hypnosis therapy daily news

Hypnosis Blog Scoops

2007-10-04T22:05:00.000-07:00

The distinction is exemplified in countless ways. Some actions are subject to voluntary control. I decide to mail a letter, for instance, and proceed to leave the house. Or I do not feel like walking and stay at home. I am interested in a discussion, join it and carry it on. Or I remain silent. I do as I please. Other actions, on the other hand, are subject to involuntary control. I am afraid that I might blush, for example, but my ears get red nevertheless. I wish I could develop an appetite, but it fails to come. I should like to gain additional weight, but my mind has no direct control over my digestion and metabolism.Nature has found it necessary to relegate most visceral activities to unconscious regulation, so as to enable consciousness to take better care of important new adjustments. Nature did not plan or deliberate, of course; its marvelous biological achievements are simply a result of selective forces that defeat and destroy everything that is "irrational," in the sense of being unadjusted to existing conditions. Anyway, man finds himself in possession of a body that works largely automatically. In everyday life, this mechanization of bodily activities is attained not only by means of innate neural connections and cellular reactions; they are constantly assisted also by habituation, which is a way of liberating attention from the burden of countless pressing tasks.

Hypnotic State Info Blog

2007-10-03T14:59:00.000-07:00

As in the above case, conscious and unconscious pretense may be combined or blended in the patient. But, in spite of all suspicions that we might entertain on learning the facts of a particular case, hysteria is never merely a deliberate pretense. There is no hysteria apart from real bodily difficulties or defects, which are not subject in any way to conscious control. The patient may be puzzled by the strangeness of his case; or he may sincerely believe himself to be organically sick. The fact is that he usually is no more aware of the cause of his malady than his relatives and friends. Why then does he hurt himself? Why doesn't he use his healthy organs and limbs? Why does his organism refuse to obey his will when nothing is the matter with it? By this time, clinical evidence is sufficiently rich and complete to regard as firmly established the conclusion that, as F. W. H. Myers worded it, "not indeed all, but almost all, the phenomena which can be induced by suggestion in the hypnotic state occur spontaneously in hysterical patients."

Hypnosis Daily Blog Updates

2007-10-02T14:59:00.000-07:00

The traditional method of teaching hypnosis consisted in indoctrinating the young people with a set of customary but "respectable"-and hence obsolescent-ideas, with little if any appreciation of the student's character, interests, and personal environment. As long as the pupils were, for the most part, members of the privileged class, they could be satisfied with such an academic polish; in fact, it differentiated them from hoi poloi. But as the spirit of democracy penetrated the schools and opened the academic gates to the masses, both the curriculum and pedagogic methods had to be modified to meet the new demands and conditions. The change was inevitable. Yet institutions, as so often happens in the face of a clear trend, manifested a social lag. And the school system refused to yield. Educators themselves were reluctant to adjust their practices to the march of time. As to the community leaders, they were as a rule inimical to serious alterations in the system. Under the pressure of circumstances, however, some changes were forced upon the school, yet even so they were commonly belated and inadequate. To some extent, the conditions still prevail.

Hypnotic Suggestion News Blog

2007-09-27T15:24:00.000-07:00

It is precisely because the power of suggestion and faith are akin that the field of hypnotism was one of the last to be emancipated from mysticism, which is faith intellectualized. The phenomena of suggestion appeal to feeling and blind belief. Especially when strong faith resulted in strange cures, how could people, ignorant people, refrain from taking them for miracles and from acclaiming the persons capable of performing these wonders as possessed of divine powers? Who could conquer the emotions naturally going with faith and regard the facts of suggestion coldly and speculatively? Before a field of knowledge can be turned system-atically to human advantage, it must be comprehended, and the laws controlling it found. Thus, the forces of electricity could be canalized only when they became a subject of intense study and careful experimentation. Similarly, the powers of suggestion can be directed to serve mankind only when superstition is banned and forgotten. Science begins where mysticism ends.

