Complete Hypnotism, Mesmerism, Mind-Reading and Spritualism | Page 4

Prussian government to investigate Mesmerism. He became an
enthusiast, and introduced its practice into the hospital at Berlin.
In 1814 Deleuze published a book on the subject, and Abbe Faria, who
had come from India, demonstrated that there was no fluid, but that the
phenomena were subjective, or within the mind of the patient. He first

introduced what is now called the "method of suggestion" in producing
magnetism or hypnotism. In 1815 Mesmer died.
Experimentation continued, and in the 20's Foissac persuaded the
Academy of Medicine to appoint a commission to investigate the
subject. After five years they presented a report. This report gave a
good statement of the practical operation of magnetism, mentioning the
phenomena of somnambulism, anesthesia, loss of memory, and the
various other symptoms of the hypnotic state as we know it. It was
thought that magnetism had a right to be considered as a therapeutic
agent, and that it might be used by physicians, though others should not
be allowed to practice it. In 1837 another commission made a decidedly
unfavorable report.
Soon after this Burdin, a member of the Academy, offered a prize of
3,000 francs to any one who would read the number of a bank-note or
the like with his eyes bandaged (under certain fixed conditions), but it
was never awarded, though many claimed it, and there has been
considerable evidence that persons in the hypnotic state have
(sometimes) remarkable clairvoyant powers.
Soon after this, magnetism fell into very low repute throughout France
and Germany, and scientific men became loath to have their names
connected with the study of it in any way. The study had not yet been
seriously taken up in England, and two physicians who gave some
attention to it suffered decidedly in professional reputation.
It is to an English physician, however, that we owe the scientific
character of modern hypnotism. Indeed he invented the name of
hypnotism, formed from the Greek word meaning 'sleep', and
designating 'artificially produced sleep'. His name is James Braid, and
so important were the results of his study that hypnotism has
sometimes been called "Braidism". Doctor Courmelles gives the
following interesting summary of Braid's experiences:
"November, 1841, he witnessed a public experiment made by Monsieur
Lafontaine, a Swiss magnetizer. He thought the whole thing a comedy;
a week after, he attended a second exhibition, saw that the patient could

not open his eyes, and concluded that this was ascribable to some
physical cause. The fixity of gaze must, according to him, exhaust the
nerve centers of the eyes and their surroundings. He made a friend look
steadily at the neck of a bottle, and his own wife look at an
ornamentation on the top of a china sugar bowl: sleep was the
consequence. Here hypnotism had its origin, and the fact was
established that sleep could be induced by physical agents. This, it must
be remembered, is the essential difference between these two classes of
phenomena (magnetism and hypnotism): for magnetism supposes a
direct action of the magnetizer on the magnetized subject, an action
which does not exist in hypnotism."
It may be stated that most English and American operators fail to see
any distinction between magnetism and hypnotism, and suppose that
the effect of passes, etc., as used by Mesmer, is in its way as much
physical as the method of producing hypnotism by concentrating the
gaze of the subject on a bright object, or the like.
Braid had discovered a new science--as far as the theoretical view of it
was concerned--for he showed that hypnotism is largely, if not purely,
mechanical and physical. 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.
Braid's conclusions were, in brief, that there was no fluid, or other
exterior agent, but that hypnotism was due to a physiological condition
of the nerves. It was his belief that hypnotic sleep was brought about by
fatigue of the eyelids, or by other influences wholly within the subject.
In this he was supported by Carpenter, the great physiologist; but
neither Braid nor Carpenter could get the medical organizations to give
the matter any attention, even to investigate it. In 1848 an American

named Grimes succeeded in obtaining all the