Soon after the study of animal magnetism was thus denied academic
recognition in France, it was in some measure divested of its
mystifying and confusing accretions, by the independent observations
of an English surgeon, James Braid. Braid's first experience with the
phenomena of animal magnetism was at the séance given by Charles
Lafontaine, a traveling mesmerist, at Manchester, on November 13,
1841. He came to this exhibition inclined to regard the phenomena
as due to deception, trickery, and illusion, and saw nothing to
disturb his belief. At a second attendance, he was impressed with
the fact that the "magnetized" subjects were unable to open their
eyes; this he attributed to a paralysis of the nervous centres by a
too prolonged or too intense sensory strain. Braid at once initiated
experiments at his home. He began by asking a friend to stare
fixedly at the neck of a bottle, held close to and a little above
his eyes; in a few minutes the subject's eyelids closed, his head
dropped, and he went to sleep; the same process was repeated upon
Mrs. Braid, with an equally successful result. These experiments were
soon extended, and Braid was successful in sending to sleep nearly
all who presented themselves. The regularity and simplicity of the
process, as well as the unmistakable evidences of an altered mental
condition, left no doubt of the genuineness of the induced sleep. "I
now stated that I considered the experiments fully proved my theory,
and expressed my entire conviction that the phenomena of mesmerism
were to be accounted for on the principle of a derangement of the
state of the cerebro-spinal centres, and of the circulatory, and
respiratory, and muscular systems, induced, as I have explained, by a
fixed stare, absolute repose of body, fixed attention, and suppressed
respiration concomitant with that fixity of attention. That the
whole depended upon the physical and psychical condition of the
patient, arising from the causes referred to, and not at all on the
volition, or passes of the operator, throwing out a magnetic fluid,
or exciting into activity some mystical universal fluid or medium.
I further added that having thus produced the primary phenomena, I
had no doubt that the others would follow as a matter of course,
time being allowed for their gradual and successive development."
The practical importance of the change of view thus inaugurated
was extreme; it combated the prevalent notion that to prove the
reality of the magnetized condition, it was necessary to perform
miracles; it recognized different degrees and stages of the induced
condition; it emphasized the dependence of the condition upon the
state of the nervous system, and supplied the physiologist with a
rational interest in the phenomena; it discarded the vain hypothesis
of an universal fluid; it simplified the methods of producing the
state, and showed its analogy to ordinary sleep; it proved that
the phenomena were independent of the will or any subtle power of
the operator, but depended essentially upon the compliance and
suggestibility of the subject.
The importance of Braid's position in the history of hypnotism is
not easily overrated; it depends largely upon the fact that he was
the first to recognize the physiological aspect of the phenomena and
to abandon completely any relation with the fantastic theories and
practices that grew up in the wake of animal magnetism. It cannot be
said that Braid's discoveries, however original with him, had not
been anticipated by others; indeed, it is clear that the Abbé Faria's
method of inducing the condition and the phenomena that he exhibited
were essentially the same as those to which Braid directed attention;
while Bertrand, and even Puységur and others, had recognized the
rôle of suggestibility and imagination in producing many of the
effects. But Braid, far more clearly than any one else, presented the
phenomena from a legitimate scientific view, correlated the various
phenomena with one another, and laid the foundations of a true
science of hypnotism. Without disparaging the labors of others in
this field, and without forgetting the unfortunate circumstances in
Braid's career which detracted from his influence, the title may be
justly claimed for him, of the founder of modern hypnotism, as he was
also the inventor of the term.
It would take us too far into the details of the hypnotic condition
to describe Braid's practices and experiments; attention will be
directed only to those points which have a bearing upon the further
history of the topic. At the outset, Braid recognized that he was
dealing with an altered nervous condition, in which were present
hyperæsthesia, or exalted sensibility of several of the senses,
together with a control over functions normally beyond the reach
of the will; that these powers could be used to neutralize pain,
as well as for curative suggestions in the treatment of disease;
and that the phenomena had a distinct relation to ordinary sleep;
this last relation led him at first to speak of the topic as
"Neurypnology,"--the title of his first book, published in 1843.
It is quite intelligible that the confused and misleading form in
which the phenomena were presented during Braid's time prevented him
from grasping at once or completely the true subjective nature of
the condition, in spite of the clearness with which he recognized
the marks of its genuineness. Thus, he regarded that a physical
influence had much to do with the result, and confessed that he was
entirely at a loss to understand why a breath of air upon the skin,
as by blowing upon it, should terminate the hypnotic condition; or
make a rigid limb flexible, or restore the sight of one eye, and
leave the other insensible; or change the condition from that of
general inactivity to one of extreme mobility and excitability.
