Successful Hypnotism

Joan Brandon

• Editorial: Muriwai Books
• Año: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781789124965
• Categoría: Psychology
• Categoría: History & Theory in Psychology

Another fascinating volume on hypnotism by Joan Brandon, this time delving into the basic techniques of how to hypnotize, as well as divulging new techniques; advice on using hypnotism with a stage audience; and invaluable methods of hypnotism for medical purposes and administering self-help.

 

1—Behind The Footlights

RECENTLY I WAS ON A EUROPEAN TOUR DEMONSTRATING hypnotic phenomena. I performed first in London, in Paris the next day. I flew across the snow-covered Pyrenees, to put on a show in Barcelona two days later, and a day after that I was scheduled for a performance in Rome, Italy. At no time previously to this tour had I studied French, Spanish, or Italian.

Now there is one important fact about hypnotism. Nobody can be put into the trance state unless he understands the language of the hypnotist, and he must be able to understand every word of the hypnotist perfectly. Despite this fact, all my subjects in the three foreign cities were native volunteers from among the audiences.

I had to speak their languages, and I learned them the night before each performance. I did not learn those languages by any innate trickery or magic. I memorized enough of the languages, as well as the accents, at night, to be able to put on a show the following day. And I accomplished that through a perfectly valid technique of my profession: by self-induced autohypnosis.

Before all my performances, no matter in what country, I make these brief introductory remarks:

There is nothing mysterious or legerdemain about hypnotism. Many of the hypnotic phenomena I am about to show you are startling. Some may well appear utterly unbelievable. But they can all be explained intelligibly and scientifically. You will notice that I shall be using the words “sleep” and “hypnotic sleep” quite frequently. Hypnotism differs very decidedly from normal sleep, actually, but I shall try to explain that as we go along with the demonstrations. There are those who believe that this is going to be a battle of minds, a tug of war between the will of the subject and that of the hypnotist. Nothing, I assure you, could be further from the truth. Hypnotism depends upon the utmost co-operation between subject and hypnotist. It is only those persons in the audience able and willing to concentrate on what the hypnotist asks them to do, who can be put into a hypnotic trance. It is a little known fact that the more intelligent the subject the easier it is to hypnotize him or her, not the reverse.

If you do not want to be hypnotized, this is how to resist it: as I look into your eyes, look the other way, and as I talk to you, think of something else. It is that simple, but after you have seen other members of the audience coming out of the trance “sleep, I believe you too will want to be hypnotized. There is nothing at all harmful about it. There are no ill-effects. On the contrary, you will come out of the trance feeling quite refreshed and really quite wonderful.

Now, if you will kindly turn the page...and join me on stage...

 

2—Posthypnotic Suggestion

IF YOU WILL ACCOMPANY ME ON STAGE, I would like to introduce you to what I believe is the most startling of all hypnotic phenomena. I have two subjects seated before me, a young man and a young lady. They have come to the performance together. Let’s call them John and Dorothy. Dorothy is already in the trance state. You will observe, as I place this lighted match under her hand, that she does not jump. John has seen me do this before, and he knows that Dorothy will suffer no harmful after-effects from the burning. This is simply to test her for anesthesia, to be sure that she is in a fairly deep trance. Now that we are certain of that, I speak to Dorothy:

“I am going to awaken you shortly. You will feel relaxed and perfectly normal. But before you wake up I have something to tell you. The young man who brought you here tonight has just left the auditorium. He went outside, but he will be back in precisely five minutes. Alright now, you will awaken when I count to three. One, two, three...There. You are awake. How do you feel?”

Notice how she stretches her arms and yawns, as if she was just coming out of a deep, relaxed sleep. In response to my inquiry, listen to what she says:

“I feel fine. Did you really hypnotize me? I don’t feel as if anything happened to me.”

That is a very typical response. Now watch, as Dorothy casts her eyes around the stage. There is something questioning in her gaze. She looks to the right, then to the left where John is sitting next to her. She looks straight through John. And she asks:

“Where is John?”

I reassure her that John will be back in a little while, that he has only gone outside for a breath of air. Dorothy is set at ease now. Presently I ask if she would like a cigarette. She accepts the one I offer. Meanwhile, keep an eye on John who is lighting a match. There he is, bringing the light toward Dorothy’s cigarette. Listen now—this is fascinating—as Dorothy cries out:

“Oh! Where is that match coming from? What’s happening? That match is standing in mid-air!”

“It’s just a little trick of mine,” I tell her, as I reach forward and take the lighted match out of John’s hand. I say that simply to reassure her again, for there is no trickery about this demonstration. It is an example of negative hallucination. Let’s allow a few minutes to pass.

It is now five minutes after I brought Dorothy out of the trance state, almost to the second. Abruptly Dorothy exclaims:

“Oh, there you are, John. I’m glad you’re back.”

Now let’s take John as a subject.

“John, I want you to look directly into my eyes. Concentrate only on what I say. Now breathe in deeply. Close your eyes. And take another deep breath. Keep your eyes closed, and listen only to the sound of my voice. Now you are going into a deep, deep sleep.”

In a few moments John is in a hypnotic trance.

