The sentence of “Drowsy, sleepy, drowsy, sleepy, et cetera, as you go
deeper asleep your eyelids get heavy and close,” seems a long one. Why
not make it shorter? Why not “Drowsy, sleepy, your eyes shut”? Is not
that the same thing? No! “Drowsy, sleepy, et cetera, as you go deeper
asleep the eyelids get heavy and close,” makes the closing of the
eyelids one of the attributes of the thought of sleep; but when you
say, “Drowsy, sleepy, your eyes shut,” you are trying to force into the
“mind” of the subject two separate and distinct thoughts; _i. e._,
to sleep—to shut his eyes—which is utterly impossible. Any operator
who, in giving inspirations to the subject, leaves out his “and’s,”
“as’s” and “but’s,” will fail, inasmuch as the ideas must be thoroughly
correlated and be one thought, because thoughts may of themselves
become ideas, or ideas become thoughts.
[Sidenote: As to failure]
We will assume that you held the pencil over the subject’s head for
some half an hour and he failed to take on hypnosis. What is wrong?
If he is not in an easy position (No. 1), that is your fault. Is his
collar too high, is his head too far back, is his back too close to
a radiator or fireplace, et cetera? Or, if a woman, is she laced too
tight, do her shoes pinch, et cetera? Why is any easy position the
first attribute of sleep? I mean by an “easy position” one in which
the sense of feeling is not making discomfort a dominant idea; for
if so, it is impossible to fade away the thought of the environment;
therefore, before sleep can be induced, comfort through feeling must
form itself into a natural attribute of sleep. The upturned eye (No. 2)
is also for you to furnish. Are you holding the pencil in the proper
place? If you strain the eye, you lose No. 1. Has the time come to
close the eye (No. 4)? Is the subject concentrated? If not, you cannot
accomplish No. 5.
[Sidenote: As to concentration]
It is a poor art or science if we must wait half an hour to discover
whether the subject is concentrating or not.
Having fifteen to twenty-five subjects on the stage and a restless
audience waiting for an entertainment, what could be accomplished if
I had to wait half an hour for each subject, to discover if he was
concentrating?
Every time one gets a new thought the _eye blinks_, although the
eye may blink without a change of thought; but _never a change of
thought without the blink_.
NOTE.—Now, dear reader, when you stand before a mirror to
experiment, remember that the making of another _idea_ dominant
is not changing the thought. You may think you can change without
blinking, but it is like people believing that a person can go on the
stage and “fake” for a hypnotist, both of which are directly against a
set law and impossible. If the world could learn that those attempting
to deceive, deceive only themselves, there would be fewer failures in
life.
The moving of the eyeball shows the reviewing of the associated ideas
and always occurs in those who have large perceptives (heavy projection
over the eyes). They will think of the pencil but will divide and study
its attributes, _i. e._, cost, color, form, et cetera, and are the
subjects who require several drills. Their hands will fall stiffly to
their sides (having taken on hypnosis about ninety-seven per cent). For
complete hypnosis, the hands must fall _limply_.
If the subject gives you the “baby stare,” and you fail to hypnotize
him you had better—well, I advise my pupils under such conditions to
jump into the river and say, “Here goes nothing.”
[Sidenote: Proof of hypnosis]
The subject being in a collapsed state or relaxed condition of the
muscles, we know he is in hypnosis, but as a great many will not accept
any thought of sleep without being stretched out, it is policy to
lay them on the floor, which nearly always consummates the required
attribute. The proof that he is in hypnosis is that he is relaxed.
Perhaps he can simulate it; I can hold my arm relaxed? All right. Man
can think of but one thing at a time; the subject’s eyes are closed. I
take hold of his arm (he relaxes it); with my other hand I quickly lift
his leg, and, if he knew how to simulate, he could not shift the action
in time to deceive anyone.
