is a natural part of our everyday life. One example
is Paul F. Barkman, clinical psychologist and Dean of
Cedar Hill Institute for Graduate Studies, who says:
Hypnotic trance occurs regularly in all Christian
congregations. Those who most condemn it as
diabolical are the very ones who tend to induce
hypnotic trance most often—unaware that they
are doing so.
If by natural one means normal in the sense of sleep,
then we reject this because sleep is a necessary part of
life. Hypnosis is not. If by natural one means good, then
we reject this too, because many natural emotions of
humans, such as pride, anger, and jealousy, can be evil.
Professor Ernest Hilgard contends that “hypnosis
is not something supernatural or frightening. It is
perfectly normal and natural and follows from the
conditions of attention and suggestion.”2
Hypnotist
David Gordon thinks that a good salesman is a good
hypnotist, a good movie involves hypnosis, and talking
someone into doing something is a form of hypnosis.
In fact, Gordon believes that “most of what people
do is hypnosis.”3
The purpose of those who promote hypnotism is to
convince us that it is a part of our everyday life so that
we will no longer be suspicious of it. Defining hypnosis
as part of normal everyday living and a ubiquitous
activity is a semantic twist to entice people into a
trance. The logic presented is that “attention and
suggestion” are a part of everyday life. Therefore, since
hypnosis involves attention and suggestion it must be
acceptable. With the same kind of logic, one could
promote brainwashing. One person influencing another
is part of everyday life. Brainwashing is merely one
person influencing another. Through a process of
reductio ad absurdum we are led to the idea that brainwashing
is acceptable.
The similarities of hypnosis and natural states are
superficial; but the deeper differences are enormous!
Attention and suggestion are not hypnotism, and
persuasion is not brainwashing. Attention and suggestion
may be a part of hypnotism, and persuasion may
be a part of brainwashing, but the whole is not equal
to one part. Even psychic experiences and Eastern
meditative techniques have some natural components.
If one can be convinced that hypnosis is a large part
of his everyday thought life, then he will no longer be
wary of it. One example used to support such a
contention is that of a person who is watching the white
stripe while driving on the freeway and misses his turn-
off. This, we are told, is self-induced hypnosis. Does
this mean that whenever one is focused on one thing
and ignores another he has hypnotized himself? Some
believe that any period of concentration is a form of
hypnosis. They would say that if one travels from home
to office and does not remember driving along the way,
he is in a state of self-induced hypnosis. They would
further suggest that if a person concentrates on relaxing
in a fearful situation, such as during exams or
interviews, he is employing the fundamentals of selfinduced
hypnosis.
Defining such events as self-hypnosis to give the
entire field of hypnotism credibility is pure nonsense.
The human choice to concentrate on relaxing instead
of being fearful is no more hypnosis than choosing a
football game over a movie or concentrating on one
idea over another. If we stretch this ridiculous idea to
its conclusion, we will end up labeling Christian
conversion as a state of self-induced hypnosis. Not only
would conversion be considered hypnosis, but so would
repentance, communion, prayer, worship, and other
elements of Christianity. And, this is exactly what has
happened. Kroger and Fezler say, “A prime example of
autohypnosis is prayer and meditation.”4
Kroger elsewhere
says:
Prayer, particularly in the Jewish and the Christian
religions, has many similarities to hypnotic
induction . . . the contemplation, the meditation,
and the self-absorption characteristic of prayer are
almost identical with autohypnosis.
Kroger contends that “The Old Testament prophets
probably utilized both autohypnotic and mass-hypnotic
Is Hypnosis a Natural Experience? 33
techniques” and that “hypnosis in one form or another
is practiced in nearly all religions.” With respect to faith
healing, Kroger adds:
If one observes pilgrims expecting to be healed at
a shrine, one is immediately impressed by the fact
that the majority of these individuals, as they walk
toward the shrine, are actually in a hypnotic state.
Kroger finally declares:
The more one studies the various religions, from
the most “primitive” to the most “civilized,” the
more one realizes that there is an astonishing
relationship, involving suggestion and/or hypnosis
as well as conditioning, between religious
phenomena and hypnosis.5
Margaretta Bowers says:
The religionist can no longer hide his head in the
sand and claim ignorance of the science and art of
the hypnotic discipline. . . . Whether he approves
or disapproves, every effective religionist, in the
usages of ritual, preaching, and worship, unavoidably
makes use of hypnotic techniques.6
Richard Morton, an ordained minister with a Ph.D.
in counseling psychology, has written a book titled
Hypnosis and Pastoral Counseling. From his training
and practice as a hypnotherapist and psychologist,
Morton concludes that hypnosis is a normal human
capacity and that to “attribute to that phenomenon
per se a demonic or occultic status is to make God the
author of evil.” The purpose of his book is to encourage
the religious community “to accept hypnosis with the
honored status it so rightly deserves.”7 Morton
describes the use of hypnotic techniques in the typical
worship service. He says that “the experience of
worship is predicated upon one’s capacity for being
susceptible to the hypnotic techniques utilized in
worship.”8
Morton later says that “hypnosis, like religion,
is natural, powerful and universal.”9
To show how much one can pervert the truth,
Morton, in a section titled “Hypnosis and Religion as
Natural Phenomena,” says:
One of the earliest, if not the earliest, possible
descriptions of hypnosis, is recorded in the book
of Genesis in the Old Testament. Here, God is said
to have “caused a deep sleep” to fall upon man in
order to make for him a mate.10
In addition, Morton claims that the woman who came
to Jesus with the issue of blood (Luke 8:43-48) was
healed through hypnotism.11 Morton believes that
many of the healings of Jesus were performed through
“natural” hypnotic means. And so, miracles are
supposedly accomplished through hypnosis.
By reasoning that hypnosis is concentration and
suggestion and that concentration and suggestion are
hypnosis, one could be led to the conclusion that to
resist hypnosis is to be opposed to communion, confession,
conversion, and prayer. Carried to its extreme, in
order to avoid hypnosis, one must give up his faith and
stop thinking. If one applied this kind of reasoning to
medicine, one might begin by noticing that medical
doctors speak to their patients. Now one could conclude
Is Hypnosis a Natural Experience? 35
that since medicine involves conversation, everyone
who converses is practicing medicine.
Although there are natural activities such as
concentration and suggestion in hypnosis, hypnotism
is not just a normal, everyday activity. Although there
may be similarities between prayer and hypnosis, there
is a great difference between yielding oneself to God
in prayer and yielding oneself to a hypnotist during
hypnosis. There is a big difference between believing
God and exercising faith in a hypnotist, even though
both activities involve faith. Although there are
superficial similarities between hypnosis and many
other activities, it does not follow that they are all the
same.
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