Benny Hinn: healer or hypnotist? - Investigative Files

This selection process is--perhaps not surprisingly--virtually identical to that employed by professional stage hypnotists. According to Robert A. Baker, in his definitive book, They Call It Hypnosis (1990, 138-139):

Stage hypnotists, like successful trial lawyers, have long known their most important task is to carefully pick their subjects--for the stage as for a jury--if they expect to win. Compliance is highly desirable, and to determine this ahead of time, the stage magician will usually give several test suggestions to those who volunteer to come up on the stage. Typically, he may ask the volunteers to clasp their hands together tightly and then suggest that the hands are stuck together so that they can't pull them apart. The stage hypnotist selects the candidates who go along with the suggestion and cannot get their hands apart until he tells them, "Now, it's okay to relax and separate them." If he has too many candidates from the first test, he may then give them a second test by suggesting they cannot open their mouths, move a limb, or open their eyes after closing them. Those volunteers who fail one or more of the tests are sent back to their seats, and those who pass all the tests are kept for the demonstration . Needless to say, not only are they compliant, cooperative, and suggestible, but most have already made up their minds in volunteering to help out and do exactly as they are told.

Role-playing

One on stage, one of Hinn's screeners announces each "healed" person in turn, giving a quick summary of the alleged miracle. At the service I attended, one woman put on a show of jumping up and down to demonstrate that she was free of pain following knee surgery three weeks before. Another was cured of "depression," caused by "the demon," said a screener, that resulted from "an abusive relationship with her husband." Still another (who admitted to being "an emotional person") said her sister-in-law sitting beside her had begun to "speak in tongues" and that she herself felt she was healed of various ailments, including high blood pressure and marital trouble. At her mention of her brother, Hinn brought him up and learned he had been healed of "sixteen demons" two years previously, and expected to be cured of diabetes; Hinn prayed for God to "set him free" of the disease. Another was supposedly cured of being "afraid of the Lord" (although he was carrying the bible of a friend who had died of AIDS), and one wo man stated she believed she had just been cured of ovarian cancer.

In each instance--after the person has given a little performance (running about, offering a sobbing testimonial, etc.), and Hinn has responded with some mini-sermon, prayer, or other reaction--the next step in the role-playing is acted out. As one of his official catchers moves into place behind the person, Hinn gives a gesture, touch, or other signal. Most often, while squeezing the person's face between thumb and finger, he gives a little push, and down the compliant individual goes. Some slump; some stiffen and fall backward; a few reel. Once down, many lie as if entranced, while other writhe and seem almost possessed.