Journal of Clinical Hypnosis

American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 57: 330–348, 2015 Copyright © American Society of Clinical Hypnosis ISSN: 0002-9157 print / 2160-0562 online DOI: 10.1080/00029157.2014.978495

Mysteries of Hypnosis and the Self Are Revealed by the Psychology and Neuroscience of Empathy

Ian E. Wickramasekera II University of the Rockies, Denver, Colorado, USA

This article reviews a growing body of research and theory in hypnosis and neuroscience that sup- ports the empathic involvement theory (EIT) of hypnosis (Wickramasekera II, 2001; Wickramasekera II & Szlyk, 2003; Wickramasekera II, 2007c). The EIT is a unified transpersonal theory of hypnosis and the self, which weaves together empathic elements of Dzogchen, neodissociative, neuroscience, psychoanalytic, sociocognitive, and other theories by proposing that hypnotic phenomena are inher- ently characterized by their deep involvement with processes of empathy and the self. The EIT proposes that the experience of hypnosis is embodied in a system of neural networks in the brain that utilizes empathy-related processes, adaptive resonance between perceptual input and top-down expectancies, and connectionist learning algorithms to (a) empathically enact the affect, cognition, body language, response expectancies, social roles, sensations, etc. that are presented to them during hypnosis in accordance with socio-cognitive theories of hypnosis; (b) engage in a convergent psy- chophysiological relationship with another person in accordance with psychoanalytic, Ericksonian, and polyvagal/social engagement system theories; (c) alter the empathic self/other (theory of mind) coding of phenomenological experiences during hypnosis in accordance with aspects of the neo-dissociative and socio-cognitive traditions; and (d) develop an experiential understanding of the illusion of self that may lead, in some people, to its transcendence in accordance with Bon-Buddhist, Dzogchen, and transpersonal scholars. A unified definition of hypnosis is proposed based on find- ings in the empathic neuroscience of hypnosis as well as a working model of the neuromatrix of the self.

Keywords: consciousness, Dzogchen, empathy, hypnosis, neuroscience, self

Introduction: The Mysteries of Hypnosis and the Self

Researchers around the world have struggled for over 200 years to resolve a seemingly intractable debate about whether the nature of hypnosis (Forrest, 1999; Kirsch & Lynn, 1995; Pekala & Kumar, 2005) is primarily a social psychological related phenomenon or rather a special state of consciousness based on advanced mind/body and/or neu- ropsychological talents. This debate started from the earliest of times in the history of hypnosis (Bernheim, 1891; Faria, 1819) and has been particularly vexing to resolve

Address correspondence to Ian E. Wickramasekera II, University of the Rockies, School of Professional Psychology, 1201 16th Street, Suite 200, Denver, CO 80202, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

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due to the impressive amount of evidence that each theoretical camp has produced. For instance, there are a number of impressive studies that seem to indicate that the effects of the hypnotic state can be reliably measured phenomenologically (Pekala & Kumar, 2000, 2005; Sheehan, 1992) and even indexed psychophysiologically (Barabasz & Barabasz, 2008; McGeown, Mazzoni, Venneri, & Kirsch, 2009). Meanwhile, a sep- arate tradition of research has produced an equally impressive amount of evidence that indicates how expectation, context, and other social psychological factors influence hyp- notic subjects to genuinely enact the role of being hypnotized as a kind of believed-in imagining (Kirsch & Lynn, 1995; Kirsch, Mazzoni, & Montgomery, 2007; Sarbin, 1950, 1998). Any theory of hypnosis that wishes to resolve its central mysteries must at least account for and integrate these two strong traditions of hypnosis in some way (Pekala & Kumar, 2005).

Meanwhile, questions regarding the true nature of the self that human beings seem to inherently experience has been debated in folklore, philosophy, religion, science, and various traditions of wisdom for millennia (Wickramasekera II, 2014). There is evi- dence from the earliest times in civilization that our ancestors struggled with questions about whether the sense of identity or self that we experience was singular or plural in nature, eternal or transitory, or perhaps a mere illusion or a distortion of our true nature (Wickramasekera II, 2014). For example, many mystical traditions that practice techniques of meditation, such as mindfulness and Dzogchen, have asserted that the self is very illusory in nature (Wangyal, 2011) and that techniques of meditation can help one to experience the true nature of our mind. Questions about whether the nature of human identity was singular or plural were also immediately present in the early history of hypnosis when researchers discovered that some of their hypnotic subjects appeared to evidence other parts of themselves or ego states that could be contacted during hyp- notic experiments and psychotherapy (Faria, 1819; Hilgard, 1977; Watkins & Watkins, 1997). More recently, participants in studies conducted by Amanda Barnier and her col- leagues (Barnier, Cox, Connors, Langdon, & Coltheart, 2010; Cox & Barnier, 2010, 2013) have shown that people experiencing hypnosis can even have the ability to con- vincingly transform their identity into that of another person to such a degree that they no longer demonstrate signs of self-recognition when shown the image of their face in a mirror.

