Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T21:54:14.308Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

43 - Hypnosis and Imagination

from Part VI - Altered States of the Imagination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2020

By
Devin B. Terhune  and
David A. Oakley
Edited by
Anna Abraham
Anna Abraham
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
Get access

Summary

Hypnosis involves the use of verbal suggestion to modulate behavior and experience. Hypnosis and imagination have long been associated and the view that hypnotic suggestion effects changes in experience through imagination is a persistent one. In this review, we first present a brief overview of hypnosis and then turn to its potential relationship to imagery and imagination. We consider whether individual differences in imagination may relate to hypnotic suggestibility and the extent to which imagery is recruited during response to hypnotic suggestions in psychological and neuroimaging studies. Finally, we briefly consider the roles of imagery and suggestion in clinical applications of hypnosis. We conclude that while hypnotic suggestibility may relate to variability in imagination, hypnotic suggestion and voluntary forms of imagery are subserved by dissimilar neurocognitive mechanisms.

Keywords

Awarenesshypnosishypnotic suggestibilityhypnotizabilityimageryimaginationsuggestion
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination , pp. 711 - 727
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barnier, A. J., and McConkey, K. M. (1999). Absorption, Hypnotizability and Context: Non‐Hypnotic Contexts Are Not All the Same. Contemporary Hypnosis, 16(1), 1–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowers, K. S. (1981). Do the Stanford Scales Tap the “Classic Suggestion Effect”? International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 29(1), 42–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowers, P., Laurence, J. R., and Hart, D. (1988). The Experience of Hypnotic Suggestions. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 36(4), 336–349.Google Scholar
Braffman, W., and Kirsch, I. (1999). Imaginative Suggestibility and Hypnotizability: An Empirical Analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(3), 578–587.Google Scholar
Bryant, R. A., and Idey, A. (2001). Intrusive Thoughts and Hypnotizability. Contemporary Hypnosis, 18(1), 14–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cardeña, E., and Terhune, D. B. (2014). Hypnotizability, Personality Traits and the Propensity to Experience Alterations of Consciousness. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, 1, 292–307.Google Scholar
Cardeña, E., and Terhune, D. B. (2019). The Roles of Response Expectancies, Baseline Experiences, and Hypnotizability in Spontaneous Hypnotic Experiences. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 67(1), 1–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carli, G., Cavallaro, F. I., Rendo, C. A., and Santarcangelo, E. L. (2007). Imagery of Different Sensory Modalities: Hypnotizability and Body Sway. Experimental Brain Research, 179(2), 147–154.Google Scholar
Carlson, E. B., and Putnam, F. W. (1989). Integrating Research on Dissociation and Hypnotizability: Are There Two Pathways to Hypnotizability? Dissociation, 2, 32–38.Google Scholar
Cojan, Y., Piguet, C., and Vuilleumier, P. (2015). What Makes Your Brain Suggestible? Hypnotizability Is Associated with Differential Brain Activity during Attention outside Hypnosis. Neuroimage, 117, 367–374.Google Scholar
Comey, G., and Kirsch, I. (1999). Intentional and Spontaneous Imagery in Hypnosis: The Phenomenology of Hypnotic Responding. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 47(1), 65–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Council, J. R., Kirsch, I., and Grant, D. L. (1996). Imagination, Expectancy, and Hypnotic Responding. In Kunzendorf, R. G., Spanos, N. P., and Wallace, B (eds.), Hypnosis and Imagination. Amityville, NY: Baywood, 41–66.Google Scholar
Deeley, Q., Oakley, D. A., Toone, B., et al. (2013). The Functional Anatomy of Suggested Limb Paralysis. Cortex, 49(2), 411–422.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Derbyshire, S. W., Whalley, M. G., and Oakley, D. A. (2009). Fibromyalgia Pain and Its Modulation by Hypnotic and Non-Hypnotic Suggestion: An fMRI Analysis. European Journal of Pain, 13(5), 542–550.Google Scholar
Derbyshire, S. W., Whalley, M. G., Stenger, V. A., and Oakley, D. A. (2004). Cerebral Activation during Hypnotically Induced and Imagined Pain. Neuroimage, 23(1), 392–401.Google Scholar
Dienes, Z., and Perner, J. (2007). Executive Control without Conscious Awareness: The Cold Control Theory of Hypnosis. In Jamieson, G. A. (ed.), Hypnosis and Conscious States: The Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 293–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franklin, B., Majault, Le, Sallin, R., et al.(2002). Report of the Commissioners Charged by the King with the Examination of Animal Magnetism. 1784. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 50(4), 332–363.Google Scholar
