Glossary
Hypnotic induction
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: induction
In short
The induction is the way into hypnosis: breathing calmly, closing your eyes, sinking gradually deeper – the first minutes of every trance.
What does it mean for you?
This is the part where you arrive: your breath slows, your body grows heavier, everyday life fades. Only when you feel safe and relaxed can desire get any space at all – that is why every trance takes its time here.
What research says
Classic inductions ask you to fix your eyes on a point, breathe slowly and notice your eyelids getting heavy. Others are brisk and alert, for example while pedalling an exercise bike.
In experiments, the induction is often what separates the "hypnosis" condition from the control condition. A recurring finding is that suggestions also work without any induction, though for many people somewhat less strongly. That is one reason researchers argue about how much of hypnosis is the induction and how much is the suggestion.
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.
- 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.
Trances
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.
- Experiment · 2017 Brain activity and functional connectivity associated with hypnosis Jiang, H., White, M. P., Greicius, M. D., Waelde, L. C., & Spiegel, D. (2017). Brain activity and functional connectivity associated with hypnosis. Cerebral Cortex, 27(8), 4083–4093.
Glossary
- 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.
- 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.
Found this useful? Share it.