[Sidenote: To undo the hypnosis]
[Sidenote: No action from direct command]
A subject being in all the conditions of sleep is of no value to
me,—the operator. I want one seemingly awake. Consequently, I want
now to partially unbuild what I built. First, I give him what I call
the “Ear Test,” the object of which is to find if I can replace the
thought (cylinder) of sleep with another thought (cylinder) having
a perceptible action to it. Therefore, I say to him, “Your right
ear (touching it) smarts, burns, stings, itches, and will stop only
when you rub it a long time with your right hand,” making with my
mouth expressions of pain. If the subject rubs his ear, I have a
demonstration that I have changed the thought. If I say to him, “Your
ear smarts, burns, stings, rub it,” would I get any action? No, he
would simply ask me which ear, if his cerebrum was active. Therefore,
it is necessary for me to designate the ear, or properly, to state
which ear, and touch it. I now tell him, “Your right ear, or this ear
(touching it), smarts, burns, stings and itches, rub it.” Will he rub
it? He will not, but will ask me why he should rub it, if his cerebrum
was active, but if I said to him as above mentioned, “it will stop
only when you rub it” he rubs it to cause it to stop, not because
I told him to rub his ear, which I failed to do. Man does nothing
because he is told to. While he is rubbing the ear I call to him,
“The pain has stopped.” Instantly he ceases to rub it. Is the subject
now in hypnosis? No, because he has the thought that the “pain has
ceased” instead of the thought of sleep. His muscles are contracted
into the position he happens to be in, the eye can be turned down; the
inexperienced would say he was in hypnosis, the same as when lying limp
on the floor. My experience proves to me that he is not in hypnosis; he
has the thought of “no pain” which is a blank thought similar to the
thought of sleep, but you will find that the muscles are in a different
condition.
[Sidenote: Voice rules]
The subject can only respond to my voice, he being free of his actual
environment. _My voice now being his environment_, I must pull
apart nearly all that has just been brought together. To open his
closed eyes is the most powerful suggestion of being awake. If I could
only teach the subject now to open his eyes, to turn them down and
still respond to my voice only, he would be in the condition I desire.
So I say to him in a firm voice:
[Sidenote: Unbuilding]
“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.)
[Sidenote: Disassociating ideas]
[Sidenote: Always one thought]
I then cause him to rub his knee in the same manner as I cause him to
rub his ear, by designating the knee as follows: “You have an awful
pain in this (touching it), the right knee, and it will stop only when
you rub it a long time with both hands.” While the subject is rubbing,
I say, “When you look at it, it will be a thousand times worse. Now
open your eyes.” If he opens his eyes and continues to rub it, he is
practically my subject for the _first_ time. In this way we play
on him a psychological trick; first bringing up in his “mind” the
thought of pain; then disassociating the opening of the eyes with the
idea of awakening, and substituting for it the idea of more pain. We
do not tell him that “When you look at it, it will be a thousand times
worse; now look at it.” Because, if his cerebrum was active, he would
refuse to look at it. We tell him to open his eyes, and if he opens
them, he certainly will look at it. We now say to the subject, “Close
your eyes, the pain has ceased;” then saying, “When you open your eyes
you will find yourself on the floor. Naturally you will get up and
sit on the chair. The moment you sit down you will discover that you
have a very severe nose bleed; now open your eyes,” the “now” being
necessary as a conjunction to connect it with the previous statement.
Otherwise, the subject would be likely to take the sentence, “Open
your eyes,” as a separate thought, do so and lie there on the floor
with his eyes open. The subject opens his eyes, gets up, sits on the
chair, and discovers his nose to be bleeding. Is this subject now in
hypnosis? Decidedly not. His muscles are contracted, in response to his
feeling (environment); his eyes are open and in the “normal” position;
he is not necessarily in a comfortable position. Other than that his
cerebrum is inactive, or that the thought of a nose bleed has been put
into an automatic action through his ear, no sense will respond to
his environment unless it has a relationship to his present thought;
he will continue to give action to all the variations of that thought
until the operator’s voice changes it.
Words are of little value to explain the condition of a “hypnotized”
subject or “normal” man.
[Sidenote: As a typewriter]
[Sidenote: Man is like a typewriter]
I shall try to draw a sight picture to make you comprehend. You have
seen a typewriter. On the keyboard is a pin marked “G”; fastened
(associated) to that is a lever, to that, two more. On the end of the
last is the type “G.” When the pin with the letter “G” marked on it is
touched, three actions take place, and “G” is reproduced on the paper
on the cylinder of the machine. (Analyze the action of lifting or
taking hold of an object.) Until those three levers are properly fitted
(associated), it will be impossible to get an impression on the paper
by striking “G,” but the moment that they are properly associated,
every time you strike “G,” “G” is reproduced on the paper and nothing
else can be. “G” equals the energy exerted (suggestion) on the pin “G.”
