Many current studies are being made in order to determine the correlation between hypnotizability and mental and personality traits. Perhaps something may eventually come of these efforts.
Most authorities concur that almost 90 per cent of all people can be hypnotized. But my own experience places the effective figure closer to 50 per cent. The remainder fall into three groups: those who cannot be hypnotized; those who require too much time to hypnotize; and those who enter such a light or mild trance that they do not think it has occurred.
Leading texts also agree that one out of every four or five subjects can enter the deepest trance (somnambulism), but I find that fewer than one out of ten can achieve this depth. It may be that classic texts are entirely sound regardless of whether my own experiments show the same results. On the other hand, it is remotely possible that, on some points at least, each authority has accepted the findings of the last authority. If the latter is true, then we need an entirely new experimental investigation of hypnosis.
In regard to the matter of hypnotizability, there are several tests of susceptibility that are quick tip-offs as to what sort of hypnotic subject a person will make. These tests are usually referred to as susceptibility tests, and a favorite is the handclasp test. The subject is asked to clasp his hands together and place them, usually palms out, on top of his head. He is then told that he will notice that his hands will, as the hypnotist counts three, become more tightly locked together. As the hypnotist counts, he makes suggestions to this effect, and on the last count he insists that the hands are so tightly locked together that it will be very difficult for the subject to pull them apart. The response to this little test, which requires about sixty seconds, is ordinarily a direct indication of how good the subject will be. Other quick tests are concerned, in the same fashion, with locking the eyelids, hand levitation, and body swaying.
APPENDIX F
SOME NOTES ON AGE REGRESSION
As to the genuineness of hypnotic age regression, Dr. L. M. Wolberg has this to say:
The consensus at the present time is that regression actually does produce early behavior in a way that obviates all possibility of simulation. This is the opinion of such authorities as Erickson, Estabrooks, Lindner, and Spiegel, Shor, and Fishman. My own studies have convinced me of this fact, although the regression is never stationary, constantly being altered by the intrusion of mental functioning at other levels.1
My own experience is in accord. But I believe that there may sometimes be elements of both fact and artifact during a regression experiment. This business of hypnosis is no cut-and-dried matter.
The literature on this topic is fraught with interesting examples. In one case a forty-five-year-old man was regressed to his third birthday, at which point he violently gasped, wheezed, coughed, and choked. It was obvious to the doctors who were present that the subject was undergoing an attack of asthma. An examining physician reported the presence of a high pulse and rales (a bubbling sound in the bronchi). Later the man’s mother stated that he had had asthma during childhood and that his third birthday had been the occasion of a severe attack.2
Another case concerns a woman whose eyesight had been defective since childhood. She had worn glasses since the age of twelve. During a hypnotic regression, however, she complained that her glasses were uncomfortable. And when her glasses were removed, her vision improved as she was regressed to earlier and earlier levels.
Dr. Robert M. True explored another idea. He asked a group of unhypnotized subjects whether they could remember the day of the week on which their last birthday and Christmas and other events had occurred. Almost none could answer. But the same persons, when hypnotically regressed, could name the day of the week of their tenth, seventh, and fourth birthdays. They could similarly designate Christmas and other events. The large group participating in this experiment gave 82.3 per cent correct answers.3
As to how far back through time a subject can be regressed, it is to be noted that very few researchers have concerned themselves with any sort of prenatal experiments. (There are exceptions; e.g., Dr. Sir Alexander Cannon.) Even so, the work in this field has been most interesting and would seem to call for deeper exploration. Dr. Wolberg writes, “To what earliest period a subject can be successfully regressed is difficult to say with certainty. On one occasion I attempted to regress a somnambulistic subject to the first year of life. The subject was unable to speak, and he exhibited definite sucking and grasping movements.” The type of regression referred to here, of course, was the total or true regression, not the recall type.
Drs. Hakebush, Blinkovski, and Foundillere believe it is possible to utilize regression to a neo-natal state,4 Also, Dr. Nandor Fodor contends that prenatal events are recorded in our memory,5 and Dr. W. Stekel6 states that patients in analysis sometimes recall the experience of having been born.7
APPENDIX G
POST-HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION
The post-hypnotic suggestion is an amazing bit of business. Commands that are in keeping with the individual’s character will usually be carried out even though they are downright silly. On the other hand, unreasonable suggestions that run counter to the fundamental moral character will probably not be acted upon even though the subject has been in the deepest somnambulistic state.
Even after a light trance, simple post-hypnotic suggestions will ordinarily be effective despite the fact that the suggestion is clearly remembered by the subject. If the subject is told, let us say, that he will become aware, after awakening, that his wrist-watch band is irritating his wrist and that the itch will persist until he removes the watch and massages the wrist, he will usually follow through just as instructed. Although he distinctly recalls the suggestion and regards it as rather foolish, he will usually discover, much to his amazement, that his wrist really does itch; he is finally compelled to remove the band and rub his wrist.
The power of the post-hypnotic suggestion depends upon the depth of the trance, the nature of the suggestion itself, the manner in which it was phrased, the technique employed in its deliverance, and the personal reactions of the subject. Consequently, such a suggestion may remain in effect for only a few minutes or it may persist for a lifetime. The latter fact has obvious therapeutic importance.
