It will be instructive at this point to retrace our steps and
complete the survey of the antecedents of hypnotism by some account
of a series of contributions, which, while they may represent
the backward steps in the zigzag line of progress from obscure
speculations to science, are nevertheless important historical
factors in the continuity of the movement, and in the maintenance
of the interest in this branch of psychological study. The
fanciful doctrines, which Mesmer revived, originated in mediæval
mysticism and superstition; and at no time, from then till now,
have such extravagant systems and notions failed to attract an
all too extensive class of intellectual malcontents, to whom the
progress of knowledge seems absurdly slow and laborious. Before
the establishment of the scientific theory of the relation of body
and mind, the opportunity in this field for such speculations was
endless, and it is to the vast history of pseudo-science that an
account of these properly belongs. It is for the purpose of gaining
a proper understanding of the various conceptions which were and are
associated with hypnotism that an excursion into this barren area is
here made. The fantastic schemes of Mesmer, Puységur, and Pétetin,
and even of Braid, have already been noticed, and the seed sown by
them still bears undesirable fruit. To J. P. F. Deleuze (1785-1835),
author of influential works on mesmerism, may be accorded the
doubtful honor of ranking as leader in the movement which continued
the mystic and eccentric elements of animal magnetism. He accepted
the combined marvels of mesmerism and somnambulism. He directed his
efforts towards the elaboration of the paraphernalia of the baquet,
the wand and passes, and the inculcation of most detailed cautions
and regulations for the guidance of the operator. Every movement of
the hand, and eyes, and head assumed special significance. The poles
of the human frame must be considered, and no departure made from
the prescribed manipulation. The process of demagnetizing is thus
described:--
"When you wish to put an end to the sitting, take care to draw
toward the extremity of the hands and toward the extremity of the
feet, prolonging your passes beyond these extremities and shaking
your finger each time. Finally, make several passes transversely
before the face, and also before the breast, at the distance of
three or four inches; these passes are made by presenting the two
hands together, and briskly drawing them from each other, as if
to carry off the superabundance of fluid with which the patient
may be charged. You see that it is essential to magnetize, always
descending from the head to the extremities, and never mounting
from the extremities to the head." The magnetism is imparted to
inanimate objects, and "one may magnetize a pitcher of water in two
or three minutes, a glass of water in one minute. It is unnecessary
to repeat here that processes pointed out for magnetizing water,
like everything else, would be absolutely useless, if they were not
employed with attention and with a determinate will." "The magnetizer
who uses a wand ought to have one of his own, and not lend it to any
person, lest it should be charged with different fluids--a precaution
more important than it is commonly thought to be." It is this
phase of the subject that found its way into Germany, and was most
typically embodied in the writings of Wolfart, Kieser, and Ennemoser.
For such mystics nothing seemed too absurd to find credence, nor too
profound to find an explanation in animal magnetism.
It was through Deleuze's influence, also, that mesmerism was
transplanted to America. As early as 1837, Charles Poyen lectured and
wrote on animal magnetism in New England; he exhibited the usual
phenomena, made the usual claims for supernatural faculties, and gave
the usual fanciful expositions. It was, however, through Dods and
Grimes, in 1850, that mesmerism became prominent in America, under
the absurd name of "electro-biology." The popular interest which
they aroused may be inferred from the fact that they were invited to
exhibit before Congress, the signatures of Clay and Webster appearing
in the letter of invitation. The absurdity of their writings is
sufficiently evident in the following extracts: "Let two persons
of equal brain, both in size and fluid, sit down. Let one of these
individuals remain perfectly passive, and let the other exercise
his mental and physical energies according to the true principles
of mesmerizing, and he will displace some of the nervo-vital fluid
from the passive brain and deposit it in his own instead. The next
day let them sit another hour, and so on day after day, until the
acting brain shall have displaced the major part of the nervo-vital
fluid from the passive brain and filled up that space with its own
nervous force, and the person will yield to the magnetic power
and serenely slumber in its inexpressible quietude." "Your brain
being magnetically subdued is worth hundreds of dollars to you. You
are then ready for the day of distress." An ignorant young man is
magnetized and forthwith converses with a "mental activity which put
to blush men of superior education and intellectual endowments."
