LITTLE BLUE BOOK NO. 92 Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius
Hypnotism Made Plain
Maynard Shipley
HALDEMAN-JULIUS COMPANY GIRARD, KANSAS
Copyright, 1924 Haldeman-Julius Company
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
HYPNOTISM MADE PLAIN
CONTENTS
Page
Introduction 5
Chapter 1. A Retrospect 7
Chapter 2. Modern Hypnotic Methods 20
Chapter 3. Phenomena of Hypnotism 31
Chapter 4. Hypnotism and Psycho-Analysis 43
Chapter 5. Suggestion and the Masses 50
Chapter 6. Hypnotism and Personality 57
INTRODUCTION
To many persons mention of the word “hypnotism” at once brings to
mind a “Professor” in full-dress suit on a vaudeville stage putting
“subjects” through laugh-provoking antics. Or the image of Svengali
rises before the mind’s eyes, with long, lank fingers making mystic
“passes” before the now helpless--not to say enslaved--victim,
fascinated by the large, black, “sorcerer” eyes of the great master.
To such persons the “hypnotist” is rather closely identified with the
“charlatan.” Happily, this conception of hypnotists and hypnotism is
fading out in the strong, clear light of modern science.
Hypnotism and Suggestion (two phases of the same phenomenon) have now
taken their legitimate places in psychology and medicine as subjects
intimately related to our everyday life, in health and in disease.
Whether we know it or not, Suggestion is at work all around and within
us, day and night, from earliest childhood to the very close of our
lives.
Hypnotism and suggestion have--against strong opposition--won an
important place in the history of medicine. It has been amply
demonstrated that certain maladies which have stubbornly resisted the
regular medical treatment often yield to psycho-therapeutic methods
(mind treatment). The time has long since passed when medical science
scoffed at the idea of alleviating or entirely removing pain and
certain pathological conditions by suggestion in mild cases and
hypnotism in more stubborn, deep-seated afflictions.
What is the “Applied Psychology” about which we hear so much nowadays,
but the application of the established principles of suggestion to the
problems of social life and the affairs of prosaic business? Applied
psychology--for a course of ten lessons for which enterprising “leaders
of thought” are charging $100--is nothing more or less than hypnotism
and suggestion “made plain.” Investigation will readily show that the
principles of suggestion are applicable to the affairs of business and
social life. But hypnosis and suggestion may also play a sinister part
in intellectual, social and political life, and need to be understood
as a matter of self-protection.
From what has been said--and I shall adduce abundant proofs in
succeeding pages in support of the statements made above--it may be
seen that to give a little time and study to the elementary principles
of hypnotism and suggestion is not merely a form of diversion, but
a measure of self-defense as well as a means of self-improvement,
resulting often in improved health, a happier frame of mind, and even
worldly success.
HYPNOTISM MADE PLAIN
CHAPTER 1.
A RETROSPECT
The story of the origin and development of hypnotism--or mesmerism,
as it was once called--is not only interesting in itself, as history,
but also helpful to a clear understanding of its modern phases and
applications.
What we now call suggestion and hypnotism, and recognize as purely
psychological phenomena, were originally believed to be manifestations
of a peculiar, universally disseminated fluid, analogous to the ether
of the physicists, which could be absorbed by various substances and
discharged therefrom.
As early as 1530, the celebrated Swiss physician Paracelsus
(1493-1541)--founder of medical chemistry--advanced the theory of
“personal magnetism,” or magnetic influences, derived from the
universal cosmic magnetic “fluid” or force which, he declared, bound
the stars together, and permeated all living things. Each man carries
within his own body, he said, a twofold magnetism, one healthful,
the other morbid. The magnetism of a healthy person attracts the
morbid magnetism of a sick person, thus relieving the latter of his
malady. Absorbed by the healthy person, the morbid magnetic force is
transformed at once into wholesome magnetism.
Dr. Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus Paracelsus von
Hohemeim--Paracelsus’ real name--may or may not have fully believed in
his theory of transferable magnetism. He was--for his time--a great
physician, and as such a very practical man--a forerunner of the modern
pragmatists. If belief in his doctrine on the part of his patient would
act as a curative agency, Paracelsus would undoubtedly utilize this
doctrine, just as he did astrology--belief in which was universal in
his day and age. He appears to have been fully aware of the value of
faith if not of suggestion in the cure of disease. “It is all one,” he
remarks, “whether you believe in something real or something false,
it will have the same effect upon you.... It is always the faith that
works the miracle, and whether the faith is aroused by something real
or something false its miraculous power is the same.”
