ARTIFICIAL SOMNAMBULISM OR HYPNOTISM.

The phenomena of somnambulism are of apparently spontaneous origin, during ordinary sleep. But from the remotest antiquity it has been known that certain persons may be thrown into an artificial sleep which closely resembles the condition of the somnambulist. Such a degree of susceptibility is not common to all persons. Heidenhain, experimenting upon his class of medical students, found only one in twelve who was thus susceptible. My own experiments lead me to think that American medical students are less easily influenced in this direction. Charcot, whose field of observation covers the inmates of the SalpÊtriÈre Hospital, finds the best examples of the hypnotic state among the hystero-epileptic females in that asylum. To the experiments of Heidenhain, in Germany, of Braid, in England, and of Charcot, in France, we are indebted for the most thoroughly scientific observation and interpretation of the phenomena of hypnotism.

The antecedent physical condition most favorable to the development of the hypnotic state is a highly unstable constitution of the nervous system. For this reason the larger number of qualified subjects is furnished by the female sex—especially by those who possess the hysterical temperament. Frequent repetition of hypnotic exercises renders the subject still more susceptible. Heidenhain was, at first, inclined to the belief that such experiences were not prejudicial to the health of the subject, but the observations of Harting, in the University of Utrecht, and of Milne-Edwards, in Paris,[91] have demonstrated the fact of danger to the health of animals subjected to similar experiments. Hysterical patients have often exhibited considerable exhaustion after hypnotic exhibition in the hospitals of Paris (Charcot and Richer), consequently, it cannot be admitted that the practice is devoid of risk to the health of the individual.

Numerous methods of inducing the hypnotic state have been employed. The greater number consist in artificial modification of the condition of the brain through the agency of sensory impressions originated upon the periphery of the body. The simplest form of such influence is presented by the results of gentle friction of the skin with the palm of the hand or the tips of the fingers. Many an aching head has thus been relieved, many a restless sufferer soothed to sleep. In like manner, a susceptible subject may be hypnotized by any continuous and gentle excitement of the senses of sight, hearing, and touch. Concentration of the attention upon a brilliant object, like a piece of polished metal or a small mirror, especially if it be placed a little above the level of the eyes, and so near that considerable convergence of the eyeballs is necessary for distinct vision, affords a very efficient means of inducing artificial somnambulism. Certain persons may be readily hypnotized by gently pressing the eyelids together, and at the same time making slight pressure upon the eyeballs. Others pass into this condition by merely closing their eyes, and remaining motionless in a quiet room.

The phenomena of artificial somnambulism are frequently developed through the agency of impressions derived directly from the sphere of consciousness. The intellectual effort of trying to sit still and think of nothing is sometimes sufficient to induce the hypnotic state. The ordinary devices by means of which wakeful people are taught to beguile sleep, by counting, or by repeating long lists of names, etc., all belong to this category. Compulsory attention to any continuous intellectual process, like adding up a column of figures, or trying to read a dull book, is sometimes effectual. If, with these, or with similar acts of attention, be associated the expectation that something unusual is about to occur, as when the individual is aware of being the subject of an experiment, the evolution of the somnambulic condition is greatly facilitated. Thus, one of the most recent methods, consists in merely sitting, for half an hour or more, with the back towards the patient. Attention, curiosity, and expectation, are thus excited, and a susceptible person soon begins to manifest some of the numerous and various forms of the hypnotic state. Heidenhain caused one of his students thus to go to sleep in broad daylight, by simply assuring him that he should hypnotize him from a distance at a particular hour of the afternoon. The monks of Mt. Athos were accustomed to hypnotize themselves by fixing their eyes and their thoughts upon the navel; hence the reputation of omphaloscopy as an aid to ecstatic meditation.

The duration of hypnotic sleep is as variable as that of its prototype in natural somnambulism. The patient usually wakes spontaneously, after a few minutes or hours. Sometimes, however, the period of insensibility is greatly prolonged. If it be desirable to awaken the subject of experiment, a simple reversal of the movements by which sleep was induced may suffice. The paroxysm may be terminated by almost any sudden and energetic appeal to the senses, like an electric shock, a sudden illumination of the eye with vivid light, or a sharp puff of air upon the face.