Later, however, he recognized in all this, the action of suggestion
combined with the imaginative ingenuity of the subject. But his most
serious handicap was his connection with the doctrines of phrenology,
then occupying a very conspicuous position in the public eye. It
was brought into connection with mesmerism or hypnotism by the
performances of professional exhibitors, who claimed that pressure
upon different parts of the head of the magnetized subject induced
the display of the corresponding "faculties." It seems quite clear
that Braid was entirely misled by these curious experiments; and
in spite of the fact that he later abandoned all belief in their
reality, and explained them as due to suggestion and association;
and further that he presented some grounds for believing that his
former experiments were intended to disprove phrenology,--yet it
is perfectly clear why the medical profession and the intelligent
public should have discredited Braid's labors by reason of his
notorious connection with the doctrines of phrenology. Surely a
work which recorded such experiments as the following naturally
excited a feeling of distrust. Patients, on being "pressed over the
phrenologist's organ of time, always expressed a desire 'to write'--a
letter--to her mother or brother; over their organ of tune, 'to
sing'; between this and wit, 'to be judicious'; the boundary between
wit and causality, 'to be clever'; causality, 'to have knowledge';
in the centre of the forehead, to have 'a certain perception of
learning'; and so on." And again "I placed a cork endways over the
organ of veneration and bound it in that position by a bandage
passing under the chin. I now hypnotized the patient, and ... after
a minute and a half an altered expression of countenance took place,
and a movement of the arms and hands, which latter became clasped
as in adoration, and the patient now arose from the seat and knelt
down as if engaged in prayer. On moving the cork forward, active
benevolence was manifested, and, on being pushed back, veneration
again manifested itself." We are then assured that the subjects knew
nothing of phrenology, were perfectly honest, and that no indications
were given of the expected results. Braid frankly records his belief
in the possibility of calling out phrenological activities by
pressure on definite points of the cranium; and the only loophole
of explanation which he left open was the one to which he later
resorted, claiming that the manifestations may be due to "a system
of training during the sleep, so that they may come out subsequently
as acts of memory, when corresponding points are touched, with which
particular ideas have been associated through audible suggestion."
In brief, in this explanation, given in 1854, Braid demonstrated the
admitted possibility of arousing emotions in hypnotic subjects by
inducing the expressions with which those emotions were associated.
But in 1843 he wrote, "If I am to believe the evidence of my senses,
therefore, in anything, I cannot see how I can doubt the relation
which consists between certain points of the cranium and the mental
manifestations which are excited by acting on them during hypnotism.
I believe there are few physiological phenomena which can be more
clearly demonstrated, especially at such an early stage of their
investigation."
Braid's later works did not attract the attention which they
deserved, and perhaps it is proper to base an estimate of his
insight into the phenomena of hypnotism upon his more mature
but less influential writings. In these, Braid recognized the
subjective nature of the phenomena as fully as they are recognized
by the extreme representatives of the "suggestionist" school of
to-day. Indeed, he spoke of the state as "Monoideism," to emphasize
the fact that, while in this condition, the subject's mind was
totally absorbed in one idea; and that this narrow concentration
of consciousness, this influence of the dominant idea, completely
controlled mental and physical action, and rendered the subject
insensible to all other stimuli. Braid acquired a profound knowledge
of the effects of suggestion, both directly, as verbal suggestion,
and the indirect suggestion of manner and expectation. He tells of
a physician in London who used "mesmerism" with his patients, and
who produced catalepsy of the hands and arms and other wonderful
effects by the application of magnets. Braid recognized that the
subject, though asleep, was in a condition in which she could hear
what was going on. He assured the physician (in the subject's
hearing) that he had a little instrument in his pocket, which though
not a magnet, would produce equally marked effects. Braid gave the
patient the little instrument, with the remark to the physician
that it would produce catalepsy in both hands and arms; and such
was the result. Next, Braid declared that now she would be unable
to hold it, which also was the case, the little instrument dropping
out of her hands whenever it was given to her. When the patient
was aroused, Braid next told the physician that when the little
instrument was suspended on the third finger of the right hand of
the patient, it would send her to sleep; to which the physician
responded, "It never will." But Braid insisted that it would;
and the event proved that he was correct. The little instrument,
so variously potent in combination with a proper suggestion, was
nothing more than his portmanteau key and ring. It illustrates the
reverse of Voltaire's saying, that incantations, together with a
sufficient amount of arsenic, will kill your neighbor's sheep. In
the same way Braid proved that the experiments which seemed to show
that certain persons were sensitive to metals were in reality due
to unconscious suggestion, and that when, unknown to the subjects,
wood was substituted for metals, the expected results ensued. The
peculiar effects described by Reichenbach's sensitives he naturally
referred to the same cause; as also the doctrine, then brought
forward, that susceptible individuals could perceive the effects of
drugs enclosed in sealed vials. All these alleged phenomena were
correctly referred to unconscious suggestion and to hyperæsthesia.
Homœopathic remedies, he argued, owed their efficiency to the same
action of the expectant imagination; for the effect could hardly be
ascribed to a quantity so minute that a patient would have to take
a dose every second of the day and night for 30,000 years to get a
single grain of the substance. He analyzed the possibilities of error
in the interpretation of clairvoyance; and showed that perfectly
natural and well-understood processes were sufficient to furnish an
intelligible mode of accounting for so much of the success as could
be verified. He recognized the dangers of hypnotism in inexperienced
hands; although he believed that the moral sensibility of the subject
was sufficiently retained in the hypnotic condition to prevent the
abuse of the state for criminal purposes. He appreciated its field of
applicability in the cure of disease, though he by no means regarded
it as a panacea, and also its special use in surgical operations.
In fine, Braid, in spite of certain shortcomings, which are
characteristic only of his earlier writings, stands out preëminently
as the first to appreciate at their true value the entire range of
the complex factors of the hypnotic condition; to distinguish the
genuine phenomena from those which owed their marvelous aspect to
unconscious suggestion; and to show the relation of the whole topic
to the recognized body of scientific knowledge.