We will assume that there are present three ladies of the following
turn of mind: one who never overlooks an opportunity to dance, to
attend a ball, a party; number two, who was of the same disposition
at a former time, but who now has the thought that it is a sin, and
number three who has _no_ conception of what a ball or party is
like. We ask number one, while normal, to please get up and dance;
she refuses(?). No, we have failed to force her. Being ruled by her
surroundings she says, “This is no place for dancing.” She is here to
listen to a lecture and she refuses(?). We hypnotize her and tell her
that when she opens her eyes she will get up and dance. Will she? No,
she will repeat the first answer, she refuses because, as yet, she
has the same surroundings. She does not refuse, but responds to her
environment which has all the suggestions positive against dancing.
We can make her dance. How? By taking her to a ballroom.
[Sidenote: Normal subservient to picture]
[Sidenote: All action is “reflex”]
When she is in hypnosis, the process can be reversed, bringing a
ballroom to her. Normally the thought should be aroused through the eye
and accentuated through the other senses. We will revive the thought
through the ear by telling her “when she opens her eyes she will find
herself in a ballroom, will see her friends dancing, will hear the
music and will see her partner standing beside her.” When she opens
her eyes, she _throws out_ a picture of a ballroom on her present
surroundings and is perfectly normal, subservient to the picture thrown
out. She seemingly sees, hears, smells, feels and tastes normally as
to all things that pertain to the ballroom she has pictured. She has a
ballroom thought placed there through her ear in lieu of through the
eye, no other could she have were she in a ballroom. Seeing a partner
by her side she accepts his arm and dances. If she should dance against
a chair she would not see it, as it is not part of the picture, but
through the sense of feeling she would respond to the suggestion
which would force an action of apology as though she had bumped into
another couple. (This completely exemplifies the action of man.) She is
perfectly capable of carrying on a conversation and no one could tell
she were not normal as to her inspired environment. She will do or say
only what she would, were she in an actual ballroom. Every idea that is
engraven on the cylinder will respond if forced. _When no action is
recorded there is no reflex(?) to respond and the action is omitted._
[Sidenote: As to detailed suggestion]
[Sidenote: To make a thought active]
We will assume that this young lady is dancing in a certain ballroom
where a young man stepped on the train of her dress; she turned and
slapped him. If we call to her, “Your dress has been stepped on and
torn,” will she turn and slap an imaginary man behind her? No. We will
get no more action than a frown on her face, as we have failed to put
the thought in action; the thought of her dress being torn was made
up of the _feeling_ of the pull, the _hearing_ it tear, and
perhaps the _seeing_ of it (perhaps it was torn); three senses
being affected. As we can deceive only the sight of a hypnotized
subject, we can cause her to throw out a picture of a torn place in
her dress, but as we failed to make her feel it tear, or to hear it
tear, we have failed to put the thought in action by failing to affect
_two_ senses.
[Sidenote: Cannot deceive sense-memories]
[Sidenote: Subjective mind]
To further illustrate that a subject is “normal,” subservient to his
picture and that the operator causes only the eye to be deceived, we
will assume that there are on the stage a barber and a very fastidious
young man, who takes a great interest in his shaving. We desire to put
on a shaving act, that is, one man to sit in a chair, the other to put
on him a barber’s apron, using a one pound paint brush and a large
soup bowl full of lather to lather the customer’s face, and then to
shave him with a wooden razor that weighs at least a pound and a half.
Now, dear reader, which would you choose for the barber and which for
the customer? No doubt, you would say, “Make the barber the barber
and the fastidious young man the customer.” That would never do, for
if you were giving an exhibition before a public audience, within
two minutes many of the spectators would swear that the barber was
“faking.” The sense highest cultivated in a barber is that of feeling.
He sees the picture, well and good, but when he tries to tip back the
chair it fails to tip, therefore feeling contradicts his sight; when
he picks up the paint brush, feeling again contradicts sight; in fact,
everything he does, every feeling memory that is actually associated
and pronounced in him, is being contradicted (Hudson’s subjective(?)
mind), and a smile will appear on the face of the actual barber. But if
we reverse them and cause the fastidious young man who knows all the
detail through his eye, and not through the sense of _feeling_,
he will, seemingly, most perfectly go through the entire process of
shaving, as there is no memory of feeling to be contradicted by the
actual contact with the tools furnished.
