Negative Hallucinations Research Articles

The phenomena and characteristics of self-hypnosis

Abstract Self-hypnosis and hetero-hypnosis were compared, and selfhypnosis was studied longitudinally. Results indicated that absorption and the fading of the general reality orientation are characteristics of both hetero-hypnosis and self-hypnosis. The differentiating characteristics lie in the areas of attention and ego receptivity. Expansive, freefloating attention and ego receptivity to stimuli coming from within are state-specific for self-hypnosis, while concentrative attention and receptivity to stimuli coming from one outside source—the hypnotist on whom the subject concentrates his attention-are state-specific for laboratory defined hetero-hypnosis. Attempts to produce age regression and positive or negative hallucinations are markedly more successful in hetero-hypnosis. Imagery is much richer in self-hypnosis than in hetero-hypnosis. Self-hypnosis requires adaptation to the state: in the beginning of self-hypnosis there is a good deal of anxiety and self-doubt. As the subject feels more comforta...

Selective inattention to anxiety-linked stimuli.

The term selective inattention as used here subsumes those phenomena whose primary function is the active blocking or attenuation of partially processed contents en route to conscious expression. Examples are anxiety-motivated forgetting or perceptual distortion and hypnotically induced negative hallucinations. Studies in the field of selective attention have typically been designed to explain what takes place in a task in which the subject is first instructed to attend to a particular stimulus and then to consciously execute that instruction as well as he can. The rejection of content in process is examined only sceondarily as a consequence of the acceptance of relevant information. In the present experiments and theorizing, the emphasis instead is on inhibitory operations that take place automatically, without conscious intent, in response to a potential anxiety reaction. Experiment 1 explored the interaction of anxiety-linked inattention with strength of a target stimulus. Three female subjects were programmed under hypnosis to respond posthypnotically in the On condition with prescribed degrees of anxiety when certain Blacky pictures popped into mind later ,t the end of experimental trials; in the Off conditionall pictures were to become neutral. With the three female subjects still under hypnosis, each of the loaded pictures was then paired with a four-letter work relevant to the individual's own version of what was happening in the picture. The waking recognition task, carried out with amnesia for the prior hypnotic programming, consisted of tachistoscopic exposure of loaded words and physically similar filler words at four durations within a baseline range of recognition accuracy from 50%--75% correct. The data yielded a curvilinear relationship in which the recognition of only the loaded words was significnatly lower in the On condition at the 60%--70% range of recognition accuracy but not at shorter or longer stimulus durations. Experiment 2, for which the prior hypnotic programming of the same three subjects was similar to Experiment 1, used an anagram approach to comparable four-letter words, except that pleasure-loaded words were introduced as a control along with filler words. Four durations of tachistoscopic exposure of the anagrams were used with each individual, and the major dependent variable was response latency measured in milliseconds. An independent measure of perceptual discriminability of the scrambled stimulus letters was obtained to isolate perceptual from cognitive aspects of the task. The results indicated that both low perceivability and high solvability increase the likelihood of response delays specifically in the presence of anxiety-linked stimuli. Experiment 3 was a nonhypnotic replication of Experiment 2, using 12 male and 13 female subjects. The potential affective loading of key anxiety and pleasure words was accomplished by structured scenarios for the Blacky pictures in which subjects were asked to place themselves as vividly as possible...

The effect of hypnotic ablation of the background on the magnitude of the Ponzo perspective illusion.

Abstract In an attempt to develop an objective measure of hypnotic perception, and also to test the stability of the Ponzo perspective illusion, negative hallucinations were hypnotically induced to ablate the radiating lines of the Ponzo configuration. 3 groups of Ss (including 1 group of simulators) were tested across 3 conditions—unhypnotized, hypnotized, and hypnotized with hallucination instructions. Results indicated that the suggested hallucination did not affect susceptibility to the illusion. Results also suggested that certain hypnotically susceptible Ss might be more susceptible to the Ponzo under all experimental conditions than non-susceptible Ss. It was concluded that suggested hallucinations do not affect performance on the Ponzo illusion and that the Ponzo is a very stable illusion and appears to be highly resistant to variations in instructions and experimental set, as induced by hypnosis.

A preliminary report of improved vision under hypnosis.

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to report an accidental finding which was felt to be provocative and worthy of further, more controlled, investigation. The emphasis in this report is on detailed description of the phenomenon, with a minimum of theorizing. While in a very deep hypnotic trance, 5 was induced to have both positive and negative hallucinations. On the following day, he reported spontaneously that he had been struck by the clarity of both the visions and the perceptions of actual objects while hypnotized; he had not, however, been wearing his glasses at the time, though, under normal circumstances he wore his glasses at all times. No suggestions for improved vision or extra effort had been given. 2 careful opthalmo-logical examinations were made during the following 2 weeks, confirming the fact that S's eyesight showed a significant improvement during hypnosis as opposed to the waking state.

Improved visual recognition during hypnosis.

Despite a resurgence of experimental interest in hypnotic phenomena, there have been very few quantitative studies of perception during hypnosis. Many perceptual effects of hypnotic suggestion have been recorded, and some have been used extensively for clinical purposes. Perception of pain can be diminished—even completely suspended—by hypnotic suggestion; and conversely, hypnotic suggestion can produce the perception of pain where no external stimulus exists. Visual perceptions can be induced or removed, with the full intensity of positive and negative hallucinations. All other modalities of sensory perception can be strongly influenced—even gustatory and olfactory perceptions are responsive to amplification, reduction, distortion, and complete reversal of quality. Yet in the field of external perceptions there is no experiment which indicates that a phenomenon exists comparable to the enhancing effect of hypnotic states on memory. Memory can perhaps be regarded as an incomplete form of internal

Hypnosis as Perceptual-Cognitive Restructuring: IV. “Negative Hallucinations”

Hypnosis as Perceptual-Cognitive Restructuring: IV. “Negative Hallucinations”

Hypnotic hallucinatory behavior

Abstract Hypnotic Hallucinatory Behavior It would appear to be important to refer to experiences as hallucinatory only when the eyes of the percipient are open, in the case of visual hallucinations, or when he “hears” with the impression that the sound is of external origin rather than localized within (as an experience on the level of imagining) in the case of auditory hallucinations. In such hallucinatory occurrences, incidentally, the subject may in certain instances question the nature of his experience and evaluate it critically even though the stimulus retains its validity as an apparently externally centered event. Negative visual hallucinations involving avoidance reactions are apparently an order of experience different from negative hallucinations which do not involve such avoidance reactions. Although sensory end-organ functioning may be the same in both such occurrences, there are apparently as yet poorly understood differences in functioning on a neurophysiological and neuropsychological leve...