The present study explored differences in behavior and reflexes following instructions to age regress to infancy or to portray infancy while high hypnotizable Ss were in an actor’s role. Additional role enactment controls were provided by professional actors and low hypnotizable Ss. High hypnotizable Ss while hypnotized reproduced realistic newborn reactions, both behavior and reflexes, which were strikingly like new-born infants during actual age regression, but were unable to produce as many during role enactment. Similarly, the low hypnotizable Ss and professional actors were unconvincing. Negating the theory of age ablation, results are discussed in the light of reactivation of lost memories through the breaking of amnesic barriers during hypnotic age regression.
Spanos, Nicholas P.; Bridgeman, M.; Stam, H. J.; Gwynn, M. I.; Saad, C. I. (1982-83). When seeing is not believing: The effects of contextual variables on the reports of hypnotic hallucinations. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 2, 195-209.
When administered a hallucination suggestion most high susceptible hypnotic and task-motivated subjects reported that they “saw” the suggested object. When asked what they meant by “saw,” however, almost all indicated that they had imagined the object but did not believe that it had actually been present. On the other hand, simulating subjects maintained that the suggested object had been “really there.” Simulators were also more likely than non-simulators to provide “life-like” descriptions of the suggested object (e.g., solid rather than transparent, colored, highly vivid). These findings are consistent with the view that hypnotic hallucinations are context-generated imaginings. They also indicate that unique or unusual psychological processes like “trance logic” need not be posited to account for the descriptions of “hallucinatory” experiences proffered by hypnotic subjects.
NOTES
It was observed that hypnotized Ss reported more vivid (and longer sustained) imagery than task motivated Subjects. Hypnotized Ss did not differ from high susceptible simulators on vividness of imagery or how long they experienced the imagery, but did report shorter and less vivid imagery than simulators who were low hypnotizables.
1981
McConkey, Kevin M.; Sheehan, Peter W. (1981). The impact of videotape playback of hypnotic events on posthypnotic amnesia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 90 (1), 46-54.
Examined the breakdown of amnesia by showing 48 hypnotic and nonhypnotic undergraduates (Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility) a videotape of the hypnotic events they had experienced. The extent of the amnesia for these events was defined precisely, and simulating procedures were employed to analyze the cues in the overall test situation. Videotape display of the hypnotic events was presented via the Experiential Analysis Technique and served to optimize conditions for breakdown. Some hypnotic Ss’ amnesia could not be broken down even though they were exposed via videotape playback to the events to be recalled and when suggestions for the period of amnesia were quite explicit. Simulators showed breaching of amnesia but attributed their recall to the videotape rather than to the hypnotic session. Hypnotic Ss were distinctive in their inability to recall experiential aspects of their performance even though they could recall behavioral aspects. The data are discussed in relation to the hypothesis that dissociative cognitive mechanisms underlie posthypnotic amnesia. (22 ref).
1980
Bauer, K. E.; McCanne, T. R. (1980). Autonomic and central nervous system responding during hypnosis and simulation of hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 28 (2), 148-163.
Heart rate, electrodermal responding, respiratory rate, frontalis muscle tension, and occipital electroencephalographic activity were monitored while 6 female Ss were experiencing hypnosis and while 6 other female Ss simulated the experience of hypnosis. Physiological data were collected during 7 sessions on 7 consecutive days. The results indicated no differences in physiological responding between hypnotized and simulating Ss. Both groups of Ss exhibited significant decreases in heart rate and amount of electroencephalographic alpha activity during their experiences, relative to pre- and posthypnotic or simulating levels. In addition, both groups of Ss exhibited significant increases in electroencephalographic beta activity during their experiences. Both groups of Ss also displayed lowered levels of electrodermal activity, skin conductance, and respiratory rate during their experiences. The changes in these modalities, however, were significant for hypnotized Ss, but were generally not significant for simulating Ss. Both groups of Ss also manifested lowered levels of muscle responding during their experiences, but these changes in responding were not significant for either group of Ss. The results are discussed in terms of several current theories of the nature of the hypnotic experience.
McConkey, Kevin M.; Sheehan, Peter W. (1980). Inconsistency in hypnotic age regression and cue structure as supplied by the hypnotist. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 28 (4), 394-408.
Inconsistency in hypnotic age regression was elicited by asking Ss to write a complex sentence, in contexts that varied appreciably in the extent to which they cued Ss that illogical response was appropriate. Hypnotically responsive and unresponsive Ss were assigned to a real or simulating group in application of the real-simulating model of hypnosis and tested in 1 of 3 distinct cue conditions. Cue conditions either followed those of previous studies and communicated that no particular response was appropriate, or communicated that an illogical response was appropriate, or inappropriate. It was hypothesized that cue structure would have a significant impact. Data indicated that cues for logical response had a greater influence on the behavior of Ss than did cues for illogical response when compared with the base response condition; at times, real Ss behaved appreciably more illogically than simulating Ss. Also, detailed analysis of the reports of both groups of Ss indicated distinctive properties of experience that point to the importance of recognizing the complexities of consciousness underlying the experiences of highly susceptible Ss.
