Of the 220 Subjects, 17 (7.7%) reported sequelae, many of them “minor and fleeting.” None of the sequelae was of psychotic proportions. Only 2.3% of the sample experienced sequelae that lasted as long as a few hours. Although the relationship of sequelae to hypnotizability was slight, there seemed to be a relationship to having had a difficult experience with chemical anesthesia in early childhood. They present six case studies, three who had difficulty with chemical anesthesia and three for whom the sequelae appeared to relate to a different kind of childhood experience.
The investigators concluded that “a routine experience of hypnosis is generally harmless in a student population, but E (or therapist) should be alert for possible aftereffects, and provisions should be at hand for occasional brief psychotherapy, even though the experiments themselves are not oriented toward therapy” (p. 477).
The authors present a psychodynamic explanation for the sequelae observed. “It is conjectured that the conflicts within the induction phase of hypnosis that produce either immediate or delayed symptoms are primarily those having to do with the exercise of power and the reaction to authority, hence, conflicts between the conscious willingness to be hypnotized and the unconscious resistance to or fear of the submissive role required. The individual forms that such conflicts take are highly varied.
“The conflicts within the established state differ, in that the state is not reached unless the conflicts of the induction are at least temporarily resolved. The new state, which has regressive characteristics, makes S vulnerable to conflicts based on reality distortions (as in suggested hallucinations) or ethical-social issues (as in suggested behavior violating his moral code or superego demands). Sometimes specific suggestions revive early experiences that were traumatic or provocative of fear.
Sometimes specific suggestions revive early experiences that were traumatic or provocative of fear.
“While the language of psychodynamics is appropriate in the discussion of these cases, the many redintegrative factors also suggest that learning theory can have much to say in explanation of them. Because learning theory has ways of dealing with conflict and conflict resolution, it can also encompass some of the problems discussed as conflicts over authority, commonly treated in psychodynamics as transference problems.
“The many reflections of earlier childhood experiences in the sequelae, including some of the dreams, suggest the promise of a developmental theory of hypnosis” (p. 477).
London, Perry (1961). Subject characteristics in hypnosis research: Part I. A survey of experience, interest, and opinion. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 151-161.
Questionnaire measuring (a) direct and observational experience with hypnosis, and (b) stereotyped attitudes towards hypnosis was administered to 645 undergraduate students of psychology. Results indicate hypnosis considered in generally favorable light. Girls were less willing than boys to be hypnotic Ss. Items regarding the nature of hypnosis reflected a rather sophisticated attitude. From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:3II51L. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
1958
Faw, Volney; Wilcox, Warren W. (1958). Personality characteristics of susceptible and unsusceptible hypnotic subjects. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 6 (2), 83-94.
“1. The Ss for this study of hypnosis were a cross section of a college population, 44 women and 36 men. A group or mass induction technique was used; the Ss were divided into three sections for ease in administering the hypnotic suggestions which were read.
1. A susceptibility scale was developed on which trained Os rated the Ss and Ss rated themselves. The susceptible were defined as those above the median and the unsusceptible as those below the median. The r between the self and O ratings was .68 which indicates a substantial though not high relationship.
3. When the susceptible are compared with the unsusceptible, the susceptible had better over-all adjustment scores on the MMPI, the group Rorschach and the clinical assessment of diaries, which indicates that susceptibility is a characteristic possessed in greater degree by the better adjusted.
4. However, there were among the more poorly adjusted of the susceptible, a small group with high Hy scores indicating that they had responses similar to clinic patients who had developed conversion hysteria. Their susceptibility was attributed to two factors: first, on the psychic items of the Hy scale their responses indicate rather optimistic cooperative attitudes which would make their initial responses to hypnotic suggestions favorable; second, their tendencies to translate psychological stress into bodily symptoms which have a great similarity to the criteria of hypnotic behavior would indicate a common response mechanism for the expression of symptomatology and hypnotic behavior.
5. The unsusceptible tended to have poorer over-all adjustment scores on the MMPI, the Rorschach and the clinical evaluation of diaries. They had significantly poorer scores on the D, Mf and Sc scales indicating a greater tendency toward depression, less security in regard to sex status and more distraction in the form of bizarre thoughts and feelings than do the susceptible.
6. Neither the profiles of the susceptible nor those of the unsusceptible correspond to the three generalized patterns of the MMPI: the neurotic, the behavior problem or the psychotic.
7. Our general conclusion is that while susceptibility is associated predominately with the well adjusted personality save for those with high Hy scores on the MMPI, the unsusceptible belong to a deviant group not easily classified by a term in general use in abnormal or clinical psychology” (pp. 93-94).
and Sc scales indicating a greater tendency toward depression, less security in regard to sex status and more distraction in the form of bizarre thoughts and feelings than do the susceptible.
6. Neither the profiles of the susceptible nor those of the unsusceptible correspond to the three generalized patterns of the MMPI: the neurotic, the behavior problem or the psychotic.
7. Our general conclusion is that while susceptibility is associated predominately with the well adjusted personality save for those with high Hy scores on the MMPI, the unsusceptible belong to a deviant group not easily classified by a term in general use in abnormal or clinical psychology” (pp. 93-94).
1956
Barber, Theodore Xenophon (1956). A note on ‘hypnotizability’ and personality traits. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 4, 109-114. (Abstracted in Psychological Abstracts 58: 3288)
1. Eighteen ‘typical students’ were ranked on a scale of hypnotizability and on the ten traits measured by the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey. The ranks on the hypnotizability scale were determined by the subjects’ responses — after twenty minutes of standard hypnotic induction — on five standard tests of suggestibility.
2. The coefficients of correlation between hypnotizability and ‘ascendance,’ ‘sociability,’ ’emotional stability,’ and ‘objectivity’ ranged between +0.47 and +0.70. There was a negative coefficient of -0.45 between hypnotizability and ‘restrain’ [sic].
