 section one of complete hypnotism this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Stuart Bell complete hypnotism mesmerism mind reading and spiritualism how to hypnotize being an exhaustive and practical system of method application and use by a Alpheus 1903 introduction there is no doubt that hypnotism is a very old subject though the name was not invented till 1850 in it was wrapped up the mysteries of Isis in Egypt thousands of years ago and probably it was one of the weapons if not the chief instrument of operation of the Magi mentioned in the Bible and of the wise men of Babylon and Egypt laying on of hands must have been a form of mesmerism and the Greek oracles of Delphi and other places seem to have been delivered by priests or priestesses who went into trances of self-induced hypnotism it is suspected that the fakirs of India who make trees grow from dry twigs and a few minutes or transform a rod into a serpent as Aaron did in Bible history operate by some form of hypnotism the people of the East are much more subject to influences of this kind than Western peoples are and there can be no question that the religious orgies of heathen them were merely a form of that hysteria which is so closely related to the modern phenomenon of hypnotism though various scientific men spoke of magnetism and understood that there was a power of a peculiar kind which one man could exercise over another it was not until Frederick Anton mesmer a doctor of Vienna appeared in 1775 that the general public gave any special attention to the subject in the year mentioned mesmer sent out a circular letter to various scientific societies or academies as they are called in Europe stating his belief that animal magnetism existed and that through it one man could influence another no attention was given his letter except by the Academy of Berlin which sent him an unfavourable reply in 1778 mesmer was obliged for some unknown reason to leave Vienna and went to Paris where he was fortunate in converting to his ideas Deslan the comte d'etoise physician and one of the medical professors at the faculty of medicine his success was very great everybody was anxious to be magnetized and the lucky viennese doctor was soon obliged to call an assistant deluse the librarian at the Jardin des Plantes who has been called the Hippocrates of magnetism has left the following account of mesmer's experiments in the middle of a large room stood an oak tub four or five feet in diameter and one foot deep it was closed by a lid made in two pieces and encased in another tub or bucket at the bottom of the tub a number of bottles were laid in convergent rows so that the neck of each bottle turned towards the center other bottles filled with magnetized water tightly caulked up were laid in divergent rows with their necks turned outwards several rows were thus piled up and the apparatus was then pronounced to be at high pressure the tub was filled with water to which were sometimes added powdered glass and iron filings there were also some dry tubs that is prepared in the same manner but without any additional water the lid was perforated to admit of the passage of movable bent rods which could be applied to the different parts of the patient's body a long rope was also fastened to a ring in the lid and this the patients placed loosely around their limbs no disease offensive to the site was treated such as saws or deformators a large number of patients were commonly treated at one time they drew near to each other touching hands arms knees or feet the handsomest youngest and most robust magnetizers held also an iron rod with which they touched the dilatory or stubborn patients the rods and ropes had all undergone a preparation and in a very short space of time the patients felt the magnetic influence the women being the most easily affected were almost at once seized with fits of yawning and stretching their eyes closed their legs gave way and they seemed to suffocate in vain did musical glasses and harmonicas resound the piano and voices re-echo these opposed aids only seem to increase the patients convulsive movements suddenly it laughter piteous moans and torrents of tears burst forth on all sides the bodies were thrown back in spasmodic jerks the respiration sounded like death rattles the most terrifying symptoms were exhibited then suddenly the actors of the strange scene with frantically or rapturously rushed towards each other either rejoicing and embracing or thrusting away their neighbors with every appearance of horror another room was padded and presented another spectacle there women beat their heads against wadded walls or rolled on the cushion-covered floor in fits of suffocation in the midst of this panting quivering throng mesmer dressed in a lilac coat moved about extending a magic wand toward the least suffering halting in front of the most violently excited and gazing steadily into their eyes while he held both their hands and his bringing the middle fingers in immediate contact to establish communication at another moment he would by a motion of open hands and extended fingers operate with a great current crossing and uncrossing his arms with wonderful rapidity to make the final passes hysterical women and nervous young boys many of them from the highest ranks of society flocked around this wonderful wizard and incidentally he made a great deal of money there is little doubt that he started out as a genuine and sincere student of the scientific character of the new power he has indeed discovered there is also no doubt that he ultimately became little more than a charlatan there was of course no virtue in his prepared rods nor in his magnetic tubs at the same time the belief of the people that there was virtue in them was one of the chief means by which he was able to induce hypnotism as we shall see later faith imagination and willingness to be hypnotized on the part of the subject are all indispensable to entire success in the practice of this strange art in 1779 mesmer published a pamphlet entitled memoirs a lot of that do magnetism animal of which dr. cock gives the following summary his chief claim was that he had discovered a principle which would cure every disease he sits forth his conclusions in 27 propositions of which the substance is as follows there is a reciprocal action and reaction between the planets the earth and animate nature by means of a constant universal fluid subject to mechanical laws yet unknown the animal body is directly affected by the insinuation of this agent into the substance of the nerves it causes in human bodies properties analogous to those of the magnet for which reason it is called animal magnetism this magnetism may be communicated to other bodies may be increased and reflected by mirrors communicated propagated and accumulated by sound it may be accumulated concentrated and transported the same rules apply to the opposite virtue the magnet is susceptible of magnetism and the opposite virtue the magnet and artificial electricity have with respect to disease properties common to a host of other agents presented to us by nature and if the use of these has been attended by useful results they are due to animal magnetism by the aid of magnetism then the physician enlightened as to the use of medicine may render its action more perfect and can provoke and direct salutary crisis so as to have them completely under his control the faculty of medicine investigated mesmer's claims but reported unfavorably and threatened dislar with expulsion from the society unless he gave mesmer up nevertheless the government favored the discoverer and when the medical fraternity attacked him with such vigor that he felt obliged to leave Paris it offered him a pension of 20,000 francs if he was remain he went away but later came back at the request of his pupils in 1784 the government appointed two commissions to investigate the claims that had been made on one of these commissions was Benjamin Franklin then American ambassador to France as one of the great French scientist Lavoisier the other was drawn from the Royal Academy of Medicine and included Laurent de Jusseau the only man who declared in favor of mesmer there is no doubt that mesmer had returned to Paris for the purpose of making money and these commissions were promoted in part by persons desirous of driving him out it is interesting says a French writer to peruse the reports of these commissions they read like a debate on some obscure subject of which the future has partly revealed the secret says another French writer commel they sought the fluid not by the study of the cures affected which was considered too complicated a task but in the phases of mesmeric sleep these were considered indispensable and easily regulated by the experimentalist when submitted to close investigation it was however found that they could only be induced when the subjects knew they were being magnetized and that they differed according as they were conducted in public or in private in short whether it be a coincidence or the truth is imagination was considered the sole active agent whereupon Deslon remarked if imagination is the best cure why should we not use the imagination as a curative means did he who had so vaunted the existence of the fluid mean by this to deny its existence or was it rather a satirical way of saying you choose to call it imagination be it so but after all as it cures let us make the most of it the two commissions came to the conclusion that the phenomena were due to imitation and contact that they were dangerous and must be prohibited strange to relate 70 years later Aragot pronounced the same verdict Derange was the only one who believed in anything more than this he saw a new and important truth which he set forth in a personal report upon withdrawing from the commission which showed itself so hostile to mesmer and his pretensions time and scientific progress have largely overthrown mesmer's theories of the fluid yet mesmer had made a discovery that was in the course of 100 years to develop into an important scientific study says Vincent it seems ever the habit of the shallow scientist to plume himself on the more accurate theories which have been provided by the progress of knowledge and of science and then having been fed with a limited historical pavilion to turn and talk lightly and with an air of the most superior condescension of the weakness and follies of those but for whose patient labours our modern theories would probably be non-existent if did not been for mesmer and his animal magnetism we would never have had hypnotism and all our learned societies for the study of it mesmer though his pretensions were discredited was quickly followed by poisega who drew all the world to buzonsi ne sois en france Dr. Cloquet related that he saw their patients no longer the victims of hysterical fits but enjoying a calm peaceful restorative slumber it may be said from this moment really efficacious and useful magnetism became known everyone rushed once more to be magnetized and poisega had so many patients that to care for them all he was obliged to magnetize a tree as he said which was touched by hundreds who came to be cured and was long known as poisega's tree as a result of poisega's success a number of societies were formed in France for the study of the new phenomena in the meantime the subject had attracted considerable interest in Germany and in 1812 warthart was sent to mesmer at fronfeld by the Prussian government to investigate mesmerism he became an enthusiast and introduced its practice into the hospital at Berlin in 1814 deluz published a book on the subject and Abba Faria who had come from India demonstrated that there was no fluid but that the phenomena was subjective or within the mind of the patient he first introduced what is now called the method of suggestion in producing magnetism or hypnotism in 1815 mesmer died experimentation continued and in the 20s of wasack persuaded the Academy of Medicine to appoint a commission to investigate the subject after five years they presented a report this report gave a good statement of the practical operation of magnetism mentioning the phenomena of synabolism