Lauging Gas and Suggestibility

ScienceDaily.com reports on a double-blind matched-pairs (within subjects) experiment conducted to determine if laughing gas makes users more prone to experience suggested imaginings. Why is this important? Perhaps dental patients will accept suggestions to be more relaxed during treatment.

"During each session, participants were given a series of mental imagery tests and were asked to rate their response according to a scale of 1-7, where 1 was ‘as clear and vivid as the real thing’ and 7 was ‘no image present at all’. For example, participants were asked to close their eyes and imagine tasting oranges or smelling roast beef, feeling linen or hearing the honk of a car horn." (Source)

Two other examples given are suggestions of voices from a non-existent audio-speaker asking questions and a sour taste in their mouth. The researchers claim that both susceptibility and imaginative ability were enhanced by the nitrous oxide.