An eminent lawyer is astonished at his learning and his quotations
from legal authorities. He speaks Greek, Latin, French, Polish,
all perfectly, and without accent; though when awake he knows no
language but English. Grimes determined the function of parts of
the brain from the answers of his somnambulist, and thus discovered
that the corpus callosum is designed to equalize the flow of the
nervous fluid. From the same source he received the assurance of the
correctness of his phrenological views. "I then asked her concerning
the location and uses of several new phreno-organs, which I supposed
that I had discovered, and to my surprise she answered me without the
least hesitation, and confirmed all my previous opinions, not even
excepting those opinions which I had never mentioned to any one, and
which she could only have known by clairvoyance."
"Electro-biology" made its way into England, and there found a
place among the endless forms of absurdity and pseudo-science then
prevalent. A few illustrations are powerless to give any adequate
notion of the extent and variety of the extravagant pretensions with
which animal magnetism was saturated in the years following Braid's
observations. The diabolic origin of mesmerism was discussed by
pulpit and press; a pamphlet, entitled "Dialogue between a Mesmerist
and a Christian," maintained that the two faiths were incompatible.
It was generally urged that mesmerism favored materialism, and in
1856 the Catholic Church issued an edict against the practice. The
skepticism of the medical profession found expression in extreme and
certainly unscientific statements. Dr. Buchanan (1851) of Glasgow,
holding that the alleged condition was the result of acting and
trickery, proposed the experiment of telling a hypnotized boy that
he could not move, and then applying the birch; this, he felt
confident, would satisfactorily refute the whole doctrine, and if,
in ninety-nine cases out of one hundred, the boy did not scamper
off, though his feet were mesmerized, he promised to recant "and to
believe in mesmerism ever after." There is unfortunately no record of
the acceptance of this test, which, in comparison with the hypnotic
anæsthesia of surgical operations then performed, would have been
easily met. From the following comment of a medical journal, in 1843,
one may infer that the controversy did not always recognize the
_politesses_ of discussion. "The mesmero-mania has nearly dwindled
in the metropolis into servile fatuity, but lingers in some of
the provinces with the _gobe-mouches_ and chaw-bacons, who, after
gulping down a pound of fat pork, would, with well-greased gullets,
swallow such a lot of mesmeric mummery as would choke an alligator or
boa-constrictor."
The two writers to be presently cited are selected as illustrations
of the truth that the possession of intellectual attainments in
other directions does not insure against such gross errors as are
about to be noticed, and the second, moreover, serves as a type of
the compilations of the period, to which the reader may be referred
for further instances. The reputation of Miss Harriet Martineau
insured general attention to her "Letters on Mesmerism" (1845).
Miss Martineau was cured of a long-standing illness by magnetic
treatment, the operator being a noted mesmerist, Spencer T. Hall.
The magnetizing process gave rise to peculiar sensations which
were attributed to the action of the magnetic fluid. "My head has
often appeared to be drawn out, to change its form according to
the traction of my mesmerist, and an indescribable but exceedingly
agreeable sensation of transparency and lightness through a part or
whole of the frame has followed." Miss Martineau was thus made a
convert to mesmerism, and initiated experiments of her own, finding
in her maid, J., a somnambule of unusual powers. She maintained
her health by following the prescriptions given by the somnambule,
and the latter exhibited the many varieties of marvels with which
we have become familiar. The spontaneous or suggested utterances
of the somnambule upon matters relating to her exalted condition
were unquestioningly accepted. "Do the minds of the mesmerist and
the patient become one?" "Sometimes, but not often."--"Is it, then,
that they taste, feel, etc., the same things, at the same moment?"
"Yes."--"Will our minds become one?" "I think not."--"What are your
chief powers?" "I like to look up and see spiritual things; I can see
diseases, and I like to see visions."--"Can the mind hear otherwise
than by the ear?" "Not naturally; but a deaf person can hear the
mesmerist when in the sleep; not anybody else, however."--"How is it
that you can see without your eyes!" "Ah! that is a curious thing. I
have not found it out yet."