1979
Sheehan, Peter W. (1979). Expectancy reactions in hypnosis. In Burrows, G. D.; Collison, D. R.; Dennerstein, L. (Ed.), Hypnosis 1979 (pp. 25-32). Amsterdam: Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press.
NOTES
Susceptible Subjects are more likely to follow the hypnotist’s nonverbalized suggestion when it is counter to their expectation. But not consistently. His article in April 1979 Journal of Abnormal Psychology reports 10 studies of this. Such individual differences that exist relate to styles of performance, parameters which have nothing to do with hypnotizability.
1970
Gray, Arne L.; Bowers, Kenneth S.; Fenz, Walter D. (1970). Heart rate in anticipation of and during a negative visual hallucination. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 18 (1), 41-51.
Gave 10 stimulating control and 10 hypnotic undergraduates a suggestion to negatively hallucinate. Heart rate responses recorded prior to and including the hallucination period indicated consistent differences between groups. Hypnotic Ss responded with heart rate acceleration in anticipation of the hallucination, while controls responded with heart rate deceleration during the same period. It is suggested that these differences reflect differences in the subjective experiences of hypnotic and simulating Ss. (Spanish & German summaries) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)
1969
Graham, Kenneth (1969). Brightness contrast by hypnotic hallucination. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 17, 62-73.
Tested the veridicality of a hypnotic hallucination elicited by a buzzer through a conditioning procedure. The stimulus to be hallucinated consisted of 2 gray circles, 3 in. in diameter, mounted on a white card. 11 highly susceptible Ss were able to produce this hallucination upon hearing the buzzer during a series of test trials following the training. Following a 2nd training series, a black and white background was provided for the hallucination and Ss tended to report the hallucinated circles as a brightness contrast. A 2nd group of highly susceptible Ss was not hypnotized, but was asked to respond as if hypnotized. These Ss tended not to report the contrast. (Spanish & German summaries) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Greenleaf, Eric (1969). Developmental-stage regression through hypnosis. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 12, 20-36.
Twenty subjects serving as their own controls were given four developmental tasks under conditions of hypnotic regression (R) and hypnotic simulation (S). Scored interview data were correlated with performances under R and S. Findings: (a) The Ss’ pattern of responses is best conceptualized as a ‘mixed’ regression rather than ‘true’ developmental regression. (b) Even when Ss are used as their own controls, the R condition is productive of a greater mean number of childlike responses than is the S condition, disregarding response patterns. (c) The S condition scores provide measures of a set of relatively independent, the R condition of a set of relatively unitary performance variables; this in the same Ss. (d) Factor analysis yielded three orthogonal factors: ‘outcome by test performance,’ a personality constellation and a factor describing interpersonal actions. The specific situational variable with greatest impact on test performance was the subject’s ability to pretend.
London, Perry; Masden, Charles H., Jr. (1969). Role playing and hypnotic susceptibility in children: II. An extension and partial replication. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 17, 37-49.
7-12 yr. olds received 2 role-playing tests in 1 session and London”s Children”s Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale (CHSS) 1 wk. later. Performances were compared to a previous sample of 42 children who had received the same tests in reverse order of administration. Means of the role test were essentially the same in both samples. 1 of the role tests, Dramatic Acting, was unrelated to hypnotic susceptibility in both samples; the other, Hypnotic Simulation, was uncorrelated with overall susceptibility in the present sample, unlike the previous one, but seemed to have inhibited 1 aspect (Subjective Involvement scores) of performance on the CHSS. Order of administration of the simulation test and CHSS also differentially affected some Overt Behavior item scores; CHSS functioned as a rehearsal for the subsequent simulation performance of low-susceptibles, and the simulation test had the same function for the CHSS performances of high-susceptibles. (Spanish & German summaries) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
1968
Bowers, Kenneth S. (1968). Hypnosis and creativity: A preliminary investigation. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 16, 38-52.
24 HIGHLY SELECTED, HYPNOTICALLY TRAINED COLLEGE STUDENTS WERE CAST INTO HYPNOTIC AND HYPNOSIS SIMULATING GROUPS AND GIVEN SUGGESTIONS TO BEHAVE CREATIVELY ON THE CONSEQUENCES TEST OF ORIGINALITY. NO DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE 2 GROUPS APPEARED. THEY DID APPEAR, HOWEVER, ON A CONCEPT FORMATION TASK AS A FUNCTION OF TASK-INVOLVEMENT INSTRUCTIONS, IRRESPECTIVE OF WHETHER SS WERE HYPNOTIZED OR SIMULATING HYPNOSIS. MOREOVER, AWARENESS OF RESPONSE REINFORCEMENT CONTINGENCIES WAS STRONGLY INFLUENCED BY THE INVOLVING SUGGESTIONS. THE NEGATIVE FINDINGS ON THE CREATIVITY TEST WERE ATTRIBUTED TO THE EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE OF THE SIMULATOR SS. IT IS SUGGESTED THAT PERHAPS SUSCEPTIBILITY PER SE INTERACTS WITH ROLE PLAYING INSTRUCTIONS IN GENERATING MORE REGRESSIVE MODES OF THINKING. (SPANISH + GERMAN ABSTRACTS) (2 P. REF.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Overley, Toner M.; Levitt, Eugene E. (1968). A test of the expected homogeneity of simulator performance. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 16, 229-236.
