The Science of Hypnotizability
Everyone’s different — that goes for hypnotizability too. Everyone has a degree of hypnotic ability, ranging from low to high, or 0 to 10 in some cases.
First, let’s define hypnotizability (also referred to as hypnotic responsiveness or hypnotic suggestibility). This represents a person’s ability to experience physiological, sensory, behavioral, cognitive, and emotional changes in response to suggestions given during hypnosis.
In other words, your hypnotizability is your capability to realize the change you want to produce in your life via hypnosis.
Hypnotizability “Tests”
There are a number of tests to measure hypnotizability, but none are quite so simple that they can be done at home by yourself.
The Spiegel Eye Roll Test was developed by Dr. David Spiegel and his father, Dr. Herbert Spiegel, which is by far the quickest and simplest “test.” However, it’s more of a correlate and it is not a comprehensive measure of hypnotizability. This means people who score high on this test tend to also have high hypnotizability, with the inverse also being true, but it is not a test in and of itself. It can simply reflect your degree of hypnotizability.
One of the reasons that we at Reveri don’t believe measuring your hypnotizability is a necessity is that each of us can have a wide range of benefits from hypnosis regardless of our hypnotizability score. Learning your score is low on such a test could discourage you from trying, which can work as a negative self-fulfilling prophecy.
Further, your hypnotizability involves a spectrum of components. For example, you may have high cognitive, behavioral, and emotional hypnotizability but low physiological and sensory hypnotizability. This may manifest by hypnosis being very effective for you when the hypnotic suggestions are intended to make a cognitive, behavioral, or emotional change, but hypnosis being less effective when the suggestions are physiological or sensory. These different components are measured by some licensed providers in clinical settings to give you an overall summary of your hypnotizability, but many providers don’t even measure hypnotizability prior to using hypnosis with a patient.
Why would they skip testing hypnotizability?
The more motivated you are for hypnosis to work, and the more you expect it to work, the better effect it will have. This is true whether you have high or low hypnotizability in the first place. This effect, called “expectancy” in academic terms, is similar to but not the same as placebo. The placebo effect requires you to believe you received an actual “medication” or substance (where you also have high expectancy), when you received a sugar pill instead, and that belief fuels the effect. In hypnosis, no deception is needed for you to have high expectancy and for that to improve your results.
It’s also true that the setting in which one is being tested can change the final score. Some people can respond differently to hypnosis if they are in a group or by themselves.
In Summary
Everyone’s different. Not only is your hypnotizability score unique to you, but the different components of your score are also unique. One person can respond better to physiological and sensory suggestions, while another responds better to cognitive suggestions. They could have an identical hypnotizability “score,” but the final numerical result doesn’t tell the full story. One responds very well to certain suggestions while being less responsive to other suggestions, and the other person has inverted results. All this is to say that a number cannot properly express your hypnotizability. Your experience with hypnosis is individual, just like you are.
While most people score as hypnotizable somewhere on the scale, even those with low hypnotizability can experience great benefits and changes with hypnosis. Understanding that expectancy can affect your results, it may even be more beneficial to assume you have high hypnotizability and not test it. As hypnosis is widely regarded as safe, try it for yourself and see how it benefits you!
Sources:
Contact us: support@reveri.com
