JP/Dian Kuswandini

The police might call him a forensic hypnosis investigator; the media might label him a terrorism expert. The public, however, simply knows him as a hypnotherapist. And that job title best sums up his ability to do many things — from untangling terrorism cases and helping companies keep their employee’s loyalty, to freeing people from the shackles of certain addictions.

“People began to see this profession with respect, and it’s such a blessing to me,” says the 44 year old, who founded the country’s first hypnosis school — the Hypnosis Training Institute of Indonesia (HTII) in 2004. “Hypnosis used to be associated with black magic, but now people have a better understanding of it.”

Having dedicated himself to hypnosis for nearly 20 years, Mardigu stole the media’s attention four years ago, when he helped the National Police’s investigation into al-Qaeda-linked terror network Jemaah Islamiyah. At that time, he put his talents to work with several big terror suspects. Thanks to his friendly approach, and his charming personality, the suspects didn’t realize Mardigu was actually “interrogating” and hypnotizing them.

“I ‘dissected’ their minds. I used this technique called ‘age regression’, where I took them back into their past. From there, I got to know their [personal] backgrounds and what they had done in life,” says the psychology graduate of San Francisco State University in the US. As a result, he adds, “we succeeded in digging up some major information about terrorist networks — how they recruit members; their missions and targets and other things that led us to more people.”

This experience led him to carry out more research on terror suspects through his institute’s Narapatih research center. He has already dealt with more than 400 terror suspects — not only raking up information but also de-radicalizing them.

Dealing with terrorists, and even living his life as a hypnotherapist, had never been Mardigu’s dream. When he left Jakarta in 1985 for California, all he wanted was to specialize in business psychology.

When he took the advanced and applied psychology class, however, he was introduced to hypnosis and this short encounter enticed him to study more about it.

“As a psychologist, you deal with many cases — violence, phobias, mental breakdown, depression — you name it. The first time I practiced hypnosis, I was amazed I could actually handle the cases faster and more effectively, compared to when I used old psychology methods, which usually take a long time,” says Mardigu. “I told myself I should master this discipline, but I found the ‘academic language’ used in the class too complex.”

So, after graduating from the university in 1990, he went to the famous Hypnotherapy Training Institute in Corte Madera to learn hypnosis the more straightforward way. There, he obtained his master’s degree in clinical hypnotherapy and kicked off his career as a hypnotherapist.

Throughout his career, Mardigu dealt with people from all walks of life — celebrities wanting to curb their shopping addiction, food lovers wishing to be slimmer and company leaders losing sleep over low profits or employee exodus.

“Once, a company hired me because they had such a high turnover rate of employees. Imagine: they had recruited 100 people, but within six months, all but three of them had left the company,” he recalls.

“The boss believed his employees had lost their motivation and fighting spirit. So after the next intake, he asked his new employees to see me.”

“What I did was carry out this ‘inception’ process, where I re-programmed their minds,” he says. “I got rid off all of their fears, worries and laziness. I planted suggestive words into their minds like: ‘you want the best for your family, so you need to perform your best at work’ and ‘you want to be happy in life; and to be happy with your career’.”

After that session, Mardigu says, the employees returned to work feeling good and in high spirit. The word spread, and he started to gain recognition in the business world. He recalls a TV station hiring him in 2005 because ad sales were low. He performed hypnosis on the company’s 70 marketing staff members, and within one year, he claims the company was able to raise ads sales by 70 percent.

“I also performed hypnosis on the station’s staff members in the creative division — I helped them become more creative when making shows.”

But not all his stories have a happy ending. When he helped tsunami victims in Aceh for example, some religious figures accused him of practicing black magic.

“At that time, we didn’t have enough anesthetic drugs that the doctors needed to carry out some surgical procedures,” Mardigu recalls. “I ended up hypnotizing the victims so they wouldn’t feel the pain. But some religious figures thought I was using genies and demanded I stop.”

In 1999, when the National Narcotics Agency hadn’t been established yet, Mardigu carried out hypnosis to help drug addicts.

“Around 2 to 3 million Indonesians suffered from drug addiction, and I really thought that would destroy Indonesia,” says the father of three. “I was very obsessed with fighting against drugs, so I carried out a series of hypnosis sessions on drug addicts.”

As his sessions brought about positive results, drug mafias started threatening him, demanding he close his practice.

“I lost count of the number of times they threatened me holding a gun to my head, but I continued running my practice anyway,” he says.

And then the unbelievable happened: one of his therapists was shot dead one day.

“So what else could I do? I finally decided to close my practice.”

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