State or non-state, that is the question. How a modern understanding of altered states of consciousness can help redefine the idea of hypnosis.

Leo, D and Wheatcroft, JM ORCID: 0000-0001-7212-1598 (2026) State or non-state, that is the question. How a modern understanding of altered states of consciousness can help redefine the idea of hypnosis. New Ideas in Psychology, 82. ISSN 0732-118X

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Abstract

A continuing debate in the academic and clinical literature concerns whether hypnosis is best conceptualised as a special state, distinct from normal consciousness, or whether hypnosis and related phenomena are better construed in terms of more mundane, everyday psychological processes. As a possible move toward reconciling these positions, in this paper we argue that, if we introduce the notion of hypnosis as a set of fairly routine procedures designed to achieve a state of non-pathological dissociation, then there is no necessary contradiction between the idea that hypnosis may involve the induction of an altered state of consciousness and the proposal that this arises from and is influenced by the kinds of standard psychological processes encountered in everyday life. To this end, with particular reference to neurophysiological findings, we examine the possible processes involved in the application of standard hypnotic induction procedures and discuss their role in hypnotic responding. However, we also argue that the cultural meanings attached to hypnosis, and other contextual elements such as attitudes and expectancies, are fundamental components of the hypnotic induction process and the experiences we associate with the concept of hypnosis. With these considerations in mind, we propose a new working procedural definition of hypnosis and examine the possible significance of this analysis for therapeutic applications of hypnosis.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Forensic Research Institute (FORRI); Research Centre for Brain and Behaviour (RCBB); 1701 Psychology; 1702 Cognitive Sciences; Developmental & Child Psychology; 5201 Applied and developmental psychology; 5203 Clinical and health psychology; 5205 Social and personality psychology
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions:	Psychology (from Sep 2019)
Publisher:	Elsevier
Date of acceptance:	13 May 2026
Date of first compliant Open Access:	21 May 2026
Date Deposited:	20 May 2026 07:44
Last Modified:	21 May 2026 00:50
DOI or ID number:	10.1016/j.newideapsych.2026.101267
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28590

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