Experiencing Hypnosis

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Chapter 4 Consciousness
This view is supported by evidence suggesting that people’s current concerns can affect
both the content of their dreams and the way in which dreams are organized and
recalled (Domhoff, 1996, 1999; Stevens, 1996). However, high-tech imaging research
shows that while we are asleep, brain areas involved in emotion tend to be overactivated, whereas those areas controlling logical thought tend to be suppressed (Braun,
Balkin, & Wesensten, 1998; Hobson et al., 1998). In fact, as we reach deeper sleep stages,
and then enter REM sleep, thinking subsides and hallucinations increase (Fosse, Stickgold,
& Hobson, 2001). This is probably why dreams rarely provide realistic, logical solutions to
our problems (Blagrove, 1996).
Hypnosis
䉴 Can you be hypnotized against your will?
In the late
1700s, Austrian physician Franz Anton
Mesmer used a forerunner of hypnosis to
treat physical disorders. His procedure,
known as mesmerism, included elaborate
trance-induction rituals, but we now
know that hypnosis can be induced far
more easily, often simply by staring at an
object, as this woman did.
INDUCING HYPNOSIS
hypnosis A phenomenon brought on
by special techniques, characterized by
varying degrees of responsiveness to
suggestions for changes in experience
and behavior.
hypnotic susceptibility The degree to
which a person responds to hypnotic
suggestion
The word hypnosis comes from the Greek word hypnos, meaning “sleep.” However, hypnotized people are not sleeping. Even those who say afterward that their bodies felt
“asleep” also report that their minds were active and alert. Hypnosis has been defined
as an altered state of consciousness brought on by special techniques and producing
responsiveness to suggestions for changes in experience and behavior (Kirsch, 1994a).
Most hypnotized people do not feel forced to follow the hypnotist’s instructions. They
simply see no reason to refuse (Hilgard, 1965). In fact, the more that people want to
cooperate with the hypnotist, the more likely it is they will experience hypnosis (Lynn
et al., 2002). People cannot be hypnotized against their will.
Experiencing Hypnosis
Hypnosis often begins with suggestions that the person feels relaxed and sleepy. The
hypnotist may then gradually focus the person’s attention on a particular, often monotonous, set of stimuli, such as a swinging pendant. The hypnotist suggests that the individual should ignore everything else and imagine certain feelings.
There are special tests to measure hypnotic susceptibility, the degree to which people respond to hypnotic suggestions (Gfeller, 1994). These tests show that about 10 percent of adults are difficult or impossible to hypnotize (Hilgard, 1982). At the other
extreme are people whose hypnotic experiences are so vivid that they can’t tell the difference between images the hypnotist asked them to imagine and images projected on
a screen (Bryant & Mallard, 2003). Hypnotically susceptible people typically differ from
others in having a better ability to focus attention and ignore distractions (Crawford,
Brown, & Moon, 1993). They also tend to have more active imaginations (Spanos,
Burnley, & Cross, 1993), a tendency to fantasize (Lynn & Rhue, 1986), a capacity for
processing information quickly and easily (Dixon, Brunet, & Laurence, 1990), a tendency to be suggestible (Kirsch & Braffman, 2001), and positive attitudes toward hypnosis (Gfeller, 1994).
The results of hypnosis can be fascinating. People told that their eyes are locked shut
may struggle unsuccessfully to open them. They may appear deaf or blind or insensitive to pain. They may seem to forget their own names. Some appear to remember forgotten things. Others show age regression, apparently recalling or reenacting their childhoods (see Figure 4.6). These hypnotic effects can be extended for hours or days
through posthypnotic suggestions, which are instructions about how to behave after hypnosis has ended (such as smiling whenever someone says “England”). Some individuals show posthypnotic amnesia, an inability to recall what happened while they were
hypnotized, even after being told what happened (Barnier, 2002).
Ernest Hilgard (1965, 1992) described the main changes that people display during
hypnosis. First, hypnotized people tend not to begin actions on their own, waiting instead
for the hypnotist’s instructions. One participant said, “I was trying to decide if my legs
were crossed, but I couldn’t tell, and didn’t quite have the initiative to move to find