Let anyone who is skeptical concerning the power of mind over matter consider even a few of the many amazing phenomena of hypnotism. Public exhibitions of hypnotic experiments were, not long ago, frequently given in this country and in Europe. The Danish hypnotist, Hansen, rolled up a considerable fortune in this way. In most of the German states, and in Holland, Belgium and Switzerland, such performances are prohibited. They should be made illegal in the United States; for, in the hands of “Professors” ignorant of either psychology or medicine, much harm can be done by such exhibitions, both to the public at large and to the participants. The showmen-hypnotists have in mind only the entertainment of audiences and are little concerned about any bodily or mental injury that may be done the volunteer subjects.

While the really important work in hypnotism and auto-suggestion is being pursued by psychiatrists (alienists) and physicians in laboratories and clinics, demonstrating “the influence of mind over matter,” their results are not so obvious, so easily understood, as the spectacular performances of the showmen-hypnotists.

As a rule there is no necessity for these showmen to place “tools” in the auditorium to volunteer when requests are made for subjects for demonstration. Among the many real volunteers who are curious to see if they can be hypnotized, it is not a difficult matter for the experienced showman to select some well suited to his purpose, though he succeeds better with some of these than with others. The unsuitable persons having been rejected, it is not long before the expert has a band of hypnotized subjects doing the goose-step behind him, utterly devoid of any impulse of their own, ready on command to perform whatever ridiculous—and therefore laughter-provoking—“stunt” he may suggest.

Limbs are stiffened and retained in any posture selected by the hypnotist, and without fatigue to the subject. Laid horizontally, the whole body may be made rigid, so that if the head be placed on one chair and the heels on another, the body forming a bridge between the two, heavy loads quite beyond the person’s normal powers are readily borne by him. Certain movements of the arms or legs once begun, the subject cannot of his own will inhibit them. A needle run through a fold of the skin will cause no pain. Told that he is an orchestral conductor, the volunteer will soberly conduct an imaginary orchestra, waving the baton to and fro. Ordered to give three cheers for “the king of Iceland” three minutes after awakening, the subject will, promptly at the time suggested, suddenly break forth with the cheers for the imaginary king, though unable to account for his by now embarrassing foolishness. The same result will occur if the order is given for 243 or 2043 minutes after awakening—the subconscious mind will keep accurate count.

These phenomena are genuine in character, and are all capable of a psychological explanation. In the cataleptic or deeper stages of hypnotism, the subject loses all consciousness of the external world, still, however, hearing and obeying the voice of the operator. On awakening he has either partially or wholly forgotten all that has occurred during his somnambulistic sleep or trance.

Psychotherapists usually designate as somnambulism the (third) phase of hypnotism wherein all that has happened during the trance is completely forgotten. The term is objectionable, however, since it is commonly applied to sleep-walking (in somno ambulare—to walk in sleep). For this reason Louis Satow suggests that the term somnambulance be applied to sleep-walking, and somnambulism to the deepest phase of hypnotic sleep.⁠[5]

Hutchison regards sleep-walking as a counterpart of hypnotic sleep. As is well known, not a few persons during natural sleep leave their beds and wander about the house, or even go out into the street or climb on the roof, performing dangerous feats in a state of entire unconsciousness. Entering a room where other persons are sitting, they will answer any questions put to them, or carry on a conversation. Some undertake complicated transactions, usually those which are “most frequently included in the circle of their work and thought, and which concern them also in their waking moments” (Satow). Upon awakening the sleep-walker has no recollection of his actions during sleep.

Coué would explain that the somnambulist performs what are often perilous feats, usually with perfect security, because of his absence of fear; that is, he does not imagine himself falling from the height scaled, or the narrow board or path traversed in his wanderings. Satow says that sleep-walkers are “unaware of a large number of sensory impressions, and for this reason do not recognize danger.” However, as he further observes, somnambulists have occasionally “come to grief during their perilous wanderings,” as shown by authentic results. Usually, the business in hand having been accomplished, the sleep-walker finds his way back to bed, spontaneous waking during the performance being of rare occurrence.

Dr. Baerwald, of the Humboldt Academy in Berlin, tells of a sleep-walker who, without being hypnotized, was able to recite the words of a book which another person was reading (the letters being one two hundred and fiftieth of an inch high) although the latter sat facing the somnambulist, with the back of the book turned to him. The reader will doubtless jump to the plausible conclusion that this was a case of telepathy—mind-reading. Not so. Induced to close his eyes, the sleep-walker could no longer “recite the words of the book.” The somnambulist had actually been reading the book from the reflected image of the type in the pupils of the reader’s eyes! Doubtless such acuteness of vision does not occur in the waking state.

