open to suggestion page 93-
one of the most bizarre hypnosis experiments ever carried out in the history of science was reported in an article published in1962 in what is generally considered the worlRAB leading hypnosis journal.
the article was by harold crasilneck and james hall, who are well known in the field as authors of a book often said to be the best in existence on the subject of the clinical uses of hypnosis, their celebrated clinical hypnosis: principals and applications.
in their article, 'The use of hypnosis with unconscious patients' crasilneck and hall reported how their attention to this subject was alerted when a 19 year old girl who had been given a simple hypnotic instruction continued to perform it even after she lapsed into unconsciousness in hospital. crasilneck and hall were treating ten patients with terminal cancer for pain control. part of the technique was a method of determining the depth of hypnosis reached by patients by instructing them to touch the thumb of the right hand with the little finger of the same hand until you are told to stop. these ten patients were treated over a period extending from one month to eleven months, and with an average of five months. all these patients eventually lapsed into unconsciousness prior to death and failed to respond to anything nurses said to them. they were pronounced officially unconscious by their doctors. however, crasilneck and hall decided to continue speaking to the unconscious patients, attempting to hypnotize them and suggesting freedom from pain. eight of the ten patients responded to the suggestion that they touch their thumbs and little fingers.
let us be clear as to what this means.
hypnosis was successfully induced, and hypnotic instructions carried out, by patients who were officially totally unconscious.