The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-11-02
TEACHES HYPNoTIsM.
c. E. Bascom Gives a Practical DEM
onstraton of its Workings.


onstration of its Workings.
Charles L. Bascom has opened an Of
flee for the instruction of psychology,
hypnotism and personal magnetism at
40 Pearl street. He is an assistant to
William A. Barnes of Boston, who has
been giving instructions in this line for
the past 10 years, and has had thou
sands of pupils. A few days ago Mr..
Bascom gave a private exhibition of his
own powers and explained the practi-
cal benefits to be derived from a knowl-
edge of the science. He is a man of
attractive personality, who seems to
have a thorough knowledge of his work
and to be possessed of the ability to i'm
part 1t to others. Unlike most pro-
fessional hypnotists, he does not claim
suggestion to be a panacea for all
the ills Of humanity, but does claim
that 1T will cure or relieve certain ner-
vous diseases and habits. His object
| is not to doctor, however, but to in
struct with the idea of giving his pu-
pills sufficient knowledge to make them
stronger personally. He claims that
what he calls psychology is of certain
| benefit to the business man, the public
speaker, to physicians and to social
| leaders, in fact, to everyone who has
| to meet other people.
| At the exhibition given he had two
subjects, two young men, one Of whom
had been influenced before meeting Mr.
| Bascom and the other having been in
| fluenced by Mr.. Bascom only three
times before. In starting the subject
/ he sat opposite to Mr.. Bascom and fac
| ing him. He was told to grasp his left
hand with his right and press hard and
| his eyes would stick fast. And sure
enough, they did, and remained stuck
until the hypnotist gave him permission
to open them. Mr.. Bascom then sug-
gested that the younger man would
have no feeling in his arm, and, after
making several passes along the arm
the hypnotist stuck needle through
the flesh, and the subject did not
! vince. When he was allowed to oper
| his eyes, he had no recollection of what
| had happened. The experiments with
this subject ended by making him COM
pletely rigid and placing his head and
| feet on separate chairs.
The second subject was even easier
| influenced than the first and was put
| through nearly the same performance
The Spy man, who was present and
| understood something of the art, was
asked to take charge of the subject. He
1
to try to strike The Spjy mans hand
| first giving the suggestion that he could
not. The subject took the stick in both
hands and struck with all his power
and missed The Spy man WINGED, be-
cause he hadn't very much confidence
| In his own powers. When the subject
found that all his efforts to MAIN The
! Spy man were fruitless, he gave up and
remarked that hypnotism would be g
good thing to use in base ball game
against the other side.
Mr.. Bascom, in explaining what he
| believes hypnotism to be, said that Il
was not a gift but an art, which could
be acquired by any one and that he
was ready to teach whoever applied
provided the person was of good mora
character. He will not give any in.
struction until he is sure of his man
and he will not make his subjects dc
anything to which they object.