In both hypnotic somnambulism (deep sleep) and sleep-walking, the essential characteristic is lack of remembrance of the events which have occurred. But in the case of the sleep-walker even the prick of a needle would cause him to awake; whereas in the deepest phase of hypnotic sleep marked anaesthesia occurs. In pre-chloroform days, Esdaile and others were enabled to carry out large numbers of major and minor surgical operations without pain to the patient. Even in recent times, painless tooth-extraction and painless childbirth have occurred with the aid of hypnotic sleep.

In the first phase of hypnosis, only sleepiness is induced. The influenced person, in this stage, can resist suggestion and open his eyes (Forel). With this degree of hypnosis alone, many cases of cure have been effected.

Dr. Hutchison states that adequate anaesthesia can also be induced by suggestion in the state of light sleep (second phase), when the patient is fully conscious, allowing painless tooth-extraction: “only the sight of the extracted tooth has carried conviction to the patient.”

Cases of profound anaesthesia without loss of consciousness have been frequently noted on the battle-field, where soldiers have been severely wounded, even including severance of important parts of the body, without pain, and even without knowing for a time that the injury had been inflicted. It is probable that the sudden shock in such cases paralyzes the nerves, hence there can be no sensation of pain registered in the cerebrum. On the other hand, it is quite possible that on the field of battle the condition is purely psychological, the victim being in a sort of trance, as a result of excitement.

Certain of the martyrs appear to have been in such a state at the time of their burning at the stake or similar torturing deaths—“a result of the state of intense exaltation into which they fell in anticipation of martyrdom,” rendering them to a great extent oblivious to injuries which would otherwise result in unspeakable agony. It is said that Archimedes, the greatest mathematicion of antiquity, was so deeply engrossed in some geometrical problem that he was unaware of the fact that Syracuse had been taken by the Romans, and that he had received a mortal wound, even though his life-blood was flowing away.

Concentration of thought is one aspect of hypnosis, rendering one unconscious of the external world and its doings. Thus, again, Archimedes having discovered how to determine the specific weight of bodies while he was taking a bath, the well-known story goes that he became so excited over the solution that he rushed to the street stark naked, shouting as he ran, “Eureka! Eureka!” (I have found it! I have found it!). Had his thigh been pierced by an arrow as he ran, it is doubtful if he would, for the moment have felt any pain from the wound inflicted.

Everyone is familiar with the undisputed fact that the medicine-man (shaman) of certain savage tribes is capable of producing—by auto-suggestion—anaesthesia which enables him to dance barefoot in the midst of a fire, or over red-hot boulders. Many savages, by means of rhythmical, long-protracted dances, produce a form of auto-hypnosis which enables them to inflict severe wounds in their flesh which do not bleed and quickly heal.

Hypnotists find it quite possible to render a person incapable (during the hypnotic state) of exercising his faculties of tasting, smelling, seeing or hearing, “except in so far as the operator allows him to do so.” Told that a glass of water is bubbling champagne, the subject (unless deeply opposed on principle: see previously) smacks his lips with intense satisfaction; or he chews chalk for candy with equal gusto. He will, at the command of the operator, smell asafetida as a delicious violet odor, or pronounce strong ammonia an odorless liquid, inhaling it without discomfort. The subconscious mind is not endowed with an olfactory lobe or gustatory organs. Capacity for pain is an exclusive property of the conscious mind. Hence the anaesthesia of hypnotism.

An incident narrated by Dr. Wingfield shows at once the source of “automatic writing” and the power of subconscious mind to remember what the conscious mind knows nothing about.

Having hypnotized his patient, during somnambulism he made him imagine that he was (1) riding with the hounds, (2) rowing a race in his college boat, and (3) that next morning he would put a boot on one foot and a shoe on the other. “On waking he knew none of these things. I then made him put his hand on a planchette, and asked ‘What did he do first?’ After a few meaningless scratches it wrote ‘hunting.’ ‘When then?’ I asked. ‘Rowed in the races,’ was the answer. ‘Did I tell him to do anything?’ ‘Boot one, shoe one,’ said the planchette.”

Dr. Wingfield calls attention to the fact that the knowledge possessed by the planchette was exactly commensurate with that possessed by the subject during somnambulism. “It will thus be seen that any loss of memory after hypnosis is only apparent and not real.”

This power of the subconscious to remember facts, names, the measurement of time, and even languages, wholly unknown to the conscious mind, has frequently aroused astonishment in the learned and superstitious awe in the uninstructed. The Countess deLaval, for example, talked the Breton language in her sleep, but could not understand a word of Breton when awake. (She had heard it spoken in early childhood.) An illiterate servant, in a state of trance, spoke Hebrew fluently, but knew nothing whatever of the language when awake. It was learned that she had years before been in service with a clergyman who had a habit of memorizing Hebrew aloud.