Suggestions Daily Info Blog

2007-09-26T07:26:00.000-07:00

The only type of auto-suggestion based on no distinct prestige-and-faith relationship, yet truly effective, is rationalization. It is essentially wish-thinking and consists in modifying and distorting one's opinions, judgments, and perceptions to conform them to one's preestablished likes and dislikes or to justify one's previously expressed statements. When a mother, listening to quarreling children, takes the side of her own boy, she is not deliberately unjust. Her partiality is sincere, but it is a result of rationalization nevertheless. Wish-thinking, by virtue of which one is usually right while the opponent is usually wrong, is an everyday phenomenon, and no one is entirely free from it. It molds one's reaction to events, it permeates one's political activities, it determines one's choice of books and entertainment, it decides the questions of love and hatred. Auto-suggestion, in the form of rationalization, is indeed a universal trait, and no social psychologist dares to disregard it. But, of course, for better or for worse, rationalization is self-deception.

Hetero-Suggestions Daily Blog

2007-09-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

As E. Jones has said, "it is extraordinarily difficult to draw any sharp line between hetero- and auto-suggestion. The relationship is so very intimate as to make it probable that the agents operating in the two cases are merely variants and not distinct forces." There is, however, a quite definite reason for this intimacy. It is not necessary to believe that the source of auto-suggestion lies within the subject, whereas the source of hetero-suggestion resides solely in the practician. Even when one's mind appears to act spontaneously, external influences may play an important role; and when it seems to follow only the orders of another person, one's individual tendencies may be really responsible for the behavior. The entire controversy as to whether all auto-suggestion is actually hetero-suggestion, or vice versa, is futile, as both involve almost identical forces, though aroused in two different fashions.

Suggestions Daily Blog

2007-09-24T15:34:00.000-07:00

I have no objection to his attitude of faith. Any scientist has the right to believe the way he chooses. But he could keep faith and science separate and acknowledge that he is unable to bridge the gap between them. Dr. Carrel did not have to subscribe to the "absent treatments" doctrine of Christian Scientists. Courageously yet unwisely, he produced an unacceptable mixture of scientific and mystic language. Either can be used with logic and success, but the mixture and combination of both do not make sense.Personally, I believe that there is an excellent scientific explanation of mystic psychology and of the remarkable effects it produces. I am not dogmatic enough to deny that faith can produce wonders. But there are special physiological reasons for that. There is no mystery in the inhibitory or stimulatory effects of the activity of the autonomic nervous system, when aroused by an intense religious experience. But it is obvious that, unless the man afflicted with a serious disease be himself affected by suggestion, the prayer of another person cannot bring about healing effects. Surely the autonomic nervous system of one man does not control that of another. To say so, or to imply so, is to show regrettable ignorance, from the scientific point of view, as to where science begins and where it ends.

Hypnosis Scoops Updates

2007-09-23T14:50:00.000-07:00

"It was made plain that the 'course' is not a part of the college curriculum and that students get no credit for taking part. But Dr. W. said his results already had convinced him that not only were his hypnosis subjects far more attentive than the average lecture-room student, but that their reactions, written down after they emerged from the oneirotic state showed better than usual retentiveness.''The large, many-rowed lecture hall on the third floor of the main building on St. Nicholas terrace was devoted to the test after Dr. W. had delivered his usual two-hour lecture in an evening session class in abnormal psychology. When the regular students had left, A. S. and C. H., the psychologist's assistants for the experiment, brought in the apparatus."This was merely a series of light silvery balls, about the size of large marbles, each suspended on a ten-inch string from a thin metal rod. The rods were attached to the posts at the back of the seats, so that the spheres were suspended a short distance above the students' brows.

