Abstract

PARRA, Alejandro  and  ARGIBAY, Juan Carlos. Analysis of the interaction between Hypnotic Susceptibility and Dissociative Experiences in a Population reporting spontaneous paranormal experiences. Interam. j. psychol. [online]. 2006, vol.40, n.2, pp. 233-240. ISSN 0034-9690.

There are reliable statistical relationships between hypnotic susceptibility, psychological dissociation, and paranormal experiences. We hypothesized that subjects with greatest hypnotic susceptibility would report the most paranormal experiences. Similarly, we expected that persons with the most dissociative experiences would report the most paranormal experiences. We also hoped to find interactions between hypnotic susceptibility and dissociation with paranormal experiences. We administered the Anomalous Experiences Inventory (AEI), the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) and the Harvard Group Scale (HGS) of hypnotic susceptibility to 67 subjects (73.1% female, 26.9% male), believers in a variety of paranormal events and motivated by their own experiences. A factor analysis showed an interaction between hypnotic susceptibility and dissociation. In subjects with little hypnotic susceptibility we found that dissociation strongly favored paranormal experiences. However, for those subjects scoring medium and medium-high on hypnotic susceptibility, the effect of dissociation was lost. In highly susceptible subjects, the effect was even reversed. Subjects scoring low and medium-low on dissociation but high on hypnotic susceptibility reported more paranormal experiences (r= .458). Subjects scoring high or medium-high on dissociation but high on hypnotic susceptibility reported fewer paranormal experiences (r= .358).

Keywords : Hypnosis; Paranormal experiences; Dissociative patterns.

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