At Phoenix Method One in Virginia, client evaluations are used to bolster the case for hypnosis: the center claims a 90-percent success rate for clients reducing or stopping their alcohol use.

"We know we have a very high success rate," said Marika Runnells, co-founder and director of therapy at Phoenix Method One. "Our comprehensive feedback process proves it."

But Robert Nebiker, director of the Virginia Department of Health Professions, said use of hypnosis is only approved for treating smoking. Using hypnosis for other medical conditions, such as alcohol addiction, may be in violation of state law governing the practice of medicine, he said.

"One of the things we would look at is whether people are being harmed or defrauded," Nebiker said. "We would try to determine whether there was any scientific basis for this treatment or whether it was just someone taking your money. We would also look at the training of the people doing it and what their claims are. If you claim, 'Come and be hypnotized by me and in six easy sessions you won't be alcoholic,' that would be suspect.'"

The success claims made of the Phoenix Method One have also come in for scrutiny. "If they're getting 90 percent, they should bottle it," said David Spiegel, a professor of psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine and one of the nation's highly regarded experts in the clinical uses of hypnosis. "Nobody gets 90 percent doing anything. I don't care what it is."

Stephen Barrett, a retired psychiatrist who heads Quackwatch, a nonprofit medical watchdog group, said controlled research is needed to determine whether hypnosis is an effective treatment for alcohol addiction.

"The fact that people stopped smoking or drinking after they had hypnosis doesn't mean it was due to the treatment itself," Barrett said. "We know that a certain number of people who set out to stop will do so on their own regardless of the method they employ."

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