TELEPATHY AND THE SUBLIMINAL SELF/PART 2
CHAPTER
II
MESMERISM AND HYPNOTISM—HISTORY AND
THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS.
No department of psychical
research is at present exciting so widespread an interest as that which is
known under the name of Hypnotism; and inquiries are constantly made by those
to whom the subject is new, regarding its nature and effects, and also how, if
at all, it differs from the mesmerism and animal magnetism of many years ago.
Unfortunately, these
questions are more easily asked than answered, and well-informed persons, and
even those considered experts in the subject, would doubtless give different
and perhaps opposing answers to them. A short historical sketch may help in
forming an opinion.
From the remotest periods
of human history to the present time, certain peculiar and unusual conditions
of mind, sometimes associated with abnormal conditions of body, have been
observed, during which unusual conditions, words have unconsciously been
spoken, sometimes seemingly meaningless, but sometimes conveying knowledge of
events at that moment taking place at a distance, sometimes foretelling future
events, and sometimes words of warning, instruction, or command.
The Egyptians and
Assyrians had their magi, the Greeks and Romans their oracles, the Hebrews
their seers and prophets, every great religion its inspired teachers, and every
savage nation had, under some name, its seer or medicine-man.
Socrates had his dæmon,
Joan of Arc her voices and visions, the Highlanders their second sight,
Spiritualists their mediums and “controls.” Even Sitting Bull had his vision in
which he foresaw the approach and destruction of Custer’s army.
Until a little more than a
hundred years ago all persons affected in any of these unusual ways were
supposed to be endowed with some sort of supernatural power, or to be under
external and supernatural influence, either divine or satanic.
About 1773 Mesmer, an
educated German physician, philosopher, and mystic, commenced the practice of
curing disease by means of magnets passed over the affected parts and over the
body of the patient from head to foot. Afterward seeing Gassner, a Swabian
priest, curing his patients by command, and applying his hands to the
affected parts, he discarded his magnets, concluding that the healing power or
influence was not in them, but in himself; and he called that influence animal
magnetism.
Mesmer also found that a
certain proportion of his patients went into a sleep more or less profound
under his manipulations, during which somnambulism, or sleep-walking, appeared.
But Mesmer’s chief personal interest lay in certain theories regarding the
nature of the newly-discovered power or agent, and in its therapeutic effects;
his theories, however, were not understood nor appreciated by the physicians of
his time, and his cures were looked upon by them as being simply quackery.
Nevertheless, it was he
who first took the whole subject of these abnormal or supranormal conditions
out of the domain of the supernatural, and in attempting to show their relation
to natural forces he placed them in the domain of nature as proper subjects of
rational study and investigation; and for this, at least, Mesmer should be
honored.
Under Mesmer’s pupil, the
Marquis de Puysegur, the facts and methods relating to the magnetic sleep and
magnetic cures were more carefully observed and more fully published. Then
followed Petetin, Husson, and Dupotet, Elliotson in England and Esdaile in
India. So from Mesmer in 1773 to Dupotet and Elliotson in 1838 we have the
period of the “early mesmerists.”
During this period the
hypnotic sleep was induced by means of passes, the operators never for a moment
doubting that the influence which produced sleep was a power of some sort
proceeding from themselves and producing its effect upon the patient.
In addition to the
condition of sleep or lethargy, the following conditions were well known to the
“early mesmerists”; somnambulism, or sleep-walking, catalepsy, anæsthesia, and
amnesia, or absence of all knowledge of what transpired during the sleep.
Suggestion during sleep was also made use of, and was even then proposed as an
agent in education and in the cure of vice.
This was the condition of
the subject in 1842, when Braid, an English surgeon, made some new and
interesting experiments. He showed that the so-called mesmeric sleep could be
produced in some patients by other processes than those used by the early
mesmerists; especially could this be accomplished by having the patient gaze
steadily at a fixed brilliant object or point, without resorting to passes
or manipulations of any kind.
He introduced the word
hypnotism, which has since been generally adopted; he also proposed some new
theories relating to the nature of the hypnotic sleep, regarding it as a
“profound nervous change,” and he still further developed the idea and use of
suggestion. Otherwise no important changes were made by him in the status of
the subject. It was not looked upon with favor by the profession generally, and
its advocates were for the most part still considered as cranks and persons
whose scientific and professional standing and character were not above
suspicion.
The period of twenty-five
years from 1850 to 1875, was a sort of occultation of hypnotism. Braidism
suffered nearly the same fate as mesmerism—it was neglected and tabooed. A few
capable and honest men, like Liébeault of Nancy and Azam of Bordeaux, worked
on, and from time to time published their observations; but for the most part
these workers were neglected and even scorned.
