Speaker 1: Chapter nine of Mental Fascination. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Fascination by William Walker Atkinson. Chapter nine Experiments in induced Sensation.
In the last chapter we considered instances of tests of
experimental fascination along the lines of muscular control. In this
chapter we will consider the phenomena attendant upon induced sensation,
all of which follows the same law of cause and
is produced in the same manner and by the same
methods as the muscular phenomena. Let us begin our consideration
of sense control by the familiar test of the burning hand,
the burning hand test. This test is performed in the
following manner. You stand before the impressionable, the latter extending
his hand toward you, palm downward. You place the first
two fingers of your right hand upon the back of
his hand, holding them there for a moment, and concentrating
your gaze and will upon his hand. Then you say
to him, sharply, rapidly, and positively, I am burning your hand.
I am burning your hand. It is hot, hot, hot,
it is burning, burning, burning you, burning you, I say,
take it away quick, I tell you it is burning you,
et cetera, et cetera, always emphasising the words hot and burning,
and at the same time willing that your fingers will
feel hot to him. It is surprising how many people
will experience the sensation of heat if you perform the
test properly and are able to concentrate your will sufficiently
well and accompany the same with vivid suggestions. A variation
of this test is to give the impressionable a silver coin,
telling him to hold it between his thumb and forefinger, then,
after a moment, give him the suggestions of it being hot, hot, hot,
it's burning you, burning you, et cetera. You may even
impress upon him the idea that while it is burning him,
he is unable to let go of it, et cetera.
Induced pain. Another test of the sense of feeling is
that shown by having the impressionable holds out his hand,
his arm being extended full length, then standing before him
with a pin between the finger and thumb of your
right hand, pretend to prick your own hand, jabbing the
pin into it, and grimacing as if with pain, at
the same time saying to him. You see you feel
the pain of this pen. It hurts you. It hurts you,
I say, you feel the pain instead of my feeling it.
See you feel it now, making a feint of jabbing
the pin into your own hand. You feel it, I say,
et cetera. It is remarkable how many persons will take
on the pain you are supposed to be feeling. Of course,
your imagination should be exercised under the control of your will,
so that you will allow yourself to imagine that you
feel the pain. I have seen the above experiment try
before a roomful of people, and many of the audience
shared the induced pain with the impressionable upon whom the
experiment was being tried. Do not forget what I said
in the last chapter about taking away the induced condition
after the test. In the above cases, rub your finger
over the burnt or hurt spot, saying it's all right now,
all right, the pain is all gone. If you do
not do so, the impressionable may carry away with him
a sensation that his hand had been subjected to heat
or pain. Remarkable phenomena. In this connection, it may be
proper to call your attention to the fact that the
history of the subject shows cases in which burns have
actually been produced on the bodies of persons by strong
suggestion coupled with physical aids. For instance, postage stamps have
been placed in portions of the body with the suggestion
that they were fly blisters, and the blister appeared. You
will see that it is all a matter of induced feeling.
The more marked results merely evidencing the power of the
mind of the individual over the mind in the portions
of his body, as I have shown in the chapter
entitled Mental Therapeutics in my work on mental magic. Many
other experiments along the line of sense control might be mentioned,
but they are all but different forms of the same thing.
The ingenuity of the experimenter will indicate manifold variations if
he sees fit to follow up the subject induced sense
of smell. The sense of smell may be induced by
the experimenter suggesting to the impressionable that a bottle contains
a liquid smelling like certain perfumes, et cetera. This may
be varied by changing the suggestion so that all the
well known perfumes may be sensed, like the legend of
the magic perfume Bottle of the Wizard, which probably was
nothing more than a case of clever induction of the
sense of smell by the method mentioned herein personal experiences.
I have seen a number of cases of this kind
in my personal experience, in which large numbers of people
were impressed in this way. In one case, I was
attending a play, the scene of which was laid in
the south, and in which on one of the characters remarked, Oh,
smell the magnolia. How strong is their odor in this heavy,
warm night air, And in a moment the audience noticed
a plain odor of magnolias floating over the house. So
strong was the impression that many insisted that the management
had actually introduced the odor in order to heighten the effect.
But inquiry showed this to be erroneous, for no olor
was actually used. More recently, I attended a play The
Girl with the Green Eyes, in which one of the
characters was supposed to have committed suicide by turning on
the gas in full sight of the audience. The room
was large, and jet after jet of the many chandeliers,
bracket lights, et cetera. Were turned on by the woman.
In a short time, people in the audience began to
sniff and say smell the gas, until everyone thought they
smelled it, and some women felt faint. Of course, the
original impression was given by the physical suggestion, but as
soon as people took on the impression, it spread like
a contagion by the law of mental induction, until all
felt it more or less the professor's experiments, there are
cases recorded of the effect being deliberately produced, For instance,
the tale of the old German professor, who, after telling
his class that he would uncork a bottle containing a
chemical compound noted for its foul odor, uncorked a bottle
of distilled waller possessing no odor at all. The class
soon perceived the supposed odor, and row after row of
students showed their disgust. The waves of the supposed vapor
folloaded over the room, just as would have been the
case if the genuine liquid had been uncourked. Those nearest
the platform perceiving it first, and then the next row,
and so on, until the whole room was filled with it.
