Acting as if You are Hypnotized
Maggie Schedl and Shiori Tomatsu
Clearing A Few Things Up About
Hypnosis
• Common beliefs: mysterious, powerful,
control minds, going under trance
• Reality: increased motivation to perform tasks
• No trances or altered states!
History
• 1733-1815: Franz Anton Mesmer
-soft music, dim lights, creepy guy in
sorcerer clothes, and iron rods
-Success?
Others include: Freud, Ernest Hilgard
-Nicholas Spanos: “hypnosis” buster
Why We Think Hypnosis Is An Altered
State of Mind
• Involuntary action, outside force
• Creates expectations which subjects want to
be consistent with
• Wording: “your arm is very light and is rising”
vs. “raise your arm”
• We get too absorbed into process
Spanos Experiments
• Experiment 1: Lecture about hypnosis
• Experiment 2: Visual Imagery under hypnosis
• Experiment 3: Insensitivity to pain- analgesia
effect
Results: Hypnotic behavior not caused by
altered state of consciousness
Key Points
• Intention to cooperate with hypnotist and
expectation to be able to do so
• Both assumptions help hypnosis work
• Not an altered state of consciousness!!
Hypnosis Today
• Still useful method of helping people improve
problems in life
• Use of hypnosis for memory/proof of crime