POSTHYPNOTIC AND CRIMINAL SUGGESTION. 235 



mental states rests, and to my mind the evidence for their exist- 

 ence is strong. Yet I do not think that we are compelled to infer 

 that all posthypnotic suggestions exist actually nor yet that all 

 potential memories have an actual existence. For the present I 

 would rather regard the subconscious state as something to be ac- 

 cepted only when definite evidence of its existence is forthcoming. 

 Nor would I ascribe these states in all cases to a secondary or sub- 

 conscious " self," although I regard the existence of such a self 

 distinct from the upper self as in some cases probable. Subcon- 

 scious states when they do exist are probably like our dreams. 



The emergence of the suggested state into the upper conscious- 

 ness sometimes seems to have no appreciable effect upon its con- 

 stitution. The new element presents itself to the patient much as 

 other elements do, and may meet with opposition from those al- 

 ready existing as would any other. Thus one of Mr. Gurney's 

 patients " was told to bring the spoons out of the dining room into 

 the drawing room, which was properly the maid's duty. She was 

 left to wake in the dining room, and presently followed the rest 

 of the party into the drawing room, saying, f I know what you 

 want me to do, but I don't mean to do it; it is too absurd/" She 

 had no recollection of what she had been told, but when the irra- 

 tional impulse presented itself she suspected its origin and refused 

 to obey it. 



At other times, by a species of illusion of memory, the sug- 

 gested impulse is referred by the patient to some consideration 

 from which it might very well have sprung. A friend of mine 

 hypnotized a young girl, and told her that when he coughed three 

 times she would say good-night to the assembled company and 

 leave the room as if going to bed, but at the foot of the stairs she 

 would turn back. She did it punctually. When we asked her 

 next day why she changed her mind, she said that as she got to 

 the foot of the stairs it occurred to her how rude it was of her to 

 go to bed while the callers were still there, so she turned back. 



When a posthypnotic hallucination presents itself to an ap- 

 proximately normal consciousness of this kind it is received with 

 appropriate emotions, and the same is true of negative hallucina- 

 tions. X was told that after waking he would be blind to me. 



I then took a pencil and, holding it by one end, wagged it to and 

 fro. The patient stared at it with a puzzled and somewhat frigh- 

 tened air. " There ain't nothing to hold it," he said, " but it stands 

 right up and wags. Guess it must be hung by a string to the 

 ceiling." But a diligent search revealed no string. I then grasped 

 the pencil by two fingers about the middle. He became still more 

 troubled, stooped as near the pencil as he could and examined it 

 closely. " Somehow I can't see the middle of it," he said. " There 

 are just two ends and no middle." It is dangerous to give a 



