Suggestibility

Contrary to the popular belief that a hypnotist wills his subjects responses and thought patterns, it is the subject who initiates the acts in response to an appropriate expectant attitude, all dependant upon his or her level of suggestibility at the time..

Acting and speaking confidently along with the establishment of a relationship with one's subject is the first and most vitally important prerequisite for hypnotic suggestions to be effective.

"Suggestibility is further enhanced by a favorable attitude or mental set that establishes proper motivation. This depends not only on the technique utilized to produce it, but also and to a greater extent on the quality of the relationship between hypnotist and subject. Thus mere suggestibility per se, does not account for hypnotizability, but rather increased suggestibility is a constant feature of hypnosis." Since hypnotic suggestibility largely depends on motivation, it varies between individuals, and even changes in the same person, depending on his needs and drives.

There are some correlations with age, and suggestibility. Children are more hypnotizable than adults, peaking out between the ages of 9 and 12. Adult responsitivity levels are established about age 16, and diminish in middle and old age. The degree of suggestibility is also determined by the way an individual reacted to suggestions from others in the past, either by the structuring, or the setting, or by the prestige of the person who gave the suggestions, and by the way the suggestions were interpreted. A subject may be highly suggestible to stimuli affecting his health, yet he may be nonsuggestible to persuasive salesmanship.

Hypnotizability is not related to intelligence. It often depends more on the manner in which subjects utilize their attention span, their ability to respond to vivid imagery, and their creativity. The way individuals become involved in imaginative experiences apparently has some correlation with the depth of hypnosis.

Hypnotized persons are more likely to describe imaginable suggestions as real and vivid, which may also be connected to previous conditioning. Repetition of suggestion creates a conditioned reflex which is associated with hypnotic conditioning. This conditioning by suggestion relies heavily on the misdirection of attention.

Misdirection of attention, as it relates to hypnosis, is merely a diversionary maneuver, or "smoke screen" to obscure the fact that suggestion in one guise or another is used to influence an individual. A formal hypnotic induction procedure is a ritual which makes full use of misdirection; the hypnotist "slips in" hypnotic suggestions when the subject is least expecting them. During the hypnotic induction, for instance, the subject's attention is fixed upon his eyelids by the remark, "Your eyes are getting very, very heavy." If his eyes actually become very heavy, then he is ready to believe other suggestions that he attributes to the hyponotist's "powers". The subject does not realize that the heaviness of his eyelids actually was induced by the constant and fatiguing position of staring upward at the ceiling. He believes that his eye fatigue resulted from the hypnotist's suggestions of heaviness.

Suggestion by misdirection of attention accounts for the success of many types of therapy. A subjects development of a favorable mind set that a particular type of therapy will help, is aided not so much by the therapeutic modality, as by this inner conviction that he will be helped.

One of the most important ingredients for hypnotic suggestibility is the expectation of help from one who is in a prestigious position. If convinced of the truth of this person's words, the subject behaves differently because he thinks and believes differently. From time immemorial, all healing by suggestion or hypnosis has been based on this mechanism. If the idea is accepted that increased suggestibility is produced by a favorable mind-set or attitude, catalyzed by the imagination, then hypnotic responses fall into the realm of conviction phenomena.

This favorable mind-set can be further enhanced by applying the principle of trance ratification with ones subject. Through eliciting various hypnotic phenomena the subject may come to discover that she has undiscovered potentials beyond her conscious capacity. An example would be glove anesthesia, time distortion, limb catalepsy, …etc.

It is obvious that suggestions leading to hypnosis in its broadest sense occur as a part of everyday existence. This begins during our formative years – when a child hurts his hand, his mother’s kiss usually relieves the pain. And, as an adult, he responds more readily to attentive suggestions whenever he is placed in a situation that contains some or all of the elements that were present during his conditioning as a child, along with her learnings through adulthood and her present experience. This whole mind and body utilization of experience and individualization of the hypnotic process was emphasized by M.H. Erickson.

email: dr_frank@hypnoticadvancements.com

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Dr. Frank Valente Ph.D.(c)
Hypnotic Advancements
3126 McCarthy Court
Mississauga , ON
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© 2004, Dr. Frank Valente Ph.D.(c)

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