For decades now, many so-called experts on hypnosis have all matter-of-factly stated that hypnosis abuse is not possible - from scholars and academicians, to psychologists and psychiatrists; yet in the end, all of them have been absolutely, 100-percent categorically wrong. This very well might be out of sheer ignorance on the topic, or worse yet, their own willful, shameless desire to save their careers or personal hypnosis endeavors. Perhaps it's a selfish effort to protect an industry, rather than its clientele. Whatever the reason, evidence has been available. The history of hypnosis is replete with sexual abuse and immoral behavior, yet for some reason it has been ignored and the danger dismissed.

Society as a whole has been kept in the dark for far too long on the real power of hypnosis, along with its inherent perils. The end result of this long-term duplicity has been an overall mass ignorance regarding hypnosis. The worst of it being the incorrect premise that hypnosis abuse is not possible. This has in turn created an extremely dangerous environment where people think they're safe, yet they're not. This makes hypnosis absolutely ripe for exploitation of unsuspecting women by immoral, deviant hypnotists. In short, we've all been tragically misled on hypnosis, and it's time to finally rectify this wrongdoing.

The bottom line here is this, hypnosis abuse is absolutely 100% a real thing. For anyone to willfully deny this, just so they won't scare away paying clients or harm the hypnosis industry, is morally despicable and detestable, yet all you have to do is look at how many medical/hypnosis professionals still parrot the myth/lie to this day. It's morally reprehensible behavior, to say the very least.

The goal of this website is to set the record straight on hypnosis and to finally let the truth be known once and for all, by documenting that these horrible crimes DO exist, so that no one can ever again arrogantly/ignorantly deny this type of perverse crime is not possible. Those who continue to perpetuate this blatant falsehood should take a serious look at the overwhelming data on this website, or be held accountable for their uninformed, reckless language. The truth is out.

The foremost motive and intent here is to educate and inform the general public about the dangers of immoral hypnotists. Please note that the blame is not being put on hypnosis itself, as some often like to do, but rather, it is very rightfully placed on the unscrupulous hypnotist, as it should be.

To say that hypnosis itself is bad is like saying that guns are bad. Guns don't harm people on their own and neither does hypnosis. The accountability always has to be with people.

It should be noted that there are few, if any, other websites on the internet that specifically track hypnosis crime. This fact sadly became very clear while perusing thousands of websites through countless Google and Bing searches, looking for hypnosis crime, hypnosis abuse, hypnosis rape, hypnotist accused, etc, etc.

What became glaringly apparent is that there were an outrageous amount of documented instances of hypnosis crime already on the books, however, no one had yet pooled all those crimes into one website or database. There are many instances recorded, but just not coalesced into a publicly available archive, until now.

In contrast, however, there are plenty of websites that errantly (shamefully) proclaim that crime under hypnosis is not possible (some of them with very reputable, highly prestigious names), but apparently none who have taken the time to do the actual research, in order to document the numerous existing cases that have already been prosecuted.

It is with this purpose in mind that this website is dedicated to eradicating the false notion that people will not do things against their will under hypnosis. That errant claim is absolutely, positively, 100-percent false! At best, the statement is a grossly ignorant, uneducated comment, and at its worst, it is a blatant bald faced lie. The empirical evidence presented on this website stands in testament to this absolute fact. This website implores and encourages those in the hypnosis community to finally come forward, en masse, once and for all, to set the record straight regarding the dangers of, not hypnosis, but of immoral hypnotists.

Then and only then will hypnosis have a real chance of encouraging faith in its services, and thus in return, perpetuating new growth for the industry. -HypnosisReality.com
 

More on the Subject:

See what author Robert Temple had to say about hypnosis here...

See what author Carla Emery had to say about hypnosis here...

