Power of Suggestion Debate Guide

From PhiloWiki

Imagination and Suggestions: Physiological change

• For those who noticed different experiences and physical sensations (perhaps relaxation, perhaps feelings of lightness or heaviness), did the experiences “seem” “real” to you?
• Was imagination as “real” as perception?
• To what extent do our beliefs and expectations structure our experiences? What role do belief and expectation play in performance? If you change your belief or imagination, do you perform better? (For example, after Roger Bannister’s 4 minute mile, more people broke the psychological barrier that you couldn’t run a mile in less than 4 minutes.)
• While you are in the “trance experience,” how would you differentiate: perception, imagination, and reality?

Part II. Imagination and Suggestions: Emotional change

• Did you feel less stress after using the imaginative technique? How do you explain this rapid emotional change (decreasing negative feelings) through the use imagery without a “cognitive” aspect as in therapy (e.g., without insight into the “causes” of the emotion or without identifying and disputing beliefs)? Can one change feelings with imagery and suggestion, without “cognitive” interventions? NOTE: This question does not presuppose that use of imagination is not cognitive, but is asking about imagination and suggestions in comparison to standard “cognitive” interventions in talk therapy about interpretations and beliefs.
• Here are some simple examples of suggesting to people to think what you are thinking or want them to think. These suggestions are similar to “leading questions” that presuppose what you are asking about. Notice how they “frame” the discussion and get you to think in terms of the suggestion. These suggestions get you to focus and notice some aspects, while perhaps overlooking other aspects you otherwise would have noticed.
  • “Notice that _______ is happening.”
  • “You’ll come to find that __________.”
  • “If you think about, you’ll realize ________________.”
  • “Only _______ [negative term for type of person] think that.”
  • “Everyone has suffered some trauma. What trauma did you suffer?”
  • “You have ________ [time period] to live.”
  • “How did that person wrong you?”
  • “If you buy this you’ll be rich. Only losers pass up the opportunity to be rich and happy. Do you really want to be a loser?”
  • Images of happy, successful, popular people using the product.

• What role, if any, do suggestions and expectations for thinking _______ or discovering ______, play in the following? Is this good or bad?
  • Advertisements
  • Medicine
  • Philosophy discussions
  • Politics
  • Psychotherapy
  • Relationships
  • Religion
  • Scientific research
  • Teaching

• When someone says that a politician or speaker was “mesmerizing” and “hypnotic” what does this mean?
• Does it make sense to speak of “cultural hypnosis” or a “cultural trance”? What would this mean?

Part III. Imagination and Suggestion: Changing Perceptions of Pain and Increasing Creativity

• Briefly define the placebo and nocebo effect. How do you explain the placebo and nocebo effects? Are there other (alternative) explanations for why a person gets better or worse when given a placebo or nocebo?
• If suggestion, expectation, and placebo effect are effective, how would you tell which results in an experiment or in real life are due to these and which results are due to the effectiveness of the specific treatment?
  • In medicine?
  • In psychotherapy?

• Philosophy and Imagination: While some philosophers are known for their use of imagination and imagery (e.g. Plato’s Cave, Descartes’ ball of wax, Nietzsche), imagination is sometimes less a focus in the history of philosophy than the emphasis on reason or on will. What is the role of imagery and use of imagination in philosophy and more generally in discussions? (Hint: this might include thought experiments, counterexamples, fictitious case studies, etc.)

• When you read philosophy do you go into a trance?

• Can we “wake up” from all “trance,” and not being in ANY trance, or are we always in some trance?

• How are these related or similar or different: “trance,” “conditioning,” “group think,” “paradigm,” (in Thomas Kuhn’s sense in Structures of Scientific Revolutions), “illusions,” and “delusions.”