"Street Hypnosis"?

Kim Murphy of the LA Times has in the past few days had two of the best articles in the Moscow Times (which frequently runs stories on Russia from major US papers) that I've seen in some time.

One of them, "Giving Until It Hurts," deals with the phenomenon, previously unknown to me, of "street hypnosis" or "gypsy hypnosis":

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.

To some of Moscow's cynical detectives, their desks heaped with Mafia assassination and billion-dollar business fraud cases, the idea of street hypnosis has the whiff of mumbo jumbo. Not so to many Russians who were reared on folk tales of vampires, witches and, in the modern era, the hidden powers of the mind. [...]

Police say the main perpetrators of such street fraud are Gypsies, long the victims of police profiling and widespread public discrimination."These are people who have honed their skills to perfection; they have been pulling these kinds of confidence tricks on people for centuries, for generations," [Azerbaijani psychic Tofik] Dadashev said. "They are able to turn off their [victims'] inhibitory mechanisms and ram through their psychological defenses."

Many Gypsies scoff at the notion of street hypnosis and accuse the police of unfairly maligning the entire community. "Gypsies have their own unique culture and traditions, which, like the ones in all other nations, are based on good, not evil," said Nadezhda Demetr, a Gypsy who has a doctorate in Gypsy studies. "Gypsy culture has nothing to do with cheating, thievery and confidence tricks."

Philadelphia police officer Louis Sgro, a specialist in gypsy crime in the United States, said he frequently saw cases of victims claiming hypnosis but did not give them much credence. "What it is, in short, is: 'I'm embarrassed.' People don't want people to know they were stupid," he said.

But here in Moscow, many investigators say they are certain that some suspension of logical thought is involved. "Could a person operating with all of his faculties agree with a plan under which all of the money he saved during his entire life should be given to these people in the street?" said fraud detective Valery Shkarupa, who has handled hundreds of "gypsy hypnosis" cases.

In Moscow, detectives process an estimated 300 to 400 reports a year of what they call gypsy hypnosis. Police say victims may exaggerate claims about hypnosis to disguise their embarrassment over being duped. But Shkarupa, the Moscow detective, says he has no doubt that many fall victim to skillful psychological techniques.

Some fraud experts refer to neuro-linguistic programming, a concept that holds that language patterns can put people into semi-hypnotic states, even in everyday situations. Victims occasionally come to their senses with no recollection of how they lost their money. "In these cases, the victim would not be able to remember anything at all — a totally blank mind," said Alexei Skrypnikov, a retired police colonel and former psychology researcher at the Scientific Research Institute of the federal police. [...]

In the Gypsy quarter of Savyolovo, northwest of Moscow, the local Gypsy baron's house stands taller than the rest on a nearly deserted street. The baron has not made an appearance at home lately, police say, possibly because he is on the federal wanted list for alleged drug trafficking.

Indeed, hardly anyone seems to be at home: The streets are deserted, and knocks on doors go unanswered, except for some furtive peeking from behind drawn curtains. Late-model cars without license plates stand in several driveways. Playing cards lie scattered along the street, half covered by snow.

Almost all the Gypsy residents who could be found said they had heard of gypsy hypnosis, and an equal number said they would never consider engaging in the practice. "We have a power that comes from God. I learned it from my mother, and my mother learned it from her mother. It has been handed down from one generation to another," palm-reader Maria Rylyovskaya said.

"We don't commit bad things," she said. "We only do good things. We help people remove their spells. But the police, when they can't solve crimes committed in the big city, it's easy for them to blame us. They know where to find us. We are simple people who can't defend ourselves."

Her neighbor Ludmila Goyova added: "Of course, it is possible to hypnotize people. It is quite doable, technically. But this is the work of Satan." [...]