HYPNOTISM. TRANCE-UMBRA.—Mr. Braid’s discovery—Trance-faculties
manifested in the waking state—Self-induced waking
clairvoyance—Conclusion.
It is an advantage attending a long and patient analysis of, and
cautious theorizing upon, a new subject of inquiry, that when fresh
facts and principles emerge in it, instead of disturbing such solid
work as I have supposed, they but enrich and strengthen it, and find,
as it were, prepared for them appropriate niches. Something of this
satisfaction I experience, when I have to render tardy justice to Mr.
Braid’s discovery, and to give an account of the wonders realized by
Dr. Darling, Mr. Lewis, and others.
Or, I have observed, that trance, considered in reference to its
production, has a twofold character. It presents itself either as a
spontaneous seizure brought on unexpectedly by a continuance of mental
or physical excitement or exhaustion; or as intentionally induced
through the systematic direction by some second person, more or less
cognisant what definite effects he can produce, of certain moral and
physical influences upon the party intended to be wrought on. Mr.
Braid has added a third causal difference to the theory of trance.
He has shown that trance can be induced by the subject of it himself
voluntarily, by the use of certain means, which call into operation
a special principle. The effects which he obtained by these means,
but which he perhaps studied too much to separate from the effects of
mesmerism—these and their principle he denominated _Hypnotism_.
Again, I have shown that all the forms of trance may be, and require to
be, arranged under five types—viz., death-trance, trance-coma, initial
trance, half-waking trance, full-waking trance. I mentioned, besides,
that in the manifestation of Zschokke’s seer-gift, and in the accounts
which we receive of the performances called second-sight, the extended
exoneural perception was introduced by a brief period, in which the
performer was _in a degree_ absorbed and lost, yet did not pass on
into a second and separate phase of consciousness. He was still always
himself, and observed and remembered as parts of his natural order of
recollections the impressions which then occurred to him. This same
state must be that which I have seen described as one peculiarly suited
to the exhibition of phreno-mesmerism. Mr. Braid appears likewise often
to have brought it on in his curative applications of hypnotism. But
now it has new importance and distinctness conferred upon it, as being
the state in which the wonderful phenomena of “mental suggestion” are
best displayed, and in which conscious clairvoyance is manifested.
As this state does not amount to complete trance, but as it is a
fore-shadowing of it, as it were, I venture to propose for it the name
of trance-umbra.
I. _Hypnotism_.—Mr. Braid discovered that if certain sensitive persons
fix their sight steadily upon a small bright object, held near and
above the forehead, or their sight becoming fatigued, and the eyelids
fall, if they keep their attention strained as if they were still
observing the same object, both in the upward direction of the eye and
in their thought, they lose themselves and go off into a state which,
in its full development, is, in fact, initial trance, bordering often
on trance-coma. The party thus fixed sometimes exhibited many of the
humbler performances of ordinarily mesmerised persons. But Mr. Braid
shall speak for himself; I quote from his _Neurhypnology_, published in
London in 1843. “I requested,” narrates Mr. Braid, “a young gentleman
present to sit down, and maintain a fixed stare at the top of a
wine-bottle, placed so much above him as to produce a considerable
strain on the eyes and eyelids, to enable him to maintain a steady view
of the object. In three minutes his eyelids closed, a gush of tears ran
down his cheeks, his head drooped, his face was slightly convulsed, he
gave a groan, and instantly fell into profound sleep—the respiration
becoming slow, deep, and sibilant, the right hand and arm being
agitated by slight convulsive movements,” (p. 17.) Again, (p. 18,) “I
called up,” continues Mr. Braid, “one of my men-servants, who knew
nothing of mesmerism, and gave him such directions as were calculated
to impress his mind with the idea, that his fixed attention was merely
for the purpose of watching a chemical experiment in the preparation
of some medicine; and being familiar with such he could feel no alarm.
In two minutes and a half his eyelids closed slowly with a vibrating
motion, his chin fell on his breast, he gave a deep sigh, and instantly
was in a deep sleep, breathing loudly. In about one minute after his
profound sleep, I roused him, and pretended to chide him for being so
careless, said he ought to be ashamed of himself for not being able to
attend to my instructions for three minutes without falling asleep, and
ordered him down stairs. In a short time I recalled this young man and
desired him to sit down once more, but to be careful not to fall asleep
again, as on the former occasion. He sat down with this intention; but
at the expiration of two minutes and a half, his eyelids closed, and
exactly the same phenomena as in the former experiment ensued.” Mr.