From the "Letters to a Candid Inquirer on Animal Magnetism," by
William Gregory, M.D., F.R.S.E., professor of chemistry in the
University of Edinburgh, selections appropriate to our present
purpose may be made almost at random. Some writing is placed in the
hands of the somnambule, and from this she pictures the writer, tells
of the lady's recent ailments, her surroundings, her travels, and
her condition; and when the lady herself is presented she immediately
recognizes her as the subject of her vision. A lost watch is
recovered and the thief detected by the same means; the whereabouts
of absent friends traveling in distant lands is determined by
placing a sample of their handwriting or a lock of their hair in
the somnambule's hands. The somnambule transports herself to past
times, and details the events of the life of Mary, Queen of Scots,
as she witnesses them. In her magnetic vision she follows, day by
day, the adventures of Sir John Franklin, who was then in the Arctic
regions. She frequently spoke of his occupations, and, when asked
the time of day, found it either by looking at a timepiece in the
cabin or by consulting Sir John's watch; and from the difference in
time indicated by the somnambule the longitude of Sir John Franklin's
location and the directions of his movements were calculated. "On a
Sunday afternoon in February, 1850, she said it was about 10 A.M.
there, and described the captain, Sir John, as reading prayers to
the crew, who knelt in a circle with their faces upward, looking
at him and appearing very sorrowful. She even named the chapter of
St. Mark's gospel which he read on that occasion." Although we are
naïvely told that, "as a general rule, we ought to verify the vision
before admitting it as an instance of genuine clairvoyance," yet in
this case the somnambule's assertions had been so uniformly verified
that it seemed unnecessary to question the correctness of her mental
Arctic explorations.
All the varieties of supernatural conditions--conscious lucidity,
conscious clairvoyance, sympathetic clairvoyance, sympathetic
retrovision, direct clairvoyance, mental traveling, introvision and
prevision, spontaneous retrovision--were formulated and added their
quota to the general mystery. The doctrine of cross-magnetism, or
the disturbing influence of different magnetizers, was developed,
and became a favorite mode of accounting for failures of all kinds.
Extravagant doctrines originating in other fields of pseudo-science
were incorporated into magnetism; the magic mirror or crystal was
one of these. The notion is doubtless very ancient,--compare the
shew-stone of Dr. Dee (1527-1608),--and was revived by Baron Du
Potet, who drew a black magic circle on the floor with a piece of
charcoal; this the subject approached, stared at it fixedly, and
seemed fascinated by it; grew excited, breathed hard, moved to and
fro, and then saw visions in the magic mirror. "It was no dream nor
nightmare; the apparitions were actually present. A series of events
were unrolled before him, represented by signs and figures which he
could understand and gloat over, sometimes joyful, sometimes gloomy,
just as these representations of the future passed before his eyes!
Very soon he was overcome by delirium, he wished to seize the image,
and darted a ferocious glance towards it; he finally started forward
to trample on the charcoal circle, the dust from it arose, and the
operator approached to put an end to a drama so full of emotion and
terror."
"Darlingism" was a term brought forward by one Darling, who used a
disc, said to be made of zinc and copper, to put his subjects to
sleep. Like electro-biology, it was merely a new name for the same
phenomena exhibited in connection with absurd theoretical notions.
The phrenological manifestations, so unfortunately countenanced by
Braid, continued to be exhibited by others in connection with the
hypnotic state. Clairvoyance continued to be regarded as one of the
most essential tests of the mesmeric condition, and took a prominent
part in public exhibitions. Somewhat later it was incorporated into
the equipment of spiritualism, and this movement probably exerted a
mystic influence upon mesmerism.
The investigations of Baron Reichenbach added a new class of
sensitives. Reichenbach announced the doctrine of an "odic" force
or "odyle," streaming forth from magnets and from the human frame,
and affecting the human system; certain sensitives could see these
emanations, and magnetized subjects at once become "odic" sensitives.