3. This investigation tends to confirm the studies that find a relationship between hypnotizability and ‘desirable character traits’ and the studies that find no relationship between hypnotizability and maladjustment.
4. If these results are confirmed on a larger and more representative sample we may be able to accept a ‘good guy’ theory of hypnotizability — at least for college students. The more hypnotizable students tend to confirm [sic] to our cultural definition of a ‘good guy’ — sociable, emotionally stable, non-submissive, non-hypersensitive, happy-go-lucky, and interested in overt activity” (p. 113).
1954
Kupfer, David (1954). Hypnotherapy in a case of functional heart disorder. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2 (3), 186-190.
“Summary. A young soldier with functional cardiac complaints was treated with hypnosis in a total of 4 interviews. The dynamics were bypassed and the therapeutic suggestions attached to 2 significant events in the patient’s childhood, dealing intimately with the oedipal conflict and castration fears. Follow-up studies of 3 weeks duration revealed that significant changes had been produced in the patient’s attitudes towards himself and towards his role in the military service” (p. 190).
Kline, Milton V.; Haggerty, Arthur D. (1953). An hypnotic experimental approach to the genesis of occupational interests and choice. III. Hypnotic age regression and the Thematic Apperception Test — a clinical case study in occupational identification. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 3, 18-31.
“1. Hypnotic age regression responses to TAT cards in reference to occupational identifications appear quantitatively and qualitatively different from waking simulation responses.
2. A quantitative analysis of the hypnotic age regression protocols points strongly in the direction of further confirmation of the neuropsychological validity of hypnotic age regression.
3. TAT cards suitable for children are significantly more productive as psychological stimuli in the hypnotic regression state than in waking simulation.
4. Adult TAT cards fail to elicit the ratio of productivity in hypnotic age regression that they do in waking simulation.
5. Hypnotic age regression appears to involve perceptual alterations of ego functions and related neuropsychological activity.
6. Simulation behavior appears to be primarily projective behavior with recall and role-playing characteristics interspersed within a behavior pattern which retains its adult perceptual orientation.
7. The utilization of a language usage quotient technique adds to the holistic validity of neuropsychological age regression and sharply differentiates hypnotic behavior from role-playing simulation.
8. The technique of hypnotic age regression described in this paper would appear to be a vaalid and useful method for the systematic study of occupational interests and choice within the framework of ego functions and developmental psychology.
9. Hypnosis would appear to produce empathizing and identifying processes more productively than the waking state” (pp. 30-31).
Author’s Summary – “This paper is a further report on the use of varied hypnotic methods and techniques for the investigation of the origins of occupational interests and vocational choices. As an experimental means for studying the development of such interests and attitudes, hypnotic age regression would appear to have considerable validity and value. As a clinical technique in certain cases of vocational maladjustment it would seem to have considerable value” (p. 31).
Phantom Pain
2000
Eimer, Bruce. N. (2000). Clinical applications of hypnosis for brief and efficient pain management psychotherapy. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 43 (1), 17-40. (July)
This paper describes four specific clinical applications of hypnosis that can make psychotherapy for pain management briefer, more goal-oriented, and more efficient: (1) the assessment of hypnotizability; (2) the induction of hypnotic analgesia and development of individualized pain coping strategies;
direct suggestion, cognitive reframing, hypnotic metaphors, and pain relief imagery; and (4) brief psychodynamic reprocessing during the trance state of emtoional factors in the patient”s experience of chonic pain. Important theoretical and clinical issues regarding the relationship between hypnotizability to the induction of hypnotic analgesia are presented, and attempts to individualize pain treatment strategies on the basis of assessed differences in hypnotizability and patients” preferred coping strategies are described. Some ways are also presented of integrating direct hypnotic suggestion, COGNITIVE-EVALUATIVE reframing, hypnotic metaphors, and imagery for alleviating the SENSORY and AFFECTIVE-MOTIVATIONAL components of pain, with an exploratory, insight-oriented, and brief psychodynamic reprocessing approach during trance for resolving unconscious sources of resistance to treatment, and reducing the emotional overlay associated with chronic pain. Some basic assumptions underlying the use of this approach are discussed, and a brief step-by-step protocol is outlined.
1998
Eimer, Bruce; Freeman, Arthur (1998). Pain management psychotherapy: A practical guide. New York NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
“Pain Management Psychotherapy” (PMP) provides a clear and methodical look at pain management psychotherapy beginning with the initial consultation and work-up of the patient and continuing through termination of treatment. It is a thoughtful and thorough presentation that covers methods for psychologically assessing the chronic pain patient (structured interviews, pain assessment tests and rating scales, instruments for evaluating beliefs, attitudes, pain behavior, disability, depression, anxiety, anger and alienation), treatment planning, cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques, and a range of hypnotic approaches to pain management. The book covers both traditional (cognitive and behavior therapy, biofeedback, assessing hypnotizability, choice of inductions, designing an individualized self-hypnosis exercise) as well as newer innovative techniques (e.g., EMDR, pain-relief imagery, hypno-projective methods, hypno-analytic reprocessing of pain-related negative experiences). An extensive appendix reproduces in their entirety numerous forms, rating scale, inventories, assessment instruments, and scripts.
