The future of professional hypnosis: comment on kirsch, mazzoni, and montgomery.

I believe the paper by Kirsch, Mazzoni, and Montgomery (this issue) should surprise about 95% of ASCH members (maybe only 93% of SCEH members) because the three facts espoused in their paper speciously seem to be 100% true. To paraphrase from their abstract: 1) nothing that can be produced by hypnotic induction plus suggestion cannot also be produced by suggestion alone; 2) administration of a hypnotic induction does not produce a meaningful increase in response to suggestion relative to suggestion alone; and 3) responsivity to suggestions are highly correlated to responsivity on the same measure when preceded by a hypnotic induction ceremony. In order to persuade that these propositions are true, several objections to them must be addressed. However, just because one's facts are true does not mean that one's interpretation of the facts and their interrelationships are also true. The ramifications of the above facts and their interrelationships for the future of professional hypnosis (experimental, clinical and forensic) are identified and discussed.