- Topeka State Journal (Topeka, Kansas) May 13,1902
Added to Blog: July 18th, 2021
(Explains that hypnotized people can not commit acts that they wouldn’t otherwise do if they were not hypnotized. Also, attempts to educate the public about what ‘real’ hypnosis is).
Hypnotic Suggestion.
If the statements of Dr. Geo C. Pitzer [1], of St. Louis, can be relied upon, many things hitherto attributed to hypnotic influence were not due to anything of the kind, and instead of being harmful the exercise of this peculiar influence can only be productive of good. In a contribution to “Medical Talk” Dr. Pitzer says:
Very erroneous notions are entertained by the people who go to make up the general public regarding the nature and influence of hypnotism. People who do not understand it think that hypnosis is a miserable state of slavish subjugation; that it is a helpless condition into which people can be trown (sic) and made to do the will of another, regardless of consequences; and that hypnotism is a dangerous power by which people can be made to commit crime, and do all sorts of immoral deeds, regardless of their sense of social propriety or their convictions of moral conduct.
In a sense, the general public is not to blame for this ignorant view of hypnotism, for ti has been presented to the people and held up before them by those who ought to know better, and they really believe that hypnotism is of the devil. They have read “Trillby [2],” perhaps, a story which shamefully misrepresents hypnotism, or they may have read from the daily papers, the flaming advertisements of professed hypnotists, where they present the picture of “Svengall [3],” Trillby’s hypnotist, with his staring eyes, and then dare the reader to look him in the face without suffering from strange sensations.
They then go on and declare that hypnotism is a wonderful, mysterious power; and that anybody can master it in a few hours, when they will be able to place anyone under a magic spell and compel him to see, think, feel and act precisely as they wish. We say this is the kind of stuff that goes as reliable information, and how are the people to know any better?
Hypnotism and hypnotic suggestion, as studied and presented by those who have had the best advantages for obtaining facts, are known to be perfectly safe in every way.
In our treatment we have hypnotized hundreds of people; that is, we have put them in some degree of hypnosis, according to their wishes and amenability, for all people readily go into some degree of hypnosis when they want it, but no one can be compelled to go to sleep. In our practice we have found that hypnosis is a self-induced condition; a state into which the subject consents to enter.
We do not coerce people when we place them in hypnosis. As above stated, it is a self-induced condition, where the susceptibility to suggestion is wonderfully increased; but the subject never loses his moral sense, no matter how often he may be hypnotized. Hypnotism does not change the fundamental principles of a subject’s education, and while it is hypnosis, right will be right to him still, and wrong will be wrong to him, no matter how deeply he may be hypnotized. There is no such a thing as compelling or persuading people to perpetrate wicked deeds or submit to outrages while in hypnotic conditions, which they could not be induced to do or submit in the waking state.
Good people may consent, in hypnosis, to the performance of many amusing things, but they never lose their moral sense. We cannot extract a secret from a hypnotic subject. Under hypnosis true Masons [4] and Odd Fellows [5] will not give up their “grips” and “pass words” of their respective orders. When men and commit crimes or submit to alleged outrages under hypnosis, it is only evidence of the fact that they could be readily persuaded to do or submit to the same things in the waking state. When the stage hypnotist has his subject do improper things, it only shows the trend of his mind, and that of his subject, toward the lower nature of both of them. In such cases, many times, the subject is not in hypnosis at all, only simulates for effect and to please the operator and make a sensation.
Footnotes:
- Dr. Geo C. Pitzer – George Calvin Pitzer, M.D. (1835-1909). Born in Highland County, Ohio. Authored Suggestion in the Cure of Diseases and the Correction of Vices (1898) and Alcohol as a Food, a Medicine, a Poison, and as a Luxury.
- Trillby – Novel by George du Maurier. Published in 1894.
- Svengali – Hypnotist and musician in Trillby.
- Masons – Secretive fraternal organizations that trace their roots to local guilds of stonemasons in 13th century.
- Odd Fellows – Fraternity group founded in London in 1730.
Citation:
“Hypnotic Suggestion.” Topeka State Journal [Topeka, Kansas], 13 May 1902, p. 4. Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82016014/1902-05-13/ed-1/?sp=4&q=hypnosis&r=-0.359,-0.002,1.17,0.483,0.
2. Topeka State Journal (Topeka, Kansas) Oct 27 1897
Added to blog: Aug 18 2021
To Revive The Hypnotic: Irving Carmack Will Be Brought Back to Earth Tonight
Larger groups of people than congregated yesterday crowd around the window of the Topeka Cash Dry Goods company today to view Prof. Santanelli’s “sleeper,” Irving Carmack of Junction City [1]. By the time of the opening of the hypnotic exhibition at the Crawford theater tonight the young man will have been in a hypnotic sleep 50 hours, having tasted during that time neither food nor drink.
Santanelli went to the window where his subject is sleeping yesterday evening and repeated that he was to remain asleep until the performance this evening without hunger or thirst. The young man changes his position in the bed from time to time, and his appearance continued to be that of an ordinary sleeper.
Footnotes:
- City in northeast Kansas
Citation:
“To Revive the Hypnotic: Irving Carmack Will be Brought Back to Earth Tonight.” Topeka State Journal [Topeka, Kansas], 27 Oct. 1897, p. 3, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82016014/1897-10-27/ed-1/?sp=3&r=0.645,0.511,0.343,0.141,0.
3. Laurens Advertiser (Laurens, SC) March 9 1888
Added to blog: Aug 18 2021
People Susceptible to Hypnotism
Persons of a nervous constitution, and in particular those subject to hysteria, are most apt to fall into artificial sleep. There is then produced in them a peculiar neurosis, hypnotism, having psychical and physical characters of its own – a genuine disease presenting a diversity of symptoms. Hence hypnotic phenomena ought not to be called forth rashly nor without the precautions suggested by medical science. Women are specially susceptible to hypnotic manipulation, particularly during the period between the 18th and 30th year, when the nervous system is in full activity. Young men may be hypnotized, but it is very difficult to produce hypnotic sleep in old men or in children. Persons who in early life are subject to natural somnambulism or sleep walking are later in life good hypnotic subjects, just as they are also likely to be victims of hysteria and other nervous complaints.
Many are the processes employed for producing hypnosis. One that is very frequently used consists in fixing the gaze upon some bright object placed a little above the eyes and in front of the median line of the forehead, so that visual fatigue may ensue quickly, the eyeballs being directed upward and inward. This process, or others of a like kind, may be employed in the case of persons who have never before been hypnotized. But after awhile, when the subject has, so to speak, been educated, various more expeditious methods may be employed. Thus a jet of electric light or a violent blow struck on a gong near the ear of the subject will quickly induce sleep. Again, in hypnotizable persons, the surface of the body often presents special points, “hypnogenic zones,” as they are called, analogous to the “hysterogenic zones.” Simple pressure upon these produces hypnosis. Even in the case of the most susceptible individuals rarely does sleep appear when they, for the first time, undergo the hypnotizing manipulations, however skilled the operator may be. There is needed a complete surrender of one’s will and absence of all mental preoccupation, and on the part of the company present absolute silence. In most cases exhibitions of hypnotization develop, at first, only vague phenomena not easily classified, foreshadowing, so to speak, what will follow later.
Citation:
“People Susceptible to Hypnotism.” Laurens Advertiser [Laurens, South Carolina], 9 March 1888, p. 2, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn93067760/1888-03-09/ed-1/?sp=2&r=0.499,0.649,0.265,0.104,0.
4. Valley Times Photo Collection (Los Angeles, CA) October 5 1950
Caption: After a six-week absence from his home, John Calkins of Pacoima is shown in happy reunion with his wife and youngsters, Barbara Lynn, 3, Sharon Louise, 4, Margaret Letha, 6,. Clakins lost his voice during absence but regained speech after hypnosis treatment at Sawtelle Veterans Hospital.
Citation: “Happy Reunion.” Los Angeles Public Library, 5 Oct. 1950, Calisphere, https://calisphere.org/item/9faffcd29f39d17e7b58002ccd8811bd/.
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