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16
The Transcendence of Normal
Voluntary Capacities in Hypnosis
It has often been said that hypnosis bestows on the subject powers
that transcend his normal voluntary capacities. The appeal and fasci-
nation that hypnotism exerts on many persons lies in the belief that
somehow it endows individuals with extraordinary powers, enhancing
their normal faculties and skills, and allowing them to perform superior
feats. To what extent this is true can be determined from the material
of the previous chapters, and from a few other studies to be mentioned
in the present chapter. We will not present new material here, for
the most part, but instead will attempt to examine material already
presented from a different and over-all viewpoint.
General Remarks Concerning Transcendence
It is essential for us to understand clearly just what we are looking
for. We may say first that by "voluntary capacity" will be meant the
ability of an individual to initiate voluntarily and to control various
manifestations of his neuromuscular apparatus. The extent of this
ability, as well as the quality of these manifestations, will be considered
to constitute his level of performance, or simply his performance. This
last is usually ascertained by means of a specific test situation. The
performance in terms of the test situation (such as increase in strength)
becomes the performance with respect to the given voluntary capacity
(being a measure of the extent to which strength is controlled).An individual will be said to transcend his voluntary capacity in
hypnosis if hypnosis per se or certain hypnotic suggestions enable him
to bring about in his performance alterations that he is not capable
of bringing about voluntarily in the waking state. Transcendence will
usually be found to fall into one of the three following categories:
1. Initiation and/or control of neuromuscular manifestations, over
which the individual has no influence in the waking state.

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Publication Information: Book Title: Hypnotism: An Objective Study in Suggestibility. Contributors: André M. Weitzenhoffer - author. Publisher: John Wiley & Sons. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1953. Page Number: 207.
    
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