第164章

Footnotes It should be said that the methods of leaving the patient to himself, and that of the simple verbal suggestion of sleep (the so-called Nancy method introduced by Dr.Liébault of that place), seem, wherever applicable, to be the best, as they entail none of the after-inconveniences which occasionally follow upon straining his eyes.A new patient should not be put through a great variety of different suggestions in immediate succession.He should be waked up from time to time, and then rehypnotized to avoid mental confusion and excitement.Before finally waking a subject you should undo whatever delusive suggestions you may have implanted in him, by telling him that they are all gone, etc., and that you are now going to restore him to his natural state.Headache, languor, etc., which sometimes follow the first trance or two, must be banished at the outset, by the operator strongly assuring the subject that such things never come from hypnotism, that the subject must not have them, etc.

Certain facts would seem to point that way.

Cf., e.g., the care of the man described by P.Despine, Étude Scientifique sur le Somnambulisme,p.286 ff.

The state is not identical with sleep, however analogous in certain respects.The lighter stages of it, particularly, differ from sleep and dreaming, inasmuch as they are characterized almost exclusively by muscular inabilities and compulsions, which are not noted in ordinary somnolescence, and the mind, which is confused in somnolescence, may be quite clearly conscious, in the lighter state of trance, of all that is going on.

The word 'suggestion' has been bandied about too much as if it explained all mysteries: When the subject obeys it is by reason of the 'operator's suggestion'; when he proves refactory it is in consequence of an 'auto-suggestion' which he has made to himself, etc., etc.What explains everything explains nothing; and it must be remembered that what needs explanation here is the fact that in a certain condition of the subject suggestions operate as they do at no other time ;

that through them functions are affected which ordinarily elude the action of the waking will; and that usually all this happens in a condition of which no after-memory remains.

A complete fit of drunkenness may be the consequence of the suggested champagne.It is even said that real drunkenness has been cured by suggestion.

The suggested hallucination may be followed by a negative after-image, just as if it were a real object.This can be very easily verified with the suggested hallucination of a colored cross on a sheet of white paper.Tile subject, on turning to another sheet of paper, will see a cross of the complementary color.Hallucinations have been shown by MM.Binet and Féré to be doubled by a prism or mirror, magnified by a lens, and in many other ways to behave optically like real objects.These points have been discussed already on p.128 ff.

M.Liégeois explains the common exhibition-trick of making the subject unable to get his arms into his coat-sleves again after he has taken his coat off, by an anæsthesia to the necessary parts of the coat.

Precautions being taken against differences of temperature and other grounds of suggestion.

It should be said, however, that the bystander's ability to discriminate unmarked cards and sheets of paper from each other is much greater than one would naturally suppose.

I must repeat, however, that we are here on the verge of possibly unknown forces and modes of communication.Hypnotization at a distance, with no grounds for expectation on the subject's part that it was to be tried, seems pretty well established in certain very rare cases.See in general, for information on these matters, the Proceedings of the Sec.for Psych.Research, passim.

Here again the perception in question must take place below the threshold of ordinary consciousness, possibly in one of those split-off selves or 'second' states whose existence we have so often to recognize.

I myself verified many of the above effects of the magnet on a blind-folded subject on whom I was trying them for the first time, and whom I believe to have never heard of them before.The moment, however, an opaque screen was added to the blindfolding, the effects ceased to coincide with the approximation of the magnet, so that it looks as if visual perception had been instrumental in protecting them.The subject passed from my observation, so that I never could clear up the mystery.

Of course I gave him consciously no hint of what I was looking for.

Binet and Féré, 'Animal Magnetism,'

in the International Scientific Series; A.Bernheim,' Suggestive Therapeutics ' (N.Y., 1889); J Liégeois 'De la Suggestion' (1889); E.Gurney, two articles in Mind, vol.ix.-- In the recent revival of interest in the history of this subject, it seems a pity that the admirably critical and scientific work of Dr.John Kearsley Mitchell of Philadelphia should remain relatively so unknown.It is quite worthy to rank with Braid's investigations.

See "Five Essays" by the above author, edited by S.Weir Mitchell, Philadelphia, 1859, pp.141-274.