Hypnotism Daily News

Excitation through suggestion and auto-suggestion can be best exemplified by the phenomena of appetite and sex (and other reactions based on "unconditioned reflexes," in Pavlov's terminology). Have you ever experienced a sudden flow of saliva, as you looked at somebody consuming his lunch with manifest relish right before you? If you have, then you know that various bodily activities, visible as well as invisible, which are connected with normal appetite, can be precipitated by suggestion. Have you ever seen young boys straighten their backs and look brighter, as a pretty girl comes into their presence? Or, if you still are young and healthy, have you observed introspectively that, in such cases, a feeling of increased vitality passes through you, to accelerate your thoughts and to enlighten your wits?

Hypnotic Suggestion News Info

Braid then privately explained to the doctor the real nature and powers of his apparently magical instrument. It was nothing more than his portmanteau-key and ring, and its varied powers were merely the result of the predictions which the subject had heard Braid make. The experiments, he said, simply illustrated the power of suggestion during hypnosis: neither magnet nor portmanteau-key played any real part in them."Mesmerism, in its original form, has long been dead. However, every once in a while some scholar attempts to resuscitate the notion of "animal magnetism," though the phrase itself is no longer used. Only recently S. Alrutz and G. Wallenius propounded the theory of "nervous effluence" and that of "nervous radiation." Fortunately, few intelligent people took these views seriously. But then again, the belief in some substances or rays passing between two minds, unfounded as it is, might come back. Superstitions, it seems, have many lives. I shall not be surprised if the next form of mesmerism will be connected with "telepathy," which intrigues today many an ignorant and mystical mind.

Suggestions Daily News Blog

The following summary is offered for consideration:

1. Hypnosis offers today a splendid opportunity to put suggestion under scientific control and to utilize its benefical powers according to the best knowledge of our times.
2. On the physiological side, hypnosis involves functions of the autonomic nervous system, together with its various connections.
3. The autonomic nervous system controls and regulates the mechanical activities of the body, exemplified by digestion
4. These activities are not open to any direct control of the conscious will.
5. But they are sometimes considerably modified by interference of emotions and suggestions, which constitute the two channels bridging the voluntary and the involuntary nervous systems.

Hypnosis Info Blog

Stage-fright is a psychological attitude affecting, and embarrassing to, many people. And consequently, hypnosis can be of help to:

Actors
Singers
Musicians
Radio speakers
Orators
Lecturers
Lawyers
Students
etc., etc.

Hypnosis Hypnotherapy Updates

Personality faults present an even more fertile ground for suggestion and hypnosis. They are extremely wide spread and tenacious, and countless people can be benefitted by having them removed, as they commonly determine one's course of life and often decide whether it will be successful or not. Particularly useful it is to check their formation at an early age. Children, we may recall, can be hypnotized as easily as, if not easier than, adults.Most personality faults are grounded in frustrations due to conditions of existence. The success of treatment is not assured, of course, so long as the conditions responsible for the trouble are not removed. It is foolish, therefore, to make suggestions which are bound to be defeated by the continuation of harmful influences which had produced the fault in the first place and which cannot be removed or modified by the subject himself. Any attempt to do so is not unlike a physician's advice to his poor anaemic patient burdened with family responsibilities to "take it easy" and to go away to Florida or California for a winter's rest. Nevertheless, in many instances, a hypnotic treatment, used intelligently and discriminately, can relieve the subject from that lack of confidence in his behavior which has weakened his social relations and aggravated his case still further. Much better results should be expected, of course, whenever unfavorable conditions responsible for the subject's troubles are, or can be made, a thing of the past.

Hypnotic Suggestion Daily News

Another interesting possibility lies in the field of abortion, where the intended results should be obtainable with greater ease and safety to the patient by means of hypnosis than with the help of drugs and surgery. Nor is this really surprising. As H. F. Dunbar reports, the connection between the mental state and the resulting abortion has been known for years. Kohts commented upon it, in referring to the great number of abortions and miscarriages during the bombardment of Strassburg. Baudelocque noticed the same phenomenon, when 92 cases of abortion came to him for treatment immediately after the explosion of a powder tower. Kalichmann, Schaeffer, Mayer, S. H. Prince, and others made similar observations. Obviously, the period of pregnancy is easily affected, from beginning to end, by emotion as well as by suggestion.

