We are all hypnotists. Every human being has in some degree the power
to influence the thought and action of another, or some others, by
what we will consent to call “hypnotic suggestion,” though the term,
while serviceable, is inaccurate. Most of us have the power in varying
degrees of feebleness, but few know how to apply what they have of it;
but some have it so strong as to be able to control an unresisting
will. Assent, however, is not always, nor usually, to be inferred
from consent, even when consent is given in good faith; there is such
a thing as unconscious resistance. In those having no knowledge of
hypnotism, resistance is the natural attitude, for they think that
susceptibility to control implies a weak will or a low intelligence,
which is an error. At least the contrary view is supported by my own
observation; and I accept some things, despite the fact that I have
observed them to be true.
The mysterious force which in its more spectacular manifestations
we call hypnotism, and one form of which is known as “mind-reading,”
is at the back of all kinds and degrees of affection and persuasion.
Why is one person loved better than another person more worthy of
love? Because he has more “personal magnetism.” This term is an old
acquaintance; for many decades we have been using it to signify an
engaging manner. We thought it a figurative expression; that is why it
commended itself to us. But it denotes a fact with literalness; some
persons have a quality, or rather a property, which actually does draw
other persons toward and to them, as a magnet attracts steel; and it
is the same property in magnet and in man, and can be augmented by
the scientific use of apparatus. A favorite “subject” of mine when
blindfolded and turned loose in a room and commanded to find a hidden
object will sometimes fail. But she never fails if the object is a
horse-shoe magnet.
Did you ever, by oral argument, convince anyone that he was wrong and
you right? Not often, of course, but sometimes, you think. If you are a
member of Congress you are very sure about it; that is what you are a
member of Congress for. I venture to believe that you never did. It was
by unconscious hypnotism that you did the trick. Your argument (on the
cogency and eloquence of which I congratulate you) served only to hold
your victim’s attention to the matter in hand. Without it he might have
thought you wanted him to become a horse, and would indubitably have
neighed and pranced.
In the Twenty-first Century, doubtless, a legislator will owe his
election to the confidence of his constituents in his ability to exert
this kind of suasion. The candidate who can not by the power of his
unaided eye compel his opponent to eat shoe-blacking and jump over a
broomstick will not have the ghost of a chance at the polls.
Suppose, madam, that your husband had relied upon argument to convince
you that you ought to marry him. Of course he did have to plead long
and hard—that is conceded; but suppose that while doing so he had
always worn green spectacles. Or suppose that in all his long and
arduous courtship he had never looked you squarely (and impudently) in
the eyes—gloated upon you. I deem it certain, madam, that you would now
be the wife of a wiser man, probably a deaf mute.
In our present stage of controversial progress speech is not without
a certain clumsy utility. It enables you to apprise your opponent of
the views to which you invite his allegiance. But for the purpose of
inducing him to accept them it is destitute of effect—is not at all
superior to the plunk-plunking of a banjo, or that favorite political
argument, the braying of a brass band. Your success in convincing
another person depends upon (1) the degree of your hypnotic power, (2)
your opportunities of exerting it and (3) his susceptibility to it. In
brief, the business of converting the several kinds of heathens is a
thing which, like checking the too rapid increase of population, cannot
be done by talking. I have tried to show you how it can be done if you
have the gift. If you have not, be thankful, for you will escape much
defamation from those who believe hypnotism a kind of sorcery liable
to the basest abuses and practised only for purposes of sin. Is it
possible so to practice it? Why, yes, if I can hypnotize a thief I
can make him steal. If I can hypnotize a bad girl—but that would be
needless. Whatever in one’s normal state one is willing to do, or wants
to do, one can be made to do by hypnotic control. That is as far as the
power can go; it cannot make a sinner out of a saint, a demagogue out
of a gentleman, nor a mute out of Theodore Roosevelt.