Suggested visual hallucinations in and out of hypnosis.
Giuliana Mazzoni, Elisabetta Rotriquenz, Claudia Carvalho, Manila Vannucci, Kathrine Roberts, Irving Kirsch
Consciousness and Cognition June 2009 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2009.02.002 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 38 |
| Population | 30 high-suggestible and eight low-suggestible students |
| Intervention | Hypnotic induction |
| Key findings | Reports of being hypnotized occurred only among high-suggestible participants and only after a hypnotic induction, while reports of altered color perception were also limited to high suggestibles but were roughly comparable with and without the induction. The authors argue that suggestible individuals do not slip into hypnosis when given imaginative suggestions without an induction, yet still report profound perceptual alterations similar to those in hypnosis. |
Abstract
We administered suggestions to see a gray-scale pattern as colored and a colored pattern in shades of gray to 30 high suggestible and eight low suggestible students. The suggestions were administered twice, once following the induction of hypnosis and once without an induction. Besides rating the degree of color they saw in the stimuli differently, participants also rated their states of consciousness as normal, relaxed, hypnotized, or deeply hypnotized. Reports of being hypnotized were limited to highly suggestible participants and only after the hypnotic induction had been administered. Reports of altered color perception were also limited to high suggestibles, but were roughly comparable regardless of whether hypnosis had been induced. These data indicate that suggestible individuals do not slip into a hypnotic state when given imaginative suggestions without the induction of hypnosis, but nevertheless report experiencing difficult suggestions for profound perceptual alterations that are pheonomenologically similar to what they report in hypnosis.
Citations in the library
Cited by 4
- Hypnosis as neurophenomenology. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2013
- Synaesthesia-type associations and perceptual changes induced by hypnotic suggestion Scientific Reports December 5, 2017
- Controlling phenomenology by being unaware of intentions July 23, 2020
- The altered state issue: dead or alive? International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis July 1, 2011