Time to Explain the Nature of Hypnosis?

Time distortion is a well known phenomenon of hypnosis. Perhaps less well known are the distortions to temporal judgement that are exhibited by patients with Parkinson’s disease or schizophrenia. Both these classes of patient also suffer from hallucinations, which of course can be induced in hypnosis. It is argued that these are not chance parallels; they can all be accommodated by Gray’s (1995) account of the neurophysiology underpinning consciousness. Recognizing that patients with hallucinations have their consciousness altered, it is concluded that hypnosis too represents an altered state of consciousness. The degree of alteration is shown to be correlated with the magnitude of time distortion experienced. In contrast with many studies, it is also reported that distortion is significantly greater in those who are highly susceptible to hypnosis. Copyright © 2006 British Society of Experimental & Clinical Hypnosis. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.