Is Hypnosis Dangerous? Some Hypnotists Are!

Some years ago, I was asked to testify in the case of a man who had falsely advertised himself as a psychologist and had begun hypnotizing teen-age girls in the area, one of whom subsequently accused him of rape.

In order to make its case that hypnosis could be used to compel behavior, the prosecution had pointed to an incident in Eastern Europe several decades earlier, in which a stage hypnotist had handed a man a pistol loaded with blanks and commanded the man to shoot him. The hypnotized subject, who was an off-duty police officer, drew a loaded revolver from his pocket and shot three members of the audience.

I testified that while hypnosis cannot force people to people do something which is against their moral and ethical codes, it is impossible to conclusively demonstrate in the laboratory whether or not hypnosis could be used to compel anti-social behavior. You could never actually allow such behavior to occur in an experimental setting, and the subjects know it! But, in what I like to call “the laboratory of life,” the results are more clear-cut.

Hypnosis in its modern form has been around for over two hundred years; and if you have to go half way around the world and back several decades in time in order to find even one instance of its alleged use in the commission of a crime, then it would be easier to conclude that this individual was psychotic or personality disordered than to conclude that his behavior was the result of the alleged coercive power of hypnosis.

If hypnosis could be used in such a manner, by this time its anti-social applications would be well-documented — in international espionage, by thwarted lovers, and in many other settings. And the evidence simply is not there, although it is difficult to convince some people of this fact. Carla Emery (1997), who was herself the victim of an abusive love relationship in which hypnosis was present, even went so far as to conclude that the practice of hypnosis involved a vast conspiracy which was designed to protect the income of those who used it, while preserving the freedom of those who would employ it for anti-social purposes to continue to do so!

With regard to the possibility of seduction under hypnosis, the problem is not with hypnosis, but with the power differential inherent in a therapeutic relationship. This trust must never be abused. The responsibility always lies with the person in authority, whether a physician, psychologist, priest, teacher — or a hypnotist. It is necessary for the trusted person to maintain strong boundaries and to stop any inappropriate relationships from developing, even if a client displays seductive behavior due to transference, a personality disorder, or a mental illness. A teenager would be especially susceptible to such an authority figure; and If she accused the hypnotist of rape, then chances are, he abused his position of trust in order to have sexual relations with his client, which is tantamount to rape. Therefore, the prosecution’s mistake was to attack hypnosis, rather than the power which the hypnotist (who called himself a psychologist) had abused while hypnosis was present.

Instances such as these tend to be reported in great detail by the media, and are amplified still further by depictions of hypnosis in fiction. Because of the publicity which results from them, there are many people who will not have anything to do with hypnosis . And because these abuses continue to surface from time to time, the public is probably never going to be won over completely, despite our repeated assurances that hypnosis is perfectly safe when used by trained and ethical professionals. Hyperempiria, on the other hand, with its emphasis on increased alertness rather than diminished awareness, does not carry the same potential for abuse of the therapeutic relationship as does hypnosis, and is much less likely to be perceived by the general public as inherently dangerous. It is therefore a plausible alternative for some people who are just too “skittish” to respond to a traditional hypnotic approach or one which resembles it.
(I am grateful to Dr. Annette K. Schreiber for her collaboration and assistance in the preparation of this posting.)

Reference

Emery, C. (1997) Secret – Don’t Tell: The Encyclopedia of Hypnotism. Claire, MI: Acorn Hill Publishing Co., Inc.

Thank You,

Don Gibbons, Ph.D

Don Gibbons, Ph.D., is a husband, father, and grandfather, and an internationally-recognized authority in the area of hypnosis. He received his Psychology training at the University of California, Riverside, and Claremont Graduate University. He has taught at the University of Portland, the University of West Georgia, and DeSales University, where he was Chairman of the Psychology Department. He originated the “Best Me” technique of multimodal suggestion, and was the first to identify the experience of hyperempiria, a new and effective alternative to traditional hypnotic procedures.

Don has written five books and presented at many professional conferences. He has published numerous articles in scholarly journals, and is a co-author of the chapter on hypnotic induction procedures in the forthcoming new edition of the Handbook of Clinical Hypnosis, published by the American Psychological Association.