Beware of city's notorious intinerant criminal hypnotists

JAKARTA (JP): Several thousand people across the country have recently reported to have been victims of chicanery, losing large sums of money and much jewelry after being put into a trance by the criminals.

According to experts, such nonviolent crime is believed to have been committed by itinerant hypnotists.

In interviews with The Jakarta Post yesterday, a senior hypnotist and two psychologists said that the hypnotized victims became temporarily totally helpless and could only follow the criminals' instructions.

Mamok, a senior hypnotist in the city, and psychologists Suprapti Sumarmo Markam and AJ Hukom predicted that more people could easily become victims of the hypnotism-powered criminals.

"As learning hypnotism is not that difficult, everybody, including those who have no supernatural powers, can master it easily," said Mamok, 53, who has practiced hypnotism since the 1970s.

Suprapti, from the University of Indonesia, added: "Preventing such a situation occurring is not as easy as conscious people might think."

Sharing Mamok's view, Hukom, a practicing psychologist, said that the criminals "have abused the powers of hypnotism."

"Even I could have earned a lot of money if I had had the intention of using hypnotism in the wrong way," Hukom said.

The experts said that it could take as little as a few seconds to hypnotize someone, although it depended on the powers of the hypnotizer and the susceptibility of the subject.

Based on a rough study carried out recently, it is believed that thousands of people in the capital alone have been victims of the groups. Hundreds of similar cases have also been reported from other part of the country, including some remote villages.

Although the total losses have reached an estimated billions of rupiah and hundreds of grams of jewelry, none of the criminals have been arrested thus far.

According to Mamok, the key approaches to ensure one does not fall under the spell of the mind-bending criminals, who are unarmed but equipped with special techniques, are, firstly, avoiding eye contact and, secondly, leaving them as soon as possible.

"That's why blind people and undisciplined persons, who never obey orders, cannot be the victims of the felonious hypnotists," said Mamok.

"Normally, they start the trick by asking their victims something during which time the person would automatically look into the criminal's eyes," he said.

"If you know or see that your friend or relative is under the spell of anyone, just try to disturb your friend or the criminal's concentration, by, for instance, asking your friend to leave immediately," Mamok suggested.

He warned people not to respond to questions asked by strangers on the streets.

"If you're caught under their control, you can do nothing but obey their instructions," Mamok said.

In many cases, the hypnotized victims handed over all the belongings they had on them and even took the criminals to automatic teller machines, banks or bedrooms to give the crooks all their savings. (bsr)