The science is settled. Hypnosis works.
Fifty years of Dr. Spiegel's research, visible on brain imaging and proven in controlled trials. The key papers are below.
Six studies that matter.
Effects of app-delivered self-hypnosis on stress
282,893 Reveri sessions, 84,395 members. Stress fell 1.5 points on a ten-point scale within a session, and the tenth session worked like the first.
Read the paper →Non-pharmacological analgesia for invasive medical procedures
A randomised trial of 241 patients. With self-hypnosis, pain stayed flat through the procedure and patients used half the medication.
Read the trial →Brain activity and functional connectivity associated with hypnosis
Imaging 57 people in and out of hypnosis. It is a distinct brain state: less alarm, more mind-body control, less second-guessing.
Read the paper →Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce arousal
With Andrew Huberman. Five minutes of cyclic sighing a day beat mindfulness meditation for mood and breathing rate.
Read the paper →Shared cognitive mechanisms of hypnotizability with executive functioning
The more hypnotizable, the less you get stuck on a rule that has stopped working. Hypnotizability is a cognitive skill, not gullibility.
Read the paper →Hypnosis: the most effective treatment you have yet to prescribe
Robust evidence for many conditions, the least collateral harm of any treatment for them, and almost no physicians trained to offer it.
Read the paper →Charts are simplified illustrations of each paper's main finding; the papers carry the data.
What 84,395 members showed.
Published in npj Digital Medicine, December 2025, by Dr. Spiegel and eleven co-authors at Stanford and Reveri.
It is observational, without a control group, so it shows what happened in real sessions rather than proving cause. Relief was consistent from session to session rather than growing: reliability, not a promise that the effect compounds.
stress, within one session, on a ten-point scale
effect size (Cohen's d), large, in behavioural research
sessions with the same relief, the tenth works like the first
relief when members answered questions than when they only listened
The evidence, subject by subject.
You will know right away whether it works for you.