What's Wrong With Hypnosis?

7:30PM Thursday 10 March 2016 Bar21
The term ‘hypnosis’ is used to describe a range of psychological phenomena that can be experimentally tested in the laboratory with all the rigour, reliability and replicability that characterises the investigation of mainstream psychology [sic]. As a result, in recent years a series of highly sophisticated neurocognitive theories of hypnosis have been developed and tested and no person investigating hypnosis now seriously doubts that it is ‘a genuine phenomenon’. Yet there remains something seriously wrong with hypnosis, something that people in the field have always been very reluctant to confront. What the problem is will be revealed and discussed in this talk.

Michael Heap is a clinical forensic psychologist in Sheffield. He has previously held part-time lectureships in psychology and clinical hypnosis at the University of Sheffield. He has written and edited several books on hypnosis. He is chairman and a co-founder of the Association for Skeptical Enquiry.