He lay relaxed in a small bed as his friend played a pitch pipe nearby and asked him to identify the notes vocally.

He sang the first one, and then she began to play another that was higher, and higher and higher. Eventually, he stopped hitting the notes verbally and began to match them in his mind, all the while feeling as if he himself was floating higher and higher and higher.

She finally told him to open his eyes in his imagination. In his mind’s eye, he saw himself lying down below on the small bed. He was shocked, and at that moment, he crashed back down to earth.

This was Donald Michael Kraig’s first experience with hypnosis, but it would not be his last.

The 1974 alumnus and former Daily Bruin columnist first experimented with the procedure while attending UCLA, along with a friend he had met in music class.

Together, the pair was curious about expanding their senses through hypnosis. Specifically, the students hoped to experience psychic phenomenon, like trying to see their futures and separating their minds from their brains to travel to other locations.

“I don’t know if it’s real, or if it’s just an aspect of the mind, but it would seem like it is (real),” Kraig said. “Oftentimes, our senses are limited by our expectations of them.”

A “natural” state of mind

With a degree in philosophy, Kraig now practices hypnotherapy, ceremonial magic and tarot. While others may see these actions as purely psychological tricks, Kraig said they’re simply techniques that can help people but have not yet been explained by science.

Hypnosis and hypnotherapy are two psychological tools that can be used to deal with issues ranging from anxiety and pain to irritable bowel syndrome and autoimmune disorders.

After entering a trance-like state, patients focus deeply on one thing and are able to turn their focus inward. The deeper they go into this “natural state of mind,” the more peaceful they feel, allowing them to inspect themselves and take conscious control of their actions, said Charlene Williams, clinical program director at the Mind-Body Medicine Group of the division of head and neck surgery at UCLA.

“Hypnosis is a way to choose what suggestions to give ourselves,” she said. “Our bodies and minds tend to follow through with the suggestions we give them.”

Williams uses hypnosis in her own psychological practice and has seen success, especially in cases of pre-surgical anxiety.

The technique also has the support of scientific evidence – hypnosis is 80 percent effective in cases of irritable bowel syndrome, as patients have reported less pain, more regular bowel movements and less cramping. The relaxation of the body during the process has also been linked to the body’s parasympathetic, or restorative, state, which can help the body recharge and fight other illnesses, Williams said.

However, Williams said not all hypnotherapists have training in mental health issues, and the exact mechanism by which it works is still a puzzle, leaving the door open for individual interpretation of its effectiveness that goes beyond science.

Uncovering the past

Some hypnotherapists utilize hypnosis for past life regression, which uses hypnosis to access a person’s memory bank to see who they were in another reincarnated state.

“The soul needs to do different things,” said Stephanie Riseley, a UCLA alumna and certified hypnotherapist who practices past life regression.

“(Past life regression) is a way to find … healing.”

Riseley was studying to become a doctor when she discovered she had systemic lupus. At 19, her condition worsened and when she was very sick, she said she let go of life and slid into what she saw as a golden light only for a moment.

Riseley calls this a near-death experience.

“Once you know this is possible, it shifts your perspective,” she said. “Nothing happens by accident.”

Her experience with the spiritual world continued after her husband died, when she said she felt his energy whoosh past her and heard a voice saying, “Free at last.” She thought she was going crazy, as she had generally stayed away from the supernatural.

But a few months later, she said her husband’s spirit came back and told her she needed to become a healer.

“My job is getting people to do their life job that will make a difference,” she said.

In addition to her own private practice, Riseley also worked at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute for three years.

She said experiences in one’s past life sometimes cross over into the present. In her own past life, she and her husband were nuns together, and they have come back into new cycles of life with the same group of souls time and again, she said.

This is related to the belief that all souls are eternal and new lives help people to find new ways to love, she said.

Though many medical professionals consider past life regression an unethical practice, as it crosses into the realm of spirituality, Riseley is not fazed.

“I let people believe what they want,” she said. “I don’t have to justify myself.”