Gauld, A. (1992). A History of Hypnotism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Glisky, M. L., Tataryn, D. J., and Kihlstrom, J. F. (1995). Hypnotizability and Mental Imagery. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 43(1), 34–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glisky, M. L., Tataryn, D. J., Tobias, B. A., Kihlstrom, J. F., and McConkey, K. M. (1991). Absorption, Openness to Experience, and Hypnotizability. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(2), 263–272.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gonsalkorale, W. M., Miller, V., Afzal, A., and Whorwell, P. J. (2003). Long Term Benefits of Hypnotherapy for Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Gut, 52(11), 1623–1629.Google Scholar
Granqvist, P., Fredrikson, M., Unge, P., et al. (2005). Sensed Presence and Mystical Experiences Are Predicted by Suggestibility, Not by the Application of Transcranial Weak Complex Magnetic Fields. Neuroscience Letters, 379(1), 1–6.Google Scholar
Haggard, P. (2017). Sense of Agency in the Human Brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 18(4), 196–207.Google Scholar
Halligan, P. W., Athwal, B. S., Oakley, D. A., and Frackowiak, R. S. (2000). Imaging Hypnotic Paralysis: Implications for Conversion Hysteria. Lancet, 355(9208), 986–987.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Halligan, P. W., and Oakley, D. A. (2014). Hypnosis and Beyond: Exploring the Broader Domain of Suggestion. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, 1, 105–122.Google Scholar
Hargadon, R., Bowers, K. S., and Woody, E. Z. (1995). Does Counterpain Imagery Mediate Hypnotic Analgesia? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 104(3), 508–516.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haxby, J. V., Connolly, A. C., and Guntupalli, J. S. (2014). Decoding Neural Representational Spaces using Multivariate Pattern Analysis. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 37, 435–456.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jamieson, G. A., and Woody, E. (2007). Dissociated Control as a Paradigm for Cognitive Neuroscience Research and Theorising in Hypnosis. In Jamieson, G. A. (ed.), Hypnosis and Conscious States: The Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 111–129.Google Scholar
Kihlstrom, J. F. (2008). The Domain of Hypnosis, Revisited. In Nash, M. R. and Barnier, A. J. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Hypnosis: Theory, Research and Practice. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 21–52.Google Scholar
King, B. J., and Council, J. R. (1998). Intentionality during Hypnosis: An Ironic Process Analysis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 46(3), 295–313.Google Scholar
Kirsch, I. (1999). Clinical Hypnosis as a Nondeceptive Placebo. In Kirsch, I, Capafons, A, Cardeña-Buelna, E, and Amigó, S (eds.), Clinical Hypnosis and Self-Regulation: Cognitive-Behavioural Perspectives. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 211–225.Google Scholar
Kirsch, I., and Lynn, S. J. (1995). Altered State of Hypnosis: Changes in the Theoretical Landscape. American Psychologist, 50(10), 846–858.Google Scholar
Kirsch, I., Montgomery, G., and Sapirstein, G. (1995). Hypnosis as an Adjunct to Cognitive-Behavioral Psychotherapy: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 63, 214.Google Scholar
Kogon, M. M., Jasiukaitis, P., Berardi, A., et al. (1998). Imagery and Hypnotizability Revisited. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 46(4), 363–370.Google Scholar
Lau-Zhu, A., Holmes, E. A., and Porcheret, K. (2018). Intrusive Memories of Trauma in the Laboratory: Methodological Developments and Future Directions. Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports, 5(1), 61–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laurence, J.-R., Beaulieu-Prévost, D., and du Chéné, T. (2008). Measuring and Understanding Individual Differences in Hypnotizability. In Nash, M. R. and Barnier, A. J. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Hypnosis: Theory, Research and Practice. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 225–253.Google Scholar
Lush, P., Caspar, E. A., Cleeremans, A., et al. (2017). The Power of Suggestion: Posthypnotically Induced Changes in the Temporal Binding of Intentional Action Outcomes. Psychological Science, 28(5), 661–669.Google Scholar
Lush, P., Naish, P., and Dienes, Z. (2016). Metacognition of Intentions in Mindfulness and Hypnosis. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2016(1), niw007.Google Scholar
Lynn, S. J., Kirsch, I., and Hallquist, M. (2008). Social Cognitive Theories of Hypnosis. In Nash, M. R. and Barnier, A. J. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Hypnosis: Theory, Research and Practice. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 111–140.Google Scholar
