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, and though hundreds of scientific men, including
many physicians, have studied the subject for years, no essentially new
principle has 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:
1. Idiots, babies under three years old, and hopelessly
insane people cannot be hypnotized.
2. No one can be hypnotized unless the operator can
make him concentrate his attention for a reasonable length of time.
Concentration of attention, whatever the method of producing hypnotism, is
absolutely necessary.
3. The persons not easily hypnotized are those said to
be neurotic (or those affected with hysteria). By "hysteria" is not meant
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 on 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 beside.
On all these points practically every student of
hypnotism is agreed. On the question as to whether any one 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 any one can produce hypnotism. Says he:
"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 conscious
imposter, 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 electro-biologists. 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 from my own personal experience and
experiment, as I have already related in the Nineteenth Century, that
there is no such thing as a potent mesmeric influence, no such power
resident in any one person more than another; that a glass of water, a
tree, a stick, a penny-post letter, or a lime-light can mesmerize as
effectually as can any individual. A clever hypnotizer means only a person
who is acquainted with the physical or mental tricks by which the hypnotic
condition is produced; or sometimes an unconscious imposter 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."
Against this we may place the statement of Dr. Foveau
de Courmelles, who speaks authoritatively for the whole modern French
school. He says:
"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, proves at least
the existence of a negative force."
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-strung 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 in 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 form of
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 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 in 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, any one who can
get, or has by nature, the key-note of another nature, has a tremendous
power over that other nature. The following story illustrates what 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
Niagara 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 the 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 remained stolid
under the pressure of human traffic, and the heavy tread 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 bade him begone and trouble them no
more. The ragged genius, putting his well-worn instrument back in its
case, muttered to himself, 'I'd either crossed free or torn down the
bridge.'"
"So the hypnotist," goes on the writer from which 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."
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. Hart
means 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. |
