Perhaps hypnosis is just role-playing?
A. Some theorists say that people think or do things in hypnosis because it’s expected of them and by them. They are fulfilling a role. They want to please the hypnotist. So there’s no altered state of consciousness, there’s simply a motivation to act as though hypnotised. This theory might hold for stage performances and the like but can hardly apply to surgery. Thousands of hypnotised persons have benefited from operations with no chemical anasthetic.
