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HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 BY 
 
 2 7^ 
 
 SYDNEY FLOWER 
 
 
 !l^5i-"\%^Vt\^-^ 4-1 
 
 CHICAGO 
 CHARLES H, KERR & COMPANY 
 56 Fifth Avenue 
 1896 
 

 Copyright 1896 by- 
 Charles H. Kerr & Company 
 
 Unity Library, No. 56. Monthly, $3.00 per year. April, 1896. 
 
 Entered at the Postoffice, Chicago, as second-class matter. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 If any should be disposed to give credit to 
 the author of this book for his share in its pro- 
 duction, let it be remembered that he is only the 
 mouthpiece of another. 
 
 It is to such men as Herbert A.Parkyn,M.D., 
 Lecturer on Psycho-Therapeutics in the Illinois 
 Medical College of Chicago, the "doctor" of 
 these pages, that the honor of rescuing hypno- 
 tism from the clutches of the charlatan, and of 
 presenting it in its natural form to the world, 
 properly belongs. 
 
 The simplicity of truth is wonderful. 
 
 To the human being of ordinary intelligence 
 who reads the explanations here given, there 
 will no longer be anything miraculous in the 
 effects produced. 
 
 Sydney Flower. 
 
 Toronto, Canada, Jan. /j*, i8g6. 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SIMPLICITY OF HYPNOSIS. NOTHING TO 
 
 DIFFERENTIATE IT FROM ORDINARY SLEEP. 
 
 HYPNOTIZED PERSONS CANNOT BE MADE 
 
 TO DIVULGE SECRETS. NO EVIDENCE OF 
 
 SUPERNORMAL POWERS IN CLAIRVOYANT 
 DIAGNOSIS. TELEPATHY DUBIOUS. — MUS- 
 CLE-READING. 
 
 **It is a wonderful thing!'' said I. 
 
 "If by wonderful you mean miraculous, hyp- 
 notism is not in the least wonderful," replied 
 the doctor. "Say, rather, that it is a valuable 
 addition to medical science." 
 
 "You surely would not belittle its marvelous 
 properties?" I exclaimed. 
 
 "I am not belittling them," he answered. "I 
 merely wish to rid your mind of the idea that 
 there is anything in hypnotism which is mys- 
 terious, awful, miraculous! Do you know that, 
 7 
 
8 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 barring idiots, almost every man and woman is 
 a hypnotist?" 
 
 "Then why have they never discovered this 
 power in themselves?" I asked incredulously. 
 
 "They have not been educated up to it — that's 
 all," he answered. "Hypnosis is only, if you 
 find the term more comprehensible, self-delu- 
 sion. If you will pay attention to me, I will 
 make this thing so plain to you that you will have 
 no difficulty in grasping my meaning; and first 
 of all, I want to know if you understand what 
 is meant by the terms 'subjective and objective' 
 as applied to the mind." 
 
 "In a general way, yes," I responded; "my 
 objective mind is my everyday working mind; 
 my subjective is the min.d or soul in me which 
 is working when I am asleep." 
 
 "That is it, roughly," the doctor said. "You 
 might de^n^ yor^ subjective mind as your con- 
 science, or sub-conscious self, but remember 
 that the subjective mind is working when you 
 are perhaps least aware of the fact. You for- 
 get, for example, a certain name, and dismiss 
 the matter from your mind^ But with a feeling 
 of relief in a few minutes, you pronounce the 
 name aloud — your subjective consciousness has 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 9 
 
 found it for you. Hypnosis," he continued, *' is 
 the state in which the subjective consciousness 
 is uppermost, and the objective has gone to 
 sleep. It is the unreasoning, uncritical attitude 
 of mind of the hypnotized person which leads 
 him to accept as truth almost anything which 
 the hypnotist tells him. Thus, if I tell my sub- 
 ject that I have given him a ham-sandwich, and 
 I offer him a piece of cake, he will eat the cake, 
 believing it to be a sandwich." 
 
 "Then he has lost the sense of taste?" 
 ''He has lost nothing of the kind. If, after he 
 has swallowed the cake, I ask him to describe 
 what he has eaten, he says a 'ham-sandwich.' 
 I ask him if it wasn't rather salt, and he replies, 
 'Yes, a little salt.' 'A little too much mustard, 
 perhaps?' I suggest. *Well, no, not too much!* 
 he may reply. 'Still a glass of beer would be 
 a pleasant accompaniment to the sandwich?' 
 'Yes,' he agrees that a gla^ss of beer would be 
 acceptable, and taking the empty glass I give 
 him, he goes through the act of drinking, even 
 pausing half-way to wipe his mouth, or draw a 
 deep breath of appreciation. This is real beer 
 to him, you understand, because I told him it 
 was and he believes me. I could make him 
 
10 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 quite drunk on several empty glasses by suggest- 
 ing that he has had too much." 
 
 "A cheap drunk," I said." 
 
 "Before we go into the different phases of 
 hypnotism," said the doctor, "which I may tell 
 you are so varied and numerous that they have 
 defied accurate classification, remember that in 
 a dream you may see the most impossible things 
 — men like trees walking — animals with human 
 faces — curious and instantaneous metamorphoses 
 of scenes and objects — yet it does not occur to 
 you at the time to doubt the reality of what you 
 see. It is only when you awake that the ab- 
 surdity of these things becomes apparent to you. 
 These dreams are a flash — no more — of your 
 subjective consciousness. Now do you see 
 just what I mean by self-delusion?" 
 
 "Taking the things that are notfor the things 
 that are?" I hazarded. 
 
 "Fut it that way if vou like," he assented. 
 "Ver}^ well. Ther-^ are two or three points 
 which I wish to impress very carefull}' on your 
 mind — on your objective, or reasoning con- 
 sciousness, if you please. The first is that with- 
 out your cooperation I cannot hypnotize you. 
 You must assist me. Hypnosis is a 'blanket' 
 
fiYPNoTisM Op to date II 
 
 term which covers a great deal. When your 
 eyes become rather heavy and you are disin- 
 clined to move after dinner, for instance, you 
 are in a state of partial hypnosis. When you 
 sleep you are in a more advanced stage. Very 
 well; hypnosis is merely sleep, and hypnotism 
 is the science or art of producing sleep at will. 
 This is the dreaded hypnotic influence which 
 we read of in the newspapers. Beyond the 
 sleep stage there are many others; all, remem- 
 ber, harmless, but with them we will not deal at 
 present. Now there is nothing in hypnotism to 
 be afraid of. The laws which govern it are as 
 fixed and unalterable as the laws which govern 
 motion in the waking state. If you have been 
 led to believe that the practice of hypnotism 
 gives the operator a hold upon his subject, that 
 is, of course, the person hypnotized, which may 
 be used eventually to work evil, banish it from 
 your mind. He has no sv^ch power. Suppose 
 I hypnotize you, for exampf^, and put you into 
 the somnambulistic state, in which you receive 
 my suggestions, answer my questions, and do 
 my bidding. Now, if I tell you that to-morrow 
 at noon you will take a knife from the table, 
 and plunge it into the heart of your unsuspecting 
 landlady, do you think you would do it?" 
 
12 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 "I should certainly think so," I answered, 
 "much as I might afterwards regret the unfor- 
 tunate, perhaps hasty action. There have been 
 many cases of the kind you mention. Hypno- 
 tism and crime are inseparably connected." 
 
 "Indeed!" said the doctor. "Then may I 
 inform you that I have made it my business to 
 track down some ten or twelve of the most no- 
 torious cases to which you, no doubt, have ref- 
 erence, and I have found, without exception, 
 that hypnotic suggestion had nothing whatever 
 to do with the crimes committed." 
 
 "But the newspapers — " I began. 
 
 "The newspapers, "said the doctor,"print what 
 will interest the public, without going too closely 
 into the scientific aspect of the case. News- 
 papers understand that to connect the mj^sterious 
 name of hypnotism with a murder is to give it 
 an air of 'witchcraft' which lifts it above the 
 level of an ordinary crime and makes the de- 
 tails eagerl}^ sought after by a credulous public. 
 You must confess yourself that those special 
 cases had a great attraction for 3^ou." 
 
 "They certainly had," I admitted. "My 
 chief regret lay in the fact that I could never 
 get a satisfactory account of how they ended." 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 1 3 
 
 **Ifyou wish to know," said the doctor, 
 "the}^ fizzled out into ordinary murders. 
 But let us go back. Regarding this proposed 
 experiment with yourself, at the hour of noon 
 to-morrow, the thought, just as I had suggested, 
 would flash into your brain that you were to take 
 up a knife and stab your landlady. You would 
 dismiss it at once as a ridiculous fancy. If you 
 took the trouble to think of it again, which is 
 very improbable, you would laugh at the bare 
 idea of such a thing. It would be an impossi- 
 ble deed, because your subjective conscionsnef^ 
 would tell you that it was wrong — simply that 
 it was wicked, and you would not do it." 
 
 "I thought right and wrong had nothing to 
 do with the matter?" I queried. 
 
 "You never lose your moral sense," the doc- 
 tor answered impressively, " no matter how often 
 you have been hypnotized, or what you are told 
 to do. Hypnotism does not affect the fundamen- 
 tal principles of education, and right will be 
 right to you, and wrong will be wrong, whether 
 your subjective or objective consciousness is in 
 play." 
 
 "Hypnotism is very useful in detecting crimi- 
 nal action, is it not?" I asked. 
 
f4 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATfi 
 
 *'It is absolutely useless in that respect," he 
 replied. 
 
 "Cannot a man be made to divulge the truth 
 when he is in a hypnotic trance?" I persisted. 
 
 "A popular fallacy," replied the doctor, 
 ''which ought to have been long since exploded. 
 A smart lawyer will fetch the truth out of a man 
 in half the time a hypnotist could do it, and 
 he may even induce a witness to disclose a se- 
 cret which he had determined to keep, and that 
 is something a hypnotist could never do." 
 
 -'But a man must speak the truth under hyp- 
 notic pressure?" I continued. 
 
 "A man will lie as fluently in the hypnotic 
 state," answered the doctor, "as in ordinary 
 life. And mind you, you cannot extract a se- 
 cret from a subject in the somnambulistic stage 
 of hypnotism, if he has made up his mind, when 
 in the waking state, to guard that secret. To 
 illustrate this, I can give you the details of one 
 of my experiments, which I undertook some 
 time ago to satisfy myself upon this very point. 
 To save repetition of names I will use the letters 
 B and C in speaking of the other parties. 
 
 "C was a young man whom I had frequentl}^ 
 hypnotized. He was an excellent subject, and 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 1 5 
 
 I could put him to sleep at almost any moment 
 by merely snapping my fingers. B was a friend 
 of mine and a friend of C's< I said to B, *I 
 want you to tell C some story about me, as a 
 great secret. Tell him he is on no account to 
 breathe a word to any one; and let the story be 
 something personal, something affecting my 
 character!' B carried out my plan, and three 
 weeks went by before I referred to the matter. 
 Then one day, when I had h3:^pnotized C, I led 
 the conversation round in an easy manner to 
 the secret, and told C that I wished to know 
 what B had told him. Appeals were no good, 
 and I threatened and commanded him to tell 
 me. He would say nothing at all concerning 
 it. There was just one other thing to do, I 
 thought, before giving C a bad time of it, and I 
 assumed B's personality — that can be done, of 
 course, quite easily in hypnotism — and said 
 chaffingly: 'By the bye, you remember that 
 story I told you about the doctor; I suppose 
 you haven't mentioned it to any one?' 'Oh, 
 not a word,' he said. 'Quite right,' I replied; 
 'let's see, I forget just how much I told you, — 
 you remember, don't you?' 'Yes, I remember,' 
 he said. 'Well, what was it?' I asked, 'I want 
 
1 6 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 to hear it again.' 'I don't wish to refer to it 
 again,' he answered. 'It is buried and I don't 
 see any use talking about it.' I tried for some 
 time to get it out of him, but he would not say 
 a word. Then I took up my own personalit}' 
 again — the doctor, you understand — and tried 
 by every means in my power to make him 
 speak. A sweat-box was nothing to it. He 
 suffered tortures. Heat, cold, hunger, thirst, 
 exhaustion, were a few of the agonies he went 
 through, but the end of the matter was that he 
 told me nothing. What becomes now of the 
 theory of detecting crime by hypnotic reve- 
 lation?" 
 
 ''Yet criminals and others have told the truth 
 under hypnotic examination," I persisted. 
 
 "You are quite right," said the doctor, "but 
 they would have been just as ready to tell the 
 truth in their waking state. And you can de- 
 pend upon it, that it would have been elicited 
 with more rapidity by a cross-examining law- 
 yer than by a hj/pnotist." 
 
 "H'm," I said. "Are you sure C had not 
 forgotten the secret'^" 
 
 "Quite sure, If he had, he would have told 
 me so, either as myself or as B." 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 1 7 
 
 '^Before you begin to hypnotize me, I want 
 to know one or two things,*' I said. "Can you, 
 for instance, work on a subject at a distance, 
 say in the next room, or wherever the sound of 
 your voice would not carry?" 
 
 ''No," said the doctor, "certainly not! That 
 is mental suggestion or telepathy. I have no 
 proof that there is such a thing. The subject 
 may imagine that I am suggesting that he shall 
 perform a certain action, and he will have the 
 impulse to do it; as, for instance, he may fall 
 asleep at a certain time when I am not near; but 
 the suggestion has come from himself or from 
 some friend, or association of ideas; my mind 
 is not working upon his." 
 
 "There is another phase of this question," I 
 said. " Suppose a hypnotic 'professor' advertises 
 that he can diagnose diseases, and that a patient 
 calls, and is invited to take the hand of some 
 person in a trance — a medium, in fact, and Sup- 
 pose this medium, who is evidently not sham- 
 ming sleep,saysin a far-away voice — ,'You have 
 neuralgic pains in your head; your condition 
 is one of general debility, but 3^our system can 
 be easily built up by the following means,' and 
 proceeds to tell him what to do; is this all hum- 
 bug?" 
 
1 8 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 " It is all humbug," said the doctor decisively. 
 "When I first began my researches into hyp- 
 notism, everything seemed to point to the 
 possibility of telepathy being a fact; nay, it 
 seemed the only possible conclusion to draw 
 from the results of experiments, and I myself 
 was most anxious to believe it true, and to estab- 
 lish it by proof. But the more I experimented, 
 the more unwillingly certain I became that there 
 was nothing provable in it, and I have been 
 compelled so far to discard the theoryi*' 
 
 "Then the medium was a fraud?" I asked. 
 
 "She may have been perfectly honest in tell- 
 ing jou just what came into her mind. She 
 may even believe that she is reading your physi- 
 cal condition by this telepathic process; there- 
 fore I should not describe her as a fraud. But 
 as an infallible guide in telling disease she is 
 mistaken in her knowledge, that's all. She is 
 merely a quick observer, and may hit the truth 
 sometimes. Whatever she tells you she has 
 gathered either from her personal observation of 
 you, or from scraps of information which you 
 or the "professor" have dropped. The fraud or 
 deception lies here, that you suppose she has a 
 clear insight into the state of your physical 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 1 9 
 
 body. She has not; she speaks from observa- 
 tion only." 
 
 "Is there such a thing as mind-reading?" I 
 asked. 
 
 "There is no such thing, to my knowledge, as 
 telepathy or mind-reading," he replied. 
 
 " But I have seen some wonderful things done 
 by mind-reading," I declared. 
 
 "I have said there is no such thing so far as 
 my knowledge extends," he replied. "It is prob- 
 ably not mind-reading but muscle-reading that 
 you have seen. Very wonderful apparently, 
 but very simple after all." 
 
 "But at the hypnotic exhibitions," I cried, 
 "a medium, blindfolded, will read off the date 
 of a coin, or a written question asked by one 
 of the committee, when there could have been 
 no possible collusion between herself and the 
 hypnotizer." 
 
 "There is always collusion," the doctor an- 
 swered. "And these tricks have been explained 
 again and again. They are only tricks." 
 
 "Can you explain them?" I asked. 
 
 " Nothing easier," he replied. " I may tell you 
 that I have often performed them myself with 
 great success at charitable entertainments, and 
 so on." 
 
20 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 The doctor then explained the various feats 
 of mind-readers, the finding of hidden pins, 
 reading numbers, and the rest, and so simple 
 were his explanations and so convincing that I 
 prefer not to publish them, seeing that it is a 
 painful thing to make public the evidence of 
 one's own gullibility. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE FIRST EXPERIMENT. SIMPLE SUGGESTION. 
 
 CONCENTRATION OF THOUGHT A NECES- 
 SITY. WAKING DELUSIONS. HYPNOTIC 
 
 SLEEP CAN BE BROKEN AT WILL. COMMAND 
 
 OF SLEEP DESIRABLE. 
 
 "Now, if 3^ou are ready," said the doctor, " we 
 will begin the experiment. Remember that this 
 is only an experiment, and that there are a 
 hundred and one ways by which we can hyp- 
 notize a person. It is a question of tempera- 
 ment in the subject. If you were not of a nat- 
 urally obstinate turn of mind; if you were of a 
 determined disposition, having trained your 
 body to act always as your will dictated, if 3'ou 
 had admitted the-dominion of your mind over 
 your body; if you were a patient seeking relief 
 from any ailment or imaginary ill; if, finall}^ 
 you were phlegmatic or ignorant, I should merel}^ 
 give you a bright object to look at, and say to 
 you, 'Sleep; you will go to sleep at once. When 
 
 2X 
 
22 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 I count five you will be fast asleep' — or some- 
 thing of that kind. However, I understand that 
 you would immediately say to yourself, 'I am 
 not asleep. I am not going to sleep, however 
 much I ma}^ wish to. 1 don't feel sleepy,' and 
 your waking consciousness would at once be 
 on the aggressive. This is not the right state 
 of feeling to induce. Remember that the power 
 to submit lies in yourself; you must bring your 
 thoughts to bear on one thing only — you wish 
 to sleep, therefore you can sleep. Think to 
 yourself that you desire to do so; that your legs 
 and arms are becoming numb and immovable, 
 that your e3^elids are pressing down, heavier 
 and heavier, and you will find yourself passing 
 into the sleeping condition. Don't reason 
 about it. Let yourself go." 
 
 ''I can't," I said, "I'm too excited." 
 "You're not excited," the doctor replied, 
 soothingly, "You are evidently becoming 
 sleepy. There is too much blood in your brain 
 at present. In sleep this circulation is much 
 lessened and the temperature is lowered. Your 
 head alread}^ feels cooler, and in a little while 
 you will be asleep. Now make yourself com- 
 fortable in this chair; get into the easiest posi- 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 2^ 
 
 tion possible, and then fix your eyes and your 
 mind upon the knuckle of the third finger of 
 your left hand. You will find that in the course 
 of two or three minutes you will become con- 
 scious of the change of tissue that is continually 
 going on through the system. In our every- 
 day life we are unconscious of it, but fix your 
 attention closely on any one part of your body 
 for even a few minutes and it becomes appar- 
 ent. It will make itself evident to you by a pain 
 running up your arm, by a deadness in the 
 finger you are looking at, or by a pricking of 
 the joint. I shall leave you for a few minutes." 
 
 Left to myself, I endeavored conscientiously 
 to do as I was bid, but the novelty of my sur- 
 roundings, and the remembrance of what I had 
 heard, prevented me from attending entirely to 
 my knuckle. Therefore, when the doctor re- 
 turned, I informed him that beyond a slight 
 pricking in the knuckle I had felt nothing. 
 
 "But you rested your mind bj? trying to think 
 of one object,'' he said reassuringly. "Now 
 we will trj' something else. You are not to 
 suppose that I expect you to sleep at once. 
 That will come when you are trained a little. 
 It rests with yourself. You will have to believe 
 
24 . HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 that you will sleep, and you will do so. Now,*' 
 and he drew a chair up beside me, 'Mook into 
 the pupils of m}^ eyes. So. Say to yourself 
 slowly, 'I am going to sleep. I want to go to 
 sleep.'" Then he chanted in a soothing mono- 
 tone, " Ah, 3^our eyelids are getting heavy ; they 
 are getting heavier and heavier. Your legs are 
 getting numb, they ^r^jnumb. You don't want to 
 move them. You know they are fastened to the 
 floor. Your arms are tied tight to your side. You 
 know 3^ou cannot move them. Close your eyes. 
 Now you are going to sleep — sleep — sleep!" 
 Pressing his thumbs hard against my eyeballs, he 
 chanted, "Your lids are heavy; they are shut 
 close, closer; shut fast. You don't want to 
 open them. You know 3'ou can't. Thej' are 
 fastened down tight. You can't open your eyes 
 till I count three." 
 
 Here the ludicrous side of the situation struck 
 me, and I regret to say I giggled like any serv- 
 ant-girl. 
 
 "One," said the doctor, "two, three," and 
 at the word "three" I opened mj' eyes and 
 laughed aloud. 
 
 "I could have opened them long ago!" I said. 
 
 "Yes, but you didn't want to," he replied. 
 
HYPNOTISxM UP TO DATE 25 
 
 "I know I didn't," I said, "but that was out 
 of politeness to you only." 
 