I wish to explore a theory in this article in which I assert that these mysteries of hypnosis and the self can be explained by a close examination of how empathy and its embodiment in the mind and brain influence them both. Overall, I have termed my theory the empathic involvement theory (EIT: Wickramasekera II & Szlyk, 2003; Wickramasekera II, 2007b, 2007c) for its characterization of the ubiquitous way in which empathy is involved with hypnotic phenomena and the creation and mainte- nance of the self. The EIT defines hypnosis as an experience of enhanced empathy and phenomenological alteration with the self in which a hypnotic subject utilizes

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perspective taking, empathic concern, and empathic aspects of theory of mind (TOM) to experience alterations in affect, behavior, consciousness, sensation, thoughts, and mind/body relationship that are suggested to him/her by a hypnotist and/or through his/her own creative and imaginative directions. This definition of hypnosis asserts that hypnosis is a consequence of the empathic nature of human beings and the processes of self/other that underlie how we experience the world. This article will examine the evi- dence and theory behind the EIT beginning with the life experiences that first led me to develop this theory, and will commence with an examination of how the EIT can bridge the gap between the social cognitive and special state theories of hypnosis by grounding them both in the psychology and neuroscience of empathy. Along the way, the theoreti- cal implications of the EIT will also be discussed for other theories of hypnosis, finishing with some glimpses at what might lie beyond the self.

Empathy and Hypnosis: Original Observations

I first developed the ideas in the Empathic Involvement Hypothesis about 15 years ago after my own chance observation that many people gifted with high hypnotic ability seemed to be very empathic (Wickramasekera II, 2001; Wickramasekera II & Szlyk, 2003). I have had the good fortune to be able to work with hundreds of high hyp- notizables in clinical and experimental settings and have often been struck with how empathic they were in and outside of hypnosis. I was also fascinated with quite a num- ber of experiences that I have had in psychotherapy in which hypnotic-like (Krippner, 2005) experiences of trance seemed to spontaneously emerge while I was utilizing tech- niques of therapeutic empathy through following the traditions of humanistic psychology (Rogers, 1957). I often find that it is possible for me to become so empathically entranced in a client’s inner world that we both lose track of time in the session. Somehow the flow of time seems to have been altered and slowed in these moments by the empathic bond that we share. This experience of time alteration in deep empathic moments seems very related to experiences of time distortion that I have experienced in hypnosis (Cooper & Erickson, 2002; Pekala & Kumar, 2000).

These early experiences collectively suggested that there was something about empa- thy that was powerful enough to alter the experience of consciousness, as if empathy could create spontaneous hypnotic-like experiences by itself. It was at this time that I initially developed the EIT, which proposes the idea that hypnosis is an inherently empathy-laden experience and that high hypnotizables use their empathic talents to adapt to the perspective, expectations, imagery, emotions, and body language that their hypnotist presents to them using hypnotic induction procedures and hypnotic sugges- tions (Wickramasekera II, 2001). I later discovered that a number of theorists had previously proposed empathy-related ideas about hypnosis, which will now be briefly reviewed.

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Empathy and Hypnosis: Socio-Cognitive Perspectives

Theodore Sarbin (1911–2005), who was one of the great founders of the socio-cognitive tradition of hypnosis, developed a theory that hypnotic phenomena were produced by the hypnotic subject’s adoption of what he/she thought the role of a hypnotic subject should be (Sarbin, 1950). Sarbin’s theory has sometimes been misinterpreted by some to mean that hypnosis is a faked behavior, while in actuality, Sarbin’s intention was to describe the genuineness of the hypnotic role as a believed-in imagining (Sarbin, 1998). Sarbin (1956) touched upon the value of empathy in his theory when he noted that some peo- ple seemed to have greater accuracy in their role-taking aptitude than others, which also allowed them to experience hypnosis with greater intensity. Role-taking ability has been identified in social psychological research as one of the most important individual dif- ferences between people in their capacity for empathy and is more generally referred to as perspective-taking in the modern literature of social psychology (Davis, 1983, 1994).

I have previously hypothesized that processes of empathy may account for how hyp- nosis is affected by various social psychological interventions (Wickramasekera II, 2001, 2003, 2007c) designed to define the role of a hypnotic subject (Sarbin, 1950; Spanos, 1996) and/or the response expectancies of the person experiencing hypnosis (Kirsch & Council, 1989). For instance, a number of experiments have demonstrated that a person’s prior expectation that he/she will be able to experience hypnotic phenomena is moder- ately to highly correlated with his/her subsequently measured hypnotic ability (Council, 1999). Another classic experiment by Glass and Barber (1961) demonstrated that it was even possible to induce an experience of hypnosis in subjects by merely administering a placebo pill to a person who had been previously led to expect that the pill could induce a hypnotic trance. In general, there is excellent evidence for the socio-cognitive assertion that people’s roles, expectations, and attitudes tend to mediate the experiences that they have in hypnosis (Council, 1999).