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Altering States of Consciousness
Pages 207-248

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From page 207...
... Yet, in contrast, an individual in an altered state of consciousness may be more aware of events than usual or otherwise able to transcend the limits of normal voluntary control. In this respect, altered states of consciousness are relevant to enhancing human performance.
From page 208...
... Chief among these is hypnosis, a technique that has been widely used in attempts to enhance human performance. We also discuss restricted environmental stimulation and update the committee's previous reviews of sleep learning and meditation (see Druckman and Swets, 1988:Ch.4; Druckman and Bjork, 199 1 :Ch.7)
From page 209...
... The most important finding from 100 years of formal research is that there are wide individual differences in response to hypnotic suggestions (Hilgard, 1965~. These differences are measured by standardized scales of hypnotizability such as the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, which are constructed as work-samples of hypnotic performance.
From page 210...
... as one of the five major dimensions of personality but a dimension that had been largely ignored in earlier psychometric work on individual differences (for a review, see Glisky et al., 1991~. Although we have characterized hypnosis as a social interaction, involving a hypnotist and a subject, it should be understood that in a very real sense all hypnosis is self-hypnosis (L.
From page 211...
... found that more than half of a group of hypnotizable children experienced palpable relief of pain during bone-marrow aspirations for treatment of leukemia; none of the insusceptible children did so.i The comparative effectiveness of hypnotic analgesia was evaluated in a provocative study conducted by Stern and his associates (Stern et al., 1977) , who exposed volunteer subjects to both the ischemic pain induced when blood-flow to the forearm is cut off by a tourniquet and the cold-pressor pain induced by immersion of the forearm in cold water (both are excellent laboratory analogues of clinical pain)
From page 212...
... argue that hypnotic analgesia is mediated by self-distraction, stress-inoculation, reinterpretation, and other tension-management techniques. Their research indicates that successful response to hypnotic suggestions is often accompanied by the deliberate use of cognitive strategies, such as distraction or pleasant imagery.
From page 213...
... found that stress inoculation techniques, as practiced by both hypnotizable and insusceptible subjects, distracted subjects from performance on a simultaneous cognitive task; however, such interference did not occur in the hypnosis condition, especially among the high hypnotizables. Thus, while stress inoculation does appear to be effective in reducing pain, it does not seem to be involved in the hypnotic analgesia experienced by hypnotizable subjects.
From page 214...
... Even if hypnotic suggestion does not enhance human performance per se, hypnotic analgesia appears to offer some promise for regulating pain and, thus, indirectly enhancing performance in those individuals who have a capacity for hypnosis. Strength and Endurance Almost from the beginning of the modern period of research, there have been claims that hypnotized individuals are able to transcend their normal nonhypnotized capacities, showing dramatic improvements in muscle strength, sensory acuity, intelligence, and even clairvoyance.
From page 215...
... All of the subjects were able to surpass their hypnotic performance when appropriately motivated in the normal waking state.
From page 216...
... introduced the task-motivation design, in which hypnotized subjects are compared to controls who have been exhorted to give maximal performance in the normal waking state. The "task-motivation" instructions employed by T
From page 217...
... That is, differences in responses to hypnotic suggestions may be an artifact of differences in expectations related to self-perceptions of hypnotizability. They invented a way of convincing insusceptible subjects that they were, in fact, hypnotizable (Slotnick and London, 1965:401.
From page 218...
... That is, the key to hypnotic enhancement of human performance may lie not in the ability of hypnotic suggestions to passively augment performance, but rather in the interaction of involving suggestions to interact with the capacity for absorption and imagining characteristics of hypnotizable individuals. In the absence of a definitive study, however, the conclusion about the hypnotic enhancement of muscular performance must be negative: hypnotized subjects, even those who are highly hypnotizable, do not appear to be capable of exceeding the performance of highly motivated unhypnotized subjects.
From page 219...
... Jean, 1989~. A rather different approach to the question has been taken by investigators who have offered subjects direct suggestions for improved learning, without reference to time distortion or hallucinated practice (e.g., Fowler, 1961; Parker and Barber, 19643.
From page 220...
... Measures of rote learning show similar results (Evans and Orne, 1965; London et al., 1966; Rosenhan and London, 1963; Schulman and London, 19634. Thus, the available evidence suggests that hypnotic suggestions do not enhance the learning process.
From page 221...
... In their first study (Scharf and Zamansky, 1963) , these investigators obtained a significant reduction in sensory thresholds for subjects who received hypnotic suggestions and a smaller reduction for subjects who received waking suggestions.