 "I don't think so," he answered. "You were 
 quite conscious, but as soon as your eyes began 
 to get heavy you were in one of the stages of 
 hypnosis. I suggested to you that you did not 
 want to do this thing, and you accepted the 
 suggestion, because I had told you that you did 
 not want to argue. Now then, stand up. Feet 
 together. So. Look me in the eye. Your 
 legs," he said, making a rapid pass with the 
 hand before my eyes a couple of times, and then 
 running it rapidly down to my feet — "Your 
 legs are tied fast together. You cannot move 
 them. They are bound with ropes. You know 
 the}' are. You know you cannot move them. 
 See if you can before I count five. One, two, 
 three, four, five I" 
 
 At the last word I moved one leg forward. 
 
 "I could have done it before," said I. 
 
 "But you have got to believe that you could 
 not," said the doctor, with much patience, "and 
 when you believe that, it becomes impossible. 
 Don't argue with yourself. You saw that be- 
 cause you believed for a moment that you were 
 tied you could not move 3^our leg. Now your 
 
26 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 arms are tied fast with ropes. You cannot 
 move them. The knots are cutting into your 
 flesh. You may try, but you cannot move them." 
 
 I did try, and, curiously enough, it was only 
 by a supreme effort that I managed to move an 
 arm. 
 
 "You see," he said, "you deh'eved that time. 
 Now look at me. What is your first name j^" 
 
 "Sydney," I said. 
 
 "What is it? What is it?" he asked in quick 
 succession, at the same time making a circular 
 pass in front of my eyes with his open hand. 
 "What is it?" 
 
 "Sydney," I repeated. 
 
 "It is easier to say 'Thomas'," he said, mak- 
 ing his hand revolve rapidly in front of me. 
 "It is easier to say Thomas. Thomas. Your 
 name is Thomas. What is it? What is your 
 name?" he asked fiercely. 
 
 For some time my lips refused to utter a 
 sound, then the name came to me like a flash, 
 and "S-S-S-Sydney !" I cried, triumphantly. 
 
 "Oh no, it isn't!" he said. "Thomas. Thomas 
 a Becket. Thomas a Becket. That's your 
 name. Look at me, Thomas. Now what is 
 it? Speak quick!" 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 27 
 
 I gazed at him for some little time while he 
 repeated his question, and my eye left his face 
 and wandered to the side of the room as I en- 
 deavored to think, but, "Look at me I" he re- 
 peated. "What is it?" 
 
 "Thomas," I said in desperation. 
 
 " What else ? Thomas what ?" 
 
 "Thomas a Beck — no, it isn't, it's Sydney," 
 I yelled. "I couldn't think of it before." 
 
 "We'll go back to that in a minute," he said 
 quietly. Then he shut my mouth tightly by 
 pressing under the chin and upon the top of the 
 head. "Ah, poor fellow!" he cried, "he has 
 lockjaw! — dumb! The muscles of his jaw are 
 knotted and contracted. He cannot open his 
 mouth till I count five." 
 
 I found my jaw as rigid as a rock, and 
 though I knew I was shutting it tight myself, 
 and though I tried my hardest to open it, it 
 was not till the word "five" that it came open 
 with a jerk. 
 
 "That's very good," he said, closing my eyes 
 with his fingers. "I told you what your name 
 was just now. You have forgotten it. You 
 never had a name. You cannot remember any- 
 thing about it." 
 
28 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 I searched my memory in vain for anything 
 like a Christian name that might sound as if it 
 belonged to me, but I had to give it up. 
 
 "Now when I snap my fingers you'll remem- 
 ber it," said the doctor, and he did so, and I 
 cried out the name. 
 
 "Look at your hand," said he; "it is dead, 
 lifeless, quite cold!" and he brushed the sleeve 
 of my coat back rapidly. "Dead from the wrist 
 to the fingers. Not a bit of life in it. Numb 
 and without feeling." He pinched it and I felt 
 nothing. He took a needle from his waistcoat, 
 and ran it through a loop of the flesh. I saw in 
 an idle way that he was doing something with 
 my hand, but on a sudden my objective con- 
 sciousness told me that it was a needle and that 
 it would hurt. I therefore cried out promptly. 
 
 "You felt nothing at first," said the doctor. 
 
 "No, but I did when I saw what you were 
 up to," I answered. 
 
 "Well, that is enough for to-da}'," he said. 
 " So ends your first experiment. You are neither 
 a very good nor a very bad subject. Training 
 will make you a good one. You must remem- 
 ber that you have been doing some things which, 
 seeing that you were wide-awake and conscious 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 29 
 
 all the time, are manifestly absurd, now that you 
 look back on them. You understand that you 
 were partially hypnotized?" 
 
 "I suppose I was," I said, "though it didn't 
 feel like it." 
 
 "How do you know what it feels like?" he 
 asked. "Now you remember that when you 
 cease to struggle against the suggestions given, 
 you will find sleep come to you and not before." 
 
 "Can you sleep at will?" I asked. 
 
 "Certainly," he replied. "It seldom takes 
 me more than thirty seconds to get to sleep. I 
 was very nearly off once or twice when I was 
 giving you the first part of your lesson." 
 
 "Supposing you had slept," I said, "could I 
 have wakened you?" 
 
 "Why, of course you could!" 
 
 "But 3^ou would have hypnotized yourself?" 
 
 "I should have gone to sleep, stupid, and you 
 would have shaken me out of it." 
 
 "But isn't that very dangerous?" 
 
 "Great heavens! hear this!" he cried. "Dan- 
 gerous? Where's the danger?" 
 
 "I have heard," I said, "that a hypnotized 
 person cannot be wakened except by the voice 
 of the operator, and that if anything should hap- 
 
30 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 pen to him, the consequences would be very 
 serious to the subject." 
 
 The doctor smiled. "Been reading 'Trilby,' 
 haven't you?" he asked. "Supposing for a 
 minute that Trilby owed her marvelous voice 
 to hypnotic suggestion, and was singing on that 
 eventful evening when Svengali occupied a box 
 at the theater, you remember? Do you know 
 what would have happened if Svengali had died 
 in the middle of her song?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "She would have sung her song to the end, 
 and have waited for him behind the scenes as 
 usual," answered the doctor. "I did not know 
 anybody was so foolish as to take the hypnotic 
 part of Trilby seriousl}^ I am quite sure that 
 Du Maurier himself worked it in as an effective 
 b37play without regard to accuracy. In fact, 
 the whole plot is more or less of a joke. No, 
 no, don't suppose that a person will not wake 
 from a hypnotic sleep; but don't imagine that 
 there is any special reason why you should wake 
 him. If I put a patient to sleep, and sa}^ 'Now 
 you will sleep until I wake you,' and then go 
 awa}^ intending to return in an hour, but remain 
 away for the rest of the da}^ what happens, do 
 you think?" 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 3 1 
 
 "The patient sleeps till you return," I an- 
 swered. 
 
 "Not always; in fact seldom, if my return 
 is delayed beyond an hour or two. I have 
 known in very exceptional cases a hypnotic sleep 
 to last for a day or even two, but there was 
 some very good reason for it, which the doctors 
 had not discovered in the ps3'chical condition 
 of the patient. Always on arousing, these pa- 
 tients have eaten a good meal and felt in excel- 
 lent health. As a general rule, however, they 
 will wake of their own accord in about an hour 
 or less; but if the}^ do not, I say again, there is 
 no cause for alarm." 
 
 "It would bean inexpensive way of spending 
 a holiday," I suggested. 
 
 "To command sleep," said the doctor," is one 
 of the lessons which every man and woman 
 should learn, and should utilize. It is a great 
 preserver of health, and is merely a matter of 
 concentration of the mind. Come to me to- 
 morrow at half-past ten in the morning, and we 
 will continue the experiment." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 AN EXPERIMENT IN SELF-SUGGESTION. HOW 
 
 HYPNOTISM RECONCILED A MARRIED COUPLE. 
 
 HOW IT REFORMED A DISAGREEABLE 
 
 MAN. NATURAL GOODNESS VERSUS ORIG- 
 INAL SIN. 
 
 "You're late," said the doctor, as I turned the 
 handle of his door a quarter of an hour after the 
 time appointed. 
 
 "It is mj habit," said I, "to be unpunctual, 
 but it happens that I have an excuse. I had a 
 bad night last night." 
 
 "Ah, a heavy supper?" he suggested. 
 
 "No supper at all," I replied. "But I tried 
 putting rn3^self to sleep by self-suggestion, auto- 
 suggestion, as you advised, and the result kept me 
 busy and watchful till 2 o'clock this morning.' 
 
 "You gave up too easily," the doctor said. 
 
 "I never gave up at all," I answered. "I 
 kept on saying to m3\self, 'I am going to sleep. 
 I will sleep. I can go to sleep. I am asleep,' just 
 32 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE ^ 33 
 
 as you do, you know, and then something within 
 me— it could hardly have been my conscience, 
 could it? — cried out, 'You're a liar, you're 
 not asleep!' and I had to begin the repetition 
 all over again. After an hour of this I got up 
 and lit the gas, keeping a very small flame burn- 
 ing, and I stared and stared at this until I grew 
 dizzy. It had no other effect. Then I hit upon 
 a subtle idea. I thought to myself, 'This is my 
 landlady's gas. I ought not to burn it. I ought 
 to get up and turn it off. But I cannot get up. 
 I am going to sleep!' Even that didn't work." 
 
 "No, because you only went into it in a half- 
 hearted way," said the doctor. "Your reason- 
 ing consciousness told 3'ou that you had a right 
 to burn the gas, because you paid for 3'our share 
 of it, and therefore, that the injury to your land- 
 lady's pocket would not 'lie,' as the lawyers 
 say. You were therefore conscious that your 
 statement was merely a ruse to cheat yourself 
 into going to sleep, and a transparent ruse at 
 that." 
 
 "That's all very well," I said. "But you 
 must admit that if the ruse had succeeded, it 
 would have been a case of inducing sleep by 
 concentration of the mind, and that's all that's 
 required." 
 
34 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 "If you have that," answered the doctor, 
 "there would be no need of the ruse in the first 
 place." 
 
 "Surely," I said, "a little variety — " 
 
 "Your fault," said the doctor, "lies in this 
 principally, you are too fond of experimenting 
 with yourself and then laughing at the experi- 
 ments when they fail. That won't do at all. 
 There is no thoroughness discernible in your 
 attempts. You are apt to trifle with your sub- 
 jective mind, and that is something which your 
 subjective mind is not going to stand. It will 
 retire into its shell like any other animal that is 
 being made a fool of." 
 
 "Animals don't have shells," I retorted. 
 
 "It is of no consequence," said the doctor, 
 with a dignity that was proof against the thrust. 
 "There must be no unseemly levity in connec- 
 tion with hypnotism," he added. 
 
 "I will endeavor to make amends," I 
 said, "but I find it hard to take myself 
 seriously." 
 
 "Yet you must," he said, "or you will fail. 
 Remember that. Now before we begin experi- 
 menting to-day there are one or two illustrations 
 I can give you of the good use to which hyp- 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 35 
 
 notic suggestion can be put in the ordinary 
 affairs of life, apart from its application in pa- 
 thology and the treatment of diseases," he ex- 
 plained. 
 
 "You know you agreed to speak in words of 
 onl}' one and two syllables," I remarked. 
 
 "Wherever possible," he admitted. "Some 
 months ago I came across an excellent subject, 
 whom I will call 'Kitty.' She was a little 
 woman, honest and intelligent, and she was 
 married to a husband with whom she did 
 not agree. He used to drink, I understand, 
 and when in that condition would illtreat 
 her. Finally Kitt}^ left her husband and 
 went to live with her relations. The husband 
 was a good fellow enough when he left drink 
 alone, and it seemed quite possible that a little 
 hypnotic suggestion would smooth away the 
 difficulties which beset their home life. I knew 
 Kitty ver}'' well, and found her, as I sa}^ an ex- 
 cellent subject. After hypnotizing her a few 
 times, I planted the suggestion in her mind that 
 it would be a very good thing if she were recon- 
 ciled to her husband. The suggestion was to 
 recur to her at certain hours during the day 
 when she was in her waking state. To give 
 
36 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 point to the illustration, I ought to tell you that 
 though Kitty was naturally a good little woman, 
 she had come to feel that she had had about 
 enough of her husband to last her a lifetime, 
 and that she had evinced no desire whatever, 
 when I questioned her on the matter, to return 
 to him. I have no reason to doubt that at the 
 beginning of the experiments a reunion with her 
 husband was the last thing she desired. Hav- 
 ing given her the suggestion of tenderness to- 
 wards him, I looked for a speedy result. It 
 came first in the shape of a remark she made in 
 her waking state when she was looking out of 
 the window on the street from my office. It 
 was a pretty cold day, by the bye. 'I wonder,' 
 she said, 'if poor Harry' — her husband's name 
 — 'has got a sore throat again. This weather 
 always makes him ill.' To cut the story short, 
 Harry gave up his drinking, and Kitty went 
 back to him, and when I saw her a few days 
 ago, she was well and happy." 
 
 "And they lived happily ever after," I sug 
 gested. 
 
 "The}' are living happily at the present time," 
 said the doctor, " which is greatly to be desired." 
 
 "It seems tome," I said, ''that this hypnotic 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 37 
 
 suggestion, if welT understood and practiced 
 by humanity, would provide a royal road to 
 righteousness which would make sin difficult. 
 By that I mean that there would be no merit in 
 overcoming evil, because a moral life would be 
 inevitably easy of compass. Too eas3% in fact." 
 
 "On the 'No cross, no crown' principle?" 
 asked the doctor. "I certainly believe that hyp- 
 notism will be the great moral force of the future, 
 even if you and I do not live to see it. But 
 what is it after all but self-training, an edu- 
 cation in the control of matter by mind? If 
 sin is simply an evil action, and if evil actions 
 are evolved from evil thoughts, and if evil 
 thoughts can be easily controlled by the mind 
 when the operator has furnished the suggestion, 
 it is evident that this science has a great field 
 before it as an educator. We shall not eradicate 
 evil by its use, but we shall certainly loosen the 
 grip of that mythical personage whom we call 
 Satan, upon the throat of humanity." 
 
 "But you have not answered my conjecture," 
 I said. "Does it seem right that a man should 
 be able to turn from evil to good without a 
 struggle?" 
 
 "Why should he be 'evil' as you call it, in the 
 
38 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 first place?" the doctor asked. "Who made him 
 so? I answer, circumstance, environment, lack 
 of education, and to a certain extent, parentage. 
 I am not a believer in original sin. I say that 
 life is one long struggle upwards, and that the 
 child has implanted in his mind as many in- 
 stincts for good as for evil. That both the good 
 and the evil are suggested to him, and that ac- 
 cording to the preponderance of either, his na- 
 ture will develop, is my firm belief. A lazy 
 father may have a lazy son, because the father's 
 influence on the child's mind at its most recep- 
 tive age tended to encourage the slothful habit. 
 But heredity, pure and simple, has not much 
 to answer for. It is the later influence that 
 tells. Wh}^ should you assume that man is nec- 
 essarilj' evil?" 
 
 "I only know that he is," I answered with 
 conviction. 
 
 "Observe," said the doctor to the empt}^ air, 
 "once more the powerful influence of suggestion I 
 You have been told," he went on, "that man is 
 evil. But you have nothing to show in proof 
 thereof. Wickedness? Bah! a disordered state of 
 the physical or mental condition. Change that, 
 alter that, find the cause and mend it, and the wick 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 39 
 
 ediiess is dispersed. The psychic nature of. a 
 man who seems absolutely depraved is really 
 unaltered. The good in him is simply dormant, 
 and his objective mind, which governs the body, 
 and is very sensitive to any disorder of the 
 nervous system, is paramount. This is so far 
 from being right, that the man must be trained 
 again to bring his psychic force, into play, be- 
 fore he can return to a normal and healthy 
 condition. When we speak of a perverted 
 moral nature, it is erroneous to suppose that 
 the man's soul or conscience is degenerate. 
 The soul is dormant. It is simply the power 
 for good which is always in the man. In the 
 case of a suddenly converted man — you have 
 seen hundreds, without doubt— the soul is 
 awakened instantly. A sermon, a denunciation, 
 a prayer, a song, any of these may do it. They 
 are suggestions which take root." 
 
 "Some of them fade pretty quickly, too," I 
 added. 
 
 "Granted," said the doctor, "but who knows 
 what good they have done during their brief 
 flourishing? Hypnotic suggestion awakens in 
 the same way, and by repetition will acquire 
 sutBcient power over a man to change his moral 
 
40 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 nature from bad to good. Let me illustrate 
 this point. A man had become unbearably ill- 
 tempered. He was in such an evil condition 
 that he took no pleasure in his work, his books, 
 or his family. He was a nuisance to himself 
 and to his neighbors. At first he had his 
 moments of remorse when he endeavored to 
 make amends by a fit of unusual amiability to- 
 wards his wife and friends, but these moments 
 became fewer, and finally ceased. He was in 
 a very good condition to commit either murder 
 or suicide. It was just a mental derangement. 
 He was capable of excessive cruelt}^ towards his 
 wife; of dishonesty in business; of treacherj' in 
 friendship. The origin of the disorder is not 
 of consequence; it may have been overwork; 
 it may have been evil companionship, influence, 
 and therefore suggestion. It all comes down 
 to this at last — suggestion. If 3rou say it is 
 original sin, I reply that means defective edu- 
 cation or evil suggestion again. Now do you 
 know how we proceed? We begin by interest- 
 ing him in little things. We work on him by 
 suggestion. We compel the suggestion, be- 
 cause his subjective mind is too inert to evolve 
 it of its own accord. We tell him that he is 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 4I 
 
 naturally a kind man, and that he will remem- 
 ber on waking from his hypnotic sleep, and at 
 times during the day, that he is fond of his chil- 
 dren ; that he takes an interest in gardening, or 
 some simple thing like that. He believes this. 
 We add the suggestion that he will take an in- 
 terest in his daily work, but will be glad to get 
 home when it is done. We tell him he is not 
 an irritable man. He is good-tempered and 
 bright. His nature is to enjo}' life. We repeat 
 the suggestions for a week or two, and what is 
 the result? The lesson sticks. The man be- 
 lieves his suggestions. He reforms. You know 
 there are people who have told fables so repeat- 
 edly that they now believe in them as absolute 
 facts; hypnotic suggestion works on the same 
 lines. Repeat a thing often enough, and a man 
 will adopt it as a truth — a part of himself. It 
 may take weeks, it may take months, but sooner 
 or later this man is cured of his nervous ailment. 
 He returns to his normal condition, cured by 
 hypnotic suggestion." 
 
 "But you make wickedness the consequence 
 onl}^ of ill-health," I argued. 
 
 "Well, it may be very difficult to trace it to 
 that source in ever}^ case, but I know positively 
 
42 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 that it is so very frequentl}^ The health}^ man 
 is inclined naturally towards goodness. And the 
 foundation of m}- belief in the natural goodness of 
 the human race is given me by the results attained 
 in just such a case as I have mentioned. If the 
 man were an original sinner at heart, he would 
 not accept the suggestion of good. But it is to 
 his natural instinct of goodness that we appeal, 
 and his soul triumphs over his acquired wicked 
 ness." 
 
 '^It is a big problem," I said. 
 
 "It is too big for us to treat of at this time," 
 he answered. "No more for to-day." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FREE WILL NOT DESTROYED. THE CONSCIOUS 
 
 NESS OF THE SUBJECT. SELF-PRESERVING 
 
 INSTINCT. MENTAL SUGGESTION. MINOR 
 
 MANIFKSTATIONS OF SPRITISM. — SUBJEC- 
 TIVE xMEMORY. THE DIARY OF THE SOUL.- — 
 
 SUPERNATURAL POWER DISCREDITED. 
 
 "Do you remember," said I, "stating that a 
 hypnotized person never lost sight of the fact 
 that right was right, and that wrong was wrong ?" 
 
 "Certainly," replied the doctor; "what of it?" 
 
 "But the operator has power to make that 
 subject believe wrong is right?'' I queried. 
 
 "Oh no, he hasn't." 
 
 "How is it, then, if you gave me a turnip to 
 eat and told me it was an apple, I should eat it 
 believing it to be an apple, as you said?" 
 
 "You would do this because you were willing 
 to carry on the experiment," he answered. 
 
 "Do you mean that I should know all the 
 time that it was only an experiment?" I asked. 
 
 43 
 
44 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 "Yes, you would know it, though you would 
 not reason on the matter," he replied. . 
 
 ''But in that case," I said, ''I should refuse 
 to submit to the pains and penalties which you 
 could subject me to, and awake." 
 
 "You might wake, certainl}^" the doctor an- 
 swered, "but probably you would not. You 
 are willing to go through the experiments, other- 
 wise you would not consent to be hypnotized. 
 You know that; you are conscious of it, although 
 you do not argue about it to yourself. Thus 
 you would know that you had really eaten a 
 turnip and not an apple," 
 
 "Impossible," I said. 
 
 "I'll prove to you that you would know it," 
 he replied. "Sometimes after carrying through 
 an experiment of this sort, I have^said to the 
 subject, 'Do you know what you have eaten?' 
 He says, 'Yes, an apple,' or whatever I may 
 have told him it was. We can take the apple 
 and turnip example; it will do for all others. 
 His first thought is that it was an apple. 'Sleep!' 
 I say; 'now when you wake up you will re- 
 member what it was you ate. Quick, wake up, 
 what was it?' 'A turnip,' he replies at once, 
 with disgust. Proving, 3^ou see, that he knew 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 45 
 
 what he had eaten. I never told him it was a 
 turnip. He evolved it from his own conscious- 
 ness." 
 
