R^: 3"	SPC^: S	D^: S	S^: S	A^: One level/hit die per level of mastery cumulative
Players Handbook	Psionics	-	Psionic Disciplines	AD&&D

Effect: This discipline is similar to suggestion and charm person/charm monster spells (qq.v.)

It affects only creatures with intelligence greater than 7 and less than 17,
i.e. the stupid and unusually bright are not subject to hypnosis.
By employing this discipline, the psionic is able to instruct the creature as to a course of action which seems reasonable --
no orders to kill self, friends, associates, etc. --
and plant a post-hypnotic suggestion as well,
the latter having a 5% per day cumulative chance of wearing off and not affecting the creature in whose mind it was implanted. Hypgnosis affects 1 level or hit die of creatures per level of mastery of the possessor.
Thus at 1st level of mastery but a single 1st level character or monster with up to 1 hit die can be hypnotized;
but at 2nd level 2 additional effect levels are added,
so up to 3 levels/hit dice can be hypnotized:
 
 

Level of Mastery	Levels/Hit Dice Affected
first	1 = 1
second	1 + 2 = 3
third	1 + 2 + 6 = 6
fourth	1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10
fifth	1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15

The strength point cost is 1 per level/hit die hypnotized.
Creatures with 15 or 16 intelligence or over 10th level/l0 HD are entitled to a saving throw versus magic;
if it is successful, the hypnosis has no effect.
The strength point cost is 1 per level/HD hypnotized.
Creatures with 15 or 16 intelligence or over 10th level/10 HD are entitled to a saving throw versus magic;
if it is successful, the hypgnosis has no effect.

THE FORUM

Everyone has read about the hypnotist who
raises a skin blister by touching a subject with a
cold pencil and saying it is red hot (see issue
#121). It is one of several mind-over-matter
claims I mentioned having reviewed. On the
evidence, I concluded that the story is 20th-century
folklore. Specifically, I'd like to hear
from any reader who has seen such a blister
(not just a red spot) produced under conditions
that preclude fraud. (Write to me c/o DRAGON®
Magazine.)

All of the substantiated claims I have seen for
hypnosis and biofeedback concern effects
mediated on or through the nervous system. Of
course, a hypnotist can make people perspire
and can produce many other autonomic effects.
But raising a blister is another matter. To begin
with, all blisters involve separation of epidermal
cells from one another or from their basement
membrane ? yet there is no nerve supply to the
epidermis. However, any college freshman can
produce a blister by touching skin with a pencil
tip treated with a droplet of any chemical vesicant.
Several of these chemicals are easy to
obtain from chemistry labs.

Some time ago, I searched the computer files
of the National Institute of Health just to find
out whether the story about the blister is true.
The most recent substantial discussion was by
master hypnotists Johnson and Barber in the
American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, in 1976.
They reviewed previous reports and their own
experiments on 40 subjects, and concluded that
no blisters form in the absence of physical
trauma or preexisting blister-causing skin disease
(eczema, pemphigus, etc.). I?d be glad to
share the review with any DRAGON Magazine
readers. Of seven current books on hypnosis at
the college of medicine, not one mentions blistering
? or any other physical injury ? as a
bona fide effect of hypnosis.

Mind-over-matter claims that violate present
thinking about human physiology are central to
several ?New Age? therapeutic cults. The claims
are hard to evaluate because their proponents
advertise directly to the public, and don?t publish
date that might convince other scientists.

Cadaveric spasm and a variety of ?stress?
effects on the heart are recognized ?phantasmalmental
killers,? but I am not aware of real people
sustaining wounds from holograms, blank
shots, rubber knives, magic shows, or other
illusions or suggestions. The idea of illusions
doing physical harm may have had its origin in
apparent medical myths like the hypnotic blister.
Judging from correspondence in DRAGON
Magazine, it?s obvious that different referees
handle these things differently. All the different
suggestions seem well-reasoned to me. In such
matters, the realities of human pathophysiology
are largely irrelevant. What matters is fun ?
which TSR® products supply in large measure.

Edward R. Friedlander, M.D.
Asst. Prof. of Pathology
East Tennessee State Univ.
Johnson City TN
(Dragon #125)
 

This is a belated response to E.R. Friedlander?s
piece in the "Forum" of issue #125, in which he
?debunks? that folkloric concept of hypnosis
raising blisters by simple suggestion. I would
like to commend him on the responsible way in
which he investigated the claim before making
up his mind. Of interest to him and to any other
readers who would like to see what science has
to say about this claim and a multitude of others
(Bermuda Triangle, dowsing, lunar effect, Jupiter
effect, astrology, ESP and so on), I can only
warmly recommend the following publication
(subscription address):

    The Skeptical Inquirer
    Box 229
    Buffalo, NY 14215-0229

It is published by the Committee for the
Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
(CSICOP), which boasts as members such
luminaries as Martin Gardner, James Randi,
Isaac Asimov, L. Sprague de Camp, Murray Gell-
Mann, Stephen Jay Gould, and Douglas Hofstadter.
Quarterly, it investigates just about any
paranormal topic with sometimes shocking
results (fraud is rife in some paranormal fields),
and the letters column is a very lively one
indeed. The annual subscription is just $20 and
is worth it several times over.

Daniel U. Thibault
St. Nicolas, Quebec.
(Dragon #132)