Three Florida high school students are dead after being hypnotized by their school principal in Sarasota County, one in a car accident and two by suicide. Principal George Kenney is believed to have hypnotized up to 75 people, including students, members of the school staff and their children. Sarasota County School District officials repeatedly warned Kenney to stop the practice, which the principal insists was only done in the interest of helping students to be motivated and focused on school work and sports.
Watch the video, from ABC news, below:
This story is being followed, and is unusual in that it made it into the mainstream media.
So many want to pass off hypnosis as benign. But persistent reports of its use in the MK-Ultra projects, other mind control operations, and in ritual abuse scenarios argue against this simplistic view.
With hypnosis the contents of the "subconscious" mind can be accessed and changed. This mind was developed on purpose to resist analytical intervention. It is designed so that its content will selectively kick in when certain trigger conditions are present. Its initial purpose was to function as a protective mechanism for the organism. Normally, an individual is not able to recall its content or how that content got there.
But any period of pain or unconsciousness can function as a hypnotic event. Thus this mind is cluttered with useless and potentially harmful content just sitting there waiting to be triggered. Thankfully, safe methods have been developed to inspect and change the contents of this mind without shutting off the analyzer. These methods are not well known due to resistance from "experts" who have a vested interest in their ability to control subconscious mind content. But given that safer methods are now available, there is really no reason to use hypnosis unless the practitioner intends harm.
It could be this school principal is simply a poorly-trained amateur. But if it can be shown that his technique was sloppy, and thus dangerous, he will have to live with the knowledge that he caused damage to his subjects that my have resulted in at least 3 deaths. Bottom line: Hypnosis is an archaic and dangerous technology. If you want to help people, don't use it.