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Hypnotherapy Daily Bulletin

Just to convey a general idea as to the progress of hypnotic therapy, I wish to give at this point a representative list of ailments that have been and can be relieved or cured by suggestion, whenever diagnosis indicates a functional cause:

SCIENTIFIC HYPNOTISM

Hysteria, in all forms
Morbid fears,
obsessions and compulsions
Nervous tremors, tics and chorea
Neurasthenia Insomnia
Speech disorders, including stammering
Sexual impotence
Frigidity
Disturbance of menstruation
Sex perversions
Nocturnal incontinence

The Hypnotic State Scoops

As soon as the subject is informed, in the pre-hypnotic stage, that he is going to be aware of everything that happens to him in the trance, that he will subsequently recall distinctly his experiences in the state, and that the state will end immediately upon command, he is sincerely ready for cooperation. And such cooperation is the best thing a practician should desire or hope to attain, provided he is willing at all times to be careful as to what he says, how he puts the words, what instructions he gives. For a critical subject will not readily obey nonsensical directions. Stupid tricks and ridiculous performances are not compatible with oneirosis, perhaps for the good of all concerned.

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Hypnosis Daily Scoops

It appears self-evident that whatever can be done in the normal waking state by means of ordinary suggestion, can also be done in the hypnotic state. Suppose you are told-in the normal waking state, mind you-by a person you have no grounds to distrust and may even respect: "Bring my pocket-book, please, do you mind ? It is in the side pocket of my coat, in the next room." Might you not go there and bring the pocket-book, even if it does not belong to the person asking you to do so (which fact is, of course, unknown to you) ? Can't you thus be made an innocent accomplice of a theft? The history of criminal law is replete with acts of larceny, burglary and fraud, in which people are mixed up as innocent victims of suggestion. If suggestion has sufficient power to lead men to unintentional crimes apart from hypnosis, don't say it cannot be done in a trance.

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Hypnosis Daily News

The following case illustrates this psychological tendency. "Miss G., aged 19, an uneducated girl, had been frequently hypnotized, and was a good somnam-bule. She had had sixteen teeth extracted at Leeds during hypnotic anaesthesia. At a later date, having examined her mouth and found that a fragment of one of the stumps remained, I asked her to come to my house "An Experimental Study in Hypnotic Anaesthesia," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, to have it removed. She mentioned this to one of her neighbors, an old woman, who advised her to have no more teeth extracted, as this would cause her mouth to fall in. The following day she presented herself, and was at once hypnotized; she refused to open her mouth, or to permit me to extract the tooth. Emphatic suggestion continued for half an hour produced no result. This was the first occasion on which she had rejected a suggestion. I then awoke her, and asked why she refused to have the tooth extracted. She told me what her neighbor had said, and expressed her determination to have nothing more done. I explained the absurdity of this, and pointed out that, as she had only the fragment of one tooth remaining, its removal could not affect the appearance of her face. As she was still obstinate, I said: "Unless this fragment is removed you cannot have your artificial teeth fitted'. This argument was sufficient. She gave her consent in the waking state, was at once hypnotized, and operated on without pain."

