Can You Become More Hypnotizable? What the Training Research Shows (and How to Practice)

Yes, to a meaningful degree. In lab training studies, over half of people who first scored low on hypnotizability tested in the high range after a short skills program, and, just as important, expectation, familiarity and regular practice make hypnosis work better for you even when your trait score barely moves.

If you've taken a hypnotizability test or a suggestibility test and landed lower than you hoped, this post is for you. A low score can feel like a door closing: "hypnosis just doesn't work on people like me." The research tells a more hopeful story, and also a more honest one than most hypnosis websites will give you.

I'm Paola Mendez, certified RTT (Rapid Transformational Therapy) hypnotherapist, trained under the method developed by Marisa Peer, and the founder of Mochi Zen. Below I'll walk through what decades of research say about training hypnotic responsiveness, including the studies that pushed back, and then turn it into a practice plan you can actually follow.

Is Hypnotizability Fixed? What the Research Says in 2026

As a trait, hypnotizability is one of the most stable things psychologists measure. Stanford researchers retested the same people over a quarter century and found their scores correlated at r = .71 after 25 years, with a median change of just one point on a 12-point scale (Piccione, Hilgard & Zimbardo, 1989). Left alone, your score tends to stay where it is.

But "stable when nobody intervenes" is not the same as "impossible to change." Two lines of research show it can move:

• Skills training, which teaches people how to engage with suggestions (more on this below).
• Brain stimulation. In a 2024 randomized, double-blind Stanford trial, 92 seconds of targeted magnetic stimulation to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex raised hypnotizability scores more than sham stimulation in 80 people with fibromyalgia (Faerman et al., 2024). The authors describe the effect as temporary, and this is a research tool, not something you can do at home, but it shows the trait has a brain mechanism that can be nudged.

That brain mechanism lines up with earlier imaging work: highly hypnotizable people show stronger communication between the prefrontal "control" region and the brain's salience network (Hoeft et al., 2012), and during hypnosis, activity shifts in the dorsal anterior cingulate and the connections between control and body-awareness regions (Jiang et al., 2017). These are patterns of attention, and attention is trainable.

Can Hypnotizability Be Trained?

The best-known answer comes from the Carleton Skills Training Program, developed in Canada in the 1980s. Its insight was simple: many low scorers aren't incapable of hypnotic experiences, they misunderstand the task. They sit back and wait for their arm to rise by itself, and when it doesn't, they conclude hypnosis "doesn't work" on them. The training taught people to actively imagine along with the suggestion (picture the helium balloon lifting the arm) while letting the movement feel as though it happens on its own.

The results were striking:

• In the original study, over half of the initially low scorers and over two-thirds of the medium scorers tested as highly hypnotizable on both follow-up tests after training that included modeling. Practice alone did much less (Gorassini & Spanos, 1986).
• An independent replication found 50% of initially unhypnotizable people tested high after training delivered with good rapport, versus 25% after standard training, and 83% of medium scorers tested high. Control groups who just repeated the test stayed about the same (Gfeller, Lynn & Pribble, 1987).

Two details from these studies matter for anyone practicing at home. First, mindless repetition wasn't enough: the gains came from understanding how to engage, not from simply being tested again. Second, rapport doubled the effect: a warm, trusted guide made a measurable difference.

What Did the Skeptical Studies Find?

To give you the full picture, not every lab was convinced. Bates and colleagues found the gains were "relatively modest," possibly inflated by people trying to please the experimenter, and not maintained four months later (Bates et al., 1988). Later work found trained participants' behavior changed more than their inner experience, which suggests some of the improvement was compliance.

Then came an important refinement. Irving Kirsch's group found that how much people's expectations changed during training explained much of the improvement (Gearan & Kirsch, 1993). And a version of the program that focused purely on imagination (goal-directed fantasy) raised responsiveness as much as the original while producing less compliance (Gearan, Schoenberger & Kirsch, 1995).

My honest reading of the whole body of work: people can genuinely become more responsive, and the parts that work are imagination, expectation and a supportive guide. Quick lab gains can fade without ongoing practice, which is exactly why practice belongs in your routine rather than in a one-off session.

Why Does Your Hypnotizability Score Matter Less Than You Think?

Here is the finding I wish every person with a low score knew. A meta-analysis of hypnosis for pain found hypnotizability explained only about 6% of the variation in how much relief people got (r = .24), and the authors questioned whether measuring hypnotic suggestibility is even useful in clinical settings (Montgomery, Schnur & David, 2011).

Meanwhile, expectation and motivation carry a lot of weight. In one study, nonhypnotic suggestibility, motivation and expectancy together explained 53% of the variance in how people responded to suggestions (Braffman & Kirsch, 1999). Your trait score is one ingredient. What you expect, what you want, and how you practice are others, and those are within your control.