Lynn, S. J., Kirsch, I., Knox, J., Fassler, O., and Lilienfeld, S. O. (2007). Hypnosis and Neuroscience: Implications for the Altered State Debate. In Jamieson, G. A. (ed.), Hypnosis and Conscious States: The Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 145–165.Google Scholar
Marucci, F. S., and Meo, M. (2000). Suggestibility and Imagery during Attribution of Meaning to Ambiguous Figures. In de Pascalis, V, Gheorghiu, V. A., Sheehan, P. W., and Kirsch, I (eds.), Suggestion and Suggestibility: Theory and Research. Munich, Germany: M.E.G.-Stiftung, 167–175.Google Scholar
Maxwell, R., Lynn, S. J., and Condon, L. (2015). Hypnosis, Hypnotic Suggestibility, Memory, and Involvement in Films. Consciousness and Cognition, 33, 170–184.Google Scholar
Moore, J. W., and Obhi, S. S. (2012). Intentional Binding and the Sense of Agency: A Review. Consciousness and Cognition, 21(1), 546–561.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moore, M., and Tasso, A. F. (2008). Clinical Hypnosis: The Empirical Evidence. In Nash, M. R. and Barnier, A. J. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Hypnosis: Theory, Research and Practice. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 697–725.Google Scholar
Morgan, A. H. (1973). The Heritability of Hypnotic Susceptibility in Twins. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 82(1), 55–61.Google Scholar
Oakley, D. A. (2012). From Freud to Neuroimaging: Hypnosis as a Common Thread. In Fotopoulou, A, Pfaff, D, and Conway, M. A. (eds.), From the Couch to the Lab: Trends in Psychodynamic Neuroscience. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 356–372.Google Scholar
Oakley, D. A., and Halligan, P. W. (2009). Hypnotic Suggestion and Cognitive Neuroscience. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(6), 264–270.Google Scholar
Oakley, D. A., and Halligan, P. W.(2013). Hypnotic Suggestion: Opportunities for Cognitive Neuroscience. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 14(8), 565–576.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oakley, D. A., and Halligan, P. W.(2017). Chasing the Rainbow: The Non-Conscious Nature of Being. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1924.Google Scholar
Oakley, D. A., Ward, N. S., Halligan, P. W., and Frackowiak, S. J. (2003). Differential Brain Activations for Malingered and Subjectively “Real” Paralysis. In Halligan, P. W., Bass, C, and Oakley, D. A. (eds.), Malingering and Illness Deception. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 267–284.Google Scholar
Panero, M. E., Goldstein, T. R., Rosenberg, R., Hughes, H., and Winner, E. (2016). Do Actors Possess Traits Associated with High Hypnotizability? Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 10(2), 233–239.Google Scholar
Patterson, D. R., and Jensen, M. P. (2003). Hypnosis and Clinical Pain. Psychological Bulletin, 129(4), 495–521.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pekala, R. J., and Kumar, V. K. (2007). An Empirical-Phenomenological Approach to Quantifying Consciousness and States of Consciousness: With Particular Reference to Understanding the Nature of Hypnosis. In Jamieson, G. A. (ed.), Hypnosis and Conscious States: The Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 167–194.Google Scholar
Piccione, C., Hilgard, E. R., and Zimbardo, P. G. (1989). On the Degree of Stability of Measured Hypnotizability over a 25-year Period. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56(2), 289–295.Google Scholar
Polito, V., Barnier, A. J., Woody, E. Z., and Connors, M. H. (2014). Measuring Agency Change across the Domain of Hypnosis. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, 1(1), 3–19.Google Scholar
Raz, A. (2007). Hypnobo: Perspectives on Hypnosis and Placebo. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 50(1), 29–36.Google Scholar
Rhue, J. (2004). Developmental Determinants of High Hypnotizability. In Heap, M, Brown, R. J., and Oakley, D. A. (eds.), The Highly Hypnotizable Person: Theoretical, Experimental and Clinical Issues. New York, NY: Brunner-Routledge, 115–132.Google Scholar
Roche, S. M., and McConkey, K. M. (1990). Absorption: Nature, Assessment, and Correlates. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(1), 91–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rominger, C., Weiss, E. M., Nagl, S., et al. (2014). Carriers of the COMT Met/Met Allele Have Higher Degrees of Hypnotizability, Provided That They Have Good Attentional Control: A Case of Gene-Trait Interaction. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 62(4), 455–482.Google Scholar
Sarbin, T. R., and Lim, D. T. (1963). Some Evidence in Support of the Roletaking Hypothesis in Hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 11, 98–103.Google Scholar
Sheehan, P. W., and Robertson, R. (1996). Imagery and Hypnosis: Trends and Patternings in Effects. In Kunzendorf, R. G., Spanos, N. P., and Wallace, B (eds.), Hypnosis and Imagination. Amityville, NY: Baywood, 1–17.Google Scholar
