The suggestion of Du Prel as to the hypnotic teaching in France, that
an idea impressed on the mind of the hypnotized will be realized in
the body is the basis of a great deal of therapeutic philosophy. It is
true in practice just to the extent of human impressibility. A
cheerful physician or friend, by encouraging words impresses the idea
of recovery and thus sometimes produces it. Judicious friends never
speak in a discouraging manner to the invalid. The success of mind
cure practitioners is based on this principle. They endeavor to
impress on the patient's mind the idea of perfect health, but they
know too little of the whole subject to know how to place the patient
in that passive and receptive condition in which the results are most
promptly and certainly produced.
Such methods are limited in their effect in proportion to human
impressibility and cannot possibly supersede all use of remedies which
reach thousands of cases in which mental operations would be entirely
futile. But the power of animal magnetism over all diseases and
infirmities of mind and body has been so often demonstrated that its
neglect is a deep disgrace to the medical colleges. A correspondent of
the _Daily Telegraph_ gives the following illustration of its power
over drunkenness:
"About eighteen months ago I was conversing with my friend B.,
who is an enthusiastic believer in mesmerism, and has repute as
an amateur practitioner. My contention was that his favorite
science (?) had contributed absolutely nothing to the world's
good to cause its recognition by either scientists or
philosophers. 'Can you give me,' said I, 'one instance in which
you have conferred an actual benefit by the practice of your
favorite art?' He related several, from which I selected the
following:--'There lives by my parsonage,' said my friend B., 'a
man who for many years, had been a confirmed drunkard.
Repeatedly were his wife and children forced to flee from him,
for when in his drunken frenzies, he attempted to murder them.
Again and again have I striven to induce him to flee from his
horrible vice, but my efforts were always futile. One day he
called to see me when he was suffering acutely from the effects
of drink. I resolved to place him under mesmeric influence. This
I did, and while subject to me made him promise not to touch
strong drink again, and if he attempted to break his pledge,
might the drink taste to him filthy as putrid soapsuds. I then
restored him to his normal state, and he left me. He kept his
unconsciously given promise. In the course of a couple of years
this man raised himself from a condition of poverty to the
comfortable position of a thriving market gardener. 'Not a
fortnight since,' resumed my friend, 'my neighbor's wife
laughingly said to me, 'There is no fear of my husband ever
drinking again, sir. You know he has to be in the market very
early in the morning with his vegetables. Yesterday morning,
while he was drinking a cup of coffee at the hotel an old mate
said to him, 'Why don't you drink some spirits; are you afraid?'
To show his mate that he was not afraid, he ordered a glass of
brandy, but no sooner did he put it in his mouth than he spat it
out again, saying the 'filthy stuff tasted like rotten
soapsuds.' My friend B. said, that, till he told me, to no one
had he mentioned the fact, and that what he did to his poor
neighbor he did in order to see if it were possible to use
mesmerism as a remedial agent in cases of drunkenness."
The power of control over the impressible condition (which is so
easily developed into hypnotism) has been recently illustrated in
France, and reports of the phenomena published in the _London News_,
concerning which Mr. Charles Dawbarn has published the following in
the _Banner of Light_:
"According to the reports published in the _Daily News_ of
London, Eng., an attempt has been made by physicians in Paris,
France, to determine the duration of an hypnotic influence. Some
of my readers may not be aware that 'hypnotism' is a word coined
by the medical faculty to replace the term 'mesmerism,' which
they consider disreputably associated with spiritualism. These
physicians seem to have had some very fine sensitives upon whom
to operate. The first experiment was upon a lady of some means,
but having a mother and sister dependent upon her for support.
The hypnotizer first established his influence in the usual
manner, and then told the lady he wished her to go to a lawyer
the next day, and make her will in his favor. She protested, but
finally gave way. All memory of this promise seemed to be lost
as soon as she returned to her normal condition. But next day
she went to a lawyer, and although he begged her to remember her
mother and sister, the will was made just as suggested by the
physician. She was an affectionate daughter and told the lawyer
she was impelled to leave her property to a stranger by _an
influence which she could not resist_.
"A second experiment with another sensitive was then tried. This
time the poor girl promised to poison a friend next day, she
carried away with her a dose prepared by the doctor. Not knowing
why, and like the other sensitive, _under an influence she could
not resist_, she gave her friend the harmless drug in a glass of
milk, and thus enacted the part of a murderer.
"These experiments have the novelty of having been made by the
regular faculty; but thousands of Spiritualists have proved the
truth of an hypnotic influence lasting long after the apparent
release of the sensitive. We know, or ought to know, that the
hypnotic condition can be induced without visible passes; and
many of us have seen a sensitive under influence sitting
quietly, showing no sign of her slavery to the will of another.
We may go yet a step further and assert that men and women,
visible and invisible, are constantly psychologizing each other,
although we only use the term "sensitive" when the effect is
visible to our dull senses.
"But Spiritualists as a whole have been converted by the
phenomena appealing to their outward senses, and know little and
care little for effects that can only be traced by shrewd,
careful and scientific experiment. Yet such facts as come to the
surface in those experiments with sensitives in France, are keys
with which to unlock some of life's darkest mysteries, and
expose the harsh treatment of many mediums.
"Many of us have been greatly troubled by the conduct of our
mediums, and often puzzled by their careful prepared attempts at
fraud. Mediums we have met and loved, because they have given us
proof after proof of the 'gates ajar' for angel visitors, have
been presently detected in frauds that required days of careful
preparation. We have cried, 'Down with the frauds!' and insisted
that they should return to wash-tub and spade for an honest
living.
"We have omitted to keep in view that one who is a medium
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays must also be a medium Tuesdays,
Thursdays and Saturdays, and we have neglected to learn the
lessons of our own experience. I was talking recently to a
gentleman of prominence, twice sheriff of his county, who was
narrating with glee how he had mesmerised a young man, and then
told him, 'At noon to-morrow you will be lame, and it will last
two hours.' Of course it happened much to the poor fellows
perplexity, but my friend would have been surprised to discover
that therein was the entire case of the French sensitives and of
our poor mediums.
"A very important thought is that an hypnotic influence need not
spring from any verbal expression. We all carry with us an
influence which strikes every sensitive we meet; and if we sit
with her when she is, of course, specially passive, she must
receive a yet more marked influence. There is a photographic
curiosity now often exhibited which, I think, illustrates the
thought I want to emphasize. A family or a class can be
photographed, one by one, at exactly the same focus and on the
same negative, with a result that you have a clear and distinct
face, not of any one's personality, but that actually combines
the features of the whole into a new individual unlike any of
the sitters."
"This is the very influence we cast upon a sensitive when she
sits for us in a miscellaneous circle. We cannot say that any
one of us has powerfully affected her, but we know the entire
influence has got control and possession, and that influence
follows her, too often with irresistible power."
The publication of a work on animal magnetism by Binet and Fere of
Paris prompts the following sketch of the subject by the _Boston
Herald_, a newspaper which pays great attention to anything foreign or
anything from the old school profession, but ignores that which is
American and original. The reader will observe that the writers are
all in the dark, unable to explain the phenomena they describe.