The Hypnotic State Scoops

Occasionally it is desirable to make the subject speak. Neurotic patients, for instance, may suffer from repressions or complexes rooted in their childhood experiences. In order to bring back these distant memories and thus to relieve an ailment or to give a clue to it, the subject is asked relevant questions and is urged to tell whatever episodes he can recall. In the terminology of Breuer and the psychoanalysts, this procedure is known as "catharsis", can be used with or without hypnosis, and is supposed to bring a "psychic trauma" back to consciousness and let it work itself off. I disagree with Freud's interpretation of the phenomenon, but the method helps, indeed, to remove old inhibitions. Whereas the subject in the trance is unable to say a word on his own initiative and appears to be, as it were, totally mute, his faculty of speech is restored almost instantaneously, as soon as the practician says, "I wish to ask you several questions. Tell me, please . . ." For several seconds the subject may have visible and audible difficulties, but soon he overcomes all the handicaps, and speech flows henceforth almost as freely as in natural conditions, though perhaps in a somewhat slower tempo; and even these remaining peculiarities can be removed by additional suggestion. If necessary, the subject can also be made to write, to walk, and to perform other actions, simple or complex, depending on what suggestion is given. And throughout the performance, he remains in the trance, keenly susceptible to the hypnotist's directions, till he is finally aroused from the state.

Hypnosis Hypnotherapy Daily Updates

As soon as the state is reached, it is time to begin with systematic suggestions. Their nature and content, of course, depend on the case and the practician's intentions. But I should like to give the following advice, in regard to form. Unless the situation calls specifically for the opposite procedure, suggestions should not be given as mere orders, for no matter how deep the trance may be, a human being resents being commanded and manifests resistance, if in disagreement. In fact, it should never be forgotten that one addresses, even in hypnosis, a being behaving according to certain psychological laws. Rather than order the subject about, the practician should offer him firm and wise leadership. Suggestions, strong, definite and clear, should be given in as natural a way as possible.

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Hypnosis Info Bulletin

The hypnosis subject must be put at ease, not only mentally but also physically. He may be placed in a comfortable arm chair, where his head rests in such a manner as to make breathing and swallowing effortless. People are in the habit of swallowing saliva at the beginning of a sitting, and their normal progress toward the hypnotic state is handicapped if their heads are in a strained position. Besides, the neck muscles relax as soon as the subject enters the state; and unless his head rests comfortably, its falling on the chest or on the back of the chair may arouse him. No strong sensation should disturb the subject. In other words, light should not shine directly into his eyes and all superfluous noises should be eliminated, if possible, while the temperature of the room should be pleasantly warm. Let me say a few words concerning the apparatus. Place a small ball, the size of an ordinary button, reflecting light toward the subject, so as to raise his eyes slightly upward to concentrate his attention. The ball so placed is conducive to fatiguing one's eyes which, incidentally, occupy approximately the same position as in ordinary sleep.

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Hypnotism Daily Scoops

The bodily aspect of hypnosis, we see, is fairly clear: it is essentially a state of neural inhibition (occasionally combined with the excitation of particular functions), as controlled by the autonomic nervous system. The scope and intensity of manifestations vary with the case, but invariably they are limited by the distribution of autonomic fibres and by their specific activities. Such fibres, we know, do not innervate every tissue; hence, there are bodily parts which cannot be reached by suggestion, not directly at least.What makes hypnosis particularly interesting, however, is that the bodily mechanism underlying it can be directed by the conscious will of the hypnotist and, consequently, may be used for various medical, psychological and educational purposes. In this mental aspect hypnosis is a relationship between two or more persons, in which the subject or subjects, being in a state of high suggestibility, react to suggestion of the practician. This mental attitude of prestige-and-faith relationship has to be established before the trance is induced, but is maintained and further consolidated during the state and after its conclusion.

Hypnotherapy Scoops Blog

For the time being, however, mesmerism is dead. But in its place, there arose other dangerous notions which detracted scientific attention from more tenable explanations of suggestion and hypnosis. Charcot and his Salpêtrière School, assuming that the trance is nothing but a state of artificial hysteria, have created the unfortunate concept of "mental dissociation." In this view, the mind can be divided into two (or more) practically independent parts and function as such, though only one will command consciousness at a time. Today this concept of dissociation is being used in a variety of ways and under the guise of erudite language, as when it is said: "Hypnosis may best be characterized as a phenomenon entailing a splitting of consciousness in which the simultaneous and successive nexus of mental life is partially deranged." I have read many a modern book on psychology but, heaven knows, I have not yet discovered what such phrases really mean. The idea of "split" and "divided" personality was made fashionable by striking studies of Morton Prince (particularly, in connection with the famous case of Miss Beau-champ), and further popularized by the psychoanalytic theory of the Unconscious. So-called "shell-shocks" of the war-time and hysterical amnesias seemed only to confirm this interpretation.

