The first phenomenon observed on a person becoming hypnotised is a general drowsiness and heaviness of the eyelids, followed by a peculiar twinkling which becomes more and more marked, the orbicular muscles contracting several times before the eyes close definitely. The globe of the eye, at the approach of sleep, frequently rotates upwards and inwards towards the roof of the orbit, only the white sclerotic being visible. Occasionally there is a squint. Closing of the eyes is not necessary for hypnotic phenomena. There are persons who can be thrown into the deepest stage of hypnosis by a powerful gaze, without the eyes closing at all. In such cases, the eyes remain fixed with a look of vagueness and dulness.

The body gets into a state of relaxation, the limbs becoming flaccid and pendent, falling heavily to the side when lifted and let go. The patient generally feels a marked degree of tranquility, and may sink into light and placid sleep.

Curative suggestions may be commenced as soon as there is an absence of movement, which is strong evidence of the first stage of hypnosis having been induced.

There is hardly a person in the waking state who, if left to himself, can sit still and retain one posture for even a quarter of an hour, without making some movement of the head, fingers, hands, or legs. It is well known that if we remain absolutely still in one position, like a person in a room, who does not want to betray his presence, a lively feeling of discomfort is produced, and this leads to certain irresistible movements, or our nose or some part of our skin is sure to get irritable, and we want to move to allay the irritation.

This simple state is all that is required for therapeutic suggestion in cases of disease. Indeed, in some of the most marked cases of benefit the patients never experience anything beyond a gentle soothing influence ; and they may deny having been in the hypnotic state, because they heard and remember every word that has been said to them. Sometimes, however, they are surprised to discover how much time has elapsed.

This is the first degree of hypnosis, which I should like to call the therapeutic stage, for it is employed in treatment. It is also called the somnolent stage and, by Boris Sidis, the hypnoidal stage. Consecutively to this slight hypnosis may be produced a deep hypnosis, or hypnotism proper, with all the phenomena produced by the old mesmerists and hypnotists. This condition presents two peculiar states, namely, the cataleptic state, with general loss of sensibility; and the somnambulic state, in which a subject will move and act as if awake, though according to the suggestions of the operator.

In the cataleptic state there is a constrained rigidity of the muscles. If the arm is raised it is often found remaining in the position in which it is placed. If this is not the case, it can be made so by suggestion. The operator need only place the arm in a certain position, and say that it is to remain there, when it will be impossible for the patient to put it down. It remains rigid and fixed for a much longer time than would be possible in the natural state. Or, if verbal suggestion has no effect, mesmeric passes may be used over the arm, in order to make it cataleptic. Moll thinks that the efficiency of these passes results from the fact that by means of them the whole attention of the subject is directed to his arm for a long time, and by this means the idea has time to take root.

One can now tell the patient that he cannot open his eyes or his mouth, cannot unclasp his hands or lower his raised arm, cannot rise from his seat, or pick up a certain object from the floor, and he will be immediately smitten with absolute impotence in these regards. But one can equally, well suggest paralysis, or an arm for example, in which case it will hang perfectly placid by the subject's side. The different voluntary muscles may be paralysed singly or in groups. In some cases, the paralysis is apparently due to the fact that the muscles necessary for the performance of any given movement do not contract; in other instances, the necessary muscles act, but are overpowered by the violent contraction of the antagonistic ones.

The cataleptic retention of impressed attitudes differs from voluntary assumption of the same attitude. An arm voluntarily held out straight will drop from fatigue after a quarter of an hour at the utmost, and before it falls the subject's distress will be made manifest by oscillations in the arm, disturbances in the breathing, etc. But an arm held out in hypnotic catalepsy, even if it soon descend, will do so slowly and with no accompanying vibration, whilst the breathing remains entirely calm. This is proof positive against simulation, as far as this symptom is concerned. A cataleptic attitude, moreover, may be held for several hours without any fatigue and without any subsequent pain, and sustain the additional strain of a moderate weight, as if the laws of muscular action and gravity were suspended. In this condition the muscles possess double the power that they do in the waking states, as measured by the dynamometer.

