Hypnotize Someone: The How To Guide
Continuing on from our previous part on How To Hypnotize Someone And Make Them Forget It
Excerpt:
Another : In L, , New York, a very bright lad of thirteen
or fourteen years of age was on the
stage with me three or four nights. On Saturday
night his mother and sister came to me in the
dressing-room and said they could do nothing with
the boy, that every time they told him to chop the
wood or draw water, he would fall over asleep, and
they said they were going to have me arrested. I
asked her if she would do exactly as I told her, in-
forming her if she would she would have no more
trouble with the boy. The mother, being a good,
sensible woman, said she would. I told her to take
the boy's pants down, lay him across her lap face
downward, and warm him with her hand, which
she did. Some three weeks afterward I met her
and she told me she had no further trouble.
A few years ago professors (?) in the dime
museums of the large cities used to put subjects
to sleep and, failing to awaken them, would send
for physicians. The learned ( ?) doctors, after ap-
plying electricity, cautery, et cetera, in the course
of eight or ten hours awakened (?) them, only they
didn't; the hypnosis passed off. Why is it that
every operator excepting myself, and I state this
unreservedly, has had trouble many a time in
awakening his subjects. In a town in Illinois I
arrived late. The subject they brought me was
one that, after experimenting upon, was always
left to lie on the floor from six to ten hours, as they
could not awaken him and he had to "sleep it off."
Never fail Now, to answer the question previously asked,
to awaken "Why is it that I have never failed and all others
do fail ?" The reason is simply this : That when
we put the thought of sleep into a subject's "mind,"
it must be done with a firm voice. If you know anything
about hypnotizing someone, this will come as quite
an understanding to you. That is the key.
The moment we become doubtful or fright-
ened, we have lost the firm voice ; inasmuch as the
voice is the utterance of the "mind," and what we
think, we say in tone and in action ; if we are fright-
ened and say, "All right," to the subject and clap
our hands, he doesn't respond to it because we
have lost the key ; but if we never get rattled, there
is no possibility of failing to awaken the subject.
It may be that we will be obliged to use language
expressed by dashes — such a case happened in a
city in Arkansas. A young lady had been reading
about the woman who had been asleep in St. Louis
for thirty days, and whom none had been able to
awaken. Of course, she was a neurotic. When
I said, "All right," and clapped my hands, she failed
to awaken. Her friends in the parlor became
greatly frightened, so I asked them to retire ; then
quietly informed the lady that if when I said, "All
right," and clapped my hands, she failed to awaken
I would have to do things that would be very
inelegant, seemingly ungentlemanly, and above all
things I was not there to be made a fool of.
I then said, "All right," clapped my hands, and she
was wide-awake. Keep your nerve, always treat a
hypnotized subject as a rational being, and there
will be no trouble. If you are possessed of a doubt
as to the subject awakening, you are lost; he may
be awakened to the degree of "lack of doubt," but
not thoroughly. The operator's voice is the
thought (in action).
Man is like a piano keyboard, played upon by his
environment ; as we touch the keys, so is the re-
sponse. Hit vigorously and there will be a cor-
responding result. When we strike key "A," do
the other notes refuse to respond, or have we failed
to force (suggest) them ?
My audiences have wondered why it is that when
I get a subject whom some one else has operated
on (as I call it "handled"), and he goes through
many gyrations while going into hypnosis, that I
say to him, "Now, my dear fellow, there is no need
of this 'monkey-shine.' You go quietly to sleep ;
otherwise, you and I will have trouble," after
which I have but little trouble with the subject, and
the people say, "That's funny; I wonder if he was
'faking?' How can he talk to them as he does?"
A hypnotized subject must comprehend ; that is,
his Abdominal Brain must respond and words
when given him must arouse thoughts. The oper-
ator should know how to use words with the
proper emphasis and construction.
The first attribute of all consciousness is "place,"
and the subject, when he opens his eyes, is always
in the place where he went to sleep unless that
place has been changed by the operator. There-
fore, first place the subject, then give him the attributes,
naming each sense, thus: "When you open your eyes, you will
find yourself in a certain place, and
you will see so and so, and you will hear so
and so, and you will feel so and so," covering feel-
ing, seeing, hearing, and feeling as to minor attri-
butes.