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Hypnosis Hypnotherapy Daily News Blog

Braid is known to have performed the following remarkable experiment: "He hypnotized a patient who was nursing, and suggested an increased secretion of milk in one breast. On awaking she had no recollection of what had been done, but complained of a feeling of tightness and tension in the breast. Her husband then told her that Braid had been trying to increase the secretion of milk. She was skeptical as to the result, as the child was fourteen months old and the milk had almost disappeared. Her breast, however, almost immediately became distended with milk, and a few days later she complained that her figure was deformed in consequence. Braid again hypnotized her and suc-"As reported by Bramwell, hypnotism successfully repeated the experiment with the other breast. The patient suckled her child for six months longer, the supply of milk being more abundant than it had been at any time since her confinement." The opposite kind of experiment, to stop the accumulation of milk, was performed by many hypnotists, among them by Esdaile, Mohr and Heyer. In most instances, the mother had suffered pains in the breasts, having lost the baby.

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Hypnosis News Today

In the process of suggestion, this magnetic fluid, possessing curative properties, emanates from the eyes and hands of the magnetist. To enhance the activity of this truly wondrous power, patients had to be magnetized themselves. This was done by means of a "baquet", a large tank filled with water, iron filings and ground glass. Special rods were attached to the baquet, and the patients had to be in contact with them, while Mesmer, in a magnificent robe, addressed them and walked around. Mesmer's mystic attitude toward the problem of suggestion was a great misfortune, as far as serious study of the field was concerned. Hypnotism acquired a bad reputation that persisted during many years and"Quoted from A. Binet and C. Féré, Animal Magnetism. For a full statement of Mesmer's "twenty-seven propositions" see M. Goldsmith, Franz Anton Mesmer, still is not completely dispelled.

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In the State Daily Updates

A little experience will enable the practician to recognize easily the oncoming hypnotic state. The typical sign is the closing of the eyes, sudden or gradual. Often it is accompanied by a peculiar quivering of the lids, that usually ceases in a minute or two. Or the eyes may be closed tightly. This symptom cannot be regarded, however, as certain, sufficient, or even necessary. It is most common, because the hypnotist suggests it almost invariably from the beginning. But it is quite possible for the subject to enter the trance with his eyes half-shut or fully open, and it is easy also to make him open his eyes during the state, without disturbing him in the least. Among other symptoms that are observable, we find the upward movement of the eyeballs, the deepening of the breathing, general facial relaxation, etc.

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Hypnotic Influence Info

Winn's chapter on "Oneirosis," a form of light hypnotism, makes us begin to realize how we can use this great force in everyday living. Indeed, its influence for good is just beginning to dawn upon men!This influence will be exerted, says our author, in three main ways; increasingly in medicine and psychology, but. . . and here is the surprise-especially in education! This closing part of his book should give school administrators a start. We are interested in what readers think of this bold new theory, and would like to hear from them in writing, on the matter.

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Somnambulistic Stage News Blog

We thus see what a perfect automaton the human body may become under hypnosis. There appears, however, to be a sort of unconscious memory, for a familiar object will seem to suggest spontaneously its ordinary use. Thus, if a piece of soap is put into a cataleptic patient's hands; he will move it around as though he thought he were washing them, and if there is any water near he will actually wash them. The sight of an umbrella makes him shiver as if he were in a storm. Handing such a person a pen will not make him write, but if a letter is dictated to him out loud he will write in an irregular hand. The subject may also be made to sing, scream or speak different languages with which he is entirely unfamiliar. This is, however, a verging toward the somnambulistic stage, for in deep catalepsy the patient does not speak or hear. The state is produced by placing the hands on the head, the forehead, or nape of the neck.