anesthesia loss of memory and the various other symptoms of the hypnotic state as we know it it was thought that magnetism had a right to be considered as a therapeutic agent and that it might be used by physicians though others should not be allowed to practice it in 1837 another commission made a decidedly unfavorable report soon after this Burdane a member of the Academy offered a prize of 3000 francs to anyone who would read the number of a bank note or the like with his eyes bandaged under certain fixed conditions but it was never awarded though when he claimed it and there has been considerable evidence that persons in the hypnotic state have sometimes remarkable clairvoyant powers soon after this magnetism fell into very low repute throughout France and Germany and scientific men became loath to have their names connected with the study of it in any way the study had not yet been seriously taken up in England and two physicians who gave some attention to it suffered decidedly in professional reputation it is to an English physician however that we owe the scientific character of modern hypnotism indeed he invented the name of hypnotism formed from the Greek word meaning sleep and designating artificially produced sleep his name is james brade and so important were the results of his study that hypnotism has sometimes been called bradism dr carmel gives the following interesting summary of brades experiences november 1841 he witnessed a public experiment made by monge la fontaine a swiss magnetizer he thought the whole thing a comedy a week after he attended a second exhibition so that the patient could not open his eyes and concluded that this was ascribable to some physical calls the fixity of gaze must according to him exhaust the nerve centres of the eyes and their surroundings he made a friend look steadily at the neck of a bottle and his own wife looked at an ornamentation on the top of a china sugar bowl sleep was the consequence here hypnotism had its origin and the fact was established that sleep could be induced by physical agents this it must be remembered is the essential difference between these two classes of phenomena magnetism and hypnotism for magnetism supposes the direct action of the magnetizer on the magnetized subject an action which does not exist in hypnotism it may be stated that most english and american operators fail to see any distinction between magnetism and hypnotism and suppose that the effect of passes etc is used by mesmer is in its way as much physical as the method of producing hypnotism by concentrating the gaze of the subject on a bright object of the like braid had discovered a new science as far as the theoretical view of it was concerned for he showed that hypnotism is largely if not purely mechanical and physical he noted that during one phase of hypnotism known as catalepsy the arms limbs etc might be placed in any position and would remain there he also noticed that a puff of breath would usually awaken the subject and that by talking to a subject and telling him to do this or do that even after he wakes from the sleep he can be made to do those things braid thought he might affect a certain part of the brain during hypnotic sleep and if he could find the seat of the thieving this position or the like he could cure the patient of desire to commit crime simply by suggestion or command braid's conclusions were in brief that there was no fluid or other exterior agent but that hypnotism was due to a physiological condition of the nerves it was his belief that hypnotic sleep was brought about by fatigue of the eyelids or by other influences wholly within the subject in this he was supported by carpenter the great physiologist but neither braid nor carpenter could get the medical organizations to give the matter any attention even to investigate it in 1848 an american named grimes succeeded in obtaining all the phenomena of hypnotism and created a school of writers who made use of the word electrobiology in 1850 braid's ideas were introduced into france and dr azan of bordeaux published an account of them in the archiv de medecin from this time on the subject was widely studied by scientific men in france and germany and it was more slowly taken up in england it may be stated here that the french and other latin races are much more easily hypnotized than the northern races americans perhaps being least subject to the hypnotic influence and next to them the english on the other hand the orientals are influenced to a degree we can hardly comprehend end of section one recording by stuart bell cambridge uk section two of complete hypnotism mesmerism mind reading and spiritualism this is a liverbox recording all liverbox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liverbox.org complete hypnotism mesmerism mind reading and spiritualism by a alpheus section two what is hypnotism we have seen that so far the history of hypnotism has given us two manifestations or methods that of passes and playing upon the imagination in various ways used by mesmer and that of physical means such as looking at a bright object used by braid both of these methods are still in use today and though hundreds of scientific men including physicians have studied the subject for years no essentially new principles have been discovered though the details of hypnotic operation have been thoroughly classified and many minor elements of interest have been developed all these make a body of evidence which will assist us in answering the question what is hypnotism modern scientific study has pretty conclusively established the following facts one idiots babies under three years old and hopelessly insane people cannot be hypnotized two no one can be hypnotized unless the operator can make him concentrate his attention for reasonable length of time concentration of attention whatever the method of producing hypnotism is absolutely necessary three the person's not easily hypnotized are those said to be neurotic or those affected with hysteria by hysteria is not meant to nervous excitability necessarily some very phlegmatic persons may be affected with hysteria in medical science hysteria is an irregular action of the nervous system it will sometimes show itself by severe pains in the arm when in reality there is nothing whatever to cause pain or it will raise a swelling in the head quite without cause it is a tendency to nervous disease which in severe cases may lead to insanity the word neurotic is a general term covering affection of the nervous system it includes hysteria and much else besides on all these points practically every student of hypnotism is agreed on the question as to whether anyone can produce hypnotism by pursuing the right methods there is some disagreement but not much Dr. Ernest Hart in an article in the British Medical Journal makes the following very definite statement representing the side of the case that maintains that anyone can produce hypnotism says he quote it is a common delusion that the mesmerist or hypnotizer counts for anything in the experiment the operator whether priest physician charlatan self-deluded enthusiast or conscience imposer is not the source of any occult influence does not possess any mysterious power and plays only a very secondary and insignificant part in the chain of phenomena observed there exist at the present time many individuals who claim for themselves and some who make a living by so doing a peculiar property or power as potent mesmerizers hypnotizers magnetizers or electrobiologists one even often hears it said in society for i am sorry to say that these mischievous practices and pranks are sometimes made a society game that such a person is a clever hypnotist or has great mesmeric or healing power i hope to be able to prove what i firmly hold both for my personal experience and experiment as i have already related in the 19th century that there is no such thing as a potent mesmeric influence no such power resonant in any one person more than another that a glass of water a tree a stick a penny post letter or a limelight can mesmerize as effectively as can any individual a clever hypnotizer means only a person who is acquainted with the physical or mental tricks by which they have not a condition is produced or sometimes an unconscious opposer who is unaware of the very trifling part for which he is cast in the play and who supposes himself really to possess a mysterious power which in fact he does not possess at all or which to speak more accurately is equally possessed by every stock or stone end quote against this we may place the statement of Dr. Fervaud de Cormel who speaks authoritatively for the whole modern french school he says quote every magnetizer is aware that certain individuals never can induce sleep even in the most easily hypnotizable subjects they admit that the sympathetic fluid is necessary and that each person may eventually find his or her hypnotizer even when numerous attempts at inducing sleep have failed however this may be the impossibility some individuals find in inducing sleep in trained subjects prove at least the existence of a negative force end quote if you would ask the present writer's opinion gathered from all the evidence before him he would say that while he has no belief in the existence of any magnetic fluid or anything that corresponds to it he thinks there can be no doubt that some people will succeed as hypnotists while some will fail just as some fail as carpenters while others succeed this is true in every walk of life it is also true that some people attract others repel the people they meet this is not very easily explained but we have all had opportunity to observe it again since concentration is the prerequisite for producing hypnotism one who has not the power of concentration himself and concentration which he can perfectly control is not likely to be able to secure it in others also since faith is a strong element a person who has not perfect self confidence could not expect to create confidence in others while many successful hypnotizers can themselves be hypnotized it is probable that most all who have power of this kind are themselves exempt from the exercise of it it is certainly true that while a person easily hypnotized is by no means weak-minded indeed it is probable that most geniuses would be good hypnotic subjects still such persons have not a well-balanced constitution and their nerves are high strong if not unbalanced they would be most likely to be subject to a person who had such a strong and well-balanced nervous constitution that it would be hard to hypnotize and it is always safe to say that the strong may control the weak but it is not likely that the weak will control the strong there is also another thing that must be taken into account science teaches that all matter is in vibration indeed philosophy points to the theory that matter itself is nothing more than centers of force and vibration the lowest vibration we know is that of sound then comes at an enormously higher rate heat light beginning at dark red and passing through the prismatic colors to violet which has a high vibration to the chemical rays and then the so-called x or unknown rays which have a much higher vibration still electricity is a former vibration and according to the belief of many scientists life is a species of vibration so high that we have no possible means of measuring it as every student of science knows air appears to be the chief medium for conveying vibration of sound metal is the chief medium for conveying electric vibrations while to account for the vibrations of heat and light we have to assume or imagine an invisible imponderable ether which fills all space and has no property of matter that we can distinguish except that of conveying the vibrations of light in its various forms when we pass on to human life we have to theorize chiefly by analogy it must not be forgotten however that the existence of the ether and many assumed facts and science are only theories which have come to be generally adopted because they explain phenomena of all kinds better than any other theories which have been offered now in life as in physical science anyone