Beginning of Essay
, is an altered state of consciousness and heightened responsiveness to suggestion; it may be induced in normal people by a variety of methods and has been used in medical and psychiatric treatment. Most frequently hypnosis is brought about through the actions of ....

Middle of Essay
.... When a hypnotist induces a trance, a close relationship or rapport develops between operator and subject. The responses of subjects in the trance state, and the phenomena or behavior they manifest objectively, are the product of their motivational set; that is, behavior reflects what is being sought from the experience. Most people can be easily hypnotized. The depth of trance, however, will vary from a light state close to waking, to a profound state of somnambulism. A profound trance is characterized by a forgetting of trance events and by an ability to respond automatically to posthypnotic suggestions that are not too anxiety-provoking. The depth ....