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American Journal of Clinical

Hypnosis
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Theoretical Substantiation of Deep

Hypnosis
a
Vladimir L. Raikov M.D.
a
Psychoneurological Hospital , Moscow, U.S.S.R.
Published online: 20 Sep 2011.

To cite this article: Vladimir L. Raikov M.D. (1975) Theoretical Substantiation

of Deep Hypnosis, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 18:1, 23-27, DOI:
10.1080/00029157.1975.10403766

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 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CLINICAL HYPNOSIS
Volume 18, Number I, July 1975
Printed in U.S.A.

Theoretical Substantiation of Deep Hypnosis 1,2

VLADIMIR L. RAIKOV, M.D.

Psychoneurological Hospital
Moscow, U.S.S.R.

Under certain conditions, hypnosis may assist the activation of a person's latent
creative potentials. This may be due to a blocking of access to information and
memory during a person's state of consciousness, which is unblocked during
hypnotically-induced altered states.
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Much has been written about latent po- bulism raises the possibility of using hyp-
tentials and reserve abilities of human be- nosis more extensively in educational and
ings. The majority of scientists who ac- psychological settings. Hypnosis is also a
knowledge the existence of these latent po- valuable technique for studying cognitive
tentials point out the nearly insuperable dif- processes, psychological and physiological
ficulties that interfere with the realization correlates of awareness, and various
of the abilities. However, hypnosis may be alterations in consciousness.
able to facilitate the development of these
capacities in the case of some people. Two VIEWS OF HYPNOSIS
Experiments involving deep hypnosis
have demonstrated that the function of For the last several years the nature of
memory can improve between 150 and 200 hypnosis has been widely debated. While
per cent over that manifested in the ordi- many theoretical perspectives have been of-
nary waking state (Raikov, 1969). In other fered, there are two which stand out:
experiments, creative activity was evoked 1. Hypnosis as an altered physiological
under active hypnotic somnambulism, state, similar to sleep.
which continued to develop once the sub- 2. Hypnosis as a social, psychological
jects returned to ordinary wakefulness. phenomena involving role-playing, im-
The successful technique of suggesting agination, and responsiveness to the de-
an active image during hypnotic somnam- mand characteristics of the interpersonal
situation.
The first point of view is held by most of
1 This paper was originally delivered at a meeting our Soviet scientists, whose ideas are based
of the U.S.S.R. Scientific Medical Society of on the well known theories of Pavlov. In
Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists, Moscow, 1972.
It was edited by David Van Nuys and further tran- brief, Pavlov suggests that the hypnotic
scribed by J. L. Hickman, both of the Department of state is due to selective and partial cortical
Psychology, California State College, Sonoma. inhibition, a kind of limited sleep. The sec-
2 An account of Dr. Raikov's hypnotic techniques ond viewpoint is espoused mostly by
is given by two observers, Stanley Krippner and American investigators. It should be men-
Richard Davidson. Their article appeared in Saturday
Review, March 18, 1972, and also inAnnual Readings tioned that often both Soviet and American
in Psychology, 1972-1973, Guilford, Conn.: Dushkin scientists use the same data to support their
Publishing Group, 1972. pp. 121-125. positions.
23
 24 RAIKOV

Taking into consideration many of the HYPNOSIS: SLEEP, DREAM, OR

problems relating to hypnosis, we have WAKING STATE?
proceeded to assume that hypnotic It should be noted that we do not un-
phenomena are sufficiently diverse and conditionally consider hypnosis to be
complex that both viewpoints may have dream-like. Although hypnosis often is ex-
something to offer. Any definition of hyp- perienced as dream-like, it should not be
nosis should take into account modern confused with an actual, natural dream.
neurophysiological information as well as One should consider the possibility that
recent experiments which are not yet very thermal, electrical, or electrostatic fields
well known. The hypnotic process can be may to some extent promote the beginning
divided into several complex stages: of the passive inhibiting state under certain
1. The induction of the hypnotic condi- conditions and a subsequent readiness to
tion. respond to verbal suggestions. Well known
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2. The hypnotic condition itself. experiments by Penfield and Jasper (1954);

