hypnotism: Definition and Much More from Answers.com

Hypnotism
A peculiar altered state of consciousness distinguished by certain marked symptoms, the most prominent andinvariable of which are the presence of continuous alpha waves on theelectroencephalograph, hypersuggestibility in the subject, a concentration of attention on a singlestimulus, and a feeling of "at oneness" with the stimulus. Hypnotic states may be induced by various techniques applied tooneself or by another.
Thehypnotic state may be induced in a large percentage of normalindividuals, or may occur spontaneously. It is recognized as having anaffinitywith normal sleep, and likewise with a variety of trance-likeconditions, among which may be mentioned somnambulism, ecstasy, and thetrances of Hindu yogis andfakirs, and various tribal shamans. In fact, in one form or another,hypnosis has been known in practically all countries and periods of history.
Hypnotism, once classed as anoccultscience, has gained, though only within recent years, a definitescientific status, and no mean place in legitimate medicine.Nevertheless, its history is inextricably interwoven with occultpractice, and even today muchhypnoticphenomena is associated with the psychic and occult, so that aconsideration of hypnotism remains a necessary component in any matureunderstanding of the occult world science of both our own time and thepast.
The Early Magnetists
Asfar back as the sixteenth century, hypnotic phenomena were observed andstudied by scientists, who attributed them to "magnetism," aneffluencesupposedly radiating from every object in the universe, in a greater orlesser degree, and through which objects might exercise a mutualinfluence on one another. From this doctrine was constructed the"sympathetic" system of medicine, by means of which the "magneticeffluence" of the planets, of the actual magnet, or of the physicianwas brought to bear upon the patient.Paracelsus is generally supposed to be the originator of the sympathetic system, as he was its most powerfulexponent.Of the magnet he states, "The magnet has long lain before all eyes, andno one has ever thought whether it was of any further use, or whetherit possessed any other property, than that of attracting iron. Thesordid doctors throw it in my face that I will not follow the ancients;but in what should I follow them? All that they have said of the magnetamounts to nothing. Lay that which I have said of it in the balance,and judge. Had I blindly followed others, and had I not myself madeexperiments, I should in like manner know nothing more than what everypeasant sees—that it attracts iron. But a wise man mustinquirefor himself, and it is thus that I have discovered that the magnet,besides this obvious and to every man visible power, that of attractingiron, possesses another andconcealed power."
That power, he believed, was of healing the sick. And there is no doubt that cures were actually effected byParacelsus with the aid of the magnet, especially in cases ofepilepsyand nervous affections. Yet the word "magnet" is most frequently usedby Paracelsus and his followers in a figurative sense, to denote the magnes microcosmi,man himself, who was supposed to be a reproduction in miniature of theEarth, having, like it, his poles and magnetic properties. From thestars and planets, he taught, came a very subtle effluence thataffected humanintellect, whileearthly substances radiated a grosseremanationthat affected the body. The human Mumia (body of vitalism) especiallywas a "magnet" well suited for medical purposes, since it draws toitself the diseases and poisonous properties of other substances. Themost effective Mumia, according to Paracelsus, was that of a criminalwho had been hanged, and he suggests the manner of its application: "Ifa person suffer from disease, either local or general, experiment withthe followingremedy. Take a magnetimpregnated with Mumia, and combined with rich earth. In this earthsow some seeds that have a likeness to, orhomogeneity with, the disease; then let this earth, well sifted and mixed with Mumia, be laid in anearthen vessel, and let the seeds committed to it be watered daily with alotion in which the diseased limb or body has been washed. Thus will the disease betransplantedfrom the human body to the seeds which are in the earth. Having donethis, transplant the seeds from the earthen vessel to the ground, andwait till they begin to flourish into herbs. As they increase, thedisease will diminish, and when they have reached their mature growth,will altogether disappear."
The quaint but not altogetherillogicalidea of "weaponsalve"—anointing the weapon instead of the wound—wasalso used by Paracelsus, his theory being that part of the vitalspirits clung to the weapon and exercised an ill effect on the vitalspirits in the wound, which would not heal until theointment was first been applied to the weapon. This also was an outcome of the magnetic theory.
Towardsthe end of the sixteenth century, Paracelsus‘ ideas were developed byJ. B. van Helmont, a scientist of distinction and an energeticprotagonist of magnetism. "Material nature," he writes, "draws herforms through constant magnetism from above, and implores for them thefavour of heaven; and as heaven, in like manner, draws somethinginvisible from below, there is established a free and mutualintercourse, and the whole is contained in an individual."
VanHelmont also believed in the power of the will to direct the subtlefluid. There was, he held, in all created things a magic or celestialpower through which they were allied to heaven. This power or strengthis greatest in the human soul, resides in a lesser degree in the body,and to some extent is present in the lower animals, plants, andinorganicmatter. It is by reason of their superior endowment in this respectthat humans are enabled to rule the other creatures, and to make use ofinanimate objects for their own purposes. The power is strongest when one isasleep, for then the body isquiescent,and the soul most active and dominant, and for this reason dreams andprophetic visions are more common in sleep. He notes, "The spirit iseverywherediffused,and the spirit is the medium of magnetism; not the spirits of heavenand of hell, but the spirit of man, which is concealed in him as thefire is concealed in the flint. The human will makes itself master of aportion of its spirit of life, which becomes a connecting propertybetween the corporeal and the incorporeal, and diffuses itself like thelight."
To thisetherealspirit he ascribed the visions seen by "the inner man" in ecstasy, andalso those of the "outer man" and the lower animals. In proof of themutual influence of living creatures he asserted that a human beingcould kill an animal merely by staring hard at it for a quarter of anhour.
That Van Helmont was not ignorant of the power ofimagination is evident from many of his writings. A common needle, hedeclared, may by means of certain manipulations and thewillpowerand imagination of the operator, be made to possess magneticproperties. Herbs may become very powerful through the imagination ofthe person who gathers them. And he adds, "I havehithertoavoided revealing the great secrets, that the strength lies concealedin man, merely through the suggestion and power of the imagination toworkoutwardly,and to impress this strength on others, which then continues of itself,and operates on the remotest subjects. Through this secret alone willall receive its true illumination—all that has hitherto been broughttogether laboriously of the ideal being out of the spirit—all that hasbeen said of the magnetism of all things—of the strength of the humansoul—of the magic of man, and of his dominion over the physical world."
VanHelmont also gave special importance to the stomach as the chief seatof the soul, recounting an experience of his own. Upon touching someaconitewith his tongue, he found all his senses transferred to his stomach.Several centuries later, seeing with the stomach was to become afavorite accomplishment of somnambules andcataleptic subjects.