To acknowledge one’s
belief in animal magnetism or hypnotism was bad form, and he who did it must be
content to suffer a certain degree of both social and professional ostracism.
The field was given over to town-hall lectures on mesmerism, by
“professors” whose titles were printed in quotation marks even by the local
papers which recorded their exploits.
But a change was about to
be inaugurated. In 1877 Prof. Charcot, then one of the most scientific, most
widely-known, and most highly-esteemed of living physicians, not only in France
but in all the world, was appointed, with two colleagues, to investigate the
treatment of hysteria by means of metallic disks—a subject which was then
attracting the attention of the medical profession in France.
So, curiously enough, it
happened that Charcot commenced exactly where Mesmer had commenced a hundred
years before. He experimented upon hysterical patients in his wards at La Salpêtrière,
and, as a result, he rediscovered mesmerism under the name of hypnotism, just a
century after it had been discovered by Mesmer and disowned by the French
Academy.
But Charcot, after having
satisfied himself by his experiments, did not hesitate to announce his full
belief in the facts and phenomena of hypnotism, and that was sufficient to
rehabilitate the long-neglected subject. The attention of the scientific world
was at once turned toward it, it became a legitimate subject of study, and
hypnotism at once became respectable. From that time to the present it has
formed one of the most conspicuous and interesting subjects of psychical study;
it has become to psychology what determining the value of a single character is
to reading an ancient inscription in a lost or unknown language—it is a bit of
the unknown expressed in terms of the known and helps to furnish clues to still
greater discoveries.
With the scientific
interest in hypnotism which was brought about through the great name and
influence of Charcot, all doubt concerning the reality of the phenomena which
it presents disappeared. Hypnotism was a fact and had come to stay.
Charcot, who conducted his
experiments chiefly among nervous or hysterical patients, looked upon the
hypnotic condition as a disease, and considered the phenomena presented by
hypnotic subjects as akin to hysteria. In addition to the method of producing
the hypnotic condition used by Braid, he used, among others, what he called
“massive stimulation,” which consisted in first fully absorbing the subject’s
attention and then producing a shock by the loud sounding of a concealed gong,
or the sudden display or sudden withdrawal of an electric light. By this
means hysterical subjects were often thrown into a condition of catalepsy, from
which somnambulism and other hypnotic phenomena were sometimes deduced.
I have myself seen nervous
patients thrown into the cataleptic state by the “massive stimulation” of a
huge truck passing by, loaded with clanging rails or building iron, or by other
sudden shock, but I did not consider the process therapeutic nor in any way
useful to the patient. Indeed, I have considered the present method of
transporting those beams and rails of iron through our streets and past our
dwellings, without the slightest attempt to modify their shocking din and
clangor, a piece of savagery which should at once be made the subject of
special legislation looking to the prompt punishment of the perpetrators of the
outrage.
As a matter of fact,
neither the methods employed, the psychical conditions induced, nor the
therapeutic effects attained at La Salpêtrière, where most of these experiments
were at that time carried on, were such as to particularly commend themselves
to students of psychology. Nevertheless the great name and approval of Charcot
served to command for hypnotism the attention and the favorable
consideration of the scientific world.
Soon after the experiments
of Charcot and his associates in Paris were published, Prof. Bernheim commenced
a most thorough and important study of the subject in the wards of the hospital
at Nancy. These studies were made, not upon persons who were already subjects
of nervous disease, as was the case with Charcot’s patients, but, on the
contrary, upon those whose nervous condition was perfectly normal, and even
upon those whose general health was perfect.
The result of Bernheim’s
experiments proved that a very large percentage of all persons, sick or well,
could be put into the hypnotic condition. He claimed that suggestion was the
great factor and influence, both in bringing about the condition, and also in
the mental phenomena observed, and the cures which were accomplished.
He claimed, moreover, that
the hypnotic sleep did not differ from ordinary sleep, and that no magnetism
nor other personal element, influence, or force entered in any way into the
process—it was all the power and influence of suggestion.
Four distinct and
important periods then are found in the history of hypnotism:
First, the period of the
early mesmerists, extending from the time of Mesmer, 1773, until that of
Braid, 1842—nearly seventy years—during which the theory of animal magnetism,
or of some actual force or subtle influence proceeding from the operator to the
subject, prevailed.
Second, the period of
thirty-five years during which the influence of Braid’s experiments
predominated, showing that other methods, and especially that by the fixed
gaze, were efficient in producing the hypnotic sleep.
