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expectations which would then very often have been realised. In terms of healing, a modern
interpretation of what they did would be that they used a greatly enhanced placebo response to great
effect.
If we stand back and look at the pattern that seems to run through the practice of such people we see the
following.
The Practitioner goes through some procedure which he (or she) claims to lead to his or her possession
by some powerful spirit. Today this might be termed entering a trance. The usual personality disappears
and another takes its place - that of the spirit or god. This powerful spirit then acts on the Client's behalf.
Rather more problems would be tackled in this way than we might contemplate today: they could include
not only health problems but also divination or procuring good fortune or revenge on an enemy. Notice
that the whole focus of attention is on the Practitioner. Although we can expect that the Client will also
become strongly expectant of change, and might at times be acted upon to remove a supposed evil spirit
which might possess him or her, the focus of the activity is the possession of the Practitioner by a
powerful spirit.
It should be noticed that this approach to problems has not died out in the world. There are many today
who continue to work within this paradigm. For example there are those working within the healing
ministry of various churches who are portraying themselves as channels through which the healing spirit
of God can come down for others. Even more similar are the mediums who go into a trance in which
they might be "taken over" by the spirit of a Red Indian Guide or the like, and it is that spirit which then
supposedly advises or helps.
The only trace of this theme in modern Hypnotherapy is that the Practitioner will typically adopt a
professional persona while at work. This has a faint flavour of the practice of the shaman. It is saying
non-verbally, "I am no longer the ordinary person you meet in the street. I am now embodying wisdom,
knowledge and power to help you. These transcend my personal self."
It is worth looking at a few phenomena from our field to see how they might look from a spirit-world
perspective.
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Principles of Hypnosis (4). Other theories of hypnosis viewed from a systems perspective: they all provide partial insights
There is an established Hypnotic phenomenon of automatic writing. In some Subjects it is not only
possible to make a hand rise up into the air with no conscious volition, but also to get it to write words
which seem to the Subject to be totally unwilled and unpremeditated. Indeed if the hand is hidden from
view there may be no knowledge even that the hand has done any writing (e.g. Gauld (1992)Bib).
A natural spiritual possession interpretation of this is that clearly a foreign spirit has taken over the
functioning of the hand, and that the Hypnotherapist has simply acted in such a way as to facilitate it.
Another phenomenon which arises in the field of Hypnosis is that of Clients who seem vividly to recall
events which are clearly set in times before they were born. The spiritual possession view of these would
naturally be again that the body (like that of the medium) has temporarily been taken possession of by the
spirit of someone else who had lived that earlier life, and again that the Hypnotist has acted in a way to
facilitate this.
Alternatively it may be said that this phenomenon concerns only one spirit who first lived the past life
and is now living the present one. This interpretation is fairly popular with many people today, and is
termed Past Life Regression. Examples of instances of the use of Hypnotic techniques to elicit details of
past lives are provided by Iverson (1976)Bib. The belief harmonises well with those Eastern philosophies
and religions which believe in repeated incarnations of each individual soul. I know of no attempt to
distinguish by experiment or theory between the above two interpretations.
Most of the phenomena which today are interpreted as being the results of the functioning of "the
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