 "He might have evolved it from the taste in 
 his mouth," I said. 
 
 •'Hardly," said the doctor. "He would at 
 least require some little time to think over it." 
 
 " Suppose," said I, "that an operator purposed 
 doing some wrong to his hypnotized subject, 
 could the latter rebel with any hope of success?" 
 
 "I don't understand you; of course the subject 
 would wake at once." 
 
 "But if the suggestion were given that the 
 subject would not wake for an hour? 
 
 "The suggestion would go for nothing, just 
 as soon as the subject's instinct of right and 
 wrong was aroused. In an instant conscious- 
 ness would return." 
 
 "Why, then, the operator's power is very 
 limited?" 
 
 "Good heavens! Must I tell you again that 
 through all these experiments there runs the 
 consciousness, not reasoned with, not argued 
 about, only felt, in the subject's subjective mind, 
 that these are only experiments, nothing more. 
 I had a patient once whom I cured of stammer- 
 
46 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 ing. Part of his treatment was to make him 
 deliver an address before an imaginary audi- 
 ence. He spoke better and better each time, 
 and finally his stammering left him altogether. 
 He was one of those dignified men whose sense 
 of decorum is strongly developed. His man- 
 ners were excellent. He proved to me that the 
 operator has only so much hold on the subject 
 as the latter is willing to allow him, b}- his an- 
 swer when I suggested that in beginning his 
 address he should put his thumb to his nose and 
 spread his fingers out. The gesture, as you 
 know, is significantly derisive. I also com- 
 manded him to wink at the audience. The sug- 
 gestion almost woke him up. He refused point- 
 blank; oh no, he could not possibly do such a 
 thing! His moral sense, on the alert, you per- 
 ceive, told him that the action would be unbe- 
 coming." 
 
 "Does a subject ever refuse to accept your 
 suggestion on the whole, while believing a part 
 of it?" 
 
 "Yes. He does sometimes. It is not well 
 to test this judgment of his too much, I think, 
 or he might refuse to accept the suggestion al- 
 together some day. But 1 can give you a case 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 47 
 
 in point. I say to a subject, 'Now you are 
 going to skate. It is a race against time. You 
 have your skates on, and this is a clear field of 
 ice before you. Is it not?' 
 
 "'Yes,' he says, 'I see.' He is leaning down 
 in the attitude of a skater all eagerness to be off. 
 'Are you ready?' I say. 'You see that there is 
 nothing in your way; that the ice is clear from 
 the start to finish? You see the flag at the 
 end?' 
 
 "'Yes,' he says. 
 
 "'Then go,' 1 cr}^ and he goes like a shot. 
 In this case I have wheeled an armchair a little 
 way in front of the subject. As he goes he 
 runs round the obstacle in his path. He accepted 
 my suggestion that the course was clear, but he 
 knew all the time that that armchair was in 
 the road." 
 
 "Too polite to call attention to the fact that 
 you erred," I suggested. 
 
 "No, it was just a case of self-preservation, 
 and I think he thought it was not worth his 
 while to remark on it," the doctor replied. "He 
 accepted the suggestion, and with the subject 
 there is always, as I sa}^ this willingness to ac- 
 cept the suggestion up to a certain point. It is 
 
48 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 like a man taking off his coat, and going through 
 a game of romps with children. He is willing 
 to do his share of the fun." 
 
 "How do you account for it," I said, "that 
 some subjects can remember just what they have 
 been doing when the fun is over, and some can 
 remember nothing at all?" 
 
 "Of course you mean if they have not had 
 the suggestion given them while in the hyp- 
 notic state that they will remember?" 
 
 "Of course." 
 
 "Well, I have been asked that question be- 
 fore," he answered, "and my theory is this. 
 It depends upon the previous expectation of the 
 subject himself. His expectation acts as a sug- 
 gestion. If he says to himself, 'I ought to re- 
 member what has happened as soon as I wake,* 
 he will do so; if he does not expect to, he will 
 not." 
 
 "You do not believe that a person can be 
 hypnotized by mental suggestion given from a 
 distance, do you?" I asked. 
 
 "You are going back to telepathy again," 
 replied the doctor, "and I must give you my 
 previous answer, that although I have been 
 informed that it is a fact, and can be done, I 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 49 
 
 have never seen it done by others, or been 
 able to do it myself." 
 
 "Yet," said I, "I have seen an operator 
 twenty feet away from a subject, who has his 
 back turned, and his eyes closed, draw that 
 subject towards him with a wave of his hand 
 through the air, or even with no motion at all." 
 
 "It is very simple," said the doctor. "I have 
 done it myself, but not by telepathy. It 
 is the result of the vibration of the air caused 
 either by my gesture, or in the latter case you 
 mention by merely blowing gently with my 
 mouth. The subject feels the breath distinctly 
 on the back of his neck, because his sense of 
 feeling is in an abnormally quickened state. 
 His senses are all so sharpened that if I blow 
 softly and continuously in his direction the vibra- 
 tion of the atmosphere causes him to raise 
 his hands to the back of his neck. His natural 
 impulse is to go backwards to where I may be 
 standing. From a distance it looks as if the 
 operator is mentally influencing the subject, 
 but as a matter of fact he is giving and using a 
 ph3^sical suggestion." 
 
 "Have you given any attention to the study 
 of spiritualism, with its minor manifestations by 
 means of the planchette, and table-rapping?" 
 I asked. 
 
50 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 "I have gone into them sufficiently to satisfy 
 myself that everything I have personally seen 
 could be explained on purely psycho-physical 
 grounds," he answered. "In speaking of it, I 
 want to assure you that there is much less fraud 
 about any of these phenomena than is commonly 
 supposed. I believe that the majority of those 
 who support their belief in the supernatural by 
 accounts of singular things which have happened 
 to them on certain occasions are not only honest 
 themselves, but have actually heard the words, or 
 read the writing which contained the seemingly 
 supernatural intelligence that impressed them so 
 much. But I say also, that if these good people 
 had a knowledge of the power of 'suggestion,' 
 of hypnotism, in fact, thej^ would find the ex- 
 planation of the phenomena not very difficult of 
 comprehension. 
 
 " You have no doubt heard some one say in 
 a tone of earnest conviction, 'Well, this plan- 
 cliette must be in league with spirits. Last night 
 it wrote off some extraordinary things for me; 
 things which no one present remembered at all. 
 I asked it what happened to me this day a year 
 ago, and it gave an accurate account of many 
 circumstances which had happened on that day, 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 5 I 
 
 of which I was quite unconscious, though when 
 I read them out I remembered them quite well.' 
 Now this person is much impressed, because he 
 knows himself to be honest, and if he had re- 
 membered the occurrences he would have said 
 so. Result, a convert to spiritism." 
 
 ''Well, what's the explanation?" I asked. 
 
 "By concentrating his mind upon the plan- 
 chette," the doctor replied, "he has passed into 
 the passive or subjective state. His subjective 
 mind is at work, and answers the question which 
 his objective mind is unable to do correctly. 
 Now, lest it should seem strange to you that the 
 subjective mind could reply to such a question 
 as was then proposed, I am going to tell you 
 something which is, I think, really wonderful. 
 No action, however trivial, which you have per- 
 formed in the course of your life, passes out of 
 the memory of the subjective mind. Think of 
 it. Your soul has a complete record of all your 
 doings, perhaps, for aught I know, of all your 
 sayings, from your infanc3\ What's it for? 
 Ah, that I don't know. Perhaps this diary is 
 going to be of use in another life — perhaps it's 
 not! How do I know this? By repeated ex- 
 periments with hypnotic subjects. Take one 
 
52 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 for an example. I had frequently hyj notized a 
 young man whom we will call George. On one 
 occasion I said to him, *George, this is the six- 
 teenth day of July. I want 3'ou to call to mind 
 exactly what you were doing and how 3'ou 
 spent this day three years ago. Give me all the 
 incidents of the morning, afternoon and even- 
 ing, and be quick. I'll just give you half a 
 minute to get them all in order.' George 
 thought for a little while, and then he began. 
 He had taken his sisters to see an exhibition 
 that day. It was very hot. He described the 
 exhibition, man}^ of the performances ; told what 
 his party had had for dinner and how much he 
 had paid for it. Carried me on to the afternoon, 
 and spoke of a cold in his head which was 
 bothering him. Finall}^ after a narration which 
 extended over six minutes' steady talking, and 
 the principal points of which I jotted down, he 
 wound up with a description of a small party 
 held at his house that evening, and gave me the 
 names of those who were present. Now all this 
 was very remarkable, but was useless as evidence 
 in support of a scientific fact, unless proof of 
 its correctness were obtainable. When I woke 
 George up, therefore, I requested him to write to 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 53 
 
 his sisters and beg them to search their memories 
 to see if their recollection of the incidents coin- 
 cided with his own. I received a letter myself 
 in a few days from one of the sisters,accompanied 
 byUn old diary of her brother's which had been 
 left\in her keeping, and which George had given 
 her/permission to forward to me. In the letter 
 she'isaid that she had thought over the matter, 
 but (believed that the events narrated by George 
 had\happened on the 17th and not the i6th, and 
 thatjto endorse her opinion she had looked up 
 this /old diary of George's, and found the events 
 accuratel}' chronicled there under date of the 
 17th. This struck me as very peculiar until I 
 referred to a calendar and found that the mis- 
 take had been my own. It was actually the 
 17th and not the i6th day of the month when I 
 made the experiment." 
 
 "That is very extraordinary, indeed," I said, 
 "and have you met with the same success with 
 old people in trying to make them recall the 
 scenes of their youth?" 
 
 "Yes," he answered, "I have turned old gen- 
 tlemen for the time being into boys of twelve 
 years of age, and they have so entered into the 
 spirit of the thing that they have adopted a boy's 
 
54 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 voice and speech, and have betrayed a fondness 
 for marbles and peg-tops. I know an estimable 
 lady," the doctor continued, "who is a firm be- 
 liever in spiritism. She will, under the influ- 
 ence of a little music, fall into a trance, and will 
 then assume the personality of her little son, who 
 died when he was six years old. She will speak 
 in a childish treble and act precisely as a small 
 boy would. He says, through her, that he is 
 very happy in Heaven, and that he is allowed 
 to come down and see his mother whenever he 
 wants to, and he will be ver}^ gl^<3 when she 
 ^passes over' and joins him. Now this is a 
 rather beautiful belief, and for its poetry alone, 
 we might well wish that it could be true. I 
 have been compelled to believe, however, that 
 it is nothing more than the subjective mind, 
 speaking of that which the mother conceives to 
 be the present state of her dead child. On 
 awakening from her trance she is not conscious 
 of what she has been saying, but she knows she 
 has been speaking as her son, because she has 
 been told so before by others, and has accepted 
 the suggestion. I am not anxious to destro}^ a 
 belief which in itself is productive of such com- 
 fort to a bereaved heart." 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 55 
 
 "Concerning clairvoyance," I said," have you 
 come to any conclusion in your own mind re- 
 garding it?" 
 
 "I have only the negative assurance," replied 
 the doctor, "that my own investigations have 
 been productive of no result, and that Bernheim, 
 who has conducted one hundred thousand ex- 
 periments in hypnotism, has no facts to record 
 in connection with it. He mentions it merely 
 as an interesting study, to be further inquired 
 into if one has the time. Although I have heard 
 of many extraordinary examples of clairvoy- 
 ance, I have not been able to conduct one ex- 
 periment successfullj'— if the experiment was 
 surrounded with scientific safeguards." 
 
 "Have you had no better success in investi- 
 gating thought transference, or the 'astral body' 
 theory?" I asked. 
 
 "Unhappily, no better," he replied. "I have 
 seen no proofs of either one or the other. I 
 may say that I am very anxious to obtain proofs 
 if they are to be had." 
 
 "So are we all," I said. "Then as to 'auto- 
 matic writing,' 'crystal gazing' and 'fortune tell- 
 ing;' you explain all these things on the basis 
 of auto-suggestion or some stage of hypnotism?" 
 
56 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 "Undoubtedly," he replied. "There is noth- 
 ing miraculous in them ; they are manifestations 
 of the subjective mind only." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE SECOND LESSON. INVOLUNTARY PHYSI- 
 CAL MOVEMENTS. — AIR CURRENTS. A 
 
 GOOD SUBJECT. — SENSE DELUSIONS. IL- 
 LUSIONS. RESTORING THE MEMORY. 
 
 "This morning," said the doctor, when I ar- 
 rived at his office, "I am going to give you 
 your second lesson in hypnotism, and also 
 vouchsafe you an opportunity of watching the 
 effect of suggestion upon a subject. I am ex- 
 pecting a visitor in about half an hour, but we 
 will see, first of all, whether you are willing to 
 go to sleep yourself." 
 
 '*I have just got up from a very good break- 
 fast," I replied; "surely the time is ill-chosen." 
 
 "The morning is always the best time," he 
 said, "because then the mind is best able to 
 concentrate itself. Now sit down and go to 
 sleep." 
 
 I composed myself as I had been ordered, 
 and he left me to myself for five minutes, dur- 
 57 
 
58 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 ing which the ticking of the office clock seemed 
 unnaturally loud and aggressive. Certainly I 
 was nearl}^ asleep once, but the satisfaction 
 I derived from the thought was sufficient to re- 
 call me to consciousness. I opened my eyes 
 when the doctor re-entered the room. 
 
 '^You were asleep," he said. 
 
 "I very nearly was," I answered. 
 
 "You were sound asleep," he repeated. "Re- 
 member that. Although your mind was active, 
 consciousness had left you, and 3^ou were not 
 aware that you were sitting in this room." 
 
 The restraints which ordinary politeness exer- 
 cises upon the least of us forbade me to express 
 positively a contrary opinion. 
 
 "I have my doubts," I said. 
 
 '•'You must have no doubts," replied the doc- 
 tor, conclusivel}^. "To doubt is to disbelieve. 
 It is at least the thin edge of the wedge. Now 
 stand up. Back to the light. Arms tight to 
 the sides. So. A good muscular figure. Hard 
 as a rock. Legs firm and straight." 
 
 Really he was very flattering, but I remem- 
 bered his teaching and refrained from smiling. 
 There is no such thing as levity in hj'pnotism. 
 
 "Head erect," said the doctor. "Stiff as a 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 59 
 
 ramrod all over. You could not bend yourself." 
 
 I stiffened all over like a frozen fish. He 
 passed his hands quickly down my sid.s. 
 "Close the eyes," he said. "Now, when I 
 snap m}' fingers you will fall backwards stiff 
 as a poker." 
 
 At the sound I fell, stiff and unbending, as I 
 have seen the heroine in melodrama fall ere the 
 curtain descends upon her woes. The doctor 
 caught me, however, as I knew he would, and 
 as the heroine is caught by the hero on the 
 stage, who supports her tenderly but with an 
 evident effort. 
 
 The doctor laid my head upon a chair, and 
 wheeling a stool into line, rested my feet upon it. 
 
 "You can't bend yourself," he said. "You 
 don't feel the strain. Open your eyes. You 
 could sta}^ like that for an hour." 
 
 "I don't believe I could," I gasped. 
 
 "You can't bend yourself," he said; "it is 
 nothing for you to do." 
 
 My vanity as an athlete was touched, yet it 
 seemed to me that I could bend myself very eas- 
 ily if I tried, but I wasn't going to try. With- 
 out any muscular effort whatever, 1 kept my 
 position while he removed the chair, and lifted 
 me, still rigid, to my feet. 
 
6o HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 "It hurt my neck," I said. 
 
 '* Nonsense!" replied the doctor. "You would 
 have stayed there for an hour if I had told you 
 to. I could have sat upon you." 
 
 "I am very glad you didn't," I said. 
 
 "You are going now," said the doctor, "to 
 fall backward or forward according to my ges- 
 tures. If you fall forward you will take one 
 or two steps to save yourself. You will not 
 lose your balance. If backward, ditto. Close 
 your eyes. The air currents will guide you." 
 
 I carried out this part of the entertainment 
 very satisfactorily. If he waved his hand to 
 one side, I felt the current of air drawing me 
 thither. Whichever way he moved, it was the 
 same. I received no clue from the sound of his 
 footsteps; my guide was the atmosphere. 
 
 A knock at the door interrupted us. "Wake 
 up," said the doctor. "Come in," and he went 
 forward to meet the subject he was expecting. 
 
 She was a bright looking woman, with a very 
 colorless complexion, and she talked to the doc- 
 tor as if he were an old friend. Her husband 
 would not come with her, she said, having 
 some business to attend to, but had no objection 
 to her going alone. 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 6l 
 
 ''Well," said the doctor at length, after the 
 introductions were over, and the weather had 
 been satisfactoril}^ disposed of, "it's a long time 
 since you were here, Mrs. Brown; has any one 
 put you to sleep in the meantime?" 
 
 "No," she said, "and I expect you'll have 
 some trouble 3^ourself." 
 
 "Oh no," he replied, "I don't think so; I 
 shan't have any trouble with you. I've put 
 you to sleep too often before," and he stroked 
 her forehead. "Go off quietly now," he said 
 soothingly. "You must be asleep before I 
 count ten. Let yourself go. Quietly now. 
 Quietly." 
 
 Mrs. Brown smiled in an apologetic way, 
 but murmured that she was afraid he'd have 
 some trouble, and so murmuring,her eyes closed, 
 and her head fell back. 
 
 "I am going to show you," said the doctor to 
 me, "one or two experiments which I have not 
 so far tried with this subject, though I have car- 
 ried them through with others. It is a curious 
 thing in hypnotism that hardly any two persons 
 act alike under its influence, just as no two are 
 alike in features or character, though they may 
 bear a strong resemblance to each other. This 
 
62 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 lady is an active somnambulist when hypnotized, 
 by which I mean she speaks and acts under 
 suggestion." 
 
 "I thought every one did that," I exclaimed. 
 
 '* By no means," he replied. "Some never 
 reach the active somnambulistic stage at all, 
 they are passive merely, while a large percent- 
 age only reach a state of lucid letharg3^ She 
 is a ^^^<^ subject, this woman; that is, she is 
 intelligent, and is not hysterical. Watch now." 
 
 "Mrs. Brown!" he said, "you can hear me 
 speaking to you?" 
 
 Mrs. Brown seemed to collect herself . "H'm?" 
 she asked. 
 
 "You can hear me?" the doctor repeated. 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 "Very well, you are in a strange room. You 
 were never here before. You can't see any 
 person in this room. Can't see any one at all. 
 I want you to notice the furniture. You won't 
 wake up till I touch you on the shoulder. Re- 
 member you can't see any person, and you 
 won't hear anything. Open your eyes." 
 
 Mrs. Brown opened her eyes and looked 
 blankly about her. She was immediately at- 
 tracted by the rocking-chair which the doctor 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 6^ 
 
 set in motion by a kick. She stopped it with 
 her hand, and when he kicked it again, she 
 looked in a puzzled way on each side of the 
 piece of furniture, but could apparently make 
 nothing of it. She was also rather interested 
 in a stool which was wheeling round under the 
 doctor's touch, and when it came towards her 
 she put out her hand and held it. 
 
 "Nothing brings out the natural disposition 
 of a person like hypnotism," the doctor said to 
 me. "I have seen people very badly scared 
 by the experiment. If they are hysterical, they 
 are a good deal afraid ot furniture which re- 
 volves without hands to move it, or a jug of 
 water which moves along in mid air of its own 
 accord and lowers itself apparently upon the 
 table. This woman is of a phlegmatic turn of 
 mind. She sees these wonders, but knows they 
 will not hurt her. I will wake her and you can 
 put any questions you like." He touched heron 
 the shoulder and she looked up with a stare 
 which changed to a smile. 
 
 "Well, where are you?" he said. 
 
 "Why, I know where I am," she answered. 
 
 "What have you been doing?" he asked. 
 
 "I don't know," she replied. 
 
64 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 '^ Sleep," he said, and her eyes closed. It may 
 be noted here that it was sufficient always for 
 the doctor to utter this one word to send her at 
 once into the state of somnambulism. "Now 
 when you wake up you will remember what you 
 saw," he said. "Wake up! What were you 
 doing?" 
 
 " The furniture — " she said," I wondered what 
 made it move." 
 
 "Were you frightened?" I asked. 
 
 "No," she said. 
 
 "Why, what did you think about it?" I asked. 
 
 "It might have been a spirit," she said, "but 
 whatever it was, I knew it couldn't hurt me." 
 
 "Send her off," I said to the doctor; "I want 
 to ask her something." 
 
 "Mrs. Brown," said the doctor, "when you 
 go to sleep I want you to talk to this gentleman. 
 Sleep." 
 
 "Why don't you think spirits would hurt 
 you?" I inquired. 
 
 "Because they never do," she replied. 
 
 "Did you ever see a spirit?" 
 
 "No, but I lived in a house that was haunted 
 for three months, and heard the voices," she 
 answered. 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 65 
 
 " Were you afraid ?" 
 
 "No, I knew, whatever it was, it wouldn't 
 do me any harm." 
 
 I tried to argue her out of the belief that there 
 was anything more dreadful than a rat at the 
 bottom of the ''noises," but her convictions were 
 too deeply rooted. 
 
 "When you open your eyes," said the doctor, 
 "you will see me sitting in front of you, but you 
 will be deaf and dumb. When I touch you on 
 the shoulder you will wake up. Open vour 
 eyes." 
 
