Abstract
Criticism is made of the hypothesis that hypnotic induction or the ‘hypnotic state’ is necessary to elicit many of the behaviours usually regarded as ‘hypnotic phenomena’. Support for this criticism is taken from recent research and reviews in the hypnosis literature. An experiment is reported which was a replication of an experiment in which hypnosis was utilized, where the production of visual hallucinatory behaviour was attributed to the effects of the ‘hypnotic state’. The replication experiment did not involve hypnosis, but demonstrated hallucinatory behaviour similar to that obtained in the original experiment. The similarity of the results of the two experiments is discussed in terms of: (1) Subject selection and base‐rates, and (2) Differences in instructions and motivation given to control subjects and to hypnosis subjects.
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