[Sidenote: Expression is thought]
Again referring to the young ladies and the ballroom. Number two,
although given the same inspiration, will wonder how she happened to
attend, and is likely to ask for her wraps and desire to be taken
home. What will be the appearance of number three when she opens her
eyes? Her face will be a blank and her eye without expression, as we
have failed to inspire her with a thought. Hence, we learn that _all
expression is the result (part) of thought_. Having a thought of
mirth, it is impossible to look sad, to speak firmly, or to give any
action seriously.
[Sidenote: Simulation impossible]
[Sidenote: “Faking”]
Another point here; _simulation is impossible_. No person can
simulate closely enough to force conviction, as it is impossible to
furnish all the attributes without having the actual thought. Tune a
dozen violins to G, draw the bow over one and the others will respond;
if one is not tuned to the note, there will be no response. Normal man,
far more sensitive than the finest tuned instrument, cannot be deceived
(made to respond). Let twenty subjects be inspired with laughter and
among them one attempting to simulate, the audience will not laugh,
that one discord will prevent a response. The indescribable tone must
be there to force a result and this can only be when it is the result
of a mirthful thought. Without the thought there can be no expression,
therefore no person can simulate the inspiration. You read much about
subjects who claim that they have deceived the public and the operator
by pretending, or to use a common expression, they “faked.” Let me
assure you that those persons deliberately lie. The man does not live
who can so overcome and defy such a positive law. I have led into
hypnosis over one hundred thousand persons and have yet to meet the one
who could deceive a ten year old lad. The subject, to make you think he
believes a fly on his nose through the particular contraction of the
muscles of his face, the look in his eyes, and the gesture of brushing
it away, must have that thought in his “mind.” The method of putting it
there is what I call hypnosis. Call it whatever you wish, we hypnotists
are the only ones who do this; and, furthermore, the only ones able to
find these fellows who claim they are able to “fake.” The ordinary
layman does not find them; we find them. We call it hypnotism.
[Sidenote: Fallacy of a dual “mind”]
[Sidenote: Avoid positives against]
[Sidenote: Producing day-dreams]
[Sidenote: See comprehension]
To illustrate that a subject is normal, subservient to his picture, and
that the claim made by Hudson that we have two minds, objective and
subjective, which discriminate (an impossibility), is incorrect: In
the ridiculous side of this art, the operator strives to emphasize and
make use of day-dreams. We will assume that there are twenty subjects
on the platform, all strangers to me. I desire to have some of them
play on brooms for banjos. I carefully look them over and choose those
whose appearance would suggest that they were accustomed to attending
parties, dances, et cetera, who have full foreheads and other signs
of being musically inclined. I am not looking for those who play, as
you will comprehend later, but for those who have envied some player,
for those who have mentally taken the place of a player. If I should
say to them, “When you open your eyes, you will find a banjo in your
lap, and you will play for us,” and they open their eyes they would
refuse, saying, “We do not know how to play.” Yet, if I build around
them a positive picture, being careful to avoid any positive against
their playing, I can force them to respond, if at any time they have
had a desire to be a player. So I tell them that “When you open your
eyes you will find yourself on the stage, there is a banjo in your lap,
you are a member of a banjo quartette; the curtain is up and it is
your turn to move your chairs down the stage, to tune up and in turn
play and sing your best song to entertain the ladies and children.”
There being no positive against their playing, the day-dream will be
reproduced. Of course, the result will be ridiculous, but that is what
we desire. As to the mental condition of the players, each is his own
thought of a banjo player; they respond to the audience, the applause.
They could be allowed to go home as they are, yet if some one on the
way should ask them to play they would be likely to do so. When they
arrived home, they would carefully put away the supposed banjo, and the
next morning would ask how that broom happened to be where it was. The
subject is perfectly “normal,” subservient to his picture, it being,
if he could tell it, “I am a banjo player. I am wide-awake; my conduct
must be consistent with what I believe a banjo player to be.” Right
here I will state that I lack the ability to properly describe the
state of a subject; his cerebrum is not active, he simply responds, yet
the explanation is not correct, but would be if the subject was using
his cerebrum. For the ordinary reader the present explanation is the
more comprehensible. In other words, a banjo player is a normal being,
and although his clothes may not fit the subject, yet the subject will
try his best to adapt himself to them. If one of the subjects should
be a banjo player, a puzzled look will appear on his face the moment
he tries to tune the instrument, and he will hand me the broom saying
“I cannot play it; it has no strings.” The others would not attempt to
play it if it had strings. Why? The moment the subject opens his eyes
he is normal, subservient to his picture, and the first associated
action of the player is to tune the instrument. The capable player has
a very decided memory of the _feeling_ of the strings, his touch
is normal; he can find no strings with his fingers although he can see
them, but as he plays with his fingers they cannot be deceived, the
force (cause, suggestion) is lacking, and his touch not being affected,
no action is forced.
