The practical application of hypnotism, since it has received general acknowledgment, has been so much confined to the treatment of nervous disorders that the notions are prevalent: firstly, that only persons of great excitability, weak-mindedness, or hysterical disposition make good subjects; and, secondly, that the higher phenomena produced by the old mesmerists are either due to suggestion, or fraud, or self-deception. Hence I determined to experiment on normal subjects whose consent I could obtain, and test what are the powers manifested in the hypnotic state independent of any conscious or, as far as I could judge, even subconscious suggestion.

Some of these experiments I have repeatedly performed before small, as well as large, audiences of learned and scientifically-trained men. Many of the results are similar to those achieved by the early mesmerists.

Let us take, firstly, such phenomena of the subconscious state as the hyperesthesia of the senses and the accentuation of the innate mental qualities and tendencies.

Taking a normal subject in the hypnotic state and blindfolding him, one of the first observations that can be made refers to the probable existence of a human aura, for by holding one or more fingers near any part of the subject's body or head, without coming in actual contact, that part will be moved in the direction in which the finger is slowly drawn. An ordinary horseshoe magnet, held similarly, produces a like result, and I have found persons, who unaware of such an instrument being in the room, complain of unpleasant sensations, when the magnet was held near the back of their head, questioning me as to what I was doing, and imploring me to desist.

Milne Bramwell says on this point: " The enigmatic reports of the effect of magnets and metals, even if they be due, as many contend to unintentional suggestion on the operator's part, certainly involve hyperaesthetic perception, for the operator seeks as well as possible to conceal the moment when the magnet is brought into play, and yet the subject not only finds it out that moment in a way difficult to understand, but may develop effects which (in the first instance certainly) the operator did not expect to find."

I have observed that when passes are made with a magnet, the same sensations are experienced as when the operator uses his hand. Here, it may be said, the influence of the hand is combined with that of the magnet; but by using the magnet without the hand of the operator, or in the hand of a person whose hand, by itself, has no perceptible effect, it is ascertained that the magnet does exert an influence identical with that exerted by the human hand.

The renowned Dr. Elliotson (see Chapter XIV), too, believed in the mesmeric powers of certain metals, but Wakley, the editor of the Lancet, performed test experiments and, operating with a non-magnetic metal, made the subject believe he was using a mesmerising one, whereupon she fell asleep; from this he concluded that all the subjects were impostors. Whereas all "Wakley proved was that "suggestion" is able to overcome any of these mysterious forces, which are admitted, by those who believe in their existence, can only be very feeble in power.

I have seen similar test-experiments made in a physiological laboratory to disprove the supposed influence of magnets. A subject was told that a powerful magnet was at work behind his head, and tracings were recorded by the proper instruments of his pulse and respiration. The effect was most marked. Then the subject was told that the magnet had been removed, when actually one was put on, and again tracings were recorded of the pulse and respiration, which were now quite normal. These tracings were thought to be a proof that the magnet had no power whatsoever, but from what I witnessed I was not convinced, except of one thing, that "suggestion" is stronger than any magnetic force.

Tamburini believes that magnetic force has no influence and that "it is only the temperature of the metal which has effect." He found that when a magnet is brought close to the pit of the stomach, it influences respiratory movements in hypnosis. Later on, he found that other metallic bodies produced the same effect; the strength of the effect, however, depended on the size of the piece of metal.

There is no doubt, in my mind, that a magnet gives off some force which can be felt by a hypnotised subject, and that our own body, particularly at the fingers' ends, exerts a similar influence. I became convinced of this by placing a hypnotised subject in a completely darkened room, then letting him open his eyes and describe what he saw, I held a magnet suspended in my hand at the poles of which he perceived a luminous appearance, and when holding out my fingers, he described similar luminous emanations proceeding from my finger tips.

I have found that ordinary magnetic discs, which are used for hypnotising people, can be made luminous in the dark by rubbing them between the fingers. The ordinary bronze penny has a similar though not quite such a strong effect. The light which the subject declares to emanate from them is sometimes sufficiently strong to illuminate surrounding objects, which the subject will describe. The one essential condition is that there must be absolute darkness.