Open to Suggestion: The Uses and Abuses of Hypnosis
Author: Robert Temple

Buy this book at Amazon.com

BOOK EXCERPTS:

In general (Hynotherapist Jerome) Scheck is by no means forthcoming about the problem of the criminal abuses of hypnosis and its military implications, except to make his position clear in siding with Rowland, Wells, Young, and Brenman against Erickson. His posts held with the army during the war may have encouraged reticence, and I know of no evidence that Schneck ever pursued this subject in later years by experiments or further research. He did, however, make a special theoretical study of hypnotic compulsion as described in the famous novel Trilby by George du Maurier. The hypnotist who holds entirely under his spell the heroine Trilby, a young girl with whom he is obsessed. The novel is actually very good and the suppressed passages have been reinstated in a modern edition.

The character of Svengali has come to dominate the public conception of hypnosis, to the alarm of practitioners. For Svengali is the essence of evil, sinister, and manipulative hypnotist who not only uses hypnosis to make a girl whom he desires into his sex slave, but totally dominates her whole life, transforming her into an automaton. Milton Kline has invoked the tradition of Svengali to offer an explanation of why hypnotists are often so fanatical in maintaining that criminal acts are not possible under hypnosis:

It appears rather definitive that under certain conditions it is possible to hypnotically induce behavior which in reference to the subject's own values can be called anti-social. ... There are a number of reason why this problem has received such very considerable attention in experimental hypnosis. In part, it relates to the defensive and protective attitude that many scientific workers have been compelled to develop in working with this modality. In literature, religion, and folklore, hypnosis has historically been identified in part with evil, the devil, and a genuine 'Svengali' concept.

In order to purify it, those who have wished to use it beneficially cultivated the concept that 'a subject will not do anything in hypnosis that is against his will' or 'that he would not do in a waking state.'

Close examination of these traditional postulates reveals that they are rather vacuous statements. For one, we have no valid indicator of will, let alone more sophisticated measures of values or standards that we can use adequately to support such a statement.

As mentioned a moment ago, Jerome Schneck published a study of Trilby from the professional hypnotist's point of view, and his comments are extremely interesting. He begins with the following observations:

Sevengali, a key figure in Du Maurier's novel, Trilby, is regarded by many as the prototype of the hypnotist. For the layman and also many in the medical profession and allied fields the picture evoked is that of a controlling, authoritative and even mysterious figure whose intentions must be regarded with mistrust. 

He then remarks upon the general attitude towards Trilby in the hypnosis community:

Generally the hypnotic influence of Svengali over Trilby, insofar as her attaining the status of a renowned singer is concerned, is looked upon askance, as barely feasible and of melodramatic and even unrealistic proportions. Further, the Svengali-Trilby relationship in its sexual aspects is another item readily recalled by those who allude to the story.

Schneck then proceeds to make a fascinating analysis of all aspects of the novel which relate to hypnosis. Of particular interest is the following:

The second issue involving the induction of hypnosis without knowledge on the part of the subject has always been a question of interest to the uninformed. Actually this can take place and in the experience of the present writer it has been done frequently. Estabrooks has written about it. Erickson has described its use... The present writer has used the technique frequently in legitimate medical settings with select patients in order to circumvent reinstances, curtail treatment time, and facilitate therapeutic progress.

Schneck considers the sexual seduction of Trilby by Svengali involving hypnosis and makes these observations:

A popular theme among the lay audience is the integration of anti-social activity and self-injurious behavior with hypnotization. Of special concern is the possibility of hypnosis being used for sexual seduction. ... Over the years actual instances of alleged misuse of hypnosis have appeared and  attained varying degrees of publicity. These issues have been mentioned in serious works such as the one by Forel. Nevertheless a difference of opinion has been voiced among experienced workers in hypnosis as to the possibility of inducing with the hypnotic technique behavior which may be regarded as anti-social or essentially self-injurious. Some workers favoring the view that such behavior can be induced include Rowland, Wells, Watkins, and Brenman. The well-known opposition has been voiced by Erickson. ... The present writer has presented a report dealing with a clinical situation I which such behavior was inadvertently induced, and concluding that the issue required reevaluation.

