Hypnotism

“ Cocke.—No Danger in Hypnotism if Rightly Used by Physicians or Scientists.
Having considered the dangers to society through criminal hypnotic suggestion, let us now consider what dangers there may be to the individual who is hypnotized.
Before citing evidence, let us consider the subject from a rational point of view. Several things have already been established. We know that hypnotism is akin to hysteria and other forms of insanity—it is, in short, a kind of experimental insanity. Really good hypnotic subjects have not a perfect mental balance. ”

“ In the state of deep sleep, of course, the trance condition is very close, and many experiments had taught me that the human spirit can be subjected to the influence of hypnotism far more speedily when asleep than when a wake; for if hypnotism means chiefly⁠—as I then held it to mean⁠—the merging of the little ineffectual surface-consciousness with the deep sea of the greater subliminal consciousness below, then the process has already been partially begun in normal slumber and its completion need be no very long or difficult matter. ”

“ And I, meanwhile, had reached the point where I had persuaded myself that the experiment I had hitherto felt unable to consent to had now become a permissible, even a necessary one. Hypnotism should win the story from that haunted mind without her being aware of it, and provided I could drive her deep enough into the trance state, I could then further wipe the memory from her outer consciousness so completely that she might know at last some happiness of childhood. ”

“ Still more strikingly is dissociation evident in the phenomena of the state of artificial sleep induced by hypnotism.
It would carry us too far from the point now [297] under consideration to enter here into any discussion of the nature and mechanism of hypnotism, that still widely misunderstood but marvelous agency, not simply for therapeutic purposes but for the study and exploration of man’s inmost being. The thing of immediate importance is the fact that under the influence of hypnotism a person invariably develops a self more or less different from his ordinary waking, conscious self. ”

“ Some expect that the hypnotic sleep will work miracles. Nothing is more common in the experience of one who is known to employ hypnotism, even occasionally, than to have a patient who is addicted to some habit, alcoholic, drug, or sexual, ask, "Do you hypnotize?" If an affirmative answer is given, the patient proceeds to say that he has heard that one can be hypnotized, and then all the tendency to fall back into the old habit is immediately lost, and he has no further bother from it. ”

“ As before remarked the phenomena of hypnotism may be viewed from two distinct standpoints—one, that from which the physical and especially the therapeutic features are most prominent, the standpoint from which we have already viewed the subject; the other is the psychical or mental aspect, which presents phenomena no less striking, and is the one which is especially attractive to the most earnest students of psychology. ”

“ Hypnotism has been used by physicians in minor operations as a sort of psychical chloroform for persons who might be endangered by an anesthetic. But a hypnotic state is harmful to those often subjected to it; a negative psychological effect ensues which in time deranges the brain cells. Hypnotism is trespass into the territory of another’s consciousness. Its temporary phenomena have nothing in common with the miracles performed by men of divine realization. Awake in God, true saints effect changes in this dream-world by means of a will harmoniously attuned to the Creative Cosmic Dreamer. ”

“ It is, of course, a definite plan, and convenient for the doctor, since it makes no particular demands upon his intellect for new adaptations. The theory and practice are both of the pleasantest simplicity: "The neurosis is caused by a trauma. The trauma is abreacted." When the abreaction takes place under hypnotism, or with other magical accessories (dark room, peculiar lighting, and the rest) , I remember once more the wise old woman, who opened my eyes not merely to the magic influence of the mesmeric gestures, but also to the essential character of hypnotism itself. ”

“ It is one of the dangers of hypnotism, especially when unskilfully employed, that the state may come to occur spontaneous, a person passing into the hypnotic state as the result of some condition which resembles, or seems to resemble, that by which the state was originally produced. In this spontaneous hypnotic state a person may carry out complex actions and behave in a manner wholly indistinguishable from that of the subject of a fugue. We may regard hypnotism as a process by means of which it is possible to produce and study experimentally the process of dissociation. ”

“ Forel, of Zurich, twenty years ago, while frankly admitting that hypnotism is by no means a panacea for all nervous affections and unfortunate habits, found it to be an extremely valuable help in the treatment of many forms of functional nervous disease. He suggests that some of its many dangers are due to the fact that hypnotism is practiced by men who are too distrustful of it, and this distrust, unconsciously communicated to the patients, produces an unfortunate effect. ”

“ Hypnotism affords the most remarkable instances, for here the will seems to be transferred from the Ego or individuality of the patient to that of the operator, and the currents of nervous energy which induce motion in A are set going by impulses in the mind of A, not caused by his own will, but by that of B, conveyed by words, gestures, or other subtle indications. ”

“ For even our appeal to hypnotism simply puts a new empty name into the place of an old one. If we do not understand hypnosis, its production for the explanation of the magic mirror profits us very little. The task, accordingly, presents itself of referring, in connection with some psychological theory of hypnotism, the well-established facts at our disposal to one and the same cause. ”

“ The way has been prepared for the hypnotist for untold centuries of generations who have lived and died in the firm conviction of the reality and power of hypnotism, building up, by mass thought and practise, a colossal though intangible atmosphere against which the individual, steeped in the traditions of the land, finds himself helpless. ”