3. The post-hypnotic consequences of Delgado (1964), show the influence of elec-
that condition. trical stimulation of the brain on emotional
Hypnosis can be induced in a number of behavior and hallucinatory experience.
ways. These techniques usually employ When the thalamus was stimulated, some
some combination of verbal, visual, and patients felt sleepy without losing con-
tactile information. Hypnotic inductions sciousness, while others fell asleep (Austt,
can be either passive or active. For ex- et al., 1954). Jasper and Rasmussen (1958)
ample, a verbal induction might employ reported that they had blocked the ability
quiet, calm commands for hypnotic sleep for self-Perception through stimulation of
or very emotionally expressive, imperative the limbic system. During this breach in
orders. Hypnosis can also be induced self-perception, the subjects perform some
through passive fixations of the subject's automatic actions and absolutely forgot
sight on a brilliant object or through the ac- them later. According to Delgado (1971),
tive fixation of the hypnotist's gaze as the these data show that conscious self-
hypnotist looks intently at the person being awareness may involve some particular
hypnotized. The hypnotic condition can mechanism operating in certain sections of
also be produced by a monotonous sound or the brain.
light stimulus or by the striking of a gong It is supposed that there exists in the
followed by appropriate verbalization. brain certain centers and systems which
Thus, the means for inducing hypnosis can shape the individual's interpretation of sen-
be relatively active or passive. The initia- sory information. As a consequence of this,
tion of the hypnotic condition may be seen electrical and chemical stimulation may
to result from partial inhibition or partial elicit illusory perceptions. If this is so, such
dreaming as in Pavlov's theory, or it may artificially-induced electrical and chemical
be seen to result from active neural facilita- processes in the neurons may playa deci-
tion according to the theories of V. A. Pro- sive role in the subject's interpretation of
topopov (1925), and V. M. Bechterev reality, regardless of his actual previous ex-
(1926). Pavlov's theory is one of passive perience (Bechterev, 1926).
influence and the passive inhibition of per- Recent research shows that it is possible
ception, while Protopopov and Bechterev to record significant energy fields around a
stressed the energetic focusing of the sub- human. According to Sergeyev (1969),
ject's perception with a consequent inhibi- "the investigation of the field shows that
tion of normal consciousness. the greatest intensity of irradiation is
 DEEP HYPNOSIS 25

localized in the region of the cerebral cor- One effect of this information block
tex. " It is possible that electrical stimula-seems to be an increased sensitivity to au-
tion of different regions in the brain may ditory stimulation by the hypnotist. We
evoke either inhibition or activation, de- need to learn the mechanisms by which in-
pending upon the stimulation. formation is controlled in the brain. Such
an analysis may someday explain the
It is possible that electric, infrared, elec-
trostatic, and electric magnetic fields of physiological basis of passive hypnotic ex-
varying intensities may affect brain func- periences.
tions in certain ways. These fields can con- For further understanding of more com-
tain information and may, in fact, be able plex phenomena, we should consider some
to influence some of the activating systems physiological characteristics of conscious-
of consciousness. Further investigation is ness and self-awareness. Part of a person's
required for the solution of such problems. self-awareness is the knowledge of certain
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The hypnotic induction produces a re- facts about himself; e.g., where he lives,
sponse in sensory channels which is prob- what his name is, his education, etc. It is
ably conveyed to the reticular formation, evident that, like any other elements of
either directly or by way of the cerebral cor-memory, this knowledge is coded in a cer-
tex. It should also be taken into considera- tain way and in certain areas of the brain.
tion that the hypnotic stimulus may also af- Further, it is connected in time with the di-
fect other unknown inhibitory centers and versity of positions and situations in which
systems which may be either final or inter- the "I" takes part. Generally speaking, it is
mediate points in the process. possible for deep changes in self-awareness
to occur while one still maintains an other-
wise active and functional consciousness.
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF HYPNOTIC DEPTH
Such changes in self-awareness are some-
Since inhibitory centers may have an ef- times observed in pathological conditions
fect on changes in consciousness, it is pos- such as fugue, certain forms of epilepsy,
sible that the depth of hypnosis may depend and as a result of some kinds of brain con-
upon how effectively such centers are cussion in which the patient loses memories
localized during the hypnotic induction. De about himself. Thus, it is possible for a per-
Moraes Passos (1967), believes the son to be conscious and responding ade-
physiological center of hypnosis is likely to quately to his environment and yet not
be found in the reticular formation. He be- know who he is, what his name is, etc.
lieves that its mechanism is connected with Let us suppose that self-awareness is re-
the storage of any outer stimulus or any corded in memory throughout the de-
physiological stimulation which activates velopmental states in human life. Thus a
the cerebral cortex by means of the reticular whole range of developmental modes of
formation and thalamus. self-perception are encoded in memory.
However, it is most likely that the block- We might further speculate that during
ing of impulses from the reticular formation hypnotic age regression, self-awareness re-
to the cerebral cortex initiates the passive, garding one's chronological age is blocked
dream-like state of the subjects under hyp- and other neural structures revive the coded
nosis in which consciousness appears information relating to the suggested age.
somewhat altered and limited to stimuli as- This is what we mean by the directed ac-
sociated with the hypnotist. Thus, the in- tivity of the reticular formation and
formation center of the brain is essentially thalamus, and the transformed systems of
blocked. evaluation.
 26 RAIKOV