Inspiration Assuming that we desire the subject to go
through the actions of milking a table for a cow,
the inspiration should be as follows: "When you
open your eyes, you will find yourself seated on the
back porch of a farmhouse. You will see a small
cow before you in the yard. The cow requires
milking; there is a milk bucket at. your feet. You
will be careful with the cow, inasmuch as she is
very nervous, and as the flies bother her, she is
likely to switch her tail. You must refrain from
swearing as the ladies can hear any remarks which
you make." If you should say, "You must not
swear as there are ladies in the audience," what
would be the result? The subject, when he
opened his eyes, would sit still, because the word
"audience" rearouses the thought of where he went to
hypnotize someone.
One picture to sleep. Only one picture at a time can be held
at a time j n f- ne " m ind," and that picture must be thor-
oughly consistent, for if at any time through the
misunderstanding of correlation you step without
the picture, you will either get no effect or a
"dopy" subject.
Awakening If I hypnotize a subject can anyone other than
myself awaken him? Decidedly not. What will
awaken him ? My telling him that he is awake ( ?)
or my saying, "All right," and clapping my hands.
If anyone else tells him he is awake will he
awaken? No. Because he does not hear (respond
to) them. As far as the general public is con-
cerned, being in hypnosis consists only of taking
a thought from the operator's voice. If he could
hear (respond to) anyone else, he could hear
(respond to) all sounds and each and every sound
would arouse some thought, and he would be
wide-awake. The consciousness or realizing is
"being awake." Those put to sleep by magnetic
(?) passes can be awakened by another operator,
as the subject goes to sleep with his sense of feel-
ing acute, and has been taught that when he feels
upward strokes he will awaken. He has no way
of distinguishing ( ?) who is the one that is making
the strokes; yet a super-sensitive subject, very
familiar with the operator, will unconsciously be
able to distinguish, or, more properly, will respond.
What things can you most readily put a subject
at doing? Things likely to occur to him at any
time.
Reader, I am still afraid you are not a hypnotist.
We will assume that you are a gentleman and
you have one of your companions, a gentleman,
hypnotized, seated in a parlor that is filled with
your lady friends. You desire him to take off his
coat. What would you say to him? You would
say, "W T hen you open your eyes, you will find that
your coat is on inside out." What would he do?
Being a gentleman, and in the presence of ladies,
he would look abashed and might go into the hall
and change his coat, but we desire him to take his
coat off in the parlor before the ladies. What
must we do ? Give him a new environment. Tell
him that when he opens his eyes he will find him-
self in his bedroom, it is evening, and excessively
warm. "Now open your eyes." Is he now in the
parlor filled with ladies, or is he in his own room ?
Man is ruled by his environment. First place your
man, then give him the attributes.
A bad In a city I visited last winter a doctor informed
inspiration me that the year before a hypnotist had visited
their city, given some very enjoyable performances,
besides putting a man to sleep in a window; that
he thought the hypnotist was a fraud inasmuch as
that one day he was in the store where the fellow
was sleeping, and the hypnotist said, "Doctor, feel
of the man in the window, he is stiff." The doctor
said, "And when I felt of him I very decidedly felt
him become rigid, which satisfied me that the
operator was a fraud."
That was not the case, the operator did not know
how to give his inspiration ; the subject necessarily
is forced to respond to the operator when the
operator's voice is firm. When he said to the
doctor, "Feel of him, he is stiff," he told the sub-
ject, "When the doctor feels of you, become stiff."
Correct But if he had said to the doctor, "The subject is
inspiration stiff, feel of him," when the doctor got hold of him
he would have found him stiff.
Frauds (?) The alleged fraudulent hypnotists are simply
fools who do not know how to convince their
audiences or handle their subjects. Subjects can-
not "fake." When you credit the hypnotist with
being able to teach the element that goes on the
stage to act their parts, you credit both with hav-
ing more intelligence than our best stage managers
and actors, and my experience teaches me that
their faces would instantly deny any such credence.
