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.