Hypnotism, experiments and lessons, a dangerous power.

Chapter XIX

The science of hypnotism - Early experiments and lessons

• A drink of cider - I convert Isaac Butt - All wrong - A dangerous power.

I have hitherto dealt almost entirely with my recollections of Ireland and Irishmen, but it may not be uninteresting if I insert a brief account of my personal experiences in a science, if it may be so called, which is still full of difficulty and mystery. I have ventured to call it a science, as the study given to it in recent years in France and elsewhere has led to a greater sense of its importance than formerly existed. I refer to hypnotism, or electro-biology, as it was called when I first experimented in it, from its supposed connection with electricity, and with the relation of electricity to human life.

As many people may never have witnessed the extraordinary phenomena connected with it, or may have only seen them at public exhibitions, and consequently believed them to be merely the result of collusion between the exhibitor and some of his audience, I will give some instances of experiments I myself made many years ago, though they have, no doubt, been frequently repeated since by others.

It was over 40 years ago that my attention was first called to the subject. I happened, when in London in 1851, to attend a public exhibition given by a man named Stone, and submitted myself as one of the subjects for his experiments. I found he was able to affect me to some extent, though only as far as my muscular movements were concerned. He could not get further than preventing me from opening or shutting my eyes, or from speaking without stuttering; but a friend who accompanied me was completely under his control. I was so much interested - for I had gone believing that the exhibition was a farce - that I called on Stone a few days afterwards to see whether I could learn anything from him. He gave me a lesson in his method of proceeding, and supplied me with a number of small discs of zinc, about an inch in diameter, with a piece of copper inserted in the centre. One of these was placed in the hand of each subject, who was told to look at it and keep quiet for a short time. The supposition was that these discs had, from their composition, some electric effect. But I subsequently found that they were quite unnecessary, and that any other small object would do as well; in fact, in some cases, especially where the conversation had been for some time on the subject, no preliminary preparation at all was required.

I very soon afterwards began experimenting on my own account. My usual method was to place one of the discs I have mentioned or any small object in the hand of each of the persons to be experimented on, and to ask them to remain quiet for a few minutes - I did not find that more than five minutes was ever required - I then removed the discs and told each subject to close his eyes, and to keep them closed till I returned. As soon as I had removed the disc from the last of them, I returned to the first, and pressing my left hand on his head and holding his hand in my right, I said to him, “You can’t open your eyes; I defy you to open your eyes.” If he opened his eyes without difficulty or evident exertion, I knew at once he would not make a good subject, and went no further with him. I generally found, however, that out of a dozen persons, there were one or two who either could not open their eyes at all or did so with much difficulty. They frequently said it was because I was pressing my left hand so hard on their foreheads. In such cases I at once repeated the experiment without putting my hand to their head, but still holding their hand with mine. They were never able to open their eyes, but often made one more struggle, saying that it was my holding their hand which prevented them. I then repeated the experiment a third time without touching them at all, and invariably with the same result.

I next went on to other experiments, first trying those which only affected their muscular action, such as preventing them from opening their mouths, and making them jump or stand in one spot as long as I wished. When I wanted to permit the subjects to regain their freedom of will, I always said “All right” and it is a curious fact that if, when they were entirely under my influence, I even accidentally happened to ‘say, “All right,” they at once recovered. I frequently found that I could not get beyond these muscular effects, but over the best subjects I was able to obtain such complete mastery, that they at once saw, believed, and did anything I *suggested. *I purposely use this word, for I found that however good the subject or complete my power over him, I could not make him do anything without actual verbal suggestion. I have repeatedly tried with the very best subjects to affect them by the power of my will alone, and never with the slightest success. How great this power of suggestion was, may be gathered from a few instances.

Amongst many good subjects, whom I had found soon after I began experimenting, was a youth, a nephew of Hackett, the well-known fishing-tackle manufacturer in Cork. I had been talking one day on the subject of electro-biology to Father O’Sullivan, whom I have already mentioned under his name of Father Rufus, and he told me he could not believe in the possibility of such phenomena. I asked him to come some day and see me experiment with this youth. A few days afterwards he met me at Hackett’s house, and in his presence I made the boy imagine he was a dog and bark; see a cherry tree growing out of the table, pluck the fruit off it, and offer it to us; and, in fact, do and see anything I suggested to him.

Father Rufus was still unconvinced, and evidently half thought that there might be collusion. He asked me to come into another room, and, taking a bottle from his pocket, said -

“If you make him drink this and think it is delicious cider, I shall admit that there is something in it.”

On being assured by him that the contents of the bottle were perfectly harmless, I emptied it into a glass, returned to the other room, and said to the “I’m going to give you the nicest cider you ever drank. Don’t drink it off too quickly, for it is particularly nice.”

He sipped it with the greatest delight till the glass was nearly empty, when I restored him to his ordinary senses by saying “All right.” His grimaces were wonderful to behold, and he was nearly sick. Father Rufus was absolutely convinced. He had been to a chemist and had asked him to prepare a mixture of the most disgusting and nauseous, but at the same time harmless, drugs, and this was the stuff which the unfortunate youth had sipped with such evident relish.

