Complete Hypnotism

CONTENTSINTRODUCTION—History of hypnotism—Mesmer—Puysegur—Braid—What is hypnotism?—Theories of hypnotism: 1. Animal magnetism; 2. The Neurosis Theory; 3. Suggestion TheoryCHAPTER I—How to Hypnotize—Dr. Cocke's method-Dr. Flint's method—The French method at Paris—At Nancy—The Hindoo silent method—How to wake a subject from hypnotic sleep—Frauds of public hypnotic entertainments.CHAPTER II—Amusing experiments—Hypnotizing on the stage—"You can't pull your hands apart!"—Post-hypnotic suggestion—The newsboy, the hunter, and the young man with the rag doll—A whip becomes hot iron—Courting a broom stick—The side-showCHAPTER III—The stages of hypnotism—Lethargy-Catalepsy—The somnambulistic stage—FascinationCHAPTER IV—How the subject feels under hypnotization—Dr. Cocke's experience—Effect of music—Dr. Alfred Warthin's experimentsCHAPTER V—Self hypnotization—How it may be done—An experience—Accountable for children's crusade—Oriental prophets self- hypnotizedCHAPTER VI—Simulation—Deception in hypnotism very common—Examples of Neuropathic deceit—Detecting simulation—Professional subjects—How Dr. Luys of the Charity Hospital at Paris was deceived—Impossibility of detecting deception in all cases—Confessions of a professional hypnotic subjectCHAPTER VII—Criminal suggestion—Laboratory crimes—Dr. Cocke's experiments showing criminal suggestion is not possible—Dr. William James' theory—A bad man cannot be made good, why expect to make a good man bad?CHAPTER VIII—Dangers in being hypnotized Condemnation of public performances—A commonsense view—Evidence furnished by Lafontaine; by Dr. Courmelles; by Dr. Hart; by Dr. Cocke—No danger in hypnotism if rightly used by physicians or scientistsCHAPTER IX—Hypnotism in medicine—Anesthesia—Restoring the use of muscles—Hallucination—Bad habitsCHAPTER X—Hypnotism of animals—Snake charmingCHAPTER XI—A scientific explanation of hypnotism—Dr. Hart's theoryCHAPTER XII—Telepathy and Clairvoyance—Peculiar power in hypnotic state—Experiments—"Phantasms of the living" explained by telepathyCHAPTER XIII—The Confessions of a Medium—Spiritualistic phenomena explained on theory of telepathy—Interesting statement of Mrs. Piper, the famous medium of the Psychical Research Society