Of course, there are bounds to these experiments. A strong man will have sufficient power to bend down the arm of most mesmerised females; but the arm will yield to the pressure, like an inanimate lever, and as soon as the pressure is removed will rebound, as if elastic, to the position in which it had been placed by the operator.

If in this state a limb of the subject is put in an expressive attitude, a sympathetic action of the other muscles of the body follows suit; the trunk and other limbs follow into a harmonious posture, the carriage of the head, and the expression of the face and eyes is modified likewise, so that at last a tableau vivant of fear, anger, disdain, prayer, or other emotional condition, is produced with rare perfection. This collaboration of several parts of the body in the production of a common effect is due to the suggestion of the mental state by the first contraction, and depends upon the existence in our nervous system of certain mechanisms subservient to the function of mimetic language or physical expression.

The attitude and mimicry is absolutely perfect, better than any voluntary effort can produce, and more marvellous still, the attitude is retained until the operator releases the subject, so that excellent photographs of the expressions of the different emotions can be taken.

A well-known experiment can be carried out in this state: the head can be placed on one chair and the feet on another, and the body will not double up, the subject being stretched as stiff as a board. A heavy weight, that of a man for example, may even be placed on the body without bending it. A command or sign of the experimenter generally suffices to put an end to, the rigidity.

"What appears the strangest thing is that, notwithstanding this great apparent exertion of muscular power in the cataleptic state, the subjects will continue to converse on various topics, and pay not the slightest attention to the state of their limbs, or the use to which that muscular power is being applied.

I have seen a performance where a subject, who had just been awakened from the hypnotic state, was told that he would be able voluntarily to make himself again cataleptic, although perfectly conscious. The subject's head was again put on one chair and his heels on another, and when his body was quite stiff he was told to sing a song. This he did, while the mesmeriser jumped from a table on him. To our astonishment, the subject not only remained absolutely still and stiff, but there was not the slightest break in his voice, as there would be in any ordinary person who suddenly received a blow on the abdomen.

There is loss of sensation, so that the subject's eyes or any part of his body may be touched without his experiencing any feeling. The most sensitive parts may be pinched, or pricked with needles or pins, and the subject will exhibit no sign of suffering, or, in fact, of any kind of feeling, but will continue to converse with the operator without noticing in the least degree the apparently painful experiments.

Some public performers thrust pins into the skin of cataleptic subjects, without causing pain. I witnessed a private performance by a showman, who thrust a darning needle rather too deeply, as I thought, into the hand of his subject. Anyhow, he had a difficulty to get it out again, and the hand, although it did not bleed, got Very red. I expressed my anxiety for the subject, when the hypnotiser calmed me by the assurance that no harm would come. He made a few passes over the hand, the redness gradually disappearing, and when no sign was left, he woke the subject. I at once made enquiries whether he felt any pain, but he said " No!" and on being told that he had been stabbed with a long pin, he searched for injury all over his body. I then informed him that a darning needle was passed through his hand, but he turned both hands over and assured me he could see and feel nothing of any injury.

Serious surgical operations can be performed in this state: limbs have been amputated, a breast removed, and tumours extirpated. In England, France and India operations in the hypnotic state were common seventy years ago, but with the introduction of chloroform, in 1847, preference was given to the modern method of producing anaesthesia.

Some modern experimenters doubt that complete analgesia can be produced in hypnosis, or, at all events, that it is very rare. They say that there is an immense difference between pricking a person with a needle and using the faradic brush; that the pain caused by the use of the latter is so great, especially when the current is sufficiently strong, that very few persons in hypnosis can endure it, even when they show no pain on being pricked with a needle. Such is not my experience. I have hypnotised patients suffering from nervous maladies, which have rendered their skin and muscles highly sensitive, and have entertained them on some amusing subject while they were being treated with strong electrical currents. Indeed, once my assistant accidentally touched the patient with the full force of a powerful battery on her toes, but except for the sudden withdrawal of her foot, she made no sign whatever, and went on with her conversation. There are no impostors who could repress the expression of pain under these circumstances, particularly if the contact were unexpected.

