Complete Hypnotism, Mesmerism, Mind-Reading and Spiritualism: How to Hypnotize: Being an Exhaustive and Practical System of Method, Application, and UseAlpheus, A.
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Complete Hypnotism, Mesmerism, Mind-Reading and Spiritualism: How to Hypnotize: Being an Exhaustive and Practical System of Method, Application, and Use
Alpheus, A.
Hypnotism; Mesmerism; Spiritualism; Telepathy
The sensations produced during a state of hypnosis are very
interesting. As may be supposed, they differ greatly in different
persons. One of the most interesting accounts ever given is that of Dr.
James R. Cocke, a hypnotist himself, who submitted to being operated
upon by a professional magnetizer. He was at that time a firm believer
in the theory of personal magnetism (a delusion from which he afterward
escaped).
On the occasion which he describes, the operator commanded him to close
his eyes and told him he could not open them, but he did open them at
once. Again he told him to close the eyes, and at the same time he
gently stroked his head and face and eyelids with his hand. Dr. Cocke
fancied he felt a tingling sensation in his forehead and eyes, which he
supposed came from the hand of the operator. (Afterward he came to
believe that this sensation was purely imaginary on his part.)
Then he says: “A sensation akin to fear came over me. The operator
said: ‘You are going to sleep, you are getting sleepy. You cannot open
your eyes.’ I was conscious that my heart was beating rapidly, and I
felt a sensation of terror. He continued to tell me I was going to
sleep, and could not open my eyes. He then made passes over my head,
down over my hands and body, but did not touch me. He then said to me,
‘You cannot open your eyes.’ The motor apparatus of my lids would not
seemingly respond to my will, yet I was conscious that while one part
of my mind wanted to open my eyes, another part did not want to, so I
was in a paradoxical state. I believed that I could open my eyes, and
yet could not. The feeling of not wishing to open my eyes was not based
upon any desire to please the operator. I had no personal interest in
him in any way, but, be it understood, I firmly believed in his power
to control me. He continued to suggest to me that I was going to sleep,
and the suggestion of terror previously mentioned continued to
increase.”
The next step was to put the doctor’s hand over his head, and tell him
he could not put it down. Then he stroked the arm and said it was
growing numb. He said: “You have no feeling in it, have you?” Dr. Cocke
goes on: “I said ‘No,’ and I knew that I said ‘No,’ yet I knew that I
had a feeling in it.” The operator went on, pricking the arm with a
pin, and though Dr. Cocke felt the pain he said he did not feel it, and
at the same time the sensation of terror increased. “I was not
conscious of my body at all,” he says further on, “but I was painfully
conscious of the two contradictory elements within me. I knew that my
body existed, but could not prove it to myself. I knew that the
statements made by the operator were in a measure untrue. I obeyed them
voluntarily and involuntarily. This is the last remembrance that I have
of that hypnotic experience.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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