Third, the short period
during which the influence of Charcot and the Paris school prevailed.
Fourth, the period since
Bernheim began to publish his experiments, and which may be called the period
of suggestion.
With this brief sketch in
mind, we are prepared to examine some of the more important phenomena of
hypnotism, both in its early and its later developments. A simple case would be
as follows:—
A patient comes to the
physician’s office complaining of continual headaches, general debility,
nervousness, and unsatisfactory sleep. She is willing to be hypnotized, and is
accompanied by a friend. The physician seats her comfortably in a chair, and,
seating himself opposite her, he takes her thumbs lightly between his own
thumbs and fingers, asks her to look steadily at some convenient object—perhaps
a shirt-stud or a specified button upon his coat. Presently her eyelids quiver
and then droop slowly over her eyes; he gently closes them with the tips of his
fingers, holds them lightly for a moment, and she is asleep.
He then makes several slow
passes over her face and down the front of her body from head to foot, also
some over her head and away from it, all without contact and without speaking
to her. He lets her sleep ten or fifteen minutes—longer, if convenient—and
then, making two or three upward passes over her face, he says promptly: “All
right; wake up.”
She slowly opens her eyes,
probably smiles, and looks a little foolish at having slept. He inquires how
she feels. She replies:
“I feel remarkably well—so
rested—as though I had slept a whole night.”
“How is your head?”
(Looking surprised.) “It
is quite well—the pain is all gone.”
“Very well,” he says. “You
will continue to feel better and stronger, and you will have good sleep at
night.”
And so it proves. Bernheim
or a pupil of his would sit, or perhaps stand, near his patient, and in a quiet
but firm voice talk of sleep.
“Sleep is what you need.
Sleep is helpful and will do you good. Already, while I am talking to you, you
are beginning to feel drowsy. Your eyes are tired; your lids are drooping; you
are growing more and more sleepy; your lids droop more and more.”
Then, if the eyelids seem
heavy, he presses them down over the eyes, all the time affirming sleep. If
sleep comes, he has succeeded; if not, he resorts to gestures, passes, the
steady gaze, or whatever he thinks likely to aid his suggestion.
When the patient is asleep
he suggests that when she awakes her pains and nervousness will be gone, and
that she will have quiet and refreshing sleep at night. What is the condition
of the patient while under the influence of this induced sleep? Pulse and
respiration are little, if at all, changed; they may be slightly accelerated at
first, and later, if very deep sleep occurs, they may be slightly retarded.
Temperature is seldom changed at all, though, if abnormally high before the
sleep is induced, it frequently falls during the sleep.
If the hand be raised, or
the arm be drawn up high above the head, generally it will remain elevated
until it is touched and replaced, or the patient is told that he can let it
fall, when he slowly lowers it.
In many cases the limbs of
the patient may be flexed or the body placed in any position, and that position
will be retained for a longer or shorter period, sometimes for hours, without
change. Sometimes the condition is one of rigidity so firm that the head may be
placed upon one chair and the heels upon another, and the body will remain
stiff like a bridge from one chair to the other, even when a heavy weight is
placed upon the middle of the patient’s body or another person is seated upon
it. This is the full cataleptic condition.
Sometimes the whole body
will be in a condition of anæsthesia, so that needles may be thrust deep into
the flesh without evoking any sign of pain or any sensation whatever.
Sometimes, when this condition of anæsthesia does not appear with the sleep, it
may be induced by passes, or by suggesting that a certain limb or the whole
body is without feeling. In this condition the most serious surgical operations
have been performed without the slightest suffering on the part of the patient.
From the deep sleep the
patient often passes of his own accord into a condition in which he walks,
talks, reads, writes, and obeys the slightest wish or suggestion of the
hypnotizer—and yet he is asleep. This is called the alert stage, or the
condition of somnambulism, and is the most peculiar, interesting, and wonderful
of all.
The two chief stages of
the hypnotic condition, then, are, first: the lethargic stage; second, the
alert stage.
The stage of lethargy may
be very light—a mere drowsiness—or very deep—a heavy slumber—and it is often
accompanied by a cataleptic state, more or less marked in degree.
The alert stage may also
vary and may be characterized by somnambulism, varying in character from a
simple sleepy “yes” or “no” in answer to questions asked by his hypnotizer, to
the most wonderful, even supranormal, mental activity.
From any of these states
the subject may be awakened by his hypnotizer simply making a few upward passes
or by saying in a firm voice, “All right, wake up,” or, again, by affirming to
the patient that he will awake when he (the hypnotizer) has counted up to a
certain number, as, for instance, five.
