Black Eye For Hypnotists

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Permalink Reply by Rich Wilson on October 18, 2007 at 7:33pm

Logan High School administrators said Tuesday they do not plan to repeat a hypnotist's entertainment show after a girl ended up being hospitalized.

The show, which was a fund-raiser for the high school's drill team during last week's homecoming, abruptly ended when police said several young women felt nauseated and short of breath. Logan police said a 17-year-old girl ended up going to the hospital, where she was later released.

"She was hyperventilating and very panicky," Logan Police Capt. Eric Collins told the Deseret Morning News on Monday.

Collins was attending a volleyball game at the next-door gymnasium and came out to see the girl being wheeled into an ambulance. He went inside the auditorium, describing the scene as "chaotic," and said the hypnotist was trying to bring people out the state they were in.

"It's a hypnotist we've used before — same jokes, same timing and everything," said Mike Monson, support-services director at Logan City School District. "For some particular reason, and he's not sure, a couple girls started to hyperventilate."

There were hundreds of people at the show last Thursday.

Hypnosis is an altered state that allows a person's mind to wrap around a thought or desire. The hypnotist, Dale Bowman, believes some students may have faked their symptoms. The show ended long before intermission.

"Stuff like this gives hypnosis a bad name," said Bowman, 40, who manages a bus depot in Ogden. "I basically do the same thing all the time. I have them imagine a staircase and count backwards from 10 to one."

The school's principal, Patricia Hansen, said Bowman did a good job trying to get "people back to their normal state of mind."

There will be no show in 2008.

"We'll be looking for a few more car washes," she said.

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Permalink Reply by Scott Sandland on October 19, 2007 at 11:13am

Thanks for sharing Rich,

This is exactly why every hypnosis course should talk about abreactions and creating a positive resource as one of the first steps of the hypnotic process.

It would be interesting to find out if the subject had a history of panic or anxiety disorders of any kind.

This is another reason why we need more hours necessary in the minimum training requirements for the certifying bodies. But that is an entirely different soap box...

Scott Sandland

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Permalink Reply by Dave Strayer on October 21, 2007 at 1:02pm

Generally speaking, there are two types of folks who get into the hyp show business, each with two sub-groups. The first are hypnotists who are attracted to the entertainment realm for a variety of reasons. The second are entertainers of other ilks who are primarily attracted to the better pay. The sub-groups are common to each, those that actually know something about hypnotism, and those who don't. The former tend to have dynamic shows that interact with both their volunteers and their audience. The latter tend to be scriptnotists both on stage and off. It's the latter than tend to encounter situations they don't know how to handle. Unfortunately, the schools are a lucrative market and are not very sophisticated buyers. Fortunately, it's unlikely an underskilled entertainer is going to cause any real damage unless they allow some physical hazard (like someone falling off the stage or have me trying to do splits).

So, Scott, I'm not sure it's a separate soap box after all.

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Permalink Reply by Don Rice on October 21, 2007 at 2:48pm

Hi Scott,

I owned a hypnosis school for ten years where I trained over 1,000 people including over 100 medical people for the AMA. I can assure you that the number of hours in a class doesn't control the quality of the class. Normally the teacher who has the least amount of ability will teach the most hours as they think time will over come lack of ability.

Just a personal observation.

Don

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Permalink Reply by Don Rice on October 21, 2007 at 3:02pm

Hi Doc Magi,

I have gone to court from a stage show situation and you can't believe the crap that was claimed. I had 20 volunteers on stage and they toasted their principal by drinking a make believe soulution from a clear cup so the audience could see it was empty. I told them it make them relax and have a strong desire to giggle. I have used this skit for years and it's fun. This was a Friday night and the following night one of the single mothers found her daughter in a car with a couple of boys and a bottle of wine. When she questioned the girl the girl about drinking the girl said had never drank before, but the glass of white wine??? she drank on the stage with me made her want to drink more. The insurance company wanted to give them $1, 000.00 to drop the suit, but I protested and took it to the local court. Within three minutes the judge threw it out of court and told the mother what a poor example she was to her daughter. Yes I won, but it cost me $3,500.00. Rather than put down the hypnotist in trouble I think that as hypnotists we all should support
the person.

