Complete Hypnotism, Mesmerism, Mind-Reading and Spritualism | Page 6

may eventually
find his or her hypnotizer, even when numerous attempts at inducing
sleep have failed. However this may be, the impossibility some
individuals find in inducing sleep in trained subjects, proves at least the
existence of a negative force."
If you would ask the present writer's opinion, gathered from all the
evidence before him, he would say that while he has no belief in the
existence of any magnetic fluid, or anything that corresponds to it, he
thinks there can be no doubt that some people will succeed as
hypnotists while some will fail, just as some fail as carpenters while
others succeed. This is true in every walk of life. It is also true that
some people attract, others repel, the people they meet. This is not very
easily explained, but we have all had opportunity to observe it. Again,
since concentration is the prerequisite for producing hypnotism, one
who has not the power of concentration himself, and concentration
which he can perfectly control, is not likely to be able to secure it in
others. Also, since faith is a strong element, a person who has not
perfect self-confidence could not expect to create confidence in others.
While many successful hypnotizers can themselves be hypnotized, it is
probable that most all who have power of this kind are themselves
exempt from the exercise of it. It is certainly true that while a person
easily hypnotized is by no means weak-minded (indeed, it is probable
that most geniuses would be good hypnotic subjects), still such persons
have not a well balanced constitution and their nerves are high-strung if

not unbalanced. They would be most likely to be subject to a person
who had such a strong and well-balanced nervous constitution that it
would be hard to hypnotize. And it is always safe to say that the strong
may control the weak, but it is not likely that the weak will control the
strong.
There is also another thing that must be taken into account. Science
teaches that all matter is in vibration. Indeed, philosophy points to the
theory that matter itself is nothing more than centers of force in
vibration. The lowest vibration we know is that of sound. Then comes,
at an enormously higher rate, heat, light (beginning at dark red and
passing through the prismatic colors to violet which has a high
vibration), to the chemical rays, and then the so-called X or unknown
rays which have a much higher vibration still. Electricity is a form of
vibration, and according to the belief of many scientists, life is a
species of vibration so high that we have no possible means of
measuring it. As every student of science knows, air appears to be the
chief medium for conveying vibration of sound, metal is the chief
medium for conveying electric vibrations, while to account for the
vibrations of heat and light we have to assume (or imagine) an invisible,
imponderable ether which fills all space and has no property of matter
that we can distinguish except that of conveying vibrations of light in
its various forms. When we pass on to human life, we have to theorize
chiefly by analogy. (It must not be forgotten, however, that the
existence of the ether and many assumed facts in science are only
theories which have come to be generally adopted because they explain
phenomena of all kinds better than any other theories which have been
offered.)
Now, in life, as in physical science, any one who can get, or has by
nature, the key-note of another nature, has a tremendous power over
that other nature. The following story illustrates what this power is in
the physical world. While we cannot vouch for the exact truth of the
details of the story, there can be no doubt of the accuracy of the
principle on which it is based:
"A musical genius came to the Suspension Bridge at Niagara Falls, and

asked permission to cross; but as he had no money, his request was
contemptuously refused. He stepped away from the entrance, and,
drawing his violin from his case, began sounding notes up and down
the scale. He finally discovered, by the thrill that sent a tremor through
the mighty structure, that he had found the note on which the great
cable that upheld the mass, was keyed. He drew his bow across the
string of the violin again, and the colossal wire, as if under the spell of
a magician, responded with a throb that sent a wave through its
enormous length. He sounded the note again and again, and the cable
that was dormant under the strain of loaded teams and monster
engines--the cable that remained stolid under the pressure of human
traffic, and the heavy tread of commerce, thrilled and surged