 Mrs. Brown complied, and at once by ex- 
 pressive pantomime showed that she was aware 
 of her affliction. She pulled at her chin with 
 her finger, at the same time looking hard at the 
 doctor, who merely laughed. "It is a very 
 fine day," he said. After a while he touched 
 her on the shoulder, and told her she was all 
 right. His touch did not take immediate effect, 
 and she still continued to pull at her chin. 
 
 "What's the matter?" he said, touching her 
 again. "You're all right. Wake up." 
 
 "What did you do to me?" said she. "I 
 couldn't speak." 
 
 "Couldn't you hear me speaking?" he asked. 
 
66 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 V 
 
 'No," she said. "There was a buzzing in 
 my ears and I couldn't hear anything." 
 
 "Sleep," said the doctor. "Now I'll show 
 you something interesting," he said to me. 
 
 "When you wake up, Mrs. Brown, you will 
 remember what it was I said to you. Wake 
 up! What did I say?" 
 
 "You said I was all right," said Mrs. Brown. 
 
 "What else?" asked the doctor. 
 
 "And that it was a very fine day," she added. 
 
 "Proving," said the doctor complacentl}' to 
 me, "that the deafness produced was merely an 
 imaginary ailment, and not an actual fact, even 
 temporarily, since the patient hears with the 
 subjective consciousness." 
 
 "Sleep!" he said. "Stand up." Then go- 
 ing to the far end of the room, he blew gently 
 towards her. 
 
 The subject started, and swayed forward a 
 few steps. He continued to blow, and she con- 
 tinued to move towards him two or three steps 
 at a time. Then he dodged to one side, and 
 back again, and she followed obediently in re- 
 sponse to his blowing. Placing her in position 
 a few yards from him, with my chair between 
 them, he blew softly, and she came against the 
 
 i 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 67 
 
 chair. She did not wake, though I half expected 
 she would. 
 
 "Go back," said the doctor, '^a few steps, 
 and turn round twice. Now when I say 'Three,' 
 open your eyes. You will only see me in the 
 room, and you will immediately come forward 
 to my hand." 
 
 "One, two, three!" 
 
 At the word the subject opened her eyes and 
 came forward, but as she came she struck against 
 my legs, which were in the way. She looked 
 down, then she looked at me, and was awake. 
 
 "I thought that would wake her," said the 
 doctor. 
 
 "So far," he said to me, "you have only 
 seen a few interesting experiments which you 
 believe in because you see them, and because 
 you know that this subject is reall}' asleep, but 
 which, if you recounted them, others unconver- 
 sant with hypnotism might doubt. I'm going 
 to give you an illustration now of the power of 
 hypnotism. 
 
 "Sleep," he said. "Now, Mrs. Brown, you 
 can sing." 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 "Oh yes, you can," he asserted. "You cat) 
 
68 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 sing, and you want to sing. You sing beauti- 
 fully. Now I want you to sing me a verse of 
 — let me see — What song do you know best?" 
 
 "I don't know any very well," she said, 
 dubiously. 
 
 "Just think a minute," he said. ''What song 
 
 do you know best?" 
 
 •'I can remember 'The Sweet Bye and 
 
 Bye,"' she said. 
 
 "Excellent," cried the doctor. "The very 
 thing I want to hear. A verse of that, please, 
 and stop directly I snap my fingers or call ' Stop. ' 
 Begin." 
 
 Mrs Brown coughed delicately, and in a thin, 
 small voice sang the first two lines. Half-way 
 through the third the doctor snapped his fingers, 
 and she stopped dead in the middle of a long 
 note. 
 
 "What else do you know?" he asked. 
 
 "I know 'Suwanee River,' and 'Ben Bolt,' " 
 she said. 
 
 "Good! Let's have 'Suwanee River,'" said the 
 doctor cheerfully. "A capital old song, Mrs. 
 Brown, and you are in good voice to-da}^" 
 
 Mrs. Brown began boldly and got as far as 
 "'Way down upon the Suwanee Riv — ," when 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 69 
 
 the doctor cried, "Stop," and she stopped, 
 dumb. 
 
 "Go back to where you left off in the other 
 song. Quick!" he said. 
 
 Without an instant's hesitation, Mrs. Brown 
 took up the half-note, and completed the verse 
 of "The Sweet Bye and Bye." 
 
 "Bravo I" said the doctor. 
 
 Then he took her half-way through " Ben 
 Bolt," and sent her back instantly to"Suwanee 
 River." Mrs. Brown instantly began " — ver 
 Far, far, I roam," etc., and, having completed 
 it, and engaged in some desultory conversation 
 with the doctor about her husband, was sent 
 back like a retriever, to rescue the remainder 
 of "Ben Bolt." 
 
 It was, I thought, a remarkable achievement, 
 and I said so. 
 
 "Yes, it is a curious thing," said the doctor. 
 "I have not tried the experiment with her be- 
 fore, but I had a quartette whom I put through 
 more difficult exercises than this. The}^ were 
 improving, too, with practice, and it is difficult 
 to say what their powers might have attained 
 to eventually if I had persevered with the ex- 
 periment, which change of residence forced me 
 to discontinue." 
 
70 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 "Can the voice be improved by hypnotic 
 suggestion?" I asked. 
 
 "Unquestionably," he said, "although I cer- 
 tainl}' think it could be done equally well, but 
 in a longer period, during the waking state. 
 The advantage of hypnotism here is that we 
 have the power to banish nervousness and self- 
 consciousness, which in themselves are quite 
 sufficient to retard the cultivation of the voice. 
 I believe that all good singers on the concert 
 stage are in a subjective state while singing. 
 If they become conscious of the audience, they 
 suffer in having their attention diverted for an 
 instant from their song. A really great artist 
 is unconscious of the audience. 
 
 "Attend to me, Mrs. Brown," he continued. 
 
 The subject, or the h3'pnotee, had been con- 
 tentedly standing with her eyes closed, just in 
 front of the doctor. 
 
 "I want you," he said, "when you leave this 
 office, to go down to the corner, and dance a 
 jig in the middle of the crossing." 
 
 Mrs. Brown shook her head in protest. 
 
 "You will dance a jig," the doctor repeated. 
 "Remember," stroking her forehead, "when 
 you come to the crossing, you will dance a jig. 
 
HYPNOTISM UP to DATE 71 
 
 You must, because I order you to do so. Don't 
 forget/' 
 
 Mrs. Brown continued to frown, and to shake 
 her head emphatically. 
 
 "What are you to do now?" inquired the 
 doctor. " Repeat it to me. What are you to 
 do?" 
 
 It seemed that it was impossible to repeat. 
 Mrs. Brown merely continued to shake her 
 head, half raising her hand. 
 
 "She would wake up," said the doctor to me 
 in an undertone, "if the suggestion were per- 
 sisted in." 
 
 "Sleep!" he said. "Mrs. Brown, when you 
 leave this office this morning, you will go down 
 to the house at the corner, and when you get 
 there, you will forget your name, and where 
 you live. You will come back opposite this 
 window, and then you will remember who you 
 are and go straight home." 
 
 He repeated this suggestion to her several 
 times and she received it passively. Then he 
 woke her up. 
 
 "Well, how do you feel?" I asked. 
 
 "Very well," she said, "only I must go home 
 now. It is surely twelve o'clock." 
 
5 2 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATS 
 
 "Sleep,-' said the doctor. "Ah! you feel so 
 miserable, so wretched! You are broken-hearted. 
 A good cry would make you feel better." 
 
 Mrs. Brown, albeit she did not look as if she 
 were much given to crying, looked ver}^ de- 
 pressed, and sighed grievously. 
 
 "Ah, too bad, too bad," murmured the doc- 
 tor, sympathetically. "Tears will relieve you." 
 
 Two large tears coursed slowly down her 
 cheeks, and she began to sob quietly. 
 
 "Is she enjoying herself?" I asked. 
 
 "It is a great relief," said the doctor. 
 
 "Now, when I count three," he said," you will 
 wake up laughing, and you will feel as well as 
 you ever felt in your life; feel in splendid health; 
 quite well and happy! nothing the matter with 
 you. One, two, three!" — and Mrs. Brown re- 
 turned to consciousness smiling broadly, though 
 the tears were wet on her cheeks. 
 
 "Well," she said, "I must go home now. 
 Good-bye." 
 
 The doctor saw her to the door, while I 
 watched from the window. Mrs. Brown walked 
 briskly down the street,, stopped at the corner, 
 hesitated, and returned. Just as she came op- 
 posite the office window she whirled round 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 73 
 
 quickly and went back the way she had come. 
 
 "As mad," said the doctor, who had rejoined 
 me and was looking over my shoulder chuck- 
 ling, "as a hatter, I know!" 
 
 "With you?" I asked. 
 
 "Oh no, with herself for forgetting. Now 
 mark me, if she had known from whom that sug- 
 gestion came, she could not have forborne, be- 
 ing a woman, from looking up at this window." 
 
 "Tell me," I said, "how is it you could make 
 her laugh and cry and yet could not influence 
 her to dance that jig?" ^ 
 
 "Because laughing, and cr^ung are natural ex- 
 pressions of emotion," he answered. "She is in 
 the habit of doing them, but she does not dance 
 jigs, least of all in the public street. You saw 
 that she refused to entertain that suggestion at 
 all." 
 
 "Will it recur to her?" I asked. 
 
 "Probably not," he said. "I don't think it 
 will ever cross her mind." 
 
 "Suppose," said I, "that you had chosen to 
 personate her husband, and had asked her to 
 kiss you; would she have done it?" 
 
 " Certainly not," said the doctor. "She would 
 either have evaded the topic of the kiss alto- 
 
74 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 gether, and spoken of other matters, or, if driven 
 into a corner, she would have refused point- 
 blank and perhaps awaked." 
 
 ''So she would have known that you were 
 not really her husband?" 
 
 ''Of course she would have known." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 AUTO-SUGGESTION. — THE IMPORTANCE THERE- 
 OF OVERLOOKED BY WRITERS ON HYPNO- 
 TISM, — RECOGNIZED BY THE NANCY SCHOOL 
 
 AS A FACTOR. — AN OBSTINATE PATIENT. 
 
 AN AUTO-SUGGESTION OF PAIN. — AUTO-SUG- 
 GESTION CONSTITUTES RESISTANCE. — A 
 MATTER OF PRINCIPLE. — A MATTER OF 
 
 TRAINING. A MATTER OF SENTIMENT. — 
 
 AUTO-SUGGESTION LATENT AND ACTIVE. — 
 VOLUNTARY AND INVOLUNTARY. — SUBMIS- 
 SION MORE A VOLUNTARY THAN AN INVOL- 
 UNTARY CONDITION. 
 
 When I reached the doctor's office the fol- 
 lowing morning, I found him turning over the 
 pages of a manuscript which, on a closer scru- 
 tiny, proved to be in his own handwriting. 
 
 ''What have you there.?" I asked. 
 
 "An address which I intended to deliver be- 
 fore our society," he replied, "upon the sub- 
 ject of * Auto-suggestion.' It was hastily put 
 
 75 
 
76 Hypnotism up to date 
 
 together, and I think I'll polish it up a little." 
 
 "Better deliver it now before me," I said. 
 "Try it on the dog, you know." 
 
 "I suppose you could understand it?" he re- 
 marked dubiously. 
 
 "Take care," I cried. 
 
 "What's the matter?" said he. 
 
 "You are making a depressing suggestion 
 even now," I replied. "You say, 'I suppose you 
 could understand it,' meaning thereby, *I doubt 
 if you will be able to,' t. e., 'Your talents are 
 of an inferior order.' Results: I belieye my 
 talents to be of an inferior order." 
 
 "I am glad you are beginning at least to un- 
 derstand the importance of suggestion," said 
 the doctor, "but in this case I was thinking more 
 of your brief apprenticeship than your mental 
 caliber. However, you may find some points 
 interesting, and if you wish to ask any questions, 
 don't hesitate to interrupt." 
 
 "I never do," I answered pleasantly. "Read 
 on." 
 
 "Auto suggestion," announced the doctor in a 
 clear voice, and began: 
 
 "In almost every branch of study, be it what 
 it may, the amount of knowledge gained by the 
 
Hypnotism up to date 77 
 
 student does not, as a rule, depend on the num- 
 ber or the length of the lectures he attends, but 
 upon the reading, study, and practical work 
 which he performs outside of the lecture room. 
 
 "Especially is this true of the subject we have 
 been studying lately. It is impossible, in the 
 length of time we have devoted to it, to have 
 acquired a finite knowledge of the very impor- 
 tant and all-absorbing science of hypnotism. 
 We have ru&hed through, and demonstrated, 
 some of the various phenomena of hypnosis— the 
 practical methods of inducing this state; the re- 
 lation of hypnosis to crime; and the effect of 
 suggestion in the waking and sleeping states. 
 
 "Now there is any quantity, even a super- 
 abundance, of literature at our disposal, dealing 
 with all these branches, but there is one very 
 important side of the subject which, though 
 extensively recognized, has not, so far as I am 
 aware, received a chapter to itself in any of the 
 published works on hypnotism. I refer to Auto- 
 suggestion. 
 
 "That it is a very important study, we must 
 all admit; that it plays a very important part in 
 our every-day life in health, sickness, and dis- 
 ease, is generally admitted also, and since it is 
 
78 HYPNOTISM UP TO DA'ffi 
 
 difficult to tell where it begins or ends, nay, even 
 what it is or what it is not, I do not wonder that 
 we have very little literature on the subject; and 
 3'ou may imagine, therefore, that it is with much 
 timidity that I approach this branch of our sub- 
 ject this evening." 
 
 "That hardly sounds genuine to me," I said. 
 "You don't really feel an}' timidity concerning 
 the reading of your papers before that society, 
 do you?" 
 
 "I feel that my study is necessarily incom- 
 plete, "said the doctor warmly," and therefore — " 
 
 "Well, well," I said. "But you might have 
 put it more ingenuously, I think. Go on." 
 
 "Now what is auto-suggestion? It is really 
 a suggestion which arises entirely within one's 
 own mind from some thought, or from some 
 bodily sensation, either real or imaginary. 
 
 "Hudson describes it well when he says: 'In 
 its broad signification it embraces not only the 
 assertions of the objective mind of an individual, 
 addressed to his own subjective mind, but also 
 the habits of thought of the individual, and the 
 settled principles and convictions of his whole 
 life; and the more deeply rooted are these habits 
 of thought, principles, and convictions, the 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 79 
 
 Stronger and more potent are the auto-sugges 
 tions,and the more difficult they are to overcome 
 by the contrary suggestions of another.' 
 
 "Auto-suggestion is now recognized as a 
 factor in hypnotism b}' all the followers of the 
 Nancy school. The Christian Scientists recog- 
 nize it, and coupled with sufficient faith depend 
 upon it as a cure for disease. 
 
 "Professor Bernheim says it is an obstacle in 
 the way of the cure of some of his patients, and 
 he cites the case of a young girl suffering from 
 a sprained ankle. 'I tried to hypnotize her, and 
 she gave up to it with bad grace, saying it would 
 do no good. I succeeded, however, in putting 
 her into a deep enough sleep two or three times, 
 but she seemed to take a malicious delight in 
 proving to the other patients in the service that 
 I did her no good, that she always felt worse, 
 etc. The inrooted idea of antagonism, the 
 unconscious auto-suggestion that hypnotism 
 could not cure her, seemed to be all-potent in 
 this case. Was it this idea, so deeply rooted 
 in her brain, which neutralized not only our 
 efforts, but her own wish to be cured?' 
 
 "It is this auto-suggestion that prevents hyp- 
 nosis from becoming almost a general anaes- 
 
8o HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 thetic. Patients who to-day become profoundly 
 anaesthetized for an operation, on the morrow 
 frequently become hyper-sensitive. The reason 
 for this is quite plain. Being accustomed to 
 see and hear of drugs being given for the relief 
 and cure of pain, they are unable to understand 
 how it may be controlled in any other wa}^; and 
 the self-suggestion that they necessarily must 
 experience pain, contiicts with the suggestion 
 of the operator and causes confusion in the 
 mind of the patient, who either awakens or, as 
 I say, becomes even hyper sensitive." 
 
 "That could be very easily got over," I said. 
 "I would not trust to hypnotic suggestions of 
 sleep alone, in performing a difficult operation; 
 give the patient an empty bottle and tell him to 
 inhale the fumes of chloroform; where would be 
 his auto-suggestion of pain then?" 
 
 "We know all that," replied the doctor. "I 
 am reading a paper on auto-suggestion, if you 
 will allow me. 
 
 "Moll recognizes the power of auto-sugges- 
 tion as a potent factor which must always be 
 taken into account in conducting experiments, 
 altl.ough neither he nor Bernheim recognizes it 
 in discussing the legal aspect of hypnotism. It 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 8 1 
 
 is in fact impossible for an operator to impress 
 a suggestion so strongly upon a subject as to 
 cause him actually to perform an act in violation 
 of the settled principles of his whole life. The 
 more repulsive a suggestion is to the hypnotee, 
 the stronger is his resistance. Habit and edu- 
 cation play a very important part here, and it is 
 very difficult to successfully suggest anything 
 that is opposed to the confirmed habits or con- 
 trary to the sense of propriety of the subject. In 
 support of this I have conducted numerous ex- 
 periments, one of the most interesting of which 
 had for its subject a Catholic priest, who was 
 apparently well hypnotized, and willing to obey 
 every suggestion. On being presented with a 
 glass of water to drink, however, he waked up, 
 and asked the time, and on being assured that 
 it was not twelve o'clock, he drank the water 
 and slept. When we questioned him afterwards 
 about the occurrence, he informed us that as he 
 had to say mass in the morning, nothing was 
 allowed to pass his lips after 12 p. m. 
 
 ^* Another splendid example of the force of 
 auto-suggestion was given me a few days ago. 
 I had never been able to make an active som- 
 nambulist out of a certain friend of mine, nor 
 
82 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 had I been able to successfully suggest anything 
 that was contrary to his sense of propriety, 
 without having a dehypnotized subject on my 
 hands." 
 
 "What do you mean by that?" I asked. 
 
 "He woke up," responded the doctor, briefly. 
 "In conversation with him, however, I gathered 
 that if it were not that he did not wish to become 
 a somnambulist he knew that he could readily 
 be put into that condition. He agreed for once 
 to let himself go, and the result was that in a 
 few minutes he was out on the street hunting 
 for a policeman to arrest me, believing that I 
 had thrown a can of dynamite out of the win- 
 dow to kill some person in a carriage below. 
 
 "Another subject refused to take a glass of 
 ale offered to him by a Professor Gale, and the 
 reason afterwards given was that he imagined if 
 he did so, the Professor would have a lower 
 opinion of him in consequence." 
 
 "Might not the association of 'ale' v>'ith 'gale' 
 have suggested to the subject some hidden prac- 
 tical joke," I asked, "to which he was unwill- 
 ing to become a party?" 
 
 " He also stated," continued the doctor, "that 
 he was not thirsty." 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 83 
 
 "That I should judge," said I, "to be the 
 more powerful reason for his refusal, though, in 
 a student, it is inconceivable." 
 
 "I have seen a student," resumed the doctor, 
 "on whom you could foist any illusion — chang- 
 ing his personality, for instance, to a dog, a 
 rooster, or a horse^refuse absolutely to become 
 a pig. He kept repeating 'No, I am not a pig — 
 not a pig,' and do what I would it was impossible 
 to make him accept the suggestion." 
 
 "Doubtless," said I, "he had been christened 
 'Pig' at school, on account of his gluttonous in- 
 stincts. Hence his rooted, or might we not in 
 this instance say 'rooting,' antipath}^ to the 
 epithet." 
 
 "We have heard a great deal lately about the 
 possibilities of extracting evidence, or secrets, 
 from a hypnotized individual. I have reason to 
 conclude, however, that it is an impossible task. 
 
 "I refer here," he continued, turning to me, 
 "to that case I told you of where I tried to ex- 
 tract a secret from my friend. You remember?" 
 
 "Perfectly," I answered. "Goon with some- 
 thing else." 
 
 "I once made the superintendent of a Metho- 
 dist Sunday-school dance, play cards with the 
 
84 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 devil, and although a married man, flirt beyond 
 bounds — " 
 
 "A nice distinction," I interrupted. 
 — "with imaginary ladies. I was surprised 
 at the time, but recent developments have ex- 
 plained everything to the strengthening of the 
 theory, for he has turned out an embezzler and 
 a rogue, in fact a wolf in sheep's clothing. 
 
 "Auto-suggestion is, as a rule, the child of 
 imagination, and depends largely for its exist- 
 ence on one's previous experience, training and 
 education. It constitutes one of the chief differ- 
 ences between somnambulism and the other 
 stages of hypnosis, for in the somnambulist we 
 find it in its most intense form. Given a verbal 
 suggestion of any kind, he will grasp it and 
 complete the illusion by using the fruits of his 
 imagination (or auto-suggestion), as in the fol- 
 lowing instance. I once told an old gentleman 
 that he was a fat little school-boy, and he im- 
 mediately said, 'Oh, come on and let's play, 
 Bob.' 'Play what?' I asked. 'Marbles,' he 
 said. 'Or say, let's go for a swim,' and he 
 held up two fingers, the school-boy sign for a 
 swim, and started off on a hop, step and jump. 
 
