ABSTRACT
The traditional view of hypnosis as described by its proponents in the 19th century is that of a special sleep-like brain state or trance, and up until at least the mid-1980s it was quite common for theorists and researchers to talk about hypnosis using the terminology of this tradition. For example, many emphasized a differentiation between the ‘hypnotic’ and ‘waking’ states (see, for example, Bowers, 1976; Gibson, 1977; Hilgard and Hilgard, 1983; Sheehan and Perry, 1976). The unusual nature of the hypnotic trance or state condition was reinforced by the view that the phenomena associated with it were not explicable in terms of processes familiar to most psychologists, such as suggestibility, placebo effects, motivation, imagination, absorption, shifts in attention, and compliance with instructions (see, for example, Bowers, 1976; Hilgard, 1986; Hilgard and Hilgard, 1983; Kihlstrom, 1978; Kihlstrom et al., 1980; Orne, 1959, 1970; Zamansky, 1977).
