indirected

@indirected.bsky.social

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Hypnokinkster by nature, academic by training. 42, 🏳️‍🌈

Pre- and post-training stats for the experimental groups. CURSS is a 7-item scale. Objective scores reflect behavioural response (e.g. the subject's arm rose a certain amount) [7 pts], subjective scores report experienced response to suggestion (e.g. the subject's arm felt light) [21 pts; each item is scored between 0 and 3, 'not at all' to 'to a great degree'], and objective-involuntariness scores report successful behavioural responses that felt involuntary to the subject [7 pts]. In the main treatment group, "Information + Model," pre- and post-training averages increased greatly: objective scores, from 2.3 to 5.3; subjective scores, from 6.2 to 11.1; involuntariness scores, from 0.9 to 3.2. The control group did filler tasks for the same duration (objective scores fell 2.2 to 1.5), and the 'Practice alone' group just practiced more hypnotic suggestions for the same duration (objective scores unchanged).
Key: CURSS objective (e.g. subject's arm was raised), out of 7 pts. CURSS subjective (e.g. subject felt their arm to be lighter), out of 28 pts (for each item, 0 = "not at all" and 4 = "to a great degree"). Involuntariness (behavioural resp "seemed to happen by itself," or for challenge items "whether they could have done it if they wanted to"), out of 7 pts. Belief (subject reported believing e.g. their arm actually had become lighter), out of 7 pts. [Involuntariness and belief scores for items not behaviourally passed were set at 0.] Goal imagery (subject intentionally imagined e.g. their arm rising, or their arm being lighter), out of 24 pts (same scale as subj scores, but amnesia item was not scored). GDF is number of items reported using "any circumstances they imagined that, were they actually to have occurred, would have generated the suggested responses," out of 7 pts. [Goal imagery and GDF scores did not require items to be passed. GDF scores appear not to include failed attempts to generate imagery.] Passive resp means neither intentional imagery nor behaviour, out of 7 pts. Columns: "Instruction" is group with standard imagery wording, "No instruction" is group without imagery in suggestion scripts.
Distribution of CURSS scores using standard script (using imagery instructions) vs modified script (without imagery instructions). The means were 2.1 and 2.75, respectively. Total number of study participants was 259. CURSS [Carleton University Responsiveness to Suggestion Scale] has 7 items: 2 ideomotor, 2 challenge, 2 perceptual, 1 amnesia. One of the perceptual items is to pet a hallucinated kitten!
Spontaneous GDFs correlated with behavioural and subjective responses, involuntariness of response, and belief in the reality of suggestion contents. "Passive responding" means neither intentional imagery or voluntary behaviour. One possible reason for weak correlations is the presence of distinct subtypes of responders (eg, some people benefit from imagery and fantasy, but some people do not).
Script addition for 'reduced critical thought' group: "Some people find that they respond better to these tests when they avoid thinking critically. Allow yourself to let go completely... don't question what you're being asked to do and experience... just go with the flow...," etc.
Bar graph of changes in behavioural responses to 8 test suggestions before and after 3 different hypnotic inductions. The vertical axis here is mislabelled (it should read "Objective change").
The increased subjective scores in the experiential groups were also statistically larger than in the control group.
Subjects led to believe they'd experienced a perceptual hypnotic suggestion ('experiential' and 'combined') subsequently scored significantly higher on the Stanford C scale of hypnotic suggestibility.