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Hypnosis Hypnotherapy Helpful Hints

2007-09-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

It was customary to believe that opportunities of hypnotic experimentation multiply and improve with the greater depth of the trance. Consequently, the practicians were seldom satisfied with mere somnolence, but sought to produce somnambulism in every case. As far as popular demonstrations are concerned, this prejudicial attitude still persists, for an obvious reason: for commercial purposes, nothing but the spectacular will do. What is, indeed, more amusing and startling to an excitement-seeking gathering than to watch a subject making a fool of himself, or to observe a man in the so-called state of catalepsy, reposing like a marble statue between two chairs serving as a dubious support merely for his feet and head? Some demonstrators even place an additional weight on the body, sometimes quite considerable ("the more, the better," they would say), to bring out conspicuously the muscular rigidity of the body in a trance. Or witness the following demonstration, as described by Upton Sinclair: "The hypnotist cries: 'You are drowning!'-and the youth begins splashing imaginary water, making frantic efforts to get to a non-existing shore. The audience roars with delight to see this youth in a position so far inferior to itself." Such spectacles commonly require a deep state, but they serve no scientific purpose.

Hypnotism Helpful Hints News

2007-09-19T18:49:00.000-07:00

I recommend the following simple rules of caution:

To take invariably, before the first sitting, the written consent of the subject or of his parents, if he be a minor;

To make all appropriate pre-hypnotic, hypnotic and post-hypnotic suggestions protecting the subject's mental and physical health;

To discontinue experiments with subjects who had manifested a physical indisposition during the trance.

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Hypnotic Suggestion News

2007-09-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

Post-hypnotic suggestion can render the subject completely anaesthetic to certain experiences in the waking state. H. Lundholm, for instance, demonstrated that the subject can be trained to be fully deaf to a click. I had several interesting cases of this sort. I recall a young man, neurotic, who had been in a state of utter misery for years, as the experience of seeing or hearing people spit produced violent disgust and nausea in him. He tried to pay no attention to what happened on the street. But the more he tried, the more hopeless were the efforts: the walking on the streets became the agony of fearful expectation. Then he came to me. In several sittings he was trained to disregard the thing, even if it happened right in front of him.

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Hypnotism Info Blog Updates

2007-09-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

Even this daze or somnolence can be easily avoided, however, if a proper suggestion is given just a few seconds before waking the subject. In fact, such a suggestion should be administered as a part of regular hypnotic procedure. The practician may say, for instance: "This sitting is concluded and presently I shall wake you up. But before I do so, I want to impress upon your mind that you are going to feel well and wide awake for the rest of the day. You will be able to examine the hypnotic experience in retrospection and to appreciate the results. Now open your eyes. Open your eyes!" And on the complete awakening of the subject, when he regains his orientation, you will give him necessary instructions, according to the case, and then dismiss him by saying: "Thank you for your cooperation. You may go now. And don't forget, I rely upon your feeling well."

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Hypnosis Daily Updates

2007-09-16T13:06:00.000-07:00

The above description of hypnotic technique is merely an example. Most other methods successfully used in the past do not differ greatly from the one just described. But they contain features which may be occasionally used with advantage. It is desirable to be acquainted with their distinct characteristics; but we shall not go here into a discussion of minute details. When the method of "fascination" is used (the earlier experimenters, including Braid and Bernheim),the practician and his subject gaze steadily into each other's eyes, until the latter enters the trance. The hypnotist, naturally, does not succumb first, because he has all the advantages of position, prestige and experience. The eyes here play the role of the ball; but any object of concentration can be used in their place, such as button, pencil, tip of one's own nose, or some specially constructed apparatus. J. Luys used revolving mirrors, with increased visual stimulation at regular intervals.