It should probably be mentioned that George du Maurier, the author of Trilby, often practiced hypnosis and was well informed on the subject.

In his conclusions, Kline says:

It is strongly suggested by the results that the obtaining of an experimental goal was primarily dependent upon the hypnotist and the extent to which he could enter into it and participate in the act himself. The subject is not involved alone, but is part of a newly created structure and reality reference in the hypnotic relationship. Subliminal perception of the hypnotist's ideation, affect, and projective behavior undoubtedly played a major role in creating the 'conditions' which eventuated in the subject's altering his behavior in the manner he did and performing a task for which he had initially strong resistance and adequate defenses.

Pg 184

The case illustrations discussed below represent clinical situations in which hypnosis has been utilized as a device for effectively altering the perceptual patterns of an individual and bringing about behavioral responses which have been damaging or antisocial within a broadly defined psychological content. ... it is clear that hypnosis in the hands of a skilled manipulator-personality can lead to antisocial, criminal, or self-damaging transgressive behavior with some individuals. -Milton Kline, 'The Production of Antisocial Behavior Through Hypnosis: New Clinical Data,' International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (vol. 20, no. 2, April 1972, pg 84)

It will be interesting to review Kline's cases briefly. The first concerns a 56-year-old physician who used hypnosis to rape his patients. ... The doctor in question sought out Milton Kline for psychotherapy treatment, not because he felt guilty about his rape of various patients over several years, but because complications had arisen which threatened his career. ... As Kline tells it:

He would use it repeatedly and extensively primarily to develop a close, dependent, and, at first, very supportive and reassuring hypnotic relationship. He would carefully and skillfully begin to introduce suggestions that would involve strongly erotic sexual arousal for the patient, and suggest dreams incorporating those feelings. Gradually, he would introduce himself into the dreams within a process that frequently would take from two to three months, and instill a strong desire for the patient to act out her sexual feelings and obtain the satisfaction of the dream in reality. He was not successful in all instances ... He was most desirous of effecting relationships emphasizing fellatio and a number of variations of this particular technique. ... In one instance, he finally persuaded a 23-year-old married patient to take an unpaid position in his office, with whom he then had daily sexual involvements. This particular case became one of the reasons for his seeking therapy, since the young woman began talking in her sleep ... Her husband made a tape recording of some of the sleep talk and, in discussing this with her and playing it back, became fully aware of what seemed to be involved.

This was only one of several situations which this physician carefully developed over the years. ... it seemed that [the women] would not have accepted the sexual relationship with him without the enforced effect of the hypnotic relationship and the reinforced suggestions which were frequently given. ... Throughout his description of these cases at no time was there expressed any degree of guilt, but only concern for the exposure that could result from the complications of these relationships. -Milton Kline, 'The Production of Antisocial Behavior Through Hypnosis: New Clinical Data,' International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (vol. 20, no. 2, April 1972, pp. 85-8
 

Pg 188

Yet another series of experiments on the antisocial uses of hypnosis was performed by William Lyon in the 1950s, using 20 students at the University of Hawaii. The students were instructed to perform three objectionable or dangerous acts. ... And Lyon concluded:

Under the conditions of this experiment, hypnotized persons may commit antisocial acts under the influence of suggestion. Antisocial acts were committed much more readily when the situation was so structured that the hypnotized subject could justify his behavior. - William Lyon, 'Justification and Command as Techniques for Hypnotically-Induced Antisocial Behavior,' Journal of Clinical Psychology, vol. 10, 1954, pp. 288-90.
 