The doctrine that certain persons are sensitive to metals was an
ancient one. It reappeared in the myths that were woven about Casper
Hauser, the wild boy of Nuremberg (1828), who gave evidence of
his unusual origin by shuddering in the presence of a needle, and
evidencing intense agony in passing a hardware shop. Miss Martineau's
J. holds a piece of steel so tightly that no one can wrench it from
her, but touch the steel with gold and it falls from her hands
at once. The following citation will show how this movement was
utilized in mesmeric practices: "But to ascertain whether he (a
Major Buckley, a mesmerist) can obtain conscious clairvoyance, he
makes slow passes from his own forehead to his own chest. If this
produces a blue light in his face, strongly visible, the subject will
probably acquire conscious clairvoyance. If not, if the light be
pale, the subject must first be rendered clairvoyant in the sleep.
Taking those subjects who see a very deep blue light, he continues
to make passes over his own face, and also over the object, a box or
a nut, for example, in which written or printed words are inclosed,
which the clairvoyant is to read. Some subjects require only a pass
or two to be made clairvoyant, others require many. They describe
the blue light as rendering the box or nut transparent, so that they
can read what is inside. If too many passes be made by Major B., the
blue light becomes so deep that they cannot read, and some reverse
passes must be made to render the light less deep. Major Buckley has
thus produced conscious clairvoyance in eighty-nine persons, of whom
forty-four have been able to read mottoes contained in nut-shells,
purchased by other parties for the experiment."
It must not be supposed that these practices have entirely
disappeared. In a work published as late as 1869 we may read
such sentences as, "the clairvoyance of an idiot in a state of
somnambulism would inspire me with more confidence if I were sick
than the greatest geniuses which grace modern medicine;" and again,
"it never could be imagined with what tact, accuracy, and precision,
somnambulists account for anything that takes place in them. They are
literally present at the performance of all their organic functions;
they detect in them the slightest disorder, the minutest change.
Then of all this he forms a clear, exact, and mathematical idea.
He could tell, for instance, how many drops of blood there are in
his heart; he knows, almost to a gramme, how much it would require
to satisfy his appetite at the moment; how many drops of water
would be necessary to satisfy his thirst, and his valuations are
inconceivably exact. Time, space, forces of all kinds, the resistance
and weight of objects, his thoughts, or rather his instinct measures,
he calculates, appreciates all these matters by a single glance of
the eye." In the lectures and cheap compendiums telling "How to
Mesmerize," and giving "The Whole Art of Mesmerism," by which the
traveling mesmerists of yesterday, if not of to-day, extend their
fame, one may find these very same doctrines side by side with
garbled accounts of recent discoveries in hypnotism. But we have
already dwelt too long upon the aberrations of the human intellect,
in which the ludicrous and the solemn are so curiously combined.
X
The transition from the antecedent to the present status of
hypnotism was accomplished in the main by two factors; by the
precise determination, according to rigidly scientific methods,
of the physiological and psychological characteristics of the
hypnotic state, and by the advocacy of its claims and the further
development of its sphere of influence, on the part of professional
men of ability and acknowledged standing. The mischievous and
erratic associations of mesmerism, as also of hypnotism, were
difficult to outgrow. Unjustifiable skepticism and neglect were the
natural consequences of extravagance, perversion, and charlatanism.
