How To Hypnotize PeopleContinuing on from our previous chapter on ways to hypnotize someone with covert hypnosis - Excerpt:
We will assume that this young lady is dancing in a certain ballroom where a young man stepped on the train of her dress ; she turned and slapped him. If we call to her, "Your dress has been stepped on and torn," will she turn and slap an imaginary man behind her? No. We will get no more action than a frown on her face, as we have failed to put the thought in action ; the thought of her dress being torn was made up of the feeling of the pull, the hearing it tear, and perhaps the seeing of it (perhaps it was torn); three senses being affected. As we can deceive only the sight of a hypnotized subject, we can cause her to throw out a picture of a torn place in her dress, but as we failed to make her feel it tear, or to hear it tear, we have failed to put the thought in action by failing to affect two senses. This is the true way to hypnotize someone.
To further illustrate that a subject is "normal," subservient to his picture and that the operator causes only the eye to be deceived, we will assume that there are on the stage a barber and a very fastidious young man, who takes a great interest in his shaving. We desire to put on a shaving act, that is, one man to sit in a chair, the other to put on him a barber's apron, using a one pound paint brush and a large soup bowl full of lather to lather the customer's face, and then to shave him with a wooden razor that weighs at least a pound and a half. Now, dear reader, which would you choose for the barber and which for the customer? No doubt, you would say, "Make the barber the bar- ber and the fastidious young man the customer." That would never do, for if you were giving an exhibition before a public audience, within two minutes many of the spectators would swear that the barber was "faking." The sense highest culti- vated in a barber is that of feeling. He sees the picture, well and good, but when he tries to tip back the chair it fails to tip, therefore feeling con- tradicts his sight; when he picks up the paint brush, feeling again contradicts sight; in fact, everything he does, every feeling memory that is actually associated and pronounced in him, is be- ing contradicted (Hudson's subjective(?) mind), and a smile will appear on the face of the actual barber. Of course, if we wanted to hypnotize people, we could always take this a step further. But if we reverse them and cause the fastidious young man who knows all the detail through his eye, and not through the sense of feeling, he will, seemingly, most perfectly go through the entire process of shaving, as there is no memory of feeling to be contradicted by the actual contact with the tools furnished.
Again referring to the young ladies and the ball- room. Number two, although given the same in- spiration, will wonder how she happened to attend, and is likely to ask for her wraps and desire to be taken home. What will be the appearance of number three when she opens her eyes? Her face will be a blank and her eye without expression, as we have failed to inspire her with a thought. Hence, we learn that all expression is the result (part) of thought. Having a thought of mirth, it is impossible to look sad, to speak firmly, or to give any action seriously. Knowing how to hypnotize someone involves this concept.
Another point here ; simulation is impossible. No person can simulate closely enough to force con- viction, as it is impossible to furnish all the attri- butes without having the actual thought. Tune a dozen violins to G, draw the bow over one and the others will respond ; if one is not tuned to the note, there will be no response. Normal man, far more sensitive than the finest tuned instrument, cannot be deceived (made to respond). Let twenty sub- jects be inspired with laughter and among them one attempting to simulate, the audience will not laugh, that one discord will prevent a response. The indescribable tone must be there to force a result and this can only be when it is the result of a mirthful thought. Without the thought there can be no expression, therefore no person can "Faking" simulate the inspiration. You read much about subjects who claim that they have deceived the public and the operator by pretending, or to use a common expression, they "faked." Let me as- sure you that those persons deliberately lie. The man does not live who can so overcome and "defy such a positive law. I have led into hypnosis over one hundred thousand persons and have yet to meet the one who could deceive a ten year old lad. The subject, to make you think he believes a fly on his nose through the particular contraction of the muscles of his face, the look in his eyes, and the gesture of brushing it away, must have that thought in his "mind." The method of putting it there is what I call hypnosis. Call it whatever you wish, we hypnotists are the only ones who do this; and, furthermore, the only ones able to find these fellows who claim they are able to "fake." So if you want to hypnotize someone, it's best to grasp this point.
The ordinary layman does not find them ; we find them. We call it hypnotism.
To illustrate that a subject is normal, subservi- ent to his picture, and that the claim made by Hudson that we have two minds, objective and subjective, which discriminate (an impossibility), is incorrect : In the ridiculous side of this art, the operator strives to emphasize and make use of day- dreams. We will assume that there are twenty subjects on the platform, all strangers to me. I desire to have some of them play on brooms for banjos. I carefully look them over and choose those whose appearance would suggest that they were accustomed to attending parties, dances, et cetera, who have full foreheads and other signs of being musically inclined. I am not looking for those who play, as you will comprehend later, but for those who have envied some player, for those who have mentally taken the place of a player. If I should say to them, "When you open your eyes, you will find a banjo in your lap, and you will play for us," and they open their eyes they would re- fuse, saying, "We do not know how to play." Yet, if I build around them a positive picture, being careful to avoid any positive against their playing, I can force 'them to respond, if at any time they have had a desire to be a player. So I tell them that "When you open your eyes you will find your- self on the stage, there is a banjo in your lap. you are a member of a banjo quartette ; the curtain is up and it is your turn to move your chairs down the stage, to tune up and in turn play and sing your best song to entertain the ladies and children."
