Kim Murphy reports in the Los Angeles Time (carried elsewhere) about hypnotism in Russia a street-crime weapon? . . .

He was striking, with dark eyes, a long black ponytail and a stylish suit. He had a large, cheap ring that Olga couldn’t stop looking at as he waved his hand repeatedly in front of her face. "He was talking gibberish," she recalled. That he had left his wallet in a taxi. That he was supposed to meet someone at Sheremetyevo Airport. That he couldn’t remember where he lived. Olga offered him the $250 in her purse for a taxi, but he said it wouldn’t be enough. She found herself leading the man to her apartment. There, she opened her safe and counted out $500. "Can I have more?" he asked. "Can I have the 7,000 rubles in your purse?" Without replying, Olga emptied her wallet into his hands. As they rode back down the elevator, Olga knew the man was a thief. She knew she should demand her money back before it was too late. But she couldn’t open her mouth. "I was in a trance," she said later. Almost immediately after he left, Olga broke into hysterical sobs and phoned a friend, who persuaded her to go to the police. There, detectives nodded knowingly. "Gypsy hypnosis," they said. Across Moscow, a chestnut as old as crystal balls and gypsy curses makes regular appearances on the crime logs — hundreds of victims a year who say they were seduced out of their money in seemingly chance encounters with strangers. Many claim they were hypnotized by intense stares, mesmerizing babble and warnings of curses on their loved ones.

Sounds a bit like Svengali falling from the pages of a bad novel. Unfortunately, more and more stories like this are popping up around the world and it doesn’t help matters with NLP seminars and covert hypnosis and speed seduction and the rest seminars promising to deliver just such skills to folks. What she experienced may have been trance-like but it isn’t what classical directed hypnosis is all about . . . it was more due to the power of influence than actual suggestion. People get duped all the time, it may seem comforting to blame it on hypnosis but it’s not really the power of hypnosis that is letting them get conned or bilked.