The production of hypnotic time‐distortion: determining the necessary conditions

An attempt was made to find the components of the hypnotic experience that give rise to familiar time‐distortion effects. A series of experiments is described that examined a variety of hypnosis and hypnosis‐like situations, known or expected to induce errors of time judgement. It was found that, if participants closed their eyes and imagined vividly, even in the absence of an induction or any reference to hypnosis, hypnotic‐like time effects could be achieved. The results are interpreted in terms of the model proposed by Naish (2001), in which it is suggested that an internal clock runs more slowly when a person becomes detached from reality and generates his or her own experiences. Copyright © 2003 British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis