Hypnosis is one manifestation of a broader human capacity called phenomenological control: an evolved ability to deceive oneself to support socially useful beliefs. This capacity allows people to strategically construct subjective experiences that misrepresent reality despite contradictory evidence, in order to meet goals. It is so effective that researchers studying it have often been deceived, mistaking participants' constructed experiences—such as feeling energies or special states—for the mechanism itself. Phenomenological control is used in spirit possession, spiritual experiences, esoteric martial arts, everyday life, and psychology experiments.
The micro-phenomenological interview technique was used to explore the moment-to-moment experiences of people responding to imaginative suggestions designed to temporarily alter their perception of reality. Seven participants received three suggestions each and were interviewed, generating four hypotheses. Testing these with six new participants supported three: moderate responders used goal-directed fantasies while high responders did not; low responders did not report active sabotage; and both high and moderate responders appeared unaware they were generating the suggested behaviors and cognitions. These findings require confirmation in a quantitative study and may inform understanding of the mechanisms behind phenomenological control.