The senior author, Bruce Eimer, states in his online comments on Amazon.com that “most therapists hold the belief that ‘real’ chronic pain patients are quite impossible to help. This book attempts to dispel these misguided beliefs by providing a body of knowledge, theory, and techniques that have proven value in understanding and relieving chronic physical pain.” He also states that “the challenge for the therapist is to persuade the would-ne patient/client that he or she has something to offer that can help take way pain and bring back more pleasure. This challenge is negotiated through the therapeutic relationship. However, the therapist just can’t be ‘warm, accepting, non-judgmental and empathic’. The therapist must also have knowledge and skills relevant to relieving pain. Only then can the therapist impart such knowledge, and in teaching these skills to the pain patient, help the patient become something of a ‘self-therapist’. . . I dedicate this book to everyone who wants to find ways to make living with pain more comfortable, and to the ongoing search for better ways to relieve pain.”
states that “the challenge for the therapist is to persuade the would-ne patient/client that he or she has something to offer that can help take way pain and bring back more pleasure. This challenge is negotiated through the therapeutic relationship. However, the therapist just can’t be ‘warm, accepting, non-judgmental and empathic’. The therapist must also have knowledge and skills relevant to relieving pain. Only then can the therapist impart such knowledge, and in teaching these skills to the pain patient, help the patient become something of a ‘self-therapist’. . . I dedicate this book to everyone who wants to find ways to make living with pain more comfortable, and to the ongoing search for better ways to relieve pain.”
1994
Brown, Gail W.; Riddell, Rodney; Summers, David; Coffman, Brent (1994, August). Use of hypnosis by practitioners in the school setting. [Paper] Presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles.
NOTES
Hypnosis is a therapeutic procedure that is appropriate for some school-age clients. Through the use of hypnosis that utilizes metaphors and imagery, children can be empowered to find unique solutions to their problems. Children enjoy the feeling of power and mastery that they have when able to perform hypnotic phenomena. They like to play magic and can be told that a finger or other body part will become numb. Because a major goal of hypnotherapy is to teach a child to be an active participant in his or her own behalf, the focus is on creating solutions and mastering the situation rather than enduring the problems. Four case studies demonstrate the utility of hypnosis in the treatment of phantom pain and nausea, sleep terror disorder, school phobia, and spider phobia. In each case, treatment goals were realized. Because the solutions were self- generated, the behavioral changes maintained over time and situation.
Case #1: Hypnosis was used to help alleviate phantom limb pain and nausea during chemotherapy following amputation of the right leg at the knee due to cancer in a thirteen- year-old male. The client had indicated that he loved nature and enjoyed the mountains. The metaphor described a young tree that has just begun to grow small silvery leaves. The spring floods tear the limbs and branches from the stump. The deep roots and stump of the tree are all that remain. The tree is not the same as before the flood. Its roots are stronger, its base more sturdy compared to the branches and limbs. The young tree has withstood the catastrophe of the torrent of waters and is even stronger than before. To counter the nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy a switch mechanism metaphor was used. The client was adroit with computers and had no difficulty picturing a switch located in his brain which could “turn off” the nausea from chemotherapy. A room contained all the unpleasant feelings that were being experienced. In this room is a light of a particular color that represents all the unpleasant sensations. Press the key on the computer that controls the switch to turn off the colored light in that room. Suggestions for healing were also given. Your body has known for years how to heal. Visualize the battle between good and bad cells and the victory of the good cells.
Case #2: Hypnosis was used to alleviate sleep terror disorder in a ten-year-old female. The onset of the subject’s parasomnic symptomatology appeared to coincide with her starting kindergarten and her family’s relocation shortly before. The initial treatment consisted of progressive relaxation, deep breathing, and the visual image of her “secret safe place.” An induction utilizing a variety of images was presented. Hiking barefoot on a cool moss covered mountain trial, sitting in a an alpine meadow on a warm summer afternoon, and flying proved most effective in facilitating trance. The participant was told to “Visualize all your anxiety and tension as hard grey rocks. Pick up these rocks and place them in your pockets. Go to the front porch of your “secret safe place and on the porch is a “magic hefty bag.” Place your hard grey rocks that contain all your anxiety and tension in the magic bag. Once in the bag, the rocks will no longer weight you down, you will be free of any feelings of stress or tension. Your bed is magic; it is covered with a special glue which will keep you in a reclining position until you are fully rested and ready to awaken.”
Case #3: Hypnosis was used in the treatment of school phobia in a nine-year-old male. The student experienced intense anxiety whenever separation from the primary caretaker occurred. The teacher stated that this boy experienced frequent absences and crying spells that were only relieved by phone calls to his mother or the presence of his mother next to him in class. In preparation for the intervention, the student was asked to draw a picture of how he felt inside during a panic attack. He drew a fire. He also said that only his mother could put that fire out. This information was utilized in creating a metaphor that described a house in a small town. “The mother had left, and a young boy was left alone. While at home, the boy looked out the window and saw several boys trying to burn a neighbor’s yard! Acting quickly, he called the fire department, grabbed the fire extinguisher and unraveled the garden hose. He was able to extinguish the fire. The neighbors and friends were very happy and praised the boy’s performance. When his mother heard the good news, she quickly returned home and held a celebration in his honor.” Following the metaphor, hypnotherapy continued with suggestions about fire extinguishers that the subject could use to put out emotional fires.
Case #4: Hypnosis was used in the treatment of spider phobia. Diagnosis of phobia was made in this eleven-year-old female when the fear or avoidance behavior was distressing. The child’s strained facial expressions occurred even at the thought of seeing what she described as “a creepy, crawly creature with 8 legs.” Preparatory to her first induction the participant was read the story of Charlotte’s Web (White, 1980) to facilitate the imagery for future hypnotic work. In the following session systematic desensitization was accomplished using characters from the story of Charlotte’s Web. During the third session the subject was age regressed to the first time she remembered seeing a spider. She recalled playing in the woods outside her family home on an island and seeing a large web stretched between two trees with a very large spider in the center of its web. She was then asked to remain at that place to look closely at that spider as it was most likely Charlotte or one of Charlotte’s family. Upon closer investigation she saw not only Charlotte but “teeny-tiny babies.” The event was reconstructed as a happy experience. The imagery provided by Charlotte’s Web permitted the subject to fantasize her previous frightful experience and reframe spiders as cute little “teeny-tiny” babies with admirable human qualities.
grey rocks. Pick up these rocks and place them in your pockets. Go to the front porch of your “secret safe place and on the porch is a “magic hefty bag.” Place your hard grey rocks that contain all your anxiety and tension in the magic bag. Once in the bag, the rocks will no longer weight you down, you will be free of any feelings of stress or tension. Your bed is magic; it is covered with a special glue which will keep you in a reclining position until you are fully rested and ready to awaken.”
