Hi all, I stumbled upon this 6-part documentary on Youtube the other night....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut90zpURJU8&feature=related

There are a couple of things that were interesting; firstly, a study was done with a highly hypnotisable subject, who was told to imagine a black and grey pattern was actually in colour... while he was doing so, his brain activity was monitored. What was interesting is that a small part of his visual cortex was 'lit-up'.

In part 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGA8YFBwu0g&feature=related - a brain scan is done to examine whether or not the placebo response differs from a hypnotic state before a pain stimulus was given.

I found the results of this interesting, but haven't been able to locate the actual study, so I don't know how legit it is... perhaps someone else has come across it?

Be warned, there is a pretty gruesome scene in part five of a woman having her front teeth removed...

-Jon