AP PSYCHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Over the years, researchers have proposed that hypnosis is a mental state characterized by reduced peripheral awareness and increased focus on a singular stimulus, which results in an enhanced susceptibility to suggestion (Kihlstrom, 2003).

Detailed explanation-2: -Hypnosis can be seen as ‘a waking state of awareness, (or consciousness), in which a person’s attention is detached from his or her immediate environment and is absorbed by inner experiences such as feelings, cognition and imagery’.

Detailed explanation-3: -Individuals vary in their susceptibility to hypnosis, a variability often attributed to differences in attentional functioning such as greater ability to filter irrelevant information and inhibit prepotent responses.

Detailed explanation-4: -Hypnosis has the power to alter both body and mind and people experience an altered state of consciousness during this phenomenon.

Detailed explanation-5: -The Four States of Consciousness-Beyond the Waking State Mandukya Upanishad is the source of the Hindu revelations about the Four States of Consciousness and defines these states as waking, dreaming, deep sleep, and turya (the fourth state, which is the state of enlightenment).