Hypothesized that simulator control groups simulate unanimously and successfully any behavior which is under voluntary control. This hypothesis was disproved. The performances on various voluntary behaviors of 2 simulator groups with 17 Ss were more variable than those of a susceptible group. Simulators failed to simulate an average of 2.5 behaviors of 9 employed in both preliminary and experimental phases. Possible reasons for lack of simulator reliability and its implications for use of simulating controls are discussed. (French & German summaries) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Scheibe, Karl E.; Gray, Arne L.; Kleim, C. Stephen (1968). Hypnotically induced deafness and delayed auditory feedback: A comparison of real and simulating subjects. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 16, 158-164.
PRELIMINARY RESEARCH INDICATES THAT HYPNOTICALLY INDUCED DEAFNESS MAY REDUCE THE SPEECH INHIBITING EFFECTS OF DELAYED AUDITORY FEEDBACK (DAF). REAL AND SIMULATING HYPNOTIC SS WERE COMPARED WITH RESPECT TO THE IMPROVEMENT IN SPEECH CONSEQUENT TO THE SUGGESTION OF DEAFNESS. RESULTS INDICATE VERY SIMILAR IMPROVEMENTS OF DAF SPEECH FOR BOTH GROUPS. AN INCIDENTAL FINDING IS THAT REAL SS HAD LONGER SIMPLE READING TIMES UNDER HYPNOSIS THAN DID SIMULATING SS. (GERMAN + SPANISH SUMMARIES) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
1966
Andreasen, A. G.; Singer G. (1966). Hypnosis and hypnotizability: Delusion or simulation?. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 14 (3), 257-267.
Because Sutcliffe (see 36:4) showed that hypnotic suggestions are not comparable in sensory content with real stimuli, the postulated difference between “pseudoperception” and “simulation” as indexed by reported subjective experiences of hypnotic Ss was tested. From 215 undergraduates, 30 high-susceptibility (HS) and 30 low-susceptibility (LS) Ss made kinesthetic and visual judgments of horizontality. A significant response, not attributable to simulation, was found only for the HS-hypnosis induction group; the effect was not attributable individually to susceptibility, hypnosis induction, or motivation. It is concluded that hypnosis, defined by this significant interaction effect between high susceptibility and hypnosis induction can be interpreted as a pseudoperceptual response to suggestion. (Spanish & German summaries) (28 ref.) (PsycINFO
Orne, Martin T.; Evans, Frederick J. (1966). Inadvertent termination of hypnosis with hypnotized and simulating subjects. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 14, 61-78.
6 highly hypnotizable Ss and 6 unhypnotizable Ss, instructed to simulate hypnosis, were given hypnotic instructions by means of a tape-recording. Continuous measures of subjective hypnotic depth and GSP were recorded to allow E to take the role of technician. After Ss had been hypnotized by the tape-recorder, a light went out, the tape-recorder stopped, and E rushed from the room–apparently in search of a fuse box. The Ss were observed for 30 min. through the 1-way screen. During this time the hypnotic suggestions appeared to lose their effectiveness and the hypnotized Ss gradually awoke. However, 5 of 6 simulating Ss behaved as though they were in hypnosis throughout. 5 of 6 deeply hypnotized Ss assumed that the fuse really had blown, whereas 5 of 6 simulating Ss perceived the “accident” to be part of the experiment. It was concluded that it is necessary to construct a situation in which both groups perceive the power failure to be genuine. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
1964
Brady, J. P.; Levitt, E. E. (1964). Nystagmus as a criterion of hypnotically induced visual hallucinations. Science, 146, 85-86.
Hypnotized Ss who report hallucinating a visual situation which would ordinarily elicit optokinetic nystagmus demonstrate nystagmus under these conditions. They and control Ss are unable to feign nystagmus in the waking state, either by imagining the situation or by direct efforts to simulate the eye movements. Thus an objective criterion is provided for the presence of visual hallucinations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Shor, Ronald E. (1964). A note on shock tolerance of real and simulating hypnotic subjects. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 12 (4), 258-262.
Prior to the induction of hypnosis, Ss who later in an experiment were actually to be hypnotized selected lower criterion electric shock levels than did Ss who later were only to simulate hypnosis. This is the 1st quantified objective difference found to date between the behavior of Reals and Simulators. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
1963
Austin, M. J.; Perry, Campbell.; Sutcliffe, J. P.; Yeomans, N. (1963). Can somnambulists successfully simulate hypnotic behavior without becoming entranced?. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 11 (3), 175-186.