Braid adds, “I again tried the experiment of causing the first person
spoken of to gaze on a different object to that used in the first
experiment, but still, as I anticipated, the phenomena were the same. I
also tried on him M. Lafontaine’s mode of mesmerising with the thumbs
and eyes, and likewise by gazing on my eyes without contact; and still
the effects were the same.”
It is indeed perfectly obvious that Mr. Braid succeeded in producing
a heavy form of initial trance in these cases. Nor is it easy to get
rid of the impression that the effect was not partly at least owing
to his personal Od-influence. But, remembering what I witnessed of
his performances, and construing candidly all his statements, I am
disposed to believe that his method, adopted by the patient when in a
room alone, upon himself, would throw susceptible persons into trance.
Mr. Braid appears to me to have the double merit, first of having
discovered the means of self-mesmerising—of so disturbing by very
simple and harmless means the nervous system, that trance would appear
without the influence of a second party to aid its supervention—and
secondly, of having, at an early period, when prejudice ran very high
in England against these practices, availed himself of this disguised
mesmerism to do much good in the treatment of disease. Mr. Braid does
not appear to have fallen on any instances of clairvoyance, but he
narrates many observations relating to phreno-mesmerism.
II. _Trance-Umbra._—This is the best title I can hit on to designate
the peculiar condition, the study of which promises to exceed in
interest that of any of the phases of perfect trance; inasmuch as in
this state the same extraordinary powers are manifested as in trance,
without the condition of an abstracted state of consciousness, which
rendered the possession of those powers useless, at least, directly,
to the person who manifested them. It is true that this law could
be broken; the mesmeriser can desire an entranced clairvoyante to
remember, when she awakes, any particular event or communication
made by her. But for this exceptional power a special injunction or
permit is necessary. In trance-umbra, on the contrary, the subject
is throughout _himself_. When exhibiting the wildest phenomena he is
conscious of what he is doing, and preserves afterwards as accurate a
recollection of it as any of the spectators.
Then, how is trance-umbra induced? How is it known that the shadow of
trance has enveloped the patient, and that, though quite himself to all
appearance, he is in a state to manifest the highest trance-faculties?
The way to induce trance-umbra, is to administer a little dose of
mesmerism. One operator, like Dr. Darling, (I quote from Dr. Gregory’s
most instructive and interesting _Letters on Animal Magnetism_,)
directs his patient to sit still with his eyes fixed, and his attention
concentrated on a coin held in his hand, or on a double-convex bit
of zinc with a central portion of copper so held. This is, in truth,
a gentle dose of hypnotism. The patient looks in quiet repose at a
small object held in his hand or his lap, instead of fatiguing his
sensations by straining the eye-balls upwards. Suppose a group of a
dozen persons sitting thus in a half-darkened, still room, preserving
a studied quietude, and concentrating their attention on one point
of easy vision; in from fifteen to twenty minutes one or more is
found to be in the state of trance-umbra. Mr. Lewis (I quote again
the same authority) employs a different process. He eyes his patients
intently as they sit in a row before him, still and composed, with a
concentrated will, and its full outward expression by him, to influence
their psychical condition. In five minutes it often happens that the
state of trance-umbra supervenes.
In the mean time, what has marked its arrival? The Rev. R. S. F. writes
me, that he had been three times the subject of the first of the
two methods: the operator was Mr. Stone, Lecturer at the Marylebone
Scientific Institution. The first two experiments were successful,
the third failed. Then Mr. F. writes, “The only circumstance which
I noticed (bearing upon the above question) in myself, and which I
afterwards found tallied with the experience of others, was this: On
the two occasions when I was affected, after about ten minutes the coin
began to disappear from my sight, and to reappear a confused, brilliant
substance, similar to those appearances which remain on the retina
after one has been looking towards the sun for a few minutes, and I
seemed for the moment to have fallen into a half-dreamy state; but in
the subsequent part of the experiments, I appeared to myself to be in
my ordinary state. On the third occasion, when the experiment failed
with myself and with all the others, (which I think might be accounted
for by the accidental irregularity of the proceedings,) I did not
experience the sensations mentioned above.” This account tallies with
other evidence upon the point; a brief period of disturbed sensation,
or threatening confusion, or loss of consciousness, passes over the
patient. The wing of the unseen power, to speak figuratively, has
cast its shadow upon him. It is evident that this transient psychical
disturbance is the same phenomenon with that which Zschokke experienced
whenever his seer-gift was manifested. The agency which thus can at
pleasure be used to call forth trance-umbra, is the same which employed
longer, or more intensely, produces perfect trance. The little dose
thrilling through the system, without driving sense and apprehension
from their usual seats, seems, as it were, to remove their fastenings;
to throw up, as it were, the sashes of the body, so that the soul can
now look forth and see, not as through a glass, darkly, but free to
grasp directly things out of its corporeal tenement, whether of the
nature of matter or mind.