A distinguished English magnetist wasRobert Fludd, who wrote in the first part of the seventeenth century.Fluddwas an exponent of the microcosmic theory and a believer in themagnetic influence. According to Fludd, not only were these emanationsable to curebodily diseases, but they also affected the moral sentiments. If radiations from two individuals were flung back ordistorted, negative magnetism, orantipathyresulted. However, if the radiations from each person passed freelyinto those from the other, the result was positive magnetism, orsympathy. Examples of positive and negative magnetism were also to befound among the lower animals and among plants. Another magnetist ofdistinction was the Scottish physician William Maxwell, author of De Medicina Magnetica(1679), who is said to have anticipated much of Mesmer‘s doctrine. Hedeclared that those who are familiar with the operation of theuniversal spirit can, through its agency, cure all diseases, at nomatter what distance. He also suggested that the practice of magnetism,though very valuable in the hand of a well-disposed physician, is notwithout its dangers and isliable to many abuses.
The Healers Valentine Greatrakes and J. J. Gassner
Whilethe theoretical branch of magnetism was thus receiving attention at thehands of the alchemical philosophers, the practical side was by nomeans neglected. There were, in the seventeenth and eighteenthcenturies, a number of "divine healers," whose magic cures were withoutdoubt the result of hypnotic suggestion.
Of these perhaps the best known and most successful wereValentine Greatrakes, an Irishman, and aSwabian priest named John Joseph Gassner. Greatrakes was born in 1628, and on reachingmanhood served for some time in the Irish army, thereafter settling down on his estate inWaterford. In 1662 he had a dream in which it was revealed to him that he possessedhealing by touch, a gift which could cure theking‘s evil (scrofula). The dream was repeated several times before he paidheed to it, but at length he experimented, his own wife being the first to be healed by him.
Manypeople who came to him from the surrounding country were cured when helaid his hands upon them. Later the impression came upon him stronglythat he could cure other diseases besides the king‘s evil. News of hispowers spread far and wide, as patients came by the hundreds to seekhis aid. Despite the fact that the bishop of the diocese forbade theexercise of these apparently magical powers, Greatrakes continued toheal the afflicted people who sought him. In 1666 he proceeded toLondon, and, though not invariably successful, he seems to haveperformed there a surprising number of cures, which were testified toby Robert Boyle, Sir William Smith, Andrew Marvell, and many othereminent people.
His method of healing was to stroke the affectedpart with his hand, thus (it was claimed) driving the disease into thelimbs and finally out of the body. Sometimes the treatment acted asthough by magic, but if immediate relief was not obtained, therubbing was continued. Only a very few cases were dismissed asincurable. Even epidemic diseases were healed by a touch. It was noted that during the treatment the patient‘s fingers and toes remainedinsensibleto external stimuli, and frequently he or she showed every symptom ofsuch a "magnetic crisis" as was afterward to become a special featureof mesmeric treatment.
Personally, Greatrakes was a simple andpious gentleman, persuaded that his marvelous powers were a divinely-bestowed gift, and mostanxious to make the best use of them.
Theother healer mentioned earlier, J. J. Gassner (1727-1779), belongs to asomewhat later period—about the middle of the eighteenth century. Hewas a priest of Bludenz in Vorarlberg, Austria, where his many curesgained for him a wide celebrity. All diseases, according to him, werecaused by evil spirits possessing the patient, and his mode of healingthus consisted of exorcising the demons.
Gassner, too, was a man ofkindly disposition andpiety, and made reference to the Scriptures in his healing operations. The ceremony ofexorcism was a rather impressive one. Gassner sat at a table, the patient and spectators in front of him. A blue red-floweredcloak hung from his shoulders. The rest of his clothing was "clean, simple, and modest." On his left was a window, on his right, thecrucifix. His fine personality, deep learning, and noble character, which inspired the faith of the patient and his friends,doubtless played no small part in hiscurativefeats. Sometimes he made use of "magnetic" manipulations, stroking orrubbing the affected part, and driving the disease, after the manner ofGreatrakes, into the limbs of the patient. He generally pronounced theformula ofexorcism in Latin, with which language the demons seemed to show a perfect familiarity.
Not only could Gassner control sickness by these means, but the passions also wereamenable to his treatment, "Now anger is apparent, nowpatience, now joy, nowsorrow,now hate, now love, now confusion, now reason—each carried to thehighest pitch. Now this one is blind, now he sees, and again isdeprived of sight, etc."
These curious results suggest what inthe nineteenth century was termed "phreno-magnetism," where equallysudden changes of mood were produced by touching with the fingertipsthose parts of the subject‘s head whichphrenology associated with the various emotions to be called forth.
Emanuel Swedenborg
Hithertoit will be seen that the rational and supernatural explanations ofmagnetism had run parallel with one another, the former most in favorwith the philosophers, the latter with the general public. It wasreserved forEmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), the Swedish philosopher andseerto unite the doctrine of magnetism with that of spirit agency—i.e., thebelief in the action in the external world of the discarnate spirits ofdeceased human beings. That Swedenborg accepted some of the theories ofthe older magnetists is evident from some of his mystical writings,where, for example, he states, "In order tocomprehendthe origin and progress of this influence [i.e., God‘s influence overman], we must first know that which proceeds from the Lord is thedivine sphere which surrounds us, and fills the spiritual and naturalworld. All that proceeds from an object, and surrounds and clothes it,is called its sphere.
"As all that is spiritual knows neithertime nor space, it therefore follows that the general sphere or thedivine one has extended itself from the first moment of creation to thelast. This divine emanation, which passed over from the spiritual tothe natural, penetrates actively and rapidly through the whole createdworld, to the last grade of it, where it is yet to be found, andproduces and maintains all that is animal, vegetable, and mineral. Manis continually surrounded by a sphere of his favorite propensities;these unite themselves to the natural sphere of his body, so thattogether they form one. The natural sphere surrounds every body ofnature, and all the objects of the three kingdoms. Thus it alliesitself to the spiritual world. This is the foundation of sympathy andantipathy, of union and separation, according to which there areamongst spirits presence and absence.
"The angel said to me that the sphere surrounded man morelightly on the back than on the breast, where it wasthickerand stronger. This sphere of influence peculiar to man operates also ingeneral and in particular around him by means of the will, theunderstanding, and the practice.
"The sphere proceeding from God,which surrounds man and constitutes his strength, while it therebyoperates on his neighbour and on the whole creation, is a sphere ofpeace, and innocence; for the Lord is peace and innocence. Then only isman consequently able to make his influenceeffectualon his fellow man, when peace and innocence rule in his heart, and hehimself is in union with heaven. This spiritual union is connected withthe natural by abenevolent man through the touch and the laying on of hands; by which the influence of the inner man isquickened,prepared, and imparted. The body communicates with others which areabout it through the body, and the spiritual influence diffuses itselfchiefly through the hands, because these are the most outward or ultimumof man; and through him, as in the whole of nature, the first iscontained in the last, as the cause in the effect. The whole soul andthe whole body are contained in the hands as a medium of influence."
