Although the hypnotic experience may occur spontaneously in an individual with the requisite capacity, the experience is influenced by the presence of an operator whose goal is to elicit the trance state in a disciplined way. We disagree with the archaic notion that hypnosis is
“projected” onto a subject by a charismatic and authoritarian figure.
Nonetheless, the interpersonal aspects of the trance state are complex and, in the minds of patients seeking help with hypnosis, raise the question of who is controlling whom.
The hypnotic situation does not involve control of one person by another in an absolute sense; rather, it consists of someone more will-ing than many others to suspend his or her critical judgment. He or she is capable of using critical judgment at any time but is less prone to do so. We address the common question about whether someone in a trance state can be made to do something against his or her will in the following manner: Those who are highly hypnotizable, especially when in trance states (with or without a formal induction ceremony), are more prone to stretch the limits of their usual array of responses at the suggestion of someone else. They retain, at all times, the capability of breaking with the trance command but are less likely to do so than nonhypnotizable persons. The more the command is in conflict with a
person’s customary beliefs and activities, the more likely the person is to break with the command. Time is another crucial factor in this equation; it is easier for a highly hypnotizable individual to correct outside premises according to his or her own judgment if he or she has several hours alone to do so. A persistently coercive atmosphere maxi-mizes an individual’s tendency to dissociate from his or her own criti-cal judgment and to adopt the premises of another person.
There are essentially three major styles for evoking or inducing the trance state:
1. One can be frightened into a trance state by the use of fear and co-ercion.
2. Under appropriate conditions, a subject can be seduced into a trance state. This seduction can be sexual, nonsexual, or a combi-nation of both.
3. A subject can be simply guided or instructed to shift into the trance state.
Obviously, the last-mentioned is the appropriate method in the therapeutic field and is the basis for our later discussion of trance in-duction procedures.
Coercion
Even though the first two styles in the preceding list have no legiti-mate or ethical place in the therapeutic arts, it is useful for the stu-dent of hypnosis to know that these styles can be used and are certainly effective. The following experience that I (H.S.) had in the army during World War II illustrates the use of coercion.
One day I received a phone message from the military police that there was a soldier in the emergency room who wanted to kill me. This was an alarming and attention-getting mes-sage, and I immediately proceeded down to the emergency room. As I opened the door in the small room in which this soldier was isolated, he lunged at me and tried to choke me.
Fortunately, I was strong enough to grab him with my left hand on the back of his neck while twisting his right extended arm with my right hand. When the soldier was in this awk-ward position, his face was, by coincidence, toawk-ward the desk,
on which there was an ink bottle. While holding him tightly, I said to him on the spur of the moment, “Look at that ink bottle and keep looking at it!” To my amazement, I could feel his tense muscles relax, and within seconds he became limp and collapsed to the floor. As he lay on the floor, I talked with him and recognized him as a soldier with whom I had been involved the week before. It turned out that his rage was due to a clerical error reassigning him to active duty rather than assigning a medical discharge that I had prom-ised him.
Having discovered how readily he could be frightened into a trance state, I readmitted him to the hospital for further treatment. It turned out that he was what we now identify as a patient with grade 5 syndrome, and I was able to do a number of research studies with him using hypnotic age regression, some of which have been reported. (H. Spiegel et al. 1945) Although I am not especially proud of demonstrating that a per-son can be frightened into a trance state, it seemed warranted under the circumstances and was not as aberrant as it would have been in a civilian setting. We suspect that this kind of induction goes on often in authoritarian settings such as schools, prisons, courtrooms, and some families.
Seduction
The seduction method also occurs over and over again, but it is usu-ally not reported as such. The following case demonstrates how readily seduction can induce trance.
An actress in Las Vegas attended a show that featured a stage hypnotist. She volunteered to be a subject for one of his dem-onstrations and discovered not only that she was highly hyp-notizable but that the experience was erotically exciting for her. She returned the next day and volunteered again. After several similar experiences, a serious personal relationship developed between the actress and the hypnotist, leading to an active sexual relationship. Her family was wealthy, and the hypnotist soon found that out. He, at the time, was a married man with children, but he suddenly decided to
di-vorce. She was much younger and just getting over a divorce from a brief marriage. On learning of their plans to marry, the actress’s father actively intervened to the point of per-suading his daughter to travel to New York to be examined psychiatrically. She complied with her father’s wishes because
“I love my Daddy, and this is the least I could do to please him.” When examined in New York, she was found to be highly hypnotizable (a person with grade 5 syndrome). She was being coerced into marriage with hypnosis and decep-tion. While in trance, she was urged to delay her decision and consider alternatives. She came out of the trance state with an almost total amnesia for what had transpired and said that she did not know why but thought that she would call off her planned marriage. She phoned her father, who was pleased to hear the news. She also phoned the hypnotist, who immediately flew to New York and, on the following day, managed to sequester her in a hotel bedroom and rehypno-tize her while they were engaging in sex. The next morning, she phoned her father to say that she had made a terrible mistake in calling off her marriage and had decided to marry that day. It became apparent that she was being used as a pawn between two hypnotists, one using seduction and the other, in essence, acting as an agent for her father. This was an untenable treatment situation, and the psychiatric inter-vention was terminated. In fact, she did marry the stage hyp-notist, and within a year she not only divorced him but agreed to pay alimony as part of the divorce settlement.
There is no doubt that, in one of the many variations of man’s in-humanity to man, much abuse has occurred by enhancing fear or se-duction with the extra leverage of hypnosis. Most of these events go unrecorded because the people who have mastered hypnotic tech-niques for exploitation do not write about their achievements. This is not the place to discuss the ethical, legal, and moral implications. We acknowledge that exploitation does occur, and we point out that cer-tain highly hypnotizable individuals are especially vulnerable.
Some highly hypnotizable subjects actively seek situations in which they feel they can place themselves under someone else’s con-trol. This may happen unconsciously, in spite of conscious protest.
For example, some years back, I (H.S.) conducted a study of hypno-sis using 16 of the 20 patients on a ward. During my absence from
the ward, there was apparently much discussion about what went on in the examining room. One day one of the patients not in-volved in the study appeared in my office and said: “Sir, you could not hypnotize me even if you wanted to.” I noticed that as he was saying this, his right eye fixed on a penciled dot used for the trance induction, and then closed. I challenged him: “Then why can’t you open your right eye?” He struggled to open his right eye but was unable to. At the same time, in a mildly defiant way, he told me that his left eye was open. He was actually begging for the signal to enter the trance just as the other men had described it. I then said,
“All right. Now both your eyes will close.” His eyes did close, and he went into a deep trance state. This experience is not unusual;
people with significant trance capacity manage to enter trance states by themselves as long as the hypnotist does not interfere with the process.