But, at the same time, this same loosening of physical bonds renders
the mind correspondingly denuded to aggressions from without. We have
seen how strangely the entranced mind becomes sympathetically subject
to the will, and the subject of the sensations of the person with whom
it has been brought into mesmeric relation. But now a new feature, or
one feebly manifested as yet in trance, but parallel to the influence
of sympathy, displays itself. The person in trance-umbra is an absolute
slave to the spoken, or even to the unexpressed “mental suggestions”
of the operator. Sense, memory, judgment, give way at his word. The
patient believes whatever he is told to believe,—that an apple is an
orange,—that he himself is the Duke of Wellington,—that the operator
standing before him is invisible to him,—and makes fruitless efforts to
execute any voluntary movement the moment he is told he cannot. I will
quote a passage, in illustration of the above, again from Mr. F.’s
letter:—“After a quarter of an hour Mr. Stone came to us, and looked
in our eyes for a few seconds, and desired us to close them. He then
placed his thumb lightly on my forehead, and said, peremptorily, ‘You
cannot open your eyes.’ I had great difficulty in doing so, but at
last succeeded, with a violent struggle. After Mr. Stone had repeated
the order or suggestion once or twice more, I was quite unable to open
my eyes. Five out of the number, (about a dozen,) who sat down were
affected, all more than myself. On a succeeding evening, however, Mr.
Stone was able to proceed so far as to make me forget my name and
address, by the simple assertion, ‘You cannot remember your name,’
&c., though he had before this just asked for them, and the answer was
scarcely out of my mouth when he made me forget it. I think I never
exerted my will more strongly than in trying to open my eyelids when
they had been thus closed; but it appeared simply impossible to do this
till the operator’s magic ‘All right,’ immediately set them free. On
several, who were highly susceptible, Mr. Stone proceeded with other
experiments. A stick was said to be a rattlesnake, and believed to be
so. The room became a garden at his command, with wild beasts in it.
One was set a-fishing and snow-balling; another taken up in a balloon.
A still more curious instance was when the subject was told that he
was in the dark, and a candle was passed before his eyes, almost close
enough to singe the eyebrows, without producing any visual impression
on the eye, though the party operated on said he felt the warmth of it.”
I have preferred giving additional and unpublished evidence of the
wonderful control which can thus be “suggestively” exercised over the
belief of a person in trance-umbra, to quoting Professor Gregory’s
most interesting cases, for which the reader must consult his recent
valuable work. In the sixth letter in the present volume, (that on
Somnambulism,) I have exemplified the manifestation of the same
phenomena in the case of the sleep-walker Negretti. As a large number
of persons can be thrown easily into the state of trance-umbra; and
as then they are totally in the power of the operator, it is surely
most desirable that this and the parallel easily induced conditions
of the frame should be made subjects of careful observation and study
by many competent persons, in order that the conditions necessary to
their induction may be exactly ascertained, and made public, for the
protection of society.
Of equal interest is the discovery that clairvoyance may be manifested
in the state of trance-umbra. Major Buckley is spoken of by Professor
Gregory as a gentleman possessing mesmerising force of a remarkable
quality and degree. It appears that he had been long in the habit of
producing magnetic sleep, and clairvoyance in the sleep, before he
discovered that, in his subjects, the sleep might be dispensed with.
