| I heard the same story. It was reported by the chief science reporter
for the New York Times, and had been assembled from several different
research reports. Frankly, much better evidence for the same thing
exists in the hypnosis literature -- including several startling,
well documented cases of relief from the effects of a *genetic*
skin disorder.
One case mentioned was of one personality out of many who was *not*
"alergic" to orange juice. The allergy, however, seemed to be an
intolerance to drinking it. At least as stated on the air, there
was no evidence that it was actually an allergy. A double-blind
scratch test would be needed to be convincing. The ability for
many people to produce redness, swelling, hives -- and in some
cases even bleeding -- has been demonstrated over and over again
by hypnotists since the 19th century. In one case I read about
(reliability moderate) a subject "burned" with a room-temperature
nickel produced a correponding mark on their arm which showed the
outline of Jefferson's face. Furthermore, the ability to create
such marks implies the possibility of surpressing them -- at unknown
inner costs.
The other case mentioned (an out-turned eye resulting from a real
injury to the body then controlled by one personality, and which
was manifested only for that one personality) is well within the
boundaries of what has been traditionally demonstrated with hypnosis.
While interesting and extending the results to a new area, it just
didn't seem that new to me.
Topher
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