THE DEVIL’S WORK
Hypnosis and the Christian – Martin and Deidre Bobgan
Hypnosis and religion have long been uncomfortable bedfellows, and our dark art especially scares and offends Christians, who believe it to be the work of Satan. So, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that Kev and I are heathens.
Not that our special interest in hypnotism is precluding us from finding faith – it doesn’t even feature in our top, say, 10,000 reasons to not believe in The Angry Old White Guy In The Sky. Instead, it is the Christians who have tried – and failed – to save us from hypnotism and The Devil’s clutches who intrigue us...
Kev has a particularly amusing story. He loves a bit of doorstep chat with postal delivery workers and tradespeople when the mood strikes; I will wonder why the house is cold 20 minutes after the doorbell rang and find him sharing his life story with a furniture delivery driver who was just offering to take the packaging away.
Pity then the Jehovah’s Witness, named Dave, who called upon Kev during the height of Kev’s Head Hacking days. Dave stood on the doorstep while Kev regaled him with stories of his hypnotic career. Dave stared at his shoes and worried for the Satanic corruption of his two accompanying children. “Hypnosis is the work of The Devil,” Dave informed Kev.
Kev, of course, chirpily offered to do a demo. Dave declined, presumably wondering how he could segue to his stack of Awake! pamphlets or the perils of blood transfusions... Kev asked if he could do a demo for him using a third-party participant? Again, Dave declined. Would Dave even watch hypnosis on the telly, Kev wondered?
Dave and his children left this doorstep of sin – only to return a couple of weeks later, presumably having figured how to save poor Kev from Beelzebub. But, alas, Kev’s now-ex-wife answered the door instead and, irked at having been drawn downstairs from their top-floor flat, announced to Dave that they were atheists... and shut the door in his face.
Meanwhile, I’ve encountered a few international colleagues who believed my burgeoning interest in hypnotism was unholy (but also kind of dangerously cool). And we’re all familiar with Derren Brown’s dalliance with evangelical Christianity during his formative years, only for his university flock to denounce him and speak in tongues at his student stage hypnosis shows after he lost his faith and found hypnosis and Martin S Taylor instead.
And yet many hypnosis books, and related sources, chalk religious miracles and mysteries up to hypnosis and the power of suggestion; one can barely read a potted, pre-Mesmer history of hypnotism without someone confidently stating that Jesus was a hypnotist to account for his healing power. So, I guess I was drawn to this short booklet cited in Robert A Baker’s They Call It Hypnosis in hopes of better understanding the opposing stance.
Published in 1984, this booklet is the kind, patient friend to the ‘Satanic panic’ propaganda that proliferated in the USA in the 1980s. Husband and wife team authors, Martin and Deirdre Bobgan, are former psychologists on a mission to warn people against the errors and dangers of psychology, psychotherapy, and counselling. The booklet seeks to explain how these fields, and specifically hypnosis, contradict the beliefs and values of the Bible.
The Bobgans stumble through a number of spiritual concerns surrounding hypnotism, from questions about the need for deception, and violation of the will; to the dangers of past- and future-life ‘regression’, and ‘deep’ hypnosis... They quote credible sources, especially Ernest Hilgard, but mingled with parapsychologists and scripture... They ask rhetorical questions that give the semblance of this being an open, objective exploration...
But, ultimately, they revert to their base message: don’t let The Devil into your mind! That void is reserved only for God, the Bible, and your preacher, sheeple! If a reader had been torn between, say, hypnotism’s rumoured pain control/relief powers vs their devotion to Sweet Baby Jesus, then they won’t find anything more sophisticated to persuade them against it despite the booklet’s apparent sophistication and openness.
Given my knowledge of Christianity peaked while singing ‘He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands’ in primary school, I can’t comment on ecumenical matters. However, when ordering this booklet from Amazon, I was amused to see its sole reviewer has taken great exception to the Bobgans and the “untruthfulness” of their book – because, as their scathing one-star review is titled, “God did practice hypnosis”.
So I guess there’s no saving me and Kev – see you in Hell, fellow hypno-fans!