Pg 191

One of the most important considerations of the antisocial uses of hypnosis was a series of experiments and a review article by Paul Campbell Young, now long deceased but at the time (the 1950s) the grand old man of American Hypnosis research, in which he ha persisted throughout the 1920s against the fashion of the time. Young had originally been convinced that antisocial acts were impossible under hypnosis, but his research into the area led him to a total change of view on the subject. His report was published in a 1952 anthology edited by Leslie LeCron, and LeCron wrote a particularly interesting introduction to Young's contribution in which he made these remarks: 

Young's article, with a well-conceived, well-executed experiment to back up his contentions, would seem to cover the situation most adequately. Critics will find it difficult to refute his arguments that hypnosis can be used to produce antisocial behavior. The tests made by Young were arranged to substantiate, if possible, Rowland's previous experiment, but under conditions which would not be subjected to the same criticisms made of Rowland's work. It is worthy of note that, until recently, Young has been on the other side of the fence ... Dr. Young is a veteran in hypnotic experimentation, and he has contributed a great deal to our knowledge. ... he was the first experimenter in hypnosis to use the controlled experiment and is a pioneer in modern scientific research in the field. ... One fact seems certain from weighing the results of experiments and from our knowledge of what can be accomplished with modern techniques. A person in a deep hypnotic state can be caused to commit antisocial acts. It is obvious that many people have criminal trends and many others are actual criminals. With such people, it should be no great task to cause them to commit an antisocial act under hypnosis. This will be granted by any hypnotic authority. It is the honest, conscientious, law-abiding subject who must be considered. He, too, can undoubtedly be deluded into committing such acts. -Leslie LeCon, Experimental Hypnosis: A Symposium of Articles on Research by Many of the World's Leading Authorities, Macmillan, New York, 1952, pp. 370-5

[ Open to Suggestion: continued... ]

Pg 194

Young then went on with a lengthy review of previous work and general discussion. Among his comments are these:

From a hurried review of the literature it appears that there are no theoretical obstacles to the possibility of antisocial uses of hypnosis. On the contrary, the cumulative effect of the reported results is so great as to convince one that antisocial actions are not more deviant from the normal behavior - and no more difficult to induce - than are many of the actions which have been carried out by subjects motivated by artificial complexes, age regression, transidentification, etc. In fact, if a skillful hypnotist should use such techniques as those just mentioned and should use such techniques as those just mentioned and should go all out to induce antisocial results, theoretically is is very likely he would succeed. -Paul Campbell Young
 

Pg 195

Young comments:

The results show that seven of the eight subjects would enter into a situation which unhypnotized observers shrank from, the subjects carrying out suggestions to handle snakes and throw nitric acid under conditions from which they themselves recoiled in the waking state. ... As it turned out, it was, actually, a dangerous situation. ... Although the question dealt with here has more theoretical than practical importance, inasmuch as hypnosis is for the most part in the hands of reputable persons, still its potential antisocial use by other types of persons, still its potential antisocial use by other types of persons should not be lightly regarded. If in skilled and worthy hands hypnosis is as powerful and salutary an instrument as its recent application, for example, in hypnoanalysis indubitably indicates, then in skilled but unworthy hands it might become an instrument of danger. From the present rather extensive review of both the theoretical and experimental findings - with particular consideration of the results of those who think hypnosis powerful only for good - it seems clear to the writer that this logical conclusion is the only possible one, and that hypnosis, therefore, must be thought of as a two-edged tool to be wielded with caution only by those who possess both an understanding of the motivations it releases and also the desire to use those dynamisms for scientific and therapeutic purposes. -Paul Campbell Young, 'Antisocial Uses of Hypnosis,' in LeCron (ed.), op. cit., pp. 382-4 
 

Pg 196

Orne and Evans say:

Subjects reported that under hypnosis they felt more passive, were not particularly concerned with the consequences of their actions or what safeguards existed, and generally were less disturbed by the situation than they were in the waking state. The subjects who attempted any of the activities claimed they were much more hesitant in the waking state than they had been in the previous hypnotic state. -Martin Orne & Fred Evans, 'Social Control in the Psychological Experiment: Antisocial Behavior and Hypnosis,' Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 1, no. 3, 1965, p. 196
 

P 201

Forel was most emphatic in insisting that crimes be carried out by means of hypnosis:

I am convinced that every conceivable crime may be committed on a hypnotized person, provided that a higher degree of hypnosis is attained. ... But a general knowledge of hypnotism will familiarize the public with its dangers, and thus put it on its guard.
 

