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What is hypnotic trance? Does itprovide unusual physical or mentalcapacities?
[credits]y Todd I. Stark
2.1 'Trance;' descriptive ormisleading?
ost of the classical notions of hypnosis have long held that hypnosis waspecial in some way from other types of interpersonal communication
and
 hat an
induction
(preparatory process considered by some to be neccessary inhe production of hypnotic phenomena) would lead to a state in which theubject's awareness and behavioral responding was some how altered fromhe usual.he name historically most commonly associated with this altered state of unctioning is 'trance,' a term shared by the description of the activities of ertain spiritualist mediums and other phenomena that some psychologistsight refer to as 'dissociative,' because something about the individual'sersonality appears split off from the usual response patterns to thenvironment.rance, for reasons we shall examine here, can be a very misleading term forhat is going on in hypnosis, since it is not neccessarily a sleep or stupor asome of traditional connotations of the term trance imply.ut 'trance' is so ubiquitous in literature that it might serve us to be familiarith its uses and the issues underlying it, and to use it as a starting point.here were a great many experimental and clinical studies done to try toetermine what might be unique about hypnosis, as opposed to other kinds of ituations (e.g. people simply being motivated to comply with the hypnotist;.e. hypnotic simulators). Outward behavioral signs and virtually everyhysiological measurement reported in hypnosis differ seemingly not at allrom the usual waking state of consciousness, as the non-state theoristsontend.ears of careful analysis by a number of researchers were mostly fruitless inurning up any reliable physiological correlates of hypnosis that were not (1)elated to the relaxation associated with the induction (most inductions, butot all, involve physical relaxation); or (2) an obvious result of a suggestion
 
easurements and subjective reports indicate deep relaxation accompanyingome hypnosis but not all hypnosis. Hypnotic suggestibility is apparently notimited to relaxed states.n Morse, Martin, Furst, & Dubin, "A physiological and subjective evaluationf meditation, hypnosis, and relaxation," from Journal Psychosomaticedicine. 39(5):304-24, 1977 Sep-Oct, a representative study of relaxationas done.ubjects were monitored for respiratory rate, pulse rate, blood pressure, skinesistance, EEG activity, and muscle activity. They were monitored during thelert state, meditation (TM or simple word type), hypnosis (relaxation andask types), and relaxation. Ss gave a verbal comparative evaluation of eachtate. The results showed significantly better relaxation responses for theelaxation states (relaxation, relaxation- hypnosis, meditation) than for thelert state. There were no significant differences between the relaxation statesxcept for the measure "muscle activity" in which meditation wasignificantly better than the other relaxation states. Overall, there wereignificant differences between task-hypnosis and relaxation-hypnosis. Noignificant differences were found between TM and simple word meditation.or the subjective measures, relaxation-hypnosis and meditation wereignificantly better than relaxation, but no significant differences were foundetween meditation and relaxation-hypnosis.here are a few more recent attempts to find physiological correlates of ypnotic suggestibility. One of these was EEG research by David Spiegel of tanford, published in the
 Journal of Abnormal Psychology
, 94:249-255, bypiegel, Cutcomb, Ren, and Pribram, (1985) "Hypnotic Hallucination Altersvoked Potentials." Spiegel seemed to find an evoked response pattern thatppeared during hypnotically suggested hallucination yet not duringimulation of hypnotic hallucination. Nicholas Spanos and others have arguedhat this EEG data has been misinterpreted given the nature of the controlubjects used. (Author's response to commentary by Spiegel, of Spanos, N.1986) "Hypnotic Behavior: A Social-Psychological Interpretation of mnesia, Analgesia, and 'Trance Logic'."
 Behavioral and Brain Sciences
 :449-502).n another similar attempt, from 1976, but measuring certain frequencies of EG activity rather than evoked potentials, a Russian journal reports someentative success at finding a physiological correlate to hypnotic induction.ee Aladzhalova, Rozhnov, & Kamenetskii, "Human hypnosis and super-low electrical activity of the brain." [RUSSIAN] Zhurnal Nevropatologii Isikhiatrii Imeni S - S - Korsakova. 76(5):704- 9, 1976.n the above article, the authors studied the transformation of infraslowscillations of brain potentials in 15 patients with neuroses during 50 sessionsf hypnosis. The results of such studies permitted to distinguish somemportant traits in the changes of infraslow oscillations of brain potentials in
 
..'trance logic?'
ne particular researcher, psychiatrist M.T. Orne of the University of ennsylvania, finally concluded that objective correlates were not to be foundn the available physiological measurements of the time, and that they werepparently of no value in determining whether a hypnotized subject was 'trulyypnotized' or 'simulating hypnosis.'rne, who did recognize from both highly consistent verbal reports of ypnotized subjects and from various clinical and empirical studies that thereas indeed
something
unique about hypnosis in at least
some
subjects,oncluded that that he would have to use verbal reports of subjectivexperience rather than rely on measurements. He carried out a series of cleverxperiments which seemed to establish a reliable way of distinguishingimulators from hypnotized subjects by their verbal reports. The resultinglteration of mental function was found to be present in nearly all deeplyypnotized subjects, and almost never found to the same degree in peopleho were not hypnotized but were motivated to simulate hypnotichenomena.he most obvious aspects of this alteration of function were dubbed 'tranceogic,' and appeared to correlate well with the anecdotal reports of thelinicians like Milton Erickson who had long considered verbal reports of ypnotized subjects to be valuable in distinguishing what was going on inypnosis.
2.3. What is Trance Logic?
rance logic refers to a set of characteristics of mental functioning that arepecifically found in 'deep trance' phenomena of hypnosis, as opposed tolight trance,' which has not even reliable subjective correlates and cannoteally be distinguished from simulation experimentally. These characteristicsnvolve particularly an alteration in language processing. Words, in tranceogic, are interpreted much more literally, communication being conveyed byocusing on words themselves rather than ideas. There is also an associatedecrease in critical judgement of language being processed, and an increasedolerance for incongruity.t is in some ways as if the subject were like a small child with very limitedxperience to use in interpreting ideas conveyed by the hypnotist. There alsos a shift toward what psychoanalysts call 'primary process' thinking, orhinking in terms of images and symbols more than words; an increasedvailability of affect; and other characteristics that simulators do notonsistently reproduce.his consistent set of characteristics of deep trance has been one of the
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