William Joseph Bryan

William Joseph Bryan Jr. (1926–1977) was an American physician and a pioneering hypnotist. He was one of the founders of modern hypnotherapy and his work notably found use in psychological warfare during the Cold War. He was a distant relative of United States Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan.

Early life Bryan was originally from the Midwest, the seventh-generation M.D. in his family. who was his grandfather's cousin. Bryan claimed to have once worked as a drummer for Tommy Dorsey. He developed his own system of hypnoanalysis called the 'Bryan method'. On May 4, 1955, Bryan founded the American Institute of Hypnosis, and was editor of the institute's Journal of the American Institute of Hypnosis. He specialized in sex therapy and criminology. He designed a switchboard of electronic instruments he called the Bryan Electronic Automated Robot (BEAR), which he claimed allowed him to hypnotize and simultaneously monitor feedback from three different clients by using a control room, televisions, and multiple tape decks. Bryan defined hypnosis as "increased concentration of the mind ... increased relaxation of the body ... and an increased susceptibility to suggestion." Bryan believed sex was essential to his practice, once telling a Playboy interviewer: "I enjoy variety and I like to get to know people on a deep emotional level. One way of getting to know people is through intercourse." In 1970, Bryan claimed to have hypnoanalzyed more than 15,000 patients and was earning in excess of a quarter of a million dollars per year. He operated out of his organization's headquarters at 8833 Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, and had branch offices in San Francisco, San Diego and Atlanta. He was officially credited as technical advisor on Roger Corman's Tales of Terror (1962) and on Francis Ford Coppola's Dementia 13 (1963).

Sexual abuse of female patients In 1969, the California State Board of Medical Examiners found Bryan guilty of "unprofessional conduct in four cases involving sexual molesting of female patients" he had hypnotized to cure their "sexual disorders". He was given five years' probation. Turner and Christian first suspected a connection between Bryan and Sirhan in 1976 after noticing notebook entries written by Sirhan that referenced "AMORC AMORC Salvo Salvo Di Di Salvo Die S Salvo". Speaking with Turner at San Quentin, Sirhan insisted he had no idea who Albert DeSalvo was. Turner and Christian questioned why the name appears in his notebook if he didn't know who DeSalvo was. They cite Bryan's reputation for constantly boasting about his work with DeSalvo and suggest that Sirhan might have heard the name while under hypnosis. They cite Dr. Herbert Spiegel, who told them "anything mentioned to a subject under hypnosis was automatically etched in their subconscious."

In a 1974 interview, researcher Betsy Langman asked Bryan whether he believed Sirhan used self-hypnosis, to which Bryan responded, "I'm not going to comment on that case, because I didn't hypnotize him." Bryan abruptly declared that the interview was over after accusing, "You are going around trying to find some more ammunition to put out that same old crap—that people can be hypnotized into doing all these weird things."

Death Bryan was reportedly found dead in a hotel room at the Riviera in Las Vegas on March 4, 1977, of a suspected heart attack. He was 50 years old. He was buried in Hollywood.