laboratory time investigating hypnosis. He reports an
experiment measuring hypnotic depth with a man
whom he identifies as William. He recorded the experiences
of William, an intelligent, well-adjusted twentyyear-old
college student.1
After hypnotizing William a
few times to explore hypnotic depth, he asked William
to indicate the various depths while under hypnosis.
William and Tart assigned numbers to these depths;
we will merely report the various effects. The first was
a sense of relaxation and then a separation from his
physical body, which William referred to as “just a thing,
something I’ve left behind.” His vision was affected and
he sensed a blackness which progressively became
more intense. He felt peaceful until peacefulness was
no longer a “meaningful concept . . . there is no longer
a self to be peaceful or not peaceful beyond this point.”
Along with these other sensations, William moved
through various degrees of awareness of his environment
and his identity.2
Through the earlier stages William was aware of
himself, but then his identity became “centered in his
head.” Later he felt that he was no longer just himself,
but something much more: “potential to be anything or
anyone.” William’s sense of time dissolved into a sense
of timelessness. At the deeper levels there was “an
awareness of some sort of chant or humming sound
that [was] identified with the feeling that more and
more experience [was] potentially available.”
Tart notes, “The chant William reported may be
related to the Hindu concept of the sacred syllable Om,
supposedly a basic sound of the universe that a man
can ‘hear’ as mind becomes more universally attuned.”
William’s feeling of being one with the universe was
definitely similar to a Hindu religious experience. This
sense of merging with the universe and losing personal
identity, yet having the potential for “anything or
anyone,” increases more and more as the hypnosis
deepens.3
Tart concludes his report on his work with William
by saying that William moved into stages “similar to
Eastern descriptions of consciousness of the void . . . in
which time, space, and ego are supposedly transcended,
leaving pure awareness of the primal nothingness from
which all manifested creation comes.” Tart believes that
such experiments “raise the possibility of using
hypnotic states to induce and/or model mystical
states.”4
At any level of hypnosis there is a distortion of reality.
It seems that as the hypnotic trance deepens, the
possibility of demonic danger grows. Paradoxically,
some claim it is at the deeper levels of hypnosis that
the most beneficial work can be done. Daniel Goleman
says:
80 Hypnosis
Like meditation and biofeedback, hypnosis can
open the way for a person to enter a wide range of
discrete states of consciousness, or, more rarely,
altered states.5
The Concise Textbook states categorically that
“Trance states are altered states of consciousness.”6
Melvin Gravitz, former president of the American
Society of Clinical Hypnotism, calls the trance-like
condition an “altered state of consciousness.”7
Erika
Fromm, in an article titled “Altered States of Consciousness
and Hypnosis,” says, “It is time for researchers in
altered states of consciousness and in hypnosis to get
acquainted with each other, to recognize that hypnosis
is an ASC [altered state of consciousness].”8
If, indeed hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness
and/or a trance, it is also related to shamanism.
In her book on shamanism and modern medicine, Dr.
Jeanne Achterberg says, “The basis of shamanic work
is the trance.”9
Shaman Michael Harner, in his book The Way of the
Shaman, describes the similarities between the
shamanic state of consciousness and an altered state
of consciousness. Harner says, “What is definite is that
some degree of alteration of consciousness is necessary
to shamanic practice.”10 Harner quotes one writer
who says:
What we are really trying to establish is that the
shaman is in a nonordinary psychic state which
in some cases means not a loss of consciousness
but rather an altered state of consciousness.11
Near the end of his book Harner says:
Deep Hypnosis 81
The burgeoning field of holistic medicine shows a
tremendous amount of experimentation involving
the reinvention of many techniques long practiced
in shamanism, such as visualization, altered state
of consciousness, aspects of psychoanalysis,
hypnotherapy, meditation, positive attitude,
stress-reduction, and mental and emotional
expression of personal will for health and healing.
In a sense, shamanism is being reinvented in
the West precisely because it is needed.12
In describing deep hypnosis, Ernest Hilgard says:
Distortions of consciousness occur that have some
similarity to the reports of mystical experiences.