It is proposed that in order to avoid confounding subject and treatment differences in experimental studies of hypnosis a “simulating control” group composed of susceptible Ss be used. This study relates to the issue of whether such Ss can successfully simulate hypnosis, without being entranced. Results indicate an affirmative answer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Damaser, E. C.; Shor, R. E.; Orne, M. T. (1963). Physiological effects during hypnotically requested emotions. Psychosomatic Medicine, 25, 334-343.
4 emotional states were used: fear, calmness, happiness, and depression. The Ss were 17 college undergrads divided into 2 groups (8 hypnotized Ss, 9 simulators). “It was demonstrated that consistent physiological changes occur in response to hypnotically requested emotions, but that similar changes occur just as readily during waking control conditions and can be produced just as clearly by Ss simulating hypnosis.” (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
1960
Sutcliffe, J. P. (1960). ‘Credulous’ and ‘sceptical’ view of hypnotic phenomena. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 8 (1), 73-102.
The author distinguishes between 2 interpretations of hypnotic phenomena: the credulous (S does or does not experience what the hypnotist suggests) and the skeptical (S reports what is suggested regardless of the “reality” of his experience). 2 groups of Ss (distinguished with respect to the presence or not of genuine hypnotic behavior and posthypnotic amnesia) were placed in a 3 [control (not under hypnotic trance), hypnotic trance, nontrance acting (S asked to act as if conditions were as suggested)] by 2 (stimulus present or not) design involving paraesthesias, hallucinations, and delusional thinking. Evidence (such as GSR, interference in thinking due to feedback, test measures of delusion) suggests that S does not misperceive the real situation, but misreports it. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4II89S. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Yates, Aubrey J. (1960). Simulation and hypnotic age regression. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 8 (4), 243-250.
(Author”s Discussion) “It is clear from the results reported above that Sutcliffe was correct in hypothesizing that Ss placed in the experimental situation described will attempt to make use of the counting method. It is equally clear that his suggestion that this artifact might account for True”s (1949) results is not supported by the results of this experiment. Ss using the method in the waking state do better than chance expectations, but fall far short of the achievement of the Ss hypnotically regressed by True.
“There still remains the problem of explaining the results obtained by True (1949), and of accounting for the discrepancy between his results and those of Best and Michaels (1954). With regard to the former, the present author has suggested in a review of the literature on hypnotic age regression (Yates, in press), that the degree to which earlier habits (in this case ”information”) may be reactivated is a function of the degree to which those habits have been subsequently interfered with. It is arguable that simple pieces of information, although ”forgotten”, may lie dormant in the ”memory system”, but be capable of reactivation under appropriate circumstances, _because the trace has not been interfered with by subsequent learning._ Complex structures, on the other hand, would be more difficult to re-evoke, because such factors as retroactive inhibition would interfere with the structure of the memory trace.
“The discrepancy between the results of True (1949) and Best and Michaels (1954) could be due to the small sample (n = 5) used by the latter compared with the former (n = 50). A more probable explanation lies, however, in differences in the hypnotic procedure used by the authors. Both Yates (in press), and Reiff and Scheerer (1959) have drawn attention to the importance of this variable. Although neither True, nor Best and Michaels, give sufficient details of their procedures, it seems possible at least that True regressed his Ss much more slowly than Best and Michaels. In other words, it may be important gradually to regress Ss back to the age level required under hypnosis, if that period is to be genuinely reinstated” (p. 249).
NOTES
The experimental task involved identifying the day of birthday at age 10, 7, and 4.
1953
Beigel, Hugo G. (1953). Prevarication under hypnosis. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 1 (3), 32-40.
NOTES
Author describes three cases in which hypnosis was used to confirm or disconfirm information provided in the waking state. All three cases involved marital relationships and mistrust. “It is interesting that, awakened from the hypnotic state, none of the subjects made the slightest attempt to deny any of the admissions made” (p. 39).
SKIN/DERMATOLOGY
1993
Everett, John J.; Patterson, David R.; Burns, G. Leonard; Montgomery, Brenda; Heimbach, David (1993). Adjunctive interventions for burn pain control: Comparison of hypnosis and Ativan. Journal of Burn Care and Rehabilitation, 14, 676-683.
Thirty-two patients hospitalized for the care of major burns were randomly assigned to groups that received hypnosis, lorazepam, hypnosis with lorazepam, or placebo controls as adjuncts to opioids for the control of pain during dressing changes. Analysis of scores on the Visual Analogue Scale indicated that although pain during dressing changes decreased over consecutive days, assignment to the various treatment groups did not have a differential effect. This finding was in contrast to those of earlier studies and is likely attributable to the low baseline pain scores of subjects who participated. A larger number of subjects with low baseline pain ratings will likely be necessary to replicate earlier findings. The results are argued to support the analgesic advantages of early, aggressive opioid use via PCA or through careful staff monitoring and titration of pain drugs.
