Healing with Hypnotism (Translated) E-Book

Alexander Erskine

• Herausgeber: David De Angelis
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

"This book is the frank account of my experiences in the art of healing by hypnosis and an attempt to explain, in language as non-technical as possible, how and why the " subconscious " can produce such results.
Hypnosis is a scientific fact and it is not possible to predict where new and further research will lead us. It is impossible for the human mind to touch the bottom of this matter, for the "subconscious" is the very essence of life and to understand it intimately would perhaps be like unraveling the secret of death and gaining dominion over it.
But this book is not to that extent speculative, for I have deliberately kept to the facts of my own experience and have endeavored to show how this great science can be easily employed by everyone: men, women and children."

Leseprobe

HEALING WITH HYPNOTISM

Using the Power of the Subconscious

ALEXANDER ERSKINE

Translation and Edition 2022 by ©David De Angelis

All rights reserved

INDEX

PREFACE

CHAPTER I. Mesmer - Braid - America.

CHAPTER II. Subconscious dominance.

CHAPTER III. Personal History.

CHAPTER IV. First cases.

CHAPTER V. The migratory psyche.

CHAPTER VI. Hypnotism and the discovery of crimes.

CHAPTER VII. ypnotism and Spiritualism.

CHAPTER VIII. Alcoholism and narcotics.

CHAPTER IX. Hypnotism in everyday life.

CHAPTER X. Grief and other things.

CHAPTER XI. Miscellaneous cases.

CHAPTER XII. The Church and the healing power of faith.

PREFACE

It is customary to apologize to readers when writing a book, unless it is a novel. I, however, make no apology for the publication of this book, since, so far as I know, no such publication exists to date; while there seems to me to be a definite need for it.

You only have to scroll through the newspapers of any time to see how many diseases exist that could be alleviated with "a wave of the hand" (as Dr. W. Brown of King's College Hospital in London said on another occasion).

It is not uncommon to find in the columns of paid advertisements in the major newspapers pleas from patients suffering from functional diseases, addressed to those who were cured of equal afflictions, to obtain details on the treatments followed. Doctors and non-doctors, in the same newspapers, inform that they deal with "nervous cures" and the chronicle tells numerous cases of suicide, as a result of nervous disorders, tragedies due to memory loss, etc.. The list could go on and on.

The greater tragedy lies in the fact that these cases, or at least most of them, could, in my opinion, be, cured with the appropriate use of hypnosis.

This book is intended to be a message of hope for all such sufferers. It is the frank account of my experiences in the art of healing by hypnosis and an attempt to explain, in the least technical language possible, how and why the "subconscious" can produce such results. In doing so, it seemed to me that I was able to dispel the fog of ignorance and superstition that for so long denied hypnosis its rightful place in the art of healing.

Hypnosis is not a quack remedy nor a panacea. No. It is a scientific fact and it is not possible to predict where new and further research will lead us. It is impossible for the human mind to touch the bottom of this matter, because the "subconscious" is the very essence of life and to understand it intimately would perhaps be like unveiling the secret of death and acquire dominion over it. But this book is not to that extent speculative, for I have deliberately stuck to the facts of my own experience and tried to show how this great science can be easily employed by everyone: men, women and children, to their advantage.

Whoever may observe that I exaggerate, and not a little, should postpone his judgment until after having read the present book. There is no exaggeration in it; I have tried to stick to the facts, and if I have sometimes let myself go to some speculation, it has been in the confidence to help those who do not know the basics of hypnosis, to readily appreciate the undisputed truths that lie at the bottom of it and to fully understand its essential characteristics and possibilities.

I am fully prepared to meet with criticism from medical professionals, as I have been in opposition to them for over a quarter of a century regarding their attitude toward hypnotism. But there are signs that an enlightened attitude is prevailing. Many physicians practice hypnosis themselves and I myself have instructed hundreds of them in its use. The trouble is that physicians do not apply it in innumerable cases where it could be used, and when they do employ it they do not take full advantage of it. They regard hypnosis as a reserve weapon in the medical armamentarium. How can we wonder then if they do not get good results from it, or if they consider it a failure, or at least question its advantages? The cause is to be found not in science, but in its practitioners. I have cured patients who came to me after doctors had declared them incurable; this is proof that science is not to blame. Sometimes I have operated in union with physicians.

Ideally, medicine and hypnosis should go hand in hand. The greatest difficulty in this matter is training; for one cannot lightly acquire mastery of hypnosis. Moreover, although the power is latent in everyone, not everyone can make it active and operative. But the idea is perhaps not so impracticable as it may seem.

The General Medical Council of Great Britain has given its consecration to the science and art of hypnotism and already, as I said, a new and wider vision is becoming apparent among the more enlightened members of the medical profession. Slowly but surely the deadlock is being broken. A more enlightened public can facilitate this overcoming.

London, 37 B. Connaught Street, W. 2.

ALEX ERSKINE

CHAPTER I.Mesmer - Braid - America.

Hypnotism is not at all new; it was known long before Greek civilization and even before the foundations of the Pyramids were laid. It probably predates the roll of history. About three thousand years ago it was cultivated and practiced by Hindu priests who perpetuated its secrets and mysteries, revealing them only to carefully chosen young men, and destined in turn to the priesthood and deeply determined themselves to keep the secret.