The ouija-board or planchette aids the subconscious in bringing to consciousness forgotten memories. But the subconscious mind is highly imaginative, and often a great liar—as the ouija-board attests!

In some cases, suggestions made to a person under hypnotic treatment retain their hold on the subject after he has been wakened, and it then becomes necessary to re-hypnotize the subject, suggesting contrary ideas. A hypnotized person may be led to believe that a dear friend has done him a great injustice, or stolen his purse, or that he has seen Smith or Jones commit a grave crime. In such cases of post-hypnotic hallucinations—as they are called—the subject, after waking, if questioned will describe in full detail the circumstances of the injury done him, and would be fully capable of giving evidence to support his hallucination in a court of law. Some persons even develop similar hallucinations by auto-suggestion.

“It is familiar to us all,” says Dr. Hutchison, “how readily some people can ... fabricate the details of a scandal, can, so to speak, create for themselves the hallucination of a scandal, every incident of which they believe themselves to have seen. For this it suffices simply that some one person should rest under slight suspicion, that a slight rumor should be set afloat, and ere long idle onlookers create the details which are wanting, and which they implicitly believe they have founded on fact. Nowhere are more striking instances of this seen than in law courts, when an attempt is made to sift evidence. It is a well-known fact that a clever counsel may lead a witness into accepting and confirming most contradictory statements, by merely suggesting with an air of conviction that certain events had or had not been witnessed by him.”

Very interesting is the phenomenon of post-hypnotic suggestion. The suggestion is made during the hypnotic sleep that the subject perform certain acts after the lapse of a certain time, in the waking state. A young woman was told by Dr. Milne Bramwell to address a letter to him 12,500 minutes from the time at which she came out of the hypnotic sleep. Although she remembered nothing of the request on waking, at the exact second of expiration of the 12,500 minutes she wrote the letter, believing that the act was entirely voluntary. In this case, the woman was quite incapable of calculating the time consciously. In other cases Dr. Bramwell suggested to the hypnotized subjects that certain messages should be delivered at a fixed date, at a certain hour. Notwithstanding the fact that obstacles were purposely put in their path, the subjects faithfully carried out the commands at the appointed hour.

For the sake of the experiment, hypnotized subjects have been commanded to do rather absurd things at a specified time. Having carried out the suggestion, and asked why the act was performed, the subject will frequently attempt to give a good reason why he had done so and so, believing fully that he had done it of his own accord. “Even when delusions of the senses occur in the waking state,” says Satow, “without hypnosis, we must assume that the persons affected are not, for the time being, for some reason or other, in a position to correct the creations of their imaginative faculties by reference to realities, and therefore regard them as real. So Luther, who was still deep in the superstitions of his day, regarded the devil who appeared to him on the Wartburg as being so real that he hurled his inkstand after him.”

Post-hypnotic results are often utilized to very good advantage by the psycho-therapist, since all psycho-physical processes can be influenced. For example, a person suffering from sleeplessness may be given very definite directions as to the hour at which he will become drowsy and the number of hours he will sleep. Such suggestions, however, may not always be responded to literally, but in some cases only a gradual improvement in sleeping occurs. Dr. Hutchison finds that “definite suggestions may be given in a case of obstinate constipation to act later in the form of a post-hypnotic suggestion, and so lead after a few treatments to the complete cure of the constipation. The various secretions may be influenced on the same lines, and so appetite and the ability to digest any food can be successfully suggested in a person suffering from loss of appetite and who may have refrained from solid foods for weeks or months.”

According to Satow, all remedial hypnosis depends upon post-hypnotic effects. “The cure of all sorts of complaints—stammering, agoraphobia, insomnia, incontinence of urine, etc.—is complete only if it holds good after hypnosis. All post-hypnotic suggestions are much more easily realized if ordered to be carried out at a given time.... To explain the effect of post-hypnotic suggestions it must be assumed that after hypnosis a condition of greater vigilance and increased nervous activity continues in the subconsciousness.”

It has been observed that in arithmetical experiments many persons when hypnotized are able to add up 20% more figures than in the waking state. But no hypnotist can enable a subject to work out mathematical problems with which the subject is wholly unfamiliar in the waking state, since “no idea can ever be invoked which has not already consciously or unconsciously found its way into the mind” (Satow). In the same way, no hypnotist can enable anyone to play the piano who has not been accustomed to play it.

It is quite true, however, that mathematicians have solved problems during sleep which baffled them when awake. And the story of how the great Paganini awoke one morning to find his famous “Sonate du Diable” written in score by his bedside has often been told. Knowing nothing of the marvelous workings of the subconscious mind, Paganini ascribed the composition to the devil. A friend of my own frequently sells stories and poems which are the products of dreams. Robert Louis Stevenson always declared that “the Brownies” gave him his stories in his sleep.