Volume 2

Hypnotism and the doctors / [Richard Harte].

  • Harte, Richard.
Date:
1902-1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Hypnotism and the doctors / [Richard Harte]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    becomes unconscious. Very few, however, can be induced to enter the state in any of the above ways, and those who do usually fall into the sleeping condition of this state, and are generally dull, listless, and are seldom good clairvoyants. The most rational, certain, and pleasant way of inducing this state which I have discovered is the following:—When persons are desirous of entering this state I place them upon a chair where they may be at perfect ease. I then request them to close the eyes at once and to remain perfectly calm, at the same time that they let the body lie perfectly still and relaxed. They are next instructed to throw their minds to some familiar place—it matters not where, so that they have been there before, and seem desirous of going again, even in thought. When they have thrown the mind to the place, or upon the desired object, I endeavour, by speaking to them frequently, to keep their mind upon it, viz. : I usually request them to place themselves (in thought) close to the object or person they are endeavouring to see. This must be persevered in for some time, and when they tire of one thing, or see nothing, they must be directed to others successively, as above directed, until clairvoyancy is induced. When this has been effected, the rest of the senses fall into line at once or by slow degrees—often one after another, as they are exercised or not—sometimes only one sense is affected at the first sitting. If the attention of the person is divided, the difficulty of entering the state perfectly is much increased and the powers of each sense, while in this state, will be in propor- tion as that division has been much or little.” He says that several persons whom he had a difficulty with at first have told him that had he not interfered with them in some way they would have got into the state in the first sitting. “This shows,” he says, “that those who do not enter it in one or two sittings must do something to prevent it.” He does not say that the operator must have interfered by unconsciously doing something to prevent it, for it is the subject himself who acts in the matter i— “ As this state is one that depends entirely upon the state of the subject’s mind, and is brought about by an act of his own will and not by that of the operator, it must be evident to