Psychiatry: Remote-Control Hypnosis

The notion that some evil eminence might use mass hypnosis over television is older than 1984, but nobody outside fiction has ever proved it possible. Last week a reputable Manhattan psychiatrist who has nothing of the Svengali about him told the A.M.A. that it is indeed possible. He knows, because he has done it.

Psychiatrist Herbert Spiegel, an assistant professor in Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Dr. James H. Ryan, a Columbia instructor, asked themselves the question: Is the physical presence of the hypnotist necessary to evoke the trance state? Theoretically, the answer should be no, they thought,...