The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-10-05
Special to The Globe.

Special to The Globe.
ANN ARBOR, Mich, Oct. Can
the plea of hypnotic suggestion be
successfully urged in extenuation of
the commission Of a serious crime?
A very able opinion on this sub
ject is given by DR.. William B. Swan,
of Kansas City, who has given the
subject much mature study AS his
opinion is taken from the professional
side of the question DR.. Swans views
form a useful addition to the medico-
legal side of this important subject:
'"The subjective mind be it remem-
bered, said DR.. Swan, lis the ego, the
real self. 1t is a distinct entity, pos
sessing powers and functions, having a
mental organism of it's own, and being
capable of sustaining an existence in
dependent of the body. It's attributes
and powers are memory, intuition,
emotions, deductive reasoning, and the
control of the physiological functions
of the organism of the body.
'"The memory of the objective mind
is uncertain, but the memory of the
subjective mind is perfect
"ThiS statement is capable of demon
stration. Every one is familiar with
certain incidents, which, at one time
were regarded as wonderful manifesto
tons of psychic phenomena. For in
stance, person, while in the act Of
speaking, may be injured by blow
upon the head so that the cranial bones
are fractured and press upon brain It's
sue. Inconsistencies follows and per-
ha nc CT n
but when the pressure has been remov-
ed the first spoken by the Individual
are words to complete the sentence he
was uttering when injured. Again, an
ignorant servant girl, while delirious,
caused by high fever, was heard to re-
peat whole pages of Greek and Hebrew,
but when conscious did not know
single sentence of either language.
Theory of Girls Act.
'The occurrence was so remarkable
that 1t led to an investigation, and it
was discovered that in the early years
of her life she had been at service with
a family in which the master of the
house was a fine Greek and Hebrew
scholar, and she had often times heard
him reading these languages UNTIL
though unconscious of it, they had be-
memory. In that febrile state the OBJ
jective mind was held in allegiance, but
the subjective mind was in control,
and, it's memory being perfect, the Ian
guage were reproduced. Another prop
erty of the subjective mind is intui-
ton.
'From this brief outline it must be
easily discernible that for the purpose
Of obtaining an intelligent explanation
S,f nj, I iS
that the division of the objective and
subjective minds is an absolute neces-
sity to the understanding of the attrib-
utes, powers and capabilities of each.
"The subjective mind is usually
amenable to control by suggestion. If
the individual is in a true hypnotic
condition he rarely questions the truth
or falsity of any statement made to
him. You may suggest that he is on
the shores of a beautiful lake, abound
ing in fine fish and place in his hand
an imaginary fishing rod. To this he
will respond by at once becoming a de-
voted angler. Similarly you may sug-
gest to him thai he is a tight-rope
walker and give him pole, Whereupon
he will at once commence to go through
all the movements of walking an mag
mary rope You may vary these sug
gestions as much as you please until
you ask the subject to do something
to which his conscience is opposed.
Then he will refuse to obey the COM
rnand.
When Opposition Arises.
but this is true only in a limited
sense and the rule would apply only
to q person whose moral faculties were
we'll developed and whose power of re-
sistance had not been impaired by hav
ing been repeatedly placed in the hyp
motto state. When this condition is
reached it is hard to say that he would
not yield to a suggestion which involv-
ed the committal of crime. Independ-
ent of such situation if you command
the hypnotized person to perform some
act that is opposed to his settled prac-
tice of life-to drink intoXicants, for
instance, when he has made a lifelong
habit of abstaining from them-you
will meet opposition on the subject.
"The term auto-suggestion has been
applied to this opposition power in the
subject. The existence of suggestion
by no means disproves the proposition
that the subjective mind is amenable
to mental suggestions, rather strength
ening the proposition because it
proves positively that the stronger
suggestion will prevail.
'In the study of hypnotic phenomena
this point was long and persistently
overlooked, but it is one Of the most
important principles of the science. 1t
will be easily seen that it acts as a
safeguard to every individual who is
cognizant of moral and legal respon-
sibility.
Il will now give you a brief idea
of how this auto suggestion theory