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Hypnosis Daily Info Blog

2007-09-13T15:48:00.000-07:00

Since every one is, under ordinary circumstances, suggestible, and since every one can also suggest, hypnosis, properly so called, is invariably a question of proper relationship between at least two individuals. This relationship is that of prestige-and-faith; that is to say, the practician must possess sufficient confidence in himself so as to carry and maintain prestige in the eyes of his subjects, while the latter must have a sufficiently firm faith in his ability to influence or cure them. One's success in practicing hypnosis depends, therefore, on this simple rule: to establish and maintain the relationship of prestige-and-faith. The ability to do so is useful in all walks of life, especially in political and religious leadership, in education and medical practice. But it is more than useful, it is indispensable in hypnotic practice. If not mountains, faith moves men, women and children, in their mental as well as physical activities.W.JR. Wells, "Hypnosis in the Service of the Instructor," Psychological Review.

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Hypnosis Daily Scoops

2007-09-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

The subject loses his waking tendency to spontaneous movement and independent thinking. Consciousness may disappear, totally or partially. But whenever experience is sufficiently clear and vivid in the trance, it carries realistic imagery, such as is found in dreams. The breathing is deep and slow. The muscles are usually relaxed.Nothing is simpler than to conclude that both states are related if not identical. There were, indeed, few observers of note who thought otherwise. Bernheim expressly stated that "in ordinary sleep, as soon as waking consciousness recedes, the subject finds himself merely in relationship with himself. In suggested sleep his mind retains the awareness of the person who put him to sleep-hence the hypnotist's power of guiding his imagination, of suggesting dreams, and of directing his actions which are no longer controlled by the submerged will." More recently, Forel voiced this consensus of opinion, by saying: "The relationship of hypnosis and sleep is unmistakable, and I agree with Liébeault when he says that the former is only distinguishable in its essence from the latter by the fact of the connection between the sleeper and the hypnotist."

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Post-Hypnotic State Blog Updates

2007-09-11T20:24:00.000-07:00

Suggestion, in its bearing upon unconscious activities of the organism, is not confined to emotions. It is a power of many forms and of considerable depth. Post-hypnotic phenomena demonstrate that suggestion has a multiform and profound connection with other conscious and unconscious processes in the body. Thus, it is possible to bring forgotten experiences back to memory or to make the subject forget, for the moment, the names of his best friends. Headaches can be relieved by order of a hypnotist. The subject may be instructed to wake up the next morning at some definitely specified time, which instruction will be, in all probability, obediently executed.The difference between the two channels by means of which the central and autonomic systems are bridged is not confined to their respective scopes. Another distinction is even more significant. Emotion, namely, in so far as it depends on the external environment for stimulation, cannot be readily controlled (except by suggestion), whereas suggestion, with the entire realm of imagination at its easy command, permits ample variation and regulation. This is the reason why hypnosis, being from the psychological standpoint merely a state of high suggestibility, offers such a fruitful field for directing and modifying human desires, attitudes and activities.

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Hypnotic Suggestions Info

2007-09-10T20:01:00.000-07:00

Take another case. The newspapers reported some time ago that three investigators from Wayne University (Drs. Frick, Patterson and Scantlebury) had performed a highly interesting experiment. First they made a subject fast for twenty hours, which is a sufficiently long period to arouse any healthy person's appetite. At the end of the period, the subject was hypnotized and a purely imaginary meal was offered to him. The suggestion, obviously, produced a complete illusion, for the man went through all the customary movements of mastication and swallowing. Throughout the experiment, I assume, he was given guiding suggestions, in the form of verbal description of the courses. To make the case even more interesting, the subject appeared to be quite satisfied at the end of the meal. His reactions, furthermore, were not confined to reproducing the outward act of eating. There was no sign of pretense. The experimenters demonstrated, in fact, that the effects of their suggestion went far beyond ordinarily observed motions. The behavior of the subject's stomach was, too, typical of a person satisfying his hunger. Its contractions went through the regular cycle of peristaltic movements which normally accompany the consumption of a substantial dinner. And from what we have learned from Pavlov's studies of the conditioned reflex, we are fully justified in assuming that the salivary glands and pancreas of the subject poured their juices into the mouth and gastrointestinal tract, according to all the laws of human physiology. The illusion was complete, in mind and body.The experiment was not altogether new, for similar observations had been reported before, under various conditions, by Luckhardt and Johnston,1 Heilig and Hoff ,2 Delougne and Hansen.3 Appetite was known to be re-aroused by a suggestion given immediately after a meal, or stopped just before it.