Mesmerism or Animal Magnetism
Inthe latter half of the eighteenth century, a new era was inaugurated inconnection with the doctrine of a magnetic fluid, due in large measureto the works ofFranz Anton Mesmer, the physician from whose namemesmerismwas taken. Mesmer was born at Wiel, near Lake Constance, in 1733, andstudied medicine at the University of Vienna, receiving his medicaldegree in 1766. In the same year he published his first work, De Planetarum Influxu(The Influence of Planets on the Human Body). Although he claimed tohave thereby discovered the existence of a "universal fluid," to whichhe gave the name of magnétisme animal, there is no doubt that his doctrine was in many respects identical to that of the older magnetists mentioned above.
Theidea of the universal fluid was suggested to him in the first place byhis observation of the stars, which led him to believe the celestialbodies exercised a mutual influence on each other and on the Earth.This he identified with magnetism, and it was but a step (and a stepwhich had already been taken by the early magnetists) to extend thisinfluence to the human body and all other objects, and to apply it tothe science of medicine.
In 1776, Mesmer met with J. J. Gassner,the Swabian priest. Mesmer set aside the supernatural explanationoffered by the healer himself, and declared that the cures and severecrisesthat followed his manipulations were attributable to nothing butmagnetism. Nevertheless this encounter gave a new trend to his ideas.Hitherto he himself had employed an actual magnet in order to cure thesick, but seeing that Gassner dispensed with that aid, he was led toconsider whether the power might not reside in a still greater degreein the human body. Mesmer‘s first cure was performed on anepilepticpatient by means of magnets, but the honor of it was disputed by aJesuit, Fr. Hell (a professor of astronomy at the University ofVienna), who had supplied the magnetic plates, and who claimed to havediscovered the principles on which the physician worked.
Thereafterfor a few years Mesmer practiced in various European cities and stroveto obtain recognition for his theories, but without success. In 1778,however, he went to Paris, and there attained an immediate andtriumphant success in the fashionable world, although the learned bodies still refused to have anything to say to him.
Aristocratic patients flocked in hundreds to Mesmer‘s consulting rooms hung with mirrors, which the physician theorized wouldaugmentthe magnetic fluid. He himself wore, it was said, a shirt of leatherlined with silk, to prevent the escape of fluid, while magnets werehung about his person to increase his natural supply of magnetism. Thepatients were seated round a baquet, or magnetictub,a description of which was left by Seifert, one of Mesmer‘sbiographers: "The receptacle was a large pan, tub, or pool of water,filled with various magnetic substances, such as water, sand, stone,glass bottles (filled with magnetic water), etc. It was a focus withinwhich the magnetism was concentrated, and out of which proceeded anumber of conductors. These being bent pointed iron wands, one end wasretained in the baquet, whilst the other was connected with thepatient and applied to the seat of the disease. This arrangement mightbe made use of by any number of persons seated round the baquet, and thus a fountain, or anyreceptacle in a garden, as in a room, would answer for the purpose desired."
For the establishment of a school of animal magnetism Mesmer was offered 20,000 livres by the French government, with an annual sum of 10,000 livres for itsupkeep; he refused. Later, however, the sum of 340,000 livres was subscribed by prospective pupils and handed over to him.
Oneof Mesmer‘s earliest and most distinguished disciples was CharlesD‘Eslon, a prominent physician, who laid the doctrines of animalmagnetism before the Faculty of Medicine in 1780. Consideration ofMesmer‘s theories was, however, indignantly refused, and D‘Eslon waswarned to rid himself of such a dangerous doctrine.
Anotherdisciple of Mesmer who attained distinction in magnetic practice wasthe Marquis de Puységur, who was the first to observe and describe thestate of inducedsomnambulism, now well known as the hypnotictrance.
Puységur‘sideas on the subject began to supersede those of Mesmer, and hegathered about him a distinguished body of adherents, among them thecelebrated Lavater. Indeed, his recognition that the symptoms attendingthe magnetic sleep were resultant from it was a step of no smallimportance in the history ofmesmerism.
In 1784, a commission was appointed by the French government toenquireinto the magnetic phenomena. For some reason or another its memberschose to investigate the experiments of D‘Eslon, rather than those ofMesmer himself. The commissioners, including Benjamin Franklin, AntoineLavoisier, and Jean Bailly, observed the peculiar crises attending thetreatment, and the rapport between patient and physician, butdecided that imagination could produce all the effects, and that therewas no evidence whatever for a magnetic fluid. The report, edited byBailly, offers a description of the crisis, "The sick persons, arrangedin great numbers, and in several rows around the baquet (bath), received the magnetism by means of the iron rods, which conveyed it to them from the baquet by the cords wound round their bodies, by the thumb which connected them with their neighbours, and by the sounds of apianoforte, or anagreeable voice, diffusing magnetism in the air.
"The patients were also directly magnetised by means of the finger andwand of the magnetiser, moved slowly before their faces, above or behind their heads, or on the diseased parts.
"The magnetiser acts also by fixing his eyes on the subjects; by the application of his hands on the region of thesolar plexus; an application which sometimes continues for hours."
Meanwhile the patients present a varied picture.
"Some are calm,tranquil, and experience no effect. Others cough andspit, feel pains, heat, orperspiration. Others, again, areconvulsed.
"As soon as one begins to be convulsed, it is remarkable that others are immediately affected.
"Thecommissioners have observed some of these convulsions last more thanthree hours. They are often accompanied with expectorations of aviolent character, often streaked with blood. The convulsions aremarked withinvoluntary motions of the throat, limbs, and sometimes the whole body; by dimness of the eyes, shrieks, sobs,laughter, and the wildesthysteria. These states are often followed bylanguor and depression. The smallest noise appears toaggravatethe symptoms, and often to occasion shudderings and terrible cries. Itwas noticeable that a sudden change in the air or time of the music hada great influence on the patients, and soothed or accelerated theconvulsions, stimulating them to ecstasy, or moving them to floods oftears.
"Nothing is moreastonishing than thespectacle of these convulsions.
"One who has not seen them can form no idea of them. The spectator is as much astonished at the profoundrepose of one portion of the patients as at theagitation of the rest.
"Someof the patients may be seen rushing towards each other with open arms,and manifesting every symptom of attachment and affection.
"All are under the power of the magnetizer; it matters not what state ofdrowsiness they may be in, the sound of his voice, a look, a motion of his hands,spasmodically affects them."