Case #3: Hypnosis was used in the treatment of school phobia in a nine-year-old male. The student experienced intense anxiety whenever separation from the primary caretaker occurred. The teacher stated that this boy experienced frequent absences and crying spells that were only relieved by phone calls to his mother or the presence of his mother next to him in class. In preparation for the intervention, the student was asked to draw a picture of how he felt inside during a panic attack. He drew a fire. He also said that only his mother could put that fire out. This information was utilized in creating a metaphor that described a house in a small town. “The mother had left, and a young boy was left alone. While at home, the boy looked out the window and saw several boys trying to burn a neighbor’s yard! Acting quickly, he called the fire department, grabbed the fire extinguisher and unraveled the garden hose. He was able to extinguish the fire. The neighbors and friends were very happy and praised the boy’s performance. When his mother heard the good news, she quickly returned home and held a celebration in his honor.” Following the metaphor, hypnotherapy continued with suggestions about fire extinguishers that the subject could use to put out emotional fires.
Case #4: Hypnosis was used in the treatment of spider phobia. Diagnosis of phobia was made in this eleven-year-old female when the fear or avoidance behavior was distressing. The child’s strained facial expressions occurred even at the thought of seeing what she described as “a creepy, crawly creature with 8 legs.” Preparatory to her first induction the participant was read the story of Charlotte’s Web (White, 1980) to facilitate the imagery for future hypnotic work. In the following session systematic desensitization was accomplished using characters from the story of Charlotte’s Web. During the third session the subject was age regressed to the first time she remembered seeing a spider. She recalled playing in the woods outside her family home on an island and seeing a large web stretched between two trees with a very large spider in the center of its web. She was then asked to remain at that place to look closely at that spider as it was most likely Charlotte or one of Charlotte’s family. Upon closer investigation she saw not only Charlotte but “teeny-tiny babies.” The event was reconstructed as a happy experience. The imagery provided by Charlotte’s Web permitted the subject to fantasize her previous frightful experience and reframe spiders as cute little “teeny-tiny” babies with admirable human qualities.
Philosophy
1998
Chapman, C. Richard; Nakamura, Yoshio (1998). Hypnotic analgesia: A constructivist framework. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 46 (1), 6-27.
Hypnotic analgesia remains an enigma. Recent neuroscience studies demonstrate that widespread distributed processing occurs in the brains of individuals experiencing pain. Emerging research and theory on the mechanisms of consciousness, along with this evidence, suggest that a constructivist framework may facilitate both pain research and the study of hypnosis. The authors propose that the brain constructs elements of pain experience (pain schemata) and embeds them in ongoing consciousness. The contents of immediate consciousness feed back to nonconscious, parallel distributed processes to help shape the character of future moments of consciousness. Hypnotic suggestion may interact with such processing through feedback mechanisms that prime associations and memories and thus shape the formation of future experience.
NOTES 1:
The authors suggest that emerging paradigms for the study of consciousness may be useful in bridging research on hypnotic analgesia with advances in research on pain control. The constructivist framework emphasizes central processing of nociceptive signals, and consciousness as “an emergent property of a self-organizing process in a distributed neural network” (p. 14). The Dennett & Kinsbourne (1992) ‘multiple drafts model’ of consciousness and the authors’ constructivist framework provide a way of understanding phantom limb pain, which classical models of pain cannot do. Pain is experienced as the brain blends schemata reflecting current stimuli, memories, associations formed by conditioning, emotions, and cognitions. “Hypnotic suggestions can engender temporally dominant schemata that influence ongoing consciousness construction of the subject” (p. 20). They suggest that “hypnotic analgesia depends heavily on the formation of suggestion-related schemata and subsequent priming effects, that somatosensory imagery is the key element in the contents consciousness [sic], and that the mechanisms behind hypnotic analgesia phenomena are largely related to the competition among schemata for a dominant position within the contents of consciousness” (p. 23). Jean Holroyd
1997
Covino, Nicholas (1997). The integration of clinical and experimental work. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 45 (2), 109-125.
The work and the professional relationships of clinicians who use hypnosis and their research counterparts always contain a certain degree of tension. This is especially true when one group or the other claims to have a purchase on truth. A review of the strengths and limitations of each subspecialty is provided along with an understanding of some of the
subspecialty is provided along with an understanding of some of the differences between the clinical and experimental perspectives. The author raises a number of points with the hope that this article will promote discussion among those who are engaged in clinical and experimental work and those few who are active in both. Several suggestions for integration and collaboration are offered for consideration by both groups. — Journal Abstract
1996
Rosenbaum, Robert & Dyckman, John (1996). No self? No problem! Actualizing empty self in psychotherapy . In Hoyt , Michael F. (Ed.), Constructive therapies (2, pp. 238-274). New York NY: Guilford.
NOTES 1:
In this book chapter, Rosenbaum and Dyckman (1996) argue that self has no permanently fixed, defining, thing-like characteristics (p. 270). They thus dispute the classical notion–commensurate with the position of philosophical realism –that the self is a substance, with fixed qualities and measurable qualities. The authors refer to this classical self as a full self, contained inside the skin and delimited by its participation in linear time. Instead, they propose an empty self, not to be construed as a void, but as a fluid, connected, relational self that overflows the traditional boundaries of the skin and is open to greater possibilities for change. To support their view of an empty self, the authors include several case examples of working with hypnosis and strategic/narrative therapy with clients experiencing a variety of psychological and physical symptoms. The authors further contend that self is not unitary, but the product of multiple drafts (p. 248)[Editor note: See Dennett, 1991, in this database]. In the narrative-constructivist tradition, they argue, if we speak in terms of multiple contextual selves for us all…[then, people diagnosed with MPD/DID] are not so different from the rest of us (p. 249). The chapter draws from western & Buddhist philosophy, strategic/systemic and narrative therapies, Ericksonian hypnosis, and, cognitive science theories regarding memory, consciousness, embodiment, and language, to support their alternative view of, and treatment for, the self.