Don

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Permalink Reply by JG on October 21, 2007 at 10:02pm

Utah is in a unique state/situation.. considering how paranoid (its a thing of the devil!!) most "ultra religious" groups (areas) are and their often-slanted views pertaining to hypnosis of any form in the first place.. Having recognized this (as a presupposition, of course), it sounds likely that the hypnotist either didn't word the suggestions properly, or appeared to fail to screen the volunteers properly.. JMO, of course, but these seem like two of the more likely scenarios

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Permalink Reply by JG on October 21, 2007 at 10:13pm

And lack of income from the dearth of clientelle? ;-)

JG

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Permalink Reply by JG on October 21, 2007 at 10:18pm

I'm not putting him down, Don,, but it does raise the issue whether he screens, watches for abreations and responds immediately, appropriately and accordingly to a fast-changing dynamic situation. Perhaps he needs or needed further training in that area.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Vizzini on October 23, 2007 at 5:10am

I think one thing is being missed here.

In today's climate, more and more students are medicated and under psychiatric care. It is hard to say if the hypnotists did anything wrong at all. When someone is using a drug to control their behavior it could them more prone to abreactions.

So an induction that might have worked fine a few years ago might have to be altered to include the possibility of abreaction.

I would be curious to find out what other things the girls were being treated for... If anything

Tom Vizzini

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Permalink Reply by JG on October 23, 2007 at 6:15am

Correct.. as I stated in earlier post, he not only should have screened them better for possible problems, mental as well as physical, but perhaps needs more isntruction dealing with abreactions.

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Permalink Reply by Don Rice on October 23, 2007 at 10:07am

Hi Tom,

Good reply, because I agree with you. I have presented over 500 stage shows from 25 people to 2,000 people and there is absolutely no way I can judge who is going to give me difficulty on or off stage.

Do Good & Make Money,

Don

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Permalink Reply by Lee Darrow on October 24, 2007 at 10:27am

And just how would one screen for a girl who might decide to hyperventilate?

Yes, making a statement about not coming on stage if one is in active care for major mental illness is a Good Idea, but it may also engender problems as well by planting the seed of the idea that someone can act out and make a buck on an opportunistic lawsuit, as has already been hinted at by other posts.

This was better handled, in my opinion, in the pre-talk and during the induction itself - by being careful to keep the volunteer's breathing from being too deep during the induction process as well as by watching for signs of the onset of hyperventilation, which has some very obvious warnings which he seems to have missed. These warnings include shallow and rapid breathing, flushing of the skin, and rapid and sudden motions as they follow your movements on stage, among others.

People who tend to react this way, rare though they are, also tend to overemphasize their compliance with any initial instructions that they might be given - such as "take a few deep breaths," and can turn that into a start up for a session of hyperventilation.

I've seen it happen.

By keeping the suggestions for relaxing breaths as suggestions for relaxing breaths, as opposed to "deep breaths," for example, one can do quite a bit to obviate such behaviors in many show situations as well as in a private session.

Without having seen the video of the show, it's difficult to say precisely what happened and where any errors, if any, occurred, but it is heartening that the official from the school stated that there were no changes in anything from the shows from years past.

I quite agree that he might need more instruction in how to deal with abreaction as I was literally stunned when I taught th workshop on Safety for Stage Hypnotists at the 2006 NGH convention and found out that it was the first workshop of its kind that anybody had heard of that was dedicated solely to safety for stage hypnotists and people who do lecture demonstrations!

Maybe I should take this program on the road...

Respectfully,

Lee Darrow, C.H.
Celebrating 40 years in show business, this year (I got an early start!)

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