From page 222...
... Although these results are not clear-cut for example, response criterion did not show a comparable shift in the other direction when hypnotizable subjects were given suggestions for decreased sensitivity-they do underscore the problem of response bias in tests of the hypnotic enhancement of performance. Although hypnosis does not appear to enhance the performance of people whose sensory and perceptual abilities are intact, it may have positive effects on those whose capacities are impaired.
From page 223...
... found that the prospective estimations of hypnotizable subjects were no more accurate in hypnosis than in the normal waking state. Overall, the experimental literature, which is somewhat sparse, has yielded a mix of results that tend to support negative conclusions (for a recent review, see St.
From page 224...
... For example, Young (1925, 1926) taught his subjects lists of nonsense syllables in the normal waking state and then tested recall in and out of hypnosis, each time motivating subjects for maximal recall.
From page 225...
... , for example, hypnosis produced a substantial increase in confabulation over the normal waking state, so that overall memory accuracy was very poor. The hypnotized subjects were apparently more willing to attempt recall and to accept their "memories"however erroneous they proved to be.
From page 226...
... found that subjects tested during hypnosis were more confident in their memory reports than were those tested in the normal waking state-regardless of the accuracy of the reports. The situation is worsened when the suggestions are more explicit, as in the case of hypnotically suggested paramnesias a confusion of fact and fantasy (for a recent review, see Kihlstrom and Hoyt, 1990~.
From page 227...
... But the experimenter in question knew the answers to the questions as they were asked: when the experimenter is kept blind to the correct answer, response levels fall to chance (O'Connell et al., 1970~. In general, when the testing environment is controlled in such a manner as to eliminate potentially informative cues, there is no evidence that age regression can enhance memory for past experiences.
From page 228...
... The inherent unreliability of hypnotically elicited memoriesthe difficulty of distinguishing between illusion and reality, the susceptibility of hypnotically refreshed memory to distortion by inadvertent suggestion, and the tendency of subjects to enhance the credibility of memories produced through hypnosis creates problems in the courtroom or in any environment in which the factual accuracy of hypnotically refreshed memory is critical (Orne et al., 1984, 1988~.6 For these reasons, and in response to a number of cases that were prosecuted on the basis of evidence that later proved to be incorrect, both the medical establishment (American Medical Association, 1985) and the courts have begun to establish guidelines for the introduction and evaluation of hypnotically elicited memories.
From page 229...
... 229 Because these standards are difficult to meet, and because of the continuing legal controversy attached to forensic hypnosis, investigators are advised to confine their use of hypnosis to the gathering of investigative leads. Under these circumstances, hypnotically refreshed memories are not introduced into evidence, and cases are based solely on independently verifiable evidence.
From page 230...
... In either form, it seems clear that the disciplined practice of meditation might have positive effects on human performance. Accordingly, the committee's second report, In the Mind's Eye (Druckman and Bjork, 1991)
From page 231...
... Even with this narrow focus, however, the task is daunting: one collection of papers pertaining to TM, entitled Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Program, contains 430 articles in 5 volumes. Accordingly, this section focuses only on the studies summarized in three published meta-analyses of the effects of TM: on physiological arousal (Dillbeck and Orme-Johnson, 1987~; on relaxation and anxiety (Eppley et al., 19899; and self-actualization and psychological health (Alexander et al., 1991~.
From page 232...
... The regular achievement of this state of contentless awareness, through TM, is held to have a wide variety of beneficial effects for the person.' The practice of TM is based on a classification of consciousness into seven qualitatively distinct states, including the waking, sleeping, and dreaming familiar in ordinary life, but also extending to four other states that may be achieved as a result of the disciplined practice of meditation: transcendental consciousness reflects the temporary breakdown of the usual cognitive boundaries between the knower, the object of knowledge, and the process of knowing; cosmic consciousness is achieved when transcendental consciousness becomes a permanent feature of mental life, maintained not only in waking but also in sleeping and dreaming; refined cosmic consciousness entails the further breakdown of the distinction between self and object, although there is still some residual awareness of self; finally, unity consciousness involves the complete disintegration of the sense of self and of any boundary between the individual and the universe. In developing TM as a "science of creative intelligence," Maharishi and his disciples have sought to connect the rather obscure (to a Westerner)
From page 233...
