Liminal states and hypnosis: understanding consciousness through anthropology

¶ … liminal experiences witnessed in anthropology as discussed by Krippner actually inform the reader about hypnotic states a great deal. They mainly do so by providing a historical context for the modern psychiatric practice of hypnosis. Krippner (2005) argues that the roots of hypnosis trace fairly far back into the history of mankind, when "shaman, seers, court jesters" (p. 98) and others were known for traversing the known and the unknown realms of consciousness -- not psychiatrists or psychologists. The specific characteristics of liminal states help readers to understand just how exactly this contemporary process works. Firstly, it does so my explicating the fact that there is a boundary between the known and accepted realm of reality and some external other. Secondly, the notion of liminal states reinforces the fact that these boundaries may readily be traversed by the human mind at will in which it "overcomes the boundary between… awareness" (Krippner, 2005, p. 99).

Therefore, the characteristics of liminal experiences as studied throughout anthropology ultimately help to explain the capacity of the brain, of which humans reportedly use 10% of at most. The author's discussion of liminal states helps to provide scientific evidence for the fact that the mind can do a lot more than it is consciously and pragmatically used for in today's society, which is essentially procuring capitalist means of survival in the form of a sophisticated version of the hunt for food, clothing and shelter. Some of Krippner's references (2005) to the extent of what one can do in liminal states, such as individual asserting their will to "change or shift shapes" (p. 98) may seem illogical if not outright impossible in today's society. But as other applications of hypnosis suggest, such as people recalling vivid details from their childhood, such feats may actually be the least of what the mind can do.

The relation of neural processes to hypnotic susceptibility is discussed at length within Gruzelier's article "Frontal functions, connectivity, neural efficiency underpinning hypnosis and hypnotic susceptibility." In truth this article and the author's points affected my understanding of hypnosis very little. The author's explanation of the various neural processes and observable phenomena related to them is akin to researchers who study the cognitive effects of love or infatuation on people. These researchers may be able to provide empirical eviedence that validates such phenomena and which prove that there are certain cognitive or neural functions that take place when one is in love or in a feeling of intense infatuation, but they do little to actually help a reader understand what love is -- let alone what it feels like.