Alan W. Scheflin passed away on August 27, 2023, his 81st birthday, from complications from a stroke. Alan was the world class authority on hypnosis and the law, as well as on hypnosis and memory, and mental health and the law. He was the author of Trance on Trial (and coauthor Jerrold L. Shapiro) and of Memory, Trauma Treatment, and the Law (with Daniel Brown and D. Corydon Hammond). He was one of the coauthors of the book Clinical Hypnosis and Memory: Guidelines for Clinicians and for Forensic Hypnosis. Alan also authored The Mind Manipulators (with E. M. Opton Jr.) which was published in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, France, Holland, and Yugoslavia.
In total, Alan authored or coauthored 7 books, 51 articles, and 13 book chapters. Alan received eighteen professional awards, including awards from ASCH, SCEH, APA Division 30, the American Board of Psychological Hypnosis, American Psychiatric Association, the International Cultic Studies Association, the International Society for the Study of Dissociation, and the Santa Clara University Sustained Excellence in Scholarship Award. He served as an expert witness in 42 judicial cases involving false memory, repressed memory, legal ethics, legal malpractice, the insanity defense, hypnosis, brainwashing and mind control, and government mind and behavior control programs. He delivered 150 invited presentations to professional societies in the United States, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Australia. He also testified before the United States Congress. Alan was a Professor at Santa Clara Law School from 1973–2014 and he was a graduate of Harvard Law and Georgetown Law School.
Alan was a connoisseur of fine cuisine, was a movie and music collector (with 6000 records). I often characterized him as “a silver-tongued devil” because of his remarkable eloquence as an orator and author. One of the favorite law school courses he taught was on the art of persuasion. Alan was a kind, loyal and genuinely caring friend, a true friend to the field of hypnosis and a champion of victims of abuse. One image gives me a little solace: imagining the reunion with him embracing Ed Frischholz and Daniel Brown. He is survived by his devoted wife Jamie and his talented and beloved daughter Hallie Caploe Scheflin.