Examples of nerve-energy being converted into light we possess in the lower forms of life, for example, in the glowworm and fire-fly.

Baron Reichenbach was the first to show that a large number of perfectly healthy persons are sensitive to the influence from the magnet. He found that like electricity and ordinary magnetism it is polar in its distribution, and he termed this magnetic influence Odyle.

The odylic influence is characterised, like heat, light, and electricity, is being sent forth in all directions, and by its emanations being luminous to sensitive persons in the dark. The light is very feeble, so as generally to be overpowered by the faintest glimmer of ordinary light, although very sensitive persons, and most persons when in the mesmeric sleep, can see it in daylight; in this I have not succeeded. It was described as presenting the rainbow colours, at the northward pole of magnets the blue predominating and at the southward the red.

The human body was presumed to possess the same influence, and to produce the same effects on the sensitive as magnets do. I have already spoken of the light seen by persons in the mesmeric sleep issuing from the tips of the operator's fingers.

I would here, in recommending the repetition and prosecution of these attractive researches by enquirers possessing the leisure which is necessary, urge on them the absolute necessity of attending to the conditions laid down. In order to see the odylic light, for example, not only must the subject be sensitive, but the darkness must be absolute, and if not at once successful, the sensitive should remain in darkness for an hour. Not the smallest gleam of light, even of the dullest daylight, or of a candle, must be allowed to enter at chink or cranny, door or window. None of the audience should go out or come in during the experiment; for if the door be opened, the admission, for an instant, of light from the next room may spoil the performance.

It is not unlikely that the human organism is a radio-active body, for if our experiments do not deceive us, the body emits rays which can be seen and felt by sensitive persons. There appears to be a human aura which extends from the body for a distance, some say a yard, and gradually fades away. And the aura of each person is seen to be coloured according to the vibrations belonging to his prevailing mental states or character. That these rays can be seen I have already shown. The following is an experiment which I have often repeated, which would prove that they can also be felt. A hypnotised and blindfolded subject is made to distinguish a person's hand from a dozen others, when held above his or hers at a distance of six inches or less for a few seconds. This is done with great success, and if you give the different persons present numbers, the subject will after a time even recognise, when the hand of No. 5 or 7 or any other, comes round again. This experiment would point to different emanations from different people, and a discriminative sensibility for them in certain subjects in the hypnotic state. Possibly the sensations may be due entirely to a hyper-sensitiveness to the temperature of the different hands, and this is one of the explanations offered by some of the critics; even then the performance would be remarkable. But I cannot think that there is sufficient difference in the temperature of the various hands to be perceived even by the most sensitive subject. There is something to be said for those who assume a magnetic or an electrical force, or some still unknown nerve or vital force to be at the root of these phenomena.

Electricity is known as a great force in physical nature; and it is harnessed and made to perform many services to mankind. Like all the great forces of nature it is invisible, except through its effects, and it defies analysis. It will never be known to man except as one of the great correlated forces. Why should it be thought impossible that a nerve force can emanate under certain conditions from the operator and can control his subject ?

The recent discovery of Dr. Blondlot of a method by which the existence of human radiations (which he has named N-rays in honour of Nancy) can be demonstrated, appears to show that a force does emanate from the body.

Gurney maintained that there must be a special effluence or emanation to account for the fact that a peculiarly susceptible subject could discriminate the passes made by his magnetiser over an arm or finger, though carefully blindfolded and screened off. The effect produced sometimes amounted to complete local anaesthesia, while passes of other hypnotists produced no effect.

Prof. Obersteiner, of Vienna, argues that there may possibly be a special magnetic sense, which comes into activity with many meople during hypnosis, and which is, perhaps, localized in some terminal organs whose functions are still unknown.

