DAVID SPIEGEL: I was a little afraid that the hypnotized patients were dead because they had—

INTERVIEWER: Their anxiety was so low.

DAVID SPIEGEL: —no anxiety at all. They had no anxiety at all. Whereas it's heading off the scale for the ones who had standard care.

INTERVIEWER: Psychiatrist David Spiegel of Stanford University worked on the research project with Doctor Lang. He has also done brain scan studies showing that, under hypnosis, individuals who are shown a black and white diagram can actually process it as color.

DAVID SPIEGEL: So believing is seeing. They thought they were seeing color, their brain acted as though it was looking at color.

INTERVIEWER: That's interesting.

DAVID SPIEGEL: They thought they were seeing black and white. The brain acted at though it was looking at black and white.

INTERVIEWER: How does it happen? Well, again, it's no magic trick. Not nearly as dramatic as Count Dracula hypnotizing Lou Costello in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

DAVID SPIEGEL: Now, I want you to imagine that you're somewhere where you feel safe and comfortable.

INTERVIEWER: What hypnosis can create is altered perception through quiet persuasion.

DAVID SPIEGEL: —a peaceful place that's protected. And just immerse yourself in the smells.

INTERVIEWER: Dr. Spiegel has hypnotized patients to relieve pain associated with everything from chronic muscle ache and fatigue to cancer. He's even helped Parkinson's patients stay calm before surgery.

DAVID SPIEGEL: Now what I want you to do is to put yourself into the state of self hypnosis that we've done together and just take yourself to Hawaii. OK?

INTERVIEWER: He cannot make pain or other symptoms disappear, but he can help patients concentrate on something else.

Are you in a trance?

DAVID SPIEGEL: Well you're in an altered mental state. It's something like the experience you may have in a good movie or in a play. Where you get so caught up in the movie that you forget you're watching a movie. You kind of enter the imagined world.

So what I want you to do is to use the self-hypnosis exercise to reduce the tension in your extremities.

INTERVIEWER: Post-hypnotic suggestion, the idea that you won't notice the pain after a hypnosis secession works only for some people, and eventually wears off. So Dr. Spiegel teaches patients like Celia Janae how to put herself in a hypnotic state to combat lower jaw pain caused by clenching her teeth in her sleep—

DAVID SPIEGEL: —get uptight and before you go to sleep. Do this exercise.

INTERVIEWER: —so that she can get the same relief at home as she gets here.

How did you feel while you were hypnotized?

CELIA JANAE: I felt like really I was floating and for the first time I felt really like my jaw was supported from the upper part of my—

INTERVIEWER: It stopped hurting.

CELIA JANAE: Yeah!

INTERVIEWER: It really did?

DAVID SPIEGEL: Do you? Good.

INTERVIEWER: But I still had to try it for myself.

DAVID SPIEGEL: You've never had any formal experience with hypnosis, is that right?

INTERVIEWER: No. Never.

DAVID SPIEGEL: OK but you're curious.

INTERVIEWER: Yes.

DAVID SPIEGEL: Well, let me ask you—

INTERVIEWER: And a little bit skeptical.

DAVID SPIEGEL: A little bit skeptical. Fine. Fine.

NARRATOR: I knew that everyone is not hypnotizable, but after a short test—

DAVID SPIEGEL: Do tend to live more in the past, the present, the future, or all three?

NARRATOR: All three.

DAVID SPIEGEL: Do you make decisions with your heart or your head?

NARRATOR: I think a combination.

DAVID SPIEGEL: Dr. Spiegel determined that I was somewhere in the middle range.

DAVID SPIEGEL: Try to get the sense of your whole body floating down, floating into the chair. And as you concentrate on your body floating into the chair, I'm going to concentrate on your left hand and arm. Are you aware of a relative difference in sensation in your left hand going up compared to your right?

INTERVIEWER: I am.

DAVID SPIEGEL: Is one lighter or heavier than the other?

INTERVIEWER: This one feels heavier and like I have less control.

DAVID SPIEGEL: Less control over that hand than the right.

INTERVIEWER: He told me that I would not have my usual control over my arm until he touched it again.

DAVID SPIEGEL: Are you aware of a difference in sensation and control now in your—

INTERVIEWER: It felt like I was really having to say go up. And this hand, it felt like it just went up.