Vickipedia

ANIMAL MAGNETISM, MESMERISM, or HYPNOTISM. From time immemorial, Egyptian conjurers and sorcerers have been accustomed to produce artificial somnambulism, usually by inducing their subject to gaze intently for a few minutes at certain cabalistic signs marked on the center of a white plate. The Yogins, a Hindu sect, also practise similar arts; while the peculiar states of trance or ecstasy into which the Mount Athos monks and other religious fanatics were accustomed to throw themselves, are of kindred nature. So too, many allusions in the works of classical authors relate to phenomena more or less of this kind.

About the middle of the 17th c., while the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism were attracting considerable attention, one Valentine Greatrakes, in London, professed to cure diseases by stroking with the hand. A century later, Gassner, a Swabian priest, employed a similar mode of treating disease, which he ascribed to demoniacal possession. About 1774, Mesmer, a Viennese physician, commenced to treat diseased organs by the application of artificial magnets. The phenomena exhibited by his patients, especially the more nervous of them, led him to adopt the view that the magnets operated not as special sources of influence, but as conductors of a magnetic fluid which he could communicate at will to the patient, even at a distance. Four years later, he commenced practice in Paris, with great success. His usual methods were to seat his patient with his back to the north, to press the pit of the stomach and make passes with his hands in front of his face, meanwhile fixing his patient’s eye, and soothing him by the aid of music. Sometimes too he placed his patients in connection with ‘ magnetized’ trees, or set them in a circle around a covered vessel from which he professed to conduct the invisible fluid, thus inducing peculiar nervous conditions. In 1785 a Royal Commission was appointed to examine Mesmer’s pretensions. These investigators found that the same phenomena could be produced in Mesmer’s more nervous patients when blindfolded, by merely inducing them to suppose themselves in the neighborhood of any of Mesmer’s magnetic appliances, though none were really present ; while conversely, magnets and magnetic tree were alike powerless, if the patient were kept unaware of their proximity. The Marquis de Puysegur at the same time discovered that he could induce artificial somnambulism without the aid of magnets, by passes alone ; but unfortunately for further investigation, the subject fell into the hands of the arch-quack, Cagliostro (q. v.), and thus became extremely discredited by physiologists. Despite the unfavorable report of the French Commission of 1785, as well as of a later one in 1831, and other subsequent exposures, vague theories of magnetic influence, odylic force, new imponderable substance, electrobiology, or the like, kept constantly recurring, since science had nothing with which to replace them, until the investigations of James Braid, a Scottish surgeon settled in Manchester. In 1841 he went to a mesmeric seance, which seemed to him a mere triumph of imposture over credulity; but returning on another occasion to watch the details more narrowly, he was struck to find that the patient was really unable to keep his eyes open. After some reflection, he concluded that by continuous staring, the eyes with their nerve centers became fatigued, and the balance of the nervous system was thus destroyed. Resorting to experiment, he at once succeeded in throwing his servant and others into thorough mesmeric sleep by simply inducing them to gaze intently for a few minutes at the mouth of a bottle placed above, but close to the eyes. He thus proved the absolute dependence of the mesmeric phenomena upon the physiological condition of the patient, not on that of the operator ; and found that he had henceforth to deal with a new order of cerebral states, henceforth to be classed with those of sleep, somnambulism, and insanity. He therefore proposed the word hypnotism, which now so advantageously replaces the terms animal magnetism and mesmerism. Braid continued to investigate the subject with great thoroughness and success for some years, and attempted the treatment of certain diseases by inducing hypnotism. Unfortunately, however, the evil reputation which the subject had so naturally obtained, prevented the due appreciation of Braid’s discoveries, and it was not until about 1875 that the subject commenced to be thoroughly investigated by physiologists. Preyer and Heidenhain in Germany, and Richet in Prance, have confirmed and extended Braid’s results, and we may therefore briefly sum up their results, premising that no scientific observer has ever confirmed the statements of mesmerists as to clairvoyance, reading of sealed letters, influence on unconscious persons at a distance, or the like; and, as above stated, the influence of the mesmerizer is unnecessary, and in all cases unimportant.