Moll mentions Babinski's and Luys's experiments: "If a hypnotised subject and a sick person are set back to back, a magnet put between them will cause the sick person's symptoms to pass over to the hypnotised subject. Hysterical contractures and numbness have been thus transferred, as also the symptoms of organic disease—e. g., multiple sclerosis. The transference is said to take place even when the hypnotic has no notion what the sick person's symptoms are— i. e., when suggestion is excluded. Luys went even further. When he placed a magnet first on a sick person's head and then on that of a hypnotic, the morbid symptoms of the first person were supposed to have appeared in the hypnotised person." Moll's explanation is that "In these experiments of Babinski and Luys we have an obvious combination of the phenomena of mineral and animal magnetism. It is a significant fact that such assumptions as these have hardly ever been made in recent times by men who must be taken seriously. "We are, therefore, justified in now assuming that the results obtained by Babinski and Luys in those experiments were due to suggestion —i. e., that there was self-deception on the part of the experimenters, who at the time were not so well acquainted with suggestion as a source of error as we are to-day. Of course, all this does not prove that it is impossible for the magnet to influence human beings."

Before passing on to the next phenomena, I would here refer to another of Reichenbach's observations. It is this: " Since all chemical action is attended with . the emission of odylic light as well as odylic influence, the changes which take place in dead bodies by decay, which are chemical, are sources of odylic light, just as are the changes in the living body, respiration, digestion, etc. Hence sensitive persons see luminous appearances over churchyard graves, in the dark of the night, especially recent graves." There will be found in the work of Reichenbach several most interesting and instructive cases of this fact, and thus we find that science, with her torch, dissipates the shades of superstition. Corpse-lights exist, but they are not supernatural; neither are those who habitually see them uncanny. The lights are perfectly natural and harmless; and the seers are only sensitive persons.

Another experiment which I have frequently performed is for a member of the audience to take a packet of blank ivory cards or note-paper, or envelopes, fresh from the stationer 'a, to select one of these and to show it to the hypnotised subject. The card, or paper, or envelope is then secretly marked and shuffled in amongst the others, or else without any mark the relative position is remembered by the person in charge of the pack, which is returned to the subject, who, as a rule, without hesitation picks out the right card or other object from the number handed to him, although no difference is perceptible to the most skilful observer watching the performance. This experiment shows the quickening of the sense of sight in the subconscious state.

Others have made similar experiments, usually by suggesting photographs to appear on the back of the cards, by which illusion the subject invariably recognises the card. This is no less wonderful, but Moll has an adverse explanation for it, which we cannot pass over. He says: "I will take this opportunity of quoting an experiment which is often repeated and is wrongly considered as a proof of increased keenness of the senses. Let us take a pack of cards, which naturally must have backs of the same pattern, so that to all appearance one cannot be distinguished from the other. Let us choose a card—the ace of hearts, for example—hold it with its back to the subject and arouse by suggestion the idea of a particular photograph on it—his own, let us say. Let us shuffle the cards, including, of course, that with the supposed photograph on it, and request the hypnotic to find the photograph, without having allowed him to see the face of the cards. He will often find the right one, although the backs are all alike. The experiment can be repeated with visiting cards, or with sheets of paper, if the selected one is marked, unknown to the hypnotic. This experiment makes a greater impression on the inexperienced than it is entitled to, for most people are able to repeat the experiment without hypnosis, and hyperaesthesia is not generally a condition for its success. If the back of these cards and papers are carefully examined, differences which may easily be discerned will be discovered. The experiment has no bearing on the question of simulation. Naturally, I do not contend that a hypnotic can find a paper in such a case better than a waking man. I only wish to point out that although this experiment is often used to demonstrate the presence of hyperaesthesia, the latter is not generally necessary for its success. I have seen men of science show astonishment when a hypnotic distinguished apparently identical sheets of paper. They did not understand that there was essential differences in the sheets, which suffice for distinguishing them even without hypnosis. The experiment is to be explained thus: The minute but recognisable differences (points de repere) presented to the hypnotic at the moment when the idea of the photograph was suggested to him, recall the suggested image directly he sees them again. The points are so closely associated with the image that they readily call it up. Binet and Fere have rightly pointed out that the image only occurs when the points de repere are recalled to the memory; they must first be seen. Consequently, if the paper is held at a distance from the subject's eyes, the image will not be recognised, for the points de repere are not visible."

