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ISSN: 2710-4028 DOI: https://doi.org/10.54208/0003 31
The Theory That Won’t Go Away:
An Updated Review of the Role Hypnosis Plays in Mind Control
Steve K.D. Eichel1
Abstract:Over the years, hypnosis has been a central feature in descriptions of the process of behavior and attitude
change that occurs in high-demand groups (HDGs, or cults). Cult specialist and mental-health counselor Steven
Hassan (1989, 2000, 2014) has talked and written extensively about this process. In August 2000, Dr. Arthur Dole
chaired a symposium at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association (APA) entitled Can Hypnosis
Explain Cult Conversion? Evidence From Science and Practice, which included a number of experts in the field
(Dole et. al., 2000). In contrast to the premise suggested by these references, Spanish psychologist Jose Fernández
Aguado (2015), in a provocative article entitled “Psychological Manipulation, Hypnosis, and Suggestion,” questioned
the ability of hypnosis to induce people to engage in behaviors in ways they would not otherwise execute “out of”
hypnosis.
Very recently, APA’s Society for Psychological Hypnosis
modified its official definition of hypnosis to include
the following (APA, Division 30):
Hypnosis: A state of consciousness
involving focused attention and reduced
peripheral awareness characterized by an
enhanced capacity for response to suggestion.
Hypnotic induction: A procedure designed
to induce hypnosis.
Hypnotizability: An individual’s ability to
experience suggested alterations in physiology,
sensations, emotions, thoughts or behavior
during hypnosis.
Hypnotherapy: The use of hypnosis in the
treatment of a medical or psychological
disorder or concern. (APA Division 30, 2015)
There remains significant disagreement. As far back
as 1959, renowned hypnosis expert Dr. Martin Orne
stated that hypnosis is an unnecessary construct.
He famously noted that increased suggestibility, the
defining characteristic of hypnosis, “may be viewed as
an increase in motivation to conform to the wishes of
the hypnotist” rather than a phenomenon itself (1959,
p. 277). He, and others since, have noted that in the
laboratory almost every hypnotic phenomenon created
when a subject is supposedly in a hypnotic trance
can be recreated when subjects are given suggestions
without a formal hypnotic induction.
Definitions of hypnosis seem inextricably related to
whether or not being hypnotized results in a discrete,
altered state of consciousness that can be measured,
objectively quantified, and distinguished from other
states of consciousness. This question may eventually
be answered by research that involves neuroimaging.
According to neuroscientists Giuliana Mazzoni and
colleagues (Mazzoni et al., 2013), the preliminary
answer is “Yes.” Phenomenological psychologist
Ronald Pekala (2015) agrees multicultural research
using his revised and well-validated Phenomenology
of Consciousness Inventory (PCI) consistently shows
correlations between depth of hypnosis and measures
of altered states of awareness. Cleveland (2015) and his
associates concur and have found convincing evidence
that hypnosis and dissociation are intricately related.
Part of the confusion around the issue in academia
(and in the real world) may also lie in the mistaken
belief that hypnosis is a singular phenomenon that is
pretty much the same for everyone. In his theoretical
tour de force, “Hypnosis: A Mature View,” the late T.
X. “Ted” Barber synthesized the hypnosis research to
date and posited that the contradictory results often
obtained by researchers are a result of a basic and
misleading simplification of the construct of hypnosis.
DOI: doi.org/10.54208/1000/0003/001