who can get or has by nature the keynote of another nature has a tremendous power over that other nature following story illustrates that this power is in the physical world while we cannot vouch for the exact truth of the details of the story there can be no doubt of the accuracy of the principle on which it is based a musical genius came to the suspension bridge at niagra falls and asked permission to cross but as he had no money his request was contemptuously refused he stepped away from the entrance and drawing his violin from his case began sounding notes up and down the scale he finally discovered by the thrill that sent a tremor through the mighty structure that he had found the note on which the great cable that upheld the mass was keyed he drew his bow across the string of the violin again and the colossal wire as if under a spell of a magician responded with a throb that sent a wave through its enormous length he sounded the note again and again and the cable that was dormant under the strain of loaded teams and monster engines the cable that remains solid under the pressure of human traffic and the heavy thread of commerce thrilled and surged and shook itself as mad waves of vibration coursed over its length and it tore at its slack until like a foam crested wave of the sea it shook the towers at either end or like some sentient animal it tugged at its fetters and longed to be free the officers in charge apprehensive of danger hurried the poor musician across and bait him be gone and trouble them no more the ragged genius putting his well-worn instrument back in its case mutter to himself had rather cross free or torn down the bridge so the hypnotist goes on the writer from what the above is quoted finds the note on which the subjective side of the person is attuned and by playing upon it awakens into activity emotions and sensibilities that otherwise would have remained dormant unused and even unsuspected and quote no student of science will deny the truth of these statements at the same time it has been demonstrated again and again that persons can and do frequently hypnotize themselves this is what mr heart meant when he says that any stick or stone may produce hypnotism if a person will gaze steadily at a bright fire or a glass of water for instance he can throw himself into a hypnotic trance exactly similar to the condition produced by a professional or trained hypnotist such people however must be possessed of imagination end of section two recording by Maya Klein section three of complete hypnotism this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Stuart Bell complete hypnotism mesmerism mind reading and spiritualism by A. Alpheus theories of hypnotism we have now learned some facts in regard to hypnotism but they leave the subject still a mystery other facts which will be developed in the course of this book will only deepen the mystery we will therefore state some of the best known theories before doing so however it would be well to state concisely just what seems to happen in a case of hypnotism the word hypnotism means sleep and the definition of hypnotism implies artificially produced sleep sometimes this sleep is deep and lasting and the patient is totally insensible but the interesting phase of the condition is that in certain stages the patient is only partially asleep while the other part of his brain is awake and very active it is well known that one part of the brain may be affected without affecting the other parts in hemiplegia for instance one half of the nervous system is paralyzed while the other half is all right in the stages of hypnotism we will now consider the will portion of the brain or mind seems to be put to sleep while the other faculties are abnormally awake some explain this by supposing that the blood is driven out of one portion of the brain and driven into other portions in any case it is as though the human engine were uncoupled and the patient becomes an automaton if he is told to do this that or the other he does it simply because his will is asleep and suggestion as it's called from without makes him act just as he starts up unconsciously in his ordinary sleep if tickled with a straw now for the theories there are three leading theories known as that of one animal magnetism two neurosis and three suggestion we will simply state them briefly in order without discussion animal magnetism this is the theory offered by mesmer and those who hold it assume that the hypnotizer exercises a force independently of suggestion over the subject they believe one part of the body to be charged separately or that the whole body may be filled with magnetism they recognize the power of suggestion but they do not believe it to be the principal factor in the production of the hypnotic state those who hold this theory today distinguish between the phenomena produced by magnetism and those produced by physical means or simple suggestion the neurosis theory we have already explained the word neurosis but we repeat here the definition given by dr jr cock and neurosis is any affection of the nervous centers occurring without any material agent producing it without inflammation or any other constant structural change which can be detected in the nervous centers as we've seen from the definition any abnormal manifestation of the nervous system of whose cause we know practically nothing is for convenience termed a neurosis if a man has a certain habit or trick it is termed a neurosis or neuropathic habit one man of my acquaintance who is a professor in a college always begins his lecture by first sneezing and then pulling at his nose many forms of tremor are called neurosis now to say that hypnotism is the result of a neurosis simply means that a person's nervous system is susceptible to this condition which by mongeo chaco and his followers is regarded as abnormal in short mongeo chaco places hypnotism in the same category of nervous affections in which hysteria and finally hallucination medically considered are to be classed that is to say as a nervous weakness not to say a disease according to this theory a person whose nervous system is perfectly healthy could not be hypnotized so many people can be hypnotized because nearly all the world is more or less insane as a certain great writer has observed suggestion this theory is based on the power of mind over the body as we observe it in everyday life again let me quote from dr cock if we can direct the subject's whole attention to the belief that such an effect is before mentioned that is arm will be paralyzed for instance will take place that effect will gradually occur such a result having been once produced the subjects will power and power of resistance are considerably weakened because he is much more inclined than at first to believe the hypnotizer's assertion this is generally the first step in the process of hypnosis the method pursued at the school of nancy is to convince the subject that his eyes are closing by directing his attention to that effect as strongly as possible however it is not necessary that we begin with the eyes according to mongeo de soire any member of the body will answer as well the theory of suggestion is maintained by the medical school attached to the hospital at nancy the theory of neurosis was originally put forth as the result of experiments by dr charcot at the sal patria hospital in paris which is now the co-called sal patria school that has the medical school connected with the sal patria hospital and there is also another theory put forth or rather a modification of professor charco's theory and maintained by the school of the charity hospital in paris headed by dr louis to the effect that the physical magnet and electricity may affect persons in the hypnotic state and that certain drugs in sealed tubes placed upon the patient's neck during the condition of hypnosis will produce the same effects which those drugs would produce if taken internally or as the nature of the drugs would seem to call for if imbibed in a more complete fashion this school however has been considerably discredited and dr louis conclusions are not received by scientific students of hypnotism it is also stated and the present writer has seen no effective denial that hypnotism may be produced by pressing with the fingers upon certain points in the body known as hypnogenic spots it will be seen that these three theories stated above are greatly at variance with each other the student of hypnotism will have to form a conclusion for himself as he investigates the facts possibly it will be found that the true theory is a combination of all three of those described above hypnotism is certainly a complicated phenomena and he would be a rash man who should try to explain it in a sentence or in a paragraph an entire book proves a very limited space for doing it end of section three recording by stewart bell cambridge uk section four of complete hypnotism mesmerism mind reading and spiritualism this is a liberovox recording all liberovox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liberovox.org recording by matthew westra complete hypnotism mesmerism mind reading and spiritualism by a alpheus chapter one how to hypnotize dr cox method dr flintz method the french method at paris at nancy the hindu silent method how to wake a subject from hypnotic sleep frauds of public hypnotic entertainers first let us quote what is said of hypnotism in fosters encyclopedia medical dictionary the dictionary states the derivation of the word from the greek word meaning sleep and gives as synonym quote bradism this definition follows quote an abnormal state into which some persons may be thrown either by a voluntary act of their own such as gazing continuously with fixed attention on some bright object held close to the eyes or by the exercise of another person's will characterized by suspension of the will and consequent obedient to the promptings of suggestions from without the activity of the organs of special sense except the eye may be heightened and the power of the muscles increased complete insensibility to pain may be induced by hypnotism and it has been used as an anesthetic it is apt to be followed by a severe headache of long continuance and by various nervous disturbances on emerging from the hypnotic state the person hypnotized usually has no remembrance of what happened during its continuance but in many persons such remembrance may be induced by suggestion about one person in three is susceptible to hypnotism and those of the hysterical or neurotic tendency but rarely the insane are the most readily hypnotized end quote first we will quote the directions for producing hypnotism given by dr. james r. caulk one of the most scientific experimenters in hypnotism in america his directions are of special value since they are more applicable to american subjects than the directions given by french writers says dr. caulk quote the hypnotic state can be produced in one of the following ways first command the subject to close his eyes tell him his mind is a blank command him to think of nothing leave him a few minutes return and tell him he cannot open his eyes if he fails to do so then begin to make any suggestion which may be desired this is the so-called mental method of hypnotization secondly give the subject a coin or other bright object tell him to look steadfastly at it and not take his eyes away from it suggest that his eyelids are growing heavy that he cannot keep them open now close the lids they cannot be opened this is the usual method employed by public exhibitors a similar method is by looking into a mirror or into a glass of water or by rapidly revolving polished disks which should be looked at steadfastly in the same way as is the coin and i think tires the eyes less another method is by simply commanding the subject to close his eyes while the operator makes passes over his head and hands without coming in contact with them suggestions may be made during these passes fascination as it is called is one of the hypnotic states the operator fixes his eyes on those of the subject holding his attention for a few minutes the operator begins to walk backward the subject follows the