Hypnotist standards may go up

Indiana is currently the only state that regulates and certifies hypnotists. \nOther hypnotists from across the nation travel to the Hoosier heartland to become certified because their state does not recognize the credibility of the profession as a medical career.\nIf Senator Robert Meeks (R-Ind.) had it his way, Indiana would continue being a beacon of light for the hypnosis profession.\nHe has recently drafted new legislation -- Senate Bill 114 -- in an attempt to keep Indiana a hypnotist-accrediation model for other states. \n"(The bill) is an effort to upgrade the standard of the board," Meeks said.\nThe Indiana Hypnotist Committee -- composed of three hypnotists, other doctors and one community member -- is charged with regulating and certifying Hoosier hypnotists and hypnotists from other states. Certification from the committee does not mean a hypnotist is licensed in another state; rather, certification improves the perception of an accredited profession. \nThe committee is affiliated with the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana. \nRichard Erickson, committee member and certified hypnotist, said Hoosier hypnotists are laying the path for recognizing hypnosis as a legitimate medical procedure.\n"For once, we're kind of ahead of the game," Erickson said in a 2004 Indiana Business article. "Other states are looking at us as a model."\nThe alliance between the committee and the Medical Licensing Board is of huge importance to Hoosiers -- it marks the belief that hypnosis is not entertainment, but a medical method with therapeutic benefits. \nMeeks said he felt inspired to write this bill because of a constituent who happens to be a hypnotist, in addition to the knowledge that other medical professionals must have licenses to put their patients in a state of sleep.\nThe bill in its original draft "requires that a hypnotist appointed to the hypnotist committee have a master's or doctorate degree." To sit on the committee, the hypnotist member is only required to have 500 hours of classroom experience to be certified.\nErickson said his main concern with SB 114 is the language rooted in the bill.\n"(The bill) is not specific enough in intent to justify its passage or to even have it read," Erickson said. "(The bill) is not finite enough as to what a master's or a doctorate is ... (it is) error by omission."\nErickson said the committee, generally, was not in favor of Sen. Meeks' bill. \nHe said the original hypnotist legislation was written haphazardly and without a prototype because Indiana was the first state to regulate and certify hypnosis.\nErickson said the goal of the committee is to put together "a well-rounded bill."\n"The original writer had the forethought to see the need for hypnosis medicine," Erickson said. "(The committee's goal is) changing the bill to fit the criteria of current medical professions."\nWith the ongoing research in hypnotherapy, some studies have found that hypnosis does significantly affect the brain. In 2000, for instance, Harvard University researchers Stephen Kosslyn and William Thompson published their study on hypnosis in the American Journal of Psychiatry. The study showed that different brain activity was triggered when the test subjects were hypnotized versus unhypnotized when asked to perform similar perceptual tests. \nAlthough both bills will only affect the members of the committee only it is the hope of both Erickson and Meeks that the hypnotist occupation for Hoosiers will earn accreditation -- possibly validating the profession nationwide.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Melissa Swyers at mswyers@indiana.edu.