A few years later, Jean Baptist van Helmont, “father of chemistry”
(1577-1644), stimulated by diligent perusal of the works of Paracelsus,
adopted and expounded the doctrine that man possessed a magnetic force
capable of healing the sick.[1]
[1] Van Helmont was first to prove the indestructibility of matter
in chemical changes by utilizing the balance in analysis, invented
the word “gas”, and first used the melting-point of ice and the
boiling-point of water as limits of a thermometric scale. He opposed
the view of Descartes that the pineal gland is the seat of the soul,
his physiological investigations leading him to the conviction that the
temple of that entity is the stomach!
The Paracelsean doctrine of a healing magnetic force was introduced
into England by Robert Fludd (1574-1637), the physician and theosophist
(a partisan of the Rosicrucians). We hear little or nothing of
this doctrine in French works until the year 1766, when appeared
the dissertation, “_De planetarum influxu_” (“On the Influence of
the Planets”), of the Viennese physician, Friedrich Anton Mesmer
(1734-1815)--born near Constance, and later resident in Paris.
Mesmer, like Paracelsus, believed that a magnetic element or fluid
pervaded the universe and pervaded all bodies. Following Descartes, he
denied that there could be a vacuum anywhere within the cosmos, since
the mutual influence between the stars and planets “is transmitted
by a fluid universally disseminated, and everywhere continuous, so
that no vacuum can exist.” This universal fluid--analogous to the
hypothetic ether of space of modern physicists--“is, by its very
nature, enabled to receive and retain all impressions of movement,
to propagate them and transmit them.” In the human body this medium
expresses itself in conditions related to magnetism, and the forces
exhibited are of the nature of _Animal Magnetism_. This force, says
Mesmer, may be transferred from the human body to both inanimate
and animate bodies, certain substances being more susceptible to
this influence than others. “The magnet, too, artificial, as well as
natural, is susceptible to animal magnetism, without any impairment
of its influence upon iron or the magnetic needle. From this we see
that the artificial magnet possesses qualities which are efficacious
in sickness, and that if we obtain successful results from its
application, these are due merely to animal magnetism.”
Mesmer laid down rules of procedure in accordance with which “this
principle is able to cure maladies of the nervous system directly, and
other maladies indirectly.”
This method of healing was put into practice in Vienna about 1763, with
the co-operation of Dr. Maximillian Hell, Professor of Astronomy, and
it is recorded that a number of cures were effected.
Having been bred for the church, it was not difficult for Dr. Mesmer
to pass from a belief in cures by “sacred relics” to the treatment of
diseases by application of magnetized plates, rings, collars, amulets,
etc. As in the case of many “faith” healers of our own day, Mesmer’s
fame soon became widespread, reports of his marvelous cures even
reaching the court of Louis XVI.
Under the patronage of Marie Antoinette, Mesmer held seances to which
people of all classes flocked for treatment, including many men
distinguished in the arts and sciences. Unfortunately, Mesmer elected
to invest himself and his procedure with an atmosphere of mysticism,
arraying himself in yellow robes, bearing a wand in his hand,
suggestive of the staff of the ancient followers of Aesculapius.
In the light of our present-day knowledge regarding the power of
suggestion as a curative agent, we are not surprised to learn that
Dr. Mesmer was able to effect many remarkable cures by convincing his
patients of the therapeutic virtues of his magnetized paraphernalia.
Believing as he undoubtedly did that he possessed an “animal magnetism”
which could be transferred to inanimate substances, including water,
glass, iron, etc., Mesmer constructed his curious “baquet.” This weird
apparatus consisted of a wooden tub with an iron rod placed vertically
in the center, around which were arranged layers of corked bottles
filled with magnetized water--“magnetized” by his own hands, just as
he believed he could pass his own “magnetic fluid” directly into the
body of a patient. Each bottle was supplied with a conductor, i. e., an
iron wire running through the cork and in contact with the central rod.
The tub was filled with water, iron filings, pounded glass and sand,
previously magnetized by passes of Mesmer’s hands, or by his merely
breathing upon them. That the magnetic effluvia might not escape and
be dissipated in space, a closely-fitting cover was placed on the tub.
“Conductors” passed from the source of the emanations, or fluid, to the
patient--woolen or cotton cords, which the patients twined around their
bodies. Soft iron rods projected from the baquet, which were placed in
contact with any desired part of the patient’s body.
Seated around the baquet, lulled by soft music issuing from the
adjoining room, the patients gazed at the dim light, in a more or
less hypnotic condition, while the “animal magnetism” supplied by the
baquet did its curative work. Mesmer and his assistants passed from
one patient to another, making mystic passes over them--directing
the fluid--or touching them with the rods. Patients of hysterical
temperament sometimes fell into convulsions, which were interpreted
by Mesmer as a favorable sign. He even went so far as to assert that
there could be no permanent cures without these so-called “crises.” It
was not long before Mesmer was publicly denounced as a charlatan and
disappeared from the public eye.
