As far as I am aware, it did not take off, no. If you really examine the research, you’ll see that any notion of hypnosis being ‘forensic’ is typically flawed before it starts due to the way that hypnosis is conceptualised by the majority of academia and research on the topic. The use of hypnosis in criminal cases is virtually non-existent today as a result and in fact many cases and convictions that used ‘forensic’ hypnosis in the past are being questioned, re-examined and in many cases thrown out due to the proven fallibility of hypnosis in this respect. Look to the work of Michael Heap in particular, but in particular the use of hypnosis with memory related applications – any good evidence-based hypnosis textbook will highlight the problems with hypnosis and memory. Best wishes to you, Adam.

Hi Adam
This blog and article came across my timeline while doing some research of forensic hypnotism . Do you know if this ever took of with the Police in the U.K.? Were there any stories of its use in criminal cases that came to public knowledge? Thanks

Thank you for those references karen, they are very much appreciated.

Though I would note, my issue with this story is nothing to do with the Police using hypnosis. In fact I have written in great depth here on many occasions highlighting the lack of efficacy in hypnosis being used for eyewitness testimony, for example.

It was simply that if someone such as a police force were looking for training of a certain ilk, then perhaps they should/could consider looking elsewhere for something with a bit more congruency.

What’s more, if there was no sense of media misrepresentation, then we’d not get to discuss this subject with as much fervour, would we? 😉

In this case, I did a quick Google. After all this time, there was still an official statement from Cheshire police saying that this story is a total misrepresentation. Took me under 2 minutes 🙂

http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/chester-news/local-chester-news/2010/01/07/cheshire-constabulary-deny-using-hypnosis-during-criminal-investigations-59067-25541790/

“Spokeswoman Shelley Williams said: “Cheshire Constabulary does not utilise any form of hypnosis techniques with individuals as part of a criminal investigation, or invest in any form of hypnosis training for officers.

“The views expressed in the Police Review magazine are the personal views of PC Mark Hughes and not the views of the Cheshire Constabulary.

“Furthermore, the costs of the training is not funded by Cheshire Constabulary.””

Thank you Donald, I appreciate your contribution 🙂

(Have a fab festive season my friend)

To me, this is comparable to the police force in, let’s say Richmond, Virginia, hiring Ken Webster from Blackpool to come and do training in forensic hypnosis with its officers. Ken Webster is a great stage hypnotist because he has stage presence and can play the comedian, but I am sure even he would admit that he is not qualified to teach anything about forensic hypnosis.

What a shame that this is the path they selected. I have many hypnotherapist friends in the UK that I correspond with regularly, and so many of them would have been glad to have this opportunity to work with their own local police forces. It’s just a real shame.

Thank you Brian, good to hear from you.

I have to agree with you, this could have been a really great opportunity for some really good press on hypnosis. There are so many hypnotherapist doing really great work in the UK. Why on earth bring in some US celebrity

Thanks for that Paul, I agree with you here.

The issue we are now facing with this story, especially now that the tabloids in the UK have latched on to it, is that this could have been an opportunity to celebrate and to be proud of moving the field of hypnosis forward.

Instead, we have police being quoted making unsubstatiated claims, and the flag bearer for the programme is most famous for an ‘organsm handshake’ – our media currently overly scrutinise any kind of public spending following MP’s expenses claims and furore at the BBC all coupled with our inability to shake off the recession… The police force and government agencies should have known how this hypnosis initiative would get portrayed, at least they could have had some well thought-out PR and some credible evidence-based facts to support the whole thing.

Paul, we have to do something together sometime soon….

Best wishes, A.