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Kappasinian E&P suggestibility
Free Hypnotic Suggestibility Test
Are you Physical or Analytical? Answer 36 questions from Dr. John Kappas’ original E&P questionnaire to find out how your mind takes in suggestion, and get an instant, personalized interpretation of your result, written from Dr. Kappas’ own teachings.
Free · 36 questions · Instant interpretation · No account needed
What you’ll discover
How does your mind take in suggestions?
Everyone responds to suggestion, but not in the same way. This test reveals where you fall on Dr. Kappas’ Emotional and Physical (E&P) scale. The moment you finish, you get a written interpretation of what your result means for hypnosis, communication and change.
Your suggestibility type
Whether you lean Physical, Analytical (what Dr. Kappas called Emotional), or sit in the balanced middle as a Somnambulist.
How you process messages
Whether you tend to take words literally or read between the lines, and how that shapes everyday communication.
What works in hypnosis
Whether direct suggestions or indirect, metaphorical ones are likely to work best for you in hypnotherapy.
Personalized results, not a form letter
Most online tests give everyone in the same category the same canned paragraph. Your interpretation is written for your exact result, drawing on Dr. Kappas’ writings, so it reflects where you actually fall on the scale, not just which side you’re on, and what that means for you in hypnosis and everyday communication.
The test
Take the suggestibility test
36 questions. Answer each one honestly and go with your first instinct. There are no right or wrong answers, and no result is better than another. Your personalized interpretation appears as soon as you finish.
The E&P spectrum
Physical and Analytical suggestibility: a spectrum, not a box
Dr. Kappas named the two ends of his scale “Physical” and “Emotional”. At Hypnotechs we call the Emotional end Analytical, because it describes the type far better (see why below). No one is 100% either way; we all fall somewhere along the line, and people near the middle, called Somnambulists, respond readily to both styles of suggestion.
A strong Analytical
“Will you tell me your name?”
→ “My name is…”
Infers the intent behind the question: a request for information. In hypnotherapy, Analyticals tend to respond best to indirect suggestions, inference and metaphor.
A strong Physical
“Will you tell me your name?”
→ “Yes, I will.”
Hears the question literally, as a yes-or-no question. In hypnotherapy, Physicals tend to respond best to direct, literal suggestions.
Why we say “Analytical” instead of “Emotional”
Think of the two leads in the original Star Trek. Captain Kirk is a very strong Physical in Kappasinian terms, and Mr. Spock is a very strong “Emotional”. See the problem? Spock is anything but emotional in the everyday sense. People with this type tend to hold their feelings in, think before they act and take in the world by inference and analysis, so Kappas’ original label often leads people to misread their own result. That’s why Hypnotechs uses Analytical throughout. It’s the same type Dr. Kappas described, with a name that fits.
The two types
Physical vs. Analytical (Emotional) suggestibility
In the Kappasinian model, the two types differ in how closely mind and body are linked, how they take in information and how they protect themselves emotionally.
Analytical suggestibility
The Analytical
An Analytical “has a body”.
An Analytical, called an Emotional in Dr. Kappas’ original terms, is more compartmentalized, senses a separation between mind and body, and tends to take in information by inference.
- Hears inferentially, but speaks literally
- Uses the emotions to protect the body
- Tends to hold feelings in
- Cares how others see them
- Needs time alone
- Thinks before acting
- Prefers quiet to crowds
- Work-oriented, and ends relationships more easily
Physical suggestibility
The Physical
A Physical “is a body”.
A Physical has a strong link between mind and body and tends to take in information in a very literal way.
- Hears literally, but speaks inferentially
- Often uses more words to explain an idea
- Uses the body to protect the emotions
- Values physical touch and closeness
- Tends to act first and think later
- Finds it hard to let go of relationships
- Less concerned with how others see them
- Family-oriented
Not about gender, and not about intelligence
In Kappas’ model, both types are found in men and women alike: a Kappasinian retitling of a well-known bestseller might be “Analyticals are from Mars, Physicals are from Venus”. Neither type is smarter or better; each simply takes in the world differently. Dr. Kappas applied the same E&P framework to relationships in his model of Emotional and Physical Sexuality, which you can explore with our free E&P Sexuality test.
The origin
Dr. John Kappas and the E&P suggestibility test
Dr. John G. Kappas was one of the most influential figures in modern hypnotherapy. In 1968 he founded the Hypnosis Motivation Institute (HMI), today America’s first nationally accredited college of hypnotherapy. In 1973 he wrote and defined the profession of “Hypnotherapist” for the U.S. Dictionary of Occupational Titles. He also founded the American Hypnosis Association and the Hypnotherapists Union Local 472.
