HYPNOTISM, ITS HISTORY, NATURE AND USE. 599 



second, the age of Mesmerism, when personal magnetism was sup- 

 posed to be the attractive power; the third, the age of Braid, when 

 the science was put on a physiological basis; the fourth, the age of 

 Bernheim and Charcot, when the idea of suggestion was brought to 

 the front and hypnotism was used indiscriminately; and lastly, the 

 fifth, the age we are in now, where the tendency is to restrict hypno- : 

 tism and to classify it for specific uses. 



The Nature of Hypnotism. 



Each individual has a separate state of consciousness which changes 

 as do the thoughts therein. It is in the waking state that we have 

 separate individualities. Now let us see the gradations of this con- 

 sciousness. At this present moment we shall say we are listening in- 

 tently to a sermon. That is the thing uppermost in our minds, and 

 as long as our minds are upon it we are exercising acute consciousness. 

 But, even if our attention to this sermon is the central thing, in the 

 fringe of our mental picture a number of other thoughts are jump- 

 ing around, any one of which may be powerful enough to force its way 

 into the middle of the picture and to usurp its place. For example, 

 all the while we are listening to this sermon we are more or less 

 conscious that the seats we are in are hard, that somebody is talking 

 next to us, etc. Our seats may become so uncomfortable that it may 

 occupy our whole attention, or something outside may seem of more 

 interest. If our attention jumps from one thing to another, it is 

 called diffused consciousness. The next step to diffused conscious- 

 ness is the dreamy state where the mind is half way between waking 

 and sleep. Anything may come into the mind while in this state and 

 be the predominant idea, to be chased out again by a next idea. It 

 is for this reason that dreams usually present such a chaos and 

 jumble. Our thoughts tumble over one another to get from the 

 fringe of consciousness to the foreground. Any external sensation will 

 be greatly exaggerated and may turn the trend of our thought. A 

 warm bed might feel like the fire of hell, a heavy dinner with in- 

 digestion like the battles of heroes using our poor bodies as the fight- 

 ing ground. As dreams gradually fade away we approach our first 

 hypnosis or sleep, which, in the beginning, is slight, but gradually 

 deepens, finally consciousness being entirely lost. 



Thus we have traced the process of natural sleep to which hypnotic 

 sleep is closely akin. The person at first has a diffused attention, 

 he then confines his attention to sleep, he next passes into a dreaming 

 state, then into a light sleep and lastly into a deep sleep. 



The differences between it and natural sleep are as follows: first, 

 the state ordinarily is produced by another; secondly, the person must 

 have faith; and thirdly, the phenomena in the sleep must be produced 

 by suggestion. The two latter were fully recognized years ago and 