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Hypnotherapy Info Blog

"Here, then, it is seen that we have a mechanism in the body, known to physiologists as the ideo-motor, or sensory motor system of nerves, which can produce, without the consciousness of the individual and automatically, a series of muscular contractions. And remember that the coats of the arteries are muscular and contractile under the influence of external stimuli, acting without the help of the consciousness, or when the consciousness is in abeyance. I will give another example of this, which completes the chain of phenomena in the natural brain and the natural body I wish to bring under notice in explanation of the true as distinguished from the false, or falsely interpreted, phenomena of hypnotism, mesmerism and electro-biology.

Hypnotism Info Blog

The most remarkable of the hypnotism experiments may be given in the doctor's own words: "I told the subject to remain perfectly still for five minutes and to relate to me at the end of this time any sensation he might experience. I passed into another room and closed the door and locked it; went into a closet in the room and closed the door after me; took down from the shelf, first a linen sheet, then a pasteboard box, then a toy engine, owned by a child in the house. I went back to my subject and asked him what experience he had had.

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Hypnotism Helpful Hints

"Another experiment proves that he must see it in order to ignore it. Make a red cross, invisible to the hypnotic subject, on a sheet of white paper, and yet cause him to look fixedly at a dot on the paper on or near the red cross; he wills on transferring his eye to the blank sheet, see a bluish-green after image of the cross. This proves that it has impressed his sensibility. He has felt but not perceived it. He had actually ignored it; refused to recognize it, as it were."

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Mental Suggestion News Blog

Restoring the Use of Muscles.--There is no doubt that hypnotism may be extremely useful in curing many disorders that are essentially nervous, especially such cases as those in which a patient has a fixed idea that something is the matter with him when he is not really affected. Cases of that description are often extremely obstinate, and entirely unaffected by the ordinary therapeutic means. Ordinary doctors abandon the cases in despair, but some person who understands "mental suggestion" (for instance, the Christian Science doctors) easily effects a cure. If the regular physician were a student of hypnotism he would know how to manage cases like that.

Hypnotical Experiments Info Blog

Dr. Ernest Hart gives an experience of his own which carries with it its own warning. Says he:

"Staying at the well known country house in Kent of a distinguished London banker, formerly member of Parliament for Greenwich, I had been called upon to set to sleep, and to arrest a continuous barking cough from which a young lady who was staying in the house was suffering, and who, consequently, was a torment to herself and her friends. I thought this a good opportunity for a control experiment, and I sat her down in front of a lighted candle which I assured her that I had previously mesmerized. Presently her cough ceased and she fell into a profound sleep, which lasted until twelve o'clock the next day. When I returned from shooting, I was informed that she was still asleep and could not be awoke, and I had great difficulty in awaking her. That night there was a large dinner party, and, unluckily, I sat opposite to her. Presently she again became drowsy, and had to be led from the table, alleging, to my confusion, that I was again mesmerizing her. So susceptible did she become to my supposed mesmeric influence, which I vainly assured her, as was the case, that I was very far from exercising or attempting to exercise, that it was found expedient to take her up to London. I was out riding in the afternoon that she left, and as we passed the railway station, my host, who was riding with me, suggested that, as his friends were just leaving by that train, he would like to a light and take leave of them. I dismounted with him and went on to the platform, and avoided any leave-taking; but unfortunately in walking up and down it seems that I twice passed the window of the young lady's carriage. She was again self-mesmerized, and fell into a sleep which lasted throughout the journey, and recurred at intervals for some days afterward."

Hypnotic Influence Info

Again, there is absolutely no well authenticated case of crime committed by a person under hypnotic influence. There have been several cases reported, and one woman in Paris who aided in a murder was released on her plea of irresponsibility because she had been hypnotized. In none of these cases, however, was there any really satisfactory evidence that hypnotism existed.

In all the cases reported there seemed to be no doubt of the weak character and predisposition to crime. In another class of cases, namely those of criminal assault upon girls and women, the only evidence ever adduced that the injured person was hypnotized was the statement of that person, which cannot really be called evidence at all.