 "In the other stages of hypnotism the auto- 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 85 
 
 suggestion element is generally, though not 
 always, latent. It is, in fact, like the subject, 
 perfectly passive, and is only aroused by some 
 suggestion that is distasteful to the hypnotee. It 
 is interesting to watch the effects of distasteful 
 suggestions upon different subjects; some will 
 contract their muscles, others grow red in the 
 face, or grind their teeth and clench their 
 hands; while others, again, will become dehyp- 
 notized, or will ask to be awakened. They 
 may also cry out, 'No, no! 'or, 'I don't want to. ' 
 " I once saw a lady patient, who was hypnotized 
 in the presence of a number of friends, suddenly 
 stand up and shout, 'Don't you dare to, or I 
 will tell George!' Now this patient had been 
 in a passive state for some time, and had not 
 been receiving any special attention, there being 
 a number of other patients in the room. Al- 
 though she was immediately awakened, it took a 
 great deal of persuasion on the part of her 
 friends and every one present to assure her that 
 a certain friend of hers had not taken her in his 
 arms and tried to kiss her." 
 
 "Ha!" said I, "I scent a romance here. This 
 patient was fond of George. She knew George 
 was in the room, and adopted this simple arti- 
 
86 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 fice to fan his general regard into a fiercer flame. 
 It was cleverly done. What was the result?" 
 
 "George was her husband," replied the doc- 
 tor, with smiling scorn, "and he was at home." 
 
 "Then all I have to say is," I said, "that her 
 remark was very flattering to George. Go on." 
 
 "This sort of auto-suggestion, although rare, 
 is undoubtedly very powerful, and its effects are 
 lasting. I have already pointed out that there 
 is such a thing as latent auto-suggestion, or we 
 might more fitlj^ designate it 'the conscience.' 
 There are also both voluntary and involuntary 
 auto-suggestions. By the latter I mean one that 
 is the result of a logical sequence of ideas that 
 have arisen from some impulse from without, or 
 from some sensation within the body. For ex- 
 ample, a subject, or even the person in the wak- 
 ing state, is told that it is i p. m,, when it is 
 really 1 1 a. m. Immediatel}' he wall experience 
 the sensation of hunger. Again he believes 
 that his skin is itching and imagines that he has 
 some skin-disease. When my mind is occupied 
 I may hear the blood throbbing in mj^ ears, the 
 natural result of carotid pulsation, and I picture 
 to myself certain forms of heart-disease which I 
 fear I may have. Just how much of man's ill- 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 87 
 
 health or predisposition to disease is due to this 
 fact we will probably never know, although day 
 by day we are beginning to recognize it more 
 fully, and it is by the conquering or arguing 
 away of this auto-suggestion that we obtain such 
 wonderful results from treating by hypnosis — of 
 course I mean in those cases in which auto-sug- 
 gestion was the prime factor in the original pro- 
 duction of the disease." 
 
 ''Ah, but how are you going to determine 
 that?" I asked. 
 
 '' Medical training will tell you at least whether 
 the ailment is functional or organic," replied 
 the doctor. 
 
 "Hysteria is nothing if not auto-suggestion, 
 and no remedy works so well in the cure of 
 hysteria as suggestion. Now with reference 
 to voluntary auto suggestion — by which I mean 
 a suggestion which one voluntarily gives to 
 oneself; while we can do this slightly, it seems 
 that to obtain the best results, one must needs 
 be first put into the hypnotic state. We have 
 this fact demonstrated by every hypnotic sub- 
 ject. They have all developed the power to 
 put themselves to sleep in a few minutes, and 
 to wake up at their own will. They can sug- 
 
88 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 gest away a pain, or a tired feeling. They ob- 
 tain from every self-suggestion a practical result. 
 
 "We have all gone to bed with the self-sug- 
 gestion that we must be up by a certain hour 
 in the morning, and have awakened to find that 
 we have kept the appointment with ourselves 
 almost to the minute. I have already pointed 
 out that auto-suggestion is more powerful than 
 suggestion by a second person, so that we find 
 the best results in hypnosis produced by working 
 along the line of auto-suggestion. To this end, 
 it has been suggested that there are five essen- 
 tials to successful hypnosis by auto-suggestion: 
 I. Willingness. 2. Desire. 3. Faith. 4. Neces- 
 sity. 5. Assumption. 
 
 "These should be followed in giving our- 
 selves auto-suggestions, whether we are hyp- 
 notic subjects or not, and it is the best mode of 
 procedure in the production of hypnosis in a 
 new subject. 
 
 "A subject must be willing to be hypnotized, 
 as you all know. He must also have the desire, 
 and although faith is sometimes a later produc- 
 tion, it is still a necessity to absolute success; 
 and where there is necessity for h3^pnosis and 
 auto-suggestion they will seldom be found to fail. 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 89 
 
 Lastl}', the assumption is half the battle in hyp- 
 nosis, as in all other things which we desire to 
 possess or conquer." 
 
 "Well, what do you think of it?" asked the 
 doctor. 
 
 "Not at all a bad paper," I replied. "A little 
 redundant here and there, but not objectionably 
 so. Vain repetition sometimes impresses more 
 than variety of argument. But I think I have 
 you on one point." 
 
 "State it," said the doctor. 
 
 "You say that no one can be hypnotized 
 against his will?" 
 
 "I certainly do." 
 
 "Then you are wrong, because I myself have 
 seen a person transfixed to the floor, and com- 
 pelled to sleep, though a few minutes previousl}^ 
 he had loudly boasted that no one living could 
 hypnotize him." 
 
 "And can you not account for that?" the doc- 
 tor inquired. 
 
 "Only by admitting that the operator was 
 more strong-willed than the subject." 
 
 "Wait a moment. The subject refuses to be- 
 lieve in hypnotism, does he not?" 
 
 "Generally, yes." 
 
go HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 "What is it that convinces him?" 
 "As I say, it is the operator's power." 
 "Oh no, it isn't," said the doctor. "This is 
 a fine point and I am not sorry you mentioned 
 it. It is his belief in the operator's power. The 
 latter replies to the subject's incredulity some- 
 what as follows: 'You say that, but I can tell 
 you that before half a minute has gone by you 
 will be asleep!' From time to time the opera- 
 tor, with his calm but positive assertion, 'rubs it 
 in' a little stronger. He shakes the other's con- 
 victions, he paralyzes his reasoning powers b}- 
 his stronger suggestions. He says this and that 
 will happen to you, and the subject half believes 
 that he is right. He says this and that is hap- 
 pening to you now, and the subject accepts the 
 statement. It is only a different way of arriv- 
 ing at the same end; to induce a belief in hyp- 
 notism is to produce hypnosis. But if the subject 
 were as firm as the operator, if the sugges- 
 tions on each side were pretty evenly bal- 
 anced, there would be no example of hypnotic 
 influence in such a case. It is not necessary 
 for the subject to submit to the experiment. 
 The very fact that the subject submits to the 
 experiment is an admission that he is willing." 
 
 \ 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE REASON WHY. — ALTERNATE ENDINGS. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY. NO MIRACU- 
 LOUS GIFTS OF WRITING OBTAINED. A 
 
 HELP TO DIFFIDENCE NEVERTHELESS. 
 
 A CARD TRICK. VERY SIMPLE AFTER ALL. 
 
 A CLEVER TRICK PERFORMED BY INVOL- 
 UNTARY MUSCTJLAR ACTION. 
 
 "Do you know," I remarked, lighting my 
 pipe, "that I had a deep laid plot in my mind 
 when I first came to you to be hypnotized?" 
 
 "Had you?" said the doctor, indifferently. 
 "Wanted some copy for a newspaoer article, I 
 suppose?" 
 
 "That had something to do with it," I ad- 
 mitted, "but it went further than that. I wanted 
 to conduct a rather curious experiment, and I 
 wanted to make capital out of it, whichever 
 way it turned out. My idea was briefly this. 
 I had written a magazine story, a stupid thing — " 
 
 "Naturally," interjected the doctor. 
 
 — "but quite up to the standard of the aver- 
 91 
 
92 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 age short story," I continued, *^and I wanted 
 to try an experiment." 
 
 "Well, well, get on I" he said impatiently. 
 "What did you want to try?" 
 
 "I wanted," said I, "to be thrown into a 
 hypnotic trance by you. Then I wished you 
 to say to me, 'Why, you are a really brilliant 
 writer! you are a supremely gifted author — ' " 
 
 "You would have known I was joking," said 
 the doctor. I affected not to notice his remark. 
 
 "'You are the recognized wit of the century,' 
 you would say," I continued. "'Really, you 
 could do much better things than that little 
 story you have just completed. But nevermind, 
 never mind. It is very good as it is, with the 
 exception of the ending. You could improve 
 on that, I think. Begin at the line which reads 
 " *Doth it please my lord the king?' she asked, 
 courtesying demurely" — and rewrite the whole 
 of the ending. Make it brilliant; make it witty, 
 as only you know how; let it flash and scintil- 
 late like— ' " 
 
 "There, there!" said the doctor. "I under- 
 stand." 
 
 "Very well, I should then have immediately 
 seated myself at the table, seized a pen and 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 93 
 
 written a splendid ending to the story; should 
 I not?" 
 
 "You might," said the doctor, non-commit- 
 tally. 
 
 "After that," I said, "you would have ob- 
 served, 'Will you oblige ine by forgetting what 
 you have just done? Now I want you to rewrite 
 that story you have just completed; to rewrite 
 the ending, beginning at the words, "Doth it 
 please my lord the king?" The story is good, 
 it is admirable, but I do not think it is worthy 
 of your divine power. For of all the writers of 
 the present day you alone have the supreme gift 
 of presenting pathos. Ah! you melt the hearts 
 of your readers ! How your exquisite productions 
 enthrall us with their beauty while they affect us 
 with their tender melancholy!' Do you catch 
 on to the idea? You would have to lay it on 
 pretty thick, of course, but in such a wa}^ that I 
 should swallow it all." 
 
 "Oh, I think your suspicions would not be 
 too alert," remarked the doctor. 
 
 "Well, the question is, should I have done it? 
 Because m}^ idea was to have printed the story 
 with the two separate endings, written in the 
 subjective state. Both endings would start from 
 
94 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 the same line, but the story itself would be 
 printed as it was originally written. Would it 
 work?'^ 
 
 "It might," said the doctor again. 
 
 "What do you mean by that?" I asked. 
 
 "Well, merely this," he replied. "You might 
 not be an active somnambulist at all. But sup- 
 posing you were, the advantage in writing which 
 you would gain from the employment of hyp- 
 notic suggestion would merely be an increase of 
 confidence — forgive me if I say that you do not 
 seem to suffer from over-timidity, even now — 
 and, secondly, the power of concentrating your 
 thought without the forced effort of the will. 
 Writing, as I take it, is a matter of voluntary sub 
 jectivity. That is to say, every writer who puts 
 anything on paper that is worth reading gives 
 his whole mind for the time being to his work, 
 and is oblivious of his surroundings. This is 
 really the subjective state, into which he has 
 unconsciously passed." 
 
 "Yes," I said, "but if I were hypnotized 
 while I wrote I should be unconscious of effort!" 
 
 " If you are conscious of effort when you write 
 now," he said, "you have mistaken \^our vo-" 
 cation. You are not a writer. Under the cir • 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 95 
 
 cumstances you mention,'- he continued, "you 
 would not be endowed with miraculous gifts of 
 wit and pathos. Do you suppose these are 
 stored in your brain to be turned on to order? 
 If these qualities are not in you already, and if 
 they have never yet responded to your call, you 
 need aot look for their instant development un- 
 der hypnotic suggestion. I am really sorry that 
 we did not carry the experiment out, because I 
 think your divine pathos would have been very 
 funny on paper." 
 
 "But at least," I argued, "there is a chance 
 that the experiment might do much for diffident 
 writers." 
 
 "I admit that," he answered. "It might, with 
 practice, do much good to you also. There 
 is room for improvement. It would, however,be 
 a matter of practice, I think; you would get 
 through your daily task rather easier, I should 
 judge; but would that be of real benefit in the 
 end?" 
 
 "Undoubtedly," I said, "because I should, 
 be able to do so much more work." 
 
 "How about the qualit}^ then ?" asked the 
 doctor. "Would that suffer?" 
 
 "You appear to think, from your previous re- 
 marks," said I, "that it couldn't very well." 
 
96 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 "The question is, would the writing be worth 
 reading when it was done?" suggested the doc- 
 tor. "Would you not be more critical, and 
 would your judgment not be clearer if you could 
 now and then bring your objective mind to bear 
 on what you had written, as a man does in his 
 waking state?" 
 
 "I could supply all the necessary amend- 
 ments," I said, "when I woke up." 
 
 "So you could," he said, "to the finished ar- 
 ticle. But would it not be probably an en- 
 tirely different production in its completion from 
 what it would have been if you had diverted 
 your stream of thought by lapses into critical 
 consciousness of what you were writing?" 
 
 "The point is," said I, "whether you could 
 be critical in the subjective state, as well as in- 
 spired; and whether hypnotism would not prove 
 a valuable assistant to an author." 
 
 "By jove!" he said, "I believe you have me 
 there. It is the first time you have originated 
 a decent argument. It would be a pret'y ex- 
 periment, and one which I should like to see 
 carried through for a month of days. Beyond 
 the undoubted facts that your memory would be 
 sharpened, your mind concentrated, and your 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 97 
 
 confidence unbounded,! do not think any special 
 advantages would accrue," 
 
 "These alone would be enough," I said. 
 "Give me these, and add the fact that you could 
 suggest to me that at the end of my task I should 
 wake up feeling as fresh as a lark, and who 
 knows what I might accomplish?" 
 
 "Yes," mused the doctor, "there is some- 
 thing in it. We will go carefull}^ into it some 
 day together; meanwhile fit yourself for receiv- 
 ing suggestion by controlling your mind at in- 
 tervals. Bring yourself up short now and then, 
 during the day, and make your mind a blank. 
 Then let me know if even this does not seem to 
 impart renewed activity to the mind when it is, 
 so to speak, turned loose again." 
 
 "All right," said I, "I'll try it." 
 
 For some moments I enjoyed my victory in 
 silence, then I remarked: 
 
 "By the way, I went to a hypnotic entertain- 
 ment last evening, and I came away with the 
 idea that there might be something in telepathy 
 after all." 
 
 The doctor sniffed audibly. 
 
 "I am inclined to think," I continued, "that 
 we should not be too hasty in declining to be- 
 lieve." 
 
98 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 "Who declines to believe?" inquired the doc- 
 tor, with asperity. "Every student of psycho- 
 logical phenomena is anxious to believe. Tell 
 me what you saw." 
 
 "Two experiments, or feats, I should rather 
 call them," I said, "which struck me with re> 
 markable force. They are absolutely unex- 
 plainable except by telepathic communication." 
 I waited for a remark, but the doctor was silent, 
 and I proceeded, 
 
 "The operator chose a subject from the audi- 
 ence, and put her into the somnambulistic state — 
 she was a lady whom I know quite well, and 
 who is absolutely above suspicion as an accom- 
 plice or coadjutor of the operator; then taking 
 a pack of cards from his pocket, he handed 
 them round to the audience to be examined, and 
 requested some one in the audience to put a 
 small private mark on the face of a card and to 
 hand the card so marked to him, the operator, 
 with the rest of the pack. Some one near me 
 happened to have a new pack of cards in his 
 pocket, and he substituted these for the other 
 pack, handing his own to the performer, and 
 saying,'! have put a mark upon the face of the 
 top card in the pack.' Of course the performer 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 99 
 
 must have noticed the exchange, but he prob- 
 abl}^ did not wish to make a fuss, and he felt 
 sure of success anyhow. So he took the pack, 
 and going to the subject, handed her the 
 pack just as be received it, with the marked 
 card face downwards, upon the top of the 
 pack. 'I want you,' he said, 'to look hard at 
 this portrait,' and she gazed steadily at the back 
 of the card he gave her. 'It is a portrait of your 
 sister,' he said, 'and is considered an excellent 
 likeness. I want you to remember that portrait, 
 so that when you see it again you will be able 
 to pick it out at once. Is it a good likeness?' 
 *Yes,very good,' she replied. 'Very well,' said 
 he, 'look at it again, and be sure to remem- 
 ber it. Just describe how she appears there.' 
 Well, the subject went into all the details, you 
 know — dress, hair, hat, and everything, and 
 then he took the cards from her and handed the 
 pack to some one to shuffle. He shuffled them 
 well, for I watched him, and then returned them 
 to the performer. He said to the subject, 'I 
 want you to take this handful of portraits, and 
 pick out your sister's photograph from among 
 them.' You understand that she was only look- 
 ing at the backs of the cards. Well, she went 
 
lOO HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 Straight through the pack, and stopped at a cer- 
 tain card. The performer passed it to the man 
 beside me. *Is that your card?' he asked. 'It 
 certainly is,* he replied. 'Here's my mark.' 
 I was very glad he picked this man out, because 
 the result of this feat settled his skepticism for 
 that evening." 
 
 "Wonderful indeed!" sneered the doctor, 
 when I had finished. "So she only saw the 
 backs of the cards, eh? Ah, clairvoyance with- 
 out doubt — and it convinced the skeptic? Truly 
 we are a credulous people." 
 
 "Come, then," I said; "since you're so cock- 
 sure, let's have the explanation." 
 
 " Would you like to see me do the trick?" 
 he asked, "or would you rather waive that and 
 have the explanation at once?" 
 
 "I want the explanation," I said. 
 
 "Very well," he said quietly. "It hardly be- 
 comes me to laugh at you, I suppose, seeing 
 that it took me some time to satisf}' myself that 
 there was nothing in the trick beyond a certain 
 quick observation, but after performing it cor- 
 rectly myself with an ordinary pack of cards 
 while I was in my waking condition, I was 
 satisfied that there were at least two ways of 
 doing it." 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE lOI 
 
 "Nonsense," I said. 
 
 "I did it six times running with six different 
 packs, and that was enough for me! Do you 
 know the explanation? No two cards are ever 
 alike. Look fixedly at the back of a card in 
 any pack, and then see if you can't pick out 
 the card any time you want to. You can, if your 
 observation is fairly acute." 
 
 "But there's more than that in it," I cried. 
 
 "Of course there is," said the doctor. "That's 
 only half the trick. We know how it can be 
 done; now to prove how it is done. How do 
 you suppose we got at the truth? Simplest thing 
 in the world. We woke the subject up and 
 asked her how she remembered the photograph. 
 She couldn't remember, didn't know how she 
 did it. Made her do the trick again, and told 
 her that this time she would remember. Woke 
 her up again. *How did you know this card?' 
 'I knew it by the spot in the corner,' she replied. 
 'Didn't you see your sister's face in it?' we 
 inquired. 'Not the second time,' she replied; 
 'I did when I was first told to look at the card.' 
 Very simple, you see. Anything odd in the ap- 
 pearance of this particular card was firmly fixed 
 in her memory. Yet she didn't know in her 
 
I02 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 subjective state that that was how she chose the 
 right card. Hence she was perfectly honest in 
 her work; you see both she and I, she with the 
 subjective, I with the objective consciousness, 
 performed the trick alike." 
 
 "It is very remarkable," I said, "that these 
 things are susceptible of such commonplace ex- 
 planations! But Pve got another stickler. Per- 
 haps you can solve this. The performer him- 
 self declared before Heaven that there could be 
 only one explanation of the result — ^telepathy 
 clairvoyance.' As for the subject, I assure you 
 I know her, and — " 
 
 "It would be all the same if you did not," 
 the doctor remarked. "I tell you again that it 
 is not often that a medium is conscious of fraud. 
 They who condemn her without positive proof 
 have very little acquaintance with the conditions 
 she is working under. The majority are per- 
 fectly honest, and are merely self-deceived." 
 
 "Well, this is what happened," I said. "The 
 subject was standing up fast asleep, with her 
 eyes shut, and the operator stood in front of 
 her. *Ah,' he said, 'you have a pain in your 
 tooth.' She made a grimace, as if she had a 
 touch of toothache. 'Now it is in your head,' 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 1 63 
 
 said he, 'now in your shoulder! See, we draw 
 it right down the arm; so, and now it is in your 
 hand. Is it not?' The subject nodded violently, 
 at the same time showing great pain by her ex- 
 pression. 'What's to be done?' he said. 'Ah! 
 I have it; we will pass the pain into the right- 
 hand glove which we draw off; so; and you 
 will only feel the pain whenever and wherever 
 this glove, touches you.' He touched her then 
 with the glove on the forehead, on the arm, and 
 on the shoulder, and she complained of pain at 
 those places. Then he performed the extraor- 
 dinary part of the trick. He took off her other 
 glove, and touched her with it, and she felt 
 nothing. Then he told her to hold out her 
 hands, and he mixed the gloves up behind his 
 back and put one into each of her hands. The 
 hand which held the right-hand glove dropped 
 as if stung, the other remained motionless. This 
 happened three or four times in succession, and 
 the hand which touched the right-hand glove 
 dropped every time. How do you account for 
 it?" 
 
