A traveling-hypnotist show, the second to perform in Bowling Green this year, comes to town with a history of legal problems. Ronald B. Gorayeb is advertising a $49.99 stop-smoking and weight-loss seminar at 7 tonight at the Holiday Inn University Plaza. His presentations around the country have been dogged by accusations of false advertising and bait-and-switch sales techniques. Gorayeb will not be performing his own seminar; it will be conducted by an associate named Frank Ingo, Gorayeb said. Gorayeb said all of his companys problems date from before 1995.Ill say I was a little naive in terms of marketing, he said. After complaints from the Federal Trade Commission and various state attorneys general, Gorayeb stopped relying solely on testimonials for his success rates, he said. Since then, were as squeaky-clean as you can be. John Mason, who tangled with Gorayeb while serving on the Indiana state board that licenses hypnotists, said he still objects to Gorayebs methods. Its just a racket, and theyre making a ton of money with it, too, Mason said. In 1995, Gorayeb agreed without admitting guilt to a consent decree from the Federal Trade Commission which prohibited him from making unproven claims such as that people could stop smoking in two hours … without cravings and without withdrawal … the Gorayeb Method of Hypnosis has worked for thousands, and that you can lose the weight youve been wanting to and keep it off permanently, without hunger, without dieting, without willpower. Dateline NBC reported in 1997 that attorneys general in Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Washington and Oregon forced Gorayeb to change his advertising, again without admitting guilt. He has also been investigated in Indiana, Ohio and Alaska, Mason said. In Gorayebs local ads, the wording is only slightly different from what the FTC prohibited: you can stop smoking tonight with no anxiety, no irritability and no weight gain … by seminars end. 110 percent seminar guarantee. But those changes were enough to satisfy the FTC, he said. The guarantee promises that if customers arent satisfied, Gorayeb will refund the seminar fee plus 10 percent and if the stop-smoking seminar didnt work, customers can attend more for free. The Healthy Weight Network gave Gorayeb a 1996 Thin Chance worst product award, saying the self-styled hypnotist … and his therapist/marketer employees wait until their customers are relaxed and suggestible before pressing them to buy overpriced hypnosis tapes for $155 to $275 and supplement pills from $30 to $80.