Oneirosis, a Form of Hypnosis Blog

2007-09-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

Hypnosis does not present a uniform phenomenon. Being a creature of suggestion, it varies with the practician, subject and circumstances. One of the most obvious distinctions is that of intensity. It is quite important, not because it helps in description, but because the state admits of an easy control in regard to its depth. Classifications of the trance according to its intensity are old. The most familiar one is that of A. Forel who, following somewhat complex classifications of A. Liébeault and H. Bernheim, discriminated among the incipient trance (also called somnolence or, in B. Sidis's terminology, the hypnoidal state), light hypnosis (hypotaxis), and deep hypnosis (somnambulism).

Hypnotic State News Blog

2007-09-05T17:03:00.000-07:00

It was James Braid (1795-1861) who both destroyed the superstition of "animal magnetism" and constructed the preliminary foundations of scientific hypnotism. He demonstrated, namely, that no invisible "fluid" passes between the practician and his subject in trance, and that the entire phenomenon depends simply on suggestion. Nothing illustrates this achievement better than the following incident related by Bramwell:1 "One day Braid called on a London physician who used mesmerism in his practice. The latter told him that he had been obtaining wonderful results from the use of magnets, and offered to demonstrate this on a subject who was at that moment in a state of mesmeric trance.

Stage Hypnotism Blog

2007-09-03T22:48:00.000-07:00

So the hypnotism party was started at the same time into the audience. The one who was impersonating a newsboy went about crying his edition in a loud voice; while the hunter crawled along stealthily and carefully. The newsboy even adopted the well-worn device of asking those whom he solicited to buy to help him get rid of his stock. One man offered him a cent, when the price was two cents. The newsboy chaffed the would-be purchaser. He sarcastically asked him if he "didn't want the earth."

The others did what they had been told to do in the same earnest, characteristic way.

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Hypnotic Suggestions Info

2007-09-02T19:36:00.000-07:00

Having considered the dangers to society through criminal hypnotic suggestion, let us now consider what dangers there may be to the individual who is hypnotized.

"If the digestion is not completed, more especially if the repast has been more abundant than usual, congestion may be produced and death be instantaneous. The most violent convulsions may result from too complete hypnotization of the brain. A convulsive movement may be so powerful that the body will suddenly describe a circle, the head touching the heels and seem to adhere to them. In this latter case there is torpor without sleep. Sometimes it has been impossible to awake the subject."

Hypnosis News Today

2007-09-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Piper was the wife of a modest tailor, and lived on Pinckney street, back of Beacon Hill. She was married in 1881, and it was not until May 16, 1884, that her first child was born. A little more than a month later, on June 29, she had her first trance experience. Says she: "I remember the date distinctly, because it was two days after my first birthday following the birth of my first child." She had gone to Dr. J.R. Cocke, the great authority on hypnotism and a practicing physician of high scientific attainments. "During the interview," says Mrs. Piper, "I was partly unconscious for a few minutes. On the following Sunday I went into a trance."

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Hypnotism Helpful Hints Blog

2007-08-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

"Here, then, we have something like a clue to the phenomena--phenomena which, as I have pointed out, are similar to and have much in common with mesmeric sleep, hypnotism or electro-biology. We have already, I hope, succeeded in eliminating from our minds the false theory--the theory, that is to say, experimentally proved to be false--that the will, or the gestures, or the magnetic or vital fluid of the operator are necessary for the abolition of the consciousness and the abeyance of the will of the subject."

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Method of Mental Suggestion News Blog

2007-08-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

These cases give an admirable picture of the cases that can be and those that cannot be cured by hypnotism, or any other method of mental suggestion.

