Re:Question for Mr. Lankton

You are quite right about this fear that the hypnotist will "insert" an idea inconsistent with the subject's beliefs. It is not uncommon.

Clients are actually not well described with the phrase "suseptible to a hypnotist's suggestions". That could be considered part of the myth from which such fear grows. In a manner of speaking, that is accurate. But upon close examination it is not correct. The subject takes the ideas that are relevant for them. The hypnotist's words help clients concentrate on and retrieve (or concoct) memories, cognitions, and associations or their own expreince. Their willingness to do that is to a large extent voluntary (although, some clients may voluntarliy relinquish their monitoring temporarily) and in any event the involuntary responding they do is a paradoxical result).

Research by Orne, Erickson and others convincingly shows that a client will not act outside their own value system. Here are some references you can explore:

Erickson: "An experimental investigation of the possible anti-social use of hypnosis."

M.T. Orne's view is found in his chapter on hypnosis in the 1961 The Manipulation of Human Behavior, by Biderman and Zimmer (p. 169-215).

W.R. Wells, "Experiments in the hypnotic production of crime," Journal of Psychology, 1941, 11:63-102.

M. Brenman, "Experiments in the hypnotic production of anti-social and self-injurious behavior," Psychiatry, 1942, 5:49-61.

Orne sums it up well, as he thinks the concept of the hypnotist 'controlling' the mind of the subject is an artifact of the experimental situation.

So, this relates to your question, in that a thought (or thoughts) that fall(s) outside the client's value system will be discarded and not somehow magically the stimulator of distonic behavior.

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