If we hit a space on the keyboard that has no lettercap, there is no
response on the paper. Man is like a typewriter; when we hit the cap of
a letter that has the proper actions associated, there is a response
on the paper; when we offer him and he receives (he don’t receive), a
suggestion of which he has no associated ideas, there is no response
because there is no action to respond.
[Sidenote: Abdominal brain]
_A hypnotized subject does not hear me, cerebrally._ He
only responds to me. A “normal” man both hears and responds. The
consciousness of realization of seeing, hearing, et cetera, is only in
the cerebrum. The brain that retains the impressions and responds, is
the Abdominal Brain—the Sympathetic System.
[Sidenote: Environment rules]
As a hypnotized subject is but as the keyboard of a typewriter, played
on by and through his aroused memory of environment, so also must man
be played on by and respond to his actual environment. In inspiring
subjects with any condition, if we fail to emphasize or draw particular
attention to less than two senses, the effect will be unsatisfactory.
[Sidenote: “Dopy” expression]
[Sidenote: As to inspiring]
[Sidenote: Improper inspiring]
Among the masses there has been a great objection offered to my work,
inasmuch as the people remark that they could not tell if Santanelli’s
subjects were hypnotized except by seeing them doing things that they
knew would not have been done were they not hypnotized. Whereas, with
all other operators they could see that the subjects were hypnotized
because their faces and eyes showed it. Why? A comprehensive thought
must express itself in the face and eye—a comprehensive and intelligent
expression; but where the subject lacks a comprehensive thought he has
that “dopy,” hypnotized (?) expression. Being a master of suggestion
and thoroughly understanding how to build, I make my subjects
thoroughly “normal,” subservient to their pictures. When they had the
thought of “fly” it was so definite, all sense-pictures having been
emphasized (aroused), that the man or the subject was in identically
the same position or condition of “mind” that he was when an actual
fly was on his nose. The secret is this: The other operators tell the
subject that when he wakes up, equaling my “When you open your eyes,”
he would find a fly on his nose; something very indefinite. “Normally,”
how would you know there was a fly on your nose? You would _feel_
it. Is that enough? No. It might be a mosquito, it might be an ant, it
might be a wasp. You _look_ at it and then you know that it is a
fly, and by-the-by, let me state here that _man knows nothing, but
believes much_; for if the senses are imperfect, what he knows, he
doesn’t know. I say to a subject, “When you open your eyes you will
see a fly on the end of your nose,” covering two senses, the object
itself (sight) and the place (feeling) which is irritated; “you will
feel it bite and cannot brush it away.” Now, I have covered three (?)
senses: The subject first feels the fly on the end of his nose, he
sees it to be a fly, and he feels very comprehensively its irritation.
Hence, he has no doubt. Could his “mind” be more active, could he be
more positive if he were “normal?” No. “Dopy” subjects are the result
of improper inspiration. If you say to a subject, “When you open your
eyes you will find the chair is hot,” that is very indefinite. But if
you say to the subject, “When you open your eyes you will _feel_
the chair you are seated on is red hot,” he will get out quick. In
the lesson I told you that if you left out your “and’s,” “as’s” and
“but’s,” you would fail to get a good inspiration.
There are some ideas or thoughts which cannot be correlated or
associated. If you tell a subject he cannot let go a cane, it
necessarily follows he must hold on to it; hence, cannot drop it. If
you tell him it is red hot he will drop it, because it is against
nature (?); _i. e._, experience, to grasp a red hot object, and
not be able to drop it. If you tell him that he cannot let go the cane
and it is getting warmer, hotter, you can produce an effect up to a
certain degree; there will be a certain contraction of the muscles and
a certain expression of pain in the face, but the moment that you make
the heat dominant he will drop the cane every time if he is a man of
ordinarily good correlation. If you have a thick-headed subject, there
is no telling what the result will be. Man is wonderfully compounded
and you will meet combinations some days that no man could build a
philosophy on. The exceptions to the foregoing are the isolated cases
where the subject has never experienced being severely burned. Perhaps
dulled nerve-ends. (See Degenerates, pages 15 and 159.)
[Sidenote: Actually awake]
[Sidenote: Post-hypnosis impossible]
I unhesitatingly assert that I (which also includes my pupils) am
the only operator who ever dismissed his subjects actually awake. If
hypnosis is the thought of sleep, the antithesis to that must be the
thought of being awake, and when we tell the subject he is awake he has
the thought of being awake, just the same as we tell him there is a fly
on his nose. The snapping of the fingers is of no value. To awaken, we
must startle him, and if he is awakened properly, a post-hypnotic (?)
suggestion is an impossibility. So I reiterate that any inspiration
given _in “hypnosis”_ can only take place _in “hypnosis,”_
never minding what the quasi “authorities” tell us.