Generally, upon awakening,
the subject has no knowledge or remembrance of anything which has transpired
during his hypnotic condition. This is known as amnesia. Sometimes, however, a
hazy recollection of what has happened remains, especially if the hypnotic
condition has been only slight.
Up to the present time
hypnotism has been studied from two separate and important standpoints and for
two well-defined purposes: (1) For its therapeutic effects, or its use in the
treatment of disease and relief of pain; (2) for the mental or psychical
phenomena which it presents.
The following cases will
illustrate its study and use from the therapeutic standpoint—and, first, two
cases treated by the old mesmerists, 1843-53. They are from reports published
in The Zoist:—
(1) Q. I. P., a well-known
artist, fifty years ago, had been greatly troubled and distressed by weak and
inflamed eyes, accompanied by ulceration of the cornea, a condition which had
lasted more than four years. He was never free from the disease, and often it
was so severe as to prevent work in his studio, and especially reading, for months
at a time. He had been under the care of the best oculists, both in New York
and London, for long periods and at different times, but with very little
temporary and no permanent relief.
He was urged, as a last
resort, to try animal magnetism, as it was then called. Accordingly, he
consulted a mesmeric practitioner in London, and was treated by passes made
over the back of the head and down the spine and from the centre of the
forehead backward and outward over the temples and down the sides of the head.
All other treatment was
discontinued. No mesmeric phenomena of any kind were produced, not even sleep,
but from the first day a degree of comfort and also improvement was
experienced.
The treatment was given
one hour daily for one month. The improvement was decided and uninterrupted,
such as had never before been experienced under any form of medical or surgical
treatment, no matter how thoroughly carried out. The general health was greatly
improved, and the eyes were so much benefited that they could be relied upon
constantly, both for painting and reading, and the cure was permanent.
(2) A case of rheumatism
treated by Dr. Elliotson of London. The patient, G. F., age thirty-five years,
was a laborer, and had suffered from rheumatism seven weeks. When he applied to
Dr. Elliotson, the doctor was sitting in his office, in company with three
friends—one a medical gentleman, and all skeptics regarding mesmerism.
They all, however,
expressed a desire to see the treatment, and, accordingly, the patient was brought
in. He came with difficulty, upon crutches, his face betokening extreme pain.
He had never been mesmerized.
The doctor sat down
opposite his patient, took his thumbs in his hands, and gazed steadily in his
eyes. In twenty minutes he fell into the mesmeric sleep. Several of the
mesmeric phenomena were then produced in the presence of his skeptical friends,
after which he was allowed to sleep undisturbed for two hours. No suggestions
regarding his disease are reported as having been made to the patient during
his sleep.
He was awakened by reverse
passes. Being fairly aroused, he arose from his chair, walked up and down the
room without difficulty, and was perfectly unconscious of all that had
transpired during his sleep; he only knew he came into the room suffering, and
on crutches, and that he was now free from pain and could walk with ease
without them. He left one crutch with the doctor and went out twirling the
other in his hand. He remained perfectly well.
Dr. Elliotson afterward
tried on three different occasions to hypnotize him but without success.
Others also tried, but all attempts in this direction failed.
I will here introduce one
or two cases from my own notebook:—
(1) A. C., a young girl of
Irish parentage, fifteen years old, light skin, dark hair and eyes, and heavy
eyebrows. Her father had “fits” for several years previous to his death. I
first saw the patient Dec. 4, 1872; this was five years before Charcot’s
experiments, and nearly ten years before those of Bernheim.
She was then having frequent
epileptic attacks, characterized by sudden loss of consciousness, convulsions,
foaming at the mouth, biting the tongue, and dark color. She had her first
attack six months before I saw her, and they had increased in frequency and in
severity until now they occurred twenty or more times a day, sometimes lasting
many minutes, and sometimes only a few seconds; sometimes they were of very
great severity.
She had received many
falls, burns, and bruises in consequence of their sudden accession. They
occurred both day and night. On my second visit I determined to try hypnotism.
Patient went to sleep in eight minutes, slept a short time and awoke
without interference. She was immediately put to sleep again; she slept only a
few minutes, and again awoke.
Dec. 7.—Her friends report that the attacks have not
been so frequent and not nearly so violent since my last visit. Hypnotized;
patient went into a profound sleep and remained one hour; she was then awakened
by reverse passes.
Dec. 8.—The attacks have been still less frequent
and severe; she has slept quietly; appetite good. Hypnotized and allowed her to
sleep two hours, and then awoke her by the upward passes.
