Hypnosis and Roman Catholicism.

The origins of modern hypnosis are usually traced back to Dr. Franz Mesmer (1734-1815) who was educated at two Jesuit universities before becoming a physician. But Dr. Mesmer got many of the ideas that led to his development of hypnosis from a Viennese Jesuit Priest, Father Maximilian Hell (1720-1792), and Father Johann Joseph Gassner (1729-1779), a Roman Catholic priest living in Klosters, in the east of Switzerland near the Austrian border. Father Hell was a professor of mathematics, an astronomer, and director of the Vienna Observatory.

The earliest official proclamation of the Holy See approving hypnosis, that I have been able to find, was on July 28, 1847, when the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office issued the following decree:

"Having removed all misconceptions, foretelling of the future, explicit or implicit invocations of the devil, the use of animal magnetism [hypnosis] is indeed merely an act making use of physical media that are otherwise licit, and hence it is not morally forbidden, provided that it does not tend toward an illicit end or toward anything depraved. (1)

The issue that Roman Catholic theologians have felt they must examine most closely when evaluating the use of hypnosis is the same issue that theologians of other religions have been most concerned about: the question of whether or not it is a sin to deprive someone of his or her free use of reason.

In reality this is a moot point because hypnosis does not deprive anyone of the free use of reason. It diminishes one's use of reason, but so does ordinary sleep which no one considers a sin, unless you are--um--sleeping with the wrong person.

The brilliant thirteenth-century Italian theologian and philosopher, Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) addressed this question long ago in his massive Summa Theologica, or summary of theology, finished in 1273.

In Summa Theologica Aquinas concludes that even if something does deprive a person of his or her use of reason, that is not in itself a sin.

"The loss of the use of reason is not a sin in itself (secundem se) but only by reason of the act (secundem actum) by which one is deprived of his use of reason; thus if the act is inordinate concupiscence by the use of wine, there will be a sin of intemperance pertaining to gluttony. But if the act that deprives one of his use of reason is licit in itself and is done for a just cause, there is no sin;..." (2)

With hypnotherapy there is always a just cause, i.e., therapeutic change, so Aquinas would not see it as presenting any theological problem or consider it in any way sinful.

The 1847 official proclamation of the Holy See approving the use of hypnosis, which I quoted from earlier, was no doubt influenced by the reasoning of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theologica because, as you can see, it follows the same logic.

References:

(1) Collectanea Sanctae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, No. 1018, editio anni 1907

(2) Saint Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologica. 2, 2, qu. 153, Art. 4, ad 2.