P 267

'...a person in lethargy or catalepsy ... may be tamely made the victim of others' passions, others' cupidity, others' interests. Many faults against morals, against personal safety, or against the public and useful activity of a subject, have been committed just by placing the individual in the hypnotic condition of lethargy or catalepsy.
-Dr. Joseph Lapponi
 

P 268

The subject of rape under hypnosis is likely to become more relevant rather than less, as the level of sex crimes seems to be rising in relation to the greater preoccupation with sex in society today. Nowadays we all take it for granted that products as diverse as breakfast cereals and fast cars should be sold to us by advertisers using sexual imagery and suggestions. We accept the prurient exploitation of sex in all the media. Magazines like Playboy have long since been accorded a status among trendies equivalent to the reputations once held by literary journals and the Christian Science Monitor. Film directors find every possible excuse to make their starlets run around naked on the screen for no good reason connected with the story line, and presumably only because the directors want to see what the starlets look like with no clothes on. (Try and analyze these scenes and make a list of how many of them are actually necessary: very few.)

I mention these things as a few simple indicators - easily overlooked because they are so obvious - of the enormous importance which sex has now assumed in our society. How many tens of thousands of women are now hopeless neurotics because articles in Cosmopolitan have told them that their orgasms are not sufficiently ecstatic? And so on ... In such a climate it is only to be expected that many inadequate people will feel cheated that they aren't getting all this marvelous sex which is being talked about and portrayed all over the place - and such people may turn to rape in order to acquire by force what they consider is their due. And it is inevitable that Hypnotic rape will therefore increase along with other forms of rape.
 

P 269

Cases are being reported more frequently in the press. Some decades ago they were fewer; one could be shocked when Jack Watkins reported that there had been an Associated Press account of 1 April 1948 that in Martinez, California, 'a man was convicted of rape upon a woman who had been hypnotized against her will.' A comment upon this in 1957 was: '...the alert reader will, from time to time, find similar items in the newspapers.

Taking some clippings from my own files, I find some with salacious headlines. One is entitled 'How Sex Sessions Hypnotist Made Me Ache With Desire,' published in the London Daily Express on Wednesday 24 November, 1982. The article says that Dr. Clifford Salter had just been struck off the medical register because he had 'used hypnosis and drugs to persuade two women patients to strip naked for sex ... He wove relaxing dreams of warmth and desert islands before helping the women off with their clothes.'

The article continues:

One of the patients said the sex sessions made her want to see the 55-year-old psychiatrist every minute of the day. ... Mr. Du Cann [the counsel for the prosecution] said Salter even got the Health Service to pay Mrs. W's [one of his victims] train fare for their romantic meetings.

Mrs. W, 27, told the committee:

'At first he hypnotized me and talked about desert islands and warmth. He would tell me I wanted to take my clothes off and then help me undress.

'We would be completely naked lying on the bed and then we would make love.

'After a few visits nothing else seemed to matter anymore, just this doctor. I had this desire to see him every minute of the day.

In September 1988, prominent coverage was given in the London papers to the case of Michael Gill, aged 54, who lived in Wales. Gill admitted having sexual intercourse with various women whom he had hypnotized: 

The court was told that Gill, an ex-communicated Mormon, had hypnotized two women, aged 35 and 38, and had sexual intercourse with them while they were in trance.

He had also persuaded the 32-year-old woman, a married university graduate, to take part in naked sex sessions with a woman friend by convincing her that they were part of sexual therapy.

Another newspaper report of the case describes Gill's relationship with one of his victims s follows:
 

P 270

The man went to her home on a number of occasions and told her he would massage her for therapeutic purposes.

She would be hypnotized, wearing a bikini top and bottom and a dressing gown.

'Sometimes she would come out of her hypnotic state and feel uneasy because she thought he had be interfering with her bikini top,' Mr. Williams [the counsel for prosecution] added.

