by Dr. Richard Harte
My Findings
It all started in 1980 when I was teaching a basic hypnosis course in Cherry Hill, NJ. One day, I announced to the class that I had been thinking a lot about suggestibility and that I believed that perhaps suggestibility (susceptibility to suggestion) could be measured. I asked the class, “Why there isn’t a test to measure suggestibility such as there is a test to measure intelligence?”
During one of the breaks, one of my students, Alan Coller, approached me and asked me more about my thoughts on measuring suggestibility. After I explained my hypothesis to him, he responded by asking me whether I would be interested in pursuing this theory. I told him I didn’t have the skills or the knowledge to do this and he said that he was a research psychologist and he had both the skills and knowledge, and, wanted to know if I would work in partnership with him, using my workshops as our laboratory.
Little did I know at that time that my agreement to engage in research with Alan would uncover a major break through in hypnosis and incidentally change my entire life’s work.
Well, I did it. I agreed to let Alan design a test to measure suggestibility which I started to use in every workshop over the next several years.
The standardized procedure was to administer a 25 minute audio tape recording followed immediately by a 24-item questionnaire. The test was designed to be self-administered, and easily administered to groups. The tape recording included general instructions, two sample warm-up processes, relaxation instructions and three major multi-dimensional process areas.
I used the test with 48 smokers during a smoking cessation program I did for Mutual Benefit Life in New Jersey and the results were very surprising. After ten months, 90% of the participants who remained non-smokers were graded as “high suggestible” individuals and only 5% were graded as “low suggestible” individuals. Statistically, this meant that we had very good test results and that my theory was proven to be fact – suggestibility can be measured and it is innately more prevalent in some people than in others.
At the time, Alan and I believed we were measuring what we called “imaginal suggestibility” (ability to imagine a suggestion), but as we continued working with the instrument, we realized that we were actually measuring “PERSISTENCE” (the potential that individuals have to achieve agreed upon goals over time).
I also used this test with Motorola sales people in the latter part of the 80’s with similar results related to “performance in sales”. We continuously improved upon the test with many published versions and I used the test with every private patient I saw in hypnosis sessions as well as with my corporate clients.
The reason that this is important is because when we work with clients, we work with imagery and the use of one’s imagination. Our main objective is to get people to persist towards agreed upon goals. We encourage the client to persist at the programs that they have undertaken such as quitting smoking, losing weight, reducing stress, exercising, or whatever their work may be. In essence, we are teaching them to imagine a solution, hang in there, persevere and achieve their goals.
People often wonder about why some people are successful and others are not. In fact, in a recent New York Times article, in the finance section, there was a story about a woman who asked the same questions I asked in the 1980’s. Why do some people start programs and quit and some people start programs and persist with them long enough to become successful? What enables some people to succeed over others?
I am going to suggest that the difference between failure and success is simply the vividness of one’s imagination.
A vivid imagination makes all the difference in the world!!!
(Dr. Richard Harte’s Certified Corporate Consultant “TRAIN the TRAINER” program trains participants how to train others to use their imaginations to persist toward agreed upon goals. The next training program is October 6-9 2006 in New York City)