The Hypnotic State Blog News

Signs of drunkenness were said to be caused by a small corked bottle of brandy, and the nature of a cat by a corked bottle of valerian. Patients also saw beautiful blue flames about the north pole of a magnet and distasteful red flames about the south pole; while by means of a magnet it was said that the symptoms of illness of a sick patient might be transferred to a well person also in the hypnotic state, but of course on awaking the well person at once threw off sickness that had been transferred, but the sick person was permanently relieved.

These experiments are cited in some recent books on hypnotism, apparently with faith. The following counter experiments will therefore be read with interest.

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Auto-Hypnotization Blog

Dr. Cooke says of himself: "I can hypnotize myself to such an extent that I will become wholly unconscious of events taking place around me,and a long interval of time, say from one-half to two hours, will be a complete blank."

"During this condition of auto-hypnotization I will obey suggestions made to me by another, talking rationally, and not knowing any event that has occurred after the condition has passed off."

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Hypnosis News Today

Dr. Cocke describes a peculiar trick he played upon the sight of a subject. Says he: "I once hypnotized a man and made him read all of his a's as w's, his u's as v's, and his b's as x's. I added suggestion after suggestion so rapidly that it would have been impossible for him to have remembered simply what I said and call the letters as I directed.Stimulation was, in this case impossible, as I made him read fifteen or twenty pages, he calling the letters as suggested each time they occurred."

If the powers of the mind are so enormously increased, all that is required of a very sensitive and easily hypnotized person is to hypnotize him or herself,when he will be able to read thoughts and remember or perceive facts hidden to the ordinary perception. In this connection the reader is referred to the confession of Mrs. Piper, the famous medium of the American branch of the Psychical Research Society. The confession will be found printed in full at the close of this book.

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A Stage of Hypnosis Daily News

THE SOMNAMBULISTIC STAGE

Dr. Charcot thus describes a curious experiment: "A portrait is suggested to a subject as existing on a blank card, which is then mixed with a dozen others; to all appearance they are similar cards. The subject, being awakened from his hypnotism, is requested to look over the packet, and does so without knowing the reason of the request, but when he perceives the card on which the portrait was suggested, he at once recognizes the imaginary portrait. It is probable that some insignificant mark has,owing to his visual hyperacuity, fixed the image in the subject's brain."

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Audio Relaxation Blog

An interesting hypnotism experiment may be tried by throwing a patient into lethargy on one side and catalepsy on the other. To induce what is called hemi-lethargy and hemi-catalepsy is not difficult.

First, the lethargic hypnotic stage is induced, then one eyelid is raised, and that side alone becomes cataleptic, and may be operated on in various interesting ways. The arm on that side, for instance, will remain raised when lifted, while the arm on the other side will fall heavily.

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Hypnosis Training Blog

At this point Dr. Flint's daughter took charge of the hypnotism class. She pointed her finger at one of them, and the subject began to look steadily before him, at which the rest of the class were highly amused. Presently the subject's head leaned forward, the pupils of his eyes dilated and assumed a peculiar glassy stare. He arose with a steady, gliding gait and walked up to the lady until his nose touched her hand. Then he stopped. Miss Flint led him to the front of the stage and left him standing in profound slumber. He stood there, stooping, eyes set, and vacant, fast asleep.

In the meantime the hypnotism had caused great laughter among the rest of the class. One young fellow in particular, laughed so uproariously that tears coursed down his cheeks, and he took out his handkerchief to wipe his eyes. Just as he was returning it to his pocket, the lady suddenly pointed a finger at him. She was in the center of the stage, fully fifteen feet away from the subject, but the moment the gesture was made, his countenance fell, his mirth stopped, while that of his companions redoubled, and the change was so obvious that the audience shared in the laughter--but the subject neither saw nor heard.His eyes assumed the same expression that had been noticed in hisc ompanion's. He, too, arose in the same attitude, as if his head were pulling the body along, and following the finger in the same way as his predecessor, was conducted to the front of the stage by the side of the first subject.

