ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews how the use of quantitative, first-person, phenomenological self-reports can help us better understand the mysteries of hypnosis. We first present a rationale for quantifying phenomenological experience; do a brief review of the use of phenomenological methods, including neurophenomenology; and then focus on the current interest in noetic analysis, including reviewing the methodology of noetic analysis; demonstrating how to empirically quantify phenomenological experience; and highlighting how noetic analysis, when combined with the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory: Hypnotic Assessment Procedure (PCI-HAP), and neurophysiological methodologies (the qEEG), can lead to a more comprehensive understanding of hypnosis, and the brain/mind/behavior interface. Using this approach suggests that hypnosis appears to be a function of several different domains: suggestibility, expectancy, and trance; variables that the leading hypnosis theorists/researchers have proffered over several decades as important to defining the essence of hypnosis. In addition, by using the quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) to quantify the brain, and quantitative phenomenology, noetic analysis, to quantify the mind, the researcher and clinician have at their disposal a powerful methodology to map the brain/mind/behavior interface. How the PCI-HAP can be used to better tailor hypnotic suggestions to your client's/participant's own hypnotic talents is also referenced.