Spanos, N. P. (1986). Hypnotic Behavior: A Social Psychological Interpretation of Amnesia, Analgesia and Trance Logic. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 9(3), 449–467.Google Scholar
Spanos, N. P., and Gorassini, D. R. (1984). Structure of Hypnotic Test Suggestions and Attributions of Responding Involuntarily. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46(3), 688–696.Google Scholar
Spanos, N. P., Stenstrom, R. J., and Johnston, J. C. (1988). Hypnosis, Placebo, and Suggestion in the Treatment of Warts. Psychosomatic Medicine, 50(3), 245–260.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Srzich, A. J., Byblow, W. D., Stinear, J. W., Cirillo, J., and Anson, J. G. (2016). Can Motor Imagery and Hypnotic Susceptibility Explain Conversion Disorder with Motor Symptoms? Neuropsychologia, 89, 287–298.Google Scholar
Szechtman, H., Woody, E., Bowers, K. S., and Nahmias, C. (1998). Where the Imaginal Appears Real: A Positron Emission Tomography Study of Auditory Hallucinations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 95(4), 1956–1960.Google Scholar
Tasso, A. F., and Perez, N. (2008). Parsing Everyday Suggestibility: What Does It Tell Us about Hypnosis? In Nash, M. R. and Barnier, A. J. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Hypnosis: Theory, Research and Practice. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 283–309.Google Scholar
Terhune, D. B. (2012). Metacognition, Cold Control and Hypnosis. Journal of Mind-Body Regulation, 2, 75–79.Google Scholar
Terhune, D. B., and Cardeña, E. (2015). Dissociative Subtypes in Posttraumatic Stress Disorders and Hypnosis: Neurocognitive Parallels and Clinical Implications. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24, 452–457.Google Scholar
Terhune, D. B., and Cardeña, E.(2016). Nuances and Uncertainties Regarding Hypnotic Inductions: Toward a Theoretically Informed Praxis. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 59(2), 155–174.Google Scholar
Terhune, D. B., Cardeña, E., and Lindgren, M. (2011). Dissociative Tendencies and Individual Differences in High Hypnotic Suggestibility. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 16(2), 113–135.Google Scholar
Terhune, D. B., Cleeremans, A., Raz, A., and Lynn, S. J. (2017). Hypnosis and Top-Down Regulation of Consciousness. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 81(Pt A), 59–74.Google Scholar
Terhune, D. B., and Hedman, L. R. A. (2017). Metacognition of Agency Is Reduced in High Hypnotic Suggestibility. Cognition, 168, 176–181.Google Scholar
Varga, K., Nemeth, Z., and Szekely, A. (2011). Lack of Correlation between Hypnotic Susceptibility and Various Components of Attention. Consciousness and Cognition, 20(4), 1872–1881.Google Scholar
Vuilleumier, P. (2014). Brain Circuits Implicated in Psychogenic Paralysis in Conversion Disorders and Hypnosis. Neurophysiologie Clinique-Clinical Neurophysiology, 44(4), 323–337.Google Scholar
Wallace, B., Allen, P. A., and Propper, R. E. (1996). Hypnotic Susceptibility, Imaging Ability, and Anagram-Solving Activity. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 44(4), 324–337.Google Scholar
Walsh, E., Oakley, D. A., Halligan, P. W., Mehta, M. A., and Deeley, Q. (2015). The Functional Anatomy and Connectivity of Thought Insertion and Alien Control of Movement. Cortex, 64, 380–393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walters, V. J., and Oakley, D. A. (2003). Does Hypnosis Make in Vitro, in Vivo? Hypnosis as a Possible Virtual Reality Context in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for an Environmental Phobia. Clinical Case Studies, 2(4), 295–305.Google Scholar
Walters, V. J., and Oakley, D. A.(2006). Hypnotic Imagery as an Adjunct to Therapy for Irritable Bowel Syndrome: An Experimental Case Report. Contemporary Hypnosis, 23(3), 141–149.Google Scholar
Ward, N. S., Oakley, D. A., Frackowiak, R. S., and Halligan, P. W. (2003). Differential Brain Activations during Intentionally Simulated and Subjectively Experienced Paralysis. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 8(4), 295–312.Google Scholar
Weitzenhoffer, A. M. (1974). When Is an “Instruction” an “Instruction”? International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 22(3), 258–269.Google Scholar
Whorwell, P. J., Prior, A., and Faragher, E. B. (1984). Controlled Trial of Hypnotherapy in the Treatment of Severe Refractory Irritable-Bowel Syndrome. Lancet, 2(8414), 1232–1234.Google Scholar
Wilson, S. C., and Barber, T. X. (1983). The Fantasy-Prone Personality: Implications for Understanding Imagery, Hypnosis, and Parapsychological Phenomena. In Sheik, A. A. (ed.), Imagery: Current Theory, Research and Application. New York, NY: Wiley, 340–390.Google Scholar
Woody, E. Z., and Barnier, A. J. (2008). Hypnosis Scales for the Twenty-First Century: What Do We Know and How Should We Use Them? In Nash, M. R. and Barnier, A. J. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Hypnosis: Theory, Research and Practice. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 255–281.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×