Lethargic State From Being Hypnotized Blog

This is comparatively easy in moot cases. Most persons will awake naturally at the end of a few minutes from hypnosis, or will fall into a natural sleep from which in an hour or two they will awake refreshed. Usually the operator simply says to the subject, "All right, wake up now," and claps his hands or makes some other decided noise. In some cases it is sufficient to say, "You will wake up in five minutes"; or tell a subject to count twelve and when he gets to ten say, "Wake up."

Persons in the lethargic state from being hypnotized are not susceptible to verbal suggestions, but may be awakened by lifting both eyelids.

Hypnotist Blog

Some explain this by supposing that the blood is driven out of one portion of the brain and driven into other portions during hypnotism.In any case, it is as though the human engine were uncoupled, and the patient becomes an automaton. If he is told to do this, that, or the other, he does it, simply because his will is asleep and "suggestion",as it is called, from without makes him act just as he starts up unconsciously in his ordinary sleep if tickled with a straw.

Now for the theories. There are three leading theories, known as that of1. Animal Magnetism; 2. Neurosis; and 3. Suggestion.

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Induce The Condition of Hypnosis Updates

A very effective method of hypnotizing a person is by commanding him to sleep, and having some very soft music played upon the piano, or other stringed instrument.

Firm pressure over the orbits, or over the finger-ends and root of the nail for some minutes may also induce the condition of hypnosis in very sensitive persons.

Suggestion

Suggestion. This theory is based on the power of mind over the body as we observe it in everyday life. Again let me quote from Dr. Cooke. "If we can direct the subject's whole attention to the belief that such an effect as before mentioned--that his arm will be paralyzed, for instance--will take place, that effect will gradually occur. Such a result having been once produced, the subject's will-power and power of resistance are considerably weakened, because he is much more inclined than at first to believe the hypnotizer's assertion. This is generally the first step in the process of hypnosis. The method pursued at the school of Nancy is to convince the subject that his eyes are closing by directing his attention to that effect as strongly as possible. However,it is not necessary that we begin with the eyes. According to M. Dessoir, any member of the body will answer as well."

THEORIES OF HYPNOTISM.

This is what Mr. Hart means when he says that any stick or stone may produce hypnotism.

If a person will gaze steadily at a bright fire, or a glass of water, for instance, he can throw himself into a hypnotic trance exactly similar to the condition produced by a professional or trained hypnotist. Such people,however, must be possessed of imagination.

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He noted that during one phase of hypnotism,known as catalepsy, the arms, limbs, etc., might be placed in any position and would remain there; he also noted that a puff of breath would usually awaken a subject, and that by talking to a subject and telling him to do this or do that, even after he awakes from the sleep,he can be made to do those things.

Braid thought he might affect a certain part of the brain during hypnotic sleep, and if he could find the seat of the thieving disposition, or the like, he could cure the patient of desire to commit crime, simply by suggestion, or command.

hypnotist

In 1779 Mesmer published a pamphlet entitled "Memoire sur la decouverte du magnetisme animal", of which Doctor Cocke gives the following summary(his chief claim was that he had discovered a principle which would cure every disease):

"He sets forth his conclusions in twenty-seven propositions, of which the substance is as follows:-- There is a reciprocal action and reaction between the planets, the earth and animate nature by means of a constant universal fluid, subject to mechanical laws yet unknown. The animal body is directly affected by the insinuation of this agent into the substance of the nerves. It causes in human bodies properties analogous to those of the magnet, for which reason it is called 'Animal Hypnotism'.

hypnotism

CHAPTER XIII--The Confessions of a Medium--Spiritualistic phenomena explained on theory of telepathy and hypnotism--Interesting statement of Mrs. Piper,the famous medium of the Psychical Research Society.

"Laying on of hands"must have been a form of mesmerism, and Greek oracles of Delphi and other places seem to have been delivered by priests or priestesses who went into trances of self-induced hypnotism.

Post-hypnotic suggestion

CHAPTER II--Amusing experiments--Hypnotizing on the stage--"You can't pull your hands apart!"--Post-hypnotic suggestion--The newsboy, the hunter, and the young man with the rag doll--A whip becomes hot iron--Courting a broomstick--The side-show

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