ABSTRACT
Behavioristic skepticism about the nature of hypnosis is compounded when the notion of trance is invoked to explain various hypnotic phenomena. Although this hypothesis at first seemed supported, failure to replicate the initial findings suggest that the rapprochement between hypnosis and creativity must be more complex. The suggestibility enhancing effect of hypnosis is ordinarily assumed there is recent documentation for the fact that subjective reports of trance depth correlate with behavioral measures of responses to suggestions. The chapter reviews evidence that hypnosis and related states involve a loss in generalized reality orientation, and a concomitant rise in fantasy or suggestibility. Evidence suggests that eye movement is usually reduced under conditions of uncritical, undirected thinking characteristic of hypnosis and fantasy. The personality characteristics that allow one person to be more susceptible to hypnosis than another might coincide to some extent with those characteristics that make him more creative.