For a plain-language overview of how clinical hypnosis is used, see the Mayo Clinic's guide to hypnosis. And for the bigger picture on whether there's really such a thing as an "unhypnotizable" person, my practice blog covers whether everyone can be hypnotized.

How Do You Become More Suggestible to Hypnosis?

Here's how I'd translate the research into a practice plan:

1. Imagine actively, don't wait passively. When a session says your arm is getting heavy, picture a weight in your hand and lean into the feeling. This is the core skill the training studies taught. Hypnosis is something you do with the voice, not something done to you.
2. Stop monitoring yourself. Checking "is it working yet?" every few seconds keeps you in analyst mode. Give yourself permission to evaluate after the session, not during it.
3. Use the same voice and induction. Familiarity builds rapport, and rapport doubled the training effect in the studies above. Switching tracks every night keeps you a beginner.
4. Practice daily, at the same time. Lab gains faded without ongoing practice. A regular slot (in bed at night works well) turns the hypnotic state into a familiar place you return to.
5. Start with body-based suggestions. Heaviness, warmth and relaxation are the easiest suggestions on every clinical scale. Let those succeed first; more vivid experiences tend to follow.
6. Expect gradual deepening. Expectancy predicted much of the improvement in training. "Each session I go a little deeper" is a more useful expectation than "this has to work tonight."
7. Pick a goal you actually care about. Motivation is part of responsiveness. A session about something you want, like calmer evenings, fewer cravings or easier sleep, engages you in a way a generic relaxation track doesn't.

If you want to see how this plays out for one goal, does sleep hypnosis work? covers a study where results depended on suggestibility, and why nightly practice changes the picture.

How Mochi Zen Builds the Habit

Mochi Zen is an RTT-based hypnotherapy app for weight loss, emotional eating, anxiety, and sleep, created by Paola Mendez, Certified RTT Hypnotherapist trained by Marisa Peer. Its structure follows the practice principles above:

• One consistent voice and induction, so each session starts from somewhere familiar.
• A daily program instead of a random library, so practice becomes a routine.
• Goal-specific programs for cravings and emotional eating, anxiety, sleep and burnout, so motivation is built in.
• RTT's approach, which pairs suggestion with finding and updating the belief behind a pattern, so you're not relying on suggestion alone.

RTT recordings are designed to be listened to daily for at least 21 days. That is a listening protocol, not a scientific deadline: a well-known habit study found new behaviors took a median of 66 days to become automatic, with a range of 18 to 254 days (Lally et al., 2010). What matters is that you keep showing up. If you'd like a guide in the room, I also see private clients through Pao Hypnosis in Miami and remotely, and one-on-one work is a good fit for people who want help getting past an analytical mind.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you train yourself to be more hypnotizable?

Research suggests you can, to a degree. In skills-training studies, over half of initially low scorers tested as highly hypnotizable afterward. Some labs found smaller gains that faded without practice. The effective ingredients were active imagination, positive expectation and a supportive guide, which you can build into a regular home practice.

How long does it take to get better at hypnosis?

Lab training programs were short, but their gains could fade without ongoing practice. At home, many people notice sessions feel deeper after a couple of weeks of daily listening with the same voice and induction. Consistency matters more than session length. Individual results vary.

Why can't I be hypnotized?

The most common reasons are waiting passively for suggestions to happen on their own, constantly checking whether it's working, and expecting it to fail. Training studies found many people who believed they couldn't be hypnotized responded well once they learned to imagine actively along with the suggestions.

Does self-hypnosis practice make you more hypnotizable?

Repetition alone, without understanding how to engage, made little difference in the lab. Practice that combines active imagination, a consistent induction and realistic expectations is what the research supports. Daily listening also makes the hypnotic state familiar, which lowers the self-monitoring that keeps many people from going deeper.

Can hypnotherapy help me if I'm not very hypnotizable?

Often, yes. A meta-analysis found hypnotizability explained only about 6% of the variation in how much people benefited from hypnosis for pain. Expectation, motivation and practice play a larger role, so lower scorers can still benefit, especially with consistent sessions focused on a goal they care about.

Can brain stimulation make you more hypnotizable?

In a 2024 Stanford trial, 92 seconds of targeted magnetic stimulation to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex raised hypnotizability scores more than sham stimulation in people with fibromyalgia. The effect was described as temporary, and it is a research technique rather than something available for personal use.

Is it bad to be hard to hypnotize?

No. Being hard to hypnotize usually reflects an analytical, observing style, which also protects you from pressure and manipulation. It mainly means your first sessions may feel subtle. With practice and the right expectations, many people find the experience deepens over time.

Disclaimer: This post is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health care. Individual results vary. If you have a mental health condition, please talk with a qualified healthcare provider before starting hypnosis.