Another interesting fact is that the subject can be directed to act upon the suggestion, not only immediately after awakening, but many years after awakening. There are countless cases on record in which the post-hypnotic act is to be executed after a long lapse of time, and in these cases the passage of time does not appear to diminish the force of the suggestion. One authority, for instance, reported the case of a person in whom a post-hypnotic suggestion was still potent after twenty years had passed. Another subject, told that he would write a letter to his brother exactly one year from the date of the trance, did exactly that. A famous medical hypnotist recorded the following case:
… A subject was told by myself that exactly two years and two days from the date of trance he would read one of Tennyson’s poems. He complied with this suggestion on that date, having a week before developed a yearning to read poetry. Perusal of the bookshelves of a library caused him to finger through one of Tennyson’s volumes so that he borrowed it. He then placed it on his own desk until the prescribed day when he suddenly found the opportunity to read the poem. He was positive that his interest in Tennyson was caused by a personal whim.1
Their subjects were aware of scences at a time so early athat their infant eyes had not yet focused would tend to suggest that there might be a visual consciousness apart from physical vision.
Two extreme types of post-hypnotic suggestions that may be carried out by somnambulistic subjects are positive hallucinations and negative hallucinations. An example of the positive type, which refers to the subject’s “seeing” a suggested object or scene which is actually not present, is the “television hallucination” which I effected with a very good subject. This person, capable of entering the somnambulistic trance quickly, was
told that after she awakened the television set would be turned on and she would notice that Jack Benny would be clearly visible on the television screen. At that time we did not yet have television in our city; it was due in about one month, but her set had already been installed.
After the subject awakened I walked over and turned on the television set. The screen lighted up, but nothing, of course, appeared; all this time the subject was watching intently. Suddenly she looked over at her husband and exclaimed, “Why, there’s Jack Benny on television!”
“Is that so?” asked the husband. “What’s he doing?”
“Can’t you see?” She was wondering at his blindness while she gestured toward the television set. “He’s talking to Rochester!”
“Well, what is he saying?” asked the startled husband.
“I don’t know; I can’t hear any sounds.” Then she turned to me and asked me whether I wouldn’t please go to the TV set and bring in the sound too. I explained that it would be a mighty good trick if I could do it.
The negative hallucination, which is probably the most fantastic of all, occurs when the subject, as the result of a post-hypnotic suggestion, insists upon being blind to a particular person or object very much within the conscious observation of all other witnesses. Such an instance developed after I told a deep-trance subject that she would observe, upon awakening, that her husband was not wearing a tie. Soon after I wakened her she turned toward her husband, whose bright red tie was probably the most glaring thing in the whole room, and asked, “Darling, how did you get into the restaurant tonight without your tie?”
At this point the husband yanked out his tie so that it lay across the front of his suit coat. “You don’t see my tie?” he asked.
“How can I see your tie if you don’t wear one?” she said, somewhat piqued at what seemed to her a foolish answer.
Many other cases of post-hypnotic negative hallucinations are reported, but probably the most striking are those that concern the “disappearance” of a person in the room.
Let us assume, for instance, that there are several people in a room, including the hypnotist, the subject’s wife, and the subject. The latter is told, during a somnambulistic trance, that his wife will be absent from the room after he awakens, that she had left the room while he was sleeping and will definitely not be present when he awakens. After the husband awakens he will look around the room and see everyone but his wife, even though she is still sitting in the same place. He will probably ask, “What happened to my wife?” It is explained that she has left the room and will return later. She can then walk around the room at will, but the husband will still fail to take notice of her. If she moves a table or drops a book, the husband will be alarmed at the curious behavior of the animated table or book. Furthermore, should she start smoking a cigarette, the husband may exclaim, “You may think I’m crazy, but I actually see a lighted cigarette moving through the air all by itself.”
An interesting incident, demonstrating the compulsive nature of the post-hypnotic suggestion, developed one night after an experiment. I told the subject, who was engaged in a dual hypnosis test, that he would ask, after he awakened, for a sheet of my stationery, as he would want to write a friend in California later that night, using my stationery. I repeated the suggestion and later awakened him.
As he was very much interested in the experiment in which he had just participated, he promptly joined the rest of us in examining the results of the test he had just taken while under hypnosis. But we hardly had a chance to get started on the scoring when he suddenly asked me for a sheet of stationery. “I want to write a letter to a friend in California later tonight,” he explained, “and I’m not sure that I have stationery at home.”
At this I smiled and pointed out that this had been a post-hypnotic suggestion; I now assured him that he could forget about it, because after all it had been designed only to help determine the depth of his trance.
“Let’s get back to the results of the experiment,” I urged, as we were all anxious to learn the outcome. He should have been particularly anxious to do so, because he had been the best subject and usually was eager to learn whether he was maintaining his high score. Nevertheless, he would not return to the score pads, nor would he permit me to do so. Instead, he pulled me aside, saying, “I want that piece of stationery.”