[Sidenote: Hypnosis and pain]
[Sidenote: Waking state]
A subject suffering with headache comes to me to be cured. If the
subject has never been led into hypnosis it is impossible to hypnotize
him the first time if he is suffering from the headache, inasmuch as
No. 1, “Easy position,” cannot be acquired; the suggestion of pain
forces a thought which cannot be faded away through the eye, and
no thought offered in substitution is forceful enough to overcome
it. But if he has learned how to take on hypnosis, it can be done
so quickly that if the thought of pain is not too severe, it can be
readily overcome. If the pain be extremely severe, hypnosis cannot
be induced. I tell the subject that when he opens his eyes he will
have no headache and be wide-awake, and he is now in the condition of
believing himself to be awake with an idea of “no headache”—awake as in
a looking-glass—but if he were actually awake, the cause that produced
the headache, being still present, would get its natural response and
he would feel the headache. Therefore, it can be readily seen that the
subject is not himself _truly_. Yet, having the thought of being
awake, he necessarily has _all_ the attributes of the thought, and
as far as one can perceive, is awake. Stand in front of a mirror. You
see yourself? No, a reflection—a thought of yourself.
If I said “All right” and clapped my hands, the subject would be in the
identical condition as when he came to me; _i. e._, feeling the
headache.
[Sidenote: Two awakenings]
I teach you to awaken the subject two ways; one by giving the
inspiration that he is awake, and the other by saying, “All right”
and clapping my hands. Now, my dear pupil, if I should clap my hands
first, then say, “All right,” would the subject awaken? No. Why not?
Because that is not the way you told it to him (?). If I was personally
giving you the lesson, I would say “rats.” What rules the subject?
Your voice. If I clap my hands, could he hear it? Yes (?). If that be
true, he could hear every sound; that constitutes being wide-awake. You
mean “No.” He could not and cannot hear the clapping of my hands, but
when I say, “All right,” as my voice rules and is his environment, the
associated action is to listen for the clapping. But must I personally
clap my hands? Yes (?). How can he distinguish the clapping of my hands
from those of some one who is standing beside me? He cannot; anyone
beside me could clap his hands, or a pair of clapsticks would be just
as effective. He must be startled; and cannot be startled until I have
used the words, “All right.”
[Sidenote: A hypnotist (?)]
Now, as you know how to induce hypnosis, know how to handle the subject
by building an environment around him, taking care to name _all_
of the senses necessary to enforce a response to the environment, you
are a hypnotist (?). No. I have taught too many, and feel that you
still fail to comprehend me.
[Sidenote: Importance of sense-impressions]
[Sidenote: Name every sight suggestion]
You have a hypnotized subject in your room. We will assume it is
up one flight of stairs. What will you say to him when you desire
him to go to the postoffice? Now, mind, he doesn’t know the way to
the postoffice, he is a stranger. Why, _you_ would say to him,
“When you open your eyes, you will go to the postoffice and get me
a letter,” and the subject will fail to move; because, remember
this, a hypnotized subject is a blind man. He doesn’t take _in_
impressions, he throws _out_ pictures; but the other senses are
of such greater importance, forcing through actions already acquired,
that man, failing to comprehend the value of this law of attributes,
overlooks the importance of the other senses. Treat a hypnotized
subject as a blind man. He is now sitting in the center of my room up
one flight of stairs, and I say to him, “When you open your eyes you
will find yourself in my room. There is an important letter for me at
the postoffice which I am desirous that you, as a good fellow, will go
and get for me. The moment you stand up you will walk five feet to your
left and you will come to the door, on the left side of that door is
the knob; the door opens towards you. Passing out of the door for two
feet you will find the head of the stairs; by putting your hands on the
banister at your left, you can follow down the stairs. To your right is
a door with the knob on the right, which opens towards you. You pass
into that room four feet, then turn to the right, go three feet and you
will find another door with a knob on the right, which opens towards
you; go through the doorway and you will turn to your left; you walk
two feet, then turn to the right and walk eight feet, when you will
come to another door with the knob to your right. You will open that
door and step on to the porch. After walking four feet you will come to
three steps. By walking straight ahead eight feet, you will come to two
more steps. You will then be on the sidewalk. You will walk twenty feet
to reach the corner of the street, turn to your right and cross the
street, et cetera.”
