Glossary
Hypnosis
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. Also known as: hypnotic statetrance
In short
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.
What does it mean for you?
You may know it from a moment when you were completely with yourself – a touch, music, a daydream, and the rest of the world was gone. Hypnosis uses exactly this ability: attention turned inward until what you imagine feels real. You stay awake, hear everything and can stop at any time.
What research says
The working definition used most in research comes from the American Psychological Association's Division 30 (Elkins et al., 2015): a state of focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness with an increased capacity to respond to suggestion.
Not everyone agrees that hypnosis is a special state. Sociocognitive researchers explain the same effects through expectation, motivation and the social situation. What both sides agree on: people differ a lot in how strongly they respond, and suggestion can change perception, memory and the feeling of control in measurable ways.
Stage hypnosis and research hypnosis use similar suggestions but have different goals. Research asks what changes, in whom, and why.
Related topics
- Is hypnosis a special state – or expectation at work? The oldest debate in hypnosis research – state or expectation? With Orne's simulators, Hilgard's hidden observer and Kirsch's expectancy theory.
- Why desire begins in the mind – and often gets stuck there Why desire often does not arrive spontaneously but responds – and why worrying about performance holds it back. What studies show, in plain words.
- Mindful touch: Sensate Focus and mindfulness What Sensate Focus by Masters and Johnson is, why mindfulness helps during sex and what that has to do with an erotic trance – in plain words.
- What happens in the brain during hypnosis? What brain imaging shows about hypnosis: anterior cingulate, prefrontal networks and the default mode network – and why there is no hypnosis centre.
Studies on this page
- Definition · 2015 Advancing research and practice: The revised APA Division 30 definition of hypnosis Elkins, G. R., Barabasz, A. F., Council, J. R., & Spiegel, D. (2015). Advancing research and practice: The revised APA Division 30 definition of hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 63(1), 1–9.
- Theory · 1959 The nature of hypnosis: Artifact and essence Orne, M. T. (1959). The nature of hypnosis: Artifact and essence. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58(3), 277–299.
Glossary
- Hypnotic induction The induction is the way into hypnosis: breathing calmly, closing your eyes, sinking gradually deeper – the first minutes of every trance.
- 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.
- Hypnotizability Hypnotisability describes how strongly someone responds to hypnosis. Some people feel a lot, some little, most are somewhere in between.
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