Large numbers of cases of attempted cure by hypnotism, successful and unsuccessful, might be quoted. There is no doubt that in the lighter forms of partial insanity, hypnotism may help many patients, though not all; but when the disease of the brain has gone farther, especially when a well developed lesion exists in the brain, mental treatment is of little avail, even if it can be practiced at all.

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Clinical Hypnotherapy Blog

2007-08-27T15:59:00.000-07:00

However, in regard to the dangers of public performances by professional hypnotizers, Dr. Cocke is equally positive. Says he:

"The dangers of public exhibitions, made ludicrous as they are by the operators, should be condemned by all intelligent men and women, not from the danger of hypnotism itself so much as from the liability of the performers to disturb the mental poise of that large mass of ill-balanced individuals which makes up no inconsiderable part of society." In conclusion he says: "Patients have been injured by the misuse of hypnotism. * * * This is true of every remedial agent ever employed for the relief of man. Every article we eat, if wrongly prepared, if stale, or if too much is taken, will be harmful. Every act, every duty of our lives, may, if overdone, become an injury.

"Then, for the sake of clearness, let me state in closing that hypnotism is dangerous only when it is misused, or when it is applied to that large class of persons who are inherently unsound; especially if that mysterious thing we call credulity predominates to a very great extent over the reason and over other faculties of the mind."

Hypnotic Subjects News

2007-08-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

Before citing evidence, let us consider the subject from a rational point of view. Several things have already been established. We know that hypnotism is akin to hysteria and other forms of insanity--it is, in short, a kind of experimental insanity. Really good hypnotic subjects have not a perfect mental balance. We have also seen that repetition of the process increases the susceptibility, and in some cases persons frequently hypnotized are thrown into the hypnotic state by very slight physical agencies, such as looking at a bright doorknob. Furthermore, we know that the hypnotic patient is in a very sensitive condition, easily impressed. Moreover, it is well known that exertions required of hypnotic subjects are nervously very exhausting, so much so that headache frequently follows.

Post-Hypnotic Suggestion News Daily

2007-08-23T17:32:00.000-07:00

"One point in L.'s exhibition which was undoubtedly genuine was his remarkable and stoical endurance of pain. He stood before us smiling and open-eyed while he ran long needles into the fleshy part of his arms and legs without flinching, and he allowed one of the gentlemen present to pinch his skin in different parts with strong crenated pincers in a manner which bruised it, and which to most people would have caused intense pain. L. allowed no sign of suffering or discomfort to appear; he did not set his teeth or wince; his pulse was not quickened, and the pupil of his eye did not dilate as physiologists tell us it does when pain passes a certain limit. It may be said that this merely shows that in L. the limit of endurance was beyond the normal standard; or, in other words, that his sensitiveness was less than that of the average man. At any rate his performance in this respect was so remarkable that some of the gentlemen present were fain to explain it by supposed 'post-hypnotic suggestion,' the theory apparently being that L. and his comrades hypnotized one another, and thus made themselves insensible to pain.

A Hypnotic Sleep Bulletin

2007-08-22T13:15:00.000-07:00

Again, hypnotism is accountable for many of the poet's dreams. Gazing steadily at a bed of bright coals or a stream of running water will invariably throw a sensitive subject into a hypnotic sleep that will last sometimes for several hours.

Dr. Cocke says that he has experimented with hypnotism in this direction with patients of his. Says he: "They have the ability to resist the state or to bring it at will. Many of them describe beautiful scenes from nature, or some mighty cathedral with its lofty dome, or the faces of imaginary beings, beautiful or demoniacal, according to the will and temper of the subject."

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Relaxation Through Music Blog

2007-08-20T13:14:00.000-07:00

In this connection we find great interest in an article in the Medical News, by Dr. Alfred Warthin, of Ann Arbor, Mich., in which he describes the effects of music upon hypnotic subjects. While inVienna he took occasion to observe closely the enthusiastic musical devotees as they sat in the audience at the performance of one of Wagner's operas.

