We examined two potential correlates of hypnotic suggestibility: dissociation and cognitive inhibition. Dissociation is the foundation of two of the major theories of hypnosis and other theories commonly postulate that hypnotic responding is a result of attentional abilities (including inhibition). Participants were administered the Waterloo-Stanford Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form...

In hypnosis, subjects respond to suggestions for imaginative experiences that can involve alterations in conscious perception, memory, and action. However, these phenomena occur most profoundly in those subjects who are highly hypnotizable. The chapter reviews a number of these phenomena, including posthypnotic amnesia; hypnotic analgesia; hypnotic deafness, blindness, and agnosia; and emotiona...

Hypnosis is associated with profound changes in conscious experience and is increasingly used as a cognitive tool to explore neuropsychological processes. Studies of this sort typically employ suggestions following a hypnotic induction to produce changes in perceptual experience and motor control. It is not clear, however, to what extent the induction procedure serves to facilitate suggested ph...

This preliminary study explored the relationship between imagery vividness before and during a hypnotic phenomenological assessment procedure, the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory-Hypnotic Assessment Procedure (PCI-HAP), while also assessing trance (hypnoidal) state effects and several other variables. The PCI-HAP allows the assessment of trance state effects associated with hypnotism t...

The change in the level of oxytocin and cortisol was tested in the participants of hypnotic interaction in standardised laboratory sessions with healthy volunteers. Pre to posthypnosis changes of oxitocin and cortisol were related to the hypnotic susceptibility of Ss, and to relational experiences reposted by subjects and hypnotists on several paper and pencil tests (AIM, DIH, s-EMBU). Results ...

Sleep quality markedly declines across the human lifespan. Particularly the amount of slow-wave sleep (SWS) decreases with age and this decrease is paralleled by a loss of cognitive functioning in the elderly. Here we show in healthy elderly females that the amount of SWS can be extended by a hypnotic suggestion "to sleep deeper" before sleep. In a placebo-controlled cross-over design, particip...

This research compared a no-treatment control condition and 3 experimentally induced pain treatment conditions: (a) virtual reality distraction (VRD), (b) hypnotic analgesia (HA), and (c) HA + VRD in relieving finger-pressure pain. After receiving baseline pain stimulus, each participant received hypnosis or no hypnosis, followed by VRD or no VRD during another pain stimulus. The data analysis ...

Hypnotic Ss received posthypnotic suggestions (a) to begin all sentences to the ostensible experimental (Taffel) task with "he" and "they," and (b) to be unaware of and amnesic for this fact. Waking simulator Ss received identical suggestions preceded by instructions to behave later as though they had been hypnotized when they received the suggestions. During a postexperimental inquiry with a d...

In order to investigate the effects of the hypnotic state a standardized hypnosis session was conducted with 144 subjects in a controlled laboratory study. The induction of a hypnotic trance in the German version of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (HGSHS:A by Shor and Orne, 1962) was tape-recorded and used as the treatment. The HGSHS:A seems to be a reliable measure of sugges...

Rosa damascena has been found to act on central nervous system including brain. It inhibits the reactivity of the hypothalamous and pituitary systems in rat. In traditional medicine hypnotic effect of Rose is also suggested. In the present study hypnotic effect of ethanolic, aqueous and chloroformic extracts of R. damascena was investigated in mice. Hypnotic method was based on potentiation of ...