Mesmer’s sensational success doubtless aroused the jealousy of the
“regular” medical profession. It is known that his claims were very
superficially investigated by a committee of scientists. He was duly
branded as a quack, and retired into comparative obscurity, “to walk
silent on the shore of the Bodensee, meditating on much.” A monument
marks his grave in the churchyard of the Meersburg, placed there by
admiring German physicians.
Mesmer honestly regarded himself as a martyr, the victim of envious
competitors. And we need not doubt that many victims of disease were
aided or actually cured by his methods, though no magnetic fluid issued
from his rings and amulets to be guided by his mystic wand; just as
in our days sufferers are helped--through auto-suggestion--by the
“anti-rheumatic ring,” “electric” belts and pads void of electricity,
or pink pills containing no curative drugs. All of these devices are
but modern recrudescences of the very ancient practice of suggestion
and hypnosis, “laying on of hands,” touching the king’s gold ring, or
the ancient custom of healing by the art of making passes.
In the temples of Isis, of Osiris and of Serapis, hypnotism
and suggestion were common practices. Indeed, some form of
psycho-therapeutics, by means of touch or passes, was practiced amongst
all the nations of antiquity whose records have come down to us even
in fragmentary form. We are assured by Plutarch that Pyrrhus, the
famous king of Epirus, was able to relieve colic and affections of the
spleen by laying the patients on their backs and passing his great
toe over them. Cures by the laying on of hands were effected also by
pagan Roman emperors and Christian saints, as well as by the priests
of ancient Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Chaldea, Persia, China and
India--accompanied by mystic “passes.”
Why not, then, cures by the baquet of Mesmer, or the “Oscilloclast”
of Dr. Albert Abrams, as well as the healing at Lourdes, St. Anne de
Beaupré and other shrines? A magnetic element pervades the universe
and penetrates all bodies, said Mesmer, capable of receiving and
communicating all kinds of motions and impressions. All bodies
are radio-active, said Abrams, and emit electronic vibrations (?)
capable of reinforcing and finally breaking down the electronic waves
characteristic of each disease. Relics of the saints have the power of
healing the sick, says the Roman Catholic Church. And in each case the
cures are assuredly made--by suggestion and auto-suggestion.
When an Australian aborigine believes (imagines) that an enemy has
struck him at a distance, to all intents and purposes he is so struck.
Promptly he lies down and becomes actually ill--through the power of
auto-suggestion--frequently followed by gradual loss of vitality ending
before long in death (Klaatsch). But this power of the imagination
(auto-suggestion) to work harm--as well as good--is not confined to
savages. Baudouin tells of a case, noted by Coué, of a nun who was
confined to her bed by illness during the winter. She soon recovered,
becoming well and strong again. On April 1st her appetite disappeared,
in a few days she was again confined to her bed, and she died before
the end of the month. She thought she had heard her physician say,
during her winter illness, “She won’t outlive April.” The suggestion
that she was to die before the close of April became fixed in her mind,
so, feeling sure that she would die in April, in April she died. Many
similar cases are on record.
With the exception of the private--and gratuitous--work carried
on by the Marquis de Puységur, who substituted a gentle sleep for
convulsions, and by the Abbé Faria, who was the first to state the
doctrine of suggestion, we hear very little about mesmerism in France
for some years following the retirement of its founder.
In England a number of physicians became interested. Among the pioneers
should be mentioned John Elliotson (1837), whose attention was directed
to the subject by a French nobleman, to whose house leading members of
the medical profession had been invited to witness a demonstration. Dr.
Elliotson was profoundly impressed by the experiments there witnessed,
and used his position on the staff of University College Hospital to
employ mesmerism in treating patients. He was particularly successful
in cases of nervous diseases. As President of the Royal Medical and
Chirurgical Societies, his opinion would, in any other instance, have
carried great weight. Owing to the characteristic conservatism not
only of the medical profession, but of scientists in general, his use
of mesmerism in the hospital, though remarkably successful, was met by
the violent opposition that pertains to most radical departures from
the practices sanctioned by “authority.” Refusing to bow to the mandate
of unreasoned conservatism, Dr. Elliotson was obliged to resign.
Retiring to private practice, he continued the use of mesmerism with
increasingly satisfactory results, though unaware of the fact that no
“animal magnetism”--or vital fluid--was involved in the process. This
discovery was due to James Braid, a noted surgeon of Manchester.
Having witnessed a public exhibition of so-called mesmerism, Braid
became convinced (1841) that there was therapeutic value in the method.
He determined to explore the subject thoroughly, concerning himself
not only with the practical application of hypnotism, but also with an
attempt to explain the fundamental nature of the phenomena witnessed.
