Complete Hypnotism, Mesmerism, Mind-Reading and Spritualism | Page 7

and shook
itself, as mad waves of vibration coursed over its length, and it tore at
its slack, until like a foam-crested wave of the sea, it shook the towers
at either end, or, like some sentient animal, it tugged at its fetters and
longed to be free.
"The officers in charge, apprehensive of danger, hurried the poor
musician across, and bade him begone and trouble them no more. The
ragged genius, putting his well-worn instrument back in its case,
muttered to himself, 'I'd either crossed free or torn down the bridge.'"
"So the hypnotist," goes on the writer from which the above is quoted,
"finds the note on which the subjective side of the person is attuned,
and by playing upon it awakens into activity emotions and sensibilities
that otherwise would have remained dormant, unused and even
unsuspected."
No student of science will deny the truth of these statements. At the
same time it has been demonstrated again and again that persons can
and do frequently hypnotize themselves. 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.
THEORIES OF HYPNOTISM.

We have now learned some facts in regard to hypnotism; but they leave
the subject still a mystery. Other facts which will be developed in the
course of this book will only deepen the mystery. We will therefore
state some of the best known theories.
Before doing so, however, it would be well to state concisely just what
seems to happen in a case of hypnotism. The word hypnotism means
sleep, and the definition of hypnotism implies artificially produced
sleep. Sometimes this sleep is deep and lasting, and the patient is totally
insensible; but the interesting phase of the condition is that in certain
stages the patient is only partially asleep, while the other part of his
brain is awake and very active.
It is well known that one part of the brain may be affected without
affecting the other parts. In hemiplegia, for instance, one half of the
nervous system is paralyzed, while the other half is all right. In the
stages of hypnotism we will now consider, the will portion of the brain
or mind seems to be put to sleep, while the other faculties are,
abnormally awake. Some explain this by supposing that the blood is
driven out of one portion of the brain and driven into other portions. 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 of
1. Animal Magnetism; 2. Neurosis; and 3. Suggestion. We will simply
state them briefly in order without discussion.
Animal Magnetism. This is the theory offered by Mesmer, and those
who hold it assume that "the hypnotizer exercises a force,
independently of suggestion, over the subject. They believe one part of
the body to be charged separately, or that the whole body may be filled
with magnetism. They recognize the power, of suggestion, but they do
not believe it to be the principal factor in the production of the hypnotic
state." Those who hold this theory today distinguish between the
phenomena produced by magnetism and those produced by physical

means or simple suggestion.
The Neurosis Theory. We have already explained the word neurosis,
but we repeat here the definition given by Dr. J. R. Cocke. "A neurosis
is any affection of the nervous centers occurring without any material
agent producing it, without inflammation or any other constant
structural change which can be detected in the nervous centers. As will
be seen from the definition, any abnormal manifestation of the nervous
system of whose cause we know practically nothing, is, for
convenience, termed a neurosis. If a man has a certain habit or trick, it
is termed a neurosis or neuropathic habit. One man of my acquaintance,
who is a professor in a college, always begins his lecture by first
sneezing and then pulling at his nose. Many forms of tremor are called
neurosis. Now to say that hypnotism is the result of a. neurosis, simply
means that a person's nervous system is susceptible to this condition,
which, by M. Charcot and his followers, is regarded as abnormal." In
short, M.