachers. Freud was the first to investigate the structure and function of the unconscious. According to Carl Jung, perhaps Freud’s most notable collaborator, "Just as the largest part of the past is so far removed that it is not reached by history, so too the greater part of the unconscious determinants is unreachable." American Milton Erickson, generally considered the greatest clinical hypnotist of our time, saw the unconscious as a "storehouse," containing "attributes of basic wisdom which include the capacity of the body’s organs and cells for producing physical and mental healing."

The creativity of the unconscious can be clearly seen in the relationship between hypnosis and healing. Countless studies have explored the effect of hypnosis on health, but perhaps one of the more fascinating angles involves hypnosis and cancer.

As early as 1961, Dr. Al Barrios, a clinical psychologist from UCLA who received the annual Cancer Federation Award in 1996, published a paper entitled "Hypnosis as a Possible Means of Curing Cancer," concluding that the body has natural immune defenses against cancer. His research revealed that patients who were given hypnotic exercises in which they visualized the cancer cells being "gobbled up" showed remarkable improvements.

In 1978, Simonton and Atchley also studied the effects of hypnosis on cancer patients. They found that two years after hypnosis treatment, 63% were still alive; 22% had no evidence of disease; and 19% had tumors that were shrinking.

The results of two additional studies (Spiegel, 1989 and Fawzy, 1993) add further credence to the possibility of combating cancer with hypnosis. Spiegel found that 10 years after their treatment, women receiving hypnotherapy lived almost twice as long as those who did not receive it. Fawzy’s study involved a total of 68 malignant melanoma patients. The results showed that the treatment group had statistically fewer deaths (3 of 34) as compared with the non-treatment group (10 of 34).

How does hypnosis work? At first, when a hypnotic suggestion is made, it enters the brain as a stimulus. There it becomes a nerve impulse. From the neuron in the brain, the hypnotic suggestion travels across the synapse in one direction only, i.e., from the axon to the adjacent cell body or dendrite. According to one theory concerning the transmission of a nerve impulse across a synapse, the incoming impulse causes an excitor substance to be liberated by the first neuron, and the substance excites the second neuron and initiates a nerve impulse in it.

In other words, the hypnotic suggestion is transmitted from a neuron in the brain to dendrites and cell bodies in other parts of the body, where the hypnotic suggestion is actually carried out.

For example, a hypnotic suggestion such as: "You can feel your arms relaxing , and your legs relaxing, and your entire body relaxing completely, as you continue floating on a soft rubber raft at the beach" causes excitor substances to be released by the first neuron that receives the suggestion in the form of a stimulus. This substance excites neurons in the arms, legs and other parts of the body and initiates nerve impulses which travel to the arms, legs, and other parts of the body, causing those muscles to relax.

How does hypnotherapy affect cancer? One theory explains that the hypnotic suggestion travels through the body as a nerve impulse and causes the release of healing hormones as it reaches damaged cells. Other theories credit the natural healing power of the body, stating that once the conscious mind is freed of damaging thoughts and stressors, the subconscious mind is able to direct the necessary healing.

Future studies involving cancer and hypnosis will undoubtedly explore even more exciting theories, especially as hypnotherapy moves from "fringe" therapy to more mainstream settings.