PHENOMENA OF HYPNOTISM
Let anyone who is skeptical concerning the power of mind over matter
consider even a few of the many amazing phenomena of hypnotism. Public
exhibitions of hypnotic experiments were, not long ago, frequently
given in this country and in Europe. The Danish hypnotist, Hansen,
rolled up a considerable fortune in this way. In most of the German
states, and in Holland, Belgium and Switzerland, such performances are
prohibited. They should be made illegal in the United States; for, in
the hands of “Professors” ignorant of either psychology or medicine,
much harm can be done by such exhibitions, both to the public at large
and to the participants. The showmen-hypnotists have in mind only the
entertainment of audiences and are little concerned about any bodily or
mental injury that may be done the volunteer subjects.
While the really important work in hypnotism and auto-suggestion
is being pursued by psychiatrists (alienists) and physicians in
laboratories and clinics, demonstrating “the influence of mind over
matter,” their results are not so obvious, so easily understood, as the
spectacular performances of the showmen-hypnotists.
As a rule there is no necessity for these showmen to place “tools”
in the auditorium to volunteer when requests are made for subjects
for demonstration. Among the many real volunteers who are curious to
see if they can be hypnotized, it is not a difficult matter for the
experienced showman to select some well suited to his purpose, though
he succeeds better with some of these than with others. The unsuitable
persons having been rejected, it is not long before the expert has a
band of hypnotized subjects doing the goose-step behind him, utterly
devoid of any impulse of their own, ready on command to perform
whatever ridiculous--and therefore laughter-provoking--“stunt” he may
suggest.
Limbs are stiffened and retained in any posture selected by the
hypnotist, and without fatigue to the subject. Laid horizontally, the
whole body may be made rigid, so that if the head be placed on one
chair and the heels on another, the body forming a bridge between the
two, heavy loads quite beyond the person’s normal powers are readily
borne by him. Certain movements of the arms or legs once begun, the
subject cannot of his own will inhibit them. A needle run through a
fold of the skin will cause no pain. Told that he is an orchestral
conductor, the volunteer will soberly conduct an imaginary orchestra,
waving the baton to and fro. Ordered to give three cheers for “the king
of Iceland” three minutes after awakening, the subject will, promptly
at the time suggested, suddenly break forth with the cheers for the
imaginary king, though unable to account for his by now embarrassing
foolishness. The same result will occur if the order is given for 243
or 2043 minutes after awakening--the subconscious mind will keep
accurate count.
These phenomena are genuine in character, and are all capable of a
psychological explanation. In the cataleptic or deeper stages of
hypnotism, the subject loses all consciousness of the external world,
still, however, hearing and obeying the voice of the operator. On
awakening he has either partially or wholly forgotten all that has
occurred during his somnambulistic sleep or trance.
Psychotherapists usually designate as somnambulism the (third) phase of
hypnotism wherein all that has happened during the trance is completely
forgotten. The term is objectionable, however, since it is commonly
applied to sleep-walking (_in somno ambulare_--to walk in sleep). For
this reason Louis Satow suggests that the term _somnambulance_ be
applied to sleep-walking, and _somnambulism_ to the deepest phase of
hypnotic sleep.[5]
[5] In his excellent book, “Hypnotism and Suggestion” (translated by
Bernard Miall), Page 76, New York, 1923.
Hutchison regards sleep-walking as a counterpart of hypnotic sleep.
As is well known, not a few persons during natural sleep leave their
beds and wander about the house, or even go out into the street or
climb on the roof, performing dangerous feats in a state of entire
unconsciousness. Entering a room where other persons are sitting, they
will answer any questions put to them, or carry on a conversation.
Some undertake complicated transactions, usually those which are “most
frequently included in the circle of their work and thought, and which
concern them also in their waking moments” (Satow). Upon awakening the
sleep-walker has no recollection of his actions during sleep.
Coué would explain that the somnambulist performs what are often
perilous feats, usually with perfect security, because of his absence
of fear; that is, he does not _imagine_ himself falling from the height
scaled, or the narrow board or path traversed in his wanderings.
Satow says that sleep-walkers are “unaware of a large number of
sensory impressions, and for this reason do not recognize danger.”
However, as he further observes, somnambulists have occasionally “come
to grief during their perilous wanderings,” as shown by authentic
results. Usually, the business in hand having been accomplished, the
sleep-walker finds his way back to bed, spontaneous waking during the
performance being of rare occurrence.
Dr. Baerwald, of the Humboldt Academy in Berlin, tells of a
sleep-walker who, without being hypnotized, was able to recite the
words of a book which another person was reading (the letters being
one two hundred and fiftieth of an inch high) although the latter sat
facing the somnambulist, with the back of the book turned to him. The
reader will doubtless jump to the plausible conclusion that this was
a case of telepathy--mind-reading. Not so. Induced to close his eyes,
the sleep-walker could no longer “recite the words of the book.” The
somnambulist had actually been reading the book from the reflected
image of the type in the pupils of the reader’s eyes! Doubtless such
acuteness of vision does not occur in the waking state.
