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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