CHAPTER II: 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
Side Show.
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 belonged 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 when questioned 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.
The doctor now asked each one to clasp his hands in
front of him, 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 unclasp their hands, but were 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 unclasp 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 eighteen, 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 twenty-four hours. After the
entertainment he was asked to smoke, as was his usual habit. He was then
away from any one 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. Cocke
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; 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
whirled.
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 gait 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 companion's. 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 newsboy, 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 and the color of the eyes.
These suggestions were made in a loud tone, Miss Flint
being no nearer one subject than another. The bare suggestion was given,
as, "Now, think that you are a newsboy, 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 newsboy went about crying his
edition in a loud voice; while the hunter crawled along stealthily and
carefully. The newsboy 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 a cent, when the price was two cents. The newsboy chaffed 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
semicircle, 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
indifferently 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
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 sweetheart.
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 Malvolio 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
round 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 sees 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
under foot. Then he calmly resumed his garment and walked back to the
stage.
The "side-show" closed the evening's entertainment. A
young man was told to think of himself as managing a side-show 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 side-show fakir, 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 side-shows. He went over the usual characteristic
"patter," 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 in side 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. |
