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Do we see:
- Las Vegas shows with people walking like chickens and quacking like ducks?
- T.V. shows with audience participants acting supposedly against their will?
- Movies with Dracula, Mesmer or even Svengali?
We can assume that if we don’t see hypnosis this way, the majority of people and patients do. For this reason it is important to clarify what hypnosis is and what it can and cannot do.
In 1876, the word hypnosis or “inducement of sleep,” was coined by the British surgeon James Braid (as an alternative to hypnotism) from Gk. hypnos “sleep” (somnolence) + -osis “condition.” An artificially induced altered state of consciousness, characterized by heightened suggestibility and receptivity to direction. Hypnosis therefore, is a deep state of calmness and relaxation. The body is very comfortable and the mind is more alert than in your normal state of awareness. Many people still relate the word Hypnosis with an image of being unconscious or out of control. Nothing could be further from the truth. You can hear and respond to everything during the therapeutic process and are an active participant in the therapy.
Suggestibility and Hypnotizability
Suggestibility is defined as the way in which we take in information. Hypnotizability is the extent to which we can be hypnotized.
Up until the early 1950’s it was thought that only 25% of everyone was hypnotizable. With the work of Orne, Erickson, and Kappas, a theory of suggestibility was revised wherein it was understood that everyone had a different way of being hypnotized according to how they took in information. Once suggestibility was understood, the practitioner could then design his or her suggestions to match the individual and therefore facilitate the acceptance of the specific suggestion.
The Following are the 3 different types of Suggestibility:
- Literal = taking information in directly. Example: Your eyes are very heavy.
- Inferential = Taking information in inferentially. Example: Your eyes feel as if they have lead weights holding them shut.
- Somnambulistic = Sleepwalkers. These people are suggestible to both Literal and Inferential suggestions.
Aside from the Theory of Mind Paradigm, other explanations for how hypnosis works are:
- Parasympathetic Nervous System Activation
- Brain-wave Patterns
- Complex Interaction of both Brain Hemispheres
- Placebo Effect (Expectancy Theory)
- Dissociated Control Theory (Bowers 1992)
- Social-cognitive Theory (Kirsch & Lynn 1997)
- Neodissociation Theory (Hilgard 1986)
- Neurophysiological Theory (Gruzellier 1998)
- Integrative Cognitive Theory (Oakley & Brown 2004)
- Cold Control Theory (Dienes & Perner 2007)
- Dissociated Experience Theory (Kihlstrom (1985)
- Ego-psychological Theory (Fromm 1992)