1994
Walsh, Roger (1994, August). Transpersonal psychology–the state of the art. [Paper] Presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles.
NOTES
Twenty-five years ago a group formed that was called transpersonal psychology, following after humanistic psychology (e.g. Maslow). Some of the humanistic psychologists came into transpersonal psychology. Maslow was interested in healthy people, and in peak experiences that were transpersonal in nature–experiences encompassing wider aspects of life, including mystical experiences.
that were transpersonal in nature–experiences encompassing wider aspects of life, including mystical experiences.
Peak experiences were thought to be positive, but also overwhelming. When psychologists looked Eastward, they found that there were whole families of these types of experiences, and that they could be induced by will and could be stabilized into not only peak but plateau experiences. There was a reservoir of wisdom in the world’s religions that could be drawn upon. This wisdom is being integrated with Western science to create the discipline of transpersonal psychology.
There is a broad spectrum of altered states of consciousness. Traditionally, altered states of consciousness were thought to be few in number, and usually pathological. Our society has been resistant toward studying them. For example, Esdaile’s use of hypnosis in surgery was not welcomed, even though he was lowering morbidity and mortality because he controlled shock. His paper was turned down for publication. He amputated a leg in front of colleagues in Britain, who commented that he “must have hired a very hard rogue” to have his leg cut off under hypnosis.
Our culture is monophasic, deriving its world view almost exclusively from the waking state; other cultures are polyphasic and also draw their world view from dreams, meditative, or yogic contemplative states, etc. Recently we can apply more sophisticated analyses, to compare states of consciousness and map these out, phenomenologically. There are several key dimensions of experience for mapping the states: 1. Control 2. Awareness of Environment 3. Concentration 4. Mental Energy/Arousal 5. Emotion 6. Identity or Self Sense 7. Out-of-Body Experience 8. Content of Experience
Using these dimensions, we could compare shamanic, yogic, and Buddhist practices.
A Nepalese shaman drums himself into a trance state, demonstrating: 1. Ability to enter and leave an altered state of consciousness and partly control experience 2. Decreased awareness of his environment 3. Increased concentration, fluid attention 4. Increased mental energy/arousal 5. Either pleasurable or not [pleasurable] emotion 6. Separate self sense: may be experienced as a non-physical “spirit” or “soul” 7. Controlled ecstasy (Out of Body experience)
Buddhist meditation is training awareness to examine experience as minutely as possible, in effect a heightened awareness (Vipassana).
A yogic practitioner engages in concentration, focusing on a fixed stimulus and holding it unwaveringly, till it dissolves a sense of separation into a unity with the object, ultimately with the Self.
[Author showed a slide comparing the three.] All three approaches have increased control and concentration. (The Yogi’s is unshakable.) An awareness of the environment is increased for the Buddhist; the Yogi may lose awareness entirely. Others have ecstatic experience; the yogi has enstatic experience. Identity for the shaman is separate (a soul); for the Buddhist awareness is so precise that what was “I” is deconstructed into evanescent flux, into thoughts, images, emotions (like a movie with solitary frames); the yogi dissolves the self sense, but because of fixed concentration the separate self disappears and yogis feel like merging with larger Self.
So now for first time in history we can compare and map both similarities and differences. Now we have new possibilities for understanding and contrasting different practices. We can now differentiate the many states of consciousness that are available. But there are an awful lot of states. Can we find an over-arching framework? For the first time, we can say yes–due to the work of Ken Wilber. This is Developmental Structuralism (looking for common deep structures).
For example, you can identify millions of different faces, and they are surface structures; but they all have a common deep structure. Likewise, if we see that a Hindu creates images of [devas] and a Christian sees saints, they are seeing archetypal images. Likewise, Buddhists experience nirvana in which all phenomena disappear, and so does another group. This [sense of all phenomena disappearing] is common to both, but different from those who see archetypal images. We may be able to come up with a typology of altered states.
Wilber also says that these deep structures and corresponding states may develop in a developmental sequence, with common stages. Three transpersonal stages are subtle, causal, and non-dual. In meditation, first you learn how out of control the mind is, then gradually it quiets and you discover subtle experiences that you usually overlooked. Going further, all thoughts cease to arise, and there is only pure consciousness. Beyond that, images re-arise but are now recognized as projections of consciousness.
Subtle images may be formless (as in pure light, pure sound). The person may pay attention to more and more subtle sounds. Or the images may have form (as in shamanic power animals).
At the casual stage, the person may be aware of consciousness itself, only consciousness, with no objects: pure consciousness, void, the Atman of Vedanta, abyss of gnosticism.
At the non-dual stage, objects arise again: everything is recognized as expressions of consciousness–e.g., Zen’s “one mind.” Consciousness now has awoken and sees itself in all things, unbounded by space and time and limits because consciousness is what creates space, time, and limits. This is Moksha, Enlightenment, etc.
This is not the final task, because the final task is bringing the awakening to the world (Plato’s re-entering the cave, to educate others; Zen oxherder entering the marketplace with help-bestowing hands; Christianity’s “fruitfulness of the soul”). For Joseph Campbell, this was the hero’s return. Toynbee observed that each great contributor had withdrawn and then returned to the world to offer what they had found.
[It is a process of] transforming a peak into plateau experience; an altered state into a trait; stabilized into enduring understanding, and then bringing it back into the world.