He believed they were in a condition of self-induced hypnotism, in which their subjective faculties were so exalted as to supersede their objective perceptions. Music was no longer to them a succession of pleasing sounds, but the embodiment of a drama in which they became so wrapped up that they forgot all about the mechanical and external features of the music and lived completely in a fairy world of dream.

Clown Phobia News

2007-08-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

This is the stage or phase of hypnotism nearest the waking, and is the only one that can be produced in some subjects. Patients in the cataleptic state can be brought into the somnambulistic by rubbing the top of the head. To all appearances, the patient is fully awake, his eyes are open, and he answers when spoken to, but his voice does not have the same sound as when awake. Yet, in this state the patient is susceptible of all the hallucinations of insanity which may be induced at the verbal command of the operator.

One of the most curious features of this stage of hypnotism is the effect on the memory. Says Monsieur Richet: "I send V---- to sleep. Irecite some verses to her, and then I awake her. She remembers nothing.I again send her to sleep, and she remembers perfectly the verses I recited. I awake her, and she has again forgotten everything."

Hypnotism Helps News

2007-08-16T13:39:00.000-07:00

One of the amusing hypnotizing experiments tried at a later time was that of a tall young man, diffident, pale and modest, being given a broom carefully wrapped in a sheet, and told that it was his sweetheart. He accepted the situation and sat down by the broom. He was a little sheepish at first,but eventually he grew bolder, and smiled upon her such a smile as Malvolio casts upon Olivia.

The manner in which, little by little, the hypnotized young man ventured upon a familiar footing, was exceedingly funny; but when, in a moment of confident response to his wooing, he clasped her round the waist and imprinted a chaste kiss upon the brushy part of the broom,disguised by the sheet, the house resounded with roars of laughter. The subject, however, was deaf to all of the noise. He was absorbed in his courtship, and he continued to hug the broom, and exhibit in his features that idiotic smile that one sees only upon the faces of lovers and bridegrooms. "All the world loves a lover," as the saying is, and all the world loves to laugh at him.

Hypnotic Suggestions Updates

2007-08-15T10:32:00.000-07:00

In response to a call for volunteers to be hypnotized, twenty young and middle-aged men came upon the stage. They evidently belonged to the great middle-class.

The hypnotizing commenced by Dr. Flint passing around the group, who were seated on the stage in a semicircle facing the audience, and stroking each one's head and forehead, repeating the phrases, "Close your eyes. Think of nothing but sleep. You are very tired. You are drowsy. You feel very sleepy." As he did this, several of the volunteers closed their eyes at once, and one fell asleep immediately. One or two remained awake, and these did not give themselves up to the influence,but rather resisted it.

Experimenters in Hypnotism Info

2007-08-14T14:23:00.000-07:00

First we will quote the directions for producing hypnotism given by Dr.James R. Cocke, one of the most scientific experimenters in hypnotism in America. His directions of are special value, since they are more applicable to American subjects than the directions given by French writers. Says Dr. Cocke:

"Secondly, give the subject a coin or other bright object to hypnotize. Tell him to look stead fastly at it and not take his eyes away from it. Suggest that his eyelids are growing heavy, that he cannot keep them open. Now close the lids. They cannot be opened. This is the usual method employed by public exhibitors. A similar method is by looking into a mirror, or into a glass of water, or by rapidly revolving polished disks, which should be looked at steadfastly in the same way as is the coin, and I think tires the eyes less.

The Hypnotic State

2007-08-13T14:39:00.000-07:00

The hypnotic state, generally produced by the contemplation of a brightspot, a lamp, or the human eye, is in his case induced by a peculiar kind of mirror. The mirrors are made of pieces of wood cut prismatically in which fragments of mirrors are incrusted. They are generally double and placed crosswise, and by means of clockwork revolve automatically.

