As long then as the automatic writing was regarded by the subject as independent, for which he was not responsible, as long as the suggestion of the hallucination was not taken as directly addressed to it, the subject himself frankly acknowledged the fact that he did not see anything. When this truth of automatic writing was brought home to the subject he was bound by suggestion to claim that he actually saw the suggested hallucination, although he really did not see anything at all. This clearly shows that the hypnotic consciousness, from the very nature of its heightened suggestibility, clings most anxiously to the given suggestion, and insists on the reality of its fulfillment. We must, therefore, be on our guard and not trust the subject’s introspective account, unless it is well sifted by good circumstantial evidence. It is because such precautions have not been taken in the close interrogation of the subject’s actual state of mind, and because of the deep-rooted psychological fallacy as to the relation of ideational and perceptual activities, that the prevalent belief in the validity of suggested hallucinations has passed unchallenged. If not for those factors, it would have been quite evident that the _hypnotic and post-hypnotic suggested hallucinations are not genuine, but are essentially spurious. Hypnotic hallucinations, unlike actual hallucinations, are not really experienced. Hypnotically suggested hallucinations are only forms of delusions_, attempts to appease the master hypnotizer of whom the subconscious stands in awe and fear. The state of hypnotic subconsciousness is a state based on the will to conform to the master hypnotizer’s commands. At bottom the subconscious trance-will is one of slavish obedience to the authoritative, fear-inspiring will of the master hypnotizer, whom the hypnotic subconscious attempts to please and obey slavishly. The hypnotic state is a fear state of a primitive type. It is the fear state of the Damara ox obeying the herd, or the leader of the herd. Man is hypnotizable, because he is gregarious, because he is easily controlled by _self-fear_, because he easily falls into a _self-less_ state of complacent servility. Man, subconscious man, is servile, in fear of his Lord. The independent, free man is yet to come. FOOTNOTE: [13] I use the term “suggested hallucination” to indicate the character and origin of the latter. The term seems to me convenient and may prove acceptable. CHAPTER XXVI THE HYPNOIDAL STATE AND SUPERSTITIONS