The phenomena and characteristics of self-hypnosis

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Abstract
Self-hypnosis and heterohypnosis were compared and self-hypnosis was studied longitudinally. Absorption and the fading of the general reality orientation are characteristics of heterohypnosis and self-hypnosis. The differentiating characteristics lie in the areas of attention and ego receptivity. Expansive, free-floating attention and ego receptivity to stimuli coming from within are state-specific for self-hypnosis, while concentrative attention and receptivity to stimuli coming from 1 outside source, the hypnotist on whom the subject concentrates his attention, are state-specific for laboratory defined heterohypnosis. Attempts to produce age regression and positive or negative hallucinations are markedly more successful in heterohypnosis. Imagery is much richer in self-hypnosis than in heterohypnosis. 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 comfortable in the self-hypnotic state, he spends less time worrying about failures in self-suggestion and his ability to enter trance quickly and easily increases, as does the fading of the general reality orientation, trance depth and absorption. An attempt was also made in the present study to find personality characteristics related to the ability to experience self-hypnosis.

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