“Raise your right arm, John. Your arm is getting very heavy, very heavy.” The right arm drops. This is another test, known as the cataleptic test. As we shall see later, hypnotic catalepsy can bring on extraordinarily spectacular phenomena. At this time I would like to give our subject a suggestion that is interesting in its own right. I tell John:

“When you awaken, you will go to the window at the center of the stage, and you will open it. Also, from now on whenever I mention the word ‘cigarette’ you will go into a nice, deep sleep (a hypnotic trance). Do you understand? Open your eyes, John, and tell me if you understand?”

“Yes,” says John slowly, carefully enunciating each word. “I understand.”

“Alright, now close your eyes again, and I am going to awaken you....”

John is out of the trance. But see, he is getting out of his chair. He is standing up. Now he is walking toward the window at the center of the stage. Not the windows on either side of the stage, but the one in the center. Why, it is winter. Yet John is opening the window! Let’s ask him why he is doing that.

“John, don’t you know it’s winter? Why are you opening that window?”

“Well, it’s...(he hesitates)...it’s very stuffy in here.”

“But this is a big auditorium. It’s air-conditioned. And isn’t it cold enough in here already?”

“Well, it seemed awfully hot to me.”

If you observed John carefully, you will have caught a confused expression on his face, just before he opened the window, and right after he closed it. Once he has performed the act, he seems especially relieved.

“By the way, John, would you like a cigarette?”

Watch as his eyes begin to flutter. In a few moments he will be in a hypnotic trance again, and I will not have said another thing to him. Amazingly, this time he will be in a deeper trance than before.

What you have just witnessed are instances, of course, of posthypnotic suggestion. They are delayed reaction suggestions that are performed unconsciously by the subject after he has been brought out of the trance. Potentially, this type of hypnosis has enormous therapeutic value. Before we consider the constructive possibilities, I think it is important that we get an understanding of how posthypnotic suggestions can be explained.

We shall discuss in another chapter what hypnosis really is. Here, I simply want to point out that the effect of all hypnosis is to cause the conscious mind of the subject to recede into the background, while the unconscious mind is brought to the fore. What the hypnotist is dealing with, then, is the subject’s unconscious mind. The implications of that statement alone are astounding, but this could be said about almost everything connected with hypnotism.

To return to our inquiry into posthypnotic suggestion. The subject is told (suggested) that he will see an object (or not see it) when he “awakens,” or that he will perform some act at a particular signal. The signal can be a word, a period of time, or anything for that matter. Then the subject is brought out of the trance. There is no conscious memory of the suggestion, because when it was made that part of the mind was temporarily out of the picture. The suggestion, however, is lodged in the unconscious, and there it remains until the signal appears for it to come into consciousness. At that moment the subject undergoes a slight, spontaneous trance which corresponds to the one when the original suggestion was made. This explains the subject’s confusion immediately preceding and following the performance of the act; also his subsequent attempt to rationalize his act. The suggestion has become a compulsion. The subject feels he just has to carry the act out, and he does not feel at ease until it is.

But how about the passing of time? How did our earlier subject, Dorothy, know that exactly five minutes had passed, which was her cue to see John again? Obviously, she performed this feat quite unconsciously. Unfortunately, no one can be sure just how the unconscious mind records the passing of time. We do know that the human body has a number of organs which possess their own rhythmical beats, such as the heart, the respiratory system, etc. These regular, pulsating beats are frequently more accurate than the best precision-made clocks. This is also the logical explanation for those persons who awaken from ordinary sleep at predetermined times. We all know people who have this ability to wake up whenever they want to, regardless of the time they go to bed. Their conscious mind tells the unconscious the time to awaken, and whether it is seven, eight, or eight-thirty in the morning, at that predetermined time they just wake up. One usual explanation is that the conscious mind hears the ticking of the clock, and in that way keeps track of the passing minutes. But what about people who don’t have clocks by their bedside? They can still wake up when they chose. All we can say is that somewhat the same phenomenon occurs with the posthypnotic suggestion.

I know a case where a subject was given the suggestion to perform a specific act just 1,202 minutes from the moment the trance was ended. The subject was put into a dark, empty room. He had no conscious idea of the act he was to perform, nor when he was to perform it. There was no clock in the room, no daylight, nothing for his unconscious mind to reckon the passing of time. Nevertheless, precisely 1,202 minutes later, the subject performed the act that had been previously suggested. Some subjects, naturally, have better “timing sense” than others. Some may under-or over-shoot the signal by a few minutes, but seldom by more.

Hypnotists frequently make use of the delayed action of posthypnotic suggestion to reinduce the trance state in their subjects. Thus, the signal “cigarette,” whenever it is mentioned by the hypnotist (but no one else) automatically puts the subject into a trance. Handled properly this technique never fails; it is a wonderful time-saver for busy performers. The truly remarkable fact about posthypnotic suggestions is the duration of their effectiveness. I have known them to last a year, sometimes longer.

3—Facts and Fallacies

IT IS ONLY WITHIN THE LAST DECADE OR SO that hypnotism has been retrieved from the limbo of mysticism and the occult. I look back with a mixture of horror and shame to those times during my father’s performan...

Índice

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• 1-Behind The Footlights
• 2-Posthypnotic Suggestion
• 3-Facts and Fallacies
• 4-The How-To of Hypnotism
• 5-Performer’s Repetoire
• 6-On Stage
• 7-Medical Hypnosis
• 8-Hypnotism in Psychiatry
• 9-What Is Hypnosis?
• Glossary
• Selected Bibliography
• REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER