PETER WILTSHIRE in response to my information on John Kappas writes: >No, but I'd like to! :>) Kappas sounds interesting on this. Post more if that's OK. Well, Peter, I am not sure what you are interested in at this point. So, I shall post some information on John Kappas' explanation of Suggestibility. The following is from an unpublished manuscript I am working on. Copyright 1994. SUGGESTIBILITY Psychologists have long taught that only about 50% or less of the populace is hypnotizable (some will go as high as 70%), the rest are labeled refractory, i.e., non-hypnotizable. The reason for this is that psychologists have only recognized one type of individual as the norm, what will be described below as the Physical Suggestible. The rest of the population requires a completely different method of induction than does the Physical Suggestible; consequently they do not respond. The discovery of Suggestibility by John G. Kappas, Ph.D. is one of the watermarks in the development of Hypnotherapy and this alone, even without his many other contributions, would be enough to secure his place of honor within the Profession of Hypnotherapy. In passing I shall note that Dr. Kappas, although a licensed Ph.D. level Psychologist, is considered by many to be the Dean of modern Hypnotherapists. Of the hypnotizable population, as denoted by psychologists, there was a further gradation into three stages of suggestibility: hypnoidal (light), cataleptic (medium), and somnambulistic (deep). Prior to the discovery of Suggestibility, as noted above, the populace was divided into hypnotizable and refractory, and those believed not capable of at least the hypnoidal stage using the psychological methodology of hypnosis were dismissed as refractory. It was believed that the better the subject's ability to attain the deeper states the better would be the therapy that could be done with them. In other words, it was believed, although this is simplifying, that each person had an innate ability to attain a certain level or stage of hypnosis, if they were hypnotizable at all. As a result of the testing performed by Dr. Kappas at Hypnosis Motivation Institute, it became evident that the psychological models were incorrect. That there were actually two different types of Suggestibility, which in turn meant that everyone was therefore suggestible to something, be it physical sensations, emotional stimuli, or environmental stimuli — some to all three. Therefore, everyone was hypnotizable with the proper induction techniques. DEFINITION: Suggestibility is the manner in which an individual receives and interprets input from the world around him. So it is the person's hypnotic personality, which is determined by all of the conditioning and all of the experiences he has had throughout his life, particularly those of his first six to eight years of life. Thus, this discovery revolutionized the emerging field of Hypnotherapy, separating the field of Hypnotherapy from that of Psychological approaches to hypnosis. Psychology to this day still uses the three old basic approaches of 1) Eye Fascination, 2) Authoritarian Approach, 3) Progressive Relaxation. As a result of his research Dr. Kappas formulated the concept of not one, but two main types of Suggestibility, which he termed Physical and Emotional Suggestibility, along with a rarer type which he termed Intellectual Suggestibility.. FORMATION: Suggestibility is initially learned through our Mother, or her surrogate, from birth through the age of approximately age five. It is additionally influenced through the peers, teachers, relatives, and others. From the age of nine to fourteen the Father, or his surrogate, begins to influence the Suggestibility, and to mold the Sexuality. Basic Suggestibility is formed by age 9. During the child's learning process he has to deal directly with and to satisfy his Mother. To do so he must know exactly what she wants and means. So the child begins to model his Suggestibility upon his Mothers, i.e., they are congruent. Every interpersonal message is made up of three parts: 1) Verbal content, 2) Extraverbal (non-spoken) content, and 3) The state of mind of the receiver. Thus, as the child begins to try and understand what his mother is communicating as to her desires on his behavior he learns either that the verbal content or the extraverbal content is the most important part of his Mother's message. If the Mother states in words exactly what she expects, and the punishment that is to follow, and then follows through on it exactly as she stated, the child learns that what Mother says is what Mother means. However, if the child finds that Mother says one thing, but does something else, then he has learned that what Mother says is not what Mother means — so he learns that it is the extraverbal content which defines the real message. For example: Mother states, "Johnny, if you do not clean your room you are not going out to play!" Johnny does not clean his room, his Mother checks and now tells him when he asks again, "No you may not go out. I told you to clean your room and you did not do it. Therefore you have to stay home." So Johnny has learned that his Mother is a Physical Suggestible, i.e., she speaks in literal terms. On the other hand, if Mother gives Johnny the same message, and she finds that he has not cleaned his room; but Johnny gets to go out any way. He therefore finds that what she is saying is incongruent with her actions, and that he must therefore look for the hidden meaning in the message. So in this example he finds that if he wheedles her just right, or catches her in a good mood, he can get to go outside any way, without cleaning his room. To repeat, he has learned that the words did not mean what they said, that it was the extraverbal content which relayed the content. Thus he has learned that his Mother is an Emotional Suggestible; i.e., that she speaks in inferences. PHYSICAL SUGGESTIBILITY DEFINITION: A suggestible behavior characterized by a high degree of responsiveness to suggestions affecting the body, and a restriction of emotional responses; usually associated with cataleptic stages or deeper. A Physical Suggestible hears in literal terms, that is to say, they listen to the words to determine what is being said. However, they speak in inferences. This incongruency between speech and hearing is what makes possible cross communication with Emotional Suggestibles. A person with Physical Suggestibility will put his body forward to protect his emotions; hence the name Physical Suggestibility. It is strengthened when a Mother disciplines the child and then rewards him with a hug and kiss. This causes the idea that pain and pleasure go together, and that in pain there is still pleasure to come. Consequently, a Physical Suggestible responds to physical touch with pleasure and has a great need for it as it represents acceptance to him. He speaks literally and bluntly and is not overly concerned with how others might see him. When explaining something he becomes animated in his body movements, using gestures, and moving closer to the person he is talking to. In conversation, he usually dominates the conversation without worrying about, or barely listening to, what the other person might have to say. He will also tend to cut other people off in order to get his own point across. The Physical Suggestible has great difficulty in understanding anyone except on a surface conversational level. This is so because of his inability to understand the emotions of others — he relates only to what sensations he feels rather than to what others think and feel inside. To work with Physicals one uses a paternal style and direct statements. EMOTIONAL SUGGESTIBILITY DEFINITION: A suggestible behavior characterized by a high degree of responsiveness to inferred suggestions affecting emotions and a restriction of physical body responses; usually associated with hypnoidal depth. An Emotional Suggestible hears in inferences and speaks in literal terms. He is the opposite of the Physical Suggestible in that he will put his emotions out in front to protect his body. Hence the term Emotional Suggestibility. What this means is that when he is faced with physical contact, attention, or pain, which he intensely dislikes, or fears that he is about to be put in such a situation, he will react by emotions of embarrassment, fear, anger, apprehension, emotional irritation or frustration as a first line of defense to protect his physical body from discomfort. Because he is overly concerned with what others think of him he is particularly susceptible toward the threat of physical invasion, his embarrassment level relating to his physical body is easily reached. As a consequence of this withdrawal from physical contact over time, the Emotional Suggestible develops a habit of suppressing feelings, and consequently his ability to experience ego sensations diminishes. The extent to which this occurs is dependent upon the percentage of Emotional Suggestibility present. To work with an Emotional Suggestible one must use maternal methods and inferential suggestions. INTELLECTUAL SUGGESTIBILITY DEFINITION: A suggestible behavior characterized by a very analytical, generally very high rate of Emotional Suggestibility combined with fears of being controlled by the Hypnotherapist demonstrated by his trying to analyze, reject or rationalize everything the Hypnotherapist tells him. When dealing with a person who is characterized by this extreme fear of being controlled, and who insists upon knowing the reason for everything before he will assent, he must be assumed to be an Intellectual Suggestible. This particular type of Suggestibility is dealt with the same as with an Emotional Suggestible with added logical reasons which his mind can accept as to why something must be done and why he will enjoy it. Obviously this is basically a suspicious person, who has had to learn this method of learning to survive. As with the Emotional, to work with an Intellectual Suggestible one must use maternal methods and inferential suggestions. SOMNAMBULISTIC SUGGESTIBILITY DEFINITION: A person registering 50/50 on the Suggestibility test (natural somnambulist), indicating that he is a natural somnambulist able to accept suggestions of both an emotional and physical type; and who is usually always in environmental hypnosis. One would expect that being 50/50 would be the best type of Suggestibility to have, as one can readily hear both types of communication and receive suggestions which are either direct or inferred. However, to be a natural somnambulist is more of a curse than a blessing. In fact natural somnambulists are usually always in environmental hypnosis. This reasons for this are that because the person has difficulty ascertaining what the message content of any type communication he receives, i.e., whether it is the verbal or the extraverbal content which must be acted upon, a type of paralysis occurs which produces a nervousness and indecisiveness which overloads the critical mind and causes it to escape into hypnosis. From a practical point of view the natural somnambulist will internalize negative emotions to a much greater extent than will any balanced Emotional Suggestible. If he is in a positive environment he will tend to be very positive and upbeat. However, if he is in a negative environment he will feel the negativity and this will result in depression – often profound. Because this person is in hypnosis virtually all of his waking life, the solution is to take him into a deeper state of hypnosis and then block the environmental hypnosis from occurring. This enables the person to deal with life on an even keel, and to develop a more balanced type of Suggestibility, either Physical or Emotional. Natural somnambulists are not that uncommon, and a Hypnotherapist will see many people who fit the mold of mood swings depending on the surrounding environment. They should always be treated in the same way, by taking them into deeper hypnosis and blocking the internalizing of negative emotions. LAWS OF SUGGESTIBILITY These are literally Laws of the Mind which allows the Hypnotherapist to work with the patient to obtain the fullest resolution of the presenting problems. It is the emotions of fear and greed which make a human so susceptible to the influence of these laws. Fear causes a suppression of our natural decision-making ability. Consequentl y, any decision made during a fear reaction will be the road of least resistance for the subconscious mind, resulting in ready acceptance. Greed causes a sense of urgency, which also suppresses the critical mind and causes humans to react without the influence of our logical thinking. THE LAW OF REVERSE ACTION The most common of the Laws of the Mind, it is also sometimes called "reverse psychology". Basically a person will respond to the stronger part of the suggestion if the alternative presented is considerably weaker. In the suggestion, "Your eyes are stuck shut, you cannot open them. The harder you try to open them, the tighter they stick shut." In this example the suggestion is that the eyes are stuck shut, the weaker alternative is that they may try to open them (weaker suggestion), but cannot (stronger). Another example is when a child is told not to do something. If doing it gives the child greater pleasure (dominant) than not doing it (weaker), the child will do it. Dr. Kappas notes: "Whenever the fear of missing something that gives pleasure or satisfies the ego (geed) is greater than the punishment that results from doing it, the subject will reverse the suggestion not to do it. In therapy this Law can easily work against the suggestions of the Hypnotherapist. For example, if a smoker is given a positive suggestion such as "I am a nonsmoker." to reinforce his new image as a nonsmoker, and he uses it against the cravings of withdrawal, he will lose. The older suggestion has more strength and is dominant, the newer suggestion does not have the power to defeat the old behavior and concepts head on. THE LAW OF REPETITION This is also known as the Law of Compounding. Whether in hypnosis or in the waking state, the more we do something the better we get at it, and the stronger the new behavior. This Law also posits that the first suggestion given is weak. When the next suggestion, either the same as the first or a new one, it doesn't matter, is given the first suggestion gains strength and the second is weak. The third suggestion causes the first to become stronger, the second becomes stronger, and the third is weak. So every suggestion given strengthens the earlier suggestions, and the last one given is the weakest of all. Consequently, if one is planning on ending a session with certain positive feelings then they had best be given earlier in the session and then restated at the end. Then, because of this law, they will gain strength. THE LAW OF DOMINANCE This Law tells us that we will obey that which is given confidently, positively and with command. In the military it would be known as command presence. In therapy it is the authority and status of the Hypnotherapist, which gives him the right to command and be obeyed within the hypnotic state. It must be realized that this is within the bounds of the realization that this does not give the Hypnotherapist power over the patient, only authority which the Hypnotherapist can justly claim, and the patient recognize, by virtue of his training and credentials. On example of this Law is when the Hypnotherapist has been proceeding through the induction and commands "Deep Asleep" and the patient drops into the hypnotic state. THE LAW OF DELAYED ACTION When an inferred suggestion is given the suggestion will become operative at a later time when a triggering mechanism causes the suggestion to be remembered. Because an inferred suggestion is not as quick to penetrate the subconscious as a literal suggestion, it may be a day, three days, or even a week before the suggestion takes effect. While Emotional Suggestibles take inferred suggestions more readily than do Physical Suggestibles, it is also true that the inferred suggestion must be specific and not general. THE LAW OF ASSOCIATION A continual response to a particular stimulus in the presence of another stimulus will cause the two to become associated. Whenever either stimulus is present the other is recalled and acted upon. This is the law which evokes the response to the post-hypnotic suggestion to rehypnosis. One example is the association between the recliner in a Hypnotherapist's office and the hypnotic state. Once the association is formed the patient will readily go into hypnosis simply by sitting in the chair – without an induction or suggestion to rehypnosis being given. Another example is that if two suggestions are given, and the first is accepted, the second then becomes more likely to be accepted also. DYNAMICS OF SUGGESTIONS Given the varying types of Suggestibility there are certain dynamics which come into play. Because they learn differently they also control their body and emotions differently. A Physical Suggestible takes in information literally as a thought. The thought then becomes an image, then a physical feeling and finally an emotional reaction. An Emotional Suggestible takes in information as a thought. The thought then becomes an image, then an emotional feeling and finally a physical reaction. As a result of this differing process, the Emotional tends to have a delayed reaction period before suggestions take hold and the effect is carried out. In dealing with a Physical Suggestible it is best to give literal statements, using a paternal mode, to work directly on the conflict. With an Emotional, it is best to give inferred suggestions, using a maternal mode, to work on what the Emotional is being deprived of by the conflict. The clue to an Emotional is to find out how they feel. I hope this makes Suggestibility as defined by John Kappas a bit more understandable. Feel free to ask questions on this subject. William