John Kihlstrom's (2004) definition
Hypnosis is a social interaction in which one person, the hypnotist, gives suggestions to another person, the subject, for imaginative experiences involving alterations in perception, memory, and the voluntary control of action. In the classic instance, these suggested experiences are accompanied by a degree of subjective conviction bordering on delusion, and an experience of involuntariness bordering on compulsion.
See www.institute-shot.com/hypnosis_and_health.htm.
