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Self Hypnosis

If self-hypnotism is possible (and it is true that a person can
deliberately hypnotize himself when he wishes to till he has become
accustomed to it and is expert in it, so to speak), it does away at a
stroke with the claims of all professional hypnotists and magnetic
healers that they have any peculiar power in themselves which they exert
over their fellows. One of these professionals gives an account in his
book of what he calls "The Wonderful Lock Method." He says that though
he is locked up in a separate room he can make the psychic power work
through the walls. All that he does is to put his subjects in the way of
hypnotizing themselves. He shows his inconsistency when he states that
under certain circumstances the hypnotizer is in danger of becoming
hypnotized himself. In this he makes no claim that the subject is using
any psychic power; but, of course, if the hypnotizer looks steadily into
the eyes of his subject, and the subject looks into his eyes, the steady
gaze on a bright object will produce hypnotism in one quite as readily
as in the other.

Hypnotism is an established scientific fact; but the claim that the
hypnotizer has any mysterious psychic power is the invariable mark of
the charlatan. Probably no scientific phenomenon was ever so grossly
prostituted to base ends as that of hypnotism. Later we shall see some
of the outrageous forms this charlatanism assumes, and how it extends to
the professional subjects as well as to the professional operators, till
those subjects even impose upon scientific men who ought to be proof
against such deception. Moreover, the possibility of self-hypnotization,
carefully concealed and called by another name, opens another great
field of humbug and charlatanism, of which the advertising columns of
the newspapers are constantly filled--namely, that of the clairvoyant and
medium. We may conceive how such a profession might become perfectly
legitimate and highly useful; but at present it seems as if any person
who went into it, however honest he might be at the start, soon began to
deceive himself as well as others, until he lost his power entirely to
distinguish between fact and imagination.

Before discussing the matter further, let us quote Dr. Cocke's
experiment in hypnotizing himself. It will be remembered that a
professional hypnotizer or magnetizer had hypnotized him by telling him
to fix his mind on the number twenty-six and holding up his hand. Says
the doctor:

"In my room that evening it occurred to me to try the same experiment. I
did so. I kept the number twenty-six in my mind. In a few minutes I felt
the sensation of terror, but in a different way. I was intensely cold.
My heart seemed to stand still. I had ringing in my ears. My hair seemed
to rise upon my scalp. I persisted in the effort, and the previously
mentioned noise in my ears grew louder and louder. The roar became
deafening. It crackled like a mighty fire. I was fearfully conscious of
myself. Having read vivid accounts of dreams, visions, etc., it occurred
to me that I would experience them. I felt in a vague way that there
were beings all about me but could not hear their voices. I felt as
though every muscle in my body was fixed and rigid. The roar in my ears
grew louder still, and I heard, above the roar, reports which sounded
like artillery and musketry. Then above the din of the noise a musical
chord. I seemed to be absorbed in this chord. I knew nothing else. The
world existed for me only in the tones of the mighty chord. Then I had a
sensation as though I were expanding. The sound in my ears died away,
and yet I was not conscious of silence. Then all consciousness was lost.
The next thing I experienced was a sensation of intense cold, and of
someone roughly shaking me. Then I heard the voice of my jolly landlord
calling me by name."

The landlord had found the doctor "as white as a ghost and as limp as a
rag," and thought he was dead. He says it took him ten minutes to arouse
the sleeper. During the time a physician had been summoned.

As to the causes of this condition as produced Dr. Cocke says: "I firmly
believed that something would happen when the attempt was made to
hypnotize me. Secondly, I wished to be hypnotized. These, together with
a vivid imagination and strained attention, brought on the states which
occurred."

It is interesting to compare the effects of hypnotization with those of
opium or other narcotic. Dr. Cocke asserts that there is a difference.
His descriptions of dreams bear a wonderful likeness to De Quincey's
dreams, such as those described in "The English Mail-Coach," "De
Profundis," and "The Confessions of an English Opium Eater," all of
which were presumably due to opium.

The causes which Dr. Cocke thinks produced the hypnotic condition in his
case, namely, belief, desire to be hypnotized, and strained attention,
united with a vivid imagination, are causes which are often found in
conjunction and produce effects which we may reasonably explain on the
theory of self-hypnotization.

For instance, the effects of an exciting religious revival are very like
those produced by Mesmer's operations in Paris. The subjects become
hysterical, and are ready to believe anything or do anything. By
prolonging the operation, a whole community becomes more or less
hypnotized. In all such cases, however, unusual excitement is commonly
followed by unusual lethargy. It is much like a wild spree of
intoxication--in fact, it is a sort of intoxication.

The same phenomena are probably accountable for many of the strange
records of history. The wonderful cures at Lourdes (of which we have
read in Zola's novel of that name) are no doubt the effect of
hypnotization by the priests. Some of the strange movements of whole
communities during the Crusades are to be explained either on the theory
of hypnotization or of contagion, and possibly these two things will
turn out to be much the same in fact. On no other ground can we explain
the so-called "Children's Crusade," in which over thirty thousand
children from Germany, from all classes of the community, tried to cross
the Alps in winter, and in their struggles were all lost or sold into
slavery without even reaching the Holy Land.

Again, hypnotism is accountable for many of the poet's dreams. Gazing
steadily at a bed of bright coals or a stream of running water will
invariably throw a sensitive subject into a hypnotic sleep that will
last sometimes for several hours. Dr. Cocke says that he has
experimented in this direction with patients of his. Says he: "They have
the ability to resist the state or to bring it at will. Many of them
describe beautiful scenes from nature, or some mighty cathedral with its
lofty dome, or the faces of imaginary beings, beautiful or demoniacal,
according to the will and temper of the subject."

Perhaps the most wonderful example of self-hypnotism which we have in
history is that of the mystic Swedenborg, who saw, such strange things
in his visions, and at last came to believe in them as real.

The same explanation may be given of the manifestations of Oriental
prophets--for in the Orient hypnotism is much easier and more
systematically developed than with us of the West. The performances of
the dervishes, and also of the fakirs, who wound themselves and perform
many wonderful feats which would be difficult for an ordinary person,
are no doubt in part feats of hypnotism.

While in a condition of auto-hypnotization a person may imagine that he
is some other personality. Says Dr. Cocke: "A curious thing about those
self-hypnotized subjects is that they carry out perfectly their own
ideals of the personality with whom they believe themselves to be
possessed. If their own ideals of the part they are playing are
imperfect, their impersonations are ridiculous in the extreme. One man I
remember believed himself to be controlled by the spirit of Charles
Sumner. Being uneducated, he used the most wretched English, and his
language was utterly devoid of sense. While, on the other hand, a very
intelligent lady who believed herself to be controlled by the spirit of
Charlotte Cushman personated the part very well."

Dr. Cooke says of himself: "I can hypnotize myself to such an extent
that I will become wholly unconscious of events taking place around me,
and a long interval of time, say from one-half to two hours, will be a
complete blank. During this condition of auto-hypnotization I will obey
suggestions made to me by another, talking rationally, and not knowing
any event that has occurred after the condition has passed off."

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