Ever since the first primitive medicine man attempted to use hypnosis in some form to treat his savage patients, there has persisted a general tendency to regard hypnosis, its techniques, its methods, and its applications as something beyond the ken of common man, as mysterious, magical, and occult, based upon and derived from special powers, a ritual of mystical passes and an abracadabra of verbal commands.

Only recently has the rapid growth of scientific interest in hypnotism made possible the recognition of hypnosis as a special and highly significant intrapersonal state or condition clinically important, deriving from interpersonal relationships and valuable for both intra- and interpersonal significances. Also, there has been a progressive realization that practically all normal people as well as many of those suffering from certain types of mental disturbances can be hypnotized under proper circumstances; and, similarly, that anyone reasonably interested and intelligent can learn to hypnotize even as anyone can learn to do surgery. Special talents and abilities, other than a reasonable degree of aptitude, are necessary only to achieve historical prominence. In other words, the field of hypnosis is open to any person willing to qualify by interest, study and experience, and the intelligent use of hypnosis depends essentially upon a background and foundation of personal interest and training.

The technique for the induction of hypnotic trances is primarily a function of the interpersonal relationships existing between subject and hypnotist. Hence, hypnotic techniques and procedures should vary according to the subject, circumstances, and the purposes to be served. Furthermore, since hypnosis is dependent fundamentally upon the subject´s cooperativeness and his willingness to be hypnotized, any technique eliciting the necessary cooperation is adequate in this highly specialized interpersonal relationship. Indeed, competent hypnotists avoid any rigidity in technique and properly adapt it to the personality needs of their subjects in the immediate situation. A variety of individual approaches may be employed, but they need to be directed especially to the development in the subject of full confidence and security in the hypnotist, his willingness to participate in any legitimate procedure and his readiness to yield to an experience which is understandable, though perhaps painfully, of value to him as a personality. To this end, some subjects need to feel themselves dominated by the hypnotist, others want to be coaxed or persuaded, some wish to go into the trance as a result of joint cooperative endeavor, and there are those who wish, or more properly need, to be overwhelmed by a wealth of repetitious suggestions guiding every response they make.

The actual interpersonal relationship established between subject and hypnotist may be one purely of authority-subservience, of father-child, or more frequently physician-patient. In the armed forces, however, hypnotists occupy a position of special vantage. They combine the significant prestige of both an officer and a physician, and this is further enhanced by the training of the ranks in habitual, unquestioning obedience, which leads easily to the ready acceptance of hypnotic suggestions. However, in this regard, much more is to be accomplished when medical officers minimize their authoritarian status as officers and deal with their patient primarily at a medical level, thereby transforming their authority into additional prestige as a physician concerned not with authority but with professional interest and effort.