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Mindset Health (YC S19) raises $1.1M to develop hypnosis apps

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Re: Mindset Health (YC S19) raises $1.1M to develop hypnosis apps

#21
post #10
post #3

Clicked on the link on my phone and hitting the back button just refreshed the page over and over again. Had to long press the back button and select hackernews to escape. Stop overwriting the back functionality of the browser please!

These people are shoveling out an app based on hypnosis, did you expect a respectable site?

"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Mindset Health (YC S19) raises $1.1M to develop hypnosis apps

#22
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hypnosis is simply a state of heightened focus and suggestibility, nothing more. The misconceptions you're familiar with are unfounded but understandable. We work with respected doctors and researchers and are evidence-focused (Nerva is based on an RCT and we're in the early stages of our own study). I do think our website is pretty respectable: https://www.mindsethealth.com

Save your pitch for someone with a weaker filter for nonsense.

Attacking other users like this will get you banned on HN. No more of this, please, regardless of how wrong others are or you feel they are.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Mindset Health (YC S19) raises $1.1M to develop hypnosis apps

#23

I'll try to maintain my cousins' anonymity while stating this: both of them are literally the best in the world at their passion (think Olympic athlete, math Olympiad, Rhodes Scholar, etc.) What's their secret? Their mom/my aunt swear by hypnosis. On a side note, their passion is not lucrative, it always saddens me to see them have such a drive yet not achieve anywhere close to their earning potential.

I'm curious, are they hypnotized while training, performing, or both?

Re: Mindset Health (YC S19) raises $1.1M to develop hypnosis apps

#24
post #23

I'll try to maintain my cousins' anonymity while stating this: both of them are literally the best in the world at their passion (think Olympic athlete, math Olympiad, Rhodes Scholar, etc.) What's their secret? Their mom/my aunt swear by hypnosis. On a side note, their passion is not lucrative, it always saddens me to see them have such a drive yet not achieve anywhere close to their earning potential.

I'm curious, are they hypnotized while training, performing, or both?

I'm not sure if they have a session prior to competing but I know they use it to train and get through 8+ hours of practice.

Re: Mindset Health (YC S19) raises $1.1M to develop hypnosis apps

#25
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, are they hypnotized while training, performing, or both?

I'm not sure if they have a session prior to competing but I know they use it to train and get through 8+ hours of practice.

It's not every day you hear a strong a testimonial for hypnosis :)

Can I hire a hypnotist or something to try this on me, or is there a book which describes the process?

I imagine it's something like getting into a flow state on command & staying there.

Re: Mindset Health (YC S19) raises $1.1M to develop hypnosis apps

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The state vs non-state discussion is still ongoing. The Stanford study linked above highlighted that there is a change in brain activity during hypnosis but there is also evidence for the non-state theories around expectancy, perception etc. When I say 'state', I don't necessarily mean a distinct cognitive state, instead, I'm describing the characteristics: heightened suggestibility induced by expectation and focused…

https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1... This has interesting information on how little of a state there really is. > If trance simply refers to whatever happens after hypnosis, then it could signify most anything, as each individual’s personal experience is unique, and responses to hypnosis are cued mostly by suggestions and very little, if at all, as we have noted, by the presence of the hypn…

Interesting review! I agree that the use of the word 'trance' isn't accurate nor beneficial for describing hypnosis.

I found their conclusion interesting: "We have argued that hypnosis does not produce a trance or ASC clearly distinguishable from nonhypnotic experiential states, but that hypnotic interventions, nevertheless, can initiate a broad array of alterations in consciousness". So essentially they're arguing that although it's not a distinct altered state of consciousness, it can trigger changes to consciousness?

I haven't heard of the CSTP - will definitely check it out, thanks! Could imagine a world where you use techniques such as these at the beginning of a program to enhance the effectiveness of the program.

I wouldn't necessarily take that away from the study - acting on the same brain area doesn't necessarily mean it's 'kind of imagination', instead that it could just work on similar brain areas as automaticity (or perceived automaticity).

Re: Mindset Health (YC S19) raises $1.1M to develop hypnosis apps

#28

But how? Is really any VC giving out so much money out _before_ seeing any kind of result/code?

When we raised our seed we had already launched two mobile apps and had existing user data (as well as being based on an existing study).

Re: Mindset Health (YC S19) raises $1.1M to develop hypnosis apps

#29
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if they have a session prior to competing but I know they use it to train and get through 8+ hours of practice.

It's not every day you hear a strong a testimonial for hypnosis :) Can I hire a hypnotist or something to try this on me, or is there a book which describes the process? I imagine it's something like getting into a flow state on command & staying there.

I'd look into active-alert hypnosis: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00029157.2018.1...

We have an alert session in Mindset you can try as well. The flow comparison is quite apt.

Re: Mindset Health (YC S19) raises $1.1M to develop hypnosis apps

#30
post #9

Hey HN, I'm Alex. I’m the co-founder of Mindset Health, a digital health startup that makes hypnosis-based management programs for chronic health conditions. Hypnosis get’s a bad rap but it’s essentially just a state of focused attention and absorption where you become more suggestible. It’s an experiential learning state that amplifies therapeutic techniques, from CBT to visualization and direct suggestion. If you’r…

I'm pretty sure I have a (very) mild form of trichotillomania, where I pick at my beard absentmindedly and pull out "odd" hairs more often than I'd like. Trying to be conscious about it has already improved the issue as I've aged, but I have always harbored a desire to find out if hypnotism would help. Any idea if this kind of behavior has been eased by your styles of therapies?

Have you checked out www.habitaware.com? It's a wearable you can train to help you stop behaviors like that.
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