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 makes 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 twelve and when he gets to ten 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 wakening 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, or 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 effect 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. 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
depended 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. |
