Telepathy and the Subliminal Self Part 3

To acknowledge one's belief in animal magnetism or hypnotism was bad form, and he who did it must be content to suffer a certain degree of both social and professional ostracism. The field was given over to town-hall lectures on mesmerism, by "professors" whose t.i.tles were printed in quotation marks even by the local papers which recorded their exploits.

But a change was about to be inaugurated. In 1877 Prof. Charcot, then one of the most scientific, most widely-known, and most highly-esteemed of living physicians, not only in France but in all the world, was appointed, with two colleagues, to investigate the treatment of hysteria by means of metallic disks--a subject which was then attracting the attention of the medical profession in France.

So, curiously enough, it happened that Charcot commenced exactly where Mesmer had commenced a hundred years before. He experimented upon hysterical patients in his wards at La Salpetriere, and, as a result, he rediscovered mesmerism under the name of hypnotism, just a century after it had been discovered by Mesmer and disowned by the French Academy.

But Charcot, after having satisfied himself by his experiments, did not hesitate to announce his full belief in the facts and phenomena of hypnotism, and that was sufficient to rehabilitate the long-neglected subject. The attention of the scientific world was at once turned toward it, it became a legitimate subject of study, and hypnotism at once became respectable. From that time to the present it has formed one of the most conspicuous and interesting subjects of psychical study; it has become to psychology what determining the value of a single character is to reading an ancient inscription in a lost or unknown language--it is a bit of the unknown expressed in terms of the known and helps to furnish clues to still greater discoveries.

With the scientific interest in hypnotism which was brought about through the great name and influence of Charcot, all doubt concerning the reality of the phenomena which it presents disappeared. Hypnotism was a fact and had come to stay.

Charcot, who conducted his experiments chiefly among nervous or hysterical patients, looked upon the hypnotic condition as a disease, and considered the phenomena presented by hypnotic subjects as akin to hysteria. In addition to the method of producing the hypnotic condition used by Braid, he used, among others, what he called "ma.s.sive stimulation," which consisted in first fully absorbing the subject's attention and then producing a shock by the loud sounding of a concealed gong, or the sudden display or sudden withdrawal of an electric light. By this means hysterical subjects were often thrown into a condition of catalepsy, from which somnambulism and other hypnotic phenomena were sometimes deduced.

I have myself seen nervous patients thrown into the cataleptic state by the "ma.s.sive stimulation" of a huge truck pa.s.sing by, loaded with clanging rails or building iron, or by other sudden shock, but I did not consider the process therapeutic nor in any way useful to the patient. Indeed, I have considered the present method of transporting those beams and rails of iron through our streets and past our dwellings, without the slightest attempt to modify their shocking din and clangor, a piece of savagery which should at once be made the subject of special legislation looking to the prompt punishment of the perpetrators of the outrage.

As a matter of fact, neither the methods employed, the psychical conditions induced, nor the therapeutic effects attained at La Salpetriere, where most of these experiments were at that time carried on, were such as to particularly commend themselves to students of psychology.

Nevertheless the great name and approval of Charcot served to command for hypnotism the attention and the favorable consideration of the scientific world.

Soon after the experiments of Charcot and his a.s.sociates in Paris were published, Prof. Bernheim commenced a most thorough and important study of the subject in the wards of the hospital at Nancy. These studies were made, not upon persons who were already subjects of nervous disease, as was the case with Charcot's patients, but, on the contrary, upon those whose nervous condition was perfectly normal, and even upon those whose general health was perfect.

The result of Bernheim's experiments proved that a very large percentage of all persons, sick or well, could be put into the hypnotic condition. He claimed that suggestion was the great factor and influence, both in bringing about the condition, and also in the mental phenomena observed, and the cures which were accomplished.

He claimed, moreover, that the hypnotic sleep did not differ from ordinary sleep, and that no magnetism nor other personal element, influence, or force entered in any way into the process--it was all the power and influence of suggestion.

