Highway hypnosis, as defined by Wikipedia, says,
"Highway hypnosis is a mental state in which the person can drive a truck or automobile great distances, responding to external events in the expected manner with no recollection of having consciously done so. In this state the driver’s conscious mind is apparently fully focused elsewhere, with seemingly direct processing of the masses of information needed to drive safely. ‘Highway Hypnosis’ is just one manifestation of a relatively commonplace experience, theoretically where the conscious and subconscious minds appear to concentrate on different things; workers performing simple and repetitive tasks and people deprived of sleep are likely to experience similar symptoms. Therefore, it is a sort of subconscious “driving mode.”
Again, you may already be able to guess what is wrong with this definition: hypnosis is not a mental state!
Highway hypnosis is a trance state (it is a shift away from “everyday” awareness). There is no communication going on, and therefore – no hypnosis. Another similar (and just as natural) trance state is when you get so absorbed in a movie that you lose track of the time.
It is easy to see how these states can be confused with hypnosis because hypnosis usually likes to replicate these trance states in order to increase suggestibility (but remember: if there are no suggestions being communicated – then it is not hypnosis).
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