ABSTRACT
The coining of the term “hypnosis” itself is usually attributed to the Manchester surgeon James Braid, although the term “hypnotism” is to be found in French dictionaries published several decades before Braid’s principal work. According to the classic state view, hypnosis is seen as an altered state of consciousness with various depths, such that the deeper one enters the hypnotic state the more likely one is to manifest hypnotic phenomena. In academic research, susceptibility to hypnosis is usually measured by means of standardized scales; commonly used are the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, and the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility. Scepticism concerning the notion of hypnosis as an altered state has mounted since the 1960s. The idea that when hypnotic subjects report transparent hallucinations they may simply be saying they “imagined” what was suggested to them raises the general question of the validity of hypnotic hallucinations.