Dr. Gregory gives the following account of his present method:—
“Major B. first ascertains whether his subjects are susceptible, by
making, with his hand, passes above and below their hands, from the
wrist downwards. If certain sensations, such as tingling, numbness,
&c., are strongly felt, he knows that he will be able to produce the
magnetic sleep. But to ascertain whether he can obtain conscious
clairvoyance, he makes slow passes from his own forehead to his own
chest. If this produce a blue light in his face, strongly visible, the
subject will probably acquire conscious clairvoyance. If not, or if
the light be pale, the subject will only become clairvoyant in the
sleep, (that is, when in perfect trance.) Taking those subjects who see
a very deep blue light, he continues to make passes over his own face,
and also over the object—a box or a nut, for instance—in which written
or printed words are enclosed, which the clairvoyante is to read. Some
subjects only require a pass or two to be made: others require many.
They describe the blue light as rendering the box or nut transparent,
so that they can read what is inside. This reminds us of the curious
fact mentioned by Von Reichenbach, that bars of iron or steel, seen
by conscious sensitives, without any passes, shining in the dark with
the Od glow, appeared to them transparent like glass. If too many
passes are made by Major B., the blue light becomes so deep that they
cannot read, and some reverse passes must be made to render the colour
of the light less deep. Major Buckley has thus produced conscious
clairvoyance in eighty-nine persons, forty-four of whom have been able
to read mottoes contained in nutshells purchased by other parties for
the experiments. The longest motto thus read contained ninety-eight
words.” “A lady, one of Major Buckley’s waking clairvoyantes, read
one hundred and three mottoes contained in nuts in one day, without a
pass being made on that occasion. In this and in many other cases, the
power of reading through nuts, boxes, and envelopes, remained, when
once induced, for about a month, and then disappeared. The same lady,
after three months, could no longer read without passes; and it took
five trials fully to restore the power. This may be done, however,
immediately by inducing the mesmeric sleep and clairvoyance in that
state, when the subjects, in the hands of Major Buckley, soon acquire
the power of waking clairvoyance.”
But stranger things remain behind—corollaries, however, of the
preceding, yet which eclipse these wonders, if possible. For a
knowledge of these, I am exclusively indebted to Professor Gregory’s
recent publication, and I give them on his authority.
If the looking intently upon a piece of metal will produce trance and
trance-umbra, why should not the account of the Egyptian boy-seers be
correct? If their performance be often a trick, may not the protracted
gaze on the black spot in their hand sometimes render them waking
clairvoyantes? and why, on the same showing, might not the gazing upon
magic crystals or mirrors of jet occasionally have thrown the already
awe-struck and fitly disposed lookers on them into the state in which
either the magician at their side might compel _suggestively_ images
into their fancy, or they, acting for themselves, have exercised
independent ultravision, retrovision, prevision? Why, again, should not
simple concentration of thought upon one uninteresting idea convert a
susceptible subject into a soothsayer? Then read the following facts
recorded by Dr. Gregory; I at least do not question their fidelity.
“Mr. Lewis possesses at times the power of spontaneous clairvoyance, by
simple concentration of thought. He finds, however, that gazing into a
crystal substance produces the state of waking clairvoyance in him much
sooner and more easily. On one occasion, being in a house in Edinburgh
with a party, he looked into a crystal, and saw in it the inhabitants
of another house at a considerable distance. Along with them he saw two
strangers, entire strangers to him. These he described to the company.
He then proceeded to the other house, and there found the two strangers
whom he had described.”
“On another occasion he was asked to inspect a house and family, quite
unknown to him, in Sloane Street, Chelsea, he being in Edinburgh with
a party. He saw in the crystal the family in London; described the
house, and also an old gentleman very ill or dying, and wearing a
peculiar cap. All was found to be correct, and the cap was one which
had lately been sent to the old gentleman. On the same occasion Mr.
Lewis told a gentleman present that he had lost or mislaid a key of a
very particular shape, which he, Mr. L., saw in the crystal. This was
confirmed by the gentleman, a total stranger to Mr. Lewis.”
“Sistimus hic tandem.”
I think that I have tolerably succeeded in establishing the thesis
with which these Letters started, that every superstition is based
on a truth; and I am in hopes that the mass of evidence which I have
adduced—the very variety of the phenomena described, joined to their
mutual coherence—the theoretical consistency of the whole, as if it
were truly a vast body of living science, and not the “disjecta membra”
of a dream—will remove every remaining shade of doubt among candid
readers, that these inquiries are not less sound than they are curious.