“I have no doubt that Dr. Bramwell induces in his patients a state of consciousness which is identical with the hypnoidal state of Sidis. “My own experience, so far as it goes, tends to corroborate in every respect the therapeutic claims put forward by Sidis. I have observed the good effects of the hypnoidal state apart from any other measure. “In his later writings Sidis insistently maintains that the use of hypnoidization alone is sufficient to cure certain morbid conditions. He bases this claim on the fact that he has found the hypnoidal state effective towards this end, and he interprets his results as being due to a release of reserve energy which has been locked up in the inhibited and dissociated systems or complexes. “The _principle of reserve energy_ is based upon a wide generalization of facts, namely, that far less energy is utilized by the individual than is actually at his disposal. In the struggle for existence, those forms of life which have accumulated a store of reserve energy that can be drawn upon in emergencies have the best chance for survival.” According to my experimental and clinical work the waking state, sleep, hypnosis, and the hypnoidal state, may be differentiated as follows: (I) In the waking state the upper, controlling consciousness _predominates_ over the subconscious. In other words, in the waking state the conscious is more responsive and more active than the subconscious which as a rule under such conditions may be regarded as partially dormant. (II) In sleep _both_ the conscious and the subconscious are _reduced_ in activity, often even _inhibited_ in function. Motor consciousness is _arrested_; motor control is paralyzed. The personality is _disintegrated_. (III) In hypnosis the upper, controlling consciousness is _diminished_ in activity, while the subconscious activities are _increased_ in extensity and intensity. In hypnosis the relationship of the conscious and subconscious is interchanged,--the conscious becomes subconscious, and _vice versa_. The habitual type of character may become changed by suggestion, giving rise to double and multiple personality, according to the crystallization of various association systems, while the habitual, critical attitude is reduced in intensity. (IV) In the hypnoidal state both conscious and subconscious functions are _lowered_ in activity with no decrease in the intensity of critical attitude, and with _no change_ of personality. The hypnoidal state is therefore not a light hypnosis, but rather a _light sleeping state, a twilight state_. The hypnoidal state is a primitive rest-state out of which sleep and hypnosis have arisen in the course of animal evolution. CHAPTER XV EGOTISM AND FEAR