The magic of hypnosis: is it child's play?

Abstract

Hypnosis is often disregarded and undervalued because it cannot be currently explained by natural science or scientific method. An alternative existential psychology paradigm, specifically an existential-phenomenological model, is offered here to close the gap between the theoretical and the actual clinical practice of hypnosis. This existential-phenomenological model emphasizes the individual's experience over any preconceived notions or diagnoses. In this context, the author introduces and discusses the idea that perception prefigures embodiment, creating the power of suggestion. And children's greater overall hypnotic susceptibility is explained as a result of natural unbiased observations of the world, free of the mind-body split that adults apply to perception.