ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the experience of hypnosis that can be studied in its own right, as it relates to hypnotic suggestibility, to other altered states, and to spontaneous, trancelike experiences. It reviews the search for physiological correlates of the experienced changes in consciousness. The neurophysiological substrata of various cognitive events are receiving increased attention. The chapter proposes that hypersuggestibility and heightened primary process mentation are common effects of the changed state of consciousness. A conceptualization of creativity is presented, and evidence pertinent to an adaptive regression formulation of the creative process is cited. The chapter also explores the ideas about how the integration of primary and secondary process might occur in creative expression. It also reviews the empirical work in hypnosis research lab which looks at the enhancement of creativity under hypnosis, the relationship of hyp-notizability to waking creative performance, and the effortless experiencing construct as the link accounting for the relationship.
