Acting as if you are hypnotized, Spanos, N.P. (1982) Essay

Acting as if you are hypnotized, Spanos, N.P. (1982) - Essay Example He believes that under hypnosis, a person is highly susceptible to suggestion, performs behaviors involuntarily, exhibits heightened recall of memories, has more vivid imagination, has the ability to dissociate consciousness of certain events from others and a lowered sensitivity to pain. Hypnosis makes one produce thoughts, ideas and behaviors which would not be usually exhibited had the person not been under that hypnotic state. Such a view has been subscribed to by a lot of people who put much faith on the hypnosis phenomenon. Of course, although many can attest to the existence of its evidence in their lives, it is still subject to scientific research to prove it. Without intending to dampen the strong advocacies of hypnosis believers, Nicholas Spanos has disputed this widely accepted view. He claims that hypnotized people are exhibiting behavior which is just like any social behavior, and negates the view that it is involuntary. Rather, consciously or not, it is strategic and goal-oriented. Such behavior is dramatic enough to produce a desired effect. In essence, he says that instead of an altered state of consciousness, hypnosis is a state of increased motivation. People under hypnosis are under the expectation that their behaviors will soon be involuntary as they relinquish control of them and agree to go under the hypnotic trance. However, Spanos argues that the behavior suggested by the person conducting the hypnosis is voluntary at first, and is eventually made to sound more involuntary. Since the hypnotized person is in an increased state of motivation, the suggestion is easily taken and what he hears as a command will seem to him as involuntary. Spanos explains that it is because the person enters the hypnosis with the intention to be controlled by the hypnotist’s suggestions. He also expects that the hypnosis has more power than his own will to