The simplest phenomena connected with the hypnotic state are those transferences of cerebral perceptions which have been investigated by the Society for Psychical Research.[92] Certain sensitive persons, when blindfolded, are capable of reproducing with considerable accuracy visual images that have been impressed upon the mind of another. The sensitive subject is blindfolded and placed before a table with pencil and paper. Another person then goes out of the room, and gazes at some kind of drawing, geometrical figure, or other object selected without possibility of collusion with the subject of experiment. This person then returns to the room, and places his hand upon the head of the subject, at the same time fixing his attention upon the mental picture of the object. Presently the blindfolded subject takes the pencil and reproduces on paper a rough drawing of the object in question. In some cases it is found possible to effect this transfer of impressions without actual physical contact,—the agent merely standing behind the sensitive subject and concentrating his thought upon the selected object. Closely akin to this is the method of muscle-reading, popularly known as mind-reading. The sensitive is blindfolded, and then presses against his forehead the hand of the person by whom he is to be guided. Almost immediately a tremor pervades his muscles, and he yields all his movements to the guiding influence of the individual with whom he is in contact. If now an object be concealed in any place that is known to the agent, the concentration of that person’s attention upon the hiding place suffices to direct the “mind-reader,” who immediately drags his companion to the given locality.

The explanation of these phenomena consists in a recognition of the fact that certain persons are gifted with nervous organs which are sensitive and responsive to nervous impulses and muscular movements that are too delicate for recognition by the percipient apparatus of ordinary mankind. The more complicated forms of artificial somnambulism result from the complication and exaggeration of the results of this inordinate sensitiveness through the agency of artificial sleep. As in natural somnambulism, so in the hypnotic state, certain organs become totally anÆsthetic, while the sensibility of others is wonderfully exalted. Cutaneous sensation may be completely abolished, and the patient may become utterly insensible to every painful impression. The reflex functions may be either suppressed or exaggerated, and the special senses of sight and hearing may be exalted to the highest degree. While in this condition the hyperÆsthetic condition of the brain renders the subject peculiarly susceptible to impressions from the will of another, so that all his actions are obedient to the guiding influence of the person under whose control he has passed.

According to Charcot,[93] three principal types of artificial somnambulism may be remarked among the hysterical subjects upon whom he experimented: (1) the cataleptic, (2) the lethargic, and (3) the somnambulic. Of these the first may be developed primarily by any abrupt and powerful impression upon a sensory organ. Gazing upon a brilliant light, fixing the eyes upon a piece of polished metal, or upon the shining eyes of a second person, the sudden clangor of a Chinese gong, may suffice to induce the cataleptic state. Dumontpallier[94] reports the case of a young woman who accidentally hypnotized herself by gazing into the mirror before which she was dressing her hair. This cataleptic state may also be secondarily induced by merely opening the eyes of a patient in whom a condition of hypnotic lethargy has been previously developed. If only one eye be thus opened, the corresponding side of the body alone becomes cataleptic. Closing the eyes causes the disappearance of this symptom, with complete restoration of the purely lethargic state. During the cataleptic condition the several tendinous reflexes disappear, neuro-muscular hyper-excitability ceases, the skin becomes insensible, but the special senses, particularly those of sight and hearing, maintain a partial activity. In this half-awakened state the senses may become avenues of suggestion from without for the production of movements; but, if left to themselves, the limbs remain motionless.

The lethargic state may be induced by simply pressing together the eyelids of the subject, or by causing him to fix his gaze upon some definite object. The paroxysm begins with a deep inspiration, causing a peculiar laryngeal sound, followed sometimes by the appearance of a little foam on the lips. The eyelids are either wholly or partially closed, and are in a state of continual tremulous motion. The eyeballs are generally turned upwards and inwards. The muscles are completely relaxed. The tendinous reflexes are exaggerated; pressure over a muscle, or upon a nerve, arouses a peculiar contracture of synergic muscles and groups of muscles that are supplied by the excited nerve trunk. The facial muscles, however, do not thus become contractured; they merely contract during the application of the stimulus. If the lethargic subject be rendered cataleptic by opening the eyes, these contractures persist even after waking; and they can only be dispelled by renewing the lethargic state before resorting to pressure upon the antagonistic muscles—the process by which contractures peculiar to this species of lethargy may always be annulled. By the approach of a magnet to a contractured limb, the rigidity may be completely transferred to the corresponding muscles upon the opposite side of the body. If upon a limb of a lethargic subject who has been rendered cataleptic by opening the eyes, an Esmarch’s band be applied, pressure over the bloodless muscles excites no contracture until the band is removed. A contracture is then developed, and it may be transferred to the opposite limb by the approach of a magnet. To this phenomenon has been applied the term latent contracture.

