Can hypnotizability be modified?
In spite of the fact that hypnotizability frequently remains constant over time, the capacity to be hypnotized can be changed to some degree with specific training of various kinds. The most general requisite capacity, as we saw in the description of the FPP above is the ability to focus concentration internally and become extremely absorbed in imaginative activity. One general review of this work can be found in Michael Diamond’s “Modification of hypnotizability: A review,” in Psychological Bulletin, 81: 180-198. Diamond examines several experiments where music, silence, psychedelic drugs, biofeedback, sensory deprivation, hypnotic behavioral training, operant conditioning, and relaxation training were used to attempt to modify response to hypnosis. Another review can be found in Wicramasekera’s 1976, Biofeedback, Behavior Therapy, and Hypnosis, which proposes that imagination training, suggestions for adventurousness, use of psychedelic drugs, sensory deprivation, and biofeedback tra
