More Than “Somnambulism”

Abstract

Abstract Transcendent/mystical experiences have been reported within the hypnotic context from its inception as “animal magnetism/mesmerism. Research on spontaneous experiences during hypnosis and minimal suggestion/neutral hypnosis evidence that such experiences are not an artifact of implicit or explicit hypnotic suggestions but may occur spontaneously when some individuals focus on their inner experience. This chapter offers a brief history of mystical and other anomalous experiences within the context of animal magnetism and later hypnosis, and reviews the research on such experiences occurring spontaneously or after specific suggestions. It also discusses how similar phenomena arising from hypnotic and other contexts such as psychedelic ingestion, meditation, and shamanism point to a common core of transcendent experiences. These are likely to later give rise to religious/spiritual beliefs rather than being their product. A major contribution of hypnosis to the study of transcendent experiences has been to highlight the importance of individual differences, because some people are more likely to have such experiences than others, and to alert researchers to the potential effect of explicit and implicit suggestions.