Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-03-09

5 ! !: !. ! !"
| m II GX/I/M~. gall myself. Last
/ IH&&>kAXATy !, Wednesday. in the
| INN >W11vWTNN presence Of an expert
| WI MN&SAl witness, I hypnotized
| l.M G7Wll two Trilbys and as
| TT 4WAMWNHl many Billtrys.
II ~ - ENII took the precaution
la <Nl to have my perform
| -S~ ance witnessed by a
| man of science that
the truth Of my report might not with i'm
punity be assailed. After the performance
was under way the precautionary measure
proved even wiser than I had figured it in
the beginning When my first subject went
on into cataleptic state in response to
my hypnotic power I was simply scared
stin and If DR.. Rose had not been there
to snap her back to consciousness there
would be rigid hypnotized female stretch
ed out in chair somewhere awaiting
chance discovery and coroner's inquest,
while I would be fleeing from justice or
sitting up nights sweating blood trying to
prove an albi.
I went into hypnotism for one reason
chiefly. You know there never was so
| popular conundrum as that of the day,
| DO you believe in hypnotism?' Where
was Moses when the ligh. went out? Who
killed Billy Patterson? Who stole Charley
Ross ANY OF those historic questions af-
| Iectfng vital concerns lose their interroga-
| tlon points and sink into dull insignificance
beside this, DO you believe in hypno-
| tism"' Not to have asked and answered it
| more times than you can count Is not to
nave read Trilby is not to be familiar with
current literature. is not to talk current
| taik-in word, is not to be up to date
IRON any point of view. Hypnotism Is our
nd,of-the-century fetish. Scientific men
| sions boast of 1t, criminals make use of it,
the law regards it, the timid are afraid of
| II, the weak are overcome by it, and the
skeptical. of course. they scott at it. Just
cared skepticism declared the earth stood
still, and it stood still for them there are
today persons who settle the question of
hypnotism In the same way, so far as they
are concerned.
How Do You Know:
man takes me out to dinner In my
little, childish way. I begin to talk hypno-
tism, and one Of these skeptics comes at
me with, Now, how do you know there Is
| anything in hypnotism? I never saw any
body hypnotized, did your
In vain do I modestly reply that I'm no
woEshiper Of a golden calf-I don't have to
have authorities like Liehault Braid
Bernheim, &c, produce fire from heaven
before my eyes to establish faith in my
| ing about
Then the skeptic, who has possibly read
| paper on hypnotism before a Chautau-
quan circle in Oshkosh. Wis. or perhaps the
| Club OF kalamazoo, Mich, tells me, with
a snippy toss of her short hair that Prof.
So-and-So of the Royal Academy of Okla
| homa has just published a treatise show
ing all those foreign hypnotists to be
| frauds.
Very WELL" say; "there are others
Dr. Hammond and Thomson Jay Hudson
of our very own town.
She'll not believe them, either-she won't
believe anybody until somebody hypno-
ties her.
They do hypnotic animals. know and
l suppose length of ears offers no obstacle.
| At all events, 1t was to do up creatures
| like this that 1 determined to train for q
| hypnotist myself.
| With Fear and TremblinS.
| II you think I went into this matter
blithe and brisk, you were never more mis-
taken in your life. I'm enough of an angel
that I at least tread cautiously and re-
specially where fools rush in.
| I am profoundly convinced that hypno-
tism Is no joke. If it does no more than
make mock Of the power of the human
will. I think that is bad and frightful
| enough, and thatjt does In any degree SUBJ
| ject the mind and body of person whose
| will is held in allegiance to the will of an
other-name what sort of drunkenness and
debauchery you may; to my mind it is moth
|
hypnotism. Besides, an adept of India,
one who Iningles freely with the invisible
aEd-so 1t is said-puts off the finite and
puts on the infinite, just as we undress
vested with such authority has told me
perfectly awful things that the majority
don't know about hypnotism-I really
haven't drawn good free breath since.
and deadly bacteria! They're silly COM
pared with the unseen enemies that assail
us from every point in space. You might
| think that person might go into hypno-
tism and be on the safe side so long as he
| did the hypnotizing. But If you think that,
you are not up on hypnotism. Thomson
Jay ia Hudson SON. whose fs recently developed
lished him as an authority on hypnotism
in this country and abroad, in making the
discoveries on which his law is based
manifestations of hypnotism are obtained
| the operator hypnotizes himself at the
same time that he hypnotizes his subject.
| DR.. Braid who was the originator of the
a would-be hypnotizer thus involuntarly
turned his powers on himself. He says:
"After my lecture at the Hanover
Square rooms. London. on the 1st Of March.
| was along with me, that he was most anx-
ious to see me. that 1 might try whether
| could hypnotic him. He said both him
self and friends were anxious he should
| nor others who had tried him could sue
| coed. Mr.. Walker said: If that Is what
you want as Mr.. Braid is engaged other
wise,sit down and will hypnotic you my
| self in a minute When I went into the
room, I observed what was going on. the
gentleman sitting staring at Mr.. Walkers
finger, who was standing a little to the
right of the patient. with his eyes fixed
steadily on those of the latter. I passed
on and attended to something else and
when 1 returned little after found Mr..
Walker standing in the same position. fast
asleep, his arm and finger in state of
| cataleptiform rigidity, and the patient wide
awake and staring at the finger all the
| while"
| Thus did both seer and scientists in
| form me what to expect on turning hypno-
| fist. But I would not be r-r-real woman
| If I did not care less for both these SUI
preme authorities than I do for my own
| intuitions, which further disturbed me with
| dread I have not seen written down in
| books.
To contemplate entering upon relation
| with chance people by which my will and
| theirs, my mind and theirs, would be some
| how mixed up-really it was nauseating to
| me.
| Preparing for the Test.
1