One "authority," in Chicago, concludes his work Authority
by doubting hypnosis. Quotations from him
show his lack of knowledge of the Law of Sugges-
tion. The following example was the one that
shook his faith most: The subject was lying in
hypnosis on an operating table, and several spec-
tators were challenged to awaken him. They tried
many ways and failed, then asked if they might spit
in the subject's face. The "authority" said, "Yes,
you may spit in his face if you wish." They did so,
and the subject immediately awakened, thus satis-
fying the "authority" that the subject had not
been in hypnosis. Dear reader, need I explain
this? If so, throw the book away or go and give
yourself to the authorities having charge of a
school for imbeciles.
In the "handling" of subjects two tones should Two tones
be used, one for the inspiration, and one to em-
phasize (force) minor actions.
In my early days, while giving exhibitions in the
South, at the conclusion of an entertainment a
Southern gentleman came onto the stage with a
friend and said, "Mr. Santanelli, this gentleman
does not believe that young man was hypnotized.
Will you "hypnotize" that nigger (pointing to one)
and prevent him from picking up this one hundred
dollar bill? If he picks it up, he can have it." I
"hypnotized" the negro, put the one hundred dol-
lar bill at his feet and told him he could not pick it
up. The negro immediately became cataleptic,
rigid, and failed to move. I wanted him to stoop
and put his hand on the bill and attempt to pick it
up, knowing that if he could not pick it up he must
shove it to the floor, so I said "Oh, yes you can ; go
ahead, pick it up." The negro failed to respond
for a moment, then bent over and took hold of the
bill ; I saw that he had responded to my last remark
as an inspiration, so I immediately called to him
that he could not move. Cold chills passed up my
back, as I could not afford to lose one hundred
dollars ; and, of course, would not have allowed my
friend to do so provided I had it. Since then I
always use two tones, for fear of the subject mis-
taking or not comprehending (responding to) the
difference in the tones, I always finish in this man-
ner : "Go ahead, pick it up. Go on, but you can-
not."
No stages There are no stages in so-called hypnosis. The
subject is either hypnotized or awake.
Catalepsy Catalepsy is not a stage of the hypnosis, it is
simply an inspired condition. Any subject can be
made cataleptic if he knows how to become so.
The inspiration I give to produce catalepsy is as
follows : "Put your feet together, put your hands
to your sides. When I call 'now' you will take a
long breath, pull your muscles together and you
will be stiff, stiff as iron." It is very rarely that a
subject fails to respond to this. Sometimes they
will draw their knees and arms up, not knowing
how to become rigid in the position I give them.
Many operators tell a subject to hold his arm up
and then that he cannot take it down, and the spec-
tator, noting the tightening of his muscles when
he gets the inspiration that he cannot put his arm
down, believes the subject to be "faking." If the
operator will remember that all negations are Negations
affirmations against, and would first put the
muscles at the tension or in the position he wants
them and then deny, there would be no such action.
Tell a subject to hold his arm up and close his fist ;
the muscles are now contracted, and by telling him
he cannot put it down, you are really saying to him
to keep the muscles in the position they are in. If
you wish to produce a condition of the muscles,
first put the muscles into the desired position and
infer that he cannot release them, because if he
cannot, he must hold the position.
How many ways are there of inducing hypnosis ?
Only one. Understanding this is the key to understanding
how to hypnotize someone discreetly.
When I was in Utica last winter, on the second
day of my return engagement, a lad called on me
•and said, "Mr. Santanelli, how many ways do you
know how to hypnotize?"
I replied, "But one, my lad."
He looked surprised, saying, "Why that is
strange, I know of nineteen ways."
"Good for you, lad. Can you lay them out on
the floor as I do?"
"No, sir, that is the funny part of it ; I cannot get
any of them asleep. You have only one way; I
have watched you nightly and so far you only failed
to hypnotize two, and three-fourths of them were
new ones every night. What is your way?"
"The right way."
"Well, can 'some' of mine be right?"