 ''In this way," said the doctor. "By experi- 
 menting with a subject myself I discovered that 
 as long as I remembered which of my hands 
 
I04 Hypnotism up to date! 
 
 held the hypnotized glove, I could do the trick 
 successfully. If I forgot, it might come right 
 or it might come wrong, but there was no cer- 
 tainty in it. This seemed curious. Could I 
 convey this sense of perception to the subject's 
 mind? I practiced for half an hour steadily and 
 then I hit it. Quite unconsciously to myself, 
 I, knowing which hand of mine held the im- 
 portant glove, advanced it perhaps half an inch, 
 perhaps a quarter of an inch — aye, even less than 
 a hair's breadth further forward than the other. 
 The result was that it was the first to touch her 
 hand, and whichever of her hands was first 
 touched, was the hand which she believed to 
 have been touched by the affected glove. This 
 forward movement of the hand on my part was 
 involuntary. But I found that unless I deliber- 
 ately advanced the other, it would naturally 
 take the foremost position. That's the explana- 
 tion." 
 
 "It is enough," I said; "I pass for to-day." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A REVIEW OF A POPULAR ROMANCE. FALSE 
 
 PREMISES AND THEREFORE ERRONEOUS 
 CONCLUSIONS. OBSESSION. NONSENSE. 
 
 *< I FEEL much annoyed to-day," said the doc 
 tor; "excessively annoyed." 
 
 He held a book in his hand, and resumed his 
 pacing up and down the room as I dropped into 
 m}^ accustomed seat. 
 
 "It is incredible," he resumed, "that a man 
 can so prostitute his talents as to try to make 
 people believe that wrong is right." 
 
 "Perhaps it /aright to him," I said. "It all 
 depends on the point of view, you see." 
 
 "He knows!" said the doctor emphatically. 
 "The author of this book has deliberately set 
 himself to surround his subject with an air of 
 devilish mystery. With consummate art he has 
 depicted the gradual and unwilling, but complete 
 subjection of a carefully trained, logical mind, 
 
 105 
 
I06 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 to the insidious wiles of a woman endowed with 
 hypnotic powers." 
 
 "Oh, ho! that is it?" said I. "No wonder 
 you're annoyed. He is trenching on your do- 
 main." 
 
 "He is not," cried the doctor, with some 
 fierceness. "He is pandering to the love for 
 sensation which permeates all readers of imag- 
 inative fiction. His motive is popularity. He 
 is a man of intellect himself, who has enchained 
 his readers in his previous works by his care- 
 ful analysis of the process of induction. His 
 detective stories are almost works of genius. He 
 has made induction all but a science; certainly 
 a study. And now for what paltry motive, un- 
 less popularity, can he have stooped to publish 
 to the world such a tissue of misrepresentations, 
 false assertions, and illogical deductions as are 
 contained in this book?" 
 
 "What is the book, and who is the author?" 
 I asked. 
 
 "'A Parasite,' by Conan Doyle," he replied. 
 
 "Well, what does it matter?" I asked. "No 
 one will take his fascinating stor}^ seriously out- 
 side of his coterie of readers." 
 
 "And how do you define the limit to that cir- 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE lO^ 
 
 cle of readers?" he asked. '^Does not all the 
 world read 'fiction,' which is or should be, truth 
 set forth in an attractive form? What right has 
 any man to juggle with the truth ? Besides, he 
 has not merely supposed a case, and left his 
 readers to draw their own conclusions. " Poe 
 did that in his wonderful 'Mesmeric Revela- 
 tions,' but though we know he erred in his con- 
 ception of hypnotism, he did not vest the power 
 with all imaginary diabolism." 
 
 '^Perhaps Doyle is a firm disbeliever in hyp- 
 notism," I suggested. 
 
 " It is not that," said the doctor. "That would 
 be nothing. Half the world disbelieves in hyp- 
 notism, because it knows nothing about it. But 
 this man, with a half knowledge of his subject, 
 has chosen to deliberately pervert his knowl- 
 edge; not, as I say, from conviction that h^^p- 
 notism is evil, but because the subject if treated 
 as an evil could be made repellently fascinating 
 to his readers. He has hired himself at so much 
 per line to disseminate error, and to strengthen 
 ignorance. Oh, there is no end to the harm this 
 book will do." 
 
 ''What's the good of making a fuss?" I said. 
 "You don't even know that he was not sincere 
 
Io8 HYPNOTISM UP TO DA'tfi 
 
 when he wrote this thing. Perhaps he really 
 believed that people had better let hpynotism 
 alone. At the worst, he can only have hindered 
 the spread of knowledge on this subject a little 
 while, and may even indirectly have turned at- 
 tention more strongly towards it." 
 
 "He may, certainly, with the few," said the 
 doctor. *'But he has increased popular prej- 
 udice, which is a potent factor in regard to public 
 progress. What percentage of educated people, 
 do you suppose, habitually or even occasionally 
 read scientific pamphlets on hypnotism?" 
 
 "Not a large one," I admitted. "But remem- 
 ber that even scientific papers on this subject are 
 very contradictory. I have myself read all sorts 
 of conflicting theories concerning it. Perhaps 
 the popular novel of the future will deal with 
 hypnotic suggestion in the light of a blessing 
 rather than a terror." 
 
 "Let's get what comfort we can out of the 
 fact at any rate," said the doctor, "that research 
 brings knowledge, and that knowledge will dis- 
 pel the popular disbelief, or, worse still, fear." 
 
 " Instead of railing at the book," I said, " why 
 don't you disprove its statements?" 
 
 "And thereby advertise the author and his 
 handiwork?" he queried. 
 
MYPNOtlSM UP TO DATE lO^ 
 
 "The author does not need advertising," I 
 said, "and it doesn't matter if people are anx- 
 ious to read the book if they do so merely to 
 laugh at the absurdity of its matter." 
 
 "I could expose the writer as a quack," said 
 the doctor. 
 
 "You would have some difficulty in doing 
 that," I answered; "and denunciation is not 
 argument." 
 
 "H'm," he grunted, "well, I suppose the 
 best weapon to employ against presumption is 
 ridicule." 
 
 "Read me some parts of the book," I said. 
 The doctor turned over the leaves absentl3\ 
 
 "It is well written," he said, with unwilling 
 admiration. "It is rather powerfully written ; 
 hence its danger. If it were the work of a no- 
 body, it would be of no account, in spite of the 
 neatness of its style. But it is his name that 
 makes it dangerous, Briefly its motij may be 
 condensed into a few words. There is a man 
 named Austin Gilroy, Professor of Physiology 
 at some university, and there is a woman, a 
 cripple, who walks with a crutch, a Miss Pene- 
 losa, clairvoyant, hypnotist, and she-devil. The 
 Professor is a materialist, a skeptic. He is en- 
 
I to ftYPNdTISM UP TO DATfi 
 
 gaged to a beautiful girl. The first evidence he 
 receives of the supernatural powers of Miss 
 Penelosa is when his fiancee visits him one 
 morning after breakfast, and informs him that 
 their engagement is at an end. It would have 
 been more delicate, perhaps, if she had written to 
 apprise him of the fact, and more natural, but 
 she is supposed to be under post-hypnotic sug- 
 gestion. The Professor stammers and staggers 
 under the blow. He says it is very sudden. 
 She replies tersely that all is over. There is no 
 hint, however, of her intention of being a sister 
 to him. Here is the passage: 
 
 "' "It is useless, Austin. All is over." Her 
 voice was cold and measured; her manner 
 strangely formal and hard.' Shortly after this," 
 continued the doctor, "when the lad}^ has gone 
 home, the Professor opens a note upon his desk, 
 given him b}^ the hypnotist the night before, in 
 v^'hich he reads that this is onl}? an experiment 
 to convince him of the power of post-hypnotic 
 suggestion. He rushes to his fiancee's home, and 
 she greets him warmly. He questions her closely 
 in what manner she had passed the morning, and 
 she denies having been out of the house. She 
 is much hurt when he almost doubts her word. 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE III 
 
 The Professor becomes convinced that the ex- 
 periment was conducted without her consent, 
 and does not inform her of what has transpired. 
 He is, however, reluctantly forced to admit to 
 himself that hypnotism is a fact. 
 
 "Now I need hardly tell you," said the doc- 
 tor, "that so far from the experiment as a whole 
 being possible, it could never have been even 
 begun; because the subject, the fiancee, having 
 no wish to break off her engagement when in 
 the waking state, would have refused to enter- 
 tain the suggestion when she was hypnotized. 
 We are told also that it was given her by means 
 of a whisper in her ear. It would have required 
 a very impressive repetition of each word to 
 give the suggestion sufficient grip on the sub- 
 ject's consciousness to be even recalled to her 
 mind at the appointed time, and it would have 
 been dismissed before it took shape in her brain. 
 In the case of an unwilling subject, I do not 
 think it would even recur to her at all. I said 
 just now that the author's deductions were illog- 
 ical. I did him an injustice. They are logical 
 enough. The point is that the whole argument 
 of the book is untrue, because his premises are 
 impossible^, 
 
112 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 "Here is a conversation which took place 
 shortly afterwards between the hj^pnotist and 
 the Professor. The latter is speaking. 
 
 '''And if the suggestion had been to assas- 
 sinate me?' 
 
 "'She would most inevitably have done bo.' 
 
 "'But this is a terrible power,' I cried. 
 
 "'It i'^, as you say, a terrible power,' she an- 
 swered gravely. *And the more you know of 
 it, the more terrible will it seem to you.' 
 
 "'It is possible for an operator to gain com- 
 plete control over his subject,' she continued; 
 'without any previous suggestion he may make 
 him do whatever he likes.' 
 
 "'Would he have lost his own will-power 
 then?' 
 
 "'It would be overridden by another stronger 
 
 one. 
 
 "'Well, it does not entirely depend upon that 
 (/. e, strong will). Many have strong wills 
 which are not detachable from themselves. The 
 thing is to have the gift of projecting it into 
 another person, and superseding their own. I 
 find the power varies with my own strength and 
 health.' 
 
 "'Practically you sent your soul into another 
 person's body ?' 
 
 "'Well, you might put it that way.' 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE II3 
 
 "When asked if Ihere were no danger to her 
 own health she replies, 'There might be; you 
 have to be careful never to let your own con- 
 sciousness absolutely go, otherwise you might 
 experience some difficulty in finding your way 
 back again. You must always preserve the con- 
 nection, as it were.' 
 
 "Then," said the doctor, "the professor goes 
 away and wrestles manfully with himself. But 
 he is forced to admit there is something in it, 
 and when on the next day he consents to be 
 hypnotized as an experiment, he is thrown into 
 a delightful slumber. The experiments are re- 
 peated on several successive evenings, and 
 shortly afterwards a complication presents it- 
 self. 
 
 "Attracted by his clear Spanish features and 
 dark eyes, the hypnotist falls in love with him. 
 He records the fact in his diary with scientific 
 accuracy of detail. He writes that for some time 
 there have been signs which he has brushed 
 aside, and refused to think of. He has tried to 
 believe that they were to be accounted for by 
 her ardent West Indian temperament. But last 
 night at the close of the experiment, their hands 
 were locked together, and he felt compelled to 
 talk to her of love. How he would have loathed 
 himself if he had yielded to the temptation of 
 
: 14 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 the moment! Thank God! he was strong 
 enough to spring up, and to hurry from the 
 room. He feared that he was rude, too, but 
 slie knew that he was an engaged man; she 
 understood how he was placed. 
 
 "He fairly gasps, this professor," said the 
 doctor, "at the idea that this woman should 
 wish him to make love to her. I have yet to 
 learn that the fact of a man's engagement to 
 o;ie woman is sufficient to debar another from 
 trying to secure him." 
 
 "I have certainly heard," I admitted, "that 
 tlie fact you mention is commonly supposed to 
 lend interest to the pursuit, and zest to the cap- 
 ture." 
 
 "The professor perceives that his struggles are 
 useless," continued the doctor, "and actually 
 finds that he has gone so far as to profess violent 
 love for this woman, while sitting at her feet. 
 He determines that he will break the spell which 
 holds him, and to this end, locks his door, and 
 slips the key outside underneath the sill. He 
 then composes himself for a comfortable evening 
 on the sofa with one of Dumas' novels. But 
 suddenly — suddenly, he is gripped and dragged 
 from the couch. He claws at the coverlid; he 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE II5 
 
 clings to the wood-work. But he goes. He 
 fishes the key out wi.h a paper-knife from the 
 place where he has hidden it, and snatching up 
 a photograph of himself, writes something across 
 the back of it, and thrusts it into his pocket. He 
 fiies to the house of the hypnotist. She is re- 
 clining upon a sofa, and a tiger-skin rug has 
 been partly thrown over her. She is pale and 
 thin, having just recovered from an illness. He 
 kisses her hand passionatel}^, presents her with 
 the photograph, and tells of his love for her, of 
 his regret at hei illness, and of his joy at her 
 recovery. He rejoices in his slavery, and when 
 she strokes his head with her hand, I have no 
 doubt he purrs audibly. Here," said the doc- 
 tor, "I wish to quote verbatim. Listen: 
 
 '"And then came the change, the blessed 
 change.' 
 
 ("This is taken from his diary, you under- 
 stand.) 
 
 "'Never tell me that there is not a Providence! 
 I was on the brink of perdition. My feet were 
 on the edge. Was it a coincidence that at that 
 very moment help should come? No, no, no, 
 there is a Providence, and His hand has drawn 
 me back. There is something in the universe 
 stronger than this devil-woman with her tricks. 
 Ah! what a balm to my heart to think so!' 
 
Il6 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 "A little melodrama of this kind," said the 
 
 doctor, "impresses the masses wonderfully. 
 
 " *I have tried to do too much,' she whispered. 
 'I was not strong enough. You won't leave me, 
 Austin? This is a passing weakness. If 3'ou 
 will only give me five minutes I shall be myself 
 again. Give me the small decanter from the 
 table in the window.' 
 
 "We must presume from this," said the doc- 
 tor, "that this power is strengthened by the use 
 of alcohol. 
 
 "But the Professor had regained his soul. 
 His soul, mark you I Her influence had cleared 
 away, and left him stern and aggressive; bit- 
 terly, fiercely aggressive. It was the savage, 
 murderous passion of the revolted serf. 
 
 "'The brandy,' she gasped, 'the brandy.' 
 "The professor took the decanter,and poured 
 it over the roots of a palm in the window. 
 
 "It was effective, no doubt," said the doctor, 
 "but I am not aware that he had any right to 
 meddle with her cordials." 
 
 "It was rather rough on the palm," I said. 
 
 "Then," continued the doctor, "the professor 
 
 had his innings. 
 
 "'You vile woman! You shameless creature! 
 You knew how I stood. And 3^et you used your 
 vile power to bring me to your side.' 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 1 1 7 
 
 ''I cannot forbear marveling," said the doc- 
 tor, "at the stress this gentle professor lays upon 
 her knowledge of his engagement! 'You knew 
 how I stood.' Can you imagine a more lamb- 
 like bleat? But he pays her out and goes home 
 with a glow of inward satisfaction. Of course 
 Miss Penelosa's love then turns to hate, and the 
 professor had a very bad time of it. How he 
 curses his fatal gift of beauty as he looks at the 
 glass! 'Ah,' he cries, *when I look in the glass 
 and see my own dark eyes and clear-cut Spanish 
 face I long for a vitriol splash, or a bout of the 
 smallpox.' 
 
 "His engagement keeps him near the upas 
 tree; otherwise, like a man, he would fly the 
 danger. 
 
 "'If I were free,' he says, 'my course womd 
 be obvious. I should start at once, and travel 
 in Persia.' 
 
 "Why Persia,! wonder? However, to resume. 
 The hypnotist pursues the professor remorse- 
 lev«!sly. First she turns him into a buffoon, so 
 that he loses his professorship; then she tries to 
 make him rob a bank. When delivering a 
 lecture, he would begin well enough and until 
 the weird seizure came, would make good 
 
I 1 8 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 points, but suddenly he would begin to talk 
 nonsense, make silly jokes, propound conun- 
 drums, propose toasts, sing snatches of songs, 
 and even personally abuse the members of his 
 class." 
 
 "Very jolly for the class," I said, "I suppose 
 his lectures were well attended?" 
 
 "Crowded," said the doctor, "with students 
 who came to see and hear what the eccentric 
 professor would do or say next. After tr3nng 
 to break into the bank with a chisel — a curi- 
 ously inefficient instrument for the purpose, I 
 should have thought — he naturally raves against 
 the lady who has obsessed him. 
 
 "'Ah, that accursed woman,' he cries. 'That 
 thrice accursed woman! She has taken my 
 professorship; now she would take my honor.' 
 
 "'My physical condition,' he remarks, 'is 
 deplorable! I suffer from perpetual hiccough, 
 and ptosis of the left eyelid I' 
 
 "Might not the hiccough — " I began. 
 
 'Brandy?" inquired the doctor. "Possibly! 
 But to continue. A friend of his comes one 
 afternoon to pay him a visit, and the professor 
 knocks him into the mud, and kicks his hat 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE II9 
 
 after him. One of the professor's nands is 
 greatly swollen the next day, and he remarks 
 parenthetically that *God knows he has never 
 had the heart to hurt a fly.' A statement which 
 his battered friend finds some difficulty, when 
 they next meet, in accepting. Then the idea of 
 murdering this woman comes to this much bad- 
 gered professor. 
 
 '"Murder! it has an ugly sound. But 3^ou 
 don't talk of murdering a tiger. Let her have 
 a care now.' 
 
 "Finally by her influence he is about to throw 
 vitriol in the face of his fiancee, from which 
 awful fate she is rescued by a delay in meeting 
 him, and when she arrives, the fit has passed. 
 He remembers what he was going to do, and 
 rushed out of the house with murder in his 
 heart, but on inquiring at the door of the house 
 where the hypnotist abides he is met with the 
 news that she expired that afternoon at half- 
 past three, the exact time of his release. And 
 so ends the story," said the doctor. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 COURAGE CAN BE DEVELOPED. — STRONG AND 
 
 WEAK WILLS. DEFINITION OF SUGGESTION, 
 
 SIMPLE EXAMPLES. HYPNOTISM NOT AN 
 
 INFLUENCE FOR EVIL. DIFFICULTIES IN 
 
 THE WAY OF CLASSIFYING THE STATES. 
 
 THE MESMERIC PASS IS A SUGGESTION. 
 
 PATENT MEDICINES. 
 
 "What is fear?" I inquired. 
 
 "Generally speaking, it is absence of cour- 
 age," the doctor replied. 
 
 "Then you make courage a virtue natural to 
 man?" I said. 
 
 "Say that it is inherent in the natural man," 
 he answered, "and you get the point." 
 
 "So habitual fear or cowardice is a nervous 
 disease?" I continued. 
 
 "Generally, yes. It is a depressed state of 
 the mind, unreasoning, blind, ranging all the 
 way from apprehension to madness." 
 
 "Then," said I, finally, "fear is curable by 
 
 hypnotism ?" 
 
 "Undoubtedly," said the doctor. 
 120 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 121 
 
 "And you can implant courage?" 
 
 "Courage is not implanted by us," he replied, 
 "it is there already. We only reason it into 
 activity, if I may so express myself. Are you 
 referring to moral or physical courage?" he 
 asked. 
 
 "To physical," I answered. "Moral cour- 
 age, as I understand it, is a question of educa- 
 tion." 
 
 "A question of the acceptance and applica- 
 tion of education," amended the doctor. 
 
 "Never mind," I said. "The point that inter- 
 ests me is whether you can take a youth who is 
 inclined to be a coward, and make him physi- 
 cally courageous." 
 
 "There is not a doubt of it," replied the doc- 
 tor; "we do it by the simplest process of reason- 
 ing." 
 
 "And can you turn a weak will into a strong 
 one?" 
 
 "There are no such things as weak and strong 
 wills," he answered. "That is a suggestion 
 which you have picked up from your teachers, 
 friends and relations, and it is calculated to 
 work, if it has not done so already, a great 
 amount of harm. A man who believes that he 
 
122 HYPNOTISxM UP TO DATE 
 
 can do a certain thing does it, whereas a man 
 wl)o does not believe, does not do it, and if he 
 attempts it at all, fails to carry it through. A 
 strong v\ill and a weak will are only expressions 
 of a character which is susceptible to change. 
 Thus a strong-willed man may be diffident in the 
 presence of a small woman. A domineering 
 man is really one who believes in himself dur- 
 ing his domineering periods, whenever they 
 occur, and if he has gained an ascendency over 
 you, for instance, it is because you are willing 
 to believe that he is more powerful or more 
 clever than yourself," 
 
 'But supposing he reall}' is?" I persisted. 
 
 "How would you know it?" the doctor asked. 
 "Did he tell 3'ou himself, or did your friends 
 say so? Did you read it in the papers? Or did 
 the conviction come from yourself?" 
 
 "My own sense told me so, perhaps," I an- 
 swered. 
 
 "That is, it was a case of auto-suggestion, 
 but had your auto-suggestions been more favor- 
 able, you might have rivaled this man who 
 was, as you say, strong-willed." 
 
 "I might have wished to," I said. 
 
 "There is all the difference in the world,'' he 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 123 
 
 replied, "between a wish and a desire. A wish 
 is an idle thing, but a desire means business. 
 There is no desire in a man which he cam ut 
 attain. It rests with himself." 
 
 "How do you define suggestion?" I ai^-ked, 
 waiving the point. 
 
