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THEOSOPHY AND HYPNOTISM BY JOHN SCHOFIELD




The third object of the Theosophical Society is "To investigate the unexplained laws of nature and the psychical powers latent in man."  Some of these unexplained latent powers have been brought to light by what is sometimes called mesmerism, animal magnetism, or hypnotism, which are but different names for essentially the same thing. Sometimes men profess to make a scientific distinction between them, but I doubt the accuracy of their definitions.



MY EXPERIENCE WITH HYPNOTISM

For over ten years I investigated mesmerism, reading every book I could find in the English and French languages, and making thousands of experiments in private and public.

I began by using the mesmeric passes and succeeded as well with them as I did later with other methods, except that it took much longer to produce sleep. With mesmeric passes it took me from ten to twenty minutes to produce sleep, and by other methods from two to five minutes,

And sometimes it was instantaneous!

If I took a boy by the hand, placing my left thumb at the root of the nose — where the phrenologist locates individuality — and told him to look into my eye it was seldom more than two minutes before the eyelids began to droop, and the eyeballs to turn up and I told him he was asleep and could not get off the seat.

In public lectures I used to give a dozen boys, each a little zinc disk with a bright copper rivet in the center and tell them to look steadily at it, while I kept the attention of the audience for five minutes.

At the end of that time I took the boys one by one, selecting first those who seemed most susceptible to the influence, and treated them as described above. Generally ten of the twelve (and often the whole dozen) made good subjects for a mesmeric entertainment.

At my suggestion they at once imagined themselves soldiers, sailors, auctioneers, lecturers, or any other character that I happened to think of. By drilling them together for a little time I got complete control of them and then selected the best of them for more striking experiments.

Any of the boys could be made to imagine themselves girls and would take most remarkable pains with imaginary babies, or they would climb pillars for bird's nests, and tell how many eggs or young birds they found in the nest, the number seldom varying from what was in my own mind; — thought transference was quite easy.

They would imitate all the noises of animals on a farm, would be sea-sick, imagine salt was sweet and sugar bitter; and from the same glass of water would taste any kind of liquid suggested. Almost any of them could be made to think cold things were hot, and hot things cold, light things heavy and heavy things light.

Many times I have made strong men unable to lift a pound weight, and sometimes they got angry because I made small boys lift weights that they could not move at all.



CURIOSITIES

There were very few subjects whose limbs could not be made rigid as iron, or weak and paralyzed, and quite a number of those who volunteer for public experiment can be made as rigid as a body long dead.

For instance, I have made a man lie down on three chairs, his head on one, his heels on another, while a third supported his back. I then made mesmeric passes over him for two or three minutes, after which I have removed the middle chair and sat upon his body without its yielding under my weight.

I have then placed my hands upon his body for a few seconds, and then slowly raising them, the center of the body followed my hands without contact, until it formed a curve. On my replacing the chair and telling him to wake up, he would stand on his feet with every muscle loose and pulse normal.

(Note: this experiment is very dangerous because although the person does not feel the pain, she can be seriously injured and even crippled for life, so please do not do it.)


It was a not uncommon thing for subjects to develop clairvoyance both in private and public experiments. I say clairvoyance though perhaps it was not true clairvoyance, but the subjects could see and hear without using the physical organs of sight and hearing.

For instance, with the subject's eyes closed and tightly bandaged, I would say to him:

   -  "Describe for me the first person on the fourth seat."

He would do it quite accurately and sometimes humorously. I would then ask what the gentleman had in his pockets. This would be told in detail, and when he mentioned a watch I would ask him what time it indicated, what the number inside the case was, and whether a name or anything else was engraved there. This was usually told without an error.

If there happened to be a letter in one of the pockets, the subject would (with the permission of the owner) describe its contents, and sometimes the person who wrote it and his surroundings when writing.

Some subjects would describe the homes of people in the audience whom they did not know, telling of pictures, furniture, carpets, and people present. On one occasion a conversation was reported that we afterward found to be correct.

They sometimes told of incidents in the lives of people in the audience that these persons declared untrue, but which upon inquiry of relatives were found to be correct, though the memory of the person had not retained them.



REFLECTION ON HYPNOTISM

An objection to reincarnation which is commonly advanced is that if it were true we would be sure to remember. But if we utterly forget events that have occurred in the present life why should we expect to remember past lives?

Some of the incidents referred to were very important and had affected the whole life. But while these experiments assured me of the truth of certain statements that I had read as to the wonderful latent powers in man I had still a feeling that it was morally wrong for me to be making these experiments. This feeling became stronger and stronger, so that I found myself asking these questions:

Am I doing an injury to these people?

