The true value of hypnosis as a therapeutic tool lies in the power it gives therapists to access a client’s unconscious thoughts and hidden memories. Often the subconscious content can be elicited simply by asking the client to tell you verbally what they are experiencing or to answer questions you’ve put to them. While it’s quite convenient for the therapist to work in this way, there are at least two disadvantages:

• verbal responses tend to lighten trance
• verbal responses can be faked, either intentionally or unintentionally

It’s easy enough for a subject to give you the answer they think you want to hear. This is often done quite innocently out of a natural desire to please, but it does tend to get in the way of truth. Ideally, the therapist needs an alternative way of getting responses from a subject that cannot be faked or altered by interference from the…