Forbes, E. J.; Pekala, R. J. (1993). Psychophysiological effects of several stress management techniques. Psychological Reports, 72, 19-27.
Progressive muscle relaxation and hypnosis both increased skin temperature and reduced pulse rate, and deep abdominal breathing reduced skin temperature. Hypnotic susceptibility had no effect on the psychophysiological measures.
Kraft, Tom (1993). Using hypnosis with cancer patients: Six case studies. Contemporary Hypnosis, 10, 43-48.
Hypnosis can be used in a number of different ways for helping patients suffering from cancer. As well as pain relief, hypnosis may be used to correct insomnia that does not respond to sleeping tablets; for the reduction in skin irritation and dyspnoea when these are due to organic causes, and for treatment-related over-eating. Some patients will use hypnosis in a symbolic way. When this occurs, just as in dream interpretation, it is important to ask the patient for associations, so that these symbols can be understood. Hypnosis can be an extremely useful addition to the medical armamentarium, and should be employed as an adjunct to standard forms of cancer treatment. This paper reports six case studies in which hypnosis was used to help cancer patients.
Pekala, Ronald J.; Ersek, Barrett (1993). Firewalking versus hypnosis: A preliminary study concerning consciousness, attention, and fire immunity. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 12, 207-229.
This study assessed the subjective effects associated with firewalking, and compared them with the subjective effects associated with hypnosis and a baseline condition (eyes closed sitting quietly). Twenty-seven subjects, who walked over hot coals during a firewalk ceremony, completed questionnaires about what they subjectively experienced during the firewalk. Their experiences were subsequently compared with those of subjects (n – 246) who experienced hypnosis and a baseline condition. The data suggested that firewalking, as assessed across all subjects, is characterized by high levels of volitional control and rationality, and a very absorbed attentional style wherein the mind is one-pointed, and consciousness is characterized by strong feelings of joy and high levels of internal dialogue. Firewalking was also found to be associated with significantly more joy, one-pointedness of thought, absorption, and internal dialogue than hypnosis or the baseline condition. In addition, a cluster analysis suggested two subgroups of firewalkers based on their subjective experiences of the firewalk. Interestingly, analyzing the attentional experiences among these firewalkers who got slightly burned, versus those who did not, revealed significant differences. A one-pointed and absorbed attentional focus may be the critical variable for the fire immunity observed in firewalking.
NOTES
About 500 people walked across coals, in 3-4 steps. At end of weekend, 71 said they would complete a questionnaire and it was mailed to them. Of those, 27 responded (25 of 26 in an average of 23 days). Hence, 5% of the population who walked responded to the questionnaire, and it was some time later. Three of 24 reported minor blisters. Those who didn’t get burned reported less detachment, less of a feeling of being out of their bodies, and more thoughts than the firewalkers who got slightly burned.
Pekala has defined an altered state of consciousness as associated with the perception of being in an altered state of awareness (the _subjective sense_ of _altered state_ –SSAS [30]), and a change in the patterning or configuration of the subsystems or dimensions of consciousness. A discrete state of consciousness, as defined by Pekala, is associated with a significant pattern change but no perceived alteration in state of consciousness (no SSAS). An identity state of consciousness, on the other hand, is defined as having neither a significantly perceived alteration in state of awareness nor a perceived pattern change among dimensions of consciousness in reference to another state of consciousness. Since the PCI can measure both intensity and pattern effects, it can be used to assess for altered, discrete, and identity states of consciousness.
Using a cluster analysis they found that one group of 16 subjects reported the firewalk experience to be characterized by a significant alteration in awareness and experience (body image, time sense, etc.), and significant intensities of internal dialogue, positive and negative affect, and arousal, while a second group of six subjects reported little alteration in consciousness or experience, little losses in rationality or control, and less internal dialogue, positive and negative affect or arousal than the larger group.
Whereas hypnosis is usually associated with a loss in control (the classic suggestion effect), firewalking was found to be associated with increased control, a more aroused state, and more fear! Firewalking appears to be a more absorbed and one-pointed state than even hypnosis.
The nature of attentional experience is similar across firewalkers (DAQ results).
Both firewalking and hypnosis meet the criteria for altered states of consciousness (different pattern and different subjective experience), but they are not altered states in reference to each other; they are _discrete states of consciousness_ in reference to each other, because there is a significantly different patterning of PCI dimensions between the two conditions, but no significant SSAS. This suggests that the firewalk state is qualitatively different from the hypnotic state (as induced by the induction procedure to the Harvard Scale) and probably represents a different type of state of consciousness than hypnosis. Firewalkers obtained a lower mean hypnoidal state score than hypnosis subjects, so it does not appear that the fire immunity is due to being in a “hypnotized” state.
The fact that there appears to be two groups of successful firewalkers, one of which did not report much alteration in consciousness, calls into question the theorizing concerning the importance of alteration in state of consciousness as being etiologically related to successful firewalking. Since about 25 percent of the firewalkers clustered into what appears to be a nonaltered state of awareness, this suggests a sizable percentage of subjects who did not report any significant alteration in consciousness and experience.