Perhaps his most lasting contribution is the E&P model of Emotional and Physical Suggestibility and Emotional and Physical Sexuality, which forms the foundation of the Kappasinian school of hypnotherapy.
Why he created the test
For many years it was widely believed that only part of the population could be hypnotized. Dr. Kappas was not satisfied with that in his own practice. He developed a series of questions that, answered honestly, give a glimpse of how a person’s mind is likely to respond to hypnotic inductions and suggestions. His conclusion was that many people who seemed hard to hypnotize were simply being approached the wrong way. Matching the style of suggestion to a person’s suggestibility became the core of his method.
About this version of the test
The 36 questions in this test were written by Dr. John Kappas and are scored according to his formula. We don’t claim them as our own: Hypnotechs uses them with permission, as graduates of HMI, the school he founded. What we’ve added is a clean, modern, mobile-friendly experience; an immediate, personalized interpretation of every result, drawn from Dr. Kappas’ writings; and the clearer term Analytical in place of “Emotional”, so you understand not just your score but what it means for you. The original version is available on the HMI website.
The research
What the research says about suggestibility
“Suggestibility” means different things in different settings, and it helps to know which one a test measures.
- Kappasinian E&P suggestibility describes the style of suggestion a person responds to best: literal and direct, or inferred and indirect. It is a practitioner’s model, widely taught in hypnotherapy training, but it has not been validated in peer-reviewed research.
- Hypnotic suggestibility, or hypnotizability, is measured in research labs with standardized tools such as the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale and the Harvard Group Scale, which score how many test suggestions a person responds to.
- Interrogative suggestibility, measured by tools such as the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale, describes how readily someone accepts leading questions, and is studied mainly in forensic psychology.
Modern research tends to see suggestibility as the product of several interacting factors, including attention, imagination, memory, motivation, expectation and social context, rather than a single trait. That doesn’t make the E&P model less useful in practice: as a way to choose language that feels natural to a particular person, it remains one of the most practical tools a hypnotist has.
FAQ
Suggestibility test: common questions
What is a suggestibility test?
A suggestibility test estimates how a person responds to suggestion. This test uses Dr. John Kappas’ E&P model to show whether you respond best to direct, literal suggestions (Physical), indirect, inferred suggestions (Analytical), or both (Somnambulist).
How many questions are in the suggestibility test?
The test has 36 questions from Dr. Kappas’ original E&P questionnaire. Most people finish in just a few minutes.
What do I get at the end of the test?
As soon as you finish, you get a personalized interpretation written for your exact result, not a generic form letter. Drawing on Dr. Kappas’ writings, it explains where you fall on the E&P scale, how you take in information, how you communicate and which style of suggestion is likely to work best for you.
What is the difference between Physical and Emotional suggestibility?
A Physical takes information literally and responds best to direct suggestions. An Emotional, whom we call Analytical, reads between the lines and responds best to indirect suggestions, inference and metaphor.
Why do you say “Analytical” instead of “Emotional”?
Dr. Kappas called this type “Emotional”, but people with it tend to hold their feelings in and think before they act, so the label is often misunderstood. “Analytical” describes the same type more accurately.
What is a Somnambulist in the E&P model?
A Somnambulist falls near the middle of the E&P scale and responds readily to both literal and inferred suggestions.
Who created the E&P suggestibility test?
Dr. John Kappas, founder of the Hypnosis Motivation Institute (HMI), America’s first nationally accredited college of hypnotherapy, developed the questionnaire and its scoring formula. Hypnotechs uses it with permission.
Is being suggestible the same as being gullible?
No. In the E&P model, suggestibility describes how your mind processes suggestions, not how easily you can be fooled. It has nothing to do with intelligence or willpower.
Can everyone be hypnotized?
Dr. Kappas believed that nearly everyone can be hypnotized when the approach matches their suggestibility. Research shows that responsiveness to hypnosis varies from person to person.
Is this test free?
Yes. The suggestibility test is completely free, including your personalized interpretation, and you do not need an account to take it.
Explore the other half of the E&P model
Discover how Emotional and Physical Sexuality shapes your relationships with the free E&P Sexuality test.
The E&P suggestibility questionnaire was developed by Dr. John G. Kappas and is used with permission. This test is designed for self-reflection and education and is not a clinical or diagnostic assessment.