A person asked in a comment on my YouTube channel … Where do I report someone who hypnotized me?
Short answer. At any police station.
Long answer.
It is important that in addition to filing the complaint, you seek legal and psychological advice.
Probably the first questions you will be asked are …
How do you know they hypnotized you?
Is it a personal complaint or a complaint against a health or hypnosis professional?
Did they ask your permission to hypnotize you?
It is difficult because it all depends on what happened and the conditions.
First, in principle, no health or hypnosis professional is going to hypnotize you without your consent.
Furthermore, whether or not the person believes in hypnosis does not matter. If the person can concentrate, use her imagination, and follow directions, he or she can enjoy hypnosis. But again, the first thing is that the person wants to be hypnotized, that’s the starting point.
It is almost impossible to hypnotize a person who does not want to be hypnotized.
Certainly there are methods and techniques to influence a person, which are based on hypnosis. For example, Conversational Hypnosis, many Christian Pastors, particularly Pentecostals and Evangelicals, use suggestion techniques, principles based on hypnosis to influence their followers.
Likewise, politicians and marketing techniques use techniques designed to influence the decision of the person.
I mention the above because it is important to differentiate between suggestion, manipulation, mind control, and hypnosis. Hypnosis is not mind control, it is very difficult to hypnotize a person without his or her consent, it is practically impossible to hypnotize a person to do something against their moral principles. And a hypnotized person is never under the total mind control of the hypnotist.
Of course a person who is an expert in hypnosis knows techniques that help make hypnotizing someone easier, or influence someone’s decision.
At our office in downtown London, Ontario, we always ask if the person wants to be hypnotized and signs a document with his or her consent to be hypnotized.
Sometimes happened that couples visit us where the wife wants her husband to change a bad habit, to stop smoking for example, and she takes her husband to our office. Sometimes the husband really does not want to quit smoking, and for the same reason, it is very difficult for him to enter hypnosis and stop smoking, even though hypnosis is very effective in quitting smoking.
Anyone can enter hypnosis, but the first requirement is that he wants to do it.
I mentioned that it is important to get legal advice to guide you, and psychological advice to help you overcome the problems created.
Certainly if someone tried to hypnotize you without your consent and wanted to manipulate or harm you, file the complaint at any police station and if the hypnotist is a health professional, or hypnotherapist, also present the complaint to the organization to which said person belongs.
If the hypnotist is a professional, it is quite likely that on his website he has information about his credentials and the organizations to which he belongs.
As a final observation, it is worth mentioning that hypnosis is not a bad thing or a crime, but certainly just as a doctor will ask for his consent before treating you, a hypnotist must ask for your consent before hypnotizing you.
It is important to clarify that hypnosis in itself is neither dangerous, nor bad, nor illegal. Quite the contrary, it is a technique that has helped many people improve their lives. People of different cultures, religions, political or social positions have benefited from the use of hypnosis, evidenced by scientific studies and personal testimonies.
Of course, it is important to reaffirm that anyone who feels that they were hypnotized without their consent and that caused a problem has every right to file a complaint. It is more if the person was hypnotized with consent but thinks that some damage was done, they have the right to file a complaint.
Hope this helps you.
Olivier Hidalgo.
NFH Certified Hypnosis Instructor.
NGH Board Certified.
NLP Hypnosis Centre.
London, Ontario.