AlthoughMesmer, Puységur, and their followers continued to practice magnetictreatment, the report of the royal commission had the effect ofquenchingpublic interest in the subject, although from time to time a spasmodicinterest in it was shown by scientists. M. de Jussieu, at about thetime the commission presented its report, suggested that it would havedone well to inquire into the reality of the alleged cures, and toendeavor to find asatisfactory explanation for the phenomena they had witnessed, while to remedy thedeficiencyhe himself formulated a theory of "animal heat," an organic emanationthat might be directed by the human will. Like Mesmer and the others,he believed in action at a distance, i.e., what is today termedabsent healing.
Mesomeric practitioners formed themselves into Societies of Harmony until the political situation inFrancerendered their existence impossible. Early in the nineteenth centuryPététin and Jean Deleuze published works on animal magnetism. But a newera was inaugurated with the publication in 1823 of AlexandreBertrand‘s Traité du Somnambulisme, followed three years later by a treatise Du Magnétisme Animal en France.
From Animal Magnetism to Phreno-Magnetism and Hypnotism
AlexandreBertrand was a young physician of Paris, and to him belongs the honorof having discovered the important part played by suggestion in thephenomena of the induced trance. He had observed the connection betweenthe magnetic sleep, epidemic ecstasy, and spontaneoussleepwalking,and declared that all the cures and strange symptoms that had formerlybeen attributed to animal magnetism, animal electricity, and the like,resulted from the suggestions of the operator acting on the imaginationof a patient whose suggestibility was greatly increased.
It isprobable that had he lived longer (he died in 1831, at the age of 36),Bertrand would have gained a definite scientific standing for the factsof the induced trance, but as it was, the practitioners of animalmagnetism still held to the theory of a "fluid" or force radiating frommagnetizer to subject, while those who were unable to accept such adoctrine ignored the matter altogether, or treated it asvulgarfraud.
NeverthelessBertrand‘s works and experiments revived the flagging interest of thepublic to such an extent that in 1831 a second French commission wasappointed by the Royal Academy of Medicine. The report of thiscommission was not forthcoming until more than five years had elapsed,but when it was finally published, it contained a definite testimony tothe genuineness of the magnetic phenomena, and especially of thesomnambulistic state, and declared that the commission was satisfied of the therapeutic value of "animal magnetism."
The report was certainly not of great scientific worth. The name of Bertrand was not even mentionedtherein, nor his theory considered. On the other hand, a good deal of space was given to the moreparanormal or "supernatural" phenomena,clairvoyance, action at a distance, and the prediction by somnambulistic patients of crises in their maladies. This is the moreexcusable, however, since these ideas were almost universally associated with somnambulism. Acommunity of sensationwas held to be a feature of the trance state, as was also thetransference of the senses to the stomach. Thought-transference wassuggested by some of these earlier investigators, notably by J. P. F.Deleuze, who suggested that thoughts were conveyed from the brain ofthe operator to that of the subject through the medium of the subtle"magnetic fluid."
Meanwhile the Spiritualist theory, i.e., theactivity of spirit entities, was becoming more and more frequentlyadvanced to explain the "magnetic" phenomena, including both thelegitimate trance phenomena and themultitude ofsupernormal phenomena that was supposed to follow the somnambulistic state. This will doubtless account in part for the extraordinaryanimositythe medical profession showed toward animal magnetism as a therapeuticagency. Its anesthetic properties they ridiculed as fraud orimagination,notwithstanding that serious operations, even of the amputation of limbs, could be performed while the patient was in the magnetic sleep.
ThusJohn Elliotson was forced to resign his professorship at the University College Hospital, andJames Esdaile, a surgeon who practiced at a government hospital at Calcutta, had to contend with thederisionof his professional colleagues. Similar contemptuous treatment wasdealt out to other medical men who were really pioneers of hypnotism,against whom nothing could be urged but their defense of mesmerism.
In 1841,James Braid,a British surgeon, arrived independently at the conclusions Bertrandhad reached some 18 years earlier. Once more the theory of abnormalsuggestibility was offered to explain the various phenomena of theso-called magnetic sleep, and once more it was largely ignored, alikeby the world of science and by the public.
Braid‘s explanationwas essentially that which is offered now. He placed the new science,which he called "hypnotism," on a level with other natural sciences,above the mass of medieval magic andsuperstition in which he had found it. Yet even Braid did not seem to have entirely separated thechaff from the grain, for he countenanced the practice of phrenomesmerism, a combination of mesmerism andphrenologywherein the entranced patient whose head was touched by the operator‘sfingers exhibited every sign of the emotion or quality associated withthe phrenological organ touched.
Braid asserted that a subject,entirely ignorant of the position of the phrenological organs, passedrapidly and accurately from one emotion to another, according to theportion of the scalp in contact with the hypnotist‘s fingers. Hisphysiological explanation is a somewhat inadequate one, and we can onlysuppose that he was not fully appreciative of his own theory ofsuggestion.
In 1843, two periodicals dealing with magnetism appeared: the Zoist, edited by John Elliotson and a colleague, and the Phreno-Magnet,edited by Spencer T. Hall. The first, adopting a scientific tone,treated the subject mainly from a therapeutic point of view, while thelatter was of a more popular character. Many of the adherents of bothpapers, and notably Elliotson himself, afterward became Spiritualists.
In1845, an additional impetus was given to animal magnetism by thepublication in that year of Baron von Reichenbach ‘s research.Reichenbach claimed to have discovered a new force, which he called od,odyle, or odylic force, and which could be seen in the form of flamesby sensitives, i.e., psychics. Reichenbach meticulously classified theindications of such sensitivity as a more acute form of normal humanfaculty.
In the human being these emanations might be seen toradiate from the fingertips, while they were also visible in animalsand inanimate things. Different colors issued from the different polesof the magnet. Reichenbach experimented by putting his sensitives in adark room with various objects—crystals, precious stones, magnets,minerals, plants, animals—which they could unerringly distinguish bythe color and size of the flame visible to theirclairvoyanteye. These emanations appeared so invariable and so permanent that anartist might paint them and, indeed, this was frequently done. Feelingsof temperature, heat or cold, were also experienced in connection withthe force.
Baron von Reichenbach‘s experiments were spread over anumber of years, and were made with every appearance of scientific careand precision, so that their effect on the mesmerists of the time wasvery considerable. But notwithstanding the mass of dubious and occultphenomena which was associated with hypnotism at that time, there is nodoubt that the induced trance, with its therapeutic andanesthetic value, would soon have come into its own had not two other circumstances occurred to thrust it into the background.
