It is characterized by insensibility to outward sounds and images, and to ordinary impressions of sense organs, but by quickened perception of sensations pictured by the hypnotist. Human beings are hypnotizable by other human beings between whom and themselves exists a peculiar sympathy or harmonious relationship known as rapport. Various methods of inducing hypnotism are practiced, all having in view of the fixation of the attention upon some monotonous stimulus of the eye or ear, as sedative music or a bright object like the nickel-plated point protector of a lead pencil, a transparent crystal, or a stud in a shirt bosom, or the eyes of the operator. Certain colors are also helpful, especially pinks of a low chroma. In certain instances such a procedure as told above may be supplemented by light passes, or by holding firmly the hand of the patient, by pressing it against the forehead of the operator, or by contact of foreheads, while the whole force of one's personality is concentrated in an effort to overcome an automatic resistance to hypnotization.
Some operators request the patient to take a reclining position on a lounge.
Then, by talking soothingly to them for some time, the operator acquaints himself with the dominant propensities of controlling thoughts and above all securing the patient's confidence. Then the patient's attention is concentrated upon a suspended diamond, or some other unique article. The eyes soon become tired from the strain, and the patient is told he is gazing at a sleepy stone which has never failed to induce slumber. Then he is told to think of nothing, to renounce the very intention of renouncing mental effort, and to give himself up with a perfect confidence in the purity of the motives of the operator. Under these conditions the eyeballs soon become fixed, a vacant stare replaces the usual intelligent look, and the eyelids begin to open and close spasmodically.