Hypnotism made plain by Maynard Shipley
To many persons mention of the word "hypnotism" at once brings to mind a "Professor" in full-dress suit on a vaudeville stage putting "subjects" through laugh-provoking antics. Or the image of Svengali rises before the mind's eyes, with long, lank fingers making mystic "passes" before the now helpless—not to say enslaved — victim, fascinated by the large, black, "sorcerer" eyes of the great master. To such persons the "hypnotist" is rather closely identified with the "charlatan." Happily, this conception of hypnotists and hypnotism is fading out in the strong, clear light of modern science.
Hypnotism and Suggestion (two phases of the same phenomenon) have now taken their legitimate places in psychology and medicine as subjects intimately related to our everyday life, in health and in disease.
Whether we know it or not, Suggestion is at work all around and within us, day and night, from earliest childhood to the very close of our lives.
Hypnotism and suggestion have — against strong opposition—won an important place in the history of medicine. It has been amply demonstrated that certain maladies which have stubbornly resisted the regular medical treatment often yield to psycho-therapeutic methods (mind treatment).
Contents