Expert judgments of hypnosis from subjective state reports

Suggestibility was assessed in 60 college students after a traditional hypnotic induction, an alert induction, progressive relaxation training, or instruction in goal-directed imagery. Responsiveness to suggestion did not differ between groups. Subjects also generated open-ended reports of their states of awareness and of their experience of 3 hypnotic suggestions. A sample of these reports from 24 moderately to highly suggestible subjects were evaluated by 18 experts in the field of hypnosis. Expert ratings of subjects' open-ended reports indicated that (a) traditional hypnotic inductions produce a state of consciousness that is indistinguishable from nonhypnotic relaxation training, (b) the subjective experience of hypnotic suggestions after imagination training is indistinguishable from that after hypnotic inductions, and (c) suggestibility is unrelated to state of consciousness as assessed by experts.