Hypnotism: Its History, Practice and Theory

 

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go to sleep." After some seconds I continue : "Now your eyelids are beginning to close ; your eyes are growing more and more fatigued ; the lids quiver more and more, and get gradually closer. You feel tired all over; your arms go to sleep; your legs grow tired; a feeling of heaviness and the desire for sleep take possession of your whole body. Your eyes close ; your head feels duller; your thoughts grow more and more con-fused. Now you can no longer, resist; now your eyelids are closed. Sleep." After the eyelids have cldted I ask him if he can open them. (He tries to do so, but they are too heavy.) I raise his left arm in the air. (It remains in the air, and cannot be brought down in spite of all his efforts.) I ask him if he is asleep. "Yes." "Fast asleep?" "Yes." "Do you hear the canary singing?" "Yes." "Do you hear the concert?" "Certainly." Upon this I take up a black cloth and put it into his hand. "You feel this dog quite plainly?" "Quite plainly." " Now you can open your eyes. You will see the dog clearly. Then you will go to sleep again, and not wake till I tell you. (He opens his eyes, looks at the imaginary dog and strokes it.) I take the cloth out of his hand and lay it on the floor. (He stands up and reaches out for it.) Although he is in my room, when I tell him he is in the Zoological Gardens he believes it, and sees trees, the water, the children playing, and so on.


36 HYPNOTISM.
We have here a case in which a man is thrown into the hypnotic state by my arousing in his mind an image of the sleep. This manner of hypnotizing was introduced by the Nancy school of investigators, and may be termed the method of Nancy. It is not only possible in his case to prevent the most various movements by a mere prohibition, but I can also control his sense-perceptions. On my assurance he thinks he hears a canary, or hears music. He takes a black cloth for a dog, and believes himself to be in the Zoological Gardens when he is in my room.
But the following phenomenon is still more striking. X. hears all that I say to him, and allows himself to be influenced by me in every way. Yet two other men, A. and B., who are present, appear not to be observed by the hypnotic at all. A. lifts up the arm of the subject; the arm falls loosely down, and when A. desires the arm to remain in the air the subject takes no notice. He obeys my orders only, and is en rapport with me only. In order to wake him I now call to him : " Wake up!" He wakes up at once, but only remembers going to sleep; of what happened during the sleep he knows nothing.

Fifth Experiment.—The woman seated on the chair is thirty years of age.

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