The extraordinary muscular excitability manifested by these subjects is further illustrated by an observation recorded by Dumontpallier.[95] If one end of an India rubber tube, half an inch in diameter, and five or six yards in length, be applied over a muscle in the leg, and if the other end be in like manner connected with a watch, every movement of the second hand will be followed by a slight contraction in the muscle. The same result follows connection with the wire of a telephone; and, if a microphone be introduced into the circuit, the incidence of a ray of light upon the instrument, or even its reflection from the conjunctival surface of the eye of a spectator, will arouse a responsive muscular contraction. Charcot has also seen muscular motion upon the opposite side of the body when a mild galvanic current was applied to the parietal surface of the skull, presumably over the motor centres of the corresponding half of the brain.

During these manifestations of muscular hyper-excitability, there is complete insensibility to pain, but the senses of sight and hearing seem to preserve some degree of activity. The subject, however, does not often exhibit any susceptibility to influence by suggestion.The somnambulic state may be directly induced by fixed attention with the eyes, by feeble and monotonous excitement of the senses, by passing the hands over the face and arms of the subject, and by many other processes of analogous character. This variety constitutes the ordinary form of hypnotic sleep. It may be very easily developed during either the lethargic or the cataleptic state as a consequence of pressure or of gentle friction upon the top of the head. Thus Heidenhain, in the course of his experiments, caused muscular paralysis by rubbing the scalp. Friction of one side of the head occasioned paralysis of the opposite side of the body without notable affection of the consciousness of the subject. The eyes and the eyelids behave as in the lethargic state. The subject seems to be asleep, but there is less muscular relaxation than in the lethargic variety. There is no exaggeration of the tendinous reflexes, and muscular hyper-excitability is absent. But by lightly touching or breathing upon the surface of a limb, its muscles may be thrown into a condition of rigidity which differs from the contracture of the lethargic state, in the fact that it does not yield to excitement of the antagonistic muscles, though yielding readily to a sudden repetition of the same form of excitement by which it was originally produced. Thus a subject under my own observation who, by pressure upon the eyeballs, was rendered insensible to every form of painful stimulation, would immediately pass into a state of perfect rigidity, if his limbs and body were rubbed for a few seconds with the palm of the hand. While in this condition, if the heels were placed upon a chair and the back of the head upon another, not only could the entire weight of the body be thus supported, but also the additional weight of another full-grown man, sitting upon his body, without causing any more yielding than if it had been a log of wood that was lying across the chairs. From the immobility of the cataleptic state this rigidity differs by its greater degree of resistance to passive motion. Though insensibility to pain may be perfectly developed in this state, there is generally an exalted condition of certain forms of cutaneous sensibility, and of the muscular sense. Strange perversions of other special senses are sometimes remarked. Thus, Cohn[96] discovered that a patient who was naturally color-blind, was able, when unilaterally hypnotized, “to distinguish colors which were otherwise undistinguishable.” Conversely, when the cataleptic state is induced, the healthy eye becomes incapable of discerning colors. Spasm of accommodation is also present, and is one of the earliest demonstrable symptoms of the hypnotic condition.

These remarkable exaggerations and perversions of sensibility have been the cause on the one hand, of much skepticism regarding the verity of the phenomena of hypnotism, and, on the other, of much credulity, extending even to a belief in the existence of supernatural and miraculous powers. The extraordinary character of these experiences is well illustrated by the following letter from Lieut. J. M. Brooke, of the United States Navy, to President Wayland, of Brown University. It may be found in “Wayland’s Intellectual Philosophy.”