The first was the application ofchloroform andetherto the purposes for which hypnotism had hitherto been used, asubstitution which pleased the medical faculty greatly. Both work toinduce sleep even in persons only lightly or totallyunaffected by hypnotism. At about the same time, the introduction of the movement known as modernSpiritualism emphasized the occult associations of trance phenomena and drove many people from any study of anything closely tied to it.
Later Views of Hypnotism
Butif the great body of medical and public opinion ignored the facts ofhypnotism during the period following Braid‘s discovery, the subjectdid not fail to receive some attention from scientists in Europe. Fromtime to time investigators took upon themselves the task ofinquiringinto the phenomena. This was especially the case in France, where thestudy of mesmerism or hypnotism was most firmly entrenched and where itmet with least opposition. In 1858, one Dr. Azam of Bordeauxinvestigated hypnotism from Braid‘s point of view, aided by a number ofmembers of the Faculty of Paris. An account of his research waspublished in 1860, but cast no new light on the matter. Later the sameset of facts was examined by E. Mesnet, M. Duval, and others. In 1875,the noted psychical researcherCharles Richet also studied artificial somnambulism.
Itwas, however, from the Bernheim and the Nancy school that the generallyaccepted modern view of hypnotism is taken. H. Bernheim was himself adisciple of A. A. Liébeault, who, working on independent lines, hadreached the same conclusion as Bertrand and Braid and once moreformulated the doctrine of suggestion. Bernheim‘s work De la Suggestion, published in 1884, embodied the theories of Liébeault as well as the result of Bernheim‘s own research.
Accordingto this view, hypnotism is a purely psychological process, and isinduced by mental influences. The "passes" of Mesmer and the magneticphilosophers, the elaborate preparations of the baquet, the strokings of Valentine Greatrakes, and all themultitudinousceremonies with which the animal magnetists used to produce theartificial sleep were only of service in inducing a state ofexpectation in the patient, or in providing a soothing andmonotonous, or violent, sensory stimulus. And so also the modern methods of inducing hypnosis—thefixationof the eyes, the contact of the operator‘s hand, the sound of hisvoice—are only effective through the medium of the subject‘s mentality.
Otherinvestigators who played a large part in popularizing hypnotism were J.M. Charcot, of the Salpêtrière, Paris, a distinguishedpathologist, and R. Heidenhain, professor of physiology atBreslau. The former taught that the hypnotic condition was essentially amorbid one, and allied to hysteria, a theory which, becoming widely circulated, exercised a somewhatdetrimental effect on the practice of hypnotism for therapeutic purposes, until it was at length provederroneous. As a result,prejudice lingered against the use of the induced hypnotic trance in medicine until relatively modern times.
Heidenhainlaid stress on the physical operations to induce somnambulism,believing that thereby a peculiar state of the nervous system wasbrought about wherein the control of the higher nerve centers wastemporarily removed, so that the suggestion of the operator was free toexpress itself automatically through the physical organism of thepatient. The physiological theory also is somewhat misleading,nevertheless its exponents did good work in bringing theundoubted facts of hypnosis into prominence.
Besidesthese theories there was another to be met with chiefly in its nativeFrance—the old doctrine of a magnetic fluid. But it rapidly died out.
Among the symptoms which may safely, and without reference to the supernatural, be regarded as attendant on hypnotism are: the rapport between subject and operator,implicit obedience on the part of the former to the smallest suggestion (whether given verbally or by look,gesture, or any unconscious action),anesthesia, positive and negativehallucinations, the fulfillment of post-hypnotic promises, and control of organic processes and of muscles notordinarily under voluntary control.
Otherphenomena which have been allied from time to time with magnetism,mesmerism, or hypnotism and for which there is not the same scientificbasis, areclairvoyance,telekinesis, transference of the senses from the ordinary sense organsto some other part of the body (usually the fingertips or the pit ofthe stomach), community of sensation, and the ability to commune withthe dead.
The majority of these, like the remarkable phenomena ofphreno-magnetism, can be directly traced to the effect of suggestion onthe imagination of the patient. Ignorant as were the protagonists ofmesmerism with regard to the great suggestibility of the magnetizedsubject, it is hardly surprising that they saw new and supernormalfaculties and agencies at work during the trance state. To the sameignorance of the possibilities of suggestion andhyperesthesia may be referred the common belief that the hypnotizer can influence his subject by the power of his will alone, and secureobedience to commands which are only mentally expressed. At the same time it must be borne in mind that if belief intelepathybe accepted, there is a possibility that the operation of thoughttransference might be more freely carried out during hypnosis. It isnotable, in this respect, that the most fruitful of the telepathicexperiments conducted by psychical researchers and others have beenmade withhypnotized percipients.
An Extraordinary Experiment
One of the most bizarre and dangerous experiments in hypnotictelepathyis related in M. Larelig‘s biography of the celebrated Belgian painterAntoine Joseph Wiertz (1806-1865) and also in the introductory andbiographical note affixed to the Catalogue Raisonné du Musée Wiertz, by Dr. S. Watteau (1865). Wiertz was the hypnotic subject and a friend, a doctor, was the hypnotizer.
Wiertzhad long been haunted by a desire to know whether thought persisted ina head severed from the trunk. His wish was the reason for thefollowing experiment being undertaken, this being facilitated throughhis friendship with the prison doctor in Brussels and another outsidepractitioner. The latter had been for many years a hypnotic operatorand had more than once put Wiertz into thehypnotic state, regarding him as an excellent subject.
Aboutthis time, the trial for a murder in the Place Saint-Géry had beencausing a great sensation in Belgium and the painter had been followingthe proceedings closely. The trial ended in the condemnation of theaccused. A plan was arranged and Wiertz, with the consent of the prisondoctor, obtained permission to hide with his friend, Dr. D., under theguillotine, close to where the head of the condemned would roll into the basket.
Inorder to carry out more efficiently the scheme he had determined upon,the painter desired his hypnotizer to put him through a regular courseof hypnotic suggestion, and when he was in the sleep state to commandhim to identify himself with various people and tell him to read theirthoughts andpenetrate into their psychical and mental states. An account appeared in Le Progrés Spirite:
"Onthe day of execution, ten minutes before the arrival of the condemnedman, Wiertz, accompanied by his friend the physician with twowitnesses, ensconced themselves underneath the guillotine, where theywere entirely hidden from sight. The painter was then put to sleep, andtold to identify himself with the criminal. He was to follow histhoughts and feel any sensations, which he was to expressaloud. He was also ‘suggested‘ to take special note of mental conditions duringdecapitation, so that when the head fell in the basket he could penetrate the brain and give an account of its last thoughts.
"Wiertz became entranced almost immediately, and the four friends soon understood by the sounds overhead that theexecutioner was conducting the condemned to thescaffold,and in another minute the guillotine would have done its work. Thehypnotized Wiertz manifested extreme distress and begged to bedemagnetized, as his sense ofoppression wasinsupportable. It was too late, however—the knife fell.