'She did lose a couple of stone in weight. But there came a stage when he hypnotized her for his own ignoble purpose, namely sexual intercourse with her.'

In her hypnotic trance the woman was aware of what he was doing, but could not resist. 

Notice that even in a sensational newspaper account of hypnotic rape, the 'powerlessness' and non-volition are apparent. David Collision recounts yet another clear-cut example of this non-volition in his account of the case by Barry Palmer, known as 'Mr. Magic,' in the Australian Journal of Clinical Hypnosis:

She maintains that whilst in this drowsy condition you said to her 'You have very heavy woolen clothes on and the sun s beating down. It's the middle of the summer, take off your jersey.' Can you recall saying that?

'Yes.'

'She claims that she was under a form of spell and that she took off her knitted top that she was wearing. She maintains that you then told her to take off her bra and the jeans that she was wearing because they were sticking to her and that it was hot.'

'Yes.'

'She states that she then took off her bra and that you came across and assisted her to take off her jeans because she couldn't stand up.'

'Yes.'

'She maintains that the next thing she has a recollection of was being in the bedroom and that she was coming out of her sleep and that you said to her, "You are feeling very sexy."

'Yes."

'She maintains that the next thing she remembers is that you were on top of her and you had your penis in her vagina having intercourse with her and you said, "There is nothing wrong with sex, you will reach an orgasm when I do."

'Yes."

'She maintains that she was aware that you were having sexual intercourse with her but that she was unable to do anything about it as she had been hypnotized and that she was in a trance.

There was a transcript of 500 pages. The man was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years.
 

P 273

For, as we saw repeatedly, the way to success in manipulating a subject for criminal purposes  was to create delusions and distort the subject's awareness. I am certain that this occasionally happens in cases of hypnotic rape too. ... What we have here is the old distinction made by hypnosis writers in the nineteenth century and largely forgotten today between hypnotic crimes committed by the subject and hypnotic crimes committed upon the subject. It takes no great acumen to recognize that the former are active and the latter are passive. So are the hypnotic phenomena giving rise to them, which is only to be expected. 

P 274

Before passing on to the next topic, hypnosis in the courtroom, let us just consider the elementary precautions which women can take to protect themselves against hypnotic rape. The first and most important thing for them to keep in mind is that hypnotic rape is possible. Forewarned is forearmed, as they say.

The next thing to bear in mind is that, even without hypnosis, a great deal of sex takes place between male therapists and female patients. Few patients are even aware of this, much less of the possibilities of rape under hypnosis. If a woman finds a therapist suspect, if he gives indication of being amorous, it is probably unwise to risk hypnosis with him. Patients should be far more wary of lay therapists than professional ones, as most of the reported cases of hypnotic rape have been committed by lay therapists. (That is, therapists with no medical or psychiatric background, however many certificates they may have hanging on their walls.)

If during the course of treatment in hypnosis, by lay or professional therapist or whomever, sexual innuendos or imagery begin to become injected into the discussion for no apparent reason, this is a very bad sign and it may mean that the therapist is 'setting up' the patient for later sessions to commit actual sexual acts.

Cases where the hypnotic rape is committed on the first occasion are rare, and so are cases where the victim is hypnotized unawares or against her will. For those extremely rare persons who are so highly hypnotizable that they can actually be hypnotized unknowingly or against their wishes, there is little advice one can give!

In any city in the world there will always be several thousand people of this sort, and the unscrupulous may choose to seek them out and abuse them. But vigilance and being informed are the best protection.

A person who has shown signs of being extremely highly hypnotizable can always ask to take a hypnotizability test to find out for certain. The other comfort is that there will always be only a small number of unscrupulous hypnotizers who have the skill to exploit this susceptibility. It is most unfortunate that on more than one occasion victim and abuser have met on trains! 

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How is it that JAMA printed an article 60 years ago on hypnosis abuse and yet the AMA, American Psychiatric Association and American Psychological Association still don't get it?