Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 12.djvu/432

 FURTHER PROBLEMS OF HYPNOTISM. (ll.) 419 Smith's hand was effective on a finger which had just proved insensitive to pretty vigorous pricks, and would not therefore be likely to be extraordinarily hypersensitive to warmth. Now here what hypotheses are left as alternatives to that of direct influence ? May the idea of the selected finger be conveyed to some ' unconscious ' part of the ' subject's ' mind by thought-transference, and there produce an expectation of anaesthesia and rigidity which works out the appropriate results ? This seems excluded by the fact that the physical proximity of Mr. Smith's hand proves to be a necessary con- dition : the effects do not follow if he simply stands and wills their occurrence. Consequently the ' unconscious ' perception will have to include the discerning of the approach or proximity of Mr Smith's hand ; and this, combined with the certainty of the results and the fact that the ' subjects ' have shown little or no aptitude for thought-transference in other forms, is a strong reason for supposing the mode of communication to be physical, not psychical. 1 The alterna- tive, then, to the hypothesis of a direct influence seems to be that an ' unconscious ' discernment through the finger's ordinary sensory apparatus is followed by 'unconscious' expectation of particular physiological results, which in turn is followed by those results. Of this hypothesis I can only say that it seems to me extravagantly im- probable, for three reasons. (1) It attributes to ' un- conscious ' expectation an effect which conscious ex- pectation cannot bring about. I have on a good many occasions led the ' subjects ' to believe that a particular finger was being operated on, when it was not; but no change in its condition ever ensued. Still, I would not press this particular point too far ; as we are not justified in assuming an exact similarity between the capacities of the conscious and ' unconscious ' divisions of the mind. A more serious objection is (2) that even in the ' unconscious ' mind expectations cannot form without some grounds ; and before confidence was established by experience, the ' sub- jects ' were much more likely to expect that they would feel the very sharp inflictions to which their fingers were sub- mitted than that they would not. This specially applies to a female ' subject ' of very nervous temperament, who had no acquaintance with the physical phenomena of hypnotism, and who was ready to shriek at the very idea of a prick on 1 The particular sense in which I use these words, and the word * un- conscious,' was explained in my last paper.