Is there evidence for enlightenment? There now is analogical and laboratory support for this. Analogical support is lucid dreaming. Until 20 years ago, Western psychology thought lucid dreaming was impossible, but now LaBerge at Stanford University has shown physiological evidence. We know from every night’s experience that we can create worlds and bodies on which our lives seem to depend. The claim of spiritual traditions is that there is a state of consciousness that bears a relationship to the ordinary [waking] state as lucid dreaming has to nonlucid dreaming. The Dalai Lama said they train yogis to be aware during dreams, not to lose awareness 24 hours a day; then to be aware of dreaming while in a waking period. A Tibetan dream yoga aim is the “great realization,” that everything in existence is like a dream.
Laboratory studies have been done on enlightened people The EEG data obtained while they are sleeping is consistent with lucidity during their dreams and between dreams. Rorschach tests have been done on advanced Buddhist meditators; at the penultimate of enlightenment, they show no evidence of conflicts around sexuality and aggression. The 2000 year old Buddhist texts say that at this stage these issues are resolved.
The implications for our usual state are that normality is not the peak of human development; normality is arrested development. The link between apes and civilization is us! We experience a consensus trance, a collective psychosis, society’s hypnosis. We live in the biggest cult of all: CULTURE. The answer is, “Wake up.”
A most important question is, if it is true that our conventional state of development is suboptimal, how do we develop other states? The classic answer is: take up a discipline, a practice (e.g., meditation, service, being in nature). One problem is that spiritual traditions are usually couched in archaic language, and have accumulated nonsense around them over the years. It is desirable to abstract out the essential elements. That is a recent thrust of transpersonal research.
There are six common elements: 1. Ethics: the moment you sit down to meditate, what emerges is all the unethical stuff you’ve done and what was done to you. Ethical behavior (not conventional morality) is a tool for mind training. 2. Attentional training: ordinarily we cannot sustain attention. (William James said the maximum is 3 seconds.) The aim is to be able to maintain attention on what one wants. It leads to the stabilization of mind, calming. 3. Emotional training: destroying negative emotions (well developed in Western psychology, maybe better than in the Eastern traditions, because we recognize the problem with repression); cultivating positive emotions (where contemplative practices do well, because they offer tools for unwavering, unconditional, and all-encompassing [positive regard]; what is known as agape in Christianity). 4. Redirection of motivation: changing what you want, etc. 5. Perceptual refinement: we mistake shadows for realities; according to St. Paul we “see through a glass darkly.” This enhances sensitivity, accuracy, and subtlety of perception. 6. Wisdom: actually the first element, playing a role all through the path. Initial motivation sees suffering of the world; provides motivation for realizing that there must be another way of living, culminates with deep insight into nature of the world, mind, consciousness, reality (prajna; Christian’s gnosis). When the mind is trained, stabilized, and clarified, the mind has a heightened capacity for understanding.
So for the first time we can recognize the common elements in religions; we can see that the contemplative core contain practices and road maps. This approach recognizes multi-state psychologies and philosophies.
APPLICATION. Many areas of research are developing in transpersonal psychology. These studies have implications for the state of the world. It is only 25 years since the founding of transpersonal psychology. The world’s population has developed to the extent that every four months we are losing as many people from malnutrition as from a Holocaust. Our problems are still solvable. The best population explosion control is to make education available to women in the Third World. The transpersonal vision gives a frame to recognize that we are all connected.
For a fuller account of transpersonal psychology, see R. Walsh & F. Vaughan (Eds). (1993) _Paths Beyond Ego: The Transpersonal Vision._ New York: Tarcher/Putnam.
Brown, Jason W. (1991). Self and process: Brain states and the conscious present. New York: Springer-Verlag
NOTES
Author, from the Department of Neurology at New York University Medical School, presents a theory about the genetic unfolding of mental content (mind) through stages, from mental state into consciousness or into behavior. He relates the genesis of mind to brain development but avoids assuming that there is a straightforward correlation between brain development (e.g. myelination) and cognitive development or perception. To some degree, the theory is based on subjective report data and psychological symptoms. The author discusses issues that bear on the phenomena of nonvoluntary responding and dissociation that are reported or described by hypnotized persons.
“The nature of the mental state will determine the relation between self and world, and thus the interpretation given to agency and choice. … The crossing of the boundary from self to world is a shift from one level in mind to another” (pp. 10-11).
“… if we begin with mind as primary and seek to explain objects from inner states and private experience, the discontinuity between inner and outer evaporates: mind is everywhere, a universe. … Whereas before we thought to perceive objects, now we understand that we think them” (p. 19).
“The concept of a stratified cognition is central to the notion of a mental state …. This entails an unfolding from depth to surface, not from one surface to the next, a direction crucial to agency and the causal or decisional properties of consciousness” (p. 52). By unfolding from depth to surface, he means from Core, through Subconscious, then Conscious Private Events, and finally Extra-Personal Space.
He goes on to provide a definition of mental states. “A mental state is the minimal state of a mind, an absolute unit from the standpoint of its spatial and temporal structure. … The state also has to include the prehistory of the organism. … The concept of a mental state implies a fundamental unit that has gestalt-like properties, in that specific contents– words, thoughts, percepts–appear in the context of mind as a whole (p. 53).
“The entire multitiered system arborizes like a tree, with levels in each component linked to corresponding levels in other components. For example, an early (e.g., limbic) state in language (e.g., word meaning) is linked to an early stage in action (e.g., drive, proximal motility) and perception (e.g., hallucination, personal memory) …. In sum, a description of the spatial and temporal features of a _single_ unfolding series amounts to a description of the minimal unit of mind, the _absolute_ mental state” (p. 54).
