66 HYPNOTISM AND ALLIED PHENOMENA. 



3. Perception of the operator only. 



4 Advanced automatism. 



5. Oblivion. 



6. Submission to the operator's suggestions. 



7. Susceptibility to post-hypnotic influence. 



The methods of operators vary. Some employ slow passes 

 made at a short distance, some stroking, some ocular fixation, 

 some orbital compression, some any weak, continuous, and 

 prolonged stimulation of the nerves of sight, touch, or hear- 

 ing, some verbal suggestion alone. Haidenheim invites the 

 patient to sit down, tells him that sleep will cure him, urges 

 him to concentrate his mind entirely on sleep, looking at him 

 very keenly all the while ; tells him he will feel weight in his 

 eyeballs and limbs, and gradually be unable to move. And 

 when sleep has been induced the desired instructions are sug- 

 gested to him. 



Liebault begins by reassuring the patient, telling him to 

 banish all fear and extraneous thoughts, to concentrate his 

 mind upon following the operator's words and suggestions. 

 He then suggests the stages of sleep one by one as follow : — 

 Your eyelids are becoming heavy ; you can hardly keep them 

 open. My voice sounds more and more distant. Your sight 

 grows dim ; objects appear indistinct. Numbness is creeping 

 over your limbs. You cannot keep awake; your eyes are 

 shut. (Here he closes the patient's eyes.) You are fast 

 asleep. He then rubs any affected parts, suggesting that 

 pain is to pass away ; that disturbed functions are to be re- 

 stored to normal action, and so on, concluding with the sug- 

 gestion that no hypnotiser's influence except his own shall be 

 obeyed. He arouses the patient by a word or a few passes 

 across the face. The foregoing cannot fail to remind us of 

 the reported procedure of American faith healers. 



Charcot induces the stage of lethargy either by compressing' 

 the eyelids or by causing the patient to gaze fixedly at a 

 bright point ; that of catalepsy by lifting the eyelids during 

 the preceding stage or by a sudden flash or shock, and that 

 of somnambulism by gently rubbing the top of the patient's 

 head. 



Variety of opinion and of practice is accompanied by variety 

 of theory. Among theorists Mr. Julian Hawthorne regards 

 hypnotism as akin to the mental exaltation of the poet and 

 the orator. Dr. Eegnier finds in it nothing of this sort, not 

 even the ecstasy of the martyr or religious devotee. The 

 practice is not devoid of danger. Dr. Julius Lolow records 

 how an amateur at a friend's house volunteered to hypnotise 

 another visitor, and after two trials succeeded so well that the 

 subject became extremely excited, lost the power of speech, 

 and then passed into the condition of catalepsy. Subse- 

 quently he had severe convulsions. He had been hypnotised 



