Kindly forgive my almost guaranteed ignorance to any particular neurological (or even pathological) roots to the subject that I was unaware of in my studies. I am young, and naive to a lot of things in the world. This is a post I'm making in order to incite discussion, particularly around the topic of "suggestibility" or otherwise one's connection to the state of hypnosis.
Strong emotions and feelings (phobias ect) are often defined as trance states within ericksonian circles and studies. In order to achieve this definition, one must relieve themselves of the delusion that while trance and hypnosis are interchangeable, and even sometimes unable to function without the other; they are separate psychological states. That being hypnosis is where your subconscious mind is receptive to suggestion that cannot otherwise be consciously implanted. Trance, however, is where the mind is so focused on a particular feeling or concept, that our mind suppresses or even shuts down specific function that gets in the way of said focus.
When an arachnophobia experiences their phobia (depending upon the severity of the phobia) they freeze up, their heart rate spikes, hyperventilation sets in, and the mind sets into gear the process of getting as far away from danger as possible. That is a fine example of trance.
Now that I've set the groundwork, allow me to present my theory.
Along with said theory comes the topic of conditioning. We condition our body all the time, whether through sleeping patterns, social compliance, or healthy-eating, we condition our body and mind to conditions that best suit our environment.
I've noticed a pattern, particularly among my time in doing sessions with friends and otherwise; I've noticed that highly hypnotizable subjects (sometimes even somnambulists) display highly unstable mental health. This is an almost constant pattern among subjects of mine.
Therefore, I would like to propose a question regarding this. What if hypnotzability/suggestibility isn't dependent upon the reach of their imagination, or the strength of their ability to accept suggestion; but instead the level of Neurosis in which they experience.
With Neurosis (that being sudden and often unexplained changes in emotions) this would allow high-suggestibles to condition their mind to experience all trance states, which was previously defined as any strong emotion. Therefore what stops the somnambulist from following his/her conditioning and simply accessing a hypnotic trance state, much as he/she has done with other trance states.
It's a very loose theory, but I would love to hear some discussion and/or opinions on the topic, as I haven't seen anyone bring the topic up. But thank you for reading all the same.