Who Can Be Hypnotized?

Most practitioners of hypnosis believe that almost all individuals can experience hypnosis to some extent.

Tellegen has shown that those who have an ability to become highly absorbed in what they are doing are very able to use hypnosis (Tellegen, 1974). Examples include individuals who become so absorbed in reading a book that they can almost experience the emotions of the characters; they don't notice sounds around them and may even have a sense of time loss.

Other researchers believe that the ability to use hypnosis is distributed among the population as a normal curve, with a few individuals not being able to use it, the majority moderately able, and a few able to go into very deep somnambulistic states. The fact that most individuals are not deeply hypnotizable presents little difficulty, since a very deep state is not necessary for hypnosis to be helpful.