[Sidenote: Cannot furnish emphasizing attributes]
Those who do not know how to play have no feeling memory; they
_see_ the strings and indiscriminately finger them; and, as
there is no suggestion to inform them that they are not players,
they continue. If there were strings on the broom, the moment they
_touched_ them the idea that they could not play would be forced
into action and they would refuse. Thus we can see that although the
operator may be able to bring up the mental picture, he lacks the
ability to furnish or make good the emphasizing attributes of the other
senses that are necessary to force the completion of any act that
is not extremely congenial to the subject, and no “abnormal” act is
congenial.
[Sidenote: Words without tone]
I place a hypnotized subject at a table, a non-hypnotized man opposite
to him, giving them a pack of cards, and they begin playing. The man
opposite the subject undertakes to abuse him very severely. I stand
behind the hypnotized subject and urge him on, till we get a quarrel. I
hand him a pasteboard dagger and he stabs the man he is playing with.
If he is given a steel dagger, he fails to close his hand on it. Why?
First, there is _no quarrel_. His opponent lacks the _tone_;
words without tone are ineffectual and put no thought in action.
Therefore, the picture we have is one of a _simulated_ quarrel;
and the pasteboard dagger, as it carries with it no ideas contrary to
the picture, is readily used; but the moment we introduce the steel
dagger, we introduce an attribute _foreign_ to the picture,
therefore inactive, there being no action for the transforming, through
touch, of the suggestion of the dagger.
[Sidenote: Place the subject]
[Sidenote: Furnish attributes]
One more illustration: We desire to have the subjects go through the
act of fishing. If I simply say to them “that when they open their eyes
they will go fishing,” then tell them to open their eyes, they will not
respond, as they are still on the stage, and there is no place thereon
to fish. If I tell them that when they open their eyes they will find
themselves alongside of a fishing stream, they will not respond even
then; for, though man be alongside of a stream, he cannot fish without
the proper attributes. Consequently, I must furnish each one with bait,
hooks, lines and rods. These attributes, although _ghosts_, will
force him to fish, provided he knows how. The subject sees no audience,
neither can he hear one, for it is foreign to his picture. If a person
from the audience should step up and take hold of the pole that is held
by the inspired fisherman, he would not be seen; but, through feeling,
the fisherman would have the idea that a big fish or a tree or a log
had caught his hook and conduct himself accordingly. He sees the other
fishermen, and will talk to them. I am only another fisherman, nothing
more to him. If I were, the ideas associated would carry a picture of
the stage. I can allow him to go home; he may show a string of fish
that he does not possess, and might scold if they were not cooked as
ordered. Otherwise, he is perfectly rational, such as any fisherman; he
is his thought of a fisherman, which is that of a rational being.
[Sidenote: Picture of ghosts]
In all these scenes the subject is working in a picture (environment)
of _ghosts_, furnished by himself and aroused in his mind through
the voice of the operator. The thought cannot be changed by other than
the operator; the senses are free only in relation to the thought,
which, in most cases, makes the subject seemingly super-sensitive.
[Sidenote: Man is a piano keyboard]
Man is as a piano keyboard, played on by his environment. When we
touch “a”, “g” does not refuse to respond, but we fail to force it.
To the degree that we strike a note, is to the degree that there
is a response. Man responds according to the degree of the force
(suggestion) on two or more senses.
