Hypnosis

Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention, reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion, usually induced through a hypnotic induction of preliminary instructions and suggestions. Competing theories explain the phenomenon: altered state theories treat hypnosis as a trance or altered state of consciousness, while non-state theories treat it variously as a placebo effect, a redefined interaction with a therapist, or a form of imaginative role enactment. Its use for therapeutic purposes is called hypnotherapy, while its use as entertainment is called stage hypnosis, a form of mentalism; using hypnosis to retrieve and integrate early trauma is controversial within the scientific mainstream, and research indicates that hypnotizing a person may aid the formation of false memories, with medical hypnosis often considered pseudoscience or quackery.