“ Every act, every duty of our lives, may, if overdone, become an injury.
“Then, for the sake of clearness, let me state in closing that hypnotism is dangerous only when it is misused, or when it is applied to that large class of persons who are inherently unsound; especially if that mysterious thing we call credulity predominates to a very great extent over the reason and over other faculties of the mind.”
CHAPTER IX. Hypnotism in Medicine.—Anesthesia.—Restoring the Use of Muscles.—Hallucination.—Bad Habits. ”

“ Moreover, if the advice is not successful and the solitude of the night allows the painful thoughts to force themselves on the attention of the patient, hypnotic drugs, hypnoidal suggestion, or perhaps even definite hypnotism, are employed to assist the process of driving the painful thoughts below the threshold of consciousness. ”

“ 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 anaesthetic. 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’. ”

“ Accounts of the well-established phenomena of hypnotism are so readily accessible, that it seems sufficient to emphasize these two fundamental points—the ultimate recognition of an altered psycho-physiological state, and of the dominant part which suggestion plays in the development of hypnotic phenomena—and to accept them as furnishing the principles according to which the survey of the antecedents of hypnotism is to be conducted. ”

“ It is not uncommon to find that a patient who cannot be brought at all under the influence of hypnotism in the first or second or third trial, will, at the fifth or sixth trial, yield to the suggestion to go into a hypnotic sleep. A dozen unsuccessful efforts may be followed by the development of a very satisfactory hypnosis. Those who have practiced hypnotism much tell of having tried a score or even two score of times before finally bringing on a hypnotic condition. ”

“ The subjective mind has absolute control of the functions, conditions, and sensations of the body.
This proposition seems almost self-evident, and will receive the instant assent of all who are familiar with the simplest phenomena of hypnotism. It is well known, and no one at all acquainted with hypnotic phenomena now disputes the fact, that perfect anesthesia can be produced at the will of the operator simply by suggestion. Hundreds of cases are recorded where the most severe surgical operations have been performed without pain upon patients in the hypnotic condition. ”

“ Moreover, these investigators have shown that, even after a person has been brought out of the hypnotic state, the self evoked by hypnotism may in some inscrutable way continue operant without his suspecting for a moment its existence and influence.
Impressive proof of this is found in the execution of what are known as post-hypnotic commands. A hypnotized person is told that, after being de-hypnotized, he is to perform a certain act on receiving a certain signal, or at the expiration of a certain time. ”

“ Those who make practical application of the phenomena of hypnotism should not only divest their own minds of all idea that some occult and as it were extra-natural force is at work, but should encourage no belief in such force in those on whom the hypnotic method is employed. ”

“ After all, the best explanation of hypnotism that we have is that there is a turning inward of the patient's attention, so that only those sensations are allowed to reach the brain to which mental attention has already been called by suggestion. Hypnotism usually begins with a certain fatigue of peripheral neurons until these do not act normally, and then the cerebral neurons become, as it were, short-circuited on themselves with a consequent internal concentration of attention. ”

“ I must acknowledge that in so far as hypnotism itself is concerned, it may seem to be stretching the facts to suggest that there is a special tendency for the manifestations of hypnotism in the human subject to take the form which would be dictated by the instinct of immobility, though this form is definite in the allied behaviour of animals which has been so widely regarded as hypnotic. ”

“ That such things really exist, and are not wholly a matter of superstition has been thoroughly demonstrated in a scientific way by the British Society for Psychical Research, and kindred societies in various parts of the world. Strictly speaking, such phenomena as these are not a part of hypnotism, but our study of hypnotism will enable us to understand them to some extent, and the investigation of them is a natural corollary to the study of hypnotism, for the reason that it has been found that these extraordinary powers are often possessed by persons under hypnotic influence. ”

“ Anaesthesia—It is well known that hypnotism may be used to render subjects insensible to pain. Thus numerous startling experiments are performed in public, such as running hatpins through the cheeks or arms, sewing the tongue to the ear, etc. The curious part of it is that the insensibility may be confined to one spot only. Even persons who are not wholly under hypnotic influence may have an arm or a leg, or any smaller part rendered insensible by suggestion, so that no pain will be felt. This has suggested the use of hypnotism in surgery in the place of chloroform, ether, etc. ”

“ It is a safe rule to place hypnotism in exactly the same category as drugs. Rightly used, drugs are invaluable; wrongly used, they become the instruments of the murderer. At all times should they be used with great caution. The same is true of hypnotism.
Now let us cite some evidence. Lafontaine, a professional hypnotist, gives some interesting facts. He says that public hypnotic entertainments usually induce a great many of the audience to become amateur hypnotists, and these experiments may cause suffocation. Fear often results in congestion, or a rush of blood to the brain. ”

“ The learned doctor regards hypnotism, indeed, as "a transfusion of personality."
The truth is that there lies in every nature forces which, if recognized and developed, would lift one to higher planes and induce in him such an accession of activities and energies as to fairly transform his entire being and achievement. This would be effected, too, on an absolutely normal plane. The development of the spiritual faculties is just as normal as is that of the intellectual. ”

“ From this point of view the primary aspect of hypnotism is its suppression with the accompanying dissociation, and in the so-called hypnotism of animals there is little more than this, the only feature pointing to the influence of suggestion being the fact that the state is produced by the activity of Man. ”