The author’s discussion of an individual’s physical movement relates to the concept of nonvoluntary movement (or movement without awareness of volition) in hypnosis. “More precisely, levels in the brain state constitute the action structure. As it unfolds, this structure generates the conviction that a self-initiated act has occurred. This structure–the action representation–does not elaborate content in consciousness. … As with the sensory-perceptual interface, the transition to movement occurs across an abrupt boundary. In some manner, perhaps through a translation of cognitive rhythms in the action to kinetic patterns in the movement, levels in the emerging act discharge into motor (physical) events” (p. 57).
“The self has the nature of a global image or early representation within which objects-to-be are embedded. … The self is the accumulation of all the momentary cognitions developing in a brain configured by heredity and experience in a particular way (p. 70).
“The deposition of a holistic representation … creates the deception of a self that stands behind and propagates events. The feeling of the self as an agent is reinforced by the forward thrust of the process and the deeper locus of the self in relation to surface objects. The self appears to be an instigator of acts and images when in fact it is given up in their formation. The self does not cause or initiate, it only anticipates (p. 70).
The foregoing notes cover only the first five chapters, less than half the book. Other chapters relevant to hypnosis would be those titled ‘The Nature of Voluntary Action,’ ‘Psychology of Time Awareness,’ ‘From Will to Compassion,’ and ‘Mind and Brain.’
Dennett, Daniel C. (1991). Consciousness explained. Boston: Little, Brown & Co..
NOTES
Material in this book is relevant to discussions about ‘nonvoluntary’ behavior and (un)conscious experiencing. It combines information from cognitive neuroscience with the philosophy of mind. The author presents a view that consciousness (the ‘mind’) is the consequence of the brain’s activities which give rise to illusions about their own properties. He presents the Multiple Drafts model of consciousness, which reformulates the concept of a ‘stream of consciousness.’ This provides a basis for consideration of concepts central to cognitive neuroscience and phenomena associated with hypnosis, e.g. experiential states and the nature of the self.
The author gives various examples of phenomenology and notes that although these examples are familiar to us, they are totally inaccessible to materialistic science; e.g. the way the sunset looks to someone. He treats people’s descriptions of what they experience as a record of speech acts. Thus, observing and interpreting speech acts, inferring from them the speaker’s inner states, is like a reader who is interpreting a work of fiction. He gives as examples of how one can scientifically study what does not ‘exist’ (a) literary theorists who describe fictional entities, (b) anthropologists who study cultural artifacts like gods and witches, and (c) physicists who study a center of gravity.
In Dennett’s theory, multitrack processes of interpretation of sensory inputs and elaboration of those inputs amounts to a kind of ‘editorial revision’ by the brain. For example in the phi phenomenon a red dot is displayed, followed by a green dot in a different location; the first spot seems to begin moving and then change color in the middle of its illusory passage toward the second location. He points out that awareness of the change in color must occur after seeing the green spot, but one consciously experiences a single spot first red, then red-turning-to-green, finally green. In an example that relates directly to the words used for his theory, he cites contemporary publishing practices, in which several different drafts of an article are in circulation even while the author is revising it. Deciding on some specific moment of brain processing as the moment of consciousness is arbitrary, according to his Multiple Drafts model.
“Visual stimuli evoke trains of events in the cortex that gradually yield discriminations of greater and greater specificity. At different times and different places, various ‘decisions’ or ‘judgments’ are made; more literally, parts of the brain are caused to go into states that discriminate different features, e.g., first mere onset of stimulus, then location, then shape, later color (in a different pathway), later still (apparent) motion, and eventually object recognition. These localized discriminative states transmit effects to other places, contributing to further discriminations, and so forth. The natural but naive question to ask is: ‘Where does it all come together’? The answer is: Nowhere. Some of these distributed contentful states soon die out, leaving no further traces. Others do leave traces, on subsequent verbal reports of experience and memory, on ‘semantic readiness’ and other varieties of perceptual set, on emotional state, behavioral proclivities, and so forth. Some of these effects–for instance, influences on subsequent verbal reports–are at least symptomatic of consciousness. But there is no one place in the brain through which all these causal trains must pass in order to deposit their content ‘in consciousness'” (pp. 134-135).
The author describes the evolution of the brain, along Darwinian lines, and introduces the idea of culture as a repository and transmission medium for innovations (including innovations of consciousness) as a medium of evolution. Through learning, we humans evolve an American or a Japanese brain. Once we have evolved the ‘entrance and exit pathways’ for language, they become ‘parasitized’ by _memes_ (entities that have evolved to thrive in such a niche).
Richard Dawkins coined the term _memes_ to describe the smallest idea elements that replicate themselves reliably (e.g. wheel, alphabet, wearing clothes, right triangle). “The transformation of a human brain by infestations of memes is a major alteration in the competence of that organ” (p. 209).
Dennett discusses the similarities and dissimilarities of brains and computers. He suggests that human minds are like serial virtual machines implemented on parallel processing hardware. The stream of consciousness results from our rehearsal of brief experiences, to commit them to memory; language then permits us to describe to ourselves the process of thinking which leads to judgement and action.
The author’s discussion of how a verbal expression evolves and becomes manifest is related to how so-called intentional action occurs. [This relates to discussions of nonvoluntary actions in hypnosis.] We assume that because our actions make sense, they are the product of serial reasoning. However, there are multiple channels “in which specialist circuits try, in parallel pandemoniums, to do their various things … (pp. 253- 254). Bernard Baars has suggested “that consciousness is accomplished by a ‘distributed society of specialists that is equipped with a working memory, called a _global workspace_, whose contents can be broadcast to the system as a whole (p. 42)'” (p. 257). Dennett states that there is no line dividing the events that are definitely in consciousness from those that are outside consciousness. He urges scientists to forgo the concept of the ‘inner observer’ implied by Cartesian materialism.
of a human brain by infestations of memes is a major alteration in the competence of that organ” (p. 209).
