Task 4 5

READING
Read the text and choose the correct answer (A, B, C, or D).
Questions 1-14
A
Hypnosis has been shown through a number of rigorously controlled studies to reduce pain,
control blood pressure, and even make warts go away. But because very few studies have
attempted to define the actual processes involved, most scientists are skeptical of its power and
uses. That skepticism has driven David Spiegel, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University
School of Medicine, USA, and other researchers to take a hard look at what happens in the brain
during hypnosis.
Among researchers there are two schools of thought. One claims that hypnosis fundamentally
alters subjects’ state of mind: they enter a trance, which produces changes in brain activity. The
other believes that hypnosis is simply a matter of suggestibility and relaxation. Spiegel belongs to
the first school and over the years has had a debate with two scientists on the other side, Irving
Kirsch, a University of Connecticut psychologist, and Stephen Kosslyn, a Harvard professor.
B
Kirsch often uses hypnosis in his practice and doesn’t deny that it can be effective. ‘With hypnosis
you do put people in altered states,’ he says. ‘But you don’t need a trance to do it.’ To illustrate the
point, Kirsch demonstrates how a subject holding a small object on a chain can make it swing in
any direction by mere suggestion, the chain responding to minute movements in the tiny muscles
of the fingers. ‘You don’t have to enter a trance for your subconscious and your body to act upon a
suggestion,’ Kirsch says. ‘The reaction is the result of your focusing on moving the chain in a
particular direction.’
Spiegel disagrees. One of his best known studies found that when subjects were hypnotized and
given suggestions their brain wave patterns changed, indicating that they had entered a trance. In
one of his studies, people under hypnosis were told their forearms were numb, then given light
electrical shocks to the wrists. They didn’t flinch or respond in any way, and their brain waves
resembled those of people who experienced a much weaker shock. To Kirsch this still wasn’t
enough to prove the power of trance, but Stephen Kosslyn was willing to be convinced. Many
external factors could have been responsible for the shift in the subjects’ state of mind, but Kosslyn
wondered, ‘Is there really something going on in the brain?’
C
To find out, Spiegel and Kosslyn decided to collaborate on a study focusing on a part of the brain
that is well understood: the circuit which has been found to process the perception of colour.
Spiegel and Kosslyn wanted to see if subjects could set off the circuit by visualizing colour while
under hypnosis. They selected eight people for the experiment conducted at Massachusetts
General Hospital. The subjects were put in a scanner and shown a slide with coloured rectangles
while their brain activity was mapped. Then they were shown a black and white slide and told to
imagine its having colour. Both tasks were then repeated under hypnosis.
The results were striking. When the subjects truly saw the coloured rectangles, the circuit lit up on
both sides of the brain; when they only had to imagine the colour, the circuit lit up only in the right
hemisphere. Under hypnosis, however, both sides of the brain became active, just as in regular
sight; imagination seemed to take on the quality of a hallucination.
After the experiment, Kosslyn was forced to admit, ‘I’m absolutely convinced now that hypnosis
can boost what mental imagery does.’ But kirsch remained skeptical, saying, ‘the experiments
demonstrate that people are experiencing the effects of hypnotic suggestion but don’t prove that
they are entering a trance.’ He also argued that subjects were told to see the card in colour when
they were hypnotized but only to imagine it in colour when they weren’t. ‘Being told to pretend
you’re having an experience is different from the suggestion to have the experience.’
D
Spiegel, however, is a clinician first and a scientist second. He believes the most important thing is
that doctors recognise the power of hypnosis and start to use it. Working with Elvira Lang, a
radiologist at a Harvard Medical Centre, he is testing the use of hypnosis in the operating room just
as he and Kosslyn did in the scanner. Spiegel and Lang took 241 patients scheduled for surgery and
divided them into three groups. One group received standard care, another standard care with a
sympathetic care provider and the third received standard care, a sympathetic care provider and
hypnosis. Every 15 minutes the patients were asked to rate their pain and anxiety levels. They were
also hooked up to painkilling medication which they could administer to themselves.
On average, Spiegel and Lang found the hypnotized subjects used less medication, experienced less
pain and felt far less anxiety than the other two groups. Original results published in The lancet
have been further supported by ongoing studies conducted by Lang.
E
Spiegel’s investigations into the nature of hypnosis and its effects on the brain continue. However,
if hypnosis is ever to work its way into mainstream medicine and everyday use, physicians will
need to know there is solid science behind what sounds like mysticism. Only then will their
reluctance to using such things as mind over matter be overcome. ‘I agree that the medical use of
hypnotism should be based on data rather than belief,’ says Spiegel, ‘but in the end it doesn’t
really matter why it works, as long as it helps our patients.’
1. Which is the best heading for section A from the list?
(A) An experiment using people who are receiving medical treatment
(B) Medical benefits of hypnosis make scientific proof less important
(C) Lack of data leads to opposing views of hypnotism
(D) The effects of hypnosis on parts of the brain involved in vision
2. Which is the best heading for section B from the list?