operator raises the arm the subject does likewise briefly the subject will imitate any movement of the hypnotist or will obey any suggestion made by word look or gesture suggested by the one with whom he is on report a very effective method of hypnotizing a person is by commanding him to sleep and having some very soft music played upon the piano or other stringed instrument firm pressure over the orbits or over the finger ends and root of the nail for some minutes may also induce the condition of hypnosis in very sensitive persons all hypnosis can frequently be induced by giving the subject a glass of water and telling him at the same time that it has been magnetized the wearing of belts around the body and rings around the fingers will also sometimes induce a degree of hypnosis if the subject has been told that they have previously been magnetized or are electric the latter descriptions are the so-called physical methods described by dr. maul end quote dr. herbert l flint a stage hypnotizer describes his methods as follows quote to induce hypnotism i begin by friendly conversation to place my patient in a condition of absolute calmness and quiescence i also try to win his confidence by appealing to his own volitional effort to aid me in obtaining the desired clad i impress upon him that hypnosis in his condition is a benign agency and far from subjugating his mentality it becomes intensified to so great an extent as to act as a remedial agent having assured myself that he is in a passive condition i suggest to him either with or without passes that after looking intently at an object for a few moments he will experience a feeling of lassitude i steadily gaze at his eyes and in a monotonous tone i continue to suggest the various stages of sleep as for instance i say your breathing is heavy your whole body is relaxed i raise his arm holding it in a horizontal position for a second or two and suggest to him that it is getting heavier and heavier i let my hand go when his arm falls to his side your eyes i continue feel tired and sleepy they are fast closing repeating in a soothing tone the words sleepy sleepy sleep then in a self assertive tone i emphasize the suggestion by saying in an unhesitating and positive tone sleep i do not however use this method with all patients it is an error to state as some specialists do that from their formula there can be no deviation because as no two minds are constituted alike so they cannot be affected alike while one will yield by intense will exerted through my eyes another may by the same means become fretful timid nervous and more wakeful than it was before the same rule applies to gesture tones of the voice and mesmeric passes that which has a soothing and lulling effect on one may have an opposite effect on another there can be no unwavering rule applicable to all patients the means must be left to the judgment of the operator who by a long course of psychological training should be able to judge what measures are necessary to obtain control of his subject just as in drugs one person may take a dose without injury that will kill another so in hypnosis one person can be put into a deep sleep by means that would be totally ineffectual in another and even then the mental states differ in each individual that which in one induces a gentle slumber may plunge his neighbor into a deep cataleptic state close quote that hypnotism may be produced by purely physical or mechanical means seems to have been demonstrated by an incident which started dr. Burke a frenchman upon a scientific inquiry which lasted many years while practicing as a young doctor he had one day been obliged to go out and had deemed it advisable to lock up a patient in his absence just as he was leaving the house he heard the sound as of a body suddenly falling he hurried back into the room and found his patient in a state of catalepsy monsieur Burke was at that time studying magnetism and he had it once sought for the cause of this phenomenon he noticed that the door handle was of copper the next day he wrapped a glove around the handle again shut the patient in and this time nothing occurred he interrogated the patient but she could give him no explanation he then tried the effect of copper on all the subjects at the sultry and the koshina hospitals and found that a great number were affected by it at the charity hospital in Paris dr. louise used an apparatus moved by clockwork dr. favel one of his pupils thus describes it quote the hypnotic state generally produced by the contemplation of a bright spot a lamp or the human eye is in his case induced by a peculiar kind of mirror the mirrors are made of pieces of wood cut prismatically in which fragments of mirrors are encrusted they're generally double and placed crosswise and by means of clockwork revolve automatically they're the same as sportsmen used to attract larks the rays of the sun being caught and reflected on every side and from all points of the horizon if the little mirrors in each branch are placed in parallel lines in front of a patient and the rotation is rapid the optic organ soon becomes fatigued and a calming soothing ensues at first it is not a deep sleep the eyelids are scarcely heavy the drowsiness slight and restorative by degrees by a species of training the hypnotic sleep differs more and more from natural sleep the individual abandons himself more and more completely and falls into one of the regular phases of hypnotic sleep without a word without a suggestion or any other action dr. louise has made wonderful cures wecker the occultist has by the same means entirely cured spasms of the eyelids professor del buf gives the following account of how the famous libo produced hypnotism at the hospital at nancy we would especially ask the reader to note what he says of dr. libo's manner and general bearing for without doubt much of his success was due to his own personality says professor del buf his modus faciendi has something ingenious and simple about it enhanced by a tone and air of profound conviction and his voice has such fervor and warmth that he carries away his clients with him after having inquired of the patient what he is suffering from without any further or closer examination he places his hand on the patient's forehead and scarcely looking at him says you are going to sleep then almost immediately he closes the eyelids telling him that he is asleep after that he races the patient's arm and says you cannot put your arm down if he does dr. libo appears hardly to notice it he then turns the patient's arm around confidently affirming that the movement cannot be stopped and saying this he turns his own arms rapidly around the patient remaining all the time with his eyes shut then the doctor talks on without ceasing in a loud and commanding voice the suggestions begin you are going to be cured your digestion will be good your sleep quiet your cough will stop your circulation will become free and regular you are going to feel very strong and well you will be able to walk about etc etc he hardly ever varies the speech thus he fires away at every kind of disease at once leaving it to the client to find out his own no doubt he gives some special directions according to the disease the patient is suffering from the general instructions are the chief thing the same suggestions are repeated a great many times to the same person and strange to say not withstanding the inevitable monotony of the speeches and the uniformity of both style and voice the master's tone is so ardent so penetrating so sympathetic that I have never once listened to it without a feeling of intense admiration the Hindus produce sleep simply by sitting on the ground and fixing their eyes steadily on the subject swaying the body in a sort of writhing motion above the hips by continuing this steadily and in perfect silence for ten or fifteen minutes before a large audience dozens can be put to sleep at one time in all cases freedom from noise or destructive incidents is essential to success in hypnotism for concentration must be produced certain French operators maintain that hypnotism may be produced by pressure on certain hypnogenic points or regions of the body among these are the eyeballs the crown of the head the back of the neck and the upper bones of the spine between the shoulder glades some persons may be hypnotized by gently pressing on the skin at the base of the fingernails and at the root of the nose also by gently scratching the neck over the great nerve center hypnotism is also produced by sudden noise as if by a chinese gong etc how to wake a subject from hypnotic sleep this is comparatively easy in moot cases most persons will awake naturally at the end of a few minutes or will fall into a natural sleep from which in an hour or two they will awake refreshed usually the operator simply says to the subject all right wake up now and claps his hands or make some other decided noise in some cases it is sufficient to say you will wake up in five minutes or tell a subject to count 12 and when he gets to 10 say wake up persons in the lethargic state are not susceptible to verbal suggestions but may be awakened by lifting both eyelids it is said that pressure on certain regions will wake the subject just as pressure in certain other places will put the subject to sleep among these places for awakening are the ovarian regions some writers recommend the application of cold water to awaken subjects but this is rarely necessary in olden times a burning coal was brought near if hypnotism was produced by passes then awakening may be brought about by passes in the opposite direction or with the back of the hand toward the subject the only danger is likely to be found in hysterical persons they will if aroused often fall off again into a helpless state and continue to do so for some time to come it is dangerous to hypnotize such subjects care should be taken to awaken the subject very thoroughly before leaving him else headache nausea and the like may follow with other unpleasant effects in all cases subjects should be treated gently and with the utmost consideration as if the subject and operator were the most intimate friends it is better that the person who induces hypnotic sleep should awaken the subject others cannot do it so easily though as we have said subjects usually awaken themselves after a short time further description of the method of producing hypnotism need not be given but it is proper to add that in addition to the fact that not more than one person out of three can be hypnotized at all even by an experienced operator to affect hypnotization except in a few cases requires a great deal of patience both on the part of the operator and of the subject it may require half a dozen or more trials before any effect at all can be produced although in some cases the effect will come within a minute or two after a person has been once hypnotized hypnotization is much easier the most startling results are to be obtained only after a long process of training on the part of the subject public hypnotic entertainments and even those given at the hospitals in Paris would be quite impossible if trained subjects were not at hand and in the case of the public hypnotizer the proper subjects are hired and placed in the audience for the express purpose of coming forward when called for and the success of such an entertainment could not otherwise be guaranteed in many cases also this training of subjects makes them deceivers they learn to imitate what they see and since their living depends upon it they must prove hypnotic subjects who can always be dependent upon to do just what is wanted we may add however that what they do is no more than an imitation of the real thing there is no grotesque manifestation on the stage even if it is a pure fake which could not be matched by more startling facts taken from undoubted scientific experience end of section four recording by Matthew Westerer section five of complete hypnotism this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Matthew Westerer complete hypnotism mesmerism mind reading and spiritualism by A. Alpheus chapter two amusing experiments hypnotizing on the stage you can't pull