Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1897-08-06
ILLUSION OF DEATH.
4 MASSACHUSETTS, hYPNOTjsT,s
SURPRISING EXPERIMENT.

Death ~ the Electric Chair-Rigid ~
Two thousand Volts Had Besn Passsd
Through His Body.
The innate craving on the part Of many
people for something new and startling,
says the North Adams MASS. correspond
mt Of the Springfield Union, has been
abundantly satisfied In the Vicinity Of
North Adams recently by tho feats of a
professor Of hypnotism who has been CIV
Ing exhibitions there. *
Most sensational Of all is the 30 called
slectrocution test, In which the subject is
supposedly made to believe that ha is IN
dergoing death by electric shocks. The
process 10 thus described BY one who has
witnessed It:
"The sensitive on whom the doctor per-
forms this test Is Mr.. Dolly, husband Of
the hypnotic sleeper who passed % hours
In motionless slumber In Weber Bros. ,
window. The sensitive simply seats him.
,elf on large chair in the middle Of the
stage, and the doctor begins his operations,
after assuring the audience that no one
need fear the result of the test because he
knows just what he can do with the sensi-
tive. After this assurance to the audience
the sensitive is put to sleep evidently in
tho usual hypnotic way by passes over tie
head and pressure on the eyeball
"a few additional manipulations Of
chatting the sensitive's hands and passes
on the shoulders and knees seem to CON-
plete the preparation. A manipulation
only understood by the hypnotist, and a
peculiar one, is the bending forward Of
the sensitive's head and with some strength
pulling along on the sensitive's neck to-
ward the head, as II to accomplish a dis
location. Similar pressure is applied un-
der the lower jaw, and the face muscles go
through slight massagelike treatment.
"The sensitive is in a hypnotic sleep
during these manipulations. and when
they are completed he Is ordered to open
his eyes and fix them on the doctor. Care
Is evidently taken that the sensitive is able
to look f1xedly at the doctor without any
relaxing Of the gaze or dropping Of the
eyelids. The doctor then tells the sensi-
tive that he has electric wires In his hands
with which he can kill him If he chooses.
This announcement to the sensitive is
made in a very firm tone, q tone Of un-
mistakable authority, as If the full power
to do rested behind the declaration. The
sensitive then sits in very natural posi-
ton, the hands up toward the chest as If
grasping in each an eleotrode, and looking
very intently on the man who has just said
he had the power to kill him.
1.-THE unconscious sensitive-thatis Is, un
conscious to his natural self, but keenly
conscious to his new self developed by the
hypnotist-lets his eyes follow his execu-
toner as he steps back a few PAGES from
him and then makes q tigerlike spring to-
ward him, plunging bis arms forward and
downward as If he were impelling some
invisible force into the condemned man.
At the first of these springs the man per-
ceptibly trembles, at tho second he quivers,
as If slight current agitated his frame,
and at the third or fourth the muscles CON-
vulse, the face becomes red, then changes
to blue. the head Is thrown back rigidly,
the eyes take on a deathlike store and seem
to be fathomless, the whole frame Is shak
On with muscle rending commissions and
the man bounds from his seat to the floor
as If he were in horrible death agony.
His whole frame becomes as fixed and
rigid as If 2,OOO volts had all his nerves
and muscles in their command. The
breath comes heavy and slow, and the
whole appearance Of the man is one Of in
tense strain in every part. The fingers are
curved and bent, as II no joint held It's
place, and the man appears as II he were
bound in tragic rigor mortis.
"The test is'then at its height, and after
the doctor calls attention to its peculiar
phases few passes and word or two
brings the sensitive back to earth, and he
steps, smiling, to the front of the stage
with the doctor, not remembering his ter
rible nightmare, If it ever registered itself
on his BRAIN"