(A) The experiment that convinced all the researchers
(B) Inducing pain through the use of hypnotism
(C) Experiments used to support conflicting views
(D) An experiment using people who are receiving medical treatment
3. Which is the best heading for section C from the list?

(A) Inducing pain through the use of hypnotism
4. Which is the best heading for section D from the list?

(A) An experiment using people who are receiving medical treatment
(C) Lack of data leads to opposing views of hypnotism
5. Which is the best heading for section E from the list?

(A) The experiment that convinced all the researchers
(D) An experiment using people who are receiving medical treatment
6. Kirsch uses a small object on a chain to demonstrate that

(A) Inducing a trance is a simple process.
(B) Responding to a suggestion does not require a trance.
(C) Muscles respond as a result of a trance.
(D) It is difficult to identify a trance.
7. Spiegel disagrees with Kirsch because the subjects in Spiegel’s experiment
(A) Believed what they were told.
(B) Showed changes in brain activity.
(C) Responded as expected to shocks.
(D) Had similar reactions to control subjects.
8. Kosslyn’s response to Spiegel’s electric shock experiment was to

(A) Challenge the results because of external factors.
(B) Work with Kirsch to disprove Spiegel’s results.
(C) Reverse his previous position on trance.
(D) Accept that Spiegel’s ideas might be correct.
9. Spiegel and Kosslyn’s experiment was designed to show that hypnosis

(A) Affects the electrical responses of the brain.
(B) Could make colour appear as black and white.
(C) Has an effect on how shapes are perceived.
(D) Can enhance the subject’s imagination.
10. Kitsch thought Spiegel and Kosslyn’s results

(A) Were worthy of further investigation.
(B) Had nothing to do with hypnotic suggestion.
(C) Showed that the possibility of trance existed.
(D) Were affected by the words used in the instructions.
11. Spiegel is more interested in scientific research than medical practice.

(A) True
(B) False
(C) Not given
12. Patients in the third group in Spiegel and Lang’s experiment were easily hypnotized.
(A) True
(B) False
(C) Not given
13. In Spiegel and Lang’s experiment, a smaller amount of painkiller was needed by the
hypnotized patients than by the other two groups.
(A) True
(B) False
(C) Not given
14. Spiegel feels that doctors should use hypnotism only when it is fully understood.
(A) True
(B) False
(C) Not given

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READING

2. Which is the best heading for section B from the list?

3. Which is the best heading for section C from the list?

4. Which is the best heading for section D from the list?

5. Which is the best heading for section E from the list?

6. Kirsch uses a small object on a chain to demonstrate that

8. Kosslyn’s response to Spiegel’s electric shock experiment was to

9. Spiegel and Kosslyn’s experiment was designed to show that hypnosis

10. Kitsch thought Spiegel and Kosslyn’s results

11. Spiegel is more interested in scientific research than medical practice.

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