Page 167 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

148 Mysteries of the Mind

method of alleviating pain from cancer and maintains that it is an effective tool in police
other chronic conditions. Numerous clinical work. “Hypnosis doesn’t always lead to an
studies demonstrated that hypnosis could also arrest,” Wester told Janice Morse of The
reduce acute pain faced by pregnant women Cincinnati Enquirer in 2002. “But it almost
undergoing labor or the pain experienced by always generates some additional investigative
burn victims. In some instances, it was judged leads for the police to follow.”
that hypnosis accomplished greater relief than Since 1991, Wester and John W. Kilnapp, a
such chemical pain killers as morphine. special agent and forensic artist with the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms,
have teamed up to work on more than 50 rob-
beries, rapes, kidnappings, and murders nation-
EGYPTIAN soothsayers and medical wide. After Wester has hypnotized a witness or
victim of a crime and assisted that person to
practitioners used hypnotic procedures over
describe minute details of the events, Kilnapp
3,000 years ago. works on a composite sketch of the perpetrator
of the crime. While the team of artist and psy-
chologist admitted that it was the police who
solved the crimes, they estimated that in 95
While such experiments certainly indicate percent of their cases, they helped expand a
that something is going on within a subject’s brief description of a suspect to fill several
mind during the process of hypnosis, many pages for investigators to use.
psychologists, such as Dr. Nicholas Spanos,
argue that hypnotic procedures merely influ- The Society for Clinical and Experimental
ence behavior by altering a subject’s motiva- Hypnosis has stated that hypnosis should not
tions, expectations, and interpretations. Such stand alone as the sole medical or psychologi-
influences have nothing to do with placing a cal treatment for any kind of disorder, but the
person into a trance or exercising any kind of society suggests that there is strong evidence
control over that person’s unconscious mind. that hypnosis may be an effective component
Hypnosis, in Spanos’s view, is an act of social in the broader treatment of many physical
conformity, rather than a unique state of con- problems and in some conditions may increase
sciousness. The subject, he maintains, is only the effectiveness of psychotherapy. While the
acting in accordance with the hypnotist’s sug- clinical use of hypnosis has not become an
gestions and responds according to the expec- accepted means of treatment among medical
tations of how a hypnotized person is supposed personnel and psychologists, it has gained
to behave. many scientific supporters and evolved greatly
from its occult and superstitious roots.
Critics of hypnotic procedures during
police investigations are concerned that too M Delving Deeper
many law enforcement officers consider hyp- Baker, Robert A. They Call It Hypnosis. Buffalo, N.Y.:
nosis as a kind of magical way to arrive at the Prometheus Books, 1990.
truth of a case. The American Society of Clin- Bowers, Kenneth. Hypnosis for the Seriously Curious.
ical Hypnosis has certified about 900 psychol- New York: W. W. Norton, 1983.
ogists, only five of whom specialize in forensic Carroll, Robert Todd. “Hypnosis.” The Skeptic’s Dictio-
hypnosis and assist in police work. Federal nary. [Online] http://skepdic.com/hypnosis.html.
courts and about a third of the state courts 18 November 2002.
allow testimony of hypnotized individuals on Fromm, Erika, and Michael R. Nash. Contemporary
a case-by-case basis. Hypnosis Research. New York: Guilford Press,
Dr. William C. Wester, a nationally recog- 1992.
nized psychologist, has used hypnotism to Morse, Janice. “Hypnosis Proves Valuable Police
assist victims and witnesses of crimes to Tool.” The Cincinnati Enquirer, April 30, 2002.
remember the details of more than 150 cases. [Online] http://enquirer.com/editions/2002/04/30/
Wester agrees that hypnosis is not magic, but loc_hypnosis_provides.html.

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