Scientology and hypnosis

Practices in Scientology make extensive use of techniques drawn from hypnosis. They are used in 'auditing' and in the Training Routines widely practiced within the Scientology organization. The techniques are employed to seek to create dependency, obedience, and heightened suggestibility in the subjects. The Church of Scientology denies that its practices indlucde the use of hypnosis. The organization says that it will not permit individuals who say they have previously had hypnosis, as either a subject or practitioner, to participate in Scientology training, with the stated reasoning that there is a possibility of harm caused by the prior exposure to hypnosis.

Hubbard's experience with hypnosis
Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard was known to his associates in the late 1940s as a talented hypnotist. During this period, he worked in Hollywood posing as a swami. He used nitrous oxide and amphetamines alongside hypnosis. He credited hypnosis techniques with shaping his book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. In a document that Hubbard refers to as a technical bulletin, he writes that "we can brainwash faster than the Russians. 20 secs to total amnesia". The Scientology organization says that Hubbard's experience with hypnosis led him to create Dianetics as an alternative means to solve man's problems.

Hypnosis techniques in Scientology practice
In the book Dianetics, Hubbard advocates light trance or reverie techniques in Dianetic practice. He refers to hypnotism as a tool and an art, and states that "Dianetics and hypnotism can be combined", but, in contradiction to his advocacy of the use of hypnosis techniques in Dianetic practice in the same work, writes that hypnotism "is not used to any extent in Dianetic therapy". As he incorporated Dianetics in to Scientology, he added a wide range of other hypnotic techniques, with the aim to create dependency and obedience in followers. Volney Mathison, an early collaborator with Hubbard who designed the precursor machine to the e-meter, remarked in 1964, "I decry the doings of trivial fakers, such as Scientologists and the like, who glibly denounce hypnosis and then try covertly to use it in their phony systems".

In a book titled The Research & Discovery Series Volume 1, Hubbard writes that the 'auditor' "must be prepared to use hypnotism, he must know how it works, what he should do to make it function, how to regress a person in hypnotism and so on". However, most Scientology 'auditors' lack training in hypnosis and are ignorant of its techniques. Therefore, despite the presence in 'auditing' practice of techniques taken from hypnosis, most auditors will simply repeat Hubbard's claim that "auditing is not a form of hypnosis" or that "auditing removes hypnosis". Margery Wakefield, in her book Understanding Scientology, observes that the extremely repetitive questioning done during drills in Scientology 'auditing' is a form of hypnosis. These drills are sometimes done for several hours at a time, and Wakefield notes that this continues "until the preclear can do it without delay, without protest, without apathy, but with cheerfulness."

The Scientology training routines are used in several introductory courses, including the course most commonly sold to new recruits, 'Communication Course'. The Training Routines make extensive use of hypnotic methods to put the subject in an altered state. Participants are led to believe they are learning to communicate more effectively. The actual aim of the Training Routines is to cultivate the Scientologist self-identity and altered perception of reality. With repeated practice, the Training Routines heighten suggestibility and make it easier for the behavior, thoughts and emotions of the participant to be shaped.

A 2010 article in Ynet quoted Dr. Alex Aviv, Chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Law of Hypnosis to the Israeli Ministry of Health as saying (in reference to Scientology) "they restore early memories, usually of traumas, when in some cases this is a false memory. When a patient 'remembers' a false event like that via a hypnotic process - the event can become real for him".

Litigation
In 2002 a former member sued the Church of Scientology in Ireland for damages for psychological and psychiatric injury, conspiracy, misrepresentation and breach of constitutional rights. The case was heard at the High Court starting in February 2003. The case was expected to continue until May. In March an Oxford-trained clinical psychologist with a specialism in hypnosis, Peter Naish, gave evidence that the former member appeared to have been hypnotized while undergoing an 'auditing' session. He observed that extracts from Dianetics read in court indicated that what was involved in 'auditing' was hypnosis. He said that it appeared hypnosis was being used as a vehicle and that material was being developed in an emotional context. Although the court had heard 31 days of testimony, just as Naish was about to resume his evidence, the Church of Scientology agreed to settle case.

Scientology official statements on hypnosis
The Church of Scientology's official position on hypnosis is that it is a dangerous and undesirable practice. Whereas hypnotism's goal is to place a person in "a state of lessened awareness (i.e. trance)", Scientology's stated goal is to put people into the opposite state - one of higher awareness.

In his book The Creation of Human Ability, Hubbard denied the hypnotic nature of the processes and drills. He stated: "(They) induce no trances. People who think so simply don't know much about hypnotism."