A musical phrase was first played by itself without accompaniment. Most musicians would say it sounded like the B major chord, with the notes D#, F# and B. However, a later building of this same phrase then had a lower G# note in the bass. The B major then turned into a G# minor 7th chord, yet the ear insisted a la Cialdini’s consistency principal that it had to stay major. This created an interesting conflict both in performers and listeners alike.

This has interesting marketing and promotion implications, namely, can you bring customers to something new by starting them on something they know, then tempting them with something ever so slight, making them go along with you to buy if only to satisfy their insatiable curiosity?!

I find many of the current explanations lacking, and the terms used confusing. For example we use hypnosis, to induce hypnosis, which allows us to use hypnosis. If we need to be in a hypnotic state to respond to suggestions then we could never induce, “hypnosis” in the first place.

My proposal, for what it’s worth, is to designate, “hypnosis” as a technique like relaxation therapy. It is the utilization of suggestion to influence consciousness and behavior. Now we have done away with the question, “Does hypnosis exist?”. Using suggestion we can create a variety of states including the willingness to go along with further suggestions. We can create relaxation, but also motivation, excitement and lots of others. As hypnotists we can allow clients to access their imaginations, and abilities they already have to create the results that they want. Considering hypnosis as a tool, I would like to see further research into how to make it more effective. Lastly, we can not divorce hypnosis from whatever it is that makes psychotherapy in general effective. More on this later.

What you describe sounds like the social-cognitive model of hypnosis. I definitely agree that these principles play a large role in hypnotic responding. I tend to think that alterations in consciousness and conscious states also play a role, which the social-cognitive model does not agree with. But these ideas do form kind of a nice bridge between the two.