The Harvard professor of psychology has voiced the logical inference drawn from phenomena of this class, in saying: "The great vivacity of the hypnotic images (as gauged by their motor effects), the oblivion of them when normal life is resumed, the abrupt awakening, the recollection of them in subsequent trances, the anaesthesia and hyperesthesia which is so frequent, all point away from our simple waking credulity and 'suggestibility' as the type by which the phenomena are to be interpreted, and make us look rather toward sleep and dreaming or toward those deeper alterations of the personality known as automatism, double consciousness, or second personality, for the true analyses of the hypnotic trance." (James.)

Observers of so called hypnotic phenomena, who have gone beyond the province of occasional experiment for an evening's amusement, will, I think, generally agree with the Harvard professor, despite the insistance of Professors Bernheim and Heiden-hain that the trance condition with its wide range of psychical manifestations in the exalted somnambule is due to an impression somehow produced upon the cerebro-spinal organism of a susceptible person.

On one occasion, a few years ago, I was consulted by a lady for neuralgia, who had never been hypnotized. In the course of an interview, and while she was sitting in an easy chair, I passed my hand downward along the course of the spinal column; not touching her dress. Suddenly she bent forward, complaining that it hurt her severely. I asked, "What hurt you?" She replied, "A certain point in my spine." I then asked, "What caused the pain?" She answered, "I don't know, but I had a feeling of pressure going down my back, and when it reached a certain point there was a really sharp pain."

I went behind her, and being sure that she could not see my movements, passed my