I have often given subjects a piece of common yellow soap, telling them it was a delicious cake. They always showed signs of the greatest enjoyment as they bit off a piece and began to munch it. I took care before they had time to swallow any of it to undeceive them, and I need hardly say they never showed any desire to swallow it after the magic words “All right” were spoken, while their grimaces were quite as amusing as those of the youth in Cork when he drank his cider.

Another unbeliever whom I converted was Isaac Butt. He and two fellow barristers were at the assizes in Cork, and came out to spend the day with me at Rathpeacon. I had no subjects whom I had before tried at hand, so in the evening I got eight lads who had been at work on the railway, which I had been constructing there. After the usual preliminary trials, I found two who were perfectly susceptible to my influence. I made them go through many performances, and among other things I prevented them from picking up a shilling from the ground. Butt objected that I might easily have promised them half a crown not to pick up the shilling. I told him that he might apply any test he wished.

“Try them,” he said, “with five pounds, and I’ll believe it.”

I put five sovereigns on the gravel drive where we were standing, and said to the lads, “Boys, you shall have those five sovereigns if you can take them up; but your fingers cannot go within an inch of them.”

It was wonderful to see the struggle they made, and how they rooted up the gravel to within an inch of the little pile of money, but they could not touch it. To complete Butt’s conversion, I placed the five sovereigns on the hand of one of the lads, and said to him -

“If you keep those on your hand for three minutes, you shall, on my word of honour, have them for yourself.”

I told Butt to take the time by his watch, and then said to the boy, “They’re burning your hand they’re burning a hole in your hand; if you keep them any longer they will burn a hole *right through *your hand.”

The lad began blowing on his hand and moving the coins, as if they were burning him, and, long before the time was up, flung them on the ground with a cry of pain. Butt all the time had been patting him on the back and telling him to keep the coins for it was all humbug; but the answer was-”What a humbug it is! Can’t you see my hand is destroyed? Look at the hole in it.”

I have recently read of cases where a subject is said to have been affected by some one from a distance, but, in those cases at least in which the’ effect is produced by a telegram, it appears to me to be practically nothing more nor less than suggestion. I have myself sometimes made suggestion produce its effect, after I had left the subject. I remember one day as I was leaving my gate lodge to walk in to Cork, I said to my gatekeeper’s servant-girl, who had already shown herself a good subject, “When I pass Ben Deeble’s Mill, your eyes will shut, and they will not open again till I come home from Cork in the evening.” The mill was about a quarter of a mile down the road, and I knew that curiosity would make her watch me till I passed it. The moment I got by the mill, I ran back to the lodge, and here I found the gatekeeper and his wife endeavouring to open the girl’s eyes, which were shut fast. Their efforts were all in vain. As soon as they raised the eyelid of one eye and turned their attention to the other, the one they had opened closed again; and I have no doubt if I had not intervened, her eyes would have remained shut till the evening.

It would be tedious to multiply instances. There was absolutely nothing that I could not persuade a person once under control to do or see. I have made a lady, who had the greatest horror of rats, imagine that my pocket-handkerchief, which I held rolled up in my hand, was one, and when she rushed away terrified, I made her think she was a cat and she at once began to mew, seized the pocket-handkerchief in her teeth, and shook it. I have made people believe they were hens, judges, legs of mutton, generals, frogs, and famous men; and this in rapid succession. Indeed, so complete was their obedience, that I have again and again refused, when asked, to suggest to them that they were dead. I was really afraid of the result that might possibly ensue.

After a person had been once successfully experimented on, it was not necessary, except possibly after a long interval, to repeat any of the preliminaries. I have often met a subject days and even weeks after he had been first affected, and have found him at once under my control. I remember meeting a Mr. D--- in the street in Cork, and after exchanging a few words of ordinary conversation, I suddenly said to him, “Good-bye; you can’t stir from that spot, till I come back;” and there he was fixed, in spite of all his entreaties, till I chose to let him go, which I did in a minute or two, when I saw passers-by attracted by his struggles to move on.

It might be supposed that such experiments might have made one unpopular with those affected; but I always found that so far from diminishing any friendly feelings that existed, they appeared to strengthen them.

Once, and once only, did I feel myself in a difficulty. I had made a cousin of mine unable to speak without stuttering. To my horror, the magic words “All right” failed to produce their usual effect, and, in spite of all my efforts, I could not restore the power of speaking properly; in fact, my cousin continued to stutter more or less for some weeks.

I gave up experimenting long ago, and from all that I have since read and heard on the subject, I think it is not one which should be meddled with except by those who are really investigating it scientifically; for as I learnt, from the instance I have just mentioned, it is impossible to know what may occur; and although the effects are undoubtedly very amusing to watch, they may possibly be more injurious to the person affected than they appear to be; while the power is so great that in the hands of an unscrupulous person it might become very dangerous.

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