. . . The passage of time becomes meaningless, the
body seems to be left behind, a new sense of infinite
potentiality emerges, ultimately reaching the
sense of oneness with the universe.13
In describing experiences at the various levels of
the hypnotic trance, clinical psychologist Peter
Francuch says:
Up to the five hundredth, one goes through various
states and levels that reflect different states
and levels of the spiritual world and its conditions.
At the 126th level, there is a state that corresponds
to the state described by the Eastern mystics.14
Francuch has taken subjects far beyond this trance
level and describes what happened to a particular
subject:
82 Hypnosis
The subject emerged from the 126th state, or state
of void, nothingness, Nirvana, as a new-born individual
with a high level of individuation, differentiation,
and at the same time, absorption of the
Universe and creation within and without, being
simultaneously one with and different from
Creation. This state is impossible to describe in
words, because nothing exists in the human
vocabulary that corresponds to it.
He also says:
I was told that once we break the 1,000 level, all
laws, rules, and regulations as they are known to
all levels of spirituality and the natural world will
be broken, and something completely new will
appear. 15
Hypnotic trance at the deeper levels can and usually
does result in the above descriptions, which will be
easily identified by Christians as occult, but these
obvious manifestations of the occult may not appear
at the shallow levels. We can only warn that the deeper
the induction, the greater the danger; the deeper the
trance, the more potential for harm. However, this
raises a question: What is the relationship between
the various levels of hypnosis and at what level does a
person enter the danger zone? Also, considering the
Hilgard study of somnambules who easily move into
the deeper levels of trance, will any persons who submit
themselves to a trance become vulnerable to sexual
fantasies or psychic experiences?
Hilgard’s description of deep hypnosis refers to “a
separation of mind from body, a feeling of oneness with
Deep Hypnosis 83
the universe.”16 David Haddon in the Spiritual Counterfeits
Newsletter warns: “Any technique or practice
that alters the consciousness to an empty-minded state
of passivity should be avoided.” Haddon warns against
the production and enhancement of the passive mental
state through whatever means and says:
While those kinds of techniques are often taken
up for the supposed psychological and physical
benefits rather than as spiritual disciplines, the
user’s intention will not prevent experience of the
passive mental state with its attendant hazards.17
Haddon lists the hazards of mindlessness:
It blinds the mind to the truth of the gospel by
displacing reason as a means to truth . . . it opens
the mind to false ideas about God and reality. . .
opens the personality to demonic incursion.18
Haddon’s article is primarily about meditation, but
we believe that these possibilities apply equally to
hypnosis. Kroger says, “For centuries, Zen, Buddhist,
Tibetan, and Yogic methods have used a system of
meditation and an altered state of consciousness similar
to hypnosis.”19
Hypnotic trance and demonic possession certainly
have some things in common. Hilgard describes two
cases of trance in which possession was involved. In
the first case the individual “becomes possessed by the
Monkey God” and in the second case the individual
“has a choice of spirits to call on.” Hilgard says:
84 Hypnosis
The spirit would possess him and then answer
questions, particularly making recommendations
for the cure of illness, including the special curative
powers of a charmed glass of water.20
Does hypnosis act as an invitation to demonic
possession? One cult leader, a former professional
hypnotist, claims, “Once you’ve been hypnotized, your
mind will never be your own again.”21 While we do not
endorse such an extreme statement, there may nonetheless
be some truth in it.
Francuch is a perfect example of how a clinical
psychologist can proceed from hypnosis to spiritual
hypnosis and then to the mystical and the occult. The
promotion flyer for his third book, Messages from
Within, says:
This book consists of thirty-six plus messages
received by him from his highest spiritual
advisor—the Most High—in the process of his
profound spiritual self-hypnosis, meditation and
dialogue with his Inner Mind.22
The pathway to psychic experiences, demon possession,
and who knows what else may indeed be through
hypnosis.
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