 "Ir is not a very easy task to condense a defi- 
 nition of the word. It has been said that by 
 this term we mean every thought, motion, scene, 
 object, sound, command, taste, smell — everj^- 
 thing,in fact, that causes some involuntary effect 
 in a living being, the impulse to which passes 
 through the intellect. There are direct and 
 indirect suggestions. Of the latter it is only 
 necessary to take one familiar example. You 
 ask the time — one o'clock — suggestion, hunger 
 and lunch. I should like to go more fully, 
 though, into the discussion of verbal or direct 
 sugge.stion, and its influence on a person in the 
 wr:king state. But I haven't the time. How- 
 ever, here are a couple of instances. The child 
 is the most receptive of living beings. Every 
 gesture and remark of parents, friends, nurses 
 or companions carries a suggestion with it. A 
 mother brings the child to my office, and the 
 youngster on entering the room peeps shyly 
 
1 24 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 round the skirts of her mother. Very possibly 
 that lady remarks unthinkingly, *Oh, she won't 
 go to you. She is so bashful and shy in the 
 presence of strangers I' Direct verbal sugges- 
 tion. Result, instant acceptance of the sugges- 
 tion by the child and a habit of confirmed 
 shyness is formed, against which only counter- 
 suggestions of the most positive kind will 
 prevail." 
 
 "Just to go back for a minute," I said. 
 "Why, if you can influence through hypnosis 
 so strongly for good, is it not to be dreaded as 
 an equally powerful influence for evil?" 
 
 "Because an evil result is impossible unless 
 the subject is habitually evil," replied the doc- 
 tor, "and by 'habitually' I mean, whose train- 
 ing has been generally bad." 
 
 "That doesn't cover the case," I said. 
 "Suppose an evil operator suggested a crime to 
 a weak subject, and the subject committed it; 
 he would have done it under hypnotic influence." 
 
 "No, because, don't you see," said the doctor, 
 "that you are blaming hypnotism for something 
 with which it has nothing to do? Given a crim- 
 inal operator and a criminal subject, and the 
 result might be evil, but the subject would have 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 1 25 
 
 been just as strongly influenced, and would have 
 committed the crime more surely and more in- 
 telligently if he had been awake. You miss the 
 point which those who have not studied hypno- 
 tism are so needlessly worried about,- that an 
 evil hypnotist may induce a moral subject to 
 commit wrong. That is where they think the 
 danger lies — and that, I say, is impossible." 
 
 "Ah, I see," said I. "Well, never mind go- 
 ing any further into suggestion. I recognize its 
 importance very fully. Tell me what you con- 
 sider to be the most important function of hyp- 
 nosis." 
 
 "I should say, briefly, the alleviation of suf- 
 fering, both mental and physical." 
 
 "Can you minister to a mind diseased — cure 
 a settled grief, as well as, say, a headache? 
 How, — by argument?" 
 
 "By simple argument when the subject is 
 hypnotized. You should witness an experiment 
 of the kind. We go slowly and quietly over 
 the same ground, explaining, arguing, pointing 
 out the foolishness of this, or the wrong of that, 
 and the subject in time receives its lesson and 
 believes. Belief is cure. The beauty of it is 
 that the subject is not inclined to argue, but is 
 
I 26 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 inclined to believe. In a word, he is open to 
 reason,but will not reason with himself. Hence, 
 conviction." 
 
 "Dentists should make use of hypnotism," I 
 said. 
 
 "Some of them are wise enough to do so 
 already," he replied. "If I had my way a 
 training in hypnotism should be part of the 
 course, not only of medical students, but of every 
 living boy and girl. And the first lesson which 
 they would be required to commit to memory 
 would be the suggestion that the}^ were not 
 born with a natural inclination to sin." 
 
 "You'd have to revolutionize Christian teach- 
 ing then," I remarked. 
 
 "Well, we won't go into that. What else do 
 you want to know?" asked the doctor. 
 
 "I want to know how you classify the differ- 
 ent hypnotic states," I said. 
 
 "It can't be done," he replied. 
 
 "Has it never been tried?" 
 
 "Oh, yes, some divide it into three, some 
 into five. There are, I gather from my own 
 small number of experiments, some hundred 
 different states, each of which is capable of sub- 
 division. No man under hypnotic influence is 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 1 27 
 
 exactly like another. You, for example, though 
 not even in a state of simple sleep, had become 
 cataleptic when your muscles were rigid." 
 
 "But I thought catalepsy was trance," I 
 said, — "a deep and abiding trance." 
 
 "Not at al^" said the doctor. "There may 
 be cataleps}^ and trance combined. But I can- 
 not possibly go into all the particulars," he said. 
 "It would take hours." 
 
 "Well, but about the somnambulistic state," 
 I said, "which is, I suppose, the most interest- 
 ing?" 
 
 "Yes, if active," replied the doctor. 
 
 "What's the proportion of active somnambu- 
 lists in persons hypnotized?" 1 asked. 
 
 "Ten per cent," he answered. 
 
 ''Tell me, is it necessary to make use of the 
 passes, gestures etc., which operators employ 
 to send their subjects to sleep?" I asked. 
 
 "You know yourselt that itisnol necessary," 
 he responded, "but we do it to heighten or 
 strengthen the suggestion. It is easier for you 
 to believe that I am going to send you to sleep 
 if I piess my hands over your forehead; or if I 
 tell you your arm is paralyzed, you will more 
 readily accept it if I touch your elbow. To 
 
128 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 Strengthen the assertion that there is nothing in 
 the passes beyond this, I can assure you that I 
 have put more than one good subject to sleep, 
 over the telephone." 
 
 ''That seems conclusive that gestures or 
 passes are not always necessary," I said. 
 
 "They are never necessary," he replied, 
 "but they are generally useful. There is one 
 thing that should not be lost sight of in hypnotic 
 effects," he continued. "It is always desirable 
 to induce a feeling of pleasure in the patients 
 when they are going under the influence, and 
 some patients may by means of their auto-sug- 
 gestiveness feel anything but happy as hypnosis 
 is produced. It is easy to offset this b}^ previous 
 suggestion, but I knew a dentist who achieved 
 his point by starting his musical box and the 
 hypnotic passes at the same time. The plan 
 worked admirably." 
 
 "Hypnotism will cure drunkenness, I sup- 
 pose?" 
 
 "It is the only cure," replied the doctor 
 gravely. "This is a positive statement, but I 
 make it on these grounds. Drunkenness is a 
 disease which can only be cured by suggestion. 
 I wouldn't give five cents for any local treat- 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 129 
 
 ment. It isn't the bichloride of gold that re 
 moves the drunkard's longing for drink. The 
 injection into his arm so many times a day is a 
 suggestion to him that he is losing his unnatural 
 craving. He is told by the doctors that he is 
 progressing favorably, and that in a certain time 
 he will be cured. That is all very well while 
 the suggestion retains its power. But it is not 
 sufficiently strong to subdue the disease, and in 
 the course of time it breaks out afresh. Had 
 hypnotism been employed with scientific med- 
 ical treatment there would have been no re- 
 lapses. I solemnl}'^ assure you I have never lost 
 a single case treated by hypnotic suggestion. 
 Now, which would strike you as the most diffi- 
 cult to cure, drunkenness or gambling?" 
 
 "I should say gambling," I replied. '* Be- 
 cause it is not a disease." 
 
 "Wrong again," said the doctor. "It must 
 at least be a nervous disorder, or hypnotism 
 would not remove it." 
 
 "But gambling is a voluntary action," I 
 cried. 
 
 "Very seldom," he answered; "but if it were, 
 we remove the desire to gamble. The answer 
 to my query is that one is as easy to cure as the 
 other." 
 
130 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 "For a doctor," I said, "you don't seem, if I 
 may say so, to attach much importance to med- 
 icine." 
 
 "I attach great importance to it," he replied, 
 "but I attach more to the hypnotic or even 
 direct suggestion that is given with it. You 
 know, perhaps, that there are about fifty differ- 
 ent schools of medicine, the Allopaths, Homoeo- 
 paths, Hydropaths, etc. Each has its followers. 
 Each points to its cures. Their methods are 
 diametrically opposite, but they are all more or 
 less successful. Why? You don't require to 
 be told." 
 
 "Suggestion?" said I. 
 
 "Undoubtedly," he answered. "Patent med- 
 icines are, on careful investigation, acknowl- 
 edged to have effected hundreds and thousands 
 of seemingly marvelous cures. Did you ever 
 read one of those suggestively worded adver- 
 tisements? Of course you have. It is impos- 
 sible to escape them. What could be more 
 alluring to the sufferer than to read that *Mary's 
 case had been considered hopeless by the doc- 
 tors, and she had been left to die while still a 
 young woman; but by the mighty grace, etc., 
 etc.'? They do much good, these people with 
 their trumpery wares. They bring hope to the 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE I3I 
 
 sufferer, and she buys seventeen or two dozen 
 bottles of the stuff and gets well. Of course, 
 the cure is in herself." 
 
 "I take it," said I, ''that hopefulness is the 
 normal condition of man?" 
 
 "Certainly. When hope is absolutely dead, 
 disease gets firm hold. It doesn't matter 
 whether it be real or imaginary, it is equally 
 fatal. Revive hope and all will be well. 
 Melancholia is a thing we often have to combat. 
 It is very easy." 
 
 "Not always, surely." 
 
 "Always," said the doctor, "with the aid of 
 hypnotism." 
 
 "Well, there is one thing it cannot do," I 
 said. "It may cure every nervous disease under 
 the sun, but it cannot set a broken limb." 
 
 "No, but a doctor with the assistance of hyp- 
 notism can set that limb without pain to the 
 patient and command the sleep for him that is 
 necessary to recovery. Don't you see what a 
 friend, what a powerful ally h3^pnotism is to the 
 surgeon? What is chloroform in comparison 
 with this agent, simple, innocuous, inexpensive? 
 Great Heavens! to think that men can turn their 
 backs with indifference when this God given 
 power is ready to their hand I" 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 RESISTANCE OF THE SUBJECT IS NOT WEAKENED. 
 A child's AUTO SUGGESTION. AN EX- 
 PERIMENT VV^ITH CRIMINAL SUGGESTION, 
 
 A LIKELY SUBJECT. CATALEPTIC AND SOM- 
 NAMBULIC. A BLOODTHIRSTY ATTACK. — 
 
 THEORY SUSTAINED. RESPIRATION AL- 
 TERED AT WILL. INVESTIGATION MAY BE 
 
 LOOKED FOR. 
 
 "Hullo! "said the doctor, when I entered his 
 room on the following day "I thought you'd 
 gonel" 
 
 '^VVe certainly said good-bye/' I admitted, 
 "but I have come back, you see, and have 
 brought my trunk. I'm going to stay awhile 
 — Trunk and hands and feet," I added, seeing 
 that the doctor looked alarmed, — "an anatomical 
 joke, 3^ou know!" 
 
 "I don't know!" he replied wearily. "How- 
 ever, I'm glad to see you, What do you want 
 
 132 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 1 33 
 
 to ask me about now ? I see a question in your 
 
 eye." 
 
 "I am not satisfied yet," I replied, "as to the 
 possibility or otherwise of weakening the will 
 of the subject through continued suggestion. 
 For instance, although I am ready to admit that 
 you could not make a man of good morals com- 
 mit a crime, could you not,by varying the sug- 
 gestion, by twisting it round in all manner of 
 ways, make him see that what you wished him 
 to do was really not a heinous offense after all? 
 Could you not blunt the edge of his instincts? 
 Would there always be the same resistance?" 
 
 " I have always found the resistance as strong," 
 said the doctor, "at the last as at the first. 
 There is no perceptible difference in the sub- 
 ject's revolt against the suggestion offered and 
 insisted upon, even if that suggestion is varied, 
 as you say, in all manner of wa3^s, and even if 
 it is cairied over from day to day." 
 
 "Then you cannot wear the moral instinct 
 out?" 
 
 "No, the constant dropping that wears away 
 a stone, does not apply to such a case. It might 
 if the man were awake; but his resistance is 
 really more active when he is asleep. In the 
 
134 
 
 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 waking State there is more material relationship. 
 I should say emphatically that an experiment of 
 this nature, carried on from day to day, actually 
 meets with more resistance from the subject at 
 the last than at the first, and if persisted in would 
 probably prevent the subject from sleeping at 
 all. Suppose that for three days I had endeav- 
 ored to make a subject do a certain thing which 
 he was unwilling to do, and suppose that he was 
 willing to accept the suggestion that in his wak- 
 ing state he would remember nothing that I had 
 said to him during hypnosis, and admitting for 
 a moment — and this is an extreme admission — 
 that he might actually forget in his waking state 
 all that had actually occurred in previous hyp- 
 noses, still, when hypnosis was induced upon 
 the fourth day, the subject would be fortified by 
 the remembrance of the resistance which he had 
 previously made to this suggestion, and would, 
 as I say, be less likely to accept it than at 
 first." 
 
 "Did you ever try to mould the will of a hyp- 
 notized child?" I asked. 
 
 "Yes. I had an interesting example of the 
 impossibility of breaking down auto-suggestion 
 in such a case some years ago. I have always 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE * ^35 
 
 regarded this as a very valuable example, since 
 it can not be classed as a 'laboratory experi- 
 ment.' The child was only five years old — too 
 young even to understand that the suggestion I 
 wished her to accept was for her own ultimate 
 benefit. The matter of it was this. The child's 
 teeth had given out two years before they should 
 have done so, and she was, in consequence, put 
 to great trouble in masticating her food. Her 
 father, a physician, came to me, and asked if 
 anything could be done to quiet her fears while 
 a temporar}^ filling was put in her teeth. He 
 had previously induced her to submit to the 
 operation, but the dentist employed had hurt 
 her, and she now regarded him as her enemy, 
 and would not allow him to touch her. It 
 seemed to me that the child was too young to 
 yield to hypnotic suggestion, but I agreed to 
 try what could be done. The next evening, 
 accordingly, I went to the house and was intro- 
 di ced (of course the mother was in the secret) as 
 a friend staying in the city for a day or two. 
 We romped with the children, and I showed 
 them all sorts of tricks, paying special attention 
 to this little girl always, and singling her out 
 from the others. Well, she became jealous of 
 
136 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 her sisters if I seemed to neglect her at all, and 
 later on I said that I would show her a new 
 game, and that she was to act the principal 
 part in it. This new game consisted in putting 
 her to sleep. In a little while, under the verbal 
 suggestion method, she went sound asleep, and 
 for fifteen minutes the game of romps with the 
 other children proceeded. There was no doubt 
 that the child was asleep, and the father satisfied 
 himself on the point of her insensibility to pain 
 by running a pin through her arm under my 
 direction. It was agreed then that I should hyp- 
 notize her the next day in the dentist's office, 
 and her teeth should be filled while she was 
 asleep. At the time appointed we met in the 
 dental ] arlor, and the little girl was very glad 
 to see me. The purpose of her visit had been 
 carefully concealed from her, and she was quite 
 willing to play the game again which had 
 amused her on the previous evening. In a few 
 minutes she was sound asleep, and showed no 
 trace of sensibility to pain when her eyelid was 
 lifted and the ball touched; nor did she feel the 
 prick of a pin. I carried her to the dentist's 
 chair, and when she was comfortably arranged 
 told her to open her mouth, and to keep it open. 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 1 37 
 
 She did so. I told her she could not shut it, 
 and she could not. She tried to shut it at my 
 bidding, and could not. Everything seemed ripe 
 for the operation, and the dentist came quietly 
 forward while I talked gently to the youngster. 
 At the first touch of his hand on her mouth the 
 jaws came together with a snap, and I could 
 not by any means in my power get her to open 
 her mouth again. She simply would not. It 
 was no use, the operation had to be abandoned, 
 and the child woke up crying at my insistence. 
 Observe that the auto-suggestion of a child of 
 five years was too powerful for the parents, my- 
 self, and the dentist combined." 
 
 "Do you suppose the child would have ob- 
 jected if you had performed the operation your- 
 self?" 
 
 "No; if I had been a dentist, 1 am quite sure 
 that I could have filled that little thing's teeth 
 without pain, and it would all have worked in 
 as a part of the game." 
 
 "If I could see an experiment myself bearing 
 on the relationship of hypnotism and crime," I 
 said, "I should be very glad. Could you not 
 manage this for me?" 
 
 The doctor reflected. "How about your 
 train?" he inquired. 
 
138 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 "It has gone without me," I answered, "sol 
 have the whole day to spare." 
 
 "If you can be here at three o'clock this 
 afternoon," he said, "I will see what can be 
 done. There is a young man in the city here 
 who was used by a traveling professor of hyp- 
 notism to illustrate the theory that crime could 
 be committed through the agency of hypnotic 
 suggestion. His mode of illustration was to 
 cause this subject to assault a man on the stage, 
 and to steal a sum of money from him. The 
 usual procedure was adopted — rousing the sub- 
 ject's cupidity, working on his passions, sug- 
 gesting immunity from punishment, etc., — of 
 course, with great success. The assault and 
 robbery took place, and the audience gasped. 
 Now, I don't know this young man personally, 
 but I have heard that he is not a lovable char- 
 acter when he is in his normal condition. He 
 has been in several scrapes of a serious nature, 
 and if we were describing his moral character ac- 
 cording to copy-book, we should call it evil. If 
 you like, I will try to get him here this afternoon, 
 and will use every endeavor to make him com- 
 mit a crime — a real crime. It must, of course, 
 still remain 'a laboratory experiment,' since it 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 1 39 
 
 takes place in this office, but we will endeavor 
 to so arrange details that if he carries out my 
 suggestion literally we may believe that there 
 is a relation possible between crime and hyp- 
 notism. I am going to make him stab a person 
 with this stage dagger — you see that it looks and 
 feels like a real knife, but the blade runs back 
 to the hilt, so that injury from a blow with this 
 weapon is impossible. He will not be aware of 
 this, however, and then, if he buries the knife, 
 as he supposes, in the heart of the victim, he will 
 have done much to shake my convictions on the 
 point. Even this would not be conclusive evi- 
 dence, however, because he may in his subjec- 
 tive state consider that if he commit a crime in 
 my office, I am responsible, and not he; where- 
 as,, if I suggested that some days after date he 
 should commit a crime at a distance from me, 
 he would reflect that I should not be near him 
 to assume the blame, and on those grounds 
 might refuse to carry out the suggestion. There- 
 fore, I say that the experiment cannot be con- 
 sidered conclusive, but I can hardly believe that 
 he can be even induced to strike a man in the 
 breast with an instrument which he supposes to 
 be a real weapon. We shall see. Can you 
 come.'^" 
 
I4O HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 "I shall be on time," I answered. "At three 
 o'clock, then." 
 
 This, I felt, as I made my way home, would 
 b3 worth staying over another day for, and I 
 sincerely hoped that nothing might interfere 
 with the doctor's plans so far as the securing of 
 this subject was concerned. I reflected that he 
 might have left the city, might be ill, might be 
 engaged, or might be unwilling to submit to hyp- 
 nosis — fifty possibilities presented themselves, 
 and the relief I experienced, when, at three 
 o'clock precisely, I entered the doctor's office, 
 and found there the doctor, the subject, and 
 two other medical gentlemen, was good evidence 
 of the importance of the occasion in my opinion. 
 The young man was not pleasant to look upon 
 —if there is anything in physiognomy, he was 
 of a vicious disposition, but my conclusions were 
 probably derived from the doctor's description 
 beforehand, and are in themselves of no value. 
 The doctor was engaged in making the subject, 
 whose name was Harry, give an account of his 
 late employer, the traveling hypnotist, and was 
 laughing at the description of certain of his tricks 
 when I entered the room. 
 
 "Let us see if you will do a few things for 
 me, Harry," he said. 
 
mvpnotism up to date 14I 
 
 "Say, ye don't want any fake 'bout this, do 
 yer?" inquired Harry. "What I mean is, it's 
 on the square. It didn't make no diff'runce to 
 the boss whether I was asleep or not, jes' so 
 long as I done the tricks an' fooled the people; 
 thet's all he cared fur. But I kin sleep ef I 
 wanter, an' sometimes I jes' used ter keep 
 awake on my own account. Ef you say *sleep,' 
 then sleep it is, boss I" 
 
 "Yes, I want no faking here," said the doc- 
 tor. "The sounder you sleep the better. I'm 
 not going to show you off before a crowd of 
 people and I don't care whether you do the 
 things I want you to do or not — but remember, 
 no shamming sleep! If I catch you at that you'll 
 not get the money I promised you." 
 
 "It's all right — it's all right," said Harry. 
 "Jes' as easy ter go to sleep as not, boss, an' 
 when you say it's got ter be on the level, why 
 —that goes. Don't make no diff'runce ter me, 
 jes' accordin' as I'm paid fer the job." 
 
 The doctor smiled inscrutabl}^ and directed 
 the subject to look at a bright object on the 
 wall — "or, no," he added, "look me straight in 
 the eyes." 
 
 "I b'lieve I kin go quicker ef I look squar' 
 at you," said the latter. 
 
1^2 HYPNOTISM UP tO DATE 
 
 "Stand up, then," said the doctor. -'Look at 
 me. So. Right into the pupils of my eyes. 
 Just there. Don't move. Right into the pupils. 
 Keep steady now. Now you're going. Sleep 
 standing on your feet. Quite easily now; letting 
 yourself go, and sleeping on your feet. Now 
 your muscles are getting hard and stiff. Your 
 eyes are closing. Your whole body is rigid and 
 stiff as a board. You are fast asleep and falling 
 forward. I shall catch you. Let yourself come. 
 You're coming. You can't resist. Now you're 
 coming. Quicker. Quicker. Here you come," 
 — and the subject,with his eyes shut, fell forward 
 like a marble image. The doctor caught him, 
 and supported him while I arranged a couple of 
 chairs,in response to a nod, and the subject was 
 accordingly laid out, head on one chair and 
 heels on the other. 
 
