Hypnosis, Suggestions, and Warts: An Experimental Investigation Implicating the Importance of “Believed-in Efficacy”

Abstract

It was suggested to 22 subjects that their warts would disappear if they imagined them tingling for a few minutes each day. Half the subjects received the suggestion after they had been exposed to a formal hypnotic induction procedure and the remaining half (controls) received the same suggestion after they were told simply that they were to be treated by a method called “focused contemplation.” Three of the 11 hypnotic subjects and none of the 11 “focused contemplation” subjects lost their warts during the experimental period. It is suggested that the relatively greater effectiveness of the hypnotic treatment may have been due to its believed-in efficacy; that is, subjects who lost their warts strongly believed that warts could be cured by hypnosis whereas the “focused contemplation” subjects did not believe that their treatment was especially effective in curing warts.