Am I weakening their will power — their power to resist evil?

Have I any right whatever to control and dominate their minds and bodies?

I reached the conclusion that I was wronging them, and resolved never to hypnotize another person, not even to cure disease. For more than twenty-five years I have kept this resolution, and after becoming a student of Theosophy I was glad that I had given up hypnotism, for I then came to understand what I had intuitively felt before.


There are different theories advocated by different men to explain how these phenomena are produced.

Some hold to the old mesmeric theory that there is a magnetic fluid passing from operator to subject, and in proof of this they give the statements of clairvoyants.

Some also tell us that the fact that some diseases are contagious, and that old people are benefited by sleeping with young people confirms this theory.

Others claim that the thought and will of the operator are propagated by ether waves, of even smaller amplitude and greater frequency than those which carry the Rontgen rays. Such waves are supposed to pass from one brain to another, arousing in the second brain an image similar to the one in the first brain.

But what matters it how the phenomena are produced if the effect be bad?

Charcot, one of the greatest hypnotists of this generation, says:

« The more I have examined the facts and the more I have advanced in my study, the more I am convinced that hypnotism is a reaction, not an action»

What does this mean?

It can only mean that hypnotism is to a certain degree a suspension of the vital force that animates and controls the body of man. In other words it is what Theosophy declares it to be, namely, a driving of the soul from the body, the paralyzing of Manas and the separation of Buddhi from that principle.

It is an inversion of the truth. No God-given power should ever be used to produce a reaction by which the will of man is weakened or suspended, and the faculties of the mind controlled by another. No man should seek to control another, for by so doing he violates the laws of his being, the laws of brotherhood.

We have no moral or spiritual right to control another or to compel him to do anything, whether we believe it will be beneficial to him or not. Hypnotism weakens the will of the subject and destroys his independence. It tends to deaden his mental faculties, making him negative and susceptible to the influence of others, and liable to be controlled by the will of others, and not so competent to control his own thinking and actions. This is a sin against our brother.



SHOULD BE USE HYPNOTISM FOR GOOD?

Medical men are using it for the curing of disease and relief of pain, and because of this many people believe it to be an agent for good. We may not question the sincerity nor the benevolent impulses of those who use it and those who advocate its use, but we may question their wisdom and the value of the results produced.

In the first place hypnotism is founded on selfishness and cannot therefore be of real service to man. To sacrifice our own independence and our own individuality is a far greater price to pay than any relief from pain is worth.

Perhaps we do not think that these results will follow, but that we shall be able to resist the will of others in everyday life, and be well able to control ourselves. Perhaps we can, but the risk is great.

If during the time I was experimenting with mesmerism I met a boy on the street going to his work with dinner pail in hand, whom I had mesmerized, and would say to him:

  -  "That pail is hot!"

He would instantly drop it and feel a sensation of burning in his hand. Now he knew it was not hot, but he was unable to hold it, although he enjoyed the joke as much as those who saw what he did.

Another thing I found, too, and that is, that these boys whom I had controlled would go to another mesmeric entertainment declaring they would not yield themselves to this man as they had to me, but found themselves unable to resist. This was one of the first things that led me to give up the practice.

We should try to overcome disease and pain by seeking to under stand and obey the laws that regulate life and produce health and strength. We should seek to perfect life by the rightful use and strengthening of all our powers of body and mind, for it is every man's duty to control himself.

Perhaps some will ask if we may not allow qualified medical men to use it as we allow them to prescribe poisonous drugs for us. They further say that these drugs not only become harm less in their hands but positively beneficial, and in like manner hypnotism that is so dangerous in the hands of ignorant persons would be entirely changed, and only beneficial results would ensue if used by trained, scientific minds of the medical profession.

Our medical men have a good knowledge of anatomy and physiology but many of them under stand little of the workings of the human mind, and most of them are entirely ignorant of occultism.

Such a great power as this cannot be put into the hands of any class or profession with safety. Power is only safe with the unselfish wise, with those whose great desire is to bless and not to curse, to quicken and strengthen the minds of our brothers and sisters, and not to dull and deaden their faculties; who desire to increase and not to lessen the will power of all, so that all may be self-controlled and in perfect harmony with the laws of being.




CONCLUSION

Hypnotic suggestion is the reversal of certain laws of life and it is immoral to do evil that good may result. This much at least is plain, that we should never use our wills to force another to do, or refrain from doing even when we think that it would be for his good. We should never force on another the acceptance of any truth however important we may think it is — he must have liberty to accept, or reject as he may choose. It is ours to help, to bless, to instruct, but never to control and command.


(The Theosophical Quarterly, 1911, vol. 9, p.70-73)





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