[Sidenote: A guide]
[Sidenote: Cannot be hypnotized]
[Sidenote: Self-induced]
[Sidenote: As to hypnotizing at a distance]
A hypnotist is merely a guide—a leader—who teaches a subject how to
_hypnotize himself_, and all _sane_ persons can be taught
to take on this condition. An operator stands in about this position:
If I should go to a city a stranger, and, standing on the street
corner, meet the brightest citizen and ask him to show me the way to
the postoffice, he naturally would reply, “Certainly, follow me.” I
reply, “I will not walk, neither will I ride.” Why, the man would look
at me in disgust and ask how I expected to reach the postoffice. So
it is with many who sit down to be hypnotized. They will not give the
operator their attention, yet expect the operator to lead them where
they will not follow. Still standing on the street corner, I meet a
half-witted lad, whom it has taken ten years to teach the way to the
postoffice. I ask him to show me the way. He replies, “Certainly;
follow me.” If I were insane, drunken, or half-witted, I would not
be able to do so. I follow him and reach the postoffice, not because
the half-witted lad has a stronger mind than the brightest citizen
or myself, but he knows the way, is willing to lead me, and I, being
capable of following do so, and consequently reach the postoffice. On
the way, I noted the surroundings; the next time I can go there slowly
without a guide, and after half a dozen trips can go as quickly as
anyone in the town. So it is with the subject. I teach him how to take
on hypnosis, and in a very short time he will require no prompting from
the operator. It matters not whether you place the thought of sleep
with your voice or by making passes over the subject, for the passes
are feeling suggestion and will induce the same condition. You read of
this wonderful “power” being exerted over the telephone. It is very
simple. You have an office boy to whom you have taught the way to the
postoffice. Being down town, it occurs to you that there may be some
mail for you at the postoffice. You go to the telephone and ring up
your office, tell the boy to go and get your mail. If the lad is so
disposed, he will; otherwise, he will not, and you cannot force him.
The same condition may be induced by writing to a subject, that when
he “finishes reading this letter, he will go to sleep.” As hypnosis is
self-induced, he can do so if so disposed.
[Sidenote: Attributes necessary to a hypnotist]
If you lack a firm voice and assurance, you lack the two most
important attributes necessary to a hypnotist, and you should refrain
from attempting to hypnotize. Your tone will fail to carry any
suggestion other than a positive _against_ you and will contradict
the words you utter. If you have assurance and a firm voice, know what
hypnosis is, that words of themselves put no thought in action, that it
is impossible to bring out of the mind of a person what is not there,
or to arouse any thought unless _two_ senses are affected, you are
prepared to learn how to teach a subject to take on what is known as
“Hypnosis.”
The first thing necessary is that the following formula be learned word
for word:
[Sidenote: Oral formula to induce hypnosis]
“Take an easy position. Put your hands together thus. I am going to ask
you to look at the end of this pencil. If you will do so and think of
it, your eyelids will get heavy and close, or, if I close them for you,
allow them to remain closed; then your head will fall to the front,
your hands will drop to your sides and you will forget where you are.
When I want you to awaken I will (tell you) say ALL RIGHT and clap my
hands. Do you understand me?
“At no time will you feel sleepy, but by giving me your undivided
attention you will slowly forget where you are.
“Drowsy, sleepy, drowsy, sleepy, drowsy, sleepy; as you go deeper
asleep your eyelids get heavy and close.” (Repeat until accomplished.)
“Drowsy, sleepy, drowsy, sleepy, drowsy, sleepy; as you go deeper
asleep your head falls to the front.” (Repeat until accomplished.)
“Drowsy, sleepy, drowsy, sleepy, drowsy, sleepy; as you go deeper
asleep your hands get heavy and fall to your sides.” (Repeat until
accomplished.)
“This ear smarts, burns, stings and itches, and will stop only when you
rub it a long time with your right hand. UGH! UGH! UGH!
“You open your eyes only when I tell you. You awaken only when I say
ALL RIGHT and clap my hands (I tell you). Now mind!” (Repeat this.)
“You have an awful pain in this knee (thumb, when a lady), and it will
stop only when you rub it a long time with both hands (right hand),
UGH! UGH!” While he is rubbing it say, “When you look at it it will be
a thousand times worse, now open your eyes.”
[Sidenote: Attributes of hypnosis]
Knowing that Hypnosis consists of:
First, _An easy position_;
Second, _Upturned or converged eyes_;
Third, _Concentration_;
Fourth, _Closed eyes_;
[Sidenote: Easiest to hypnotize]
Fifth, The substitution for the _concentration_ of the “locked in”
thought of sleep;[1] who are the easiest to hypnotize? Those possessing
the greatest concentration.
Can the insane or half-witted be hypnotized? No; they cannot
concentrate.
[Sidenote: Who to choose]
Therefore, choose for your first subjects, those with pronounced
concentration, who are distinguishable by the fulness of their heads at
the temples, and avoid those with big perceptives (shown by the large
protuberance over the eyes).
[Illustration: Put your hand together thus.
To look at the end of this pencil.
Will get heavy and close.
Or if I close them for you.
Allow them to remain closed.
Your head will fall to the front.
Your hands will drop to your sides.
Will say “all right” and clap my hands.