226 NATURE AND MAN. 



again at some subsequent time when fresh evidence has been 

 adduced, or our persistence, from mere obstinacy, in a belief 

 which we should not have adopted in the first instance, if the 

 whole case had been then before us. 



But having happened long since to speak on the subject to 

 Professor Max Miiller, I learned from him the additional very 

 important fact, that this condition of self-induced suspension of 

 vital activity forms, as it were, the climax of a whole series of 

 states, with two of which I was myself very familiar — "electro- 

 biology," or artificial reverie, and " hypnotism," or artificial som- 

 nambulism ; both of them admirably studied by Mr. Braid, 

 through whose kindness I had many opportunities of investigating 

 their phenomena. The self-induction of these states, practised by 

 the Hindoo devotees, is part of a system of religious philosophy 

 which is termed the Yoga ; and by the kindness of Professor Max 

 Miiller I possess a very curious account of this philosophy, printed 

 at Benares twenty-two years ago, by Sub-Assistant Surgeon Paul, 

 who had carefully studied it. It appears from this that the object 

 of the whole system is to induce a state of mystical self-contempla- 

 tion, tending to the absorption of the soul of the individual into 

 the Supreme Soul, the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer of the 

 World ; and that the lower forms of it consist in the adoption of 

 certain fixed postures, which seem to act much in the same way 

 with the fixation of the vision in Mr. Braid's methods. The first 

 state, pi-dndydma, corresponds very closely with that of reverie or 

 abstraction ; the mind being turned in upon itself and entirely 

 given up to devout meditation, but the sensibility to external im- 

 pressions not being altogether suspended. The second state, 

 pratydhdra, is one which — the external senses being closed, while 

 the mind is still active — corresponds with some forms of somnam- 

 bulism. Those who have attained the power of inducing this 

 condition, then practise dhardna, a stage of complete quiescence of 

 body and mind, corresponding with what is known as catalepsy, — 

 the body remaining in any posture in which it may be placed. 

 From this they pass into the d/iydna, in which they believe them- 

 selves to be surrounded by flashes of external light or electricity, 

 and thus to be brought into communion with the Universal Soul, 

 which endows them with a clairvoyant power. And the final 