In both hypnotic somnambulism (deep sleep) and sleep-walking, the
essential characteristic is lack of remembrance of the events which
have occurred. But in the case of the sleep-walker even the prick of
a needle would cause him to awake; whereas in the deepest phase of
hypnotic sleep marked anaesthesia occurs. In pre-chloroform days,
Esdaile and others were enabled to carry out large numbers of major and
minor surgical operations without pain to the patient. Even in recent
times, painless tooth-extraction and painless childbirth have occurred
with the aid of hypnotic sleep.
In the first phase of hypnosis, only sleepiness is induced. The
influenced person, in this stage, can resist suggestion and open his
eyes (Forel). With this degree of hypnosis alone, many cases of cure
have been effected.
Dr. Hutchison states that adequate anaesthesia can also be induced by
suggestion in the state of light sleep (second phase), when the patient
is fully conscious, allowing painless tooth-extraction: “only the sight
of the extracted tooth has carried conviction to the patient.”
Cases of profound anaesthesia without loss of consciousness have
been frequently noted on the battle-field, where soldiers have been
severely wounded, even including severance of important parts of the
body, without pain, and even without knowing for a time that the injury
had been inflicted. It is probable that the sudden shock in such
cases paralyzes the nerves, hence there can be no sensation of pain
registered in the cerebrum. On the other hand, it is quite possible
that on the field of battle the condition is purely psychological, the
victim being in a sort of trance, as a result of excitement.
Certain of the martyrs appear to have been in such a state at the time
of their burning at the stake or similar torturing deaths--“a result of
the state of intense exaltation into which they fell in anticipation
of martyrdom,” rendering them to a great extent oblivious to injuries
which would otherwise result in unspeakable agony. It is said that
Archimedes, the greatest mathematicion of antiquity, was so deeply
engrossed in some geometrical problem that he was unaware of the fact
that Syracuse had been taken by the Romans, and that he had received a
mortal wound, even though his life-blood was flowing away.
_Concentration_ of thought is one aspect of hypnosis, rendering
one unconscious of the external world and its doings. Thus, again,
Archimedes having discovered how to determine the specific weight of
bodies while he was taking a bath, the well-known story goes that he
became so excited over the solution that he rushed to the street stark
naked, shouting as he ran, “Eureka! Eureka!” (I have found it! I have
found it!). Had his thigh been pierced by an arrow as he ran, it is
doubtful if he would, for the moment have felt any pain from the wound
inflicted.
Everyone is familiar with the undisputed fact that the medicine-man
(shaman) of certain savage tribes is capable of producing--by
auto-suggestion--anaesthesia which enables him to dance barefoot in
the midst of a fire, or over red-hot boulders. Many savages, by means
of rhythmical, long-protracted dances, produce a form of auto-hypnosis
which enables them to inflict severe wounds in their flesh which do not
bleed and quickly heal.
Hypnotists find it quite possible to render a person incapable (during
the hypnotic state) of exercising his faculties of tasting, smelling,
seeing or hearing, “except in so far as the operator allows him to do
so.” Told that a glass of water is bubbling champagne, the subject
(unless deeply opposed on principle: see previously) smacks his lips
with intense satisfaction; or he chews chalk for candy with equal
gusto. He will, at the command of the operator, smell asafetida as a
delicious violet odor, or pronounce strong ammonia an odorless liquid,
inhaling it without discomfort. The subconscious mind is not endowed
with an olfactory lobe or gustatory organs. Capacity for pain is an
exclusive property of the conscious mind. Hence the anaesthesia of
hypnotism.
An incident narrated by Dr. Wingfield shows at once the source of
“automatic writing” and the power of subconscious mind to remember what
the conscious mind knows nothing about.
Having hypnotized his patient, during somnambulism he made him imagine
that he was (1) riding with the hounds, (2) rowing a race in his
college boat, and (3) that next morning he would put a boot on one foot
and a shoe on the other. “On waking he knew none of these things. I
then made him put his hand on a planchette, and asked ‘What did he do
first?’ After a few meaningless scratches it wrote ‘hunting.’ ‘When
then?’ I asked. ‘Rowed in the races,’ was the answer. ‘Did I tell him
to do anything?’ ‘Boot one, shoe one,’ said the planchette.”
Dr. Wingfield calls attention to the fact that the knowledge possessed
by the planchette was exactly commensurate with that possessed by the
subject during somnambulism. “It will thus be seen that any loss of
memory after hypnosis is only apparent and not real.”
This power of the subconscious to remember facts, names, the
measurement of time, and even languages, wholly unknown to the
conscious mind, has frequently aroused astonishment in the learned
and superstitious awe in the uninstructed. The Countess deLaval,
for example, talked the Breton language in her sleep, but could not
understand a word of Breton when awake. (She had heard it spoken in
early childhood.) An illiterate servant, in a state of trance, spoke
Hebrew fluently, but knew nothing whatever of the language when awake.
It was learned that she had years before been in service with a
clergyman who had a habit of memorizing Hebrew aloud.