[Sidenote: Name all sense attributes]
Again, my pupil, you have a subject sitting in the center of the room,
and wish him to go to the radiator on the opposite side of the room to
comb his hair at an imaginary looking-glass. What will you say to him?
Why, _you_ will say to him, “When you open your eyes, you will
go to the looking-glass just across the room from you and brush your
hair (?).” The subject opens his eyes, but will not move. Why? Why do
people brush their hair? Because it is disarranged. Therefore the first
thing the subject must know is that his hair is tousled; then he must
be told exactly where the looking-glass is and that on this affair is
a comb and brush; or, in other words, you must name the sight for him,
because through hearing and sight, in many cases we reach the identical
result. You, reading this book, are really receiving sound impressions;
I am giving you words through your eye. With a hypnotized subject,
we are giving him sight through his ear. The more sense-pictures we
specifically arouse, the more comprehensive the action of the subject;
provided, the things he comes in contact with do not give him directly
opposite suggestions.
[Sidenote: Parlor exhibit]
[Sidenote: May fall over]
[Sidenote: “Dopy” subjects]
We will assume that you are giving a parlor entertainment. You have
led your subject into hypnosis, and have him back into his chair. He
has the nosebleed. Now, pupil, what are you going to do? Hypnosis is
the spoon with which you give your medicine. When you are tired of
any action, conditionally awakened in said subject, induce hypnosis
again. Say to him, “Close your eyes, go deep asleep,” and now we are
where we started from. We again have hypnosis; then tell him, “When
you open your eyes, so and so will happen, or is the case.” If the man
is standing up and you say to him, “Close your eyes, go to sleep,” or,
“You are asleep,” he will fall over, because one of the attributes
of sleep is the relaxed muscles. Therefore, when he is doing any
action, associate with that action that it will be more congenial or
comfortable for him to take his seat, then tell him to close his eyes,
he is deep asleep, or you must step up beside him and catch him in
your arms. Now, the necessity for this may not always be apparent.
Many amateurs will say, “Not necessary;” but I am writing of a man or
operator who is working clean-cut and is not allowing the subject to
be “dopy,” half conscious (?) of his environment, half conscious of
the inspiration given him. If the subject is completely lost to his
environment, as he should be if the operator understands his business,
he will drop over every time. Now, I know that many of these statements
amateurs will deny, but I unhesitatingly answer that if they know their
business and work correctly they can demonstrate every affirmation
made here; that they all work with “dopy” subjects; that they do not
and have not ever comprehended the Law of Suggestion; they do not get
perfect or correct work from their subjects.
On the stage when I wish to conclude an action, I thoroughly awaken my
subjects, allowing them to take their seats and enjoy laughing at the
others. As hypnosis is entirely a self-induced condition; that is, a
man with ordinary intelligence can learn to take it on at once after
the first time, I consequently awaken him. When I want to use them
again, I tell them to put their hands together, close their eyes and go
to sleep; they readily take on the attributes necessary; I repeat to
them, “Drowsy, sleepy,” et cetera, a couple of times and they are in
hypnosis, after which I inspire them with any thought I see fit.
[Sidenote: Pre-inspiration]
As it is apropos, I shall here tell of two occurrences which will
demonstrate the self-induced (pre-inspired, “auto-suggested”) condition
as to hypnosis. While lecturing through Michigan in 1895, I preceded
every exhibition with an hour’s talk on hypnosis, et cetera, carrying
the story from night to night for the six nights. A majority of the
drummers traveling through the country made it their special duty to
hear and comprehend the entire six lectures. One of these drummers had
a son fifteen years of age; his residence, a town in Ohio. One day
he received a telegram from his wife saying that their son had been
a subject for some hypnotist, who a week prior had exhibited in the
town, and that the son now was in such a condition that every time
she told him to go to school he fell asleep and could not be aroused,
and nothing could be done with him. The father, having thoroughly
comprehended my lectures, wired the mother not to worry, that he would
go home. He did so. After getting off the train, he went to a harness
shop and bought a buggy whip, arrived home and asked John why he didn’t
go to school, and John told him that the professor had left him in
such a condition that he could not go to school. The father said, “Well
and good; I will remove the effect of the professor,” and gave the boy
a good horsewhipping; ever since he has attended school without the
least sign of hypnosis.