Hence, what may be important is not an alteration in consciousness, but rather an alteration in attention. The cluster analysis revealed a relatively unitary attentional state across all subjects suggesting that attention was deployed in a rather similar manner across all subjects, that is, with very high absorption and one-pointedness. it was also the DAQ dimensions, and not the PCI dimensions, that successfully discriminated a trend between the blistered and nonblistered firewalkers. Hence, high levels of one-pointedness and absorption, that is, how attention is deployed during firewalking may be more critical (than an alteration in consciousness in general) for the fire immunity observed during firewalking.
Zachariae, Robert; Bjerring, P. (1993). Increase and decrease of delayed cutaneous reactions obtained by hypnotic suggestions during sensitization. Studies on dinitrochlorobenzene and diphenylcyclopropenone. Allergy, 48, 6-11.
Cutaneous reactivity to challenge with dinitrochlorogenzene (DNCB) and diphenylcyclopropenone (DCP) was studied in 16 subjects following hypnotic suggestions to increase and to decrease response during sensitization. The immunoreactivity to DNCB and DCP was modulated by direct suggestions and guided imagery under hypnosis. Subjects were high in hypnotizability as measured by the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility. Measurement of skin reactions to the challenge one month after sensitization was performed double blindly. Results showed a significant (.01) difference in visually scored reactions to DCP and DNCB between the group instructed to increase reaction to DCP and decrease reaction to DNCB and the group given the opposite instructions. A nonsignificant difference (.055) in skin thickness measured by ultrasound was found between the two groups. The study supports previous reports of experimental modulation of immunoreactivity and indicates that the specific immunological processes involved in the development of all allergic reactions may be susceptible to psychological factors.
1992
Ewin, Dabney M. (1992). Hypnotherapy for warts (verruca vulgaris): 41 consecutive cases with 33 cures. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 35, 1-10.
Published, controlled studies of the use of hypnosis to cure warts are confined to using direct suggestion in hypnosis (DSIH), with cure rates of 27% to 55%. Prepubertal children respond to DSIH almost without exception, but adults often do not. Clinically, many adults who fail to respond to DSIH will heal with individual hypnoanalytic techniques that cannot be tested against controls. By using hypnoanalysis on those who failed to respond to DSIH, 33 of 41 (80%) consecutive patients were cured, two were lost to follow-up, and six did not respond to treatment. Self-hypnosis was not used. Several illustrative cases are presented. NOTES 1:
NOTES
“I do not consider self-hypnosis necessary, and I believe it may be contraindicated. Once the change in sensation has been acknowledged by an ideomotor signal, I suggest that the subconscious will take care of healing the warts and that the patient should ignore them and get interested in other things. Self-hypnosis would require regularly giving attention to the warts, and a high rate of cure is obtained without it. In their controlled study using DSIH with adults, Johnson and Barber (1978) included daily self-hypnosis and got cures in only 3 of 11 (27%) of the hypnotic group. This is the poorest result in the published literature. Their control group of 11 patients was given waking suggestions to ‘practice imagining that the specified wart(s) were tingling for a few minutes each day until they were gone’ and got no change in 3 months. Hellier (1951) got remission in 27 of 74 (36%) patients just using sham x-ray, (waking suggestion without any self-hypnosis). Spanos et al. (1988) instructed their hypnotic group to ‘count their warts every day, and after each counting to close their eyes and spend 3 to 4 minutes imagining the warts on their target hand disappearing.’ Only 2 of 8 patients (25%) with a single wart cleared, while 9 of 14 (69%) with multiple warts lost one or more warts at 6- weeks’ follow-up. My impression is that conscious daily attention to the lesion is contrary to normal body healing of injuries such as cuts, burns, sprains, in which healing progresses best when ignored while undue attention increases suffering” (pp. 3-4).
All Ss were private patients referred for hypnotherapy; most were diagnosed clinically.
“…I found that there were sexual implications in 7 of the 16 miscellaneous warts in patients over 13, so I separated the cases into pre- and postpuberty to evaluate the results” (p. 4).
“An early success was with a medical student (Case 28) with whom I used suggestions of warmth, with the blood vessels dilating and bringing in antibodies, leukocytes, opsonins, etc. Changes were visible in 3 days. This biased me toward using ‘warm,’ but two of the children (Cases 6 and 9) got no result until I gave them a choice. Using ideomotor signals they chose cold. Only two healed with ‘warm,’ while five did with ‘cold.’ All of them had either had the warts cauterized or frozen previously and had a personal feeling about heat and cold. I’ve learned to give the patient a choice on the first visit” (p. 5).
“Three… were first treated using DSIH without result and later responded to hypnoanalysis. After obtaining an ideomotor signal that there was no more subconscious value to the warts, the suggestion was given that the body’s healing processes would take over without any more conscious attention by the patient. No self-hypnosis was prescribed” (pp 7-8).