There being no positive against their playing, the Producing day-dream will be reproduced. Of course, the re- day-dreams su j t w iu k e ridiculous, but that is what we desire. As to the mental condition of the players, each is his own thought of a banjo player; they respond to the audience, the applause. They could be al- lowed to go home as they are, yet if some one on the way should ask them to play they would be likely to do so. When they arrived home, they would carefully put away the supposed banjo, and the next morning would ask how that broom hap- pened to be where it was. The subject is perfectly ''normal," subservient to his picture, it being, if he could tell it, "I am a banjo player. I am wide awake ; my conduct must be consistent with what I See com- believe a banjo player to be." Right here I will
prehension state t h a t I lack the ability to properly describe the state of a subject ; his cerebrum is not active, he simply responds, yet the explanation is not correct, but would be if the subject was using his cerebrum. For the ordinary reader the present explanation is the more comprehensible. In other words, a banjo player is a normal being, and although his clothes may not fit the subject, yet the subject will try his best to adapt himself to them. If one of the sub- jects should be a banjo player, a puzzled look will appear on his face the moment he tries to tune the instrument, and he will hand me the broom saying "I cannot play it ; it has no strings." The others would not attempt to play it if it had strings. Why? The moment the subject opens his eyes he is normal, subservient to his picture, and the first associated action of the player is to tune the instru- ment. The capable player has a very decided memory of the feeling of the strings, his touch is normal; he can find no strings with his fingers although he can see them, but as he plays with his fingers they cannot be deceived, the force (cause, suggestion) is lacking, and his touch not being affected, no action is forced. Therefore is no need to hypnotize people in this circumstance.
Those who do not know how to play have no feeling memory; they see the strings and indis- criminately finger them ; and, as there is no sugges- tion to inform them that they are not players, they continue. If there were strings on the broom, the moment they touched them the idea that they could not play would be forced into action and they would refuse. Thus we can see that although the operator may be able to bring up the mental picture, he lacks the ability to furnish or make good the emphasizing attributes of the other senses that are necessary to force the completion of any act that is not extremely congenial to the subject, and no "abnormal" act is congenial. This is the trick to hypnotize someone quite easily.
I place a hypnotized subject at a table, a non- hypnotized man opposite to him, giving them a pack of cards, and they begin playing. The man opposite the subject undertakes to abuse him very severely. I stand behind the hypnotized subject and urge him on, till we get a quarrel. I hand him a pasteboard dagger and he stabs the man he is playing with. If he is given a steel dagger, he fails to close his hand on it. Why? First, there is no quarrel. His opponent lacks the tone; words without tone are ineffectual and put no thought in action. Therefore, the picture we have is one of a simulated quarrel ; and the pasteboard dagger, as it carries with it no ideas contrary to the picture, is readily used ; but the moment we introduce the steel dagger, we introduce an attribute foreign to the picture, therefore inactive, there being no action for the transforming, through touch, of the suggestion of the dagger.
One more illustration: We desire to have the subjects go through the act of fishing. If I simply say to them "that when they open their eyes they will go fishing," then tell them to open their eyes, they will not respond, as they are still on the stage, and there is no place thereon to fish. If I tell them that when they open their eyes they will find them- selves alongside of a fishing stream, they will not respond even then; for, though man be alongside of a stream, he cannot fish without the proper at- tributes. Consequently, I must furnish each one with bait, hooks, lines and rods. These attributes, although ghosts, will force him to fish, provided he knows how. The subject sees no audience, neither can he hear one, for it is foreign to his picture. If a person from the audience should step up and take hold of the pole that is held by the inspired fisher- man, he would not be seen ; but, through feeling, the fisherman would have the idea that a big fish or a tree or a log had caught his hook and conduct himself accordingly. He sees the other fishermen, and will talk to them. I am only another fisher- man, nothing more to him. If I were, the ideas associated would carry a picture of the stage. I can allow him to go home ; he may show a string of fish that he does not possess, and might scold if they were not cooked as ordered. Otherwise, he is perfectly rational, such as any fisherman ; he is his thought of a fisherman, which is that of a rational being. This doesn't mean to say the fisherman wouldn't know how to hypnotize anyone he wanted to, rather that he'd perhaps choose not to.
In all these scenes the subject is working in a picture (environment) of ghosts, furnished by him- self and aroused in his mind through the voice of the operator. The thought cannot be changed by other than the operator; the senses are free only in relation to the thought, which, in most cases, makes the subject seemingly super-sensitive.
Man is as a piano keyboard, played on by his environment. When we touch "a", "g" does not refuse to respond, but we fail to force it. To the degree that we strike a note, is to the degree that there is a response. Man responds according to the degree of the force (suggestion) on two or more senses.