Another: In L——, New York, a very bright lad of thirteen or fourteen
years of age was on the stage with me three or four nights. On Saturday
night his mother and sister came to me in the dressing-room and said
they could do nothing with the boy, that every time they told him
to chop the wood or draw water, he would fall over asleep, and they
said they were going to have me arrested. I asked her if she would do
exactly as I told her, informing her if she would she would have no
more trouble with the boy. The mother, being a good, sensible woman,
said she would. I told her to take the boy’s pants down, lay him across
her lap face downward, and warm him with her hand, which she did. Some
three weeks afterward I met her and she told me she had no further
trouble.
[Sidenote: Doctors trying to awaken subjects]
[Sidenote: Awakening]
A few years ago professors (?) in the dime museums of the large cities
used to put subjects to sleep and, failing to awaken them, would send
for physicians. The learned (?) doctors, after applying electricity,
cautery, et cetera, in the course of eight or ten hours awakened (?)
them, only they didn’t; the hypnosis passed off. Why is it that every
operator excepting myself, and I state this unreservedly, has had
trouble many a time in awakening his subjects. In a town in Illinois I
arrived late. I was carrying one subject, and was anxious to get as
many local subjects as possible for my first night’s performance, as it
is often very hard to get volunteers on the first night. Some amateur
hypnotists came around and said they could get me some. At last they
produced a most horrible specimen of humanity and asked me to hypnotize
him. I remarked that I would not allow him on the stage; then they
said. “As a favor to us, please hypnotize him.” I looked at the fellow
and said, “Go to sleep.” He replied, “Magnetize me.” I said, “You fool,
you know how to go to sleep; go!” He failed to do so. I made some
passes over his face and he took on hypnosis, but he worked “dopy.” In
about five minutes I got him to work with a clear eye. I said, “All
right,” clapped my hands and he failed to awaken. Smiles appeared on
the faces of the five amateurs standing around. Again I said to him,
“All right,” and clapped my hands. He again failed to awaken. The
amateurs continued to smile, some tittered. I readily perceived what I
was “up against,” and I said to the subject, “—— you, when I say ‘All
right’ and clap my hands, if you do not awaken, I will throw you out
in the snowbank and leave you rot, you ——.” I said, “All right,” and
clapped my hands and he nearly went through the ceiling. The amateurs
stood around with their mouths open and said to me, “Mr. Santanelli, do
you teach?”
“Yes, at twenty-five dollars a lesson.”
“Will you teach five of us for less?”
“Yes, one hundred dollars.”
And these clever amateurs paid me the one hundred dollars. The subject
they brought me was one that, after experimenting upon, was always left
to lie on the floor from six to ten hours, as they could not awaken him
and he had to “sleep it off.”
[Sidenote: Never fail to awaken]
[Sidenote: Have confidence]
[Sidenote: Voice]
Now, to answer the question previously asked, “Why is it that I have
never failed and all others do fail?” The reason is simply this: That
when we put the thought of sleep into a subject’s “mind,” it must be
done with a firm voice. That is the key. The moment we become doubtful
or frightened, we have lost the firm voice; inasmuch as the voice is
the utterance of the “mind,” and what we think, we say in tone and
in action; if we are frightened and say, “All right,” to the subject
and clap our hands, he doesn’t respond to it because we have lost the
key; but if we _never get rattled_, there is no possibility of
failing to awaken the subject. It may be that we will be obliged to
use language expressed by dashes—such a case happened in a city in
Arkansas. A young lady had been reading about the woman who had been
asleep in St. Louis for thirty days, and whom none had been able to
awaken. Of course, she was a neurotic. When I said, “All right,” and
clapped my hands, she failed to awaken. Her friends in the parlor
became greatly frightened, so I asked them to retire; then quietly
informed the lady that if when I said, “All right,” and clapped my
hands, she failed to awaken I would have to do things that would be
very inelegant, seemingly ungentlemanly, and above all things I was
not there to be made a —— fool of. I then said, “All right,” clapped
my hands, and she was wide-awake. Keep your nerve, always treat a
hypnotized subject as a rational being, and there will be no trouble.
If you are possessed of a doubt as to the subject awakening, you are
lost; he may be awakened to the degree of “lack of doubt,” but not
thoroughly. The operator’s voice is the thought (in action).
