[Hypnosis] is the oldest Western conception of psychotherapy and, in mainstream medicine, it has been shown to help patients manage pain, stress and anxiety, and combat traumas and phobia. It is also associated with being used to retrieve repressed" memories connected to mental disorders. Now, new scientific research, bolstered by technological advances, is shedding light on the neurological nuances of the brain's response to hypnosis. For instance, a recent study from the Stanford University School of Medicine helps explain why some people easily fall into a trance while others do not. David Spiegel, the study's senior author [and medical director of Stanford's Center for Integrative Medicine], defines hypnosis as a state of highly focused attention, achieved through deep breathing and muscle relaxation. When patients are fully hypnotized, they can, for instance, alter their minds to perceive pain as less painful. The ability to slip into this mentality varies among people, according to Spiegel's study. Published this month in Archives of General Psychiatry, it shows that the reason may have to do with the strength of connections between specific brain regions. This deeper proof of people's abilities to be hypnotized helps physicians explain to patients that hypnosis "is not just some carnival trick" but a helpful medical tool, said Donald Olson, director of the pediatric epilepsy program at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. He was not involved in Spiegel's study.