I absolutely deny that a normal person can distinguish a blank card out of a pack of identical cards owing to the defect or any peculiarity in the manufacture, if the same conditions are followed that I have made obligatory in my experiments. Only one card out of a pack is shown to the subject, which is shuffled by some stranger, who must remember whether it is the 5th or 15th or any other card, but who need not remain in the room, so as to avoid any suspicion of thought-transference. Nor, of course, should anyone else know, least of all the operator. The subject on receiving the pack will take up one card after another, and as soon as he arrives at the right one, will stop without looking at the rest of the pack, and hand that particular card over. The subject can often tell when he has received the card upside down.

Bremaud thinks that the increased power of vision in hypnosis is to be ascribed to an increase of attention. Attention is certainly increased, but that is not the entire explanation.

D'Abundo produced enlargement of the field of vision by suggestion.

I have frequently demonstrated visual accentuation in another manner. A subject in the hypnotic state after a time may get fatigued, and express a wish for a glass of water. On a table close by there are a dozen empty glasses, all exactly alike. I hand to the subject one of these empty glasses, and he drinks from it as if it really contained water. When he puts it down all the glasses are changed in position by some member of the audience, so that no person by the mere look of the glasses could tell which is the one that has been used. After some little time the subject himself may want to drink again, or else it may be suggested to him to have another drink. He will glance over the glasses, and to the great astonishment of the audience take up the right one and empty it of its supposed contents.

Bergson has described one of the most remarkable cases of increased power of vision. This particular case has been cited as a proof of supersensual thought-transference, but Bergson ascribes the result to hyperaesthesia of the eye. In this case, a subject who seemed to be reading through the back of a book held and looked at by the operator, was really proved to be reading the image of the page reflected on the latter's cornea. The same subject was able to discriminate with the naked eye details in a microscopic preparation, to see and draw the cells in a microscopical section, which were only 0.06 mm. in diameter. Sauvaire, after some not quite irreproachable experiments, supposed the existence of such a hyperesthesia of sight, that a hypnotic subject recognised non-transparent playing-cards by the rays of light passing through them. A case of Taguet's, in which an ordinary piece of cardboard was used as a mirror, is said to have shown quite as strong a hyperesthesia. All objects which were held so that the reflected rays from the card fell on the subject's eye were clearly recognised.

The subject can be made to hear with increased acuteness, and that to an extent apparently marvellous. The ticking of a watch heard at three feet distance in the waking state may become audible even at thirty-five feet in the hypnotic.

That the sense of smell in the hypnotic state is also more acute is equally easy of proof. A card, paper, envelope, or handkerchief is selected from a number, all alike, and the subject is requested to smell it. The object chosen is then put among the rest, and the whole packet handed back, when the subject will smell each of them until he gets to the right one, which he gives up, frequently without testingthe remainder, so sure is he of his selection.

An experiment in this connection, which I have arranged on several occasions, is the following. The subject is requested to smell a handkerchief, which, of course, must have no scent whatever, and to hand it to some member of the audience. To avoid any possibility of mind-reading the operator takes the subject out of the room, while someone hides the handkerchief in some easily accessible place. The subject is led back and told to find the handkerchief. He walks round the room, unguided of course, and will soon stop at a place where he makes a search and discovers the article in question.

I have never tested the increased sense of smell beyond the distance of an ordinary room, but Braid recorded a case in which the scent of a rose was traced through the air at a distance of forty-five feet.