 "This is catalepsy," said the doctor, to one 
 of the physicians, "and I think we shall also 
 find profound anaesthesia present. However, I 
 will get you to test this. Raise his eyelid." 
 
 The latter did so, and the eyeball was seen to 
 have receded, leaving only the white visible. 
 This was insensible to touch. The breathing 
 was very faint, and the extremities cold. The 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 1 43 
 
 doctor produced a hat pin, and silently handed it 
 to the physician, signaling at the same time that 
 he should test the subject's insensibility to pain. 
 Accordingly, the latter ran the pin suddenl}^ 
 through the biceps muscle of the subject's arm, 
 and failed to elicit a wink of the eyelids, a 
 tremor of the frame, or even an increase in the 
 respiration. Having tested the subject's insen- 
 sibility in the same manner in various other 
 parts of the bod}^ commonly found to be sensi- 
 tive in the normal condition, the physician de- 
 clared himself to be satisfied that the young man 
 was not shamming sleep. 
 
 "I want you to be quite certain," said the 
 doctor, "before we proceed." 
 
 •'We are both satisfied," they replied. 
 
 "Your body," said the doctor, addressing the 
 subject, and passing his hand slowly down him 
 from the head to the feet, "is rigid, stiff, and 
 cannot be bent. An iron rod runs through you 
 from your head to your feet, and you cannot 
 bend. You can feel nothing, and you cannot 
 bend yourself. You could support a ton weight 
 in the position in which you are now. You 
 are made of iron." 
 
 "He could, in this condition, support a great 
 
144 
 
 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 weight," said the doctor, turning to us. ^^It is 
 a common platform experiment, as you know, 
 for the operator to stand upon the abdomen of 
 his cataleptic subject." One of the physicians 
 present sat upon the body, which remained as 
 rigid as steel. 
 
 "An abnormal muscular development induced 
 b}^ special training," said he. 
 
 "No training at all," replied the doctor. "An 
 unusual physical condition induced by sugges- 
 tion, if you will allow me." 
 
 Having been relieved of the ph3^sician's 
 weight, the subject was told that his muscles 
 were quietly and easily relaxing, and he unbent 
 slowly till he touched the floor. 
 
 "It would be just as easy to make him bend 
 up from this position till he was curved like a 
 bow between these chairs," said the doctor, 
 "but he has done enough in the cataleptic state, 
 I think. Harry," he called, sharply, "you 
 will get up now and stand on your feet." 
 
 The subject slowly did as he was ordered. 
 
 "You can open your eyes, and look at me. 
 You can talk. You can speak clearly. You 
 are fast asleep, but your eyes are open. You 
 can see me plainly — see me standing before 
 you?" 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 H5 
 
 "Why, yes, I see you," he answered. 
 
 "You have been fighting," said the doctor. 
 
 "No, I have not." 
 
 "Wh}^ you're all cut about the face and 
 hands. Come here," and he took him over to a 
 mirror, "Look at yourself in this glass. Don't 
 3^ou see that your hands and face are all cut? 
 You see the marks. You see the blood. It 
 was that man standing behuid you who did this 
 to you. He struck you when you were not 
 looking. He struck you and kicked you. You 
 had done nothing to him. You had not spoken 
 to him, and he kicked you into the gutter. For 
 nothing at all. You had done nothing to him." 
 
 "Blast him, no!" said Harry, his features 
 convulsed with rage. "I done nothing to him. 
 What did he cut me like this for? I'll get even 
 with him. I'll make him sorry for this." 
 
 "He has always been your enemy," pursued 
 the tempter. "He has injured you before. Now 
 he says he will murder you the next time you 
 meet." 
 
 "He will, will he?" said Harry, with a snarl, 
 struggling in the doctor's grasp. "Let me at 
 him. We'll see about that!" 
 
 "He is there behind me," said the doctor. 
 
146 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 pointing to one of the physicians, who had been 
 prepared beforehand, and was standing with 
 his back to the doctor. '^He is there, with his 
 back turned. He can't see you. Now's your 
 chance. Kill him. You want his life. If you 
 don't kill him, he'll have your blood. Kill him 
 now. He struck you for nothing." 
 
 Harry's face was likr a devil's as he freed 
 himself and stood for a second with glaring 
 ej-es, half crouching, as if he were about to * 
 spring upon his enemy's back and drag him to 
 the ground. "Take this," said the doctor 
 quickly, whipping the stage dagger out of his 
 pocket, and thrusting it into the other's hand. 
 "Stab him in the back now, before he can turn 
 round. If he turns round 37^ou're done for." 
 
 With a cry of rage the subject, whose hand 
 had closed involuntarily upon the weapon given 
 him, but who had not for an instant taken his 
 eyes off the man before him, sprang forward, and 
 struck twice viciously at the latter's back. The 
 other physician and myself were watching 
 closely. The doctor could not from his position 
 see the whole action, though he heard the blows. 
 As the subject struck, the victim, according to 
 arrangenijiit, threw up his arms and fell face for- 
 ward on the floor. 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 1 47 
 
 "By God, I've killed him!" said Harry.— 
 *'And a good job, too," he muttered savagely 
 between his teeth. 
 
 "A nice day's work this," said the doctor, 
 coming forward. "What did 3^ou kill him for?" 
 
 "Because I wanted to," was the sullen reply. 
 
 "Because 1 told you to.^" 
 
 "No, because I wante^ to." 
 
 "Well, you'll probably hang for it," said the 
 doctor. "Give me the knife, it's covered with 
 blood," — and he wiped the imaginary clots of 
 gore from the blade. 
 
 Harry was regarding his victim with fixed 
 eyes. "I wanted to kill him," he said. 
 
 "Go and sit down over there," said the doc- 
 tor, peremptorily. "I shall speak to you later 
 about this. Can't have a murder committed in 
 m}^ office, and let the murderer go free. You 
 will probably hang for this piece of work." 
 
 "I wanted to kill him," answered the subject 
 imperturbably, "an' I done it." 
 
 Turning to us, the doctor said: "Well, I'm 
 rather surprised at this thing myself. I never 
 expected that he would really strike with the 
 knife, because he certainly believed it was a 
 genuine dagger." 
 
148 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 '^ He did not strike with it," said the physician 
 who had watched the experiment, and I echoed 
 his remark. "He did not use the point of the 
 dagger at all." 
 
 "Is that possible?" asked the doctor. 
 
 "Fact," said the victim, who had returned to 
 life. "I felt the blows, but they were delivered 
 with the hand, and not with the weapon." 
 
 "How on earth did he manage it?" the doc- 
 tor inquired. 
 
 "He turned his hand," I said, "as he struck. 
 We could see the dagger's blade sticking out 
 in the other direction, and both times he struck 
 with his hand turned. That old fraud of a dagger 
 was just as real to him as a bowieknife." 
 
 "And he was afraid to use it," said the doc- 
 tor, much gratified. "Well, gentlemen, I am 
 not sorry that this experiment has turned out as 
 it has done, because I have been contending for 
 years that the subject will not commit even a 
 'laboratory' crima with a weapon which he feels 
 to be genuine. If I had given him a pasteboard 
 dagger, he would have, no doubt, struck with 
 the blade, but he was unable to detect the differ- 
 ence between the weapon he held and a genuine 
 knife, in point of size, weight, or feeling, and 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 149 
 
 his instinct of self preservation warned him to 
 have none of it." 
 
 "It seems almost incredible that he is asleep," 
 said one of the physicians. "Yet I am satisfied 
 that he is. May we experiment further?" 
 
 "What would you like to see?" asked the 
 doctor. "Ah, perhaps this will interest you. 
 Come here, Harry. Sit down in this chair. 
 You are in a deep sleep. You are feeling quite 
 comfortable now. Pulse quite even, and nor- 
 mal," and one of the physicians satisfied him- 
 self on that point. 
 
 "Seventy-four beats," he announced. 
 
 "You are beginning to get warm, Harry," 
 said the doctor. "You are very warm now. 
 You are hot, boiling hot. You have been run- 
 ning a race. You are panting with the exertion. 
 In a high fever. Your blood is heated to a fear- 
 ful degree. You are getting hotter. You are 
 in a raging fever." 
 
 The subject manifested many signs of dis- 
 comfort, gasping and breathing quickly as he 
 shifted about in his chair, and after a couple of 
 minutes had elapsed, during which period the 
 doctor unceasingly plied him with suggestions, 
 the subject's pulse was taken by the same phy- 
 sician, who observed: 
 
150 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 ^' One hundred and thirty!" 
 
 "Now you are getting cooler," said the doc- 
 tor, soothingly. "Now all that heat and dis- 
 tress have passed away, and you are quite cool 
 again. No more heat now. You are getting 
 cold, getting very cold. You are having a cold 
 bath. There. I have thrown a bucket of cold 
 water over you. Ugh! How deadly cold it 
 feels! You are encased in ice. Packed like a 
 corpse in ice. Getting colder and colder. Pulse 
 getting slower and slower. Slower and slower." 
 
 In the course of a little while the physician 
 announced "Sixty!" and his friend caught the 
 subject's wrist to assure himself of the fact. 
 
 "A very singular thing!" he said, "I con- 
 fess I have not believed these stories of hypnotic 
 wonders, but it would be foolish to doubt the 
 evidence of one's senses. Could such sugges- 
 tions as these be of service in real fevers.^" 
 
 "Of the greatest service," said the doctor. 
 "Your pulse is getting up again to its normal 
 state," he added to the patient. "You are feel- 
 ing quite well, and in five minutes will be wide 
 awake, with nothing the matter with you. No 
 pain or ache of any kind in your body, and you 
 will feel no ill effects whatever from anything 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 151 
 
 you have done this afternoon. Now you are 
 quite well, and resting quietly." 
 
 The physician took the pulse. 
 
 "Seventy," he said, after a little. 
 
 The physicians were carefully watching the 
 quick, deep respirations of the sleeper, and 
 stroked their chins reflectively — a favorite habit 
 with the members of the profession, I am told. 
 
 At the expiration of his appointed five min- 
 utes the subject awoke, stretching himself, and 
 rubbing his eyes. 
 
 "You have been asleep for five minutes," said 
 the doctor. 
 
 "Sure." 
 
 "Been sound asleep?" 
 
 "Been as sound as a man kin be and not be 
 dead, I guess." 
 
 "What have you been doing?" asked one of 
 the visitors. 
 
 "Been sleeping." 
 
 "Walking about at all?" 
 
 "Dunno. Don't think so. Don't remember 
 it." 
 
 "Well, you very nearly murdered one of these 
 gentlemen," said the doctor, "and if you had, 
 hanging would have been the end of you." 
 
152 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 Harry's face expressed no surprise. He had 
 been used before for experimental crimes, and 
 there was no room for wonder. 
 
 "I must have been pretty quick about it," he 
 said with a grin. 
 
 "You have been just an hour and ten min- 
 utes," said the doctor. 
 
 The subject jumped to his feet. "Git out!" 
 he cried. "I ain't bin asleep more'n five min- 
 utes, an' that I'll take my oath to." 
 
 "The time was an hour and ten minutes, 
 nevertheless," said the doctor. "Here's your 
 money, Harry. You have been 'on the square,' 
 as you call it, all through this experiment. See 
 that you never sham with me, and if I ever want 
 3^ou again, and for some reason or other you 
 can't go to sleep, why, say so. I know that you 
 were not shamming to-day." 
 
 "I kin sleep when I wanter," said Harry. 
 "Good-day, gents," and he departed. 
 
 "Parkyn," said one of the physicians, as he 
 shook hands, " I must go further into this thing. 
 It is really remarkable." 
 
 "You can experiment for yourself," said the 
 doctor, with a shrug. "There are no miracles 
 in connection with it, and there is no reason 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 153 
 
 why yoa cannot use suggestion with great ad- 
 vantage yourself in your practice. Try medi- 
 cine and suggestion." 
 
 '^What do you think?" said I, when we were 
 alone. "Will they investigate for themselves?" 
 
 "I think they will," he replied. "It is be- 
 ginning to dawn upon the profession that by its 
 attitude of hostility towards the emplo3'ment of 
 hypnotism it has stultified itself in the eyes of pro- 
 gressive thinkers the world over, and that if it 
 refuses to recognize facts it must expect to lose 
 caste. The profession will not take kindly to 
 the idea of being behind the age, so that we 
 may look for active research in this direction." 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THERAPEUTIC POSSIBILITIES OF HYPNOTISM. 
 
 NEGLECT OF THE GENERAL PRACTITIONER 
 TO INVESTIGATE PHENOMENA. IMPOR- 
 TANCE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENT 
 
 THE QUALIFICATIONS OF THE REGULAR 
 PRACTITIONER ARE MOST VALUABLE IN 
 CONJUNCTION WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL 
 
 TREATMENT. EXAMPLES. DISEASES IN 
 
 WHICH SUGGESTION IS OF VALUE. 
 
 The purpose of this book, as set forth in the 
 preceding chapters, has been more in the direc- 
 tion of divesting hypnotism of its terrors than of 
 pointing out its advantages as a therapeutic 
 agent over material remedies, or in conjunction 
 with the material remedies employed by the 
 medical profession. But it is evident that the 
 chief value of h3'pnotic suggestion to the world 
 at large lies in its therapeutic possibilities. Hj-p- 
 notism is not a panacea for every ill that flesh is 
 heir to, but it does afford a simple means of at- 
 tacking and removing many kinds of actual as 
 154 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 155 
 
 well as imaginary diseases, the roots of which 
 are engrafted as firmly in the mind as in tho 
 body of the patient. It has been £;iid that h\p- 
 notic suggestion is an imaginary cure for an 
 imaginary disease, but this contention, in the 
 light of the abundant proof at hand to the con- 
 trary, is as foolisli as the claim of the enthusiast 
 that every disease, hysterical or organic, must 
 absolutely 3'ield to hypnotic treatment. Upon 
 the temperament of the patient, the efficacy of 
 the means employed for his restoration to health 
 will depend, but it must not be forgotten that 
 while hypnotism alone may be unable to effect 
 a cure, hypnotism and medicine together, or in 
 other words, psychical and material remedies 
 conjoined, form the most powerful weapon of 
 attack. The power of the mind over the body 
 is being generally recognized, and will event- 
 ually be established as a scientific fact. It is 
 something of a stain upon the escutcheon of 
 ir.edical science that it should be, with some no- 
 table exceptionSjSO loath to investigate the claims 
 of hypnotism for recognition as an honorable 
 ally, and so unwilling to ad-mit the existence 
 of phenomena which are daily, if not hourly, in 
 evidence. The medical profession condemns 
 
156 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 the performance of the public hypnotist, and 
 with some reason ; but it should be remembered 
 that if the doctors had done their duty in the 
 matter of investigating the phenomena presented, 
 and had made use of the agency themselves in 
 legitimate practice, the marvels which the 
 traveling hypnotist presents to his audience in 
 the feats of his subjects would have ceased to be 
 marvels long ago, and the" professor" would have 
 played to empty houses. It is because the public 
 generally knows nothing of hypnotism that it 
 is regarded as a mysterious power, and hostility 
 towards it on the part of medical science is only 
 calculated to confirm this belief. For it must be 
 always borne in mind that hypnotic phenomena 
 are facts, and when the public has the facts 
 before it, it is contented to accept them with- 
 out inquiring too closely into the deductions 
 which the "professor" may draw therefrom to 
 his own advantage. 
 
 It is well for the prestige of the medical profes- 
 sion that even at the eleventh hour its members 
 are reluctantly beginning to investigate for them- 
 selves as to the value of psychology in its relation 
 to physiology and diseased conditions. It might 
 have happened that the reaction against the 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 157 
 
 inefficiency of drugs, which may alone account 
 for the existence of Christian Science to day, 
 might have spread to all classes of society, and the 
 physician's art have fallen itself into disrepute. 
 
 Cures by faith and prayer have been accom- 
 plished in all ages, but it is only at the close of 
 this, the nineteenth, century that we recognize 
 the power by which these cures are accomplished 
 and realize that the soul of man is an organizing 
 or creative entity. By means of hypnotic sug- 
 gestion it is possible to scientifically direct this 
 force of the soul among all men in all lands, re- 
 gardless of race or creed. 
 
 The point which the medical profession has 
 tardily conceded is that it is better for it to 
 take upon itself the cure of the mind of the 
 patient, if it can be done by suggestion, than 
 to direct its attention solely, as has been its 
 wont, to the prescribing of material medicines. 
 They have left the ministering to minds diseased 
 to the clergy, forgetting that the latter, whose 
 splendid achievements I would not for one mo- 
 ment depreciate, have no such opportunities for 
 diagnosing the case as are presented to the 
 family practitioner. The faculty has long 
 studied the anatomy and physiology of the 
 
158 HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 brain, but to the function of the dominant organ, 
 the all-powerful soul, they have paid but scanty 
 attention. While those who have given their 
 time and attention to this study have not been 
 slow to give the results of their labors to the 
 world, I feel that the knowledge of the power 
 inherent in man is still very limited. That Christ 
 understood it perfectly there cannot be a doubt. 
 Some of the miracles that he performed are 
 being daily repeated, and when the laws which 
 govern this psychic force are understood our 
 lepers will again be healed, and destroj^ed tis- 
 sues restored. 
 
 It is self-evident that this force can be most 
 successfully directed b}' one who combines with 
 its acquaintance a thorough knowledge of anat- 
 omy, physiology, diagnosis, surger}' and med- 
 icine, and one who, in addition to this, enjoys 
 the confidence of the patient. A physician of 
 note has wisely said: "Our doctors have been 
 too materialistic; our so-called metaphysicians, 
 Christian Scientists, and mental healers too ig- 
 norant of medicine and the law of suggestion. 
 The work should bo combined. We cannot 
 ignore the body. We cannot do without either 
 food or medicine. Hunger and thirst may well 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 159 
 
 be classified as disease. What are the remedies? 
 Bread and butter, beefsteak, potatoes, and pure 
 water. Show us how to do without these, and 
 then we can think of doing without medicines 
 of all kinds." 
 
 The human system might be aptly likened to 
 an electric street railway. The brain is the 
 dynamo; the organs of the body are the street 
 cars. These sometimes stop running, and no 
 amount of attention given to the car itself will 
 be of benefit when the trouble is really in the 
 dynamo. On the other hand, an accident may 
 happen to the car itself, and local repairs are 
 necessary to remove the obstruction. An ex- 
 perienced electrician can find the cause of the 
 disturbance in both cases, and remove it. 
 Similarly, the man who attempts to regulate 
 the human system must have acquired a portion 
 of his knowledge in the dissecting-room and the 
 laboratory. 
 
 In almost every case in which it is necessary 
 to make use of drugs, suggestion will be found 
 to heighten the effect of their employment, and 
 many of the attending symptoms may be re- 
 lieved. It has been found efficacious, for ex- 
 ample, in controlling the headache of typhoid 
 
l6o HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE 
 
 fever, lowering the temperature, and removing 
 or even preventing the delirium. I have yet to 
 hear of a case of typhoid fever ending fatally in 
 which suggestion was given a fair trial in addi- 
 tion to the regular treatment. 
 
 I hope in a future work to give detailed ac- 
 counts of cases benefited by the employment of 
 suggestion ; it is only possible here to call atten- 
 tion to two cases of acute peritonitis which I 
 cull from the records of Dr. Parkyn. While 
 the headache was still intense and the vomiting 
 persistent, he succeeded in inducing hypnosis, 
 withdrew the morphine, and caused the disap- 
 pearance of the distressing symptoms immedi- 
 ately. The patients were able to retain and 
 assimilate food perfectly. Except that hypno- 
 tism was also employed here, both cases were 
 treated according to the regular methods, and a 
 remarkably quick recovery ensued. 
 
 Hypnosis will probably never take the place 
 of chloroform or ether as a general anaesthetic, 
 but it can be used successfully in a very large 
 number of cases for even major operations and 
 is of special value where the use of a stupefying 
 drug is contra-indicated. In obstetrical prac- 
 tice it has been found useful in the removal of 
 
HYPNOTISM UP TO DATE l6l 
 
 pain, and seems to place the civilized woman 
 on a par with her more ignorant, but in this 
 respect more fortunate, sister,the savage woman, 
 with whom child-birth is not a function to be 
 dreaded. 
 
 Briefly the diseases in which hypnotism has 
 been proved to be of service are the following: 
 
 Hysteria, or all forms of imaginary ailments 
 and diseases. Alcoholism, morphine and co- 
 caine habits, stammering, sciatica and all forms 
 of neuralgia, sick-headache, rheumatism, vicious 
 habits, bad temper, St. Vitus dance, epilepsy, 
 nervous dyspepsia, constipation, dysmenorrhoea, 
 paralysis, locomotor ataxia, insomnia, chronic 
 sprains, deranged conditions of the circulation 
 of the blood, and monomania. It is most useful 
 in diagnosing a disease, as, for instance, in en- 
 abling a physician to distinguish between an 
 actual disease and a hysterical complaint simu- 
 lating that disease. 
 
 In conclusion it may be said that the value 
 of the application of hypnotic suggestion in 
 dentistry is self-evident, and the time is not far 
 distant when the knowledge of hypnotism will 
 be rightly regarded as worthy of acquirement 
 both by men of science and the public at large. 
 
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