Auto-Suggestion or Self-Hypnosis
In order to cultivate these, experiment upon yourself by the means of auto-suggestion or self-hypnosis, which is a splendid means of training those faculties necessary to the mastery of other minds.
Change your state by means of words which imply a condition either mental or physical not personally experienced by you, and believe implicitly in your own ideas. Treat yourself exactly as if you were experimenting on another individual, surrendering your subjective and objective mind wholly to absorb the idea conveyed, and gradually its meaning will influence and take possession of your brain to the exclusion of everything else.
The change suggested should be exactly opposite to your natural state—for instance, if you are warm, tell yourself determinedly that you are cold until you credit the fact, when your body, which blindly follows mind and will, experiences the sensation of cold.
If you have a headache, suggest that the pain has gone, &c. Auto-suggestion may be perfected to such an extent, that, under its hypnotic trance, a needle may be plunged into the skin without the action’s causing the slightest degree of pain.
In suggestion, it is always the subjective mind that is swayed by hypnotic influence. This is always keenly alive, and it is through its medium that the subject is induced to an extraordinary power of imagining and experiencing the processes suggested by the hypnotizer.
Elementary exhibitions are very entertaining, and are quite sufficient to illustrate the motive power which achieves your purpose. Some individuals are better hypnotists than others, because they have a natural supply of animal magnetism at their disposal, but it is extraordinary what results can be brought about by study and patience, so that students less gifted need not despair of success.
For the sake of those who have succeeded in such simple experiments as the foregoing, the following may be undertaken. In these, intuition, sympathy, and imagination play almost as important a part as thoughtful concentration, which is ever the most powerful possession in the outfit of the hypnotizer.
Here, one word as to the difference between the terms hypnotist and hypnotizer. The former is a scientist, who employs his art solely for therapeutic or medicinal purposes. The latter is the entertainer, and care should be taken to distinguish between the two words.
Experiment.—Place the subject in a chair, with palms on knees. Pass your hands over him for a space of several minutes, the while his eyes are fastened on your own. Watch his expression carefully. It undergoes several changes, the individual character dominating ([Fig. 5]), gradually disappears, and finally gives place to vacancy ([Fig. 5a]). The firm lines of the mouth fade, and the lips become slightly parted. The face grows blank and purposeless, the eyes staring and void.
You have some plan in your mind which you are straining to impress on his brain. Supposing it is that he shall not remove his hands from his knees. Say to him, in a low soothing voice, which penetrates his hearing perfectly (to shout, breaks the spell in a moment), “Your hands are stuck to your knees; you cannot remove them. They’re glued; they’re tight fast. Do what you will, you can’t lift them. Now try——”
Fig. 5.—Face showing character before hypnotic sleep.
Fig. 5a.—Face showing vacancy under hypnotic sleep.
At your dictation he endeavors to do so. He lifts his knees. He ducks his head, trying to push his hands away by means of his chin, but every effort is futile until you say, “You can now remove your hands. See, it is quite easy, they are free!” At once he lifts them easily.
Now ask him his name. He tells you in a dazed, obedient voice that it is “John Jones.” You determine he shall forget his name. You say to him again and again, “You have forgotten your name. You cannot tell me what it is. You don’t know your own name; you can’t remember.”
The subject’s face at once indicates that he is absolutely nonplused. He struggles to remember, but in vain. Should you suggest that his name is Mary Smith, he will believe you implicitly, and, with a relieved expression, declare this name to be his own.
Bid him open his mouth as wide as he can. Then say to him, “You can’t shut your mouth. It is fixed, rigid. Try to shut it.” He vainly endeavors to do so. He places one hand on his head, the other on his lower jaw, and tries to force his lips together, but he is powerless so long as your will opposes him. When you command him to shut his mouth, he does so without effort.
A subject should not be kept longer than a few moments in this subservience to your will. He can be released by a snap of your fingers at his ears or before his eyes. Address him softly by his name, and he will return to consciousness in an instant. When he looks dazedly round, reassure him, kindly, that he is quite well, and will suffer no harmful results from your experiments.
Fig. 6.—Awakening the subject.
The hypnotizer should never abuse his power over an individual. He must possess sufficient humanity to prevent him from keeping his subject too long under control.
When he finds a subject who answers readily and quickly to the hypnotic influence, he may be tempted to continue an exhibition of his powers in order not to lose time on less amenable individuals, but he should determinedly resist this temptation.
A valuable aid for him will be to time his experiments by a watch, limiting each individual’s trance to a space of, at most, four minutes’ duration.
The hypnotizer must be in perfect health, for, unless his body, nerves, and mind are in proper condition, the supply of animal magnetism fails. He must study hygiene, take sufficient exercise, and be most particular to keep his body, linen, hair, and finger-nails scrupulously clean.
A dirty finger, held up before a subject undergoing the hypnotic trance, inspires the latter with a revolting sense of disgust, and clouds the vision conjured by the brain.
The hypnotic entertainer should abstain from any indulgences, and eat only plain, wholesome food. During the process of hypnotism, the exponent should never lose his head or self-reliance. Any dread experienced by him is at once conveyed to the subject. Should the latter be unable to awake from the trance at command, the operator must wave his handkerchief before his eyes. If these are closed and refuse to open, he must at once rub the eyebrows with the tips of his fingers, beginning at the root of the nose, and ending at the temples, terminating this action by gentle fanning or blowing until such efforts meet with success ([Fig. 6]).
It should always be remembered by the student that the power of hypnotism—like fire—is a good servant, but a bad, tyrannical, and lawless master, unless properly controlled.