... , there were also significant baseline differences between meditators and nonmeditators, indicating that subjects who were experienced in meditation showed lower levels of arousal even when they were not meditating. Unfortunately, this conclusion is somewhat weakened by a crucial design feature of the research: in most of the studies reviewed, there is a confounding of subjects and experimental conditions in that experienced meditators are placed in the meditation condition, while subjects in the rest condition have no experience with the technique.
From page 234...
... The consequences of this confounding problem are twofold: it is possible that experienced meditators would show decreases in physiological arousal during an eyes-closed rest period, without meditating, that are similar to those shown when they are actually meditating; alternatively, it is possible that subjects who had practiced eyes-closed rest (i.e., without meditating, for 20 minutes a day, twice a day, for 15-24 months would show decreases in physiological arousal during an eyes-closed rest period that are comparable to those shown by the meditators during meditation. Comparisons of this sort may be impossible experienced meditators may find it difficult to rest with their eyes closed without slipping into meditation, and individuals who routinely practice eyes-closed rest may be hard to find.
From page 235...
... Concluding Comment In undertaking even its limited review of the literature on TM (limited to a focus on those effects on human performance that have received the
From page 236...
... RESTRICTED ENVIRONMENTAL STIMULATION (REST) REST refers to a set of techniques aimed at reducing the level of environmental stimulation to a practicable minimum.
From page 237...
... To the contrary, this research has revealed that most people find restricted environmental stimulation to be an interesting, pleasant, and relaxing experience and that REST techniques may aid in the treatment of a broad spectrum of clinical disorders, particularly those related to stress or addictive behaviors (see Suedfeld and Borrie, 1993; Suedfeld and Kristeller, 1982~. This suggests that REST, far from being a laboratory model of psychosis, may be used to enhance human performance in a number of domains.
From page 238...
... A potentially more interesting and informative approach to understanding the cognitive effects of REST concerns the idea that under restricted environmental circumstances patterns of thought become more flexible and inwardly focused. This idea derives from basic research indicating that REST reduces a person's resistance to counter-attitudinal information (Suedfeld, 1980)
From page 239...
... One possible explanation of the contradictory findings relates to whether or not subjects are constrained to channel their cognitive resources on problems or ideas that are not of their own choosing. Although the deep sense of relaxation most people experience during REST (especially of the flotation variety)
From page 240...
... Performance scores averaged across these three meets, and the subject's responses to a checklist of physical symptoms or complaints administered at the conclusion of the study, served as the dependent measures. The results showed that subjects given the imagery-plusREST treatment attained a significantly higher performance score (regardless of their skill level)
From page 241...
... and coaches' subjective ratings.9 In comparison with the control subjects, REST subjects achieved a significantly higher composite score, and were rated by their coaches as being better in terms of passing and shooting, but not in terms of dribbling, defense, or all-around ability. In each of the four studies just noted, REST was always applied in tandem with imagery training.
From page 242...
... The REST subjects outperformed the relaxation subjects in a subsequent test of rifle-shot accuracy, as scored by ROTC instructors (who were blind to the experimental condition)
From page 243...
... Reports of successful sleep learning also filtered out of the former Soviet Union and countries of Eastern Europe during the Cold War. Yet, most formal studies of sleep learning have yielded negative results, and most instances of positive findings were either anecdotal in nature or marred by the absence of proper controls or inadequate psychophysiological monitoring of sleep (for reviews, see Aarons, 1977; Eich, 19909.
From page 244...
... But the fact remains that on the psychophysiological evidence, the subjects who responded to the sleep suggestion might well have been at least partially awake. If so, then the studies of sleep suggestion do not count as evidence for sleep learning after all.
From page 245...
... . Those in the normal waking state showed clear priming effects, in that they were more likely to spell previously presented homophones in accordance with the context word (see Eich, 1984)
From page 246...
... First, there is no reason to believe that sleep learning, even if it is possible, is anywhere near as efficient as learning in the normal waking state. Sleeping subjects, and those who are on the margins of wakefulness, may be unable to perform the elaborative and organizational activity necessary for good learning.
From page 247...
... However, even individuals who are not hypnotizable may receive some benefit from the placebo component in hypnotic analgesia or from training in nonhypnotic stress inoculation. By and large, direct hypnotic suggestions for enhanced performance have no effect on muscular strength and endurance, sensory thresholds, learning, and memory retrieval.
From page 248...
... It has been suggested that acupuncture is just a peculiarly Chinese form of hypnosis, or that hypnotic analgesia is just a placebo. If this were so, we would expect that response to acupuncture, or placebo, would be a function of hypnotizability.


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