"‘Whatdo you feel? What do you see?‘ asks the doctor. Wiertz writhesconvulsively and replies, ‘Lightning! A thunderbolt falls! It thinks;it sees!‘ ‘Who thinks and sees?‘ ‘The head. It suffers horribly. Itthinks and feels but does not understand what has happened. It seeksits body and feels that the body must join it. It still waits for thesupreme blow for death, but death does not come.‘ "As Wiertz spoke, thewitnesses saw the head which had fallen into the basket and lay lookingat them horribly; itsarteriesstill palpitating. It was only after some moments of suffering thatapparently the guillotined head at last became aware that is wasseparated from its body.
"Wiertz became calmer and seemedexhausted, while the doctor resumed his questions. The painteranswered: ‘I fly through space like a top spinning through fire. But amI dead? Is all over? If only they would let me join my body again! Havepity! give it back to me and I can live again. I remember all. Thereare the judges in red robes. I hear the sentence. Oh! mywretchedwife and children. I am abandoned. If only you would put my body to me,I should be with you once more. You refuse? All the same I love you, mypoor babies. Miserable wretch that I am I have covered you with blood.When will this finish!—or is not a murderer condemned to eternalpunishment?‘ "As Wiertz spoke these words, the witnesses thought theydetected the eyes of the decapitated head open wide with a look ofunmistakable suffering and of beseeching.
"Thepainter continued his lamentations: ‘No, such suffering cannot endurefor ever; God is merciful. All that belongs to earth is fading away. Isee in the distance a little light glittering like a diamond. I feel acalm stealing over me. What a good sleep I shall have! What joy!‘ Thesewere the last words the painter spoke. He was still entranced, but nolonger replied to the questions put by the doctor. They then approachedthe head and Dr. D. touched theforehead, the temples, and teeth and found they were cold. The head was dead."
In the Wiertz Gallery in Brussels are to be found three pictures of a guillotined head, presumably the outcome of thisgruesome experiment.
Theory of Hypnotic Action
Amongnumerous explanations of the physiological conditions accompanying thehypnotic state there is one, the theory of cerebraldissociation, which was generally accepted by science, and which may be briefly outlined as follows. The brain is composed ofinnumerablegroups of nerve cells, all more or less closely connected with eachother by means of nervous links or paths of variable resistance.Excitement of any of these groups, whether by means of impressionsreceived through the sense organs or by the communicated activity ofother groups, will, if sufficiently intense, occasion the rise intoconsciousness of an idea.
In the normal waking state, theresistance of the nervous association-paths is fairly low, so that theactivity is easily communicated from one neural group to another. Thusthe main idea which reaches the upperstratum of consciousness is attended by a stream of other,subconscious ideas, which has the effect of checking the primary idea and preventing its complete dominance.
Nowthe abnormal dominance of one particular system of ideas—that suggestedby the operator—together with the complete suppression of all rivalsystems, is the principal fact to be explained in hypnosis. To someextent the physiological process conditioning hypnosis suggests ananalogy with normal sleep. When one composes oneself to sleep there isa lowering of cerebral excitement and aproportionateincrease in the resistance of the neural links. This is apparently whathappens during hypnosis, the essential passivity of the subject raisingthe resistance of the association-paths.
But in normal sleep,unless some exciting cause be present, all the neural dispositions areat rest, whereas in the hypnotic state such a complete suspension ofcerebral activities is not permitted, since the operator, by means ofvoice, gestures, and manipulations of the patient‘s limbs, keeps alivethat set of impressions relating to himself. One neuraldispositionis thus isolated, so that any idea suggested by the operator is free towork itself out in action, without being submitted to the checks of thesub-activity of other ideas.
The alienation is less or morecomplete according to the degree of hypnotism, but a comparativelyslight raising of resistance in the neural links suffices to secure thedominance of ideas suggested by the hypnotizer.
Hyperesthesia,mentioned so frequently in connection with the hypnotic state, reallybelongs to the doubtful class, since it has not yet been decidedwhether or not an actual sharpening or refining of the senses takesplace. Alternatively it may be suggested that the accurate perceptionoffaint sense-impressions, which seems tofurnish evidence forhyperesthesia,merely reclass the fact that the excitement conveyed through thesensory nerve operates with extraordinary force, being freed from therestriction of sub-excitement in adjacent neural groups and systems.
In putting forward this viewpoint it must be conceded that in the conscious, awakened state,feeblesensory stimuli must act on nerve and brain just as they do inhypnosis. However, in the former case they are so stifled amid amultitude of similar impressions that they fail to reach consciousness.In any case the occasional abnormal sensitivity of the subject toslight sensory stimuli is a fact of hypnotism as well authenticated asanesthesia itself. The term "hyperesthesia," if not entirely justified,may for want of a better term, be practically applied to the observedphenomenon.
The hypnotic state is not necessarily induced by asecond person. "Spontaneous" hypnotism and "autohypnotization" are wellknown. Certain yogis, fakirs, and shamans can produce in themselves astate closely approximating hypnosis by a prolonged fixation of theeyes, and by other means. The medium-istic trance is also, as will beshownhereafter, a case in point.
Hypnotism and Spiritualism
Theassociation of spirits and what is today called hypnotism was advocatedby the magnetic philosophers of medieval times, and even earlier byastrologers and magi. It has been shown that at a early date, phenomenaof adistinctlyhypnotic character were ascribed to the workings of spirit agencies,whether angelic or demonic, by a certain percentage of the observers.Thus Greatrakes and Gassner believed themselves to have been giftedwith a divine power to heal diseases. Witchcraft, in which the force ofhypnotic suggestion seems to have operated to a large degree, wasthought to result from the witches‘ traffic with the devil and hislegions. Cases of ecstasy, catalepsy, and other trance states weregiven a spiritist significance, i.e., demons, angels, elementals, andso on, were supposed to speak through the lips of the possessed. Evenin some cases the souls of deceased men and women were identified withthese intelligences, although not generally until the time ofSwedenborg.
Although the movement known as modern Spiritualism is properly dated from 1848, the year of theRochester rappings, its roots lead directly to the animal magnetists. Additionally, Swedenborg, whoseaffinitieswith the magnetists have already been referred to, exercised aremarkable influence on the Spiritualist thought of America and Europe,and was also a precursor of that faith. Automatic phenomena were eventhen a feature of the magnetic trance, and clairvoyance, community ofsensation, and telepathy were believed in generally, and regarded bymany as evidences of spiritual communication.