your hands apart post hypnotic suggestion the news boy the hunter and the young man with the rag doll a whip becomes hot iron courting a broomstick the sideshow let us now describe some of the manifestations of hypnotism to see just how it operates and how it exhibits itself the following is a description of a public performance given by Dr. Herbert L. Flint a very successful public operator it is in the language of an eye witness a New York lawyer in response to a call for volunteers twenty young and middle-aged men came upon the stage they evidently belong to the great middle class the entertainment commenced by Dr. Flint passing around the group who were seated on the stage in a semicircle facing the audience and stroking each one's head and forehead repeating the phrases close your eyes think of nothing but sleep you are very tired you are drowsy you feel very sleepy as he did this several of the volunteers closed their eyes at once and one fell asleep immediately one or two remained awake and these did not give themselves up to the influence but rather resisted it when the doctor had completed his round and had manipulated all the volunteers some of those influenced were nodding some were sound asleep while a few were wide awake and smiling at the rest these latter were dismissed as unlikely subjects when the stage had been cleared of all those who were not responsive the doctor passed around and snapping his finger at each individual awoke him one of the subjects one question afterward as to what sensation he experienced at the snapping of the fingers replied that it seemed to him as if something inside of his head responded and with this sensation he regained self-consciousness this is to be doubted as a rule subjects in this stage of hypnotism do not feel any sensation that they can remember and do not become self-conscious the class was now apparently wide awake and did not differ in appearance from their ordinary state the doctor then took each one and subjected him to a separate physical test such as sealing the eyes fastening the hands stiffening the fingers arms and legs producing partial catalepsy and causing stuttering and inability to speak in those possessing strong imaginations he was able to produce hallucinations such as feeling mosquito bites suffering from toothache finding the pockets filled and the hands covered with molasses changing identity and many similar tests and when all had complied with the request he repeated the phrase think your hands so fast that you can't pull them apart they are fast you cannot pull them apart try you can't the whole class made frantic efforts to unclass their hands but we're unable to do so the doctor's explanation of this is that what they were really doing was to force their hands closer together thus obeying the counter suggestion that they thought they were trying to unclass their hands was evident from their endeavors the moment he made them desist by snapping his fingers the spell was broken it was most astonishing to see that as each one awoke he seemed to be fully cognizant of the ridiculous position in which his comrades were placed and to enjoy their confusion and ludicrous attitudes the moment however he was commanded to do things equally absurd he obeyed while therefore the class appeared to be free agents they are under hypnotic control one young fellow aged about 18 said that he was addicted to the cigarette habit the suggestion was made to him that he would not be able to smoke a cigarette for 24 hours after the entertainment he was asked to smoke as was his usual habit he was then away from anyone who could influence him he replied that the very idea was repugnant however he was induced to take a cigarette in his mouth but it made him ill and he flung it away with every expression of disgust this is an instance of what is called post-hypnotic suggestion Dr. Cock tells of suggesting to a drinker whom he was trying to cure of the habit that for the next three days anything he took would make him vomit and the result followed as suggested the same phenomena that was shown in unclasping the hands was next exhibited in commanding the subjects to rotate them they immediately began and twirled them faster and faster in spite of their efforts to stop one of the subjects said he thought of nothing but the strange action of his hands and sometimes it puzzled him to know why they world at this point Dr. Flint's daughter took charge of the class she pointed her finger at one of them and the subject began to look steadily before him at which the rest of the class were highly amused presently the subject's head leaned forward the pupils of his eyes dilated and assumed a peculiar glassy stare he arose with a steady gliding gate and walked up to the lady until his nose touched her hand then he stopped miss Flint led him to the front of the stage and left him standing in profound slumber he stood there stooping eyes set and vacant fast asleep in the meantime the act had caused great laughter among the rest of the class one young fellow in particular laughed so uproariously that tears coursed down his cheeks and he took out his handkerchief to wipe his eyes just as he was returning it to his pocket the lady suddenly pointed a finger at him she was in the center of the stage fully fifteen feet away from the subject but the moment the gesture was made his countenance fell his mirth stopped while that of his companions redoubled and the change was so obvious that the audience shared in the laughter but the subject neither saw nor heard his eyes assumed the same expression that had been noticed in his companions he too arose in the same attitude as if his head were pulling the body along and following the finger in the same way as his predecessor was conducted to the front of the stage by the side of the first subject this was repeated on half a dozen subjects and the manifestations were the same in each case those selected were now drawn up in an irregular line in front of the stage their eyes fixed on vacancy their heads bent forward perfectly motionless each was then given a suggestion one was to be a news boy and sell papers another was given a broomstick and told to hunt game in the woods before him another was given a large rag doll and told that it was an infant and that he must look among the audience and discover the father he was informed that he could tell who the father was by the similarity in the color of the eyes these suggestions were made in a loud tone as Flint being no nearer one subject than another the bear suggestion was given as now think that you are a news boy and are selling papers or now think that you are hunting and are going into the woods to shoot birds so the party was started at the same time into the audience the one who was impersonating a news boy went about crying his addition in a loud voice while the hunter crawled along stealthily and carefully the news boy even adopted the well-worn device of asking those whom he solicited to buy to help him get rid of his stock one man offered him ascent when the price was two cents the news boy chaff the would be purchaser he sarcastically asked him if he didn't want the earth the others did what they had been told to do in the same earnest characteristic way after this performance the class was again seated in a semi-circle and miss Flint selected one of them and taking him into the center of the stage showed him a small riding whip he looked at it in differently enough he was told it was a hot bar of iron but he shook his head still incredulous the suggestion was repeated and as the glazed look came into his eyes the incredulous look died out every member of the class was following the suggestion made to the subject in hand all of them had the same expression in their eyes the doctor said and that his daughter was hypnotizing the whole class through this one individual as she spoke she lightly touched the subject with the end of the whip the moment the subject felt the whip he jumped and shrieked as if it really were a hot iron she touched each one of the class in succession and every one manifested the utmost pain and fear one subject sat down on the floor and cried in dire distress others when touched would tear off their clothing or roll up their sleeves one young man was examined by a physician present just after the whip had been laid across his shoulders and a long red mark was found just such a one as would have been made by a real hot iron the doctor said that had the suggestion been continued it would undoubtedly have raised a blister one of the amusing experiments tried at a later time was that of a tall young man diffident pale and modest being given a broom carefully wrapped in a sheet and told that it was his sweet heart he accepted the situation and sat down by the broom he was a little sheepish at first but eventually he grew bolder and smiled upon her such a smile as more volume casts upon Olivia the manner in which little by little he ventured upon a familiar footing was exceedingly funny but when in a moment of confident response to his wooing he clasped her around the waist and imprinted a chaste kiss upon the brushy part of the broom disguised by the sheet the house resounded with roars of laughter the subject however was deaf to all of the noise he was absorbed in his courtship and he continued to hug the broom and exhibit in his features that idiotic smile that one seems only upon the faces of lovers and bridegrooms all the world loves a lover as the saying is and all the world loves to laugh at him one of the subjects was told that the head of a man in the audience was on fire he looked for a moment and then dashed down the platform into the audience and seizing the man's head vigorously rubbed it as this did not extinguish the flames he took off his coat and put the fire out in doing this he set his coat on fire when he trampled it underfoot then he calmly resumed his garment and walked back to the stage the sideshow closed the evening's entertainment a young man was told to think of himself as managing a sideshow at a circus when his mind had absorbed this idea he was ordered to open his exhibition he at once mounted a table and in the voice of the traditional sideshow fecure began to dilate upon the fat woman and the snakes upon the wild man from Borneo upon the learned pig and all the other accessories of sideshows he went over the usual characteristic pattern getting more and more in earnest assuring his hearers that for the small sum of ten cents they could see more wonders than ever before had been crowded under one canvas tent he harangued the crowd as they surged about the tent door he pointed to a suppositious canvas picture he chaffed the boys he flattered the vanity of the young fellows with their girls telling them that they could not afford for the small sum of ten cents to miss this great show he made change for his patrons he indulged inside remarks such as this is hot work he rolled up his sleeves and took off his collar and necktie all of the time expatiating upon the merits of the freaks inside of his tent and of section five recording by Matthew Westra section six of complete hypnotism this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Matthew Westra complete hypnotism mesmerism mind reading and spiritualism by A. Alpheus chapter three the stages of hypnotism lethargy catalepsy the somnambulistic state fascination we have just given some of the amusing experiments that may be performed with subjects in one of the minor stages of hypnotism but there are other stages which give entirely different manifestations for a scientific classification of these we are indebted to professor Charcot of the Salpitrier hospital in Paris to whom next to mesmer and braid we are indebted for the present science of hypnotism he recognized three distinct stages lethargy catalepsy and somnambulism there is also a condition of extreme lethargy a sort of trance state that lasts for days and even weeks and indeed has been known to last for years there is also a lighter phase than some nambulism that is called fascination some doctors however place it between catalepsy and somnambulism each of these stages is marked by