Dennett discusses the similarities and dissimilarities of brains and computers. He suggests that human minds are like serial virtual machines implemented on parallel processing hardware. The stream of consciousness results from our rehearsal of brief experiences, to commit them to memory; language then permits us to describe to ourselves the process of thinking which leads to judgement and action.
The author’s discussion of how a verbal expression evolves and becomes manifest is related to how so-called intentional action occurs. [This relates to discussions of nonvoluntary actions in hypnosis.] We assume that because our actions make sense, they are the product of serial reasoning. However, there are multiple channels “in which specialist circuits try, in parallel pandemoniums, to do their various things … (pp. 253- 254). Bernard Baars has suggested “that consciousness is accomplished by a ‘distributed society of specialists that is equipped with a working memory, called a _global workspace_, whose contents can be broadcast to the system as a whole (p. 42)'” (p. 257). Dennett states that there is no line dividing the events that are definitely in consciousness from those that are outside consciousness. He urges scientists to forgo the concept of the ‘inner observer’ implied by Cartesian materialism.
Examples of perception that is unaccompanied by consciousness include blindsight (in which the subject does better than chance on visual tests but denies consciousness, and the denials are given credence by neurological evidence of brain damage) and hysterical blindness, which is given less credence because subjects often use the visually provided information in ways blindsight Ss do not. Other behaviors not controlled by conscious thought include blinking when things approach the eye, walking without falling over, regulating our body temperature, adjusting our metabolism, etc. “If I am trying to see a bird that I hear, and stare at the spot but do not distinguish the bird from its background, can I say that it is present in the background of my (visual) consciousness or not?” (p. 336).
The author maintains that if an event doesn’t linger and the person is unable to identify and reidentify the effect, it cannot be reported. But such reportability can be improved, as with training the palate of wine tasters. Often, however, we continue disregarding stimuli that impinge on us. There are minor oversights, such as our ‘blind spots’ or proof reading errors, and major oversights such as a brain-damaged patient’s hemi-neglect. In the Multiple Drafts theory, the Observer is replaced by ‘coalitions of specialists’ that are distributed around in the brain, distributed in both time and space.
Though discrimination or discernment happens, there is no one Discerner doing the work. However, Dennett takes the middle ground on the question of whether a self exists: it is simply a creation like the nest of the Bower bird, or the organized colony of termite ants. “So wonderful is the organization of a termite colony that it seemed to some observers that each termite colony had to have a soul (Marais, 1937). We now understand that its organization is simply the result of a million semi-independent little agents, each itself an automaton, doing its thing. So wonderful is the organization of a human self that to many observers it has seemed that each human being had a soul, too: a benevolent Dictator ruling from Headquarters” (p. 416). The sense of self is a creation, like a physicist’s center of gravity.
Thus, multiple personality disorder is viewed as a self that has gaps; and our sense of self might include different aspects from one year to the other. Hence, “selves are not independently existing soul-pearls, but artifacts of the social processes that create us, and, like other such artifacts, subject to sudden shifts in status. The only ‘momentum’ that accrues to the trajectory of a self, or a club, is the stability imparted to it by the web of beliefs that constitute it, and when those beliefs lapse, it lapses, either permanently or temporarily” (p. 423).
Finally, the author has an extensive discussion of the concepts of ‘qualia’ and of ‘epiphenomena’ and seems to have little use for either term in trying to understand Mind.
or a club, is the stability imparted to it by the web of beliefs that constitute it, and when those beliefs lapse, it lapses, either permanently or temporarily” (p. 423).
Finally, the author has an extensive discussion of the concepts of ‘qualia’ and of ‘epiphenomena’ and seems to have little use for either term in trying to understand Mind.
Zika, William (1991, January). Hidden observer in psychotherapy. [Lecture] Seminar in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences.
NOTES
Author has explored use of a “hidden observer” metaphor in psychotherapy. He distinguishes between two types of dissociation–that resulting from involvement in fantasy and imagery (separation from the Generalized Reality Orientation described by R. Shor) and that between the “I” and the Observer. He calls the latter nonattachment instead of dissociation, aligning it with meditation concepts. The observer, in the hypnotized patient, is objective and even more in touch with reality than the patient in the waking state. He likens the Observer to Erickson’s Inner Self, noting that just as patients learn to allow the therapist to care for them, they can come to allow the Observer to care for them. During inductions he speaks of the Hidden Observer (H.O.) that always knows what is going on, giving a suggestion that the H.O. can be helpful. (This concept seemingly relates also to the observer in Multiple Personality Disorder, and to John Kihlstrom’s discussion of William James and the self, as well as to amnesia/duality in age regression or duality (HO) in pain control.)
1987
Jana, Hrishikesh (1987). History and present state of hypnosis in India. [Lecture] Presented at the Department of Psychiatry, UCLA.
Hypnosis is discussed in relationship to traditional Indian medical and psychological treatments. The following Table illustrates some of the relationships among Asian approaches, which also include philosophical and religious elements.
1985
Moon, T. (1985). Idiographic as well as nomothetic? Problems for Naish’s ‘Trance’ described in signal detection terms. [Comment/Discussion] .
NOTES 1:
“Naish … hypothesises that in an unselected sample, the more hypnotisable subjects will make larger criterion shifts in response to signal detection task conditions. In nomothetic/idiographic terms this hypothesis is ambiguous. Should the statement ‘the more hypnotisable subjects will make larger criterion shifts’ be taken as describing a generalised, group effect? Or should it be interpreted as saying something about each more hypnotisable subject? Both versions are consistent with the theory, but the latter is clearly the more fallible one, most sensitive to falsification” (pp. 144-145). The commentator concludes that “The proposition that the essence of hypnosis is perceptual distortion engendered by criterion shift remains untested by the experiments” (pp. 145-146).
-tested by the experiments” (pp. 145-146).