Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/781

Rh but of going to sleep. The subject should be seated in a comfortable position, preferably with his back to the light. The recumbent position is not usually necessary. While the patient's eyes are still fixed, as just described, upon the operator's eyes, the latter says, in a monotonous but distinct tone: "Your eyelids are getting heavy, very heavy. Your eyes are red and moist. You are getting sleepy, very sleepy, very sleepy, Now you are nearly asleep. Your eyelids are shut; you can not open them, because you are asleep, fast asleep. Try as hard as you will, you can not open them. You can not wake up," etc. While these words are being uttered, the lids begin to drop and the eyes really look sleepy, and, if the subject is a good one, the pupils can generally be seen to dilate and contract alternately.

If two fingers of one hand slightly separated be held before the patient's eyes, he rolls his eyes down, following the fingers as they are moved down until the eyelids actually close. When the eyes close the subject is almost asleep, and a few judicious words affirming that he is asleep complete the hypnotizing.

In order to obtain good results it is necessary to watch the subject very carefully. Every sign of submission to the hypnotic influence should be immediately turned to account. Thus, if the eyes are seen to close suddenly, the subject should be at once told that he is asleep and can not wake up. If, instead, the operator adheres to a rigid formula, he may affirm the presence of sleep too soon, and the subject loses confidence, and the trial fails. The great secret of success is to watch closely, and suit the words to the symptoms of sleep as they develop. The importance and the difficulty of doing this well can only be appreciated after trial.

The rationale of this mode of hypnotizing is very simple. It consists essentially in an imitation of the processes of ordinary sleep by means of verbal suggestion. The attention is fixed by making the subject look into the physician's eyes, which thus answer the same purpose as Braid's glass knob. The heaviness of the eyelids, the dryness and subsequent moistness of the conjunctiva, and the gradual approach of somnolence, are natural episodes which usher in ordinary sleep. These we actually bring into existence by acting on the imagination through speech. It is a case of verbal suggestion in the waking state. The skill of the hypnotizer consists in making the subject believe he is going to sleep; that is all. It is not necessary that he should possess any peculiarities of temperament and voice, as has been supposed. Strokes and passes are useless, except in so far as they heighten suggestion. In short, everything lies in the subject and not in the hypnotizer. Nobody can be hypnotized against his will.

The persons who prove most refractory are so because they either consciously or unconsciously resist the operator's influence.