The practice of inducing a state of hypersuggestibility in which susceptible persons may be led to accept and act uncritically upon suggestions given by others who thus in a measure control them. A trance state is characteristic of some levels of hypnosis but may or may not be obvious. The kinds of procedures that are now generally classified under the name hypnotism were known in the nineteenth century by a number of nebulous terms such as mesmerism, Braidism, mind cure, and animal magnetism.
The leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church have from the first rejected the use of hypnotism, considering it unethical and vulnerable to influence by unseen sinister forces. Ellen White recognized hypnotism as a science that “may appear . . . very valuable,” through which “temporary relief may be felt”; but she spoke of it as leaving the subject of hypnosis more or less permanently weakened ( MM 112, 116), and she referred to it as “the science by which satanic agencies work.” She also spoke out against the practice on the ethical grounds that “no individual should be permitted to take control of another person’s mind” ( ibid. 115). Hypnotism deprives the subject of the free use of the will and takes the individual from the world of reality into a realm of fantasy in which he or she may experience enhanced visual and auditory imagery, automatic writing, depersonalization, various types of disorientation, and acceleration or inhibition of physiological functions ( Encyclopaedia Britannica [1971], vol. 11, p. 996). Satan teaches the science of taking captive the minds of others and thus deprives them of the privilege of choosing to accept Jesus Christ ( MM 110).
The General Conference Committee, in the 1955 Autumn Council, while recognizing the indispensable place of psychosomatic medicine and the appropriate application of psychology and psychiatry, took action on hypnotism, recommending that “we as a denomination recognize hypnotism as a dangerous procedure, and warn Seventh-day Adventists against employing or seeking its use,” and that “we take a decided stand against the teaching or practicing of hypnotism in the Seventh-day Adventist institution.”
Seventh-day Adventists, by and large, have followed Mrs. White’s counsel and the direction of the church in this regard, and have felt that some of the more recent pronouncements by ethically sensitive investigators as well as the caution advised by many psychiatrists have tended to confirm the wisdom of this position.