Dec. 9.—There has been still more marked
improvement; the attacks have been very few, none lasting more than half a
minute. Hypnotized and allowed her to remain asleep three hours. Awoke her with
some difficulty, and she was still somewhat drowsy when I left. She went to
sleep in the afternoon and slept soundly four hours; awoke and ate her supper;
went to sleep again and slept soundly all night.
Dec. 10.—There has been no return of the attacks. A
month later she had had no return of the attacks. She soon after left town, and
I have not heard of her since. In this case no suggestions whatever were made.
(2) B. X., twenty-four
years of age, a sporting man; obstinate, independent, self-willed, a
leader in his circle. He had been a hard drinker from boyhood. He had been
injured by a fall three years before, and had been subject to severe attacks of
hæmatemesis. I had known him for three or four months previous to June, 1891.
At that time he came into my office one evening somewhat under the influence of
alcoholic stimulants. After talking a few moments, I advised him to lie down on
the lounge. I made no remarks about his drinking, nor about sleep. I simply
took his two thumbs in my hands and sat quietly beside him. Presently I made a
few long passes from head to feet, and in five minutes he was fast asleep.
His hands and arms,
outstretched and raised high up, remained exactly as they were placed. Severe
pinching elicited no sign of sensation. He was in the deep hypnotic sleep.
I then spoke to him in a
distinct and decided manner. I told him he was ruining his life and making his
family very unhappy by his habit of intemperance. I then told him very
decidedly that when he awoke he would have no more desire for alcoholic
stimulants of any kind; that he would look upon them all as his enemies, and he
would refuse them under all circumstances; that even the smell of them
would be disagreeable to him. I repeated the suggestions and then awoke him by
making a few passes upward over his face, I did not inform him that I had
hypnotized him, nor speak to him at all about his habit of drinking. I
prescribed for some ailment for which he had visited me and he went away.
I neither saw nor heard
from him again for three months, when I received a letter from him from a
distant city, informing me that he had not drank a drop of spirituous liquor
since he was in my office that night. His health was perfect, and he had no
more vomiting of blood.
June, 1892, one year from
the time I had hypnotized him, he came into my office in splendid condition. He
had drank nothing during the whole year. I have not heard from him since.
The following case
illustrates Bernheim’s method:—
Mlle. J., teacher,
thirty-two years old, came to the clinique, Feb. 17, 1887, for chorea, or St.
Vitus’s dance. Nearly two weeks previous she had been roughly reprimanded by
her superior which had greatly affected her. She could scarcely sleep or eat;
she had nausea, pricking sensations in both arms, delirium at times, and now
incessant movements, sometimes as frequent as two every second, in both
the right arm and leg.
She can neither write nor
attend to her school duties. Bernheim hypnotizes her by his method. She goes
easily into the somnambulic condition. In three or four minutes, under the
influence of suggestion, the movements of the hand and foot cease; upon waking
up, they reappear, but less frequently. A second hypnotization, with
suggestion, checks them completely.
Feb. 19th.—Says she has been very comfortable; the pricking
sensations have ceased. No nervous movements until nine o’clock this morning,
when they returned, about ten or eleven every minute. New hypnotization and
suggestion, during which the motions cease, and they remain absent when she
wakes.
21st.—Has had slight pains
and a few choraic movements.
25th.—Is doing well; has
no movements; says she is cured.
She returned a few times
during the next four months with slight nervous movements, which were promptly
relieved by hypnotizing and suggestion.
Bernheim, in his book,
“Suggestive Therapeutics,” gives details of over one hundred cases, mostly
neuralgic and rheumatic, most of which are described as cured, either quickly
or by repeated hypnotization and suggestion.
The Zoist, a journal
devoted to psychology and mesmerism nearly fifty years ago, gives several
hundred cases of treatment and cure by the early mesmerists, some of them very
remarkable, and also many cases of surgical operations of the most severe or
dangerous character painlessly done under the anæsthetic influence of mesmerism
before the benign effects of ether or chloroform were known. These cases are
not often referred to by the modern student of hypnotism. Nevertheless, they
constitute a storehouse of well-observed facts which have an immense interest
and value.
It will thus be seen that
throughout the whole history of hypnotism, under whatever name it has been
studied, one of its chief features has been its power to relieve suffering and
cure disease; and at the present day, while many physicians who are quite
ignorant of its uses, in general terms deny its practicability, few who have
any real knowledge of it are so unjust or regardless of facts as to deny its
therapeutic effects.
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