Trance State Effects and Imagery Vividness Before and During a Hypnotic Assessment:A Preliminary Study

Abstract

This preliminary study explored the relationship between imagery vividness before and during a hypnotic phenomenological assessment procedure, the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory-Hypnotic Assessment Procedure (PCI-HAP), while also assessing trance (hypnoidal) state effects and several other variables. The PCI-HAP allows the assessment of trance state effects associated with hypnotism to be quantified and statistically assessed. The 102 subjects completed the PCI-HAP along with several other questionnaire items. Correlational and regression analyses suggested that imagery vividness during hypnotism (hypnotic imagoic suggestibility) was predicted by combined imagery vividness before hypnotism and trance (altered) state effects during hypnotism. When measuring several additional variables, imagery vividness during hypnotism was found to be a function of self-reported hypnotic depth and additional other variables. The usefulness of these results for better understanding imagery vividness before and during hypnotism is discussed.

Is Hypnotic Induction Necessary to Experience Hypnosis and Responsible for Changes in Brain Activity?

“…According to the American Psychological Association (APA), hypnosis is a state of focused attention, reduced contact with the environment and increased proneness to accept suggestions [ 1 ]. Despite being subjectively reported as different from normal wakefulness [ 2 , 3 ], hypnosis cannot be regarded as a distinct physiological state, as it cannot be defined independently from self-reports, unlike sleep stages [ 4 ]. Nonetheless, neuroimaging highlighted changes in the activity and connectivity of the Default, Salience and Executive Networks [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ].…”

CAN SUBJECTIVE RATINGS OF ABSORPTION, DISSOCIATION, AND TIME PERCEPTION DURING “NEUTRAL HYPNOSIS” PREDICT HYPNOTIZABILITY?: An exploratory study

“…Future studies are needed on a larger sample to validate the efficacy of self-assessed dissociation scores to characterize the hypnotizability of subjects. In addition, we also need to expand the comparison of subjective scores used in this study with other standardized scales assessing the phenomenology of hypnosis (such as the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory-Hypnotic Assessment Procedure; Pekala, Maurer, Kumar, Elliott-Carter, & Mullen, 2010), rather than employing the behavioral responses to suggestion.…”