Hypnosis and eye movements

Eye movements (with closed lids) were studied in a group of highly hypnotizable experimental subjects experienced in self-hypnosis, and compared with a random sample of control subjects that had never been hypnotized and were low in waking suggestibility. Approximately half the experimental subjects rolled their eyes upwards to a greater extent when hypnosis was induced than during eye closure while awake. In some subjects eye flutter occurred during hypnosis, but not in the awake condition. During passive hypnosis the mean rates of rapid eye movements were lower, but those of slow eye movements were higher than during the resting awake condition of the same subjects or the random control subjects. The mean rates of horizontal eye movements during suggestions about begin in a train and watching passing telephone poles were higher for the experimental subjects in the hypnosis and 'imagination' sessions than that of the random control group in the imagination session. A proportion of the experimental subjects made more lateral eye movements during hypnosis than during the imagination session, but an equal proportion did not differ between the two conditions. The mean rates and durations of horizontal eye movements during dreaming about a tennis match were greater during hypnosis ('hypnotic' dream), than during the awake condition a few minutes later ('natural' dream), or the awake condition in the imagination session ('imagination' dream) of the same subjects or random controls. The performance and subjective involvement of the experimental subjects during the Barber suggestibility scale, 'nystagmus' suggestions and 'dreaming' did not differ significantly between the two hypnosis sessions, but in most cases were significantly greater during hypnosis than during the imagination session of the same group or the random control group.