Glossary
The key terms around hypnosis – in plain words, with everyday examples. If you want to go deeper, you will find what research says further down.
Listen instead of reading · 35 minDirty Mind: Dirty Talk Hypnosis – Find Your Own WordsNo script, no borrowed lines: a trance that lets your own words out – in a lower, slower voice. - Demand characteristics Demand characteristics are the small cues in a situation that reveal what is expected of you – and that influence how you behave. Read more
- Dissociation (in hypnosis research) In hypnosis research, dissociation means: something happens, but it does not feel as if you are doing it – like an arm that seems to rise by itself. Read more
- Hypnosis Hypnosis is a state in which you turn your attention fully inward and engage with your imagination – so much that it feels real, like an arm growing heavy. Read more
- Hypnotic induction The induction is the way into hypnosis: breathing calmly, closing your eyes, sinking gradually deeper – the first minutes of every trance. Read more
- Hypnotizability Hypnotisability describes how strongly someone responds to hypnosis. Some people feel a lot, some little, most are somewhere in between. Read more
- Ideomotor effect The ideomotor effect means: when you vividly imagine a movement, your body makes it in a small way – without it feeling intentional. That is why a pendulum seems to swing on its own. Read more
- Posthypnotic suggestion A post-hypnotic suggestion is a sentence from hypnosis that is meant to keep working afterwards – triggered by a small cue, such as a word or a gesture. Read more
- Response expectancy Response expectancy means: if you firmly expect something to happen on its own – calm, a light arm – that very expectation can help bring it about. Read more
- Suggestion A suggestion is a sentence that invites you to experience something as if it were happening on its own – for example "your arm is getting lighter" – rather than doing it on purpose. Read more
- Trance logic Trance logic means that people in hypnosis calmly accept contradictions that would bother them immediately when awake – similar to a dream. Read more
Found this useful? Share it.