MovieChat Forums > Audrey Rose (1977) Discussion > Hypnotism, death and psychosomatic sympt...

Hypnotism, death and psychosomatic symptoms.

posted 15 years ago by LextheXFile
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A few posters have claimed that Ivy could not die from hypnosis... this is not entirely true. If she believed enough, she could have gone into shock (and shock can kill), or it could have triggered an arythymia (what if she had a congenital heart defect no one knew of)? Many people in the west also don't seem to realize how linked the mind/body are. I have personally seen people walk over white hot coals without burning their feet because they believe they can do it. How this is possible is open to interpretation. I have personally manifested wounds from my past. For instance, I once had a nightmare of being beaten and grabbed around the arm, and when I awoke there was a right hand print on my RIGHT arm, deeply bruised, and the size of a full grown man (much larger than mine). I went to the local clinic and they couldn't explain it, but due to the size and the fact that it was a RIGHT hand print bruise on my right arm, I obviously didn't do it myself, I lived by myself at the time and this very dark bruise disappeared completely within a few hours. As a child I used to have dreams of violence to my face (won't go into details) and would awaken to find my nose heavily bleeding- yes, it could have been a coincidence, but it has been established that stress and the power of the mind can greatly affect the body. Anyone interested should look into the "voodoo death" experiments done on lab rats, some of the war-wounds survived by nam vets because they, frankly, did not realize they were so badly wounded, etc... The mind and the body share a symbiotic relationship, so even though no one may have died of regrression hypnosis (that we know of, though the idea of someone having a heart attack/fatal asthma attack, etc after reliving something extremely stressful doesn't strike me as out of the realm of possibility).

"Man is a social animal who despises his fellow man" ~ Delacroix

[–] siukong 14 years ago

A couple of the things you say actually have other explanations.

You say you've seen people walk over white-hot coals. What usually is the case with walking over coals is that a layer of whitish-gray ash builds up that helps cushion your feets from the heat. Also, you won't really get burned as you walk since with each step different parts of your feets are in contact with the irregular surface of the coals. So as long as you don't stop and stand in one place, you're pretty safe.

As for vets surviving with ridiculous wounds, that can often happen because of the massive levels of adrenaline and other hormones surging through your body under stress. The body simply shuts down your pain reception pathways until you're in safer surroundings.

All that being said, you do still have a point. The mind has a tremendous influence over the body and there are many cases of strange phenomena as a result. People can heal themselves after only being given a sugar pill, some are able to stop their heartbeat during meditation, and yes, wounds and pain can exist with no physical cause (in the case of pain this is called psychogenic pain).