The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-12
HYPNOTIC EXPERIMENTS
CURIOUS MANIFESTATION OF SUB
LINIINAL CONSCIOUSNESS.
Three Personalities Observed in One
Woman by DIR. Prince, of Boston
lin support of CharcOt.
New York Sun.

! New York Sun.
Following out the experiments in the
study of sublime consciousness made ia
/ nous by DR.. Charcot of the Salpetiere
/ School in Paris. Dr. Morton Prince, of Bos-
! ton has made the past year a series of Curl
/ Gus experiments in hypnosis with results of
| considerable scientific value. These studies
| he embodied in a paper entitled. An Elk
| perimental Study of Visions" which was
read before the New York section of the
Society of Psychical Research at Columbia
| University Library last night. DR.. Prince
himself was absent.
Dr. Prince made a series Of experiments
upon a patient whom he called Miss X.
Miss X is a young woman of high nervous
| sensitiveness and has been under treatment
for ELECTROMAGNETIC ailments. like
many persons of similar temperament she
is highly susceptible to hypnotic influences
! and under hypnosis develops two PERSONAL
| ties distinct from each other and from her
! normal self. Moreover, she has the semi
! hypnotic faculty of projecting visions from
| her mind into crystal ball. Crystal gaz-
! ing" which has been made the basis OF so
| much spurious spiritualism, is in reality
| form of self-hypnotization. So readily sus-
ceptible was Miss X to this form of control
| that she beheld visions while still possessed
of her normal self and able to describe
! clearly her sensations, though in a state of
absorption, where frequent promptings and
| questionings, such as What do you see?"
GO on" and What neXt?' we're necessary
to keep her steady in her explanations of
what she saw. The notable feature OF these
experiments, however, is that in almost all
cases the visions were substantiated and ex-
planned by the subconsciousness.
For the purpose of clearness DR.. Prince
considers his hypnotic subject as three dis
! tinct persons.
1. The normal Miss X, a young woman of
pleasant and kindly disposition, dign4fied and
courteous. Miss Y is still Miss X when under
the influence of the crystal visions, though
there is doubtless a slight degree of hypno-
sis. (Charcot used what he termed the
| first degree of hypnosis to induce the Vi
! sions which DR.. Prince induces by the crys-
| tai bal)
! 2 A secondary self of Miss X induced by
! hypnosis and called x 2, self-conscious and
! conscious also of the existence OF Miss y.
! This self is languid and inert, very differ
! ent character from the normal Miss X.
! 1t proved of little value in the experiments.
S. A tertiary self, induced by deeper
! condition of hypnosis, and called X g. X 3
| is ViVacious, daring and qulck-Wltted, and
exhibits a malicious delight in mishaps
| conscious and wildly conscious OF the eX-
| istence and doings of Miss X, who. she de-
! claTeS, Is an entirely Ql1erent person from
herself * 81. She refers always to Miss x
/ as she" X she refers TO as Miss y
asleep. 8, and not X 2 IS always the =, ex x
| palmer of Miss KS visions, X being able to
remember only parts of each.
SHE SAW HERSELF.
DR.. Prince cites at length a score of ex-
periments establishing perfectly the identity
! of the three characters in one personality,
a few of which are here given. Looking in
the crystal ball one day Miss X described
vision of herself standing in field over
looking the
"A young man comes across lots from the
street" she said. He looks angry. He
| has just left Miss in the street. He looks
almost insane" QIere she exhibited signs
of alarm. Pressed to go on, she continued)
! He takes out letters and tears them up.
| Now he has his watch in his hand and
brushes that He is like man out of his
mind.
On Withdrawing her gaze from the globe
! Miss X remembered having seen the young
man some years before at the place indi-
! Gated. He had left a friend of hers Miss Y
and walked across the fields, When he came
I near he spoke to her, but she could not re-
member that he looked insane and she was
positive that she had not seen him tear up
the letters or crush his watch. BY hypnosis
she was then brought to the personality of
j X 2 X 9 remembered that the Young man
looked very fierce, and thought that he had
crushed his watch X 3, the state of hypno-
sis being deepened, remembered the whole
iilSllSI at once.
He came out there looking very fierce
| He did tear up the letters and crush his
| watch, but she Miss ~ didn't see him do
! 1t. Her back was turned. When she turned
! around again he stopped tearing up the let
! ters, and, as soon as she turned back fin
! ished up and then held his watch i'm his
I him.
There was no way to verify this story, but
Ut. Prlnce because or the SOUND basis for
! many other visions, takes it to be true. 1t
! is suggested that the act of tearing the let
/ tiers was not seen by direct vision, but by
| peripheral vision, and was not recorded on
! the conscious brain, but on the subconscious
! brain in which the subliminal selves exist
! Similarly the noise of the crushing of the
! watch was heard but not recorded in con
! scloUs memory. On the other hand these
! supposed actions may have been merely in
fterentlal on the part Of \ 3, the inference
| being drawn from the insane" appearance
| OF the young man, not noted by the nor
NAL Miss X
| Another experiment, and one which
proved the accuracy of the vision, was made
shortly after Miss X was hypnotized and be-
came X B. and X in a particularly mali
clouS mood, for she laughed heartily over
mishap of Miss X, who, she said, had torn
! up some bank notes in the street and
thrown them away. In fit of absent-mind-
/ edness she had mistaken the bank notes, X
said for note from photographer rela-
! tive to some pictures and a better joke she
added hadn't come to her notice for a long
DR.. Prince asked Miss x:
Have you received note from a pho
YES" was the reply. "I got one few
days ago"
Where is it?"
Il tore it up yesterday.Y
Are you sure you tore it up?"
yes I'm very sure"
Look in your pocket"
TORE UP THE MONEY.
A search resulted in her finding the note
in her purse; also that two SO bills were
missing. She was much chagrined at the
loss of the money. DR. Prince sT0oestad
that she set her mind on the money and try
the crystal In a few minutes she described
herself as walking down Washington street
and taking the note and bills from her
pocket. They were folded up much alike.
To her great distress she saw herself put the
note back in her pocket and tear up the
bills. There is, of course, an element Of hyp-
motto suggestion in this case Of crystal vi
sion, but the sequel is free of that faint