Four distinct and important periods then are found in the history of hypnotism:

First, the period of the early mesmerists, extending from the time of Mesmer, 1773, until that of Braid, 1842--nearly seventy years--during which the theory of animal magnetism, or of some actual force or subtle influence proceeding from the operator to the subject, prevailed.

Second, the period of thirty-five years during which the influence of Braid's experiments predominated, showing that other methods, and especially that by the fixed gaze, were efficient in producing the hypnotic sleep.

Third, the short period during which the influence of Charcot and the Paris school prevailed.

Fourth, the period since Bernheim began to publish his experiments, and which may be called the period of suggestion.

With this brief sketch in mind, we are prepared to examine some of the more important phenomena of hypnotism, both in its early and its later developments. A simple case would be as follows:--

A patient comes to the physician's office complaining of continual headaches, general debility, nervousness, and unsatisfactory sleep. She is willing to be hypnotized, and is accompanied by a friend. The physician seats her comfortably in a chair, and, seating himself opposite her, he takes her thumbs lightly between his own thumbs and fingers, asks her to look steadily at some convenient object--perhaps a shirt-stud or a specified b.u.t.ton upon his coat. Presently her eyelids quiver and then droop slowly over her eyes; he gently closes them with the tips of his fingers, holds them lightly for a moment, and she is asleep.

He then makes several slow pa.s.ses over her face and down the front of her body from head to foot, also some over her head and away from it, all without contact and without speaking to her. He lets her sleep ten or fifteen minutes--longer, if convenient--and then, making two or three upward pa.s.ses over her face, he says promptly: "All right; wake up."

She slowly opens her eyes, probably smiles, and looks a little foolish at having slept. He inquires how she feels. She replies:

"I feel remarkably well--so rested--as though I had slept a whole night."

"How is your head?"

(Looking surprised.) "It is quite well--the pain is all gone."

"Very well," he says. "You will continue to feel better and stronger, and you will have good sleep at night."

And so it proves. Bernheim or a pupil of his would sit, or perhaps stand, near his patient, and in a quiet but firm voice talk of sleep.

"Sleep is what you need. Sleep is helpful and will do you good. Already, while I am talking to you, you are beginning to feel drowsy. Your eyes are tired; your lids are drooping; you are growing more and more sleepy; your lids droop more and more."

Then, if the eyelids seem heavy, he presses them down over the eyes, all the time affirming sleep. If sleep comes, he has succeeded; if not, he resorts to gestures, pa.s.ses, the steady gaze, or whatever he thinks likely to aid his suggestion.

When the patient is asleep he suggests that when she awakes her pains and nervousness will be gone, and that she will have quiet and refreshing sleep at night. What is the condition of the patient while under the influence of this induced sleep? Pulse and respiration are little, if at all, changed; they may be slightly accelerated at first, and later, if very deep sleep occurs, they may be slightly r.e.t.a.r.ded. Temperature is seldom changed at all, though, if abnormally high before the sleep is induced, it frequently falls during the sleep.

If the hand be raised, or the arm be drawn up high above the head, generally it will remain elevated until it is touched and replaced, or the patient is told that he can let it fall, when he slowly lowers it.

In many cases the limbs of the patient may be flexed or the body placed in any position, and that position will be retained for a longer or shorter period, sometimes for hours, without change. Sometimes the condition is one of rigidity so firm that the head may be placed upon one chair and the heels upon another, and the body will remain stiff like a bridge from one chair to the other, even when a heavy weight is placed upon the middle of the patient's body or another person is seated upon it. This is the full cataleptic condition.

Sometimes the whole body will be in a condition of anaesthesia, so that needles may be thrust deep into the flesh without evoking any sign of pain or any sensation whatever. Sometimes, when this condition of anaesthesia does not appear with the sleep, it may be induced by pa.s.ses, or by suggesting that a certain limb or the whole body is without feeling. In this condition the most serious surgical operations have been performed without the slightest suffering on the part of the patient.