Even after the professor explained the nature of the experiment,
the class still sniffed away, and many refused to believe
the explanation, so strong was the impression. These cases were
nothing else than instances of induced sensation of smell. Along
the lines of mental impression induced sight, a sense of
sight may be induced in the same way. A common
experiment with a very impressionable person is as follows. Tell
him to extend his hand palm down, then mark a
cross on the back of his hand with their forefinger
pressing well into the skin, at the same time saying, see,
I have marked a black cross on your hand. On
your hand, a black cross. See it there? You see
it there? Now, black black, a black cross. You see
it there, don't you, et cetera. And if he be
sufficiently impressionable, he will see it. The more that you
can imagine the black cross there, the stronger will be
his impression of it. If you will call the attention
of people to the extraordinary blueness of the sky, they
will be very apt to acquiesce, some of them going
into raptures over it, although the sky is no bluer
than at any other time. It is astonishing how many
of these impressions are given and taken in everyday life.
Someone thinks the room is very close, and immediately many
people begin to feel suffocated and wish the windows raised.
Someone suggests a draft and people begin to shiver. Someone
remarks how extremely warm the day is, and people begin
to mop their foreheads, and so on, all being bits
from the same piece. Induced hearing. The sense of hearing
may be induced in the same way. Tell your impressionable
that he hears the song of a bird or the
whistle of a locomotive at the same time, using your
own imagination vigorously and giving the suggestions sufficiently vividly, and
he will hear the sounds mentioned. You may try this
on several people in a room on an ordinary occasion
by preten tending to hear the humming of a bee,
or a distant whistle, or some other faint sound, such
as the distant wail of a child, and a certain
percentage of those present, after a moment or two of
intent listening, will affirm that they heard the sound. Induced taste,
the sense of taste is easily induced. The well known
experiment of suggesting the taste of lemons with the accompanying
flow of saliva and taste of acid is a good example.
With a good impressionable, you may induce a sense of
changing tastes from extreme sweetness to extreme acidity. In a
simple tasteless glass of water. It all depends upon the
degree of impressionability of the person's tested and the strength
of your own imagination and suggestion. It is all a
question of induced sensation. The professional hypnotist turns this to
good account in his entertainment personal experiments. In this connection,
I would say that several years ago, when I was
devoting much time to experimental work, I cured many cases
of tobacco chewing, cigarette habit, et cetera. By a course
of vivid suggestion accompanied by visualization manifesting as mental induction.
I would create a mental image of the tobacco or
cigarettes as having a disgusting taste, a taste that produced
a feeling akin to nausea, and then would concentrate my
mind and feeling upon the other person, giving him, at
the same time the most vivid suggestions of disgusting, nauseating,
sickening taste, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, until he
would be unable to chew the tobacco or smoke the cigarette.
Then by following up the matter by giving him the
strongest future impression that he would always remember the sensation
of disgusting taste whenever he attempted to chew or smoke,
and that the tobacco or cigarette would always induce those
feelings in him. A cure of the habit would be effected.
Sleep condition not necessary. Some practitioners of suggestive therapeutics have
met with much success and the treatment of undesirable habits
in this way. It is true that many of these
practitioners have believed that it was necessary to produce the
hypnotic sleep in order to get the results, but this
is simply because they themselves are self hypnotized with the
sleep delusion. And if they would but throw off their
spell and begin to experiment along the other lines, they
would see that the same results could be obtained without
the slightest attempt to produce sleep. Senses inhibited. Just as
the senses may be rendered by induction, so may they
be inhibited in the same way. Any of the above
experiments with the senses may be reversed. At will tell
your impressionable that he cannot hear a certain sound, smell
a certain odor, taste a certain taste, feel a certain sensation,
see a certain thing. And if you be sufficiently positive
and heea sufficiently impressionable, and if you use your imagination
and suggestion sufficiently well, the senses will be inhibited in
his mind for the time being. Remarkable instances in the
matter of inhibition of the sense of feeling, some most
remarkable results may be obtained. In fact, all of the
results along this line secured by the hypnotists with the
aid of the deep sleep may be obtained without attempt
at sleep. I have seen minor operations performed under the
influence of induced inhibition of the sense of feeling. I
have seen teeth extracted with little or no pain in
this way. I have seen nervous patients unusually sensitive to pain,
able to stand dental work with practically no discomfort by
means of such inhibition of the sense of feeling. Even
the brutal experiments of many of the stage hypnotists who
run needles through hypnotize patient's cheeks without causing pain, even
these can be duplicated without sleep being induced. Although I
consider such exhibitions deplorable and disgusting and worthy of the
severest condemnation, I merely mention these last to show the
power of induced feeling, or inhibition of the same by induction.