Man is like a piano keyboard, played upon by his environment; as we
touch the keys, so is the response. Hit vigorously and there will be a
corresponding result. When we strike key “A,” do the other notes refuse
to respond, or have we failed to force (suggest) them?
[Sidenote: Treat all subjects as rational beings]
My audiences have wondered why it is that when I get a subject whom
some one else has operated on (as I call it “handled”), and he goes
through many gyrations while going into hypnosis, that I say to him,
“Now, my dear fellow, there is no need of this ‘monkey-shine.’ You
go quietly to sleep; otherwise, you and I will have trouble,” after
which I have but little trouble with the subject, and the people say,
“That’s funny; I wonder if he was ‘faking?’ How can he talk to them as
he does?” A hypnotized subject must comprehend; that is, his Abdominal
Brain must respond and words when given him must arouse thoughts. The
operator should know how to use words with the proper emphasis and
construction.
[Sidenote: Place the subject]
The first attribute of all consciousness is “place,” and the subject,
when he opens his eyes, is always in the place where he went to sleep
unless that place has been changed by the operator. Therefore, _first
place the subject, then give him the attributes_, naming each sense,
thus: “When you open your eyes, you will find yourself in a certain
place, and you will see so and so, and you will hear so and so, and you
will feel so and so,” covering feeling, seeing, hearing, and feeling as
to minor attributes.
[Sidenote: Inspiration]
[Sidenote: One picture at a time]
Assuming that we desire the subject to go through the actions of
milking a table for a cow, the inspiration should be as follows: “When
you open your eyes, you will find yourself seated on the back porch
of a farmhouse. You will see a small cow before you in the yard. The
cow requires milking; there is a milk bucket at your feet. You will be
careful with the cow, inasmuch as she is very nervous, and as the flies
bother her, she is likely to switch her tail. You must refrain from
swearing as the ladies can hear any remarks which you make.” If you
should say, “You must not swear as there are ladies in the audience,”
what would be the result? The subject, when he opened his eyes, would
sit still, because the word “audience” rearouses the thought of where
he went to sleep. Only one picture at a time can be held in the
“mind,” and that picture must be thoroughly consistent, for if at any
time through the misunderstanding of correlation you step without the
picture, you will either get no effect or a “dopy” subject.
[Sidenote: Awakening]
[Sidenote: As to hearing]
[Sidenote: Passes]
If I hypnotize a subject can anyone other than myself awaken him?
Decidedly not. What will awaken him? My telling him that he is awake
(?) or my saying, “All right,” and clapping my hands. If anyone else
tells him he is awake will he awaken? No. Because he does not hear
(respond to) them. As far as the general public is concerned, being in
hypnosis consists only of taking a thought from the operator’s voice.
If he could hear (respond to) anyone else, he could hear (respond to)
all sounds and each and every sound would arouse some thought, and he
would be wide-awake. The consciousness or realizing is “being awake.”
Those put to sleep by magnetic (?) passes can be awakened by another
operator, as the subject goes to sleep with his sense of feeling
acute, and has been taught that when he feels upward strokes he will
awaken. He has no way of distinguishing (?) who is the one that is
making the strokes; yet a super-sensitive subject, very familiar with
the operator, will unconsciously be able to distinguish, _or, more
properly, will respond_.
What things can you most readily put a subject at doing? Things likely
to occur to _him_ at any time.
Reader, I am still afraid you are not a hypnotist.
[Sidenote: Environment]
We will assume that you are a gentleman and you have one of your
companions, a gentleman, hypnotized, seated in a parlor that is filled
with your lady friends. You desire him to take off his coat. What would
you say to him? _You_ would say, “When you open your eyes, you
will find that your coat is on inside out.” What would he do? Being a
gentleman, and in the presence of ladies, he would look abashed and
might go into the hall and change his coat, but we desire him to take
his coat off in the parlor before the ladies. What must we do? Give him
a new environment. Tell him that when he opens his eyes he will find
himself in his bedroom, it is evening, and excessively warm. “Now open
your eyes.” Is he now in the parlor filled with ladies, or is he in his
own room? Man is ruled by his environment. _First place your man,
then give him the attributes._
[Sidenote: A bad inspiration]
In a city I visited last winter a doctor informed me that the year
before a hypnotist had visited their city, given some very enjoyable
performances, besides putting a man to sleep in a window; that he
thought the hypnotist was a fraud inasmuch as that one day he was
in the store where the fellow was sleeping, and the hypnotist said,
“Doctor, feel of the man in the window, he is stiff.” The doctor said,
“And when I felt of him I very decidedly felt him become rigid, which
satisfied me that the operator was a fraud.”