Even the repeated and verifiable production by hypnotic means of
anæsthesia sufficient for serious surgical operations, was ignored;
partly, perhaps, because of the discovery of ether, which turned
the interest in anæsthetics into new channels. The legitimate and
progressive investigations of such as Braid, Liebault, Azam, Durand
de Gros, and others, were only fitfully and sparsely recognized. As
late as 1874 Dechambre, in his Medical Encyclopedia, declares that
all the phenomena rest upon self-deception and delusion, and that
the condition does not exist. But beginning with the third quarter
of the century the attitude rapidly changed. Richet (1875) published
an important paper in an authoritative physiological journal, in
which he again established by scientific methods the reality of the
hypnotic condition. In this he wrote, "It requires considerable
courage to speak aloud the word somnambulism. The stupid credulity
of the masses and the pretensions of certain charlatans have brought
the thing itself as well as the name into such disfavor that there
are but few men of science who do not look disparagingly upon any
communication on the subject." The advocacy of Charcot (1878) and
his demonstrations at the Salpêtrière finally succeeded in gaining
the day; and in 1882 the ban placed upon academic discussions of
this subject was lifted by the reception on the part of the Academy
of Science of a memoir by Charcot on hypnotism. The extensive series
of studies instigated by him at the Salpêtrière, and carried on
with marked ability and success by those who in some measure drew
their inspiration from the field of inquiry which he inaugurated;
the recognition which he secured for the presentation of studies
upon hypnotism before learned societies; the far-reaching influence
of his authority,--all contributed to the acceptance of hypnotism
as a scientific fact, and the inclusion of its study within the
circle of the sciences. It should be carefully noted, however,
that the period (which, to connect it with the name of but one
of its representatives, may be called the period of Charcot),
though marked by important extensions of our knowledge of hypnotic
phenomena, was in essence a period of reinstatement. All the
essential and fundamental discoveries had been made and forgotten,
and even had been rediscovered decades before; but not until this
period were they extensively and authoritatively acknowledged.
This reinstatement was naturally the result of coöperation of
many workers; while hypnotism still remained a favorite study of
French neurologists, other countries contributed extensively to its
advance. In Germany the main impetus to its study seems to have
been given by the striking demonstrations of hypnotic phenomena
by a Danish hypnotist, Hansen (1879 and 1880), which led to their
study by various physiologists. The earliest American contribution
of this period (and which was somewhat independent in origin) was
a study of trance-states by Dr. G. M. Beard, of New York, in 1881.
But accounts of contributors and contributions belong no longer
to the historical aspect which we are considering, but to modern
hypnotism. Suffice it to say that the literature of the subject of
the past two decades is almost alarmingly voluminous in its extent,
and most cosmopolitan in its composition; that cognate departments
of science--physiology, psychology, medicine--consider its bearings
upon their special problems; that its therapeutic application to
the cure of disease by the efficacy of the power of suggestion is
recognized extensively by general practitioners, by neurologists,
as well as in specific hypnotic clinics; that its utilization as a
special method of psychology has been productive of interesting and
valuable contributions; and that it illuminates many a dark recess
in the story of the historical and sociological development of
humanity. One phase of the matter, alone, seems destined to serve
as an historical turning-point; the year of the new epoch is best
marked by the appearance in 1886 of Dr. Bernheim's classic volume on
"Suggestion and its Therapeutical Applications"; and the key-note of
the newer doctrine lies in the term "suggestion." Charcot and his
followers had, in different degrees and ways, emphasized the physical
characteristics of the hypnosis; they held that in typical subjects
there were objectively distinct hypnotic states, characterized and
induced by physical manifestations. They recognized the importance
of suggestion, but in addition to it also recognized the existence
of objectively differentiated hypnotic phenomena. These and related
doctrines are commonly referred to as those of the "school of Paris."
In contrast with this is the "school of Nancy," of which Dr. Bernheim
is the acknowledged leader, and which may be characterized as the
"suggestionist" school. This school recognizes different degrees of
suggestibility, and an endless variety of resulting phenomena, but
regards suggestion, in its various forms, as furnishing a sufficient
and comprehensive clue to the entire range of observations. It
is compelled accordingly to regard the three distinctive states
recognized by Charcot as themselves the product of unconscious
suggestion and of a contagious _esprit de corps_ of the Salpêtrière
subjects. The school of Nancy to-day enjoys the most extensive
following, and may be said to represent the dominant trend of present
study. One may fairly say that the present psychological study in
this domain is the study of suggestion, one form, though only one
form, of which is hypnotic suggestion. With the complete realization
of the psychological significance of the hypnotic state, the fierce
and adventurous struggle for existence of hypnotism may be said to
terminate in its undisturbed adaptation to a scientific environment.