It was a Viennese physician, Mesmer, who, at the end of the eighteenth century, drew the attention of civilized peoples and the world of thought to hypnotism as it is known today, however little resemblance there may be between his art and our science.

Mesmer drew the attention of the world in general and of the medical world in particular, with his claim to be able to heal disease and suffering through what he called "animal magnetism". He claimed that the magnetic fluid accumulated in living bodies, and that it could be transmitted from one individual to another of different power and receptivity.

Physicians were always conservative, in every age, but the Viennese physicians examined Mesmer's assertions, not with a preconceived spirit, but with a desire for knowledge. But their response was contrary.

Mesmer continued to practice the art as he understood it, but soon began to surround it with imposture and exhibitionism, binding his patients with chains and the like. It is therefore not surprising that his art, if it can be called that, soon fell into disuse.

The damage was now done. The charlatans and impostors flourished, preying on the ignorance and superstition of the unlettered public, since no educated person was any longer involved.

But Mesmer had the merit of drawing the attention of the new generation to the ancient science. The new generation asked questions and tried to discern the true from the false. The scientific spirit was beginning to operate, and toward the middle of the next century a Manchester surgeon, Braid, took hypnotism a step further. He recognized the new science but denied magnetic influence; he dropped the name of mesmerism and replaced it with that of "hypnotism."

If our researches and theories are proceeding on the right path (and if they were not, I would not be able to explain not only the progress this science has made in the last half century, but the very manifestations experienced by myself and other practitioners) the possibilities of this science are far greater than the incompetent could dare to predict. It may be that this new science will revolutionize the art of healing and may become the ally of medicine in general practice, instead of being condemned to remain, as now, an experimental accessory of those few open-minded spirits who admit that today's medicine is perhaps the most incomplete of sciences (using the true words in their true meaning) and that we know very little about the art of healing. It is true that this can also be said of the art of hypnotism, but with less reason. Medicine has been recognized as a science and profession of honorable people, while hypnotism is still under the shadow of imposture and charlatanism. Since the dawn of civilization the best intellects have dedicated themselves to the medical profession and scientists have devoted their lives to the search for hidden truths for the benefit of mankind; while only recently has the study of hypnotism become an accredited practice. The General Medical Council of Great Britain has at last sanctioned this science, and it is not too much to hope that the best intellects of science in general and of medicine in particular will wish to place themselves at the service of this "new" agent.

It was Braid therefore who gave mesmerism a new direction in life. The new name he gave it indicates that he was on the right track. His theories were ardently adopted by other independent investigators around the world. Peter Janet in France with the resources at his disposal conducted the most thorough research on the new theories and gave art a wonderful boost. Liebault and Bernheim laid the foundations of the school of Nancy which is still effective today. But it is to America that we owe the greatest advances, without which hypnotism would never have passed the empirical stage in which it lived for so long; advances that opened up unsuspected possibilities.

America discovered that hypnotism is a "mental" science and ascertained it scientifically. Experienced investigators made it as exact a science as, for example, psychology, medicine or geology. Hypnotism became for the world another branch of investigation in the field of psychological research. In America it is now accepted that this art can be learned by any individual of ordinary stature. In fact, theoretically anyone can learn it for himself, and anyone who tries for any reason to influence another person uses, up to a point, the basic principles of hypnotism.

The great simplicity of hypnosis is perhaps its most wonderful side. We all possess the necessary power, although to different degrees. Some possess it to a greater degree, as is the case for example with the ability to learn music, although everyone knows how to recognize the Royal March even if they cannot specify the difference between Bach and banal music. There are individuals who are true "powerhouses" of hypnotic force. In this book I will have to reiterate from time to time this concept of the simplicity and universality of hypnotic power, because I believe that an exact understanding of this fact is more effective than any other factor in getting rid of the clutter of old superstitions.

I shall not be obliged for this reason to a pure repetition of the concept set forth, for the conclusion will be drawn from a large number of cases reported to illustrate the resources of hypnotic science.

This book will necessarily be, in a certain respect, a memoir of personal experience; for the basis of hypnotism is so simple:-that is, true and real faith in itself-that the mere enunciation of it would convince no one and would be ineffective. On the other hand, by reporting the various cases I have treated and detailing the reason for the healings (or failures), I hope to illustrate the elements of this great art in a way that is intelligible to all: In the variety of methods of application lies the miracle of hypnotism and a hope for all.

I shall have to keep my patients incognito, in cases where I have not been licensed to name them, or the press has not investigated and reported its findings. I will not invent anything; there is no need to do so, as I cannot really imagine events more surprising than those I have observed in my professional experience. Each case carries with it a message of hope for some sufferer. Here is my justification. I intend to set forth what I believe to be the great truths of hypnotism, its theories, its facts; I intend to illustrate and explain the theories on which the science was founded; to relate the reasons that led to their adoption; to mention the trends of present-day research on this subject.