Such clairvoyance is very rare; in fact, it is difficult, at first thought, to believe in its existence. Nor should its alleged possession be credited in any instance until all possibility of deception has been excluded. The example just related seems to be, in this respect, one of the best, for the reason of its occurrence in a little group of men whose isolation and thorough acquaintance with each other must have reduced the chances of simulation to the lowest degree. When carefully considered, moreover, it is apparent that the exaltation of the functions of sight and of hearing in this case was not different in kind or in degree from that that has already been recorded in connection with certain cases of natural somnambulism and of dreaming. The condition of the brain is probably identical in all such instances; it is the mode of its induction that is subject to variation. The remarkable feature of the hypnotic state consists in its production at the pleasure of either the subject or of the agent under whose control he has passed; whereas the phenomena of natural somnambulism and of the clairvoyant dream occur only during sleep, and independently of the will of the patient.

Another singular fact in this connection is the receptivity of the hypnotized brain for suggestions from the minds of other persons. Usually, the patient is insensible to all communications which do not emanate from the agent by whom he is held in control; but in certain cases it is probable that the brain is more or less open to impressions of a particular sort from any source. Numerous examples illustrate the manner in which the course of an ordinary dream may be thus directed. The hypnotic dream is far more easily modified by suggestions from without. The simplest examples of this are exhibited by the hypnotized subject who walks, jumps, lies down, executes every variety of pantomime, in obedience to the commands of his director. Somewhat more complicated are the actions that are developed through excitement of the imitative faculties. Every movement of the director that can be perceived by the subject will be at once reproduced. Dr. Fischer relates[97] the case of a patient who, although exceedingly ignorant of the art of music, was able, during the hypnotic paroxysm, to sing with Jenny Lind all kinds of songs, so accurately that it was impossible to distinguish their separate voices. Expression of the various emotions and passions may also be provoked by merely placing the subject in the several attitudes characteristic of such feelings.

In the lower grades of the hypnotic state, consciousness is not abolished, and the subsequent recollection of events during the experience may be quite perfect. In such cases illusions and hallucinations, that were excited by suggestions from the controlling mind of another, survive in memory, and become the causes of serious delusion. Witness, for example, the manner in which excitable people, partially hypnotized in a so-called “spiritual circle,” believe in the reality of the illusions which have occupied their powers of perception during a “seance.” To this inferior grade of self-induced hypnotism belong all those conditions of sensory hyperÆsthesia by means of which certain persons are enabled to read the hidden thoughts of others. This capacity is, essentially, a mere exaltation of that power which all mankind shares in a greater or less degree. In every instance it has been remarked that the ordinary “medium” can only respond correctly to questions for which the true answer is present in the mind of the questioner. To all other interrogatories the replies are delivered purely under the influence of random suggestion. In some cases the pathway of communication lies through actual bodily contact, as in ordinary “mind-reading,” where the invisible molecular oscillations of the muscular elements of one person serve to guide the perceptions and movements of another. But, more frequently, the transmission of ideas is effected through the action of the facial and ocular muscles. From these organs of expression the “table-rapper,” or the “planchette-writer,” reads the unspoken thoughts of the questioner, in a manner very like, yet vastly more delicate than that by which deaf mutes are taught to interpret the movements of the lips of persons with whom they converse. This fact is clearly illustrated by the experience of Maury,[98] in an interview with a celebrated table-rapper who, without the slightest hesitation, made known to him the age, name, and date of death of a brother whom he had lost. She also gave the same information regarding his father, and pronounced the names of other persons upon whom he had fixed his attention. But, if he turned away his face, or if he concealed his eyes so that the woman could no longer scrutinize their expression, her responses became entirely uncertain and destitute of conformity with fact.

The induction of the hypnotic state, if not too often repeated, is sometimes of considerable service in the relief of various functional disorders of a painful character. This fact, enthusiastically announced, many years ago, by Dr. Braid, has recently been freshly brought forward through the experiments of Fischer,[99] Wiehe,[100] Rieger,[101] and others. In our own country this method of treatment has not yet been adopted by many in the medical profession, though its efficacy in a particular class of cases is not denied. Outside of professional circles, however, it is exploited to a considerable extent under the strange misnomer of Metaphysical Healing. But, as De Watteville has truly remarked,[102] “the time is near when the curative influence of hypnotism will be submitted to the same scrutiny as its physiological and psychological import has undergone.”

THE END.