Certain questions are repeatedly asked about whether or not hypnosis can be bad. Among these is the possibility of employing [tag-tec]hypnosis[/tag-tec] to commit crimes. Scientific studies deny this possibility and therapeutic experience discredits it, but a few experimental studies, either inadequately controlled, or in protective situations, have resulted in pretended crimes. However, pretense is not reality, nor is hypnosis as essential in pretense.

Concerning harmful effects, none have been reported by experienced professionals, but the inexperienced and the arm-chair theorists are often emphatic in affirming such possibilities. Occasionally an amateur will [tag-tec]hypnotize[/tag-tec] a person suffering from a personality disorder and mistake the evidence of that disorder from hypnotic effects. In this connection may be mentioned the harmfulness of lay hypnosis. This derives not from the hypnosis itself but from the misconceptions promulgated and from the discredit and disrepute that always attend dabbling by the uninformed in, and exploitation by the charlatan of, any field of beneficial learning.

Can [tag-ice]hypnosis[/tag-ice] be induced without the subject´s willingness or awareness? Hypnosis is based upon willingness and co-operation, but this may be concealed behind a superficial attitude of unwillingness; similarly, superficial willingness may conceal deep-seated unwillingness, with a consequent failure of trance induction. A trance state cannot be maintained without the subject´s consent, actual or implied. Then, there is the question of what would happen if the subject could not be awakened, or if in some way the [tag-tec]hypnotist[/tag-tec] were to be removed, leaving the subject in a trance state. The reply is simply that the trance state, being dependent upon an interpersonal relationship of mutual co-operation, would terminate upon the cessation of that relationship. It is possible to arrange with a subject to remain in a trance in the absence of the hypnotist, but this is merely a form of continued co-operation. Occasionally a subject may refuse through a shim to arouse immediately from a trance, but this is a problem only for the inexperienced and is not significant. So, no, hypnosis cannot be bad.