Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction New Age and human-potential movements Rorschach, St. Gallen, Switzerland · 2026

Switzerland: self-styled hypnosis coach convicted of sexually abusing two women he put in trance

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

self-employed hypnosis coach, practicing without state-recognized training in an unregulated profession, conducting paid trance sessions with clients

Organization

No organization assigned

Spiritual nexus

Two women placed in hypnotic trance during paid one-on-one sessions with the man they had come to for treatment, in a profession with no licensing body to have warned them off him — the trance was both his method of treatment and his method of assault.

  • Spiritual healing or treatment

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. Date in cited record · verdict and sentence

    Kreisgericht Rorschach, canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Mario K., 60, was found guilty of Schändung (indecent assault / sexual abuse of a person incapable of resistance) in two cases, after putting the women in a hypnotic trance during sessions and sexually abusing them. He was sentenced to a 12-month suspended prison term and a three-year ban on practicing as a hypnotist. Prosecutors had sought six years three months' imprisonment and a lifetime professional ban; the defense had sought acquittal. K. had operated as an independent hypnosis coach since 2008 without recognized training — legal under Swiss law, as the profession is unregulated. The verdict is appealable to the cantonal court.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • hypnotic trance induced during paid sessions, used to render the two women unable to resist or perceive what was happening to them
  • the unregulated status of the 'hypnosis coach' title in Switzerland, which let him operate without professional oversight or licensing accountability

Primary record

Sources

high quality reporting disposition "Frauen in Trance missbraucht: Ostschweizer Hypnotiseur wegen Schändung verurteilt", Blick, 2026.

Report of the Kreisgericht Rorschach verdict, sentence, and the trance mechanism.

high quality reporting disposition "Kreisgericht Rorschach verurteilt Hypnotiseur wegen Schändung zweier Frauen", St. Galler Tagblatt, 2026.

Regional paper of record confirming the same verdict and sentence.

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