So once again I explained, this time in considerably more detail, that I had inculcated this desire for stationery during the trance, that it was only a post-hypnotic suggestion, that he should now forget about it, as it would be pointless to carry it out. “Now let’s get back to the tests. After all, these experiments are important.”
As I turned again toward the tests, he grabbed my shoulder and said, “Now look, I’m not kidding. I want that piece of paper and I want it now!”
I finally realized that, test or no test, I had to get this lad his paper—and promptly, too. As soon as I gave him the sheet of stationery he folded it, put it in his pocket, and relaxed. Then he resumed his interest in the experiment.
Later that night he wrote to his friend in California!
The strength of a post-hypnotic suggestion can be increased by repetition during one session, and it can be further reinforced by additional sessions. The cumulative effects, therefore, can expand to overwhelming proportions, an excellent reason why hypnosis can be so powerful from the standpoint of therapy.
There are a few post-hypnotic suggestions that have become standard practice with most hypnotherapists. One is concerned with assuring the subject that all his functioning will be restored to normal after the trance period, that he will feel fine in every respect. Another suggestion is designed to increase the depth of the trance during subsequent sessions; and still another, to set up some signal in the subject’s subconscious which will shorten the time required for inducing the next trance.
As an instance of the latter, the subject may be told that in the future he will enter the trance whenever the hypnotist counts to five and then snaps his fingers twice. This is often further abridged by omitting the counting; the hypnotist merely snaps his fingers and the subject passes at once into the trance state. This is a principle often used by stage performers, who may use as a signal anything from the ringing of a telephone to a picture of Joe Louis.
APPENDIX H
HYPNOTISM AND EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION
There are so many instances of telepathy and clairvoyance which developed with subjects under hypnosis that some of the most famous cases might well be cited here. For instance, Dr. E. Azam, a French physician, found that one of his patients apparently could, when hypnotized, taste substances which Dr. Azam had put into his own mouth. Consequently Azam carried out a series of tests in which he tasted various substances without giving any clues whatsoever to his patient. The astonishing results convinced the doctor that there must have been some inexplicable transmission of sensory experience.
Two experimenters at Cambridge University, taking a considerable amount of precaution to prevent the transmission of cues by any sensory means, attempted the transfer of pain sensations from the hypnotist to the subject. The blindfolded subject was told that the hypnotist, standing behind his subject, would be pinched somewhere on his body. The subject would feel the pain, he was told, in the corresponding part of his anatomy. A striking degree of success was reported.
Several famous cases are concerned with an especially celebrated subject known as Léonie. A day after Léonie had been hypnotized by Dr. Paul Janet she suddenly screamed and rubbed her elbow. It was later shown that the doctor had accidentally burned his elbow at the same instant.
Léonie’s uncanny responsiveness to those who had hypnotized her was further demonstrated by two French physicians, Gilbert and Pierre Janet, when they successfully hypnotized Léonie from a distance of one kilometer (about six tenths of a mile). The doctors attempted, at random times by the clock, to induce a trance in Léonie from this distance. No one in Léonie’s household knew of the plan
, but the housekeeper had been asked to record the times when she went to sleep. Janet reported in his autobiography that there were “sixteen times out of twenty when somnambulism exactly coincided with a mental suggestion made at a distance of one kilometer.”
One of the most electrifying combinations of hypnotism and ESP is the phenomenon known as “traveling clairvoyance.” This is another example of the ability of human perception to transcend time and space. In these cases the entranced subject gives detailed reports of scenes or occurrences at a distance, sometimes a very considerable one. The fabulous Léonie, for instance, was told (in Le Havre) to observe what Dr. Richet was doing at his laboratory in Paris. At this, Léonie became very excited and declared that Richefs laboratory was in flames. A later check confirmed that it had burned to the ground that day.
Two doctors from Sweden have added to the amazing reports of traveling clairvoyance. Years ago Dr. Alfred Backman sent a peasant-girl subject, while she was entranced, to various distant points unfamiliar to both the doctor and his subject. It was claimed, furthermore, that the subject made her “presence” felt by the persons whom she “visited.”
More recently, Dr. John Bjorkhem of Stockholm, a minister-psychologist- physician, has made further contributions to the literature on traveling clairvoyance. This busy explorer of the psychic realm has worked with about three thousand subjects and has performed more than thirty thousand hypnotic experiments. The Parapsychology Bulletin1 describes two of his experiences with traveling clairvoyance as follows:
In one instance of this sort, Dr. Bjorkhem hypnotized the subject, Miss Klaar, and told her to go in her thoughts down from the second floor of the house in which the experiment was taking place onto the first floor and to enter the flat with the name WALGREN on the door. Miss Klaar appeared to act on the suggestion, and although she had never been in the Walgrens’ apartment, she accurately described many of its contents. Among other things she told of the layout of several rooms, noted a mirror mounted in a door and gave its approximate measurements, correctly described the flowered plush covering on a sofa and identified the color of draperies, rug, and books, as well as naming and pointing out the position of half a dozen articles of furniture. When she said she saw a thick album in a dark leather cover on a certain table, Dr. Bjorkhem asked her to open it and look at the photographs.
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