quite distinct phenomena we give them as described by a pupil of Dr. Charcot lethargy this is a state of absolute inert sleep if the method of braid is used and a bright object is held quite near the eyes and the eyes are fixed upon it the subject squints the eyes become moist and bright the look fixed and the pupils dilated this is the cataleptic stage if the object is left before the eyes lethargy is produced there are also many other ways of producing lethargy as we have seen in the chapter how to hypnotize one of the market characteristics of this stage of hypnotism is the tendency of the muscles to contract under the influence of the slightest touch friction pressure or massage or even that of a magnet placed at a distance the contraction disappears only by the repetition of that identical means that called it into action Dr. Cormel gives the following illustration quote if the forearm is rubbed a little above the palm of the hand this ladder yields the bends at an acute angle the subject may be suspended by the hand and the body will be held up without relaxation that is without returning to the normal condition to return to the normal state it suffices to rub the antagonistic muscles or in ordinary terms the part diametrically opposed to that which produced the phenomenon in this case the forearm a little above the hands it is the same for any other part of the body end quote the subject appears to be in a deep sleep the eyes are either closed or half closed and the face is without expression the body appears to be in a state of complete collapse the head is thrown back and the arms and legs hang loose dropping heavily down in this stage insensibility is so complete that needles can be run into any part of the body without producing pain and surgical operations may be performed without the slightest unpleasant effect this stage lasts usually but a short time and the patient under ordinary conditions will pass upward into the stage of catalepsy in which he opens his eyes if the hypnotism is spontaneous that is if it is due to a condition of the nervous organism which has produced it without any outside aid we have the condition of prolonged trance of which many cases have been reported until the discovery of hypnotism these strange trances were little understood and people were even buried alive in them a few instances reported by medical men will be interesting there is one reported in 1889 by a noted french physician said he quote there is at this moment in the hospital at mall house a most interesting case a young girl 22 years of age has been asleep here for the last 12 days her complexion is fresh and rosy her breathing quite normal and her features unaltered no organ seems attacked all the vital functions are performed as in the waking state she is fed with milk broth and wine which is given her in a spoon her mouth even sometimes opens of itself at the contact of the spoon and she swallows without the slightest difficulty at other times the gullet remains inert the whole body is insensible the forehead alone presents under the action of touch or of pricks some reflex phenomena however by a peculiarity which is extremely interesting she seems by the intense horror she shows for ether to retain a certain amount of consciousness and sensibility if a drop of ether is put into her mouth her face contracts and assumes an expression of disgust at the same moment her arms and legs are violently agitated with some kind of impatient motion that a child displays when made to swallow some hated dose of medicine in the intellectual relations the brain is not absolutely obscure for on her mother's coming to see her the subject's face became highly colored and tears appeared on the tips of her eyelashes without however in any other way disturbing her lethargy nothing has yet been able to rouse her from this torpor which will no doubt naturally disappear at a given moment she will then return to conscious life as she quitted it it is probable that she will not retain any recollection of her present condition that all notion of time will fail her and that she will fancy it is only the day following her usual nightly slumber a slumber which in this case has been transformed into a lethargic sleep without any rigidity of limbs or convulsions physically the sleeper is of a middle-sized slender strong and pretty without distinctive characteristic mentally she is lively industrious sometimes whimsical and subject to slight nervous attacks and quote there is a pretty well authenticated report of a young girl who on May 30 1883 after an intense fright fell into a lethargic condition which lasted for four years her parents were poor and ignorant but as the fame of the case spread abroad some physicians went to investigate it in March 1887 her sleep had never been interrupted on raising the eyelids the doctors found the eyes turned convulsively upward but blowing upon them produced no reflex movement of the lids her jaws were closed tightly in the attempt to open her mouth had broken off some of the teeth level with the gums the muscles contracted at the least breath or touch and the arms remained in position when uplifted the contraction of the muscles is a sign of the lethargic state but the arm remaining in position indicates the cataleptic state the girl was kept alive by liquid nourishment poured into her mouth there are on record a large number of cases of persons who have slept for several months catalepsy the next higher stage of hypnotism is that of catalepsy patients may be thrown into it directly or patients in the lethargic state may be brought into it by lifting the eyelids it seems that the light penetrating the eyes and affecting the brain awakens new powers for the cataleptic state has phenomena quite peculiar to itself nearly all the means for producing hypnotism will if carried to just the right degree produce catalepsy for instance besides the fixing of the eye on a bright object catalepsy may be produced by a sudden sound as of a chinese gong or tom tom or a whistle the vibration of a tuning fork or thunder if a solar spectrum is suddenly brought into a dark room it may produce catalepsy which is also produced by looking at the sun or a limelight or an electric light in this state the patient has become perfectly rigidly fixed in the position in which he happens to be when the effect is produced whether sitting standing kneeling or the like and this face has an expression of fear the arms or legs may be raised but if left to themselves will not drop as in lethargy the eyes are wide open but the look is fixed and impassive the fixed position lasts only a few minutes however when the subject returns to a position of relaxation or drops back into the lethargic state if the muscles nerves or tendons are rubbed or pressed paralysis may be produced which however is quickly removed by the use of electricity when the patient awakes by manipulating the muscles the most rigid contraction may be produced until the entire body is in such a state of corpse-like rigidity that a most startling experiment is possible the subject may be placed with his head upon the back of one chair and his heels on the back of another and a heavy man may sit upon him without seemingly producing any effect or even heavy rock may be broken on the subject's body monsieur's binet and fair pupils of the salpitrier school describe the action of magnets on cataleptic subjects as follows quote the patient is seated near a table on which a magnet has been placed the left elbow rests on the arm of the chair the forearm and hand vertically up raised with thumb and index finger extended while the other fingers remain half bent on the right side the forearm and hand are stretched on the table and the magnet is placed under a linen cloth at a distance of about two inches after a couple of minutes the right index begins to tremble and rise up on the left side the extended fingers bend down and the hand remains limp for an instant the right hand and forearm rise up and assume the primitive position of the left hand which is now stretched out on the arm of the chair with the waxen pliability that pertains to the cataleptic state end quote an interesting experiment may be tried by throwing a patient into lethargy on one side and catalepsy on the other to induce what is called hemilethergy and hemicatalepsy is not difficult first the lethargic state is induced then one eyelid is raised and that side alone becomes cataleptic and may be operated on in various interesting ways the arm on that side for instance will remain raised when lifted while the arm on the other side will fall heavily still more interesting is the intellectual condition of the subject some great man has remarked that if he wished to know what a person was thinking of he assumed the exact position and expression of that person and soon he would begin to feel and think just as the other was thinking and feeling look apart and you will soon begin to feel it in the cataleptic subject there is a close relation between the attitude the subject assumes and the intellectual manifestation in the somnambulistic stage patients are manipulated by speaking to them in the cataleptic stage they're equally under the will of the operator but now he controls them by gesture says doctor cornell from his own observation the emotions in this stage are made at command in the true acceptation of the word for they are produced not by orders verbally expressed but by expressive movements if the hands are opened and drawn close to the mouth as when a kiss is wafted the mouth smiles if the arms are extended and half bent at the elbows the countenance assumes an expression of astonishment the slightest variation of movement is reflected in the emotions if the fists are closed the brow contracts and the face expresses anger if a lively or sad tune is played if amusing or depressing pictures are shown the subject like a fanciful mirror at once reflects these impressions if a smile is produced it can be seen to diminish and disappear at the same time as the hand is moved away and again to reappear and increase when it is once more brought near better still a double expression can be imparted to the physiognomy by approaching the left hand to the left side of the mouth the left side of the physiognomy will smile while the same time by closing the right hand the right eyebrow will frown the subject can be made to send kisses or to turn his hands round each other indefinitely if the hand is brought near the nose it will blow if the arms are stretched out they will remain extended while the head will be bowed with a marked expression of pain hydenheim was able to take possession of the subject's gaze and control him by sight through producing mimicry he looks fixedly at the patient till the patient is unable to take his eyes away then the patient will copy every movement he makes if he rises and goes backward the patient will follow and with his right hand he will imitate the movements of the operator's left as if he were a mirror the attitudes of prayer melancholy pain disdain anger or fear may be produced in this manner the experiments of donato a stage hypnotizer are thus described quote after throwing the subjects into catalepsy he causes soft music to be played which produces a rapturous expression if the sound is heightened or increased the subjects seem to receive a shock and a feeling of disappointment the artistic sense developed by hypnotism is disturbed the faces express astonishment stupefaction and pain if the same soft melody be again resumed the same expression of rapturous bliss reappears in the countenance the faces become ceramic and celestial when the subjects are by nature handsome and when the subjects are ordinary looking even ugly they are idealized as by a special kind of beauty close quote the strange part of all this is that on awaking the patient has no recollection of what has taken place and careful tests have shown that would appear to be violent emotions such as in an ordinary state would produce a quickened pulse and heavy breathing create no disturbance whatever in the cataleptic subject only the outer mask is in motion sometimes the subjects lean