A total of 60 male and female subjects scoring between 0-5 and 8-12 on the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility: Form A underwent hypnosis procedures, hypnosis and age regression procedures to age 10, or were read an article about hypnosis. All subjects then listened to 20 minutes of directed imagery for warming and cooling the hands. Skin temperature was monitored on both index fingers. Dependent measures were the difference between each subject's highest temperature and baseline temperature, the difference between each subject's baseline temperature and lowest temperature, and the latency of change from baseline to highest temperature, and the latency of change from the beginning of cooling imagery to lowest temperature. Results indicated that the age regression group achieved significantly warmer temperatures than the control group and that the age regression group remained significantly warmer than the two other groups during the cooling imagery. Results also indicated that these skin temperature responses generalized to the nondominant hand. The data were interpreted as suggesting that those subjects exposed to the age regression procedures may have been more relaxed than the other groups. Another interpretation suggested the cooling imagery may not have been accessing common or pleasant experiences of the subjects.

Two key questions underpin the research presented here. Firstly, how does altered higher order awareness contribute to hypnotic experience? Secondly, how do meditation and hypnosis differ in terms of the role of higher order awareness? These questions are addressed here in the form of four papers. In the first paper I review the literatures of hypnosis and meditation in order to consider the similarities and differences between meditation and hypnosis in terms of the role of attentional skill and the neural underpinnings of each. I then draw conclusions regarding the contrasting role of higher order awareness and metacognition in meditation and hypnosis. Paper two explores higher order awareness in hypnosis by comparing the effects of alcohol, compared to placebo, on hypnotisability and associated frontal lobe executive functioning. Paper three compares meditation and hypnosis by investigating differences in higher order thoughts, mindfulness, absorption and perceptual encoding style as revealed by self-report measures. The final paper takes a broader look at higher order awareness and its relation to the experience of agency and involuntariness in hypnotic suggestion using a Libet type paradigm.