For several years past a number of French physicians have been
experimenting on hypnotised or mesmeric subjects and on
hysterical patients, with results of the most extraordinary
character. It is our purpose to very briefly describe some of
these remarkable experiments, from which, we may say, the
standing of the doctors engaged in them, and the critical care
with which they were conducted, seem to remove all questions
of fraud or inaccuracy.
In these hypnotic experiments as practised by Dr. Charcot, of
the Salpetriere; by Dr. Bernheim, Professors Beaunis and
Liegeois and other persons of high professional standing, the
most striking feature is that the influence exerted upon the
patient does not vanish with the conclusion of the experiment,
but may produce its effects days, weeks or even months
afterwards, when the patient is seemingly in a normal state
and controlled solely by his own thoughts. For instance, a
sensitive person may be hypnotised, or mesmerized, to use the
better known word, and it be suggested to him by the
experimenter to go at a certain hour of the next or some
succeeding day and shoot some person and then deliver himself
up to justice. On being brought back to the normal state no
recollection of this suggestion is present in his mind. And
yet, if the experiment work as truly as it often seemingly has
worked, he will endeavor at the time fixed to perform the
action indicated, with the full belief that the impulse to do
so is his own. We may quote some instances in corroboration of
this seemingly improbable statement.
CASES OF HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION.--Among minor instances of this
result, Frederick Myers relates that he suggested to a
hypnotised subject, who was engaged in coloring a sketch, that
it would be a good idea to paint the bricks blue. He repeated
his suggestion several times, and then brought the subject to
the normal state. She had no recollection of what had passed,
yet on resuming her painting some time afterwards she
hesitated, and then said to a lady companion, "I suppose it
would never do to paint these bricks blue." "Why blue?" "Oh,
it only occurred to me that it would look rather nice." She
acknowledged that the idea of blue bricks had been
persistently in her mind, with the notion that the color would
look well.
In another instance, Dr. Bernheim, of Nancy, suggested to a
hypnotised person to take Dr. X.'s umbrella when awake, open
it, and walk twice up and down the gallery. On being awakened
he did so, but with the umbrella _shut_. When asked why he
acted so, he replied: "It is an idea. I take a walk
sometimes." "But why have you taken Dr. X.'s umbrella?" "Oh, I
thought it was my own. I will replace it."
These are harmless instances of this strange power. There are
others the reverse of harmless in this significance. One or
two of these we may quote: Prof. Liegeois, in his recently
published pamphlet, "Of Hypnotism in its relations to Civil
and Criminal Law," describes experiments with the subjects of
M. Liebault, a well-known hypnotiser. In these experiments he
took pains to induce the patients to commit crimes. As he
relates, Mdlle. A. E. (a very amiable young lady) was made to
fire at her own mother with a pistol, which she had no means
of knowing was unloaded. The same lady was made to accuse
herself before a judge of having assassinated an intimate
friend with a knife. Yet in both these instances she was wide
awake at the time and supposed that she was acting from her
own impulse.
Many other instances might be given, but these will suffice
for illustration. As to the length of time in which such a
suggestion may remain operative, Prof. Beaunis relates a case
in which he suggested to a hypnotised subject that he would
call on her on the next New Year's day (172 days after the
date of the experiment). On that date, being perfectly
conscious, she seemed to see him walk into the room where she
was, pay his compliments, and retire. She insisted that this
had really happened, and could not be convinced to the
contrary. A striking feature of this incident was that he
seemed to be dressed in summer attire (as at the date of
experiment), though it was now the dead of winter.
A natural conclusion from the facts above detailed is, that
the strange power here indicated might prove a very dangerous
weapon in the hands of an unscrupulous man. If a person can
suggest to a subject in the hypnotic sleep that, at a certain
future day, he or she shall kill a person obnoxious to the
experimenter, or perform some other criminal act, and if the
act be duly performed, the subject being in a seemingly normal
state, and fully convinced that he acted solely through an
impulse originating in his own mind, it might appear as if
there was little safety left for honest people, and that a
villain might carry out his murderous schemes with perfect
impunity. In such a case as we have said, the mind of the
patient would cease to be his own, but would partly belong to
the person whose deadly thoughts it contained, and whose
involuntary agent it had become. Will the jurisprudence of the
future have to take account of such possibilities as this? Yet
it must be remembered that the great majority of people are
not susceptible to hypnotic influence, and that those whose
will can be so completely subjected to that of another are
comparatively few. Very few such have yet been found in
France. In America, the realm of a less excitable people,
still fewer could be found.
It may be said, moreover, that this influence in several cases
has been exerted for the good of the patient. One instance is
given in which the patient was a great smoker and drinker, and
voluntarily gave up both under the influence of hypnotic
suggestion. Several other cases of the same kind are related,
while a humorous instance is given of an idle school boy who,
impelled by a hypnotic suggestion, became a very ardent
student. After working off that spell, however, he obstinately
refused to be hypnotised again, apparently with the impression
that there was something uncanny in his unusual fit of
devotion to study.