HYPNO- REPRODUCTION sometimes reminds one of a person in a

In the author's experiments with deep state of creative enthusiasm.
hypnosis, age regression was suggested. It
was possible to observe the hypnotic re- IMPLICATlONS OF ACTIVE AND
production (or "hypnoproduction") of the PASSIVE HYPNOSIS
newborn period with the sucking reflex, the The fact that hypnosis can manifest itself
Babinsky reflex, and the desynchronization in an active form as well as a passive
of eye movements. This group of signs was dream-like form suggests that to conceive
not present in the subject before or after the of hypnosis as a state of sleep is an insuffi-
experiment. At the same time, on the sub- cient explanation. It is obvious that hypnosis
ject's EEG record, it was possible to ob- is an altered state of consciousness and re-
serve high amplitude delta and theta waves flects the changed reactivity of the central
with a frequency from three to four hertz in nervous system. Further, it is a highly
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the parietal regions. The author has not ob- maleable state which can evince whatever
served such electrophysiological activity form of activity is suggested.
characteristic of the newborn period in It should be noted that according to re-
other hypnotic conditions. cent dream research reports the suppres-
If through hypnosis, one suggests the sion of cortical activity is not in itself the
image of another personality, say of the mechanism of the dream, even though the
Russian artist Repin, impulses from the re- two may occur in conjunction. In principle,
ticular formation excite elements of the the subject may not actually be asleep dur-
subject's memory about Repin. These ing the period of suppressed cortical ac-
memories appear at the level of self- tivity and the suppression of activity that is
awareness so that the knowledge of the sub- observed during narcosis or hypnosis is not
ject about Repin is transformed by him into a dream in the true sense, even though we
knowledge about himself. Thus, one's may observe slow waves on the EEG.
level of erudition and culture determines According to Block (1971), any nervous
the state and quality of hypnoproduction. activation will also be expressed in the
If knowledge that the subject has about strengthening of ongoing activity. The re-
himself is not completely blocked by hyp- ticular formation is an intensifier and dis-
nosis, then the subject will have a dual tributor of neural information. We may as-
self-awareness, that is, of himself and of sume under certain conditions of hyper-
Repin. We sometimes call this the phe- suggestibility during deep hypnosis that the
nomenon of the splitting of consciousness balanced regulation of the cortex and re-
and classify it as the second stage of hyp- ticular formation is disturbed. The function
nosis (Raikov, 1969). of the reticular formation is to a certain ex-
The course of the hypnotic process is de- tent dependent upon verbal regulation by
pendent upon the subject's personality as the hypnotist. His voice stimulates activity
well as the nature of the hypnotic ex- in the reticular formation.
perience itself, that is, whether it is active Thus, the suggestion of an alternate per-
or passive. In a passive condition, the sub- sonality during active hypnosis establishes
ject may remind one of a sleeping person, a circuit between the cortex, the reticular
but in an active condition there may be formation, and the thalamus. It is possible
flashes of emotional reaction and even in- that the image of the suggested personality
tense creative enthusiasm. When the sub- activates energetic reserves of the reticular
ject is in an active condition, he is abso- formation, thereby producing an alert ac-
lutely unlike a sleeping individual and tive state of awareness during hypnosis.
 DEEP HYPNOSIS 27

CONCLUSION the tendon jerks induced by stimulation of the for-

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