Accepting, tentatively, the theories advanced by Mesmer, he soon
arrived at the conclusion that there was no “vital force” or “animal
magnetism” involved; hence there could be no question of magnets,
metals, and crystals transmitting such a curative fluid. Braid found,
by experiment, that he could produce all the phenomena attributed to
the action of Mesmer’s “vital fluid” by merely inducing the patient
to fix his gaze upon any bright object, held at a short distance in
front of and slightly higher than the level of the patient’s eyes,
accompanied by concentration of the mind on the object. The desired
state of drowsiness or even complete unconsciousness was shown to be
evokable without resort to magnets or passes, the phenomenon being
entirely subjective, and quite independent of “animal magnetism.” He
attributed hypnosis to a tiring of the sensory organs.
Braid noted that the depths of the sleep induced varied in different
persons from slight drowsiness to a state of complete unconsciousness.
The latter condition he defined as “neurohypnotism, or nervous sleep,
a peculiar condition of the nervous system produced by artificial
contrivance.” He later proposed that this condition be termed Hypnosis,
and the process involved Hypnotism, or Neurohypnology, limiting
the term “hypnotic sleep” to those cases where on awakening entire
forgetfulness of all that had occurred during sleep was acknowledged
by the patient. Braid was first to demonstrate that there is a close
relationship between hypnosis and natural sleep.
As might be expected by a student of the history of science, Braid’s
very important work failed to elicit the support and encouragement of
the British medical fraternity, who should have been most profoundly
interested in his results. In Germany and Switzerland, however, his
name was held in honor, a number of investigators on the Continent
having become deeply interested in the practical application
of hypnotism to medical practice. Among these may be mentioned
Krafft-Ebing, Preyer, Oskar Vogt, Euelenburg, Heidenhain, Wetterstrand,
Forel and Albert Moll. It has well been said that Braid laid the
foundation of the theories elaborated later (1891-4) by F. W. H. Myers,
of Cambridge, and Carpenter, basing the phenomena of hypnotism on the
existence and activity of a subliminal consciousness.
In 1860, the year of Braid’s death, his discovery of the subjective
nature of so-called mesmerism was published by the Paris Academy of
Science.
The researches of Braid attracted the attention of Dr. Liébault,
of Nancy, who, in 1864, opened up a dispensary in that town for
the gratuitous treatment of the poor by hypnotism. Braid was first
to assert that suggestion was the only external factor involved in
producing the phenomena of hypnosis, but the credit for demonstrating
this fact beyond a doubt is usually given to Liébault, who disavowed
Braid’s “tired senses” theory, pronouncing hypnotism to be wholly the
result of suggestion (in an essay in 1866). This pioneer did not,
however, explain the condition of mind necessary for the production of
the phenomena of hypnotism. The elucidation of this problem was the
work of F. W. H. Myers.
Myers assumed that man is endowed with both a supraliminal
consciousness and a subliminal or subconscious intelligence--taking
ordinary consciousness as a hypothetical level or limen (threshold).
This theory does not predicate the existence of two minds, however, or
two separate intelligences. Myers wished merely to point out that the
stream of consciousness in which we habitually live is not our only
one, and forms, in fact, only a small part of our total personality,
most of which lies below the threshold of our ordinary waking
consciousness. But the subliminal part of personality is by no means
“merely an unconscious complex of organic processes, but an intelligent
vital control.”
Modern psycho-therapeutics (mind-treatment of disease, through
suggestion), as also psycho-analysis, takes for granted the dual
functioning of mind, one part conscious, the other part subconscious.
Hypnotism and suggestion become understandable on the hypothesis put
forth by Myers, and on no other theory can we account for the phenomena
involved. “By means of hypnotism the attention of the conscious mind
may be distracted, and this leaves the operator free to communicate
with the subconscious.”
This in brief is the history of the progress from “animal magnetism”
to hypnotism through purely psychical (mental) methods. It but remains
to add a few words relative to the new views introduced by Emile Coué,
colleague (1885-86) of Liébault, founder of the first school of Nancy,
as Coué may justly be called founder of the “New Nancy School.”
The originality of Coué’s work consists in the fact that by his
method cures are effected without resort to hypnosis or even to the
suggestion of a second person. He relies entirely upon auto-suggestion,
which he regards as the effective force in hypnotic suggestion.
Furthermore, it is conceded by several eminent authorities that Coué
has fully established the _law of reversed effort_, which is said to
be operative in all cases of suggestion. Effective auto-suggestion
depends upon the elimination--or at least the partial elimination--of
the conscious will. Will-power must give way to the curative--not to
say creative--power of the _imagination_. “In a conflict between will
and imagination,” says Coué, “the power of imagination is in direct
proportion to the square of the will-power.”[2]
[2] This new theory of suggestion has recently been ably expounded
by Prof. Charles Baudouin, of Geneva, in his “Suggestion and
Auto-Suggestion”, translated from the French by Eden and Cedar Paul.