By degrees, by a species of training,the hypnotic sleep differs more and more from natural sleep, the individual abandons himself more and more completely, and falls into one of the regular phases of hypnotic sleep.

How to Hypnotize

2007-08-11T11:21:00.000-07:00

This is a state of absolute inert sleep. If the method of Braid is used,and a bright object is held quite near the eyes, and the eyes are fixed upon it, the subject squints, the eyes become moist and bright, the look fixed, and the pupils dilated. This is the cataleptic stage. If the object is left before the eyes, lethargy is produced. There are also many other ways of producing lethargy, as we have seen in the chapter"How to Hypnotize."

One of the marked characteristics of this stage of hypnotism is the tendency of the muscles to contract, under the influence of the slightest touch, friction, pressure or massage, or even that of a magnet placed at a distance.

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Success in hypnotism

2007-08-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

The Hindoos produce sleep simply by sitting on the ground and, fixing their eyes steadily on the subject, swaying the body in a sort of writhing motion above the hips. By continuing this steadily and in perfect silence for ten or fifteen minutes before a large audience,dozens can be put to sleep at one time. In all cases, freedom from noise or distractive incidents is essential to success in hypnotism, for concentration must be produced.

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hypnotist

2007-08-09T09:38:00.000-07:00

Every hypnotizer is aware that certain individuals never can induce sleep even in the most easily hypnotizable subjects.

They admit that the sympathetic fluid is necessary, and that each person may eventually find his or her hypnotizer, even when numerous attempts at inducing sleep have failed. However this may be, the impossibility some individuals find in inducing sleep in trained subjects, proves at least the existence of a negative force.

hypnosis

2007-08-07T16:07:00.000-07:00

Modern scientific study has pretty conclusively established the following facts:

The persons not easily hypnotized are those said to be neurotic (or those affected with hysteria). By "hysteria" is not meant nervous excitability, necessarily. Some very phlegmatic persons may be affectedwith hysteria. In medical science "hysteria" is an irregular action of the nervous system. It will sometimes show itself by severe pains in the arm, when in reality there is nothing whatever to cause pain; or it will raise a swelling on the head quite without cause. It is a tendency to nervous disease which in severe cases may lead to insanity. The word neurotic is a general term covering affection of the nervous system. It includes hysteria and much else beside.

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learn self hypnosis

2007-08-06T16:29:00.000-07:00

In the meantime, the subject had attracted considerable interest inGermany, and in 1812 Wolfart was sent to Mesmer at Frauenfeld by the Prussian government to investigate hypnotism. He became an enthusiast,and introduced its practice into the hospital at Berlin.

In 1814 Deleuze published a book on the subject, and Abbe Faria, who had come from India, demonstrated that there was no fluid, but that the phenomena were subjective, or within the mind of the patient. He first introduced what is now called the "method of suggestion" in producing magnetism or hypnotism. In 1815 Mesmer died.

hypnosis training books

2007-08-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

"A large number of patients were commonly treated at one time. They drew near to each other, touching hands, arms, knees, or feet. The handsomest, youngest, and most robust hypnotists held also an iron rod with which they touched the dilatory or stubborn patients.

The rods and ropes had all undergone a 'preparation' and in a very short space of time the patients felt the hypnotic influence.

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Dr. Cocke's hypotism experiments

2007-08-01T14:13:00.000-07:00

CHAPTER VII--Criminal suggestion--Laboratory crimes--Dr. Cocke's hypotism experiments showing criminal suggestion is not possible--Dr. William James' theory--A bad man cannot be made good, why expect to make a good man bad?

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Deception in hypnotism very common

2007-08-01T14:05:00.000-07:00

CHAPTER VI--Simulation--Deception in hypnotism very common--Examples of Neuropathic deceit--Detecting simulation--Professional subjects--How Dr. Luys of the Charity Hospital at Paris was deceived--Impossibility of detecting deception in all cases--Confessions of a professional hypnotic subject.

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