To what extent is a person able to experience hypnosis?

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Dj I.C.U.
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To what extent is a person able to experience hypnosis?

Post by Dj I.C.U. » Sun Jun 04, 2006 8:46 am

From http://www.fmsfonline.org/hypnosis.html#chbf

Hypnotic susceptibility, hypnotic ability, hypnotizability and hypnotic responsivity are terms that are used interchangeably in the scientific literature on hypnosis. They refer, descriptively, to the extent to which a person is able to experience hypnosis. Hypnotic susceptibility is a differential phenomenon; research dating back to over a century ago indicates that there are individual differences in this ability. Despite numerous attempts to modify hypnotic ability by training low responsive individuals to become highly responsive (Spanos, 1986), the evidence indicates that these individual differences are stable and enduring.

Studies have found, repeatedly, that approximately 10-15% of the population is highly responsive to hypnosis; that is, able to experience the more classical phenomena of hypnosis such as age regression, analgesia (pain reduction), positive and negative hallucinations, and post hypnotic amnesia. An additional 10-15% is unresponsive, or minimally responsive to hypnosis; these individuals are unable to experience even mild subjective alterations, such as the suggestion (experienced by approximately 90% of the population) that the arm is light and weightless and is floating towards the forehead of its own accord, as if it were attached to a brightly colored helium balloon. The remaining majority of 70-80% of the population is moderately responsive to hypnosis; they can experience easy, and in some cases, moderately difficult hypnotic items, but at a certain cut-off point they are unable to respond further. Most hypnotizability scales (next section) consist of items that become progressively more difficult.

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