"No, there is but one way, and that is the right
way; that is the reason your nineteen ways are
failures, none of them are right." If hypnosis con-
sists of five attributes, the shortest, quickest
method of bringing these five together is the right
way. All others are wrong. A Chicago firm pub-
lishes fifty ways, or the promise of teaching fifty
ways, to induce hypnosis. That is in the line of
modern science (?).
"Still, Mr. Santanelli, I have hypnotized many
subjects without using any of the attributes you
name as necessary to hypnosis; how is that?"
"Very simple, my dear sir. First, you do not
hypnotize ; you lead another into hypnosis. After
a subject has once been taught the way to the post-
office, he can go without any guidance on your
part. Twenty-seven per cent of mankind are what
is known as "sensitives" — somnambulists, sleep-
walkers. Unconsciously knowing the way into
hypnosis any method you use is satisfactory. You
can tell him to go to the postoffice over the tele-
phone, you can tell him every time he hears the
whistle of the factory he will go to the postoffice ;
there are a hundred suggestions that may cause
him to go to the postoffice. So it is with the
sensitive, he knows the way; your method is
nothing. You can only hypnotize ( ?) three in ten ;
with my method I can "hypnotize" one hundred
of one hundred, provided they give me their atten-
tion."
Auto-suggestion can only exist in the case of a
sleep-walker, proven by the fact that he responds
to no one's voice. It is spontaneous, and is the
nearest to being self.
In my experience, subjects have pre-inspired
themselves with the thought of leaving the stage,
which each time was successful. This is one aspect
that can be used to hypnotize someone. The first hap-
pened in a little town in Tennessee. My reader
must understand this, that a certain portion of
my evening entertainments were always the same ;
that is, I laid the subjects on the floor, produced
the catalepsy, built the "log-pile," then caused
them to rub their ears, then their knees, and then
lake a seat on the chairs. In the instance I have Pre-inspira-
in mind, the young man, who was some twenty- tl0n
two years of age, although not larger than a lad
of twelve, came onto the stage several nights and
proved himself to be an extremely clever subject.
I think it was on the fifth night when he was laid
on the floor, after having been used in the "log-
pile," he immediately got up and joined his com-
panions in the orchestra seats. I was greatly sur-
prised. No comment was made, but that night
after I went to the hotel I did considerable
"thinking," and at last concluded as to how he
succeeded in doing so.
I was so successful in the city that I remained
over ai d played the following week, and on
Wednesday night this young man and his friends
were again in the opera house. I invited him
to come onto the stage. He said, "No." I asked
him why, and he replied, "You will make it hot
for me."
"No, I will not. I would like you to come up
and repeat the experiment." He looked at me a
moment and said, "This is not a trick?"
"No, I wish to see if you can repeat what you
did last Friday. It is a matter of science. You
have proven your side of it, and I want to see
what I can do with mine."
The young man came onto the stage, took on
hypnosis and when I awakened him, some thirty
minutes later, and asked him why he hadn't taken
his seat, he looked puzzled, and said, "I don't
know." I did; do you, dear reader?
The form of pre-inspired thought that this
young man took was this : "After I am laid on the
floor in the unbuilding of the 'log-pile,' I will
awaken." Now, mind, he was to awaken when he
was laid on the floor out of the "log-pile." I
omitted putting him in the "log-pile," therefore
the suggestion that was to awaken him did not
occur, hence no awakening. There is no effect
without a cause (suggestion), of course without
understanding this cause and effect model, you cannot
begin to hypnotize someone.
Last winter, in Erie, three subjects left the stage
one night during the "statuary," in the latter part
of the second week of my engagement. They had
watched the performances all of the first week
and had been on the stage several nights, were
good subjects, and this night took a pre-inspira-
tion that at the fourth inspiration given in the
"statuary" they would awaken. They did so, left
the stage, said the whole thing was a "fake," but
failed to impress any of the audience.
I immediately caused a subject to do a little
more difficult act than that, and one I inspired,
instead of the subject taking a pre-inspiration. I
told the subject that when he opened his eyes he
would find he had a couple of dice and would
throw craps, and that at the end of three minutes
he would awaken, which he did. Afterwards he
pre-inspired himself with the thought that when
he opened his eyes he would think of one of the
most amusing incidents he ever witnessed, and at
the end of a minute and a half would awaken.