Gildston, Phyllis; Gildston, Harold (1992). Hypnotherapeutic intervention for voice disorders related to recurring juvenile laryngeal papillomatosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 40 (2), 74-87.
Recurring juvenile laryngeal papillomatosis is resistant to cure, and thus usually requires multiple operations which may lead to the extensive proliferation of vocal fold scar tissue. Severe hoarseness, sharply lower pitch, and weak loudness levels are common sequelae. Adjunctive hypnotherapy can increase motivation for change, speed up the acquisition of vocal skills, and possibly even facilitate or sustain remission of growths in selected patients. An 8-year-old girl with severe active eruptions went into remission after 16 sessions, and a 12-year-old boy, already in remission at the beginning of the intervention period, remained free of neoplasms throughout the regimen. Whether or not hypnosis contributed significantly to the sanguine results, it is probable that, at the least, the hypnotic intervention facilitated the achievement of certain technical objectives in voice therapy.
Hajek, P.; Jakoubek, B.; Kyhos, K.; Radio, T. (1992). Increase in cutaneous temperature induced by hypnotic suggestion of pain. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 74, 737-738.
Eight patients with atopic eczema and six healthy subjects were given hypnotic suggestion to feel pain in the upper part of the back and in one case on the palm. An average local increase in skin temperature of 0.6 degrees centigrade (detected by thermovision) occurred under this condition. For some patients cutaneous pain threshold was increased before the experiment by means of repetitive hypnotic suggestion of analgesia. These subjects reported feeling no pain subjectively, but the local change in skin temperature was equal in both cases. The results suggest a central mechanism induced by measuring changes in pain threshold in the skin, which changes are independent of local changes in blood flow. Local pain in the middle of the upper part of the back, and in one subject for comparative purposes in the region of the right palm, was induced during a single hypnotic session by specific suggestion which emphasized a subjective feeling of local pain lasting for 6 minutes. In four of the eczema patients long-lasting cutaneous analgesia was induced before this experiment by a different suggestion which stressed the impossibility of conducting pain form the skin to the brain and which was repeated in ten consecutive hypnotic sessions. The spatial thermal reaction of the skin surface was monitored, with consecutive recordings taken at 20-sec. intervals before and after finishing the hypnotic suggestion of pain. There was a gradual increase in temperature (1.08 degrees Fahrenheit). In the four eczema patients with long-lasting cutaneous analgesia treated equally, the thermal reaction of the skin was similar to that described above although no subjective feeling of pain was reported. These subjects reported feeling only that their skin was getting warmer at the specified place.
1991
Hajek, P. R.; Radil, T.; Jakoubek, B. (1991). Hypnotic skin analgesia in healthy individuals and patients with atopic eczema. Homeostasis in Health and Disease, 33, 156-157.
NOTES
The cutaneous pain threshold was measured before, during, and after 10 sessions of hypnosis in 14 healthy and 13 atopic eczema patients. A control group of 10 healthy subjects who were not hypnotized was also evaluated. Cutaneous pain threshold increase was correlated with improvement of eczema and was correlated with hypnotizability.
1990
Gauld, Alan (1990). The early history of hypnotic skin marking and blistering. British Journal of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis, 7, 139-152.
NOTES
Reviews the history of alleged hypnotic skin marking and blistering from 1785 to 1917. Various early studies are described and brought to bear upon certain long- standing and recurrent controversies. The conclusion is drawn that, even by the end of the period surveyed, the available evidence warranted the belief that such phenomena sometimes occur. However, there were also occasional examples of their occurrence through suggestion without hypnosis, and it remained unclear to what extent hypnosis had played a special role in their production.
Hajek, P.; Jakoubek, B.; Radil, T. (1990). Gradual increase in cutaneous threshold induced by repeated hypnosis of healthy individuals and patients with atopic eczema. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 70, 549-550.
Gradual increase in cutaneous pain threshold was found in healthy subjects and patients with atopic eczema during repeated hypnotic sessions with specific suggestions. This increase was less in the former than in the latter group. Repeated threshold measurements did not influence the threshold. The analgesic effect outlasted the hypnotic sessions by several months. It could be, however, suddenly reduced by appropriate hypnotic suggestion.
NOTES
Cutaneous pain threshold was measured in “time in seconds from onset of heat source of defined size, distance from skin, and temperature, to subjective threshold percept of pain” (p. 549). Used two symmetrical locations on both forearms, at healthy areas of the skin. Ten hypnotic sessions were induced in each S three times weekly, each lasting one hour.
Suggestions were the following type: “The “conduction of switch to the brain is interrupted.” Your “immunologic system will digest the damaged skin cells like a shark.”
Subjects were 14 healthy subjects and 13 patients with atopic eczema treated for years with the usual medications, unsuccessfully or with complications.
There was gradual increase in cutaneous pain threshold across the 10 sessions, especially for the patient group. Control experiments with repeated threshold measurements in repeated sessions without hypnosis showed no changes.
