Child Life and Sex Hygiene: A Remarkable Message

by Otterbein Oscar Smith

The Dance and Its Dangers

I may at this point call attention to the dangers of the dance. Every girl who enjoys dancing, and most of them do, should be shown the dangers to both herself and the man in allowing herself to be drawn up too close to the person of the man she is dancing with. She should not only be told that she must not do so, but told plainly and lovingly why. There may be nothing impure in the thought of either, for when they are dancing they are usually not thinking. Music tends to quiet thought and under such conditions they will follow the sex impulse and unconsciously draw near to each other, and they are far more sure to do so while ignorant of the dangers in it. In like manner boys should be taught to carefully respect the person of girls and told in a plain, frank way the truth about their relations to the opposite sex.

I believe, as a rule young people love to dance with the purest of motives. They are attracted to this form of amusement because of their love for music and the natural desire to keep time to it. The most zealous religionist finds himself patting his foot when a bit of lively music is played, which is but an evidence of the natural desire of any human being to keep time to music.

Is there someone asking, “If it is true that young people have the purest of motives in their desire to dance, how comes it then that so many frightful mistakes are made as a result of the dance?” I might answer in a single word, by saying, Ignorance.

It is the conviction of the writer, however, that no more mistakes are made in proportion, and perhaps not so many, as the result of the dance as by long night rides in buggies, or sitting in the shadow of trees in public parks. But the facts are more people dance than ride in buggies.

The Psychology of the Dance

The great danger in the dance is, to my mind, a psychological one, which might be overcome by knowledge upon the subject. Let us examine this thought for a time, for here is the crux of the whole matter. When your attention is called to it, you cannot think of more perfect relations existing between two persons for hypnosis, or hypnotic suggestion to take place than that which exists in the dance. To get this clearly before us let us note the steps taken by the hypnotist. He has his subject relax his body, and put his mind at rest and then he prefers to have soft music played. Under these conditions he most easily gets control of the mind of his subject.

Let us now study the couple dancing. The body must be in a more or less relaxed state, for graceful motion would not be possible with a rigid body. The mind is at rest, because the music lulls it into quiet and makes the dominant element in the life the feelings, for we do not think music, we feel it. Just here you must recall, that the sex nerve center is the brain of the physical life and continually sends forth the most exquisite impulses of feeling, which manifest themselves in all the glory and beauty of bodily charm and these must of necessity mingle in their outgoings with the vibrations of the music and the feelings which it induces.

Now you have these two persons, with bodies relaxed, minds at rest, just floating over the floor, and carried, as it were, on waves of music. Under just these conditions many an uninstructed and ignorant girl has passed under a hypnotic spell in which she has been led to do that which ruined her life and which she would have surrendered her life rather than have done, had she been in her normal state.

Let me give you an instance in point. Some years ago I was lecturing on the psychic question, and among other things I spoke of the psychology of the dance. The next morning I met one of the fine, clean young men of the little city, who was teller in one of the banks. He said to me, “Doctor I enjoyed your lecture very much last night, and I believe you have the right idea as to the psychology of the dance.” He said, “Sometime ago I was dancing with one of the finest young ladies in this city, one who is absolutely above reproach. As you said, ‘we were just floating along over the floor charmed by the music.’ I was looking down at her (he was a tall man), and thinking what a nice young woman she was, when all at once she laid her face against mine. She did not excuse herself then and she has not apologized since and I do not believe she knew that she did it.” This is the conclusion of a sane, thoughtful young man, as he pondered over an unusual experience with a pure-minded and irreproachable young woman.