He did so, the audience holding their watches
both times, and both times he awakened to the
instant.
Any subject, after he has been in hypnosis four
or five times, should very readily go into that
condition with a pre-inspiration of awakening
upon the occurrence of a certain event, and if the
event takes place he will awaken, demonstrating
nothing except the subject's ability to accept a
pre-inspiration.
All dime museum freaks, such as the human
pin-cushions, poison eaters or snake eaters, work
under pre-inspiration. In the course of time the
merging of the "normal" into the pre-inspiration
becomes second nature and can be very rapidly
and almost imperceptibly done ; still, an expert,
understanding the "reflexes," by closely watching
the subject can comprehend that he is not in the
so-called normal condition and may note the
change.
It is this quick merging that has given many
of the alleged exposers a standing with superficial
newspaper men, who have accepted their word
that they were not in "hypnosis" when they repro-
duced the work that the operator caused them to
do on the stage.
The martyr burning at the stake is an example Martyrs
of pre-inspiration, the entire environment forcing
and maintaining in the "mind" of the subject or
person the thought that he will not suffer and will
have no pain. The snake dancing of the Mokis is
done under "hypnosis" ; also many of the endur-
ance and religious tests of the adepts of the East.
How long will an inspiration last? The public
fears, forever.
My experience is that great skill is required to
force a thought to remain over one minute with
a new subject working by himself. Training them
to hold a thought (no; training sounds "faky,"
develop them, sounds better) requires experience
on the part of the operator. Lead into hypnosis
a new subject, start him brushing a fly, if he con-
tinues for one minute you have a good subject.
Put two working together, and you may keep
them at work for two minutes. Three or more
subjects working together will hold out for a long
time. To work one subject alone is very hard.
Three or more, easy.
You desire to cure a headache, to let your
patient go home. If the patient is a "good" sub 7
ject (has been in hypnosis often), perhaps it will
be an hour until he again feels the headache. Only
a nervous headache can be "cured" through
hypnosis. In all other cases there is no cure,
simply the producing of "no feeling." Might just
as well give the patient a dose of morphia.
"But, Mr. Santanelli, I am a doctor; you have
taught me of the many ills that can be relieved
through hypnosis. My patient is free from pain,
yet I wish to force certain changes physically. The
patient has never been hypnotized and the holding
of the thought for one minute is of no value to me.
What is to be done?"
Induce hypnosis while the patient is lying on a
sofa; return every five minutes and re-inspire by
saying, "Stay deep asleep, deep asleep." Keep
the patient there for two hours, renewing every
fifteen minutes during the last hour. You can
rest assured that when the patient leaves he will
retain the thought for an hour and a half. After
that, the time will lengthen one-third with each
inspiration up to twenty-four hours. None will
hold an inspiration over twenty-four hours, but
can so be trained or developed that a very slight
suggestion will continue the inspiration. I am
certain that subjects making the long sleeps in the
windows, are re-inspired by the suggestion of
their environment every twenty-four hours. If
a subject is willing to sleep but twenty-four
hours, can I force him to sleep forty-eight? No.
The thought (action) is not there to be brought
out, and I cannot play off from the cylinder what
is not on it. Therefore, the operator is always
"in the hands" of the subject, and the work is
co-operative. Any subject can seemingly refute
or destroy the claims of any operator.
Writing of training or developing a subject —
what can be "taught" them? Absolutely nothing.
We say to a subject, "When you open your eyes,
you're alongside a fishing stream ; you see beside
you bait, lines, hooks, et cetera, now open your
eyes." If the subject does not possess the ideas
(actions) to be forced by the "ghosts" just men-
tioned, no action is possible. If there is no action
in the subject, i. e., ideas associated, no ghost to
Simulation be aroused, then the subject must act (?). His
impossible cerebrum is inactive, he is possessed of absolutely
no ideas relative to the thought; therefore, if
unconscious (cerebrum inactive), he possesses no
action, he would not know what to do. "From
nothing only nothing can be produced." Again,
words mean nothing.