backward with all the grace of a perfect equilibrious freeing themselves from the ordinary mechanical laws the curvature will indeed at times be so complete that the head will touch the floor and the body describe a regular arc when a female subject assumes an attitude of devotion clasps her hands turns her eyes upward and lifts out to prayer she presents an admirably artistic picture and her features and expression seem worthy of being reproduced on canvas we thus see what a perfect automaton the human body may become there appears however to be a sort of unconscious memory for a familiar object will seem to suggest spontaneously its ordinary use thus if a piece of soap is put into a cataleptic patient's hands he will move it around as though he thought he were washing them and if there is any water near he will actually wash them the sight of an umbrella makes him shiver as if he were in a storm handing such a person a pen will not make him right but if a letter is dictated to him out loud he will write in an irregular hand the subject may also be made to sing scream or speak in different languages with which he is entirely unfamiliar this is however a verging toward the somnambulistic stage for in deep catalepsy the patient does not speak or hear the state is produced by placing the hands on the head the forehead or nape of the neck the somnambulistic stage this is the stage or phase of hypnotism nearest the waking and is the only one that can be produced in some subjects patients in the cataleptic state can be brought into the somnambulistic by rubbing the top of the head to all appearances the patient is fully awake his eyes are open and he answers when spoken to but his voice does not have the same sound as when awake yet in this state the patient is susceptible of all the hallucinations of insanity which may be induced at the verbal command of the operator one of the most curious features of this stage of hypnotism is the effect on the memory says monsieur richet quote i send v to sleep i recite some verses to her and then i awake her she remembers nothing i again send her to sleep and she remembers perfectly the verses i recited i awake her and she has again forgotten everything close quote it appears however that if commanded to remember on a waking a patient may remember the active sense and the memory as well appears to be in an exalted state of activity during this phase of hypnotism says monsieur richet quote m who will sing the air of the second act of the african in her sleep is incapable of remembering a single note of it when awake close quote another patient while under this hypnotic influence could remember all he had eaten for several days past but when awake could remember very little benet and fair caused one of their subjects to remember the whole of his repasts for eight days past though when awake he could remember nothing beyond two or three days a patient of dr charcot who when she was two years old had seen dr parrot in the children's hospital but had not seen him since and when awake could not remember him named him at once when he entered during her hypnotic sleep monsieur de bouff tells of an experiment he tried in which the patient did remember what had taken place during the hypnotic condition when he suddenly awakened her in the midst of the hallucination as for instance he told her the ashes from the cigar he was smoking had fallen on her handkerchief and had set it on fire whereupon she at once rose and threw the handkerchief into the water then suddenly awakened she remembered the whole performance in the some nambulistic stage the patient is no longer an automaton merely but a real personality an individual with his own character his likes and dislikes the tone of the voice of the operator seems to have quite as much effect as his words if he speaks in a grave and solemn tone for instance even if what he utters is nonsense the effect is that of a deeply tragic story the will of another is not so easily implanted as has been claimed while a patient will follow almost any suggestion that may be offered he readily obeys only commands which are in keeping with his character if he is commanded to do something he dislikes or which in the waking state would be very repugnant to him he hesitates does it very reluctantly and in extreme cases refuses all together often going into hysterics it was found at the charity hospital that one patient absolutely refused to accept a cassock and become a priest one of mrs. richet's patients screamed with pain the moment an amputation was suggested but almost immediately recognized that it was only a suggestion and laughed in the midst of her tears probably however this patient was not completely hypnotized dr. du Montpellier was able to produce a very curious phenomenon he suggested to a female patient that with the right eye she could see a picture on a blank card on awakening she could indeed see the picture with the right eye but the left eye told her the card was blank while she was in this somnambulistic state he told her in her right ear that the weather was very fine and at the same time another person whispered in her left ear that it was raining on the right side of her face she had a smile while the left angle of her lip dropped as if she were depressed by the thought of the rain again he describes a dance and gay party in one ear and another person mimics the barking of a dog in the other one side of her face in that case wears an amused expression while the other shows signs of alarm dr. Charcot thus describes a curious experiment quote a portrait is suggested to a subject as existing on a blank card which is then mixed with a dozen others to all appearance they are similar cards the subject being awakened is requested to look over the packet and does so without knowing the reason of the request but when he perceives the card on which the portrait was suggested he at once recognizes the imaginary portrait it is probable that some insignificant mark has owing to his visual hyperacuity fixed the image in the subject's brain close quote fascination says a recent french writer quote dr bremond a naval doctor has obtained in men supposed to be perfectly healthy a new condition which he calls fascination the inventor considers that this is hypnotism in its mildest form which after repeated experiments might become catalepsy the subject fascinated by dr bremond fascination being induced by the contemplation of a bright spot falls into a state of stupor he follows the operator and severely imitates his movements gestures and words he obeys suggestions and a stimulation of the nerves induces contraction but the cataleptic pliability does not exist a noted public hypnotizer in paris some years ago produced fascination in the following manner he would cause the subject to lean on his hands thus fatiguing the muscles the excitement produced by the concentrated gaze of a large audience also assisted in weakening the nervous resistance at last the operator would suddenly call out look at me the subject would look up and gaze steadily into the operator's eyes who would stare steadily back with round glaring eyes and in most cases subdue his victim end of section six recording by matthew westra section seven of complete hypnotism this is a livervox recording all livervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit livervox.org recording by matthew westra complete hypnotism mesmerism mind reading and spiritualism by a alpheus chapter four how the subject feels under hypnotization dr cooper's experience effective music dr alfred martyres experiments the sensations produced during a state of hypnosis are very interesting as may be supposed they differ greatly in different persons one of the most interesting accounts ever given is that of dr james r cock a hypnotist himself who submitted to being operated upon by a professional magnetizer he was at that time a firm believer in the theory of personal magnetism a delusion from which he afterward escaped on the occasion which he describes the operator commanded him to close his eyes and told him he could not open them but he did open them at once again he told him to close the eyes and at the same time he gently stroked his head and face and eyelids with his hand dr cock fancied he felt a tingling sensation in his forehead and eyes which he supposed came from the hand of the operator afterward he came to believe that this sensation was purely imaginary on his part then he says a sensation akin to fear came over me the operator said you are going to sleep you are getting sleepy you cannot open your eyes i was conscious that my heart was beating rapidly and i felt a sensation of terror he continued to tell me i was going to sleep and could not open my eyes he then made passes over my head down over my hands and body but did not touch me he then said to me you cannot open your eyes the motor apparatus of my lids would not seemingly respond to my will yet i was conscious that while one part of my mind wanted to open my eyes another part did not want to so i was in a paradoxical state i believed that i could open my eyes and yet could not the feeling of not wishing to open my eyes was not based upon any desire to please the operator i had no personal interest in him in any way but be it understood i firmly believed in his power to control me he continued to suggest to me that i was going to sleep and the suggestion of terror previously mentioned continued to increase the next step was to put the doctor's hand over his head and tell him he could not put it down then he stroked the arm and said it was growing numb he said you have no feeling in it have you dr cock goes on i said no and i knew that i said no yet i knew that i had feeling in it the operator went on pricking the arm with a pin and though dr cock felt the pain he said he did not feel it and at the same time the sensation of terror increased i was not conscious of my body at all he says further on but i was painfully conscious of the two contradictory elements within me i knew that my body existed but could not prove it to myself i knew that the statements made by the operator were in a measure untrue i obeyed them voluntarily and involuntarily this is the last remembrance that i have of that hypnotic experience after this however the operator caused the doctor to do a number of things which he learned of from his friends after the performance was over it seemed to me that the hypnotist commanded me to awake as soon as i dropped my arm and yet ten minutes of unconsciousness had passed on a subsequent occasion dr cock who was blind was put into a deep hypnotic sleep by fixing his mind on the number 26 and holding up his hand this time he experienced a still greater degree of terror and incidentally learned that he could hypnotize himself the matter of self-hypnotism we shall consider in another chapter in this connection we find great interest in an article in the medical news july 28 1894 by dr alfred warthin of ann arbor michigan in which he describes the effects of music upon hypnotic subjects while in vienna he took occasion to observe closely the enthusiastic musical devotees as they sat in the audience at the performance of one of vogner's operas he believed they were in a condition of self-induced hypnotism in which their subjective faculties were so exalted as to supersede their objective perceptions music was no longer to them a succession of pleasing sounds but the embodiment of a drama in which they became so wrapped up that they forgot all about the mechanical and external features of the music and lived completely in a fairy world of dream this observation suggested to him an interesting series of experiments his first subject was easily hypnotized and of an emotional nature vogner's ride of valkure was played from the piano score the pulse of the subject became more rapid and at first of higher tension increasing from a normal rate of 60 beats a minute to 120 then as the music progressed the tension diminished the respiration increased from 18 to 30 per minute great excitement in the subject was evident his whole body was thrown into motion his legs were drawn up his arms tossed into the air