Theodore X. Barber

The Barber Suggestibility Scale and the Creative Imagination Scale: experimental and clinical applications.

Abstract With regard to both the Barber Suggestibility Scale (BSS) and the Creative Imagination Scale (CIS), this paper discusses why and how they were constructed, how they have been used in the past, and how they will probably be used in the future. The paper also presents norms for both scales and data pertaining to their reliability and validity. To make the scales readily available for researchers and clinicians, all of the BSS and all of the CIS, together with scoring criteria, are presented in two appendices.

Hypnosis, suggestions, and psychosomatic phenomena: a new look from the standpoint of recent experimental studies.

Abstract A series of investigations are reviewed which indicate that suggestion (a) can block the skin reaction (dermatitis) that is produced by poison ivy-like plants, (b) can give rise to a localized skin inflammation that has the specific pattern of a previously experienced burn, (c) can be effective in the cure of warts, (d) can ameliorate congenital ichthyosiform erythrodermia (“fish skin disease”), and (e) can stimulate the enlargement of the mammary glands in adult women. Experiments are also summarized supporting the hypothesis that the aforementioned suggested phenomena may be due, in part, to localized alterations in blood flow to the skin and other organs that can occur when certain types of suggestions are accepted.

Hypnotic procedures and surgery: a critical analysis with applications to "acupuncture analgesia".

Abstract Although hypnotic procedures are useful for reducing the anxiety of surgery and helping patients tolerate surgery, they do not consistently eliminate pain. Six factors that are part of or associated with hypnotic procedures help patients tolerate surgery. These factors pertain to patient selection, the patient-physician relationship, the preoperative ‘education’ of the patient, the adjunctive use of drugs, and the use of suggestions of analgesia and distraction. It appears that the same factors account for the apparent successes of “acupuncture analgesia” as well. A frequently-overlooked fact, that most internal tissues and organs of the body do not hurt when they are cut by the surgeons scalpel, is also important in understanding how surgery can be performed with either “hypnoanesthesia” or “acupuncture analgesia.”

A Theory of Hypnotic Induction Procedures

Abstract The first part of the paper delineates nine variables in hypnotic induction procedures that give rise to heightened responsiveness to test-suggestions: (a) defining the situation as hypnosis; (b) removing fears and misconceptions; (c) securing cooperation; (d) asking the subject to keep his eyes closed; (e) suggesting relaxation, sleep, and hypnosis; (f) maximizing the phrasing and vocal characteristics of suggestions; (g) coupling suggestions with naturally-occurring events; (h) stimulating goal-directed imagining; and (i) preventing or reinterpreting the failure of suggestions. Data are presented to support the theory that the nine variables augment responsiveness to test-suggestions by giving rise to positive attitudes, motivations, and expectancies which, in turn, tend to produce a willingness to think with and vividly imagine those things that are suggested. The second part of the paper specifies situational variables and variables involved in induction procedures that produce a trance-like ...

Two Attempts to Replicate the Parrish-Lundy-Leibowitz Experiment on Hypnotic Age Regression

Abstract Parrish, Lundy, and Leibowitz (1968, 1969) reported that hypnotic regression to ages nine and five reinstates perceptual functions (as measured by the Ponzo and Poggendorff illusions) which are actually present during childhood. Two studies are presented which failed to cross-validate the results of Parrish et al. The failures to confirm the earlier results may be due to the fact that adults and nine year old children, and also nine year old children and five year old children, show a very large overlap in their actual (normative) scores on both the Ponzo and Poggendorff illusions.

Hypnotic Suggestions for Blister Formation: Subjective and Physiological Effects

Abstract The influence of hypnotic suggestions for blister formation on subsequent physiological and subjective responses was investigated. After the administration of a formal hypnotic induction procedure, each of 40 adult subjects was given (a) the suggestion that the back of one hand had been burned accidentally and (b) repeated suggestions that a blister was forming there. Although no blisters were evident as a result of this procedure, two of the subjects exhibited skin changes. Localized inflammation and swelling of the skin observed in one subject was attributed to self-injury. Localized inflammation observed in the other subject was interpreted as having a possible relationship to a genuine skin injury that the subject had suffered in the past. It was suggested that future research focus on the assessment of subjects with either (a) highly sensitive skin, or (b) a previous history of skin injury relevant to blister formation.

Yoga, "yogic feats," and hypnosis in the light of empirical research.

Abstract Both yoga and hypnosis have been commonly thought to involve altered states of consciousness and to give rise to unusual phenomena. However, empirical studies reviewed in this paper indicate the following: (a) Since the hypothesized altered states (yogic samadhi and hypnotic trance) have not as yet been adequately denoted, they cannot, at present, be viewed as scientific concepts, (b) The observable phenomena that are popularly associated with the term yoga (e.g., fire-walking, burial-alive, lying-on-nails, and voluntary control over autonomic functions) and with the term hypnosis (e.g., hallucinations, age-regression, amnesia, and the human-plank feat) are quite different from what they seem to be superficially; are not mysterious at all; and are readily explainable. A methodological critique of studies in these areas is presented and suggestions are made for further research.