Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to an unconscious or involuntary bodily movement made in response to a thought or idea rather than to a sensory stimulus.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to involuntary actions caused by subconscious thought.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • This is known as ideomotor action and is present in the waking as well as the hypnotic state.

    A Practical Guide to Self-Hypnosis Melvin Powers

  • A list related to hypnosis will have many folks already familiar with the term "ideomotor" effect which describes movement that is unconsciously controlled or movement that allows us to communicate with the unconscious without consciously being aware of the movement "it feels as if the body moves by itself".

    Life of Brian: 2005

  • A list related to hypnosis will have many folks already familiar with the term "ideomotor" effect which describes movement that is unconsciously controlled or movement that allows us to communicate with the unconscious without consciously being aware of the movement "it feels as if the body moves by itself".

    Ideokinesis . . . . . . clarifications and whatnot discussion on . . .. . . Workshop on Utilizing Ideomotor Effect and More 2005

  • In the 1970s and 1980s, psychologists like APS Fellow Anthony Greenwald and Wolfgang Prinz extended this ideomotor principle, demonstrating that seeing and doing branch off the same tree.

    A is for Attention « An A-Z of ELT 2010

  • How many good skeptics who are the first to spot confirmation bias or the ideomotor effect join a gym only to stop going after a couple of months while the cross-trainers we spent too much on get worn down the pub?

    Archive 2009-10-01 TK 2009

  • Houben's "communications," his "statements" about how he's been aware all along of his condition, his "talking" to reporters (all descriptive terms used by hardened journalists softened into bleeding heart jelly) is nothing more than the "ideomotor" effect, where the brain subtly and subconsciously guides the hands and fingers over a keyboard, or a Ouija board, or directs the movements of dowsing rods in search of underground water.

    Michael Shermer: The Coma Man Hoax: Rom Houben's "Communication" Is "Ideomotor" Ouija Board Effect 2009

  • But the scientists there preferred not to discuss issues that could not be described by the ideomotor actions.

    OpEdNews - Diary: The Amazing Wolf Messing 2009

  • How many good skeptics who are the first to spot confirmation bias or the ideomotor effect join a gym only to stop going after a couple of months while the cross-trainers we spent too much on get worn down the pub?

    Motes and beams TK 2009

  • An easy test I can think of to test for telekinesis, at least of the random number generator variety, is to run a well controlled RNG experiment, while having the subject sit on a properly calibrated scale (properly calibrated to take into account ideomotor shifts and things like that).

    Telekinesis and Quantum Field Theory Sean 2008

  • I was teaching a hypnosis workshop on using programmed ideomotor effect in trance sessions and as a quickie demonstration in ideomotor effect as automatic drawing, I put pen to paper to create this piece.

    Life of Brian: 2005

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