The "Mysteries of Hypnosis:" Helping Us Better Understand Hypnosis and Empathic Involvement Theory (EIT).

A review article demonstrates that empathy is deeply involved in the psychology and neurophysiology of hypnosis and the self. Hypnosis is a subjective experience for both client and research participant. To better assess the mind during hypnosis, more precise phenomenological descriptors are needed. Noetics, defined as a method to comprehensively quantify the mind, can help understand hypnosis, empathic involvement theory, and the brain/mind/behavior interface, similar to how fMRI and qEEG quantify the brain.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Wickramasekera II (2015) has penned a comprehensive and thoughtful review article demonstrating how empathy is intimately involved in the psychology and neurophysiology of hypnosis and the self. Hypnosis is a very "mental" or subjective phenomenon for both the client and the research participant. To better assess the mind of the client/participant during hypnosis, it is my belief that we need to generate more "precise" phenomenological descriptors of the mind during hypnosis and related empathic conditions, as Wickramasekera II (2015) has suggested in his article. Although any phenomenological methodology will have its limits and disadvantages, noetics (as defined in the article below) can help us better understand hypnosis, empathic involvement theory, and the brain/mind/behavior interface. By quantifying the mind in a comprehensive manner, just as the brain is comprehensively quantified via fMRI and qEEG technologies, noetic analysis can help us more precisely assess the mind and relate it to the brain and human behavior and experience.