Mike Lamp

In-depth discussion of hypnosis theory, models of trance, and how researchers and practitioners explain what is happening beneath the surface 🧠

Hypnotic Time Distortion: When Five Minutes Doesn’t Feel Like Five Minutes Consider two hours in a waiting room and two hours absorbed in a film that holds you completely. The clock moves at exactly the same pace through both experiences. Your sense of those hours does not. This gap between objective time and subjective time […]

Stuck in a Hypnotic State? The Reassuring Truth About Hypnosis Safety The fear of getting stuck in a hypnotic state is one of the most common concerns people raise before experiencing hypnosis for the first time, whether they are considering volunteering at a stage show or booking a session with a clinical hypnotherapist. It is […]

Psychological Frameworks of Hypnosis Revealed The study of hypnosis has occupied a contested place in psychology for more than a century. What began as theatrical demonstration and medical curiosity has evolved into a subject of legitimate scientific inquiry, though debate continues about the nature of the phenomenon itself. Understanding the psychological frameworks of hypnosis requires […]

How Hypnosis Works: Competing Explanations The question of how hypnosis works has occupied researchers, clinicians, and theorists for more than two centuries. Despite its widespread use in therapeutic settings and its documented effects on perception, memory, and behavior, no single explanation has achieved consensus. What remains is a field marked by competing models, each offering […]

Hypnotic Response and Early Psychological Models Late nineteenth-century psychologists were less interested in mystery than in mechanics. They wanted to know what a subject was doing, mentally, when a simple suggestion produced a real change in perception or behavior. Early models treated hypnosis as an extension of ordinary attention, not a special state. Focus, expectation, […]