Moll relates similar experiments. A visiting-card was torn into pieces, which pieces were professedly found purely by the sense of smell; pieces belonging to another card were rejected. The subject gave gloves, keys, and pieces of money to the persons to whom they belonged, guided only by smell. Hyperaesthesia of smell has often been noted in other cases. Carpenter states that a hypnotic found the owner of a particular glove among sixty other persons. Sauvaire relates another such case, in which a hypnotic, after smelling the hands of eight persons, gave to each his own handkerchief, although every effort was made to lead him astray. Braid and the older mesmerists relate many such phenomena. Braid, like Moll, describes a case in which the subject on each occasion found the owner of some gloves among a number of other people; when his nose was stopped up the experiment failed. This delicacy of the different organs of sense, particularly of the sense of smell, is well known to be normal in many animals; in dogs, for example, which recognise their masters by scent. Hypnotic experiments teach us that this keenness of scent can be attained by human beings in some circumstances.

On the skin of a hypnotised subject two points can be discriminated at less than the normal distance. The sense of touch is so delicate that, according to Delboeuf, a subject after simply poising on her finger-tips a blank card drawn from a pack of similar ones, can pick it out from the pack again by its " weight."

That the sense of touch is quickened in the subconscious state can be tested in the following manner. Six objects—I generally choose glasses—are put on a table. The subject looks away or may be blindfolded. Someone selects one of the glasses which I am to touch. The subject is then requested to find the "magnetised" glass, which he does without hesitation.

Frequently I do not even touch the glass, but hold two extended fingers over it. It would appear that in doing this the temperature of the air contained in the glass is slightly raised, sufficiently at least to be recognised by the subject. In this manner, both the sense of temperature and the sense of taste can be tested by pouring water into all the glasses and holding two fingers over one. The subject will taste each till he gets to the "magnetised" one, which he hands to the operator. Mesmer spoke of mesmerised water, but his idea was scouted and rejected as absurd. But everyone who has studied mesmerism, and tried the experiments, knows that water may be so charged with some force that a person in the mesmeric sleep, without the slightest knowledge that the experiment is made or intended, instantly and infallibly distinguishes such water from that not "mesmerised." It is generally described as having a peculiar taste, not easily defined, but different to ordinary water.

Moll says: "That a magnetised person may, at times, discern magnetised water is correct. It has, however, nothing on earth to do with magnetism. In the first place, it is often impossible to prevent a slight rise in the temperature of water that has just been magnetised. Secondly, it is highly probable that in the act of magnetising, which is generally acompanied with the gesture of flourishing something in the direction of the water, chemical substances may be introduced into the latter, and may bring about an alteration in its taste. But chemical dissociations have nothing in common with magnetism, which is supposed to represent a physical force. This intentional confusion between chemical agencies and the magnetic force is a good proof of the want of clearness prevailing on the subject amongst most mesmerists."

Why should Moll assume there is a "gesture of flourishing something in the direction of the water," or the still more unwarrantable insinuation that "chemical substances may be introduced" surreptitiously into the water? These are genuine scientific experiments, not done for profit but from the mere desire for knowledge, and surely no scientific man is either such a "fool" to make flourishes or signs to spoil his own experiment or such an imposter as to deceive wilfully his audience. Scientific men may differ as to their explanation of such phenomena, but they should not bring accusations against one another without some shade of evidence.

Braid observed that hypnotised subjects recognise things at a certain distance from the skin, and this simply by the increase and decrease of temperature. They walk about the room with bandaged eyes or in absolute darkness without striking against anything, because they recognise objects by the resistance of the air, and by the alteration of temperature. Poirault, as also Drzewiecki, found the same.

The experiments upon hysterical patients with different medicines in sealed tubes performed by Bourru, Burot and Luys, producing the effects of the drugs they contained—sleepiness in the case of opium, drunkenness in the case of alcohol—are said to be due probably to suggestion. Not having tried the experiment I can offer no opinion.

Not merely the senses, but all the mental qualities of a person in the subconscious state, are highly accentuated. In some manner, which we are still unable to explain, we can, by touching different regions of the head, standing behind the subject, and without any "willing" or suggestion, excite expression of different thoughts and emotions, and various dispositions.

By touching symmetrical points on the subject's cranium, various manifestations are elicited, both in word and gesture, such as devotion, anger, benevolence, meanness, kleptomania, repentance, conceit, vanity, anxiety, hunger, etc., as well as combinations of these states when two or more centres are touched at the same time.