Hypnotism affects the daily life of each of us in an incredible way. It has its share in our actions, in our family, in our business, in our public life; it is one of the laws of our character; it is the essence of the self; it affects physical health and spiritual peace and dominates human life. Such is the power that is latent in all of us and can only be made active if we have faith in it and deal with it in the proper way.

CHAPTER II.Subconscious dominance.

When America established the fact that hypnotism is a mental science, it taught the world the great truth of the dualism of the psyche: the conscious and the subconscious. This fact, now accepted by all psychologists, scientists and medical men, gives hypnotism new vigor of life. The subconscious is a mystery and no one knows how it operates. Neither do I; but I know the effects it can produce. I will explain myself by relating an anecdote from the first days of this year.

A doctor in London who had brought me a sick person, while being somewhat skeptical, asked me how I obtained certain results and that I explain myself from a "medical point of view".

"Let me ask you a question," I said. "For years you have been practicing medicine, you have administered many doses of strychnine or belladonna, and you know the results you get. Tell me "from a medical point of view" in what way do you produce these effects?

Why does one substance produce one effect and the other produce another?"

"I don't know," he said, "nobody knows."

"And I don't know what to answer your question either," I added.

This anecdote illuminates the issue; it shows us how little we know about even the most common things in our daily lives and how imperfect today's medical science is, even after so many centuries of research and experience.

But just as medicine is not discredited by its imperfections or by the ignorance of its practitioners, so hypnotism can continue to procure cures without true knowledge of how the subconscious operates, since we know the methods of putting it into action and the limits within which we can do so.

I have mentioned the "dualism" of the psyche and before continuing further it is necessary to try to avoid any misunderstanding. Man has only one psyche. The old theory of the duplicity of the psyche has long since been abandoned by scientists. But this single psyche operates in many ways. Personally I believe that the subconscious has a much more important part in our daily life and in the functions of our psyche and organism than is believed today, even by those who fully accept the almost omnipotence of the subconscious. But perhaps this means to anticipate a little the development of a theory that can be understood more easily after giving some examples of healings, indicating the methods and reasons for them. In the meantime it will serve to make my thought clear a little good illustration, which can be easily appreciated because of its universal and personal application.

We generally believe that it is consciousness, or will, that guides our actions and the reactions of our organism. This is partly true, but not entirely. For how can we explain the acceleration of heartbeats in anger despite our efforts to control ourselves? How can we explain the pallor of fear, the blushing, the trembling, the tears? We do not "want" all these things, on the contrary, with our conscious will we fight them. In all these small everyday actions we see the subconsciousness at work. It is not the conscious that ultimately dominates our bodies, but rather the subconscious.

Let's go further with the reasoning. What then is the function of the subconscious? How does it contain itself with regard to the five senses? It is generally accepted as a proven fact that we see, hear, smell, taste and feel by means of the five senses, which would be the only means at our disposal to receive the impressions of the external world. My theory differs fundamentally from the generally accepted one, and has the advantage of being the only one that can give us an account of the manifestations of which I was a witness. It was some time before I arrived at it, and even then I was reluctant to accept it entirely, until I had tried and investigated it with all the means at my disposal, and until I was precluded from any other way of escape, without lying to myself and to the science that I had been investigating for so long.

The acceptance of this theory upset all my perspectives. Issues that had left me perplexed and that I did not know how to solve with other theories, found immediate resolution. New fields of research appeared to me; new hypotheses appeared to me, suggesting in turn new theories that were then validated by facts.

In short, my theory was this: sight is not properly in the eye; the eye is only an attribute of the subconscious. And so it is not the ear that hears, nor the nose that smells, nor the tongue that tastes, etc., that is in the subconsciousness. All these organs and related nerves are only attributes of the subconsciousness. The five senses, according to my theory, therefore, act as a wake-up call, a reminder to the subconsciousness. Whenever an external agent strikes one of our senses, the motor nerves ring the bell...Quick! forward the subconscious!" they seem to say. The brain informs the subconscious which (i looks out" to see what it is that has excited the sense in question and perception results.

The brain, in other words, is simply a telephone booth that receives physical impressions and transmits them to the subconsciousness. As long as we are in a normal state, i.e. in "connection" with the organs of the body, these messages are interpreted by our intellect.

So important is the clear understanding of the distinction between spirit and matter, as closely related as they are, that I will try, from time to time, to develop the subject further. Only by mastering this distinction in correlation is it possible to understand well the wonders of hypnotism.

Let us return to the eye and, by means of this marvelous organ, try to understand what the above distinction really is. The eye is the most perfect optical instrument known to man. At the bottom it is a small dark room; there is a small window, and in the bottom an oval mirror known as the retina. There are the cones and rods, so called, and the light which, by a certain process, passes through the iris and illuminates the dark chamber where it is retained and absorbed. The objects placed before the iris are reflected in the mirror of the retina. Instantly the optic nerve, wonderfully sensitive and connected to the retina, is set in motion; this vibration transmitted to the nerve ends, impresses the optic center of the brain, just as it does for the emission of a wireless telegraphy message.

In simple terms, the optic nerve rings, so to speak, a bell in the brain to attract the attention of the subconscious to the retina, so that it can see the objects imprinted there.