08/27/2025
My friend Colonel Larry Elman, the last surviving son of legendary hypnotist Dave Elman, passed away on 26 August from pancreatic cancer at his home in North Carolina.
In 2007, I was preparing to give a lecture to the Maryland chapter of the National Guild of Hypnotists and my topic was the Dave Elman Induction. I planned to give a demonstration of what I believe to be the best hypnotic induction ever, but I wanted to provide some background on the man who invented it.
Gerald Kein, whom many people considered the best hypnosis instructor in the world, had a few stories about Elman, and Dave Elman’s book Hypnotherapy shed some light on his background, but other than that, there was not much information available.
On a lark, I did a web search to see if I could find anything more. I found an announcement of the retirement of an Air Force Colonel, a missile officer, named H. Larry Elman. I served in the US Air Force, so this intrigued me. I searched on that name and found little, except a positive review about a person named simply Larry Elman and his computer consulting company in Florida.
A further search revealed that a man with the same name had gotten married to a woman named Cheryl. My search went no further, so I searched for “Cheryl Elman” and found a reference to a craft business in North Carolina. At this point, I figured I had gone down the wrong rabbit hole, but just in case, I decided to call the number of the craft business.
A man answered the call and I told him that I had a weird question to ask him. I said I was a hypnotist and I was researching a famous hypnotist named Dave Elman. “Are you, by any chance, related to him?
“He was my dad.”
I can’t describe how elated I was to hear this!! I told him how much I admired his father and his father’s work and then I asked him if I could interview him…and he said yes. A couple of days later, I packed up my camera gear and drove from Maryland to North Carolina to meet Larry Elman!
I pulled into his driveway and met Larry and his wife, Cheryl, and spent the morning learning about his father and his father’s work. Larry Elman told me that he been trained in hypnosis by his father, but had given up on hypnosis when he was commissioned as an Air Force officer. His commander did not approve of hypnosis, so Larry dropped it at that point.
Larry told me things about his father that nobody knew at that time. He shared stories about his father’s introduction to hypnosis and how he kept it a secret until the late 1940s, when he started teaching physicians and dentists. I can’t describe how amazing it was to learn the inside scoop about my hero, Dave Elman, straight from the mouth of his son!!!
Around lunch time Cheryl invited us upstairs for lunch, which was AMAZING! But even during lunch I couldn’t stop peppering Larry with questions. I’m sure he must have felt he was being interrogated, but I just had to know as much as I could find out about his famous father!
After lunch, we went back to the basement and filmed more of the interview. One bit of information that I was able to provide to Larry was that his father, in addition to being a famous radio personality and hypnotist, had become a cult figure in the hypnosis community. Largely on account of Gerald Kein and Gil Boyne, Dave Elman is considered one of the two most celebrated hypnotists of the 20th century. Look up hypnotists and you will see two names, Milton Erickson and Dave Elman.
I told Larry, “When I tell the hypnosis community that I found you, they are going to go wild!” And that is my most significant contribution to the hypnosis community…finding Dave Elman’s son.
Larry and Cheryl had been living a quiet, happy semi-retired life in North Carolina, giving talks to schoolchildren on aviation (remember, Larry was an Air Force officer) and art. We always joked that I ruined their retirement! When I brought them back into the hypnosis community, their schedule became instantly full. They have now taught hypnosis in 17 countries and have spread Dave Elman’s teaching all over the world.
I have learned so much as a result of that internet search and my friendship with the Elmans.
Larry Elman and I taught a class in Tampa, Florida, many years ago. One of the students asked about the ORIGINAL Dave Elman induction. All I had to go on was old recordings of Elman, but I attempted to recreate the original. Thirty seconds into the induction, Larry interrupted me. Since he had attended his father’s class three times, he knew well that my attempt was not right. He took over. Our class got to see the ORIGINAL Dave Elman induction EXACTLY as Dave Elman performed it. It was MAGIC!!! It was the first time that induction had been seen in over 60 years.
We will always be grateful for what Larry Elman brought back to the hypnosis community. Thank you, my friend! Please keep his wife, Cheryl, in your prayers.
