Many hypnotists speak about “conditioning” in a deeply narrative way.

When they say: “my subjects are conditioned to my voice,”

that does not necessarily mean: “there exists a rigid, automatic Pavlovian response.”

Sometimes it means: • familiarity • expectation • emotional association • attentional habit • ease entering a certain mindset • reduced resistance • ritualization • body memory • anticipation of trance

In other words, a sum of micro-associations.

And yes, that can absolutely happen.

Especially if someone listens to many hours of the same voice, the same phrases, the same cadences, the same induction structures.

The brain begins to recognize the pattern and enters certain states more easily.

That is not magic.

But it is also not as mechanical as: “word → trance.”

Curiously, when a hypnotist says “my subjects are conditioned,” it is often meant as a compliment.

When a behaviorist says “the subject is conditioned,” it is usually a cold description.

The same term. Two completely different worlds.