Stage hypnotist 'brought back trauma of sex abuse'
By David Graves
12:00AM BST 22 May 2001
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1331163/Stage-hypnotist-brought-back-trauma-of-sex-abuse.html
A WOMAN who was hypnotised during a stage act told the High Court yesterday that she became a "zombie" afterwards because it reawakened memories of childhood sexual abuse.
Lynn Howarth, 40, a mother of seven, claimed she suffered clinical depression which culminated in two suicide attempts and forced her to put her children into a nursery because she could not cope. She said that Philip Green, the hypnotist whose stage name is Phil Damon, was negligent in the way he carried out his act during a private function at a social club in February 1994.
Mrs Howarth, of Bolton, Greater Manchester, said: "I went through an absolutely horrendous time from being hypnotised. My world was turned upside down which almost resulted in me ending my life, leaving my children without a mother and my husband without a wife. I never doubted from the word go that hypnotism was the root of my problems. Prior to being hypnotised I was perfectly healthy, physically and mentally."
Mrs Howarth said she was a happy person before the show, at the Wyresdale Amateur Football and Social Club, Lancs, which she had organised to raise funds for her youth club. But after she reluctantly volunteered to take part in the hour-long act, before an audience of 100 people, she felt as if she was "shrouded in a black cloak".
"I went to that stage show as a normal, happy, healthy, energetic woman and came out a zombie," said Mrs Howarth. She claimed that Mr Green made her regress to the age of eight, when she had been sexually abused by an uncle. Mr Green also induced her to drink a glass of cider believing it was water and believe she was in love with the hypnotist.
Mrs Howarth said: "Out of the blue he said 'you are now eight years old and you are watching a film'. As he said that, I did feel very apprehensive, very unhappy, because I wasn't happy at eight years old, a lot of things happened to me at eight years old." In a faltering voice, Mrs Howarth told the court that at that age she ran errands for her mother's uncle, called Uncle Billy, and his bed-bound wife, who lived nearby.
"He used to subject me to some pretty rude, lurid acts, not actually intercourse." Mrs Howarth said that an uncle, who is now dead, touched her inappropriately and watched her on the lavatory. "He told me no one would believe me and that it was our little secret."
The following week she told her doctor that she felt she was still in a trance and she developed severe clinical depression. The age regression had rekindled the memories of sexual abuse and brought back the trauma she had suffered, she said.
Lawrence West, counsel for Mr Green, suggested to Mrs Howarth under cross-examination that she had volunteered to participate in the hypnosis act and would have had a pretty good idea of what she was letting herself in for. Mrs Howarth replied: "No, I had a vague idea. I certainly didn't think there was anything to be frightened of or worried about."
Counsel suggested that Mr Green had included those with psychological conditions in the list of people he did not want to volunteer, along with those with drug or alcohol problems, and also said he only wanted willing volunteers. Mrs Howarth said: "He said something to the effect of 'if you are pregnant, if you have had too much to drink', but he did not refer to psychological illness.
"He said, 'I can't use you if you are barmy'. He did not put it in a serious context, more as a joke." Mr West said Mr Green had not told her to go back to her own childhood so as to relive it or say to her he wanted her to remember what she was like as an eight- or 10-year-old. The context was that she was to act as an eight- or 10-year-old watching a film, he said.
Mrs Howarth's counsel, Julian Waters, told the court that there was considerable agreement that age regression should be avoided in stage hypnosis shows. He gave the judge a video of Mrs Howarth undergoing a session of hypnosis last month, which assessed her as highly susceptible to the practice.
Mr Green, a member of the European Guild of Professional Stage Hypnotists, of Great Harwood, Lancs, denies liability. Mrs Howarth is seeking damages from him for alleged negligence.
The case continues.