In Germany,Professor Jung-Stilling, C. Römer, Dr. Werner, and the poet andphysician Justinus Kerner, were among those who held opinions on theselines, the latter pursuing his investigations with a somnambule whobecame famous as the Seeress of Prevorst—Frederica Hauffe.Hauffe could apparently see and converse with the spirits of thedeceased, and she gave evidence of prophetic vision and clairvoyance.Physical phenomena were witnessed in her presence, knockings,rattling of chains, movement of objects without contact, and, in short, such manifestations as were characteristic of apoltergeist. She was, moreover, the originator of a "primeval"language, which she declared was that spoken by the patriarchs. Hauffe,although only a somnambule or magnetic patient, possessed all thequalities later associated with successful Spiritualist mediums.
InEngland also there were many circumstances of a supernatural characterassociated with mesmerism. Dr. Elliotson, one of the best-known ofEnglish magnetists, became in time converted to a Spiritualist theoryas offering an explanation of the clairvoyance and similar phenomena hethought he observed in his patients.
France, the headquarters ofthe rationalist school of magnetism, had indeed a good deal less toshow of Spiritualist opinion. Nonetheless even in that country thelatter doctrine made its appearance at intervals prior to 1848. J. P.F. Deleuze, a capable scientist and an earnest protagonist ofmagnetism, who published his Histoire Critique du Magnétisme Animal in 1813, was said to have embraced the doctrines of Spiritualism before he died.
It was however,Louis-Alphonse Cahagnet,a man of humble origin who began to study induced somnambulism aboutthe year 1845 and experimented with somnambules, who became one of thefirst French Spiritualists of distinction. So good was the evidence forspirit communication furnished by Cahagnet and his subjects that itremains among the most impressive the movement produced.
In theUnited States, La Roy Sunderland, Andrew Jackson Davis, and others whobecame pillars of Spiritualism were first attracted to it through thestudy of magnetism. Elsewhere we find hypnotism and the considerationof the work of spirits identified with each other until 1848, when adefinite split occurs, and the two go their separate ways. Even so,however, the separation is not quite complete. In the first place, themediumistic trance is obviously a variant of spontaneous orself-induced hypnotism, while in the second, many of the most strikingphenomena of the séance room have been matched time and again in therecords of animal magnetism.
For instance, the diagnosis of disease andprescriptionof remedies dictated by the control to the "healing medium" have theirprototype in the cures of Valentine Greatrakes, or of Mesmer and hisdisciples. Automatic phenomena—speaking in tongues and so forth—earlyformed a characteristic feature of the induced trance and kindredstates.
Even some of the physical phenomena later associated with Spiritualism,movement without contact,apports,and rappings, were witnessed in connection with magnetism long beforethe movement known as modern Spiritualism was so much as thought of. Insome instances, though not in all, it is possible to trace theoperation of hypnotic suggestion in the automatic phenomena, just as wecan perceive the result of fraud in many of the physical manifestations.
Hypnotism and Psychical Phenomena
In the 1890s, psychical researcherPaul Joire described the three classical states of hypnotism: " Lethargy,the state of complete relaxation with variable amount of anesthesia,with neuro-muscular excitation as its fundamental characteristic. Inthis state the subject has the eyes closed and is generally onlyslightly open to suggestion.
" Catalepsy, the eyes areopen, the subject is as though petrified in the position which heoccupies. Anesthesia is complete, and there is no sign of intelligence.Immobility is characteristic of this state.
" Somnambulism,the condition of the eyes varies, the subject appears to sleep. Simplecontact, or stroking along any limb is sufficient to render that limbrigid. Suggestibility is the main characteristic of this state. Thesomnambulistic state presents three degrees:
Waking somnambulism, slight passivity withdiminution of the will andaugmentation of suggestibility.
The second personality begins to take the place of the normal one. Torpor of consciousness and memory. Sensibility decreases.
Complete anesthesia. Disappearance of consciousness and memory. Inclination to peculiar muscular rigidity."
Itis likely that the depth of hypnotic sleep may vary infinitely.Distinct trains of memory may correspond to each stage, presentingalternating personalities of a shallow type.
The means to inducethe hypnotic state differ. In many cases simple suggestion will do,even from a distance; in others, passes and the close proximity of thehypnotizer will be necessary. Some subjects feel the old "mesmerizer"influence, some do not.
The implicit obedience to suggestion has great therapeutical and psychological significance. Bad habits may be improved,phobias,manias, criminal propensities, and diseases cured, inhibitions removed,pain banished, the ordinary working of defective senses restored, theordinary senses vivified, intelligence and ability in professionalpursuits increased, and new senses of perception developed.
Subconscious calculation discloses flashes of mathematical genius, and once therapport is established, the possibility is open for the development of supernormal faculties. The subject may see clairvoyantly, givepsychometricdescriptions, see into the future, read the past, make spiritualexcursions to distant places and hear and see events occurring there,and give correct medical diagnoses.
Eugèn Ostybelieved that the number of hypnotizable subjects was getting smallerand smaller, and in support of his contention, he refers in the Revue Metapsychique(November-December 1930) to the similar experiences of Berillon,Richet, and Emile Magnin. However, modern hypnotists have shown thatthere is no shortage of subjects and that a high percentage of ordinaryindividuals are susceptible to hypnosis.
The exact nature of thehypnotic trance is still somewhat unknown, although it has receivedadditional attention as new techniques and instrumentation formeasuring brain activity has been developed. The electroencephalograph(EEG), for example, can measure brain activity by detecting smallelectronic currents emitted by the brain. During the awakened statebeta waves, at a frequency of 13-35 Hz, are discharged. Similarly,sleep emits brain wavesoscillatingat 4-8Hz, known either as delta or theta waves. However, the hypnoticstate—the state of dreams and somnambulism—is characterized by alphawaves, which oscillate at 8-13 Hz. This state is typified by muscularrelaxation, focused concentration, andhyperactivity of the senses.
Goldberg(1998) asserts the hypnotic trance is actually a natural-occurringstate which transpires regularly during the day for everyone.
"Weexperience four hours of daydreams or natural hypnotic states duringour waking day. Our nighttime dreams are another form of hypnosisoccurring during the REM (rapid eye movement) cycle of sleep. We dreamapproximately three hours every night. Projecting this out, weexperience seven hours of natural hypnosis during everytwenty-four-hour day cycle—approximately 2500 hours in a year!"
The relation of hypnotic trance to the mediumistic trance is of absorbing interest to spiritualists (though ofminusculeconcern to modern scientists). The medium‘s trance differs in that ittends to be voluntary and self-induced, although hypnotism, for thepurpose of relieving the medium from the attendant physiologicalsuffering, is sometimes employed to bring it about.