The ouija-board or planchette aids the subconscious in bringing to
consciousness forgotten memories. But the subconscious mind is highly
imaginative, and often a great liar--as the ouija-board attests!
In some cases, suggestions made to a person under hypnotic treatment
retain their hold on the subject after he has been wakened, and it then
becomes necessary to re-hypnotize the subject, suggesting contrary
ideas. A hypnotized person may be led to believe that a dear friend has
done him a great injustice, or stolen his purse, or that he has seen
Smith or Jones commit a grave crime. In such cases of _post-hypnotic
hallucinations_--as they are called--the subject, after waking, if
questioned will describe in full detail the circumstances of the injury
done him, and would be fully capable of giving evidence to support his
hallucination in a court of law. Some persons even develop similar
hallucinations by auto-suggestion.
“It is familiar to us all,” says Dr. Hutchison, “how readily some
people can ... fabricate the details of a scandal, can, so to speak,
create for themselves the hallucination of a scandal, every incident
of which they believe themselves to have seen. For this it suffices
simply that some one person should rest under slight suspicion, that a
slight rumor should be set afloat, and ere long idle onlookers create
the details which are wanting, and which they implicitly believe they
have founded on fact. Nowhere are more striking instances of this seen
than in law courts, when an attempt is made to sift evidence. It is a
well-known fact that a clever counsel may lead a witness into accepting
and confirming most contradictory statements, by merely suggesting with
an air of conviction that certain events had or had not been witnessed
by him.”
Very interesting is the phenomenon of post-hypnotic suggestion. The
suggestion is made during the hypnotic sleep that the subject perform
certain acts after the lapse of a certain time, in the waking state.
A young woman was told by Dr. Milne Bramwell to address a letter to
him 12,500 minutes from the time at which she came out of the hypnotic
sleep. Although she remembered nothing of the request on waking, at the
exact second of expiration of the 12,500 minutes she wrote the letter,
believing that the act was entirely voluntary. In this case, the woman
was quite incapable of calculating the time consciously. In other cases
Dr. Bramwell suggested to the hypnotized subjects that certain messages
should be delivered at a fixed date, at a certain hour. Notwithstanding
the fact that obstacles were purposely put in their path, the subjects
faithfully carried out the commands at the appointed hour.
For the sake of the experiment, hypnotized subjects have been commanded
to do rather absurd things at a specified time. Having carried out
the suggestion, and asked why the act was performed, the subject
will frequently attempt to give a good reason why he had done so and
so, believing fully that he had done it of his own accord. “Even
when delusions of the senses occur in the waking state,” says Satow,
“without hypnosis, we must assume that the persons affected are not,
for the time being, for some reason or other, in a position to correct
the creations of their imaginative faculties by reference to realities,
and therefore regard them as real. So Luther, who was still deep in the
superstitions of his day, regarded the devil who appeared to him on
the Wartburg as being so real that he hurled his inkstand after him.”
Post-hypnotic results are often utilized to very good advantage by
the psycho-therapist, since all psycho-physical processes can be
influenced. For example, a person suffering from sleeplessness may
be given very definite directions as to the hour at which he will
become drowsy and the number of hours he will sleep. Such suggestions,
however, may not always be responded to literally, but in some cases
only a gradual improvement in sleeping occurs. Dr. Hutchison finds that
“definite suggestions may be given in a case of obstinate constipation
to act later in the form of a post-hypnotic suggestion, and so lead
after a few treatments to the complete cure of the constipation. The
various secretions may be influenced on the same lines, and so appetite
and the ability to digest any food can be successfully suggested in a
person suffering from loss of appetite and who may have refrained from
solid foods for weeks or months.”
According to Satow, all remedial hypnosis depends upon post-hypnotic
effects. “The cure of all sorts of complaints--stammering, agoraphobia,
insomnia, incontinence of urine, etc.--is complete only if it holds
good _after_ hypnosis. All post-hypnotic suggestions are much more
easily realized if ordered to be carried out at a given time.... To
explain the effect of post-hypnotic suggestions it must be assumed that
after hypnosis a condition of greater vigilance and increased nervous
activity continues in the subconsciousness.”
It has been observed that in arithmetical experiments many persons
when hypnotized are able to add up 20% more figures than in the waking
state. But no hypnotist can enable a subject to work out mathematical
problems with which the subject is wholly unfamiliar in the waking
state, since “no idea can ever be invoked which has not already
consciously or unconsciously found its way into the mind” (Satow). In
the same way, no hypnotist can enable anyone to play the piano who has
not been accustomed to play it.
It is quite true, however, that mathematicians have solved problems
during sleep which baffled them when awake. And the story of how
the great Paganini awoke one morning to find his famous “_Sonate du
Diable_” written in score by his bedside has often been told. Knowing
nothing of the marvelous workings of the subconscious mind, Paganini
ascribed the composition to the devil. A friend of my own frequently
sells stories and poems which are the products of dreams. Robert Louis
Stevenson always declared that “the Brownies” gave him his stories in
his sleep.