From the deep sleep the patient often pa.s.ses of his own accord into a condition in which he walks, talks, reads, writes, and obeys the slightest wish or suggestion of the hypnotizer--and yet he is asleep. This is called the alert stage, or the condition of somnambulism, and is the most peculiar, interesting, and wonderful of all.

The two chief stages of the hypnotic condition, then, are, first: the lethargic stage; second, the alert stage.

The stage of lethargy may be very light--a mere drowsiness--or very deep--a heavy slumber--and it is often accompanied by a cataleptic state, more or less marked in degree.

The alert stage may also vary and may be characterized by somnambulism, varying in character from a simple sleepy "yes" or "no" in answer to questions asked by his hypnotizer, to the most wonderful, even supranormal, mental activity.

From any of these states the subject may be awakened by his hypnotizer simply making a few upward pa.s.ses or by saying in a firm voice, "All right, wake up," or, again, by affirming to the patient that he will awake when he (the hypnotizer) has counted up to a certain number, as, for instance, five.

Generally, upon awakening, the subject has no knowledge or remembrance of anything which has transpired during his hypnotic condition. This is known as amnesia. Sometimes, however, a hazy recollection of what has happened remains, especially if the hypnotic condition has been only slight.

Up to the present time hypnotism has been studied from two separate and important standpoints and for two well-defined purposes: (1) For its therapeutic effects, or its use in the treatment of disease and relief of pain; (2) for the mental or psychical phenomena which it presents.

The following cases will ill.u.s.trate its study and use from the therapeutic standpoint--and, first, two cases treated by the old mesmerists, 1843-53.

They are from reports published in The Zoist:--

(1) Q. I. P., a well-known artist, fifty years ago, had been greatly troubled and distressed by weak and inflamed eyes, accompanied by ulceration of the cornea, a condition which had lasted more than four years. He was never free from the disease, and often it was so severe as to prevent work in his studio, and especially reading, for months at a time. He had been under the care of the best oculists, both in New York and London, for long periods and at different times, but with very little temporary and no permanent relief.

He was urged, as a last resort, to try animal magnetism, as it was then called. Accordingly, he consulted a mesmeric pract.i.tioner in London, and was treated by pa.s.ses made over the back of the head and down the spine and from the centre of the forehead backward and outward over the temples and down the sides of the head.

All other treatment was discontinued. No mesmeric phenomena of any kind were produced, not even sleep, but from the first day a degree of comfort and also improvement was experienced.

The treatment was given one hour daily for one month. The improvement was decided and uninterrupted, such as had never before been experienced under any form of medical or surgical treatment, no matter how thoroughly carried out. The general health was greatly improved, and the eyes were so much benefited that they could be relied upon constantly, both for painting and reading, and the cure was permanent.

(2) A case of rheumatism treated by Dr. Elliotson of London. The patient, G. F., age thirty-five years, was a laborer, and had suffered from rheumatism seven weeks. When he applied to Dr. Elliotson, the doctor was sitting in his office, in company with three friends--one a medical gentleman, and all skeptics regarding mesmerism.

They all, however, expressed a desire to see the treatment, and, accordingly, the patient was brought in. He came with difficulty, upon crutches, his face betokening extreme pain. He had never been mesmerized.

The doctor sat down opposite his patient, took his thumbs in his hands, and gazed steadily in his eyes. In twenty minutes he fell into the mesmeric sleep. Several of the mesmeric phenomena were then produced in the presence of his skeptical friends, after which he was allowed to sleep undisturbed for two hours. No suggestions regarding his disease are reported as having been made to the patient during his sleep.

He was awakened by reverse pa.s.ses. Being fairly aroused, he arose from his chair, walked up and down the room without difficulty, and was perfectly unconscious of all that had transpired during his sleep; he only knew he came into the room suffering, and on crutches, and that he was now free from pain and could walk with ease without them. He left one crutch with the doctor and went out twirling the other in his hand. He remained perfectly well.

Dr. Elliotson afterward tried on three different occasions to hypnotize him but without success. Others also tried, but all attempts in this direction failed.

I will here introduce one or two cases from my own notebook:--