The Irish standard., 1906-08-04
THE PHEN0!MENA
Some of the Phases of Mes
mer ism Described.
Origin Of Hypnotism Traced to
Highest antiquity.

notist making pass" on his subject
The early Greek physicians are know
to have used animal magnetism or
their patients and the Pythonesses O.
the pagan temples were adopts in thi.
art. In the Orient, the fakirs of India
and the dervishes among the Moham.
medans perform until this day the mos
wonderful feats. says Rev. John 3. Els
in the Catholic Columbian.
During the Middle Ages Il body OF
heretics called the Omphaloscopi, who
practiced this superstition, We're con.
demned by the Church. AS ,hei,
name indicates. they looked at theil
d by concentrating their at.
tention on this one subject, they fel
into a trance.
Frederick Anthony Messmer, bor1
at Ignanz on the lake OF Constance
in 1888 published his discovery of ami
NAL magnetism. 1915.
He operated by passes" is tc
say, by passing his hands in certain,
ways over the nerve centers of his
subjects. He also used chemicals, fo,
instance, iron filings submerged in
acid solutions producing electrical
currents. In this manner he produced
sleep and afterwards all kinds OF
phenomena. whose sum total is called
mesmerism
A Catholic priest. Able Faria COM
iny from India to France, about
1915. produced the same effects by q
simple command.
An Englishnan. Doctor Braid, of
Manchester. is credited with the dis
e"very of hypnotism proper in 1S41
He produced the phenomena Of mes
merism by suggestions and by fixing
the gaze and thereby absorbing the
mental activity of Il person on one
aud the same object for some time
as. for instance. on Il white door knob
in dark rOom as the spiritualists
do when they are sitting for develop
nlent
At present hypnotists combine all
methods; they work by passes" by
animal magnetism. by absorbing at
tention. by suggestion. and by charm
ing through gazcs.
The theory Of hypnotism is based
on the fact that one function of the
soul can be unduly developed ut the
expense of all the Others Thus ALI
mentation is promoted most during
sleep. while the sensitive and intel
ectual life is partly suspended.
Strong intellectual activity prevents
good alimentatiOn: hence great think
erS are known by their lean and
hungry looks"
The process of developing psychi-
cal faculties is, as every educator
knows, a very slow one, but when
once obtained the results are perma-
nent.
With the hypnotist this order of
things is to be unnaturally quickened
and the results are obtained almost
instantly and lost or wiped out just
as fast.
1t therefore must always be Il vio-
lent process seriously interfering with
the normal union of body and soul
In some performances. as. for in
stance in coma OF lethargy. this dis
t.lrbance is so great that death takes
place while the subject is still in the
hands Of the hypnOtist. In fact, what
ever the hypnotist does is abnormal
contrary to the natural union be-
tween body and soul and produces
cal conditions produced transiently by
the hypnotist. occur as permanent all
ments everywhere and are known to
every physician. They all affec,
especially the nervous system as their
enumeration and description will show
Permanent injury is wrought by rre-
quent hypnotizing and the usual re-
suit is insanity. The best comparison
that can be drawn is that hypnOtisn1
is artificial hysteria, a disease OF grea,
nervous excitability with loss OF power
controlling thoughts and feelings. even
perversion and suspension of intellec-
tual faculties. peculiar to women, bu,
sometimes affecting men, when it Is
called the vapors. 1t initiates nearly
all nervous affections as chorea, cpl
lepsy, catalepsy, tetanus and hydro.
phobia, in one word, it is the mosl
protean of all diseases.
Hypnotism presents the same effects
Its first phenomenon is hypnotic sleep
Natural sleep is a repose and partia
suspension of nervous and muscular
activity. While the voluntary mus
cles. the senses. the perceptive and
intellectual faculties are at rest, the
functions Of respiration, the circula-
ton of the blood, the nutrition of the
body remain. In hypnotic sleep, or
the contrary. an extreme tension OF
the he-nerves and muscles and an undue
activity of the brain is produced.
This sleep is brought about in the
following manner: In the first r)ace
a proper subject, namely Il very nerv-