382 HYPNOTISM. 



point of view, then, hypnosis and sleep may be considered 

 as states in which mental phenomena of this subconscious 

 order are brought to light, to sink into their normal position 

 as soon as the person resumes his waking state. 



It has been sought in various ways to obtain evidence 

 of the existence in the interval of these post-hypnotic sug- 

 gestions as subconscious recollections. This has been best 

 done by " automatic writing." If a pencil be placed in 

 the hand of a person in the writing position, on a sheet ot 

 paper, and the attention of the person be elsewhere directed, 

 e.g. by conversation, it will be found that the hand moves, 

 making often only inexplicable scrawls, but writing some- 

 times — even whole sentences — and this quite independently 

 of any conscious voluntary effort on the part of the person. 

 To put the matter shortly, it may at once be said that this 

 " automatic writing " has been shown, pretty conclusively, 

 to be merely the expression of subconscious operations going 

 on in the person's mind. By this means it has been shown 

 that the post-hypnotic suggestion — both what, and the time 

 at which, it is to be done — persists as a subconscious idea 

 during the interval between the reception and execution 

 pf the suggestion. 



Such a post-hypnotic idea may be carried out subcon- 

 sciously (this is generally the case, if the suggestion be one 

 of some so-called " automatic " movement, as, " When I tap 

 with my foot you will scratch your forehead "), and so be 

 always subconscious ; on the other hand, it may be that 

 the person does, e.g.., the suggested act consciously — in this 

 case the subconsciously remembered suggestion passes at the 

 time of execution into the realm of conscious phenomena ; 

 or the person may, at the given time, enter spontaneously 

 into a state of somnambulism, and in this do the act — in this 

 case the upper stratum of mental operations so to speak^ 