The physiological changes which are set up are usually as follows: A spasm of the accommodating apparatus first takes place, the pupils meanwhile dilating, and the eye-balls being protruded, while the eyelids droop. Respiration and circulation become greatly accelerated, and perspiration frequently ensues. Finally, profound stupor may ensue. A very remarkable degree of insensibility to pain exists, so that even surgical operations may sometimes be performed as well as under chloroform. The reflex irritability of all the voluntary muscles is greatly increased (indeed for days after the experiment), so that stroking an area of skin produces a spasm of the subjacent muscles, which may even spread over the whole body, producing a perfectly cataleptic rigidity, so that Heidenhain indeed considers the hypnotic state as nothing more than an artificially produced catalepsy. These considerations indicate the danger of repeatedly subjecting the same person to hypnotic experiments, lest the abnormal state should be rendered permanent. Moreover, since in some persons the hypnotic state begins with general convulsions, the non-medical reader is warned against attempting to hypnotize.

During hypnotism, consciousness is diminished or dormant. The patient may, if only slightly affected, remember what has happened; if more fully hypnotized, he has no remembrance of his actions until hints are given; in the most complete state, he has no remembrance whatever.

In hypnosis, however, sensory perceptions take place; but these are not converted into conscious ideas—in other words (as constantly happens in a ‘ brown study’), the sensation is present, but the power of directing the attention towards it is temporarily lost. Reflex action, however, goes on all the more freely in the absence of the inhibiting will; and thus movements made before a hypnotized person are perceived by the imperfectly closed eyes, and the stimulation of the organ of sense sets up a material change in the central nervous system, which liberates movements, apparently voluntary, yet not really so. Thus the patient may be induced to imitate every movement, however absurd or trivial, which is presented to him. The tendency to mimicry, so common, especially in children, monkeys, parrots, Ac., is thus intensified, or rather the stimulus of the sensory impression is allowed to work unchecked.

As sometimes in ordinary sleep, but with ease and certainty, dreaming may be induced. Thus the medium may be conducted through all the stages of a journey, may be plunged into grief or raised to exuberant happiness by a few judicious suggestions. This state is nearly related to that of ‘ automatism at command.’ where the medium obeys orders like a docile dog. Thus, as a crucial experiment, Heidenhain ordered his brother, a young medical dent, to cut off his whiskers, the product of a year’s assiduous cultivation, to the unbounded vexation of the unfortunate youth 01 awaking. So too, placing the body in a given position calls up the appropriate actions. A pillow, properly placed in the medium’s arms, is nursed like a baby; music makes him dance; and so on. In all cases, the spoken command, the position of the limbs, or the sensory stimulus, sets up the impulse to the actions indicated, without either intelligence or volition being awakened.

The patient never falls down, and the power of co-ordinating the movements of walking, &c. is nearly perfect; his attitude have often an unusual grace, and in the lighter stages of hypnotism he may converse freely and even with unwonted intelligence and emotion, due, doubtless, partly to freedom from the restraint of a knowledge of the surroundings, partly to the concentration upon a single train of thought.

Very sensitive patients may be hypnotized by monotonous sounds like the ticking of a watch, or even by expectant attention, when alone.

Numerous other remarkable phenomena have been described, Thus, by gentle pressure on the neck of a patient, he can be induced to repeat words spoken in his presence, especially when tin sounds are directed to a sensitive area just below the sternum. Automatism at command is greatly facilitated by imposition of the operator’s hand on the patient’s head. By passes on one side catalepsy or paralysis of the opposite side only can sometimes be induced. Remarkable disturbances of the sensation of color may take place; and so on.

The state of the brain during hypnosis is not as yet well understood. The activity of the ganglion-cells of the cerebral cortex (with which the functions of consciousness are believed to be specially associated) appears to be inhibited by the gentle prolonged stimulation. The cerebral arteries are not contracted. Additional light is being obtained by experiments upon animals, of which many can be thrown into a state closely resembling, if not identical with the hypnotic.

Hypnotism is again coming into use in medical and surgical practice, and its facts have also very important bearings on the phenomena of reverie, trance, somnambulism, religious excitement, mania, spiritualism, &c. See Braid’s Magic, Animal Magnetism, &c. (3d ed., Lond. 1852); Heidenhain’s Animal Magneto (Lond. 1880).