Experimental observations on the contextual nature of hypnosis

Abstract

The distinctive mental context of hypnosis was explored experimentally with a well-trained male undergraduate S. First, a context effect was demonstrated by presenting 2 sets of stimuli on a trial, 1 under the hypnotic condition and 1 under the waking, and testing their subsequent salience in hypnotic or waking report states. Next a series of attempts was made to isolate elements of the hypnotic context–-closed eyes, lowered mental arousal, and “blank mind”–-none of which proved to be sufficient in itself to account for the observed phenomenon. A noted greater difficulty of spontaneous information transmission from hypnotic to waking condition than vice versa led to additional experiments in which prior hypnotic “priming,” in the absence of specific posthypnotic suggestion, had no effect on related waking tasks. Finally a theoretical interpretation was proposed to explain how initially weak hypnotic inputs, registered within a highly distinctive mental context, can acquire virtually complete cognitive dominance.