378 HYPNOTISM. 



" deferred," to be done after an interval, e.g. " Half an hour 

 after you wake you will get up, saying, ' How hot it is ! ' 

 and open the window." 



The time at which such a deferred post-h^^pnotic sugges- 

 tion is to be realised may be fixed in various ways : by an 

 external sign, as, " AVhen I rub my hands together you will 

 cough"; or at a given day or hour, as, "You will come to 

 see me on June 30th, at 10 a.m. " ; or, lastly, at the end of 

 a given interval of time, as, " Half an hour after you wake, 

 you will be unable to speak for five minutes." As might be 

 expected, whereas the two former suggestions, if executed, 

 are done jDunctualty, the last kind are not always so ; thus 

 the half-hour above may be actually twenty minutes or 

 forty-five minutes, evidently owing to the person's defective 

 appreciation of time. 



A most important point for consideration is the state of 

 the person whilst performing these post-hypnotic suggestions. 

 It appears, on investigation, that one of several events may 

 occur : the " subject " may, at the appointed time, enter 

 (spontaneously) into a state of hypnosis (somnambulism), 

 and in this do the suggested act, or he may do it in a normal 

 condition. If he falls into the somnambulistic condition, 

 he may, though this is rare, continue in it and have to be 

 awakened ; but, generally speaking, as soon as the suggested 

 act is done, he spontaneously awakes. If there is renewed 

 suggestability during the performance of a ]3ost-hypnotic 

 suggestion, and amnesia subsequently, we judge the person 

 to have done it in the somnambulistic condition. The act 

 ma}^, however, be of such a nature that too short a time is 

 taken in its performance for one to find out whether there 

 is renewed suggestability ; the subsequent amnesia is then 

 the best test of hypnosis. 



The conditions determining whether a person enters, or 



