The ability to separate mental processes so that they seem to arise from different sources. This allows many routine experiences to occur in unawareness. Dissociated material is unavailable as presence for consciousness, yet still exists as an influential force on consciousness, or on other unconscious experiences and behavior.

When one is intensely involved in a central object of consciousness, one tends to ignore perceptions, thoughts, memories, or motor activities at the periphery. Since hypnotized individuals are intensely absorbed in their trance experience, many routine experiences that would ordinarily be conscious occur out of conscious awareness. As a result, even rather complex emotional states or sensory experiences may be dissociated.