If I put three subjects in a photograph scene;
one the photographer, one the dude, the other the
girl, they having never been in a photograph gal-
lery, I get no action. I rehearse it — all right. If
the words and actions of all three are not perfect
the act will fail. Theatrical companies rehearse
a play at least six weeks and are on the road at
least two months before the performance runs
smoothly. In all the smaller cities where hypnosis
is popular, local subjects and different ones every
night the hypnotist must have, if he expects to
make a living. Assuming that in the photograph
scene I use two of my "horses" (subjects I carry
with me) and one local man, my subjects do not
know what he will do or what he will say. My
rehearsal would have been useless. But in
hypnosis I force them to see a certain environ-
ment, and all photograph galleries are so similar
that if they have ever been in one, the general
environment that is now constantly around them
will force them as automatic beings to an ultimate
end, which would be impossible if all three did
not see the gallery. Seeing the actual environ-
ment and each guessing what the others would
do, would produce confusion. They all see the
same general picture, therefore act in unison.
A hypnotic "horse" is simply a good subject ^'Hypnotic
who travels with a hypnotist, generally possesses
a good singing voice, the ability to make stump
speeches, or with a humorous personality. Never
of any use after a year, as he gets so at home
in "hypnosis" that the public will no longer accept
him as "hypnotized." What I call a good subject
the public will not stand for. What the public
calls a good subject I have no use for.
One season I had traveling with me a Swede
named Carl, whom I used to inspire thus:
"When you open your eyes, you will find yourself
seated on the stage of the theater in La Crosse,
W T is., to give the people a speech, as the boys
have decided to run you for mayor, provided you
tell them what you will do if elected, and your
Swedish dialect is very pronounced." (Note that
the inspiration is in one sentence, properly corre-
lated connected with "ands," "buts," et cetera;
no possibility of it being made other than one
thought.) "Now open your eyes." Carl opened
his eyes, made his bow and in the most pro-
nounced dialect gave an illiterate, asinine speech
that provoked roars of laughter. Carl could give
but two speeches. Nightly the audience demanded
a speech. While in Philadelphia, I had a speech
written for Carl and had him learn it. Then I
was stuck. How could I inspire him to get the
speech that was written for him ? If I said, "You
will deliver the speech you learned," he would
have tried; I did, and the effect was worse than
bad. He simply did what he would have done
had he not been hypnotized. He could not prop-
erly deliver it ; it lacked personality, individuality
and spontaneity. It was simply like a school boy,
delivering, parrot-like, a speech of Henry Clay
or Daniel Webster, and just as assinine. The only
teaching is to allow the subject to watch many
subjects in an act that sometime in the future you
expect to put him in, that he may "absorb" some
of the better actions. Professional In the cow act, milking a
table for a cow, I subjects use a feather duster as the cow's tail to switch the
milker in the face. One young man, who was
very funny in the act, I nearly always used. After
a few months, instead of watching the place for
the cow's tail, he watched (?) me and dodged
every time he saw the duster coming towards him.
He quickly learned (feeling) that he was hit from
behind instead of by the tail of the cow, and I
could no longer put him in the act. Professional
subjects last but a short time, and when dis-
charged, often make exposes (?).
Crime What makes a man steal? Does he choose to
steal, or is the stealing forced upon him? If a
man's actions are caused or forced on him by his
environment, he steals because he responds minus
to that environment. Why does he respond minus
to this environment when others do not? Be-
cause his ideas (actions associated) are positive
against, where the so-called normal man is posi-
tive for. If it takes ten parts to make the whole,
and you possess nine, you lack the entirety.
Therefore, the criminal steals the moment the ten
parts are brought together. Can he be made to
steal in hypnosis? No. Why not? First, if the
nine parts only were brought together and one
was missing, he failed to steal. After we lead
him into hypnosis, we are unable to furnish the
other part, saying nothing about knowing what
attribute to furnish. How about a confirmed
criminal ? If we tell him when he opens his eyes
he will go down and break into a bank, he will say,
"Go break into it yourself. Why should I steal
for you ? J "
Man docs nothing because he is told to.
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