[Sidenote: Correct inspiration]
That was not the case, the operator did not know how to give his
inspiration; the subject necessarily is forced to respond to the
operator when the operator’s voice is firm. When he said to the doctor,
“Feel of him, he is stiff,” he told the subject, “When the doctor feels
of you, become stiff.” But if he had said to the doctor, “The subject
is stiff, feel of him,” when the doctor got hold of him he would have
found him stiff.
[Sidenote: Frauds (?)]
The alleged fraudulent hypnotists are simply fools who do not know how
to convince their audiences or handle their subjects. Subjects cannot
“fake.” When you credit the hypnotist with being able to teach the
element that goes on the stage to act their parts, you credit both with
having more intelligence than our best stage managers and actors, and
my experience teaches me that their faces would instantly deny any
such credence.
[Sidenote: Authority]
One “authority,” in Chicago, concludes his work by doubting hypnosis.
Quotations from him show his lack of knowledge of the Law of
Suggestion. The following example was the one that shook his faith
most: The subject was lying in hypnosis on an operating table, and
several spectators were challenged to awaken him. They tried many ways
and failed, then asked if they might spit in the subject’s face. The
“authority” said, “Yes, you may spit in his face if you wish.” They
did so, and the subject immediately awakened, thus satisfying the
“authority” that the subject had not been in hypnosis. Dear reader,
need I explain this? If so, throw the book away or go and give yourself
to the authorities having charge of a school for imbeciles.
[Sidenote: Two tones]
In the “handling” of subjects two tones should be used, one for the
inspiration, and one to emphasize (force) minor actions.
In my early days, while giving exhibitions in the South, at the
conclusion of an entertainment a Southern gentleman came onto the
stage with a friend and said, “Mr. Santanelli, this gentleman does not
believe that young man was hypnotized. Will you “hypnotize” that nigger
(pointing to one) and prevent him from picking up this one hundred
dollar bill? If he picks it up, he can have it.” I “hypnotized” the
negro, put the one hundred dollar bill at his feet and told him he
could not pick it up. The negro immediately became cataleptic, rigid,
and failed to move. I wanted him to stoop and put his hand on the bill
and attempt to pick it up, knowing that if he could not pick it up he
must shove it to the floor, so I said “Oh, yes you can; go ahead, pick
it up.” The negro failed to respond for a moment, then bent over and
took hold of the bill; I saw that he had responded to my last remark
as an inspiration, so I immediately called to him that he could not
move. Cold chills passed up my back, as I could not afford to lose one
hundred dollars; and, of course, would not have allowed my friend to
do so provided I had it. Since then I always use two tones, for fear
of the subject mistaking or not comprehending (responding to) the
difference in the tones, I always finish in this manner: “Go ahead,
pick it up. Go on, _but you cannot_.”
[Sidenote: No stages]
_There are no stages in so-called hypnosis._ The subject is either
hypnotized or awake.
[Sidenote: Catalepsy]
[Sidenote: Negations]
Catalepsy is not a _stage_ of the hypnosis, it is simply an
inspired condition. Any subject can be made cataleptic if he knows
how to become so. The inspiration I give to produce catalepsy is as
follows: “Put your feet together, put your hands to your sides. When I
call ‘now’ you will take a long breath, pull your muscles together and
you will be stiff, stiff as iron.” It is very rarely that a subject
fails to respond to this. Sometimes they will draw their knees and
arms up, not knowing how to become rigid in the position I give them.
Many operators tell a subject to hold his arm up and then that he
cannot take it down, and the spectator, noting the tightening of his
muscles when he gets the inspiration that he cannot put his arm down,
believes the subject to be “faking.” If the operator will remember
that all negations are affirmations against, and would first put the
muscles at the tension or in the position he wants them and then deny,
there would be no such action. Tell a subject to hold his arm up and
close his fist; the muscles are now contracted, and by telling him he
cannot put it down, you are really saying to him to keep the muscles
in the position they are in. If you wish to produce a condition of the
muscles, first put the muscles into the desired position and infer that
he cannot release them, because if he cannot, he must hold the position.
[Sidenote: Number of methods to induce hypnosis]