A hypnotist is merely a guide — a leader — who teaches a subject how to hypnotize himself, and all sane persons can be taught to take on this condi- tion. An operator stands in about this position : If I should go to a city a stranger, and, standing on the street corner, meet the brightest citizen and ask him to show me the way to the postoffice, he naturally would reply, "Certainly, follow me." I reply, "I will not walk, neither will I ride." Why, the man would look at me in disgust and ask how I expected to reach the postoffice. So it is with many who sit down to be hypnotized. They will not give the operator their attention, yet expect the operator to lead them where they will not follow. Still standing on the street corner, I meet a half-witted lad, whom it has taken ten years to teach the way to the postoffice. I ask him to show me the way. He replies, "Certainly; follow me." If I were insane, drunken, or half-witted, I would not be able to do so. I follow him and reach the postoffice, not because the half-witted lad has a stronger mind than the brightest citizen or myself, but he knows the way, is willing to lead me, and I, being capable of following do so, and consequently reach the postoffice. On the way, I noted the sur- roundings; the next time I can go there slowly without a guide, and after half a dozen trips can go as quickly as anyone in the town. So it is with the subject. I teach him how to take on hypnosis, and in a very short time he will require no prompt- ing from the operator. It matters not whether you place the thought of sleep with your voice or by making passes over the subject, for the passes are feeling suggestion and will induce the same condition. You read of this wonderful "power" being exerted over the telephone. It is very simple. You have an office boy to whom you have taught the way to the postoffice. Being down town, it occurs to you that there may be some mail for you at the postoffice. You go to the telephone and ring up your office, tell the boy to go and get your mail. If the lad is so disposed, he will ; other- wise, he will not, and you cannot force him. The same condition may be induced by writing to a subject, that when he "finishes reading this letter, he will go to sleep." As hypnosis is self-induced, he can do so if so disposed. This is the key to learning how to hypnotize people.
If you lack a firm voice and assurance, you lack the two most important attributes necessary to a hypnotist, and you should refrain from attempting to hypnotize. Your tone will fail to carry any suggestion other than a positive against you and will contradict the words you utter. If you have assurance and a firm voice, know what hypnosis is, that words of themselves put no thought in action, that it is impossible to bring out of the mind of a person what is not there, or to arouse any thought unless tiuo senses are affected, you are prepared to learn how to teach a subject to take on what is known as "Hypnosis."
The first thing necessary is that the following formula be learned word for word :
"Take an easy position. Put your hands to- gether thus. I am going to ask you to look at the end of this pencil. If you will do so and think of it, your eyelids will get heavy and close, or, if I close them for you, allow them to remain closed ; then your head will fall to the front, your hands will drop to your sides and you will forget where you are. When I want you to awaken I will (tell you) say ALL RIGHT and clap my hands. Do you understand me?
"At no time will you feel sleepy, but by giving me your undivided attention you will slowly forget where you are.
"Drowsy, sleepy, drowsy, sleepy, drowsy, sleepy ; as you go deeper asleep your eyelids get heavy and close." (Repeat until accomplished.)
"This ear smarts, burns, stings and itches, and will stop only when you rub it a long time with your right hand. UGH! UGH! UGH!
"You open your eyes only when I tell you. You awaken only when I say ALL, RIGHT and clap my hands (I tell you). Now mind!" (Repeat this.)
"You have an awful pain in this knee (thumb, when a lady), and it will stop only when you rub it a long time with both hands (right hand), UGH ! UGH !" While he is rubbing it say, "When you look at it it will be a thousand times worse, now open your eyes."
Knowing that Hypnosis consists of:
First, An easy position;
Second, Upturned or converged eyes;
Third, Concentration;
Fourth, Closed eyes;
Fifth, The substitution for the concentration of the "locked in" thought of sleep ;* who are the easiest to hypnotize ? Those possessing the great- est concentration.
Can the insane or half-witted be hypnotized? No ; they cannot concentrate.
Therefore, choose for your first subjects, those with pronounced concentration, who are distin- guishable by the fulness of their heads at the tem-
*It is necessary for the subject to comprehend this, though not necessary for us to tell him in the foregoing- specific manner.
Put your hands together To look at the end ot Will get heavy and Or if I close them
t h us . this pencil. close. for you.
Your hands will drop to your sides.
Will say " all right" and 'clap my hands.
Experience has taught me that the professional musician in a regular orchestra, the player of classic music; a telegrapher, a first-class stenog- rapher, or those whose business requires concen- tration; and naturally slow correlators, are more readily lead into hypnosis.
Seat your subject in a chair and stand directly in front of him and repeat the following paragraph :
"Take an easy position. Put your hands to- How to gether thus. (Plate II.) I am going to ask hypnotize you to look at the end of this pencil. If you will do so and think of it, your eyelids will get heavy and close ; or, if I close them for you, allow them to remain closed; then your head will fall to the front, your hands will drop to your sides and you will forget where you are. When I want you to awaken I will (tell you) say ALL RIGHT and clap my hands. (Suit the action to the word.) Do you understand me ? At no time will you feel sleepy, but by giving me your undivided attention you will slowly forget where you are." Do you see now how all this relates to how to hypnotize people?
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