HYPNOTIC STATES, TRANCE, AND ECSTASY. 807 



disordinated elements may persistently refuse to effect union with, 

 the upper consciousness. A friend of mine, on awaking a patient, 

 found her unable to speak or swallow, and some anxious hours 

 slipped by before he succeeded in restoring her power over the 

 paralyzed muscles. Altogether hypnosis is decidedly a danger- 

 ous thing to meddle with. 



Many typical trance states are brought about, it would seem, 

 by what may be described as the hypertrophy of some perception 

 or sensation or system of ideas. This abnormal growth may be 

 in either or both of two directions. In the first place, it may be 

 an actual increase in intensity and complexity. This is not un- 

 common in all forms of disordination ; thus, Dr. Cocke says that 

 when he tried to hypnotize himself, he first noticed a ringing in 

 the ears, then this " noise in my ears grew louder and louder. The 

 roar became deafening. It crackled like a mighty fire. ... I 

 heard above the roar reports which sounded like artillery or 

 musketry. Then, above the din or the noise, a musical chord. 

 I seemed to be absorbed in this chord. I knew nothing else. 

 The world existed for me only in the toneg of this mighty chord." 

 But the development of the state may be not merely a develop- 

 ment in intensity and complexity, but also in its importance con- 

 sidered as an element of consciousness. I have shown in my 

 previous papers that consciousness tends to assume a certain form 

 in which some one group is more clear and distinct than the 

 others. This is what we call the " center of attention " or " focus " 

 of consciousness. I have also shown that when any one group 

 becomes focal all others become less clear and distinct, and may 

 even be driven out of consciousness altogether. Now, in trance 

 states this seems often to happen. In the hypnotic states the ele- 

 ment upon which attention is fixed itself disappears ; in trances, 

 it and its associated states take possession of the focus, drive out 

 all other states, and serve as the starting point for dreams, hal- 

 lucinations, and visions of the most complex kind. For the same 

 reason, suggestibility is seldom found in trance. There is no 

 awareness of the hypnotizer to serve as a center of activity and 

 the hypertrophied state usually proves strong enough to resist in- 

 terference from without. 



The close relation between hypnosis and trance is well shown by 

 the case of M . He is about twenty-five years of age ; by pro- 

 fession a bookkeeper, he has proved himself capable and efficient, 

 and, although he has always been of somewhat delicate health, he 

 is quiet in his demeanor, and not in the least hysterical in 'the 

 vulgar sense of the word. Once, when a child, he was playing 

 with a toy locomotive; the alcohol used to generate steam was 

 spilled upon the floor and caught fire; in great terror he ran 

 away, seized the doorknob, and then became fixed and motionless, 