Prof. Bernheim, too, states that he was able by suggestion to neutralise the effect of an electric current which was otherwise absolutely unbearable, perfectly inhibiting all sensation. Prof. Crookes declares that he witnessed under test conditions the handling of live coals of fire with bare hands, not the slightest injury or discomfort resulting.

In this condition one can produce such prolonged sleep and trance as to resemble death. Such cataleptic seizures occur also in ordinary persons as a form of disease. Hence the dreadful tales of premature burial of persons supposed to be dead, though it is difficult to imagine how, in the case of such patients, known by their friends to be subject to periods of suspended animation, mistakes can occur after examination of the body. But there are a few instances on record. Everyone knows of the fatal tragedy in which the greatest anatomist of his time, Vesalius, played such an unfortunate part. Being called upon, during his stay in Spain to perform the autopsy of a patient who had died suddenly, he proceeded to open the body, when, to the horror of the bystanders, at the second sweep of the knife, unmistakable signs of life were' given.

Whereas in the lighter stage of hypnosis the subject never loses consciousness, he in this deeper stage ceases to be in relation with the outer world, hears only what is said to him by the operator, believes all his statements, and carries out his wishes promptly.

This peculiar state of deep hypnosis is called somnambulism, and can be induced directly after slight hypnosis. In this state there may be a sound, calm, undisturbed sleep; that is, it is not broken by gleams of ordinary consciousness; but the sleeper answers when spoken to by the operator, and answers rationally and sensibly. If desired, he will rise and walk, and according to the particular stage in which he may be, he walks with more or less confidence and security, his eyes being closed or, if found open, either turned up or insensible to light. If left to himself, the subject appears to be asleep. But by command he will open his eyes, and may be told that he is perfectly awake, knows his surroundings, but remains under the operator's influence. It is now easy by command or suggestion to induce in the subject very complicated actions, the phenomena of somnambulism so-called.

These we shall have to consider in detail in a succeeding chapter.

This is the stage for post-hypnotic suggestion, and for all the extraordinary phenomena which modern hypnotists produce, and the still more wonderful phenomena of the old mesmerists—rarely seen nowadays, many of which I have succeeded in reproducing.

The stages here described are, of course, only for purposes of description. In reality, they are not often so well differentiated, hence different observers have chosen different classifications.

According to Forel there are three transitions:

1. Somnolence or sleepiness, in which the influenced person can resist suggestion and open his eyes.

2. Light sleep, in which the eyes cannot be opened, and obedience to suggestions is obligatory, but there is no loss of memory on awakening.

3. Deep sleep or somnambulism, with amnesia and fine post-hypnotic effects.

Moll calls slight hypnosis the stage in which changes in the voluntary muscles can be induced; deep hypnosis when, in addition, changes in the special senses can be evoked; and somnambulism, the condition in which a large variety of hypnotic reactions (many of them characteristic of the "alert" stage) can be evoked, and the waking consciousness is unable spontaneously to revive what has occurred.

Liebault has described six stages, and Bernheim nine stages; but they both trace the development of hypnosis from the stage of torpor to the somnambulistic stage.

A few general observations are here necessary.

The subject is very often at once deaf to every sound save the voice of the operator. In cases where he hears others, he may he instantly and completely deprived of this power by command of the operator. Hence, when endeavoring to produce sleep in a new subject who happens to be much disturbed by noises in the room or in the street, we may often, by commanding him not to hear those noises, greatly accelerate the arrival of the true sleep.

The attention of the subject is fixed exclusively on the hypnotiser, so that the idea of him is constantly present in the subject's memory during the hypnosis. We call this being en rapport with the hypnotiser. Bernheim compared this process to the falling asleep of a mother by her child's cradle. She continues to watch over it in sleep, but over it alone; she wakes at the least sound it makes, but hears no other sounds, even the loudest. But though, as a rule, the subject is insensible to the voice or to the actions of all but his hypnotiser, he may be put en rapport with any other person, by telling him he will now be under someone else's influence; when he becomes as completely and exclusively en rapport with him as he before was with the hypnotiser.

As a general rule, but not a rule without some exceptions, the sleeper does not remember, after waking, what he may have seen, felt, tasted, smelled, heard, spoken, or done during his sleep; but when next put to sleep he recollects perfectly all that has occurred, not only in the last sleep, but in all former sleeps, and, as in the ordinary state, with greater or less accuracy, although usually very accurately indeed. All suggestion acts on the subconscious mind; that is the reason why there is a special memory for hypnotic states, the subject not remembering anything when awake, that is when conscious. But if the subject is again hypnotised, put back to the subconscious state, the impressions of the previous sittings are again remembered. Of course, subjects differ in their powers of memory, in the mesmeric state, as they do in their ordinary state, if not to the same extent. Some remember a part, others the whole, of what took place. But even in many of those cases in which there is naturally no remembrance of it, the operator, if he chooses, may command his subject, during his sleep, to remember a part or the whole of what has occurred, which will then be remembered accordingly.

In the early stage of hypnotism the subject is almost sure to remember what has happened, but with successive sittings he sinks into a deeper condition, which is commonly followed by complete loss of memory. He may have been led through the liveliest hallucinations and dramatic performances, and have exhibited the intensest apparent emotion, but on waking he can recall nothing at all. In this respect hypnotic sleep resembles a dream—it quickly eludes recall. But just as we may be reminded of the events of a dream, or some incidents in it, by meeting persons or objects which figured therein, so on being adroitly prompted the hypnotic patient will often remember what happened in his trance.

The sleeper is usually very much under the control of the operator, in reference to the duration of the sleep. The operator may fix any time, long or short, and if the sleeper promises to sleep for that period, he will do so to a second. He then wakes up, and is instantly quite free from all effect without any further process.

But if no time be fixed by the operator, the sleeper awakes spontaneously after a longer or shorter interval, generally from half an hour to two hours.

The trance may be dispelled instantaneously by saying in a rousing voice, "All right, wake up!" or words of similar purport.

Esdaile's and Charcot's method of terminating the mesmeric state consisted in blowing sharply on the patient's eyes, rubbing the eyelids and eyebrows, or sprinkling cold water on the face.

Upward passes also have an awakening effect. Another method is to tell a subject that he will wake after counting five, and he will do so. Tell him to waken in five minutes, and he is very likely to do so punctually, even though he interrupt thereby some exciting histrionic performance which you may have suggested. Anything will awaken a patient who expects to be awakened by that thing. The nature of the signal itself is of little or no importance, the essential point being that the subject shall understand its import.

Before waking the subject, suggestions may be made that at the next sitting he will go to sleep promptly, and actually it will be found that after repeated hypnotisation the subject will be hypnotised instantly by our command to " Sleep," or by our gaze; or if the suggestion has been made at a previous sitting, by the production of a card on which the word "sleep" is written, or by any other process, such as the drinking of "magnetised" water, etc. Persons who have been frequently hypnotised before can be hypnotised instantaneously through the telephone, by phonograph, or by letter, at any distance.

Not only will a subject by repeated hypnotisation go to sleep at once, but all the phenomena we wish to produce will appear more promptly and more perfectly. Public performances by travelling showmen are, therefore, always quicker and more entertaining, since they have a number of subjects in their constant employ for exhibition purposes. If they had to rely each time on new subjects who come up from the audience, they would run the risk of a poor performance.