LIGHT Hypnotherapy

LIGHT Dataset

During these guided imagery hypnotherapy sessions,
a hypnotherapist integrates storytelling and deep
visualizations techniques to encourage personal
and wellbeing. This method allows individuals to
explore and modify their subconscious narratives, in
order to foster changes that resonate through their
lives. This differs from traditional hypnotherapy
by tapping into eudaemonic aspects of well-being,
emphasizing the pursuit of meaning and self
realization.

2 weeks before the first session, they will come to
the lab to record baseline resting EEG (session 0).
With the exception of sessions 1, 4, and 8, all LIGHT
sessions were performed virtually. For sessions 1,
4, and 8, EEG and ECG data was collected.
The first phase of each session was guided relaxation
or induction followed by prompts to visualize a
perfect place of comfort and safely in ones creative
imagination. Next, they were prompted to visualize
a path or a set of stairs, and asked to walk down
that path or stairway for ten steps, counting down
from 10 to 1 outloud. They were guided to visualize
and describe a chair or seat, followed by a crown.
After taking a seat in their imagined chair and
putting on the crown, they were encouraged to pause
and observe the world they had conjured. Following
this brief period of reflection, awareness was drawn
to a light or color that emerged from their creative
mind. They identified the color of the light and
were instructed to imagine that light entering and
traveling through their body, filling up each cell
as it passed through. The participant was instructed
to leave a mental bookmark in this place so that
they could come back to it at any time, before
removing and storing their crown. At the end of the
LIGHT sessions, the participant was asked to rise
from their imagined chair or throne and count their
way up from one to ten, with the session ending as
the participant returned to an awake and alert state
at the end of the ten count.

Baseline recordings were 5 minute of length.
Hypnotherapy recordings are variable in length with
multiple events indicating a hypnotherapist phase
transitions.