Hypnosis

A state of focused attention and increased responsiveness to suggestion, induced through procedures such as verbal guidance. It can alter perception, memory, and voluntary action without requiring sleep.

Hypnotic induction: A procedure that guides someone into a hypnotic state using focused attention and suggestion. It is the structured process commonly used to establish hypnosis.
Hypnotherapy: The use of hypnosis as part of psychological or medical treatment. It applies hypnotic procedures to treatment goals rather than experiments alone.
Sleep: A naturally recurring state of reduced responsiveness and altered brain activity. Despite its name and appearance, hypnosis is not a form of sleep.
Franz Mesmer: An eighteenth-century physician whose theory of animal magnetism inspired later practices associated with hypnosis. His demonstrations preceded the scientific study of hypnotic phenomena.
Altered state theory: The view that hypnosis involves a distinctive change in consciousness beyond ordinary waking processes. Whether hypnosis is a special state remains a central theoretical dispute.
Hypnotic suggestion: A verbal or nonverbal communication intended to produce an experience or response during hypnosis. Suggestions direct the perceptions and actions that make hypnosis observable.
Hypnosis for pain management: The use of hypnotic suggestions to reduce pain or distress associated with pain. Pain is among the best-studied clinical applications of hypnosis.
Placebo effect: A beneficial change in symptoms attributable to treatment context and expectation rather than a treatment's specific action. Expectation can shape both placebo responses and hypnotic experiences, but they are not identical.
Animal magnetism: A discredited theory that an invisible physical fluid could influence health and behavior. It was Mesmer's proposed mechanism for effects later explained through other accounts.
Non-state theory of hypnosis: The view that hypnotic responses arise from ordinary psychological processes rather than a distinct state. It challenges the claim that hypnosis requires a unique form of consciousness.

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