Hypnotism.
Much care is evidenced in the selecting of a subject for hypnotism. It is hardly necessary to say that a confederate is in the group. The hypnotist goes about touching different people’s temples to see whether they are the right kind for hypnotism. He finally discovers a good subject, his confederate of course. The subject is sent out of the room while the group decides on something they want him to do when hypnotized. Perhaps they want him to sing. He is seated on a chair facing the audience and the hypnotist begins to rub his forehead slowly. The movements are slow and well defined, that is, the fingers are lifted after each move across the forehead. The subject soon loses consciousness and as the movements continue, seems to get more and more under the spell of the hypnotist. Finally with a shaking of his fingers the hypnotist stops and there is absolute silence for just a moment, in order to keep the subject under the spell. Suddenly he begins singing in a high squeaky voice, “Wait till the Sun Shines Nellie!”
If the subject has any relatives present they will almost surely beg that he be taken out of his trance. The obliging hypnotist presses his fingers twice into the temples of the subject who shudders, sighs, and wakes up wondering what it is all about!
Frankly, it is not easy to do unless both subject and hypnotist are very alert and wideawake. If they are, however, it is a comparatively simple process to hypnotize a confederate into doing anything the audience wants him to do. We assume that they want him to sing. The hypnotist begins rubbing his forehead and carefully rubs nineteen times, for “s,” the first letter in sing, is the nineteenth letter of the alphabet. He carefully lifts his fingers at the end of each movement. After the nineteenth rub he presses hard into both temples to show that the letter is completed. Waiting just a second, he begins again and rubs nine times for “i,” the ninth letter of the alphabet, pressing the temples at the end. The next time he rubs fourteen times for “n,” and the last time only seven times for “g,” at the end of which he shakes his fingers vigorously as a signal that the word is completed.
It will make it more interesting for all concerned if the hypnotist asks the audience to choose verbs of three or four letters. His explanation is that simple action is very easy to get over even to a new subject, while long and complicated action takes practice. The real reason is that it is fairly easy for a subject to get the words “cry,” or “dance” or “sleep” or “jump,” while “hippity-hop” would be almost impossible and too long drawn out to be interesting.
If a hypnotist can get a confederate who will get thoroughly into the spirit of the thing and sigh, shudder, go into a trance, or act completely exhausted, while the hypnotist himself makes a serious thing out of it, a group can be completely deceived as to the genuineness of the performance.