“Time of increases in cutaneous pain threshold was associated with improvement of atopic eczema. Both effects correlated significantly (r = 0.8) with hypnotizability as measured by the Stanford scale” (pp. 549-550).
“In 9 patients without further hypnotic sessions a slow spontaneous decay of the cutaneous pain threshold was observed during a 17-mo. period. Special experiments performed with six repeatedly hypnotized healthy subjects showing increased thresholds did prove, however, that the cumulative analgesic effect could be reduced to control values immediately by using the hypnotic suggestion that the ‘skin sensitivity returns to normal values.’
“These results suggest a close association between hypnosis and activation and/or deactivation of endogenous analgesic systems (irrespectively whether they are of opioid or nonopioid nature)” (p.550
Mason, Albert A. (1990, January). A psychoanalyst looks at a hypnotist; or, where the elephant skinned boy took me. [Paper] Presented at the Psychoanalytic Center of California Scientific Meeting.
NOTES
“The results of working with hypnotism experimentally in the production of anaesthesia for surgery, dentistry and obstetrics; in controlled series of treatments of asthmatics, skin disorders, and allergic manifestations; as well as its clinical use, have convinced me that it is a delusional state akin to mania which depends on the omnipotent denial of mental pain. The mania is stimulated by the hypnotized subject having phantasies of an omnipotent object that it fuses with and shares in the omnipotence. The hypnotist has similar unconscious phantasies about himself. Both subject and hypnotist projectively identify with each others’ phantasies, and together produce phenomena like anaesthesia which can be likened to delusional states. In fact, true hallucinations can also be deliberately produced.
“I believe that similar psychotic mechanisms can also occur in life between parents and children and in other relationships, and produce delusional states. These form a continuum from intractable narcissism on the one side, through Christian Science and the denial of evolution in the center, to frank folie a deux and transexualism on the other side. The therapeutic course of these states seems quite dissimilar from that of psychosis arising without the encouragement of external objects.”
Spanos, Nicholas P.; Williams, Victoria; Gwynn, Maxwell I. (1990). Effects of hypnotic, placebo, and salicylic acid treatments on wart regression. Psychosomatic Medicine, 52, 109-114.
Subjects with warts on their hands and/or feet were randomly assigned to a hypnotic suggestion, topical salicylic acid, placebo, or no treatment control condition. Subjects in the three treated groups developed equivalent expectations of treatment success. Nevertheless, at the six-week follow-up interval only the hypnotic subjects had lost significantly more warts than the no treatment controls. Theoretical implications are discussed.
NOTES
Study involved 15 females, 25 males (18-35 yrs old) with warts on at least one hand or foot, recruited through posters and newspaper ads; N = 10 in each condition. Hypnotic treatment consisted of 10 minute induction (modified from T. X. Barber’s 1969 book) and a suggestion for wart regression that was 2 minutes in duration (the skin around warts was ‘beginning to tingle and grow warm’; ‘vividly imagine the warts shrinking and dissolving away’; 30 second break; repeated the suggestions). For Ss with warts on more than one limb the complete suggestion procedure was repeated for each wart-infected limb.
Results indicate psychological factors can influence course of some virally produced disorders; that self-medicating with over-the-counter products doesn’t explain suggestion-induced wart regression; that expectation of treatment success is the most important variable in psychologically induced wart regression. “Hypnotic subjects attained significantly higher CURSS:S scores than did control subjects. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that between group differences in hypnotizability accounted for the group differences in wart regression. Two previous experiments (3) that used the CURSS found that hypnotizability failed to predict wart loss in either hypnotic suggestion, nonhypnotic suggestion, or placebo treatments, and even in the present study the hypnotic treatment failed to differ from either the real or placebo treatment on CURSS:S scores, and none of the treatments differed significantly on the CURSS:O scores. Our finding and earlier findings that hypnotic subjects reported more intense suggested sensations than placebo subjects is consistent with the hypothesis that vivid suggested imagery facilitates wart loss (7, 8) .
“An alternative hypothesis emphasizes that only our hypnotic suggestion treatment encouraged subjects to see themselves as developing cognitive control over their own wart regression. This hypothesis suggests that subjects’ subjective sense of cognitive involvement in and control over treatment outcome (as opposed to the vividness of their suggested imagery) may have been the important psychological factor in wart regression. It would be of interest in a future study to manipulate subjects’ sense of cognitive involvement in their treatment independently of suggested imagery in order to assess the relative contributions of these variables to wart regression” (pp. 113-114).
1989
Reid, S. (1989). Recalcitrant warts: Case report. British Journal of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis, 6, 187-189.
NOTES
Recalcitrant warts which persisted for 5 years despite treatment cleared in 51 days with hypnotherapy. A cause/effect relationship between hypnotherapy and resolution was shown by at first excluding and then including the left hand from the suggestions given.
1988
Noll, Robert B. (1988). Hypnotherapy of a child with warts. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 9 (2), 89-91.
NOTES