The secret of inhibition. The secret of the inhibition of
the senses is that the will is directed to shutting
off the attention to the part or organ. If the
attention can be removed or shut off, no pain will
be felt. Many persons have practiced on themselves until they
can inhibit pain in portions of their body and in
inducing the effect in another person. The same methods are
used accompanied by suggestion mental anesthesia. It may be of
interest to many students to have me make a little
more detailed reference to this subject of anesthesia by mental induction. Anesthesia,
you know, is on entire or partial laws or absence
of feeling or sensation. We generally think of this condition
as being brought about only by something like ether, gas,
et cetera. But anything that will tend to inhibit sensation
is an anesthetic. The word inhibit, you know, means to check,
to hold back, to restrain, et cetera. And pain and
sensation may be inhibited by pure mental impression historical instances.
History is full of instances of inhibition of pain by
strong mental feeling, emotion, ecstasy, et cetera. Religious fanatics have
mutilated themselves barbarously without the feeling of pain. The American Indians,
in their wild dances, wound themselves without feeling the pain.
In India, the fanatical deviltees torture themselves in horrible ways
as a religious right and seem entirely callous to pain.
People have been burned at the stake chanting joyful songs,
and martyrs have been crunched in the jaws of the
wild beasts with laughter and joyfully manifest. All of these instances,
and many others of the same kind, show that it
is possible for the mind of a person to inhibit
pain in himself, and the inhibition of pain in a
person by another person is merely a calling into play
of the same power by means of induction and suggestion.
It is not a creation of the power in the person,
but merely a calling forth that which is already there.
How to inhibit pain in another The following simple but
very effective method is that used in the best psychological laboratories.
The impressionable is comfortably seated or placed in a reclining
position before the experimenter. Let us suppose that it is
wished to inhibit sensation in his arm. In that case,
the experimenter will begin to stroke the arm upward from
fingertips to shoulder. The effect of this stroking is to
restrain the circulation, which latter responds readily to such suggestion,
as we shall see a little later on. The experimenter says,
now I am taking the circulation away from your arm
and putting the nerves to rest. You will begin to
feel a sensation of coolness and numbness coming over your
arm from fingertips to shoulder. Now you feel it. Your
arm is getting numb, numb. I say, quite numb, getting numb,
getting numb, getting numb, numb, numb, numb. It is now
quite numb. You cannot feel pain in it. See, I
will prick it with this needle, but you will not
feel pain. You can feel the touch, but cannot feel
any pain, and so on until complete inhibition is affected.
When you first prick with the point of the needle,
do so but gently, although appearing to do it with force,
will reassure the patient and will make him relax. His
resisting will the more result of repetition. The above process,
continued in the right person and in the proper manner,
will produce wonderful results. In fact, in this way is
the inhibition of sensation produced in order that minor operations
may be performed without the use of either et cetera.
A little practice for several days renders the effect more
marked each time, until the desired degree is obtained. The
above method is the most simple and yet the most
effective known to experimental psychologists, and if persisted in and
performed intelligently, is capable of wonderful development. It should be
unnecessary for me to add that the experimenter should keep
before his own mind vividly the condition he wishes to
produce in the patient. He should endeavor to actually see
him insensible to pain, and should throw his whole belief
and earnestness into the suggestions. More than lip service is necessary.
Directing the circulation. In connection with the above experiments, the
following is interesting. You may take an impressionable person and
increase the circulation in any part of the body, or
else inhibit it partially just as you wish. You may
prove this by ordering the circulation back in one arm
and increasing it in another, the result being that one
hand will be a ghastly white and the other a
deep red color. Blood may be drawn away from the
head in this manner and headaches thereby relieved. But I
must stop this, for I am encroaching upon the subject
of mental therapeutics. In this direction of the circulation upward
or downward, as the case may be, passes of the
hands will prove of great assistance, for this motion is
followed by the attention. And an axiom and suggestive therapeutics
is that the circulation follows the attention. Downward passes increase
the circulation to the limbs. Upward ones inhibit it. I
have spoken of the above effects being produced upon the impressionables.
I mean by this that such people are the more
readily affected. But remember this that even the strongest willed
man or woman may be affected in this manner if
he or she, by directing this, will actually cooperate in
the matter. For instance, the very strength of a man's
will may aid in the inhibition of pain by suggestion,
because he will be cooperating with the suggest All the
effect comes from the power within in any case, and
all the experimenter a suggester does is to call that
power into effect. It is akin to driving a team
of strong horses or the running of a one thousand
horse power engine. The power is not in the driver
or engineer, but they make the thing go. Nevertheless, in
closing this chapter, let me again impress upon the experimenter
the importance of always removing the impression after the experiment,
remember the important final Now you're all right, all right,
Now all right,