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Hypnotic Susceptibility increased by EEG Alpha Training

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Abstract

MORE than a decade of research on hypnotic susceptibility and its correlates has demonstrated repeatedly the stability of the phenomenon, its independence from standard tests of suggestibility and of personality, and its relative imperviousness to most efforts to manipulate it, in particular to increase it1,2. Several recent studies have shown, however, that hypnotic susceptibility is significantly correlated with brain wave activity, including the duration of electroencephalogram (EEG) alpha rhythms3–5. Other studies have shown that the production of alpha rhythms can be systematically increased by teaching subjects to accommodate their subjective mental states to sustained auditory feedback signals which indicate the continuous manifestation of this rhythm6,7.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southern California,

    DAVID R. ENGSTROM & PERRY LONDON

  2. University of California, Irvine

    JOSEPH T. HART

Authors
  1. DAVID R. ENGSTROM
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  2. PERRY LONDON
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  3. JOSEPH T. HART
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ENGSTROM, D., LONDON, P. & HART, J. Hypnotic Susceptibility increased by EEG Alpha Training. Nature 227, 1261–1262 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1038/2271261a0

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