and a profuse sweat appeared when the subject had been awakened he said that he did not remember the music as music but had an impression of intense excitement brought on by quote riding furiously through the air unquote the state of mind brought up before him in the most realistic and vivid manner possible the picture of the ride of tamo shanter which he had seen years before the picture soon became real to him and he found himself taking part in a wild chase not as witch devil or tam even but in some way his consciousness was spread through every part of the scene being of it and yet playing the part of spectator as is often the case in dreams doctor warthand tried the same experiment again this time on a young man who was not so emotional and was hypnotized with much more difficulty this subject did not pass into such a deep state of hypnotism but the result was practically the same the pulse rate rose from 70 to 120 the sensation remembered was that of riding furiously through the air the experiment was repeated on other subjects in all cases with the same result only one knew that the music was the ride of valkyr to him it always expressed the pictured wild ride of the daughters of wotan the subject taking part in the ride it was noticeable in each case that the same music played to them in the waking state produced no special impression here is incontestable evidence that in the hypnotic state the perception of the special senses is enormously heightened a slow movement was tried the valhalla motif at first it seemed to produce the opposite effect for the pulse was lowered later it rose to a rate double the normal and the tension was diminished the impression described by the subject afterward was a feeling of quote lofty grandeur and calmness unquote a mountain climbing experience of years before was recalled and the subject seemed to contemplate the landscape of lofty grandeur a different sort of music was played the intense and ghastly scene in which brunelda appears to summon sigmond to valhalla immediately a marked change took place in the pulse it became slow and irregular and very small the respiration decreased almost to gasping the face grew pale and a cold perspiration broke out readers who are especially interested in this subject will find descriptions of many other interesting experiments in the same article dr. cock describes a peculiar trick he played upon the site of a subject says he i once hypnotized a man and made him read all of his a's as w's his us as v's and his b's as x's i added suggestion after suggestion so rapidly that it would have been impossible for him to have remembered simply what i said and call the letters as i directed stimulation was in this case impossible as i made him read 15 or 20 pages he calling the letters as suggested each time they occurred the extraordinary heightening of the sense perceptions has an important bearing on the question of spiritualism and clairvoyance if the powers of the mind are so enormously increased all that is required of a very sensitive and easily hypnotized person is to hypnotize him or herself when he will be able to read thoughts and remember or perceive facts hidden to the ordinary perception in this connection the reader is referred to the confession of mrs. piper the famous medium of the american branch of the psychical research society the confession will be found printed in full at the close of this book and of section seven recording by matthew estra section eight of complete hypnotism this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for information or to volunteer please visit libra vox dot org recording by matthew estra complete hypnotism mesmerism mind reading and spiritualism by a alpheus chapter five self hypnotization how it may be done an experience accountable for children's crusade oriental prophets self hypnotized if self hypnotism is possible and it is true that a person can deliberately hypnotize himself when he wishes to till he has become accustomed to it and is expert in it so to speak it does away at a stroke with the claims of all professional hypnotists and magnetic healers that they have any peculiar power in themselves which they exert over their fellows one of these professionals gives an account in his book of what he calls the wonderful lock method he says that though he is locked up in a separate room he can make the psychic power work through the walls all that he does is to put his subjects in the way of hypnotizing themselves he shows his inconsistency when he states that under certain circumstances the hypnotizer is in danger of becoming hypnotized himself in this he makes no claim that the subject is using any psychic power but of course if the hypnotizer looks steadily into the eyes of his subject and the subject looks into his eyes the steady gaze on a bright object will produce hypnotism in one quite as readily as in the other hypnotism is an established scientific fact but the claim that the hypnotizer has any mysterious psychic power is the invariable mark of the charlatan probably knows scientific phenomenon was ever so grossly prostituted to base ends as that of hypnotism later we shall see some of the outrageous forms this charlatanism assumes and how it extends to the professional subjects as well as to the professional operators till those subjects even impose upon scientific men who ought to be proof against such deception moreover the possibility of self hypnotization carefully concealed and called by another name opens another great field of humbug and charlatanism of which the advertising columns of the newspapers are constantly filled namely that of the clairvoyant and medium we may conceive how such a profession might become perfectly legitimate and highly useful but at present it seems as if any person who went into it however honest he might be at the start soon began to deceive himself as well as others until he lost his power entirely to distinguish between fact and imagination before discussing the matter further let us quote dr cox experiment in hypnotizing himself it will be remembered that a professional hypnotizer or magnetizer had hypnotized him by telling him to fix his mind on the number 26 and holding up his hand says the doctor in my room that evening it occurred to me to try the same experiment i did so i kept the number 26 in my mind in a few minutes i felt the sensation of terror but in a different way i was intensely cold my heart seemed to stand still i had ringing in my ears my hair seemed to rise upon my scalp i persisted in the effort and the previously mentioned noise in my ears grew louder and louder the roar became deafening it crackled like a mighty fire i was fearfully conscious of myself having read vivid accounts of dreams visions etc it occurred to me that i would experience them i felt in a vague way that there were beings all about me but could not hear their voices i felt as though every muscle in my body was fixed and rigid the roar in my ears grew louder still and i heard above the roar reports which sounded like artillery and musketry then above the den of the noise a musical chord i seemed to be absorbed in this chord i knew nothing else the world existed for me only in the tones of the mighty chord then i had a sensation as though i were expanding the sound in my ears died away and yet i was not conscious of silence then all consciousness was lost the next thing i experienced was a sensation of intense cold and of someone roughly shaking me then i heard the voice of my jolly landlord calling me by name the landlord had found the doctor quote as white as a ghost and as limp as a rag unquote and thought he was dead he says it took him ten minutes to arouse the sleeper during the time a physician had been summoned as to the causes of this condition as produced dr. cock says i firmly believed that something would happen when the attempt was made to hypnotize me secondly i wished to be hypnotized these together with a vivid imagination and strained attention brought on the states which occurred it is interesting to compare the effects of hypnotization with those of opium or other narcotic dr. cock asserts that there is a difference his descriptions of dreams bear a wonderful likeness to de quincy's dreams such as those described in the english male coach de profondus and the confessions of an english opium eater all of which were presumably due to opium the causes which dr. cock thinks produced the hypnotic condition in his case namely belief desire to be hypnotized and strained attention united with a vivid imagination are causes which are often found in conjunction and produce effects which we may reasonably explain on the theory of self-hypnotization for instance the effects of an exciting religious revival are very like those produced by mesmer's operations in paris the subjects become hysterical and are ready to believe anything or do anything by prolonging the operation the whole community becomes more or less hypnotized in all such cases however unusual excitement is commonly followed by unusual lethargy it is much like a wild spree of intoxication in fact it is a sort of intoxication the same phenomena are probably accountable for many of the strange records of history the wonderful cures at lords of which we have read in zola's novel of that name are no doubt the effect of hypnotization by the priests some of the strange movements of whole communities during the crusades are to be explained either on the theory of hypnotization or of contagion and possibly these two things will turn out to me much the same in fact on no other ground can we explain the so called children's crusade in which over 30 000 children from germany from all classes of the community tried to cross the alps in winter and in their struggles were all lost or sold into slavery without even reaching the holy land again hypnotism is accountable for many of the poet's dreams gazing steadily at a bed of bright coals or a stream of running water will invariably throw a sensitive subject into a hypnotic sleep that will last sometimes for several hours doctor cock says and that he has experimented in this direction with patience of his says he they have the ability to resist the state or to bring it at will many of them describe beautiful scenes from nature or some mighty cathedral with its lofty dome or the faces of imaginary beings beautiful or demoniacal according to the will and temper of the subject perhaps the most wonderful example of self-hypnotism which we have in history is that of the mystic Swedenborg who saw such strange things in his visions and at last came to believe in them as real the same explanation may be given of the manifestations of oriental prophets for in the orient hypnotism is much easier and more systematically developed than with us of the west the performances of the dervishes and also of the fakers who wound themselves and perform many wonderful feats which would be difficult for an ordinary person are no doubt in part feats of hypnotism while in a condition of auto hypnotization a person may imagine that he is some other personality says dr. cock a curious thing about those self hypnotized subjects is that they carry out perfectly their own ideals of the personality with whom they believe themselves to be possessed if their own ideals of the part they are playing are imperfect their impersonizations are ridiculous in the extreme one man i remember believed himself to be controlled by the spirit of charles sumner being uneducated he used the most wretched english and his language was utterly devoid of sense while on the other hand a very intelligent lady who believed herself to be controlled by the spirit of charlotte kushman personated the part very well dr. cook says of himself i can hypnotize myself to such an extent that i will become wholly unconscious of events taking place around me and a long interval of time say from one half to two hours will be a complete blank during this condition of auto hypnotization i will obey suggestions made to me by another talking rationally and not knowing any event that has occurred after the condition has passed off end of section eight recording by matthew estra