Dr. C., a known psychoanalyst, on whom I carried on a series of
experiments, goes into a deep somnambulistic state. He is an
excellent visualizer and takes readily visual hallucinations. Being
a physician and psychiatrist the subject’s account is all the
more valuable. Now Dr. C. describes his hypnotic hallucinations
as “mental pictures,” as “auditory memories,” which “lack
exteriority, are not located in space.” He aptly characterizes his
hallucinations, visual, auditory, and others, as “_fixed ideas_.”
Mr. M. goes into deep hypnosis. When in one of the deep
trance-states a suggestion is given to him that on awakening he
shall see a watch. When awake he claims he sees a watch. He was
asked: “Do you really see it?” He replied, “Yes.” The interesting
point here was the fact that the subject did not even look in the
direction where the suggested hallucinatory watch was supposed to
be placed and where he himself claimed that the watch was located.
When tested by automatic writing the hand wrote: “Yes, I see the
watch.” The subconscious then was also under the influence of the
suggested hallucination. It is well to bear in mind this point.
Re-hypnotized, and suggested that on awakening he would see _two_
watches. One was a real silver watch and the other was suggested
hallucinatory. The subject claimed he saw both, but he only handled
the hallucinatory one, and when asked which of the two he would
prefer he pointed to the hallucinatory watch. When asked why,
he replied that the suggested watch was bigger. He was really
indifferent to the chosen watch and paid no further attention to
it, as if it did not exist for him. He tried to please the master
hypnotizer of whom he was subconsciously in awe.
He was again put into the hypnotic state and was suggested to see
a flower. On awakening he claimed he saw a flower and smelled it
in an indifferent, perfunctory fashion. The subconscious was then
tested by automatic writing and the writing was to the effect that
he saw it. “I see a flower.” The subconscious then had also the
same hallucination. A series of similar experiments was carried
out with the same results. _The subconscious claimed in automatic
writing that the suggested hallucination was real._
The subject was again put into hypnosis and was given the
suggestion that he would see a watch on awakening, but here I made
some modification. “When you wake up you will be sure to see a
watch,” I said, emphatically. “Look here; I want you to write what
you really see and not what you do not see.” When awake he saw a
watch, but he immediately wrote: “I do not see anything.” _Here the
subconscious disclaimed the suggested hallucinations which it had
claimed and insisted on before._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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