Julien Ochorowicz saved the mediumStanislawa Tomczyk muchexhaustion by hypnotizing her. TheDidier brothers were always accompanied by a magnetizer and the mediumship of Andrew Jackson Davis was initiated by hypnotic clairvoyance.Juliette Bisson facilitated the materialization phenomena ofEva C.,and Kathleen Goligher was hypnotized by W. J. Crawford, though we arenow aware of the fraud inherent in Eva C.‘s and Goligher‘s work.
Thehypnotized subject has great powers of personation. But he or she doesnot claim, unless so suggested, communication with the dead. In themediumistic trance such suggestion is already assumed, but works in aconfined territory. Often, those whose appearance is yearned for do notcommunicate at all; many strangers come and go, and all the controlsseem to exhibit a distinct personality farsurpassingin variety the imitative efforts of any hypnotized subject. If theywere subjective creations of the medium‘s mind, Spiritualists argue,they would not exhibit those special peculiarities by which the sittersestablish their identity with their departed friends.
The hypnotic self does not normally exhibit suchcunningas the personation of hundreds of individuals and the acquisition offacts deeply buried in the subconscious or totally unknown to thesitters, although there is evidence that the subconscious mind maysometimes inventplausible personalities, just like the waking consciousness of a novelist.
The hypnotic personality usually has anuncannysense of time. Spirit controls, on the other hand, are generally vagueand uncertain on this point. Their messages are not exactly located intime, and are sometimes borne out by past or near future happenings.
William Jamesmade many attempts to see whether Leonora Piper ‘s medium-trance hadany community of nature with ordinary hypnotic trance. The first twoattempts to hypnotize her failed but after the fifth attempt, he noted,she had become a good hypnotic subject: "… as far as muscular phenomenaand automatic imitations of speech and gesture go; but I could notaffect her consciousness, or otherwise get her beyond this point. Hercondition in this semi-hypnosis is very different from hermedium-trance. The latter is characterized by great muscular unrest,even her ears moving vigorously in a way impossible to her in herwaking state, but in hypnosis her muscular relaxation and weakness areextreme. She often makes several efforts to speak before her voicebecomesaudible;and to get a strong contraction of the hand, for example, expressmanipulation and suggestion must be practised. Her pupils contract inthe medium-trance. Suggestions to the control that he should make herrecollectafter the medium-trance what she had been saying were accepted, but hadno result. In the hypnotic trance such a suggestion will often make thepatient remember all that has happened."
Current Issues in Hypnosis
From time to time hypnotism has been used in an attempt to validate theories ofreincarnation. In hypnoticregression,a hypnotized subject is made to recall experiences that progressivelyregress to birth and then (allegedly) to memories of former births. Anearly experimenter in this technique was Albert Rochas from France.
In modern times, the hypnotistMorey Bernstein created a sensation with his book The Search for Bridey Murphy(1956). The book was based on his experiences with the subject "RuthSimmons" (Mrs. Virginia Tighe), alleged to have recovered memories of aprevious life as an Irish girl named Bridey Murphy. Another modernexperimenter is Denys Kelsey, who hypnotized his wife, novelistJoan Grant. Their book, Many Lifetimes(1969), presents Joan Grant‘s claimed memories of former lives. Many ofthese memories were given in a series of novels by Grant.
Pastlife regression is a therapeutic technique of hypnosis said to be usedto resolve conflicts between souls which may have originated in alifetime prior to the last birth. Several different types of phenomenacan reportedly occur during suchregressive episodes:
Xenoglossy is the speaking or writing during a hypnotic trance, in a language previously unknown by the subject.
Soul loss is said to be theforfeitureof vital energy experienced as a result of any kind of physical,emotional, mental, or spiritual trauma. In the regressive practice of soul retrieval, thetherapist seeks todisentangle the subject‘s soul from another entity, freeing each soul of itsdysfunctional attachment to the other.
Possession occurs when flashes of an attached entity‘s pastinfiltrate the subject‘s own past life memories, while depossession seeks to remove the traces of the separate entity from the current life experience.
Future life progression examines the effect of interacting paranormal entities which originate in the future.
Evenwith subjects who do not believe in past lives and spiritual entities,these hypnotic regressions are said to be effective projectiveexercises—a kind of internal role playing—for resolving emotionalconflict.
Related to past life regression is the phenomenon of age regression. Through hypnotic techniques, the subject is made toreliveexperiences of an earlier age in the current lifetime, in order toresolve trauma or conflict which originated in that age period. Ageregression is related to a controversial practice called RepressedMemory Therapy (RMT). Considerable media attention has focused onaccusations of severe and ritual child sexual abuse which have emergedfrom Repressed Memory Therapy, and other hypnotic techniques reclaimingregressed memories. Critics ofRMTassert that the memories of the sexual abuse which the subjects claimto retrieve are often actually imaginative ideas suggested, oftenunwittingly, by the hypnotist. Although amnesia and delayed recall aredocumented among sex abuse victims, critics warn reconstruction of thememories cannot be thought of as empirical evidence of abuse, butrather part of a theoretical construct used to explain the givendisorder.
Apart from its use in paranormal episodes, hypnotismremains an often effective technique in the treatment of emotional andbehavioral disorders. In addition to psychotherapeutic sessions,hypnotism is now being utilized in other realms of health andeducation. For instance, hypno-birthing is a technique founded by MarieMongan. Hypnotic techniques are reportedly utilized to create a calmstate for the birth mother. This alledgedly enables the mother to drawupon natural birthing muscles, bodily anesthesias, and inherentinstincts to facilitate a trauma-free birth.
Another modernderivative of hypnotic techniques is Neuro Linguistic Programming(NLP), developed by John Grinder and Richard Bandler of the Universityof California at Santa Cruz. NLP is the study of how communicationeffects and is effected by subjective experience, which can be used todetermine how different kinds of persons learn. It exploresrelationships betweenneurology,linguistics, and observable patterns of behavior, incorporatinghypnotic techniques of Milton Erickson. NLP unlocks secrets of highlyeffective communication, some of which might be outside the realm ofconscious awareness.
Both age regression and past liferegression, however, point to the heart of the debate concerning usinghypnotism to access memory, or for facilitating occult andparapsychologicalencounters. The controversy revolves around determining the exactnature of what the somnambulistic subject experiences and,subsequently, expresses. Perhaps the subject actually encountersentities, communications, and experiences originating in alternativeplanes of existence. Or maybe these phenomena are merely the result ofimagination heightened by suggestion, whether intentional orincidental.It is possible that these experiences merely reflect images andinformation that have accumulated in the unconscious, often escapingthe awareness of thesentient mind.
Sinceit is often difficult for the subject themselves to differentiatebetween these kind of stimuli, the debate is likely to continueindefinitely.
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