Such an experiment naturally suggests collusion. To prove that there is no previous arrangement between the operator and subject, the latter should be perfectly ignorant of what is expected, or a new subject should be chosen. Moreover, it is not at all necessary that the operator should touch the particular centres; he may let any stranger do so. When the expression is not spontaneous the subject should be asked: "What are you thinking of? What do you see? What do you feel?"

I should also state that I have never produced any effect by mere "willing," or even thinking of the expected manifestation. Frequently it has happened, that I have been on a different centre than I intended to touch, and thus got another manifestation than I had promised to produce. A subject who has been operated on before is occasionally too anxious to excel and guesses at what he is to say or do.

I have excited the same centres by applying a feeble galvanic current, and found that the right side alone will not correspond, the left will do so, but the best results are produced by acting symmetrically on both hemispheres of the brain.

It is argued that mere pressure cannot possibly produce such results even on a highly sensitive brain, for the skull is intervening. Quite so, but it must not be forgotten that the skull is not inanimate matter, but a living substance permeated by nerves and bloodvessels. Mere argument will not upset the fact. Let those who practise hypnotism repeat this experiment and not be deterred by preconceived notions as to what is possible or not. Thus by touching one particular region of the head, the patient will be found to assume the attitude of devotion and to say his prayers. The moment the finger is removed he will leave off abruptly, sometimes at a syllable, breaking the word. When the finger is put down again the prayer will be continued at the same syllable where he left off. Touching another region, the patient can be made to steal, but the moment the finger is removed to a region, which I might describe as the moral region of the brain, the stolen object is returned with expressions of remorse.

The expression of the emotions thus produced is simply magnificent, and I have a collection of photographs reproducing them. Thus, by touching one part of the head, the subject will exhibit a beautiful picture of devotion. He kneels and prays with a fervour and intensity of expression which it would be difficult to surpass. Humility is intensely predominant in his gesture. "When another part is touched, he exhibits pride and hauteur to a most ludicrous degree. In another part the expression changes to compassion, while in yet another we produce the most appalling mimicry of fear and misery.

Many of the old mesmerists and hypnotists, such as Gregory, Elliotson, Braid, etc., about whose honesty there can be no question, have obtained the same results, but the experiment is criticised severely by modern investigators who have never attempted to repeat it. There is only one hypnotist, Dr. Pitres, who has made a similar investigation and recorded certain zones ideogenes. Braid's acknowledgement should certainly be accepted, since he was not a supporter of that school which believed in a multiplicity of centres in the brain.

No one who has ever seen these beautiful manifestations can suppose that the state of the subject is a mere reflection of the operator's mind. For while the latter is tranquil, the former may be heaving with emotion; on the other hand, accidental emotions in the operator are not communicated to the subject, who may be acting some passion or feeling to the life, while the operator is convulsed with laughter, and yet he is not thereby affected at all.

So far from willing to produce these phenomena, I have at first had no idea of what would be the effect of my processes.

Again I would remark, that I have taken all precautions to avoid the possibility of deception.

Firstly, the subject is absolutely unacquainted with what is expected of him and ignorant of any brain-theory. Yet he will, if a good case, respond to the touch instantly wherever it may be made.

Secondly, the same results are produced, and have been produced by a stranger, equally ignorant as the subject, being put en rapport while I was talking to somebody in the room. Yet here also the manifestation will often come out as well as before.

Again, it often happens, that when an operator knows what to expect, and intends to touch a particular part of the head, but turning to speak to someone, touches a wrong centre, with the idea of the first in his mind, or when his hand accidentally slips, a wrong result is produced.

Maybe that I shall be criticised severely for placing this last experiment before serious investigators, notwithstanding all the precautions I have used, and that it will be quoted to show off my "credulity." All I can say is that I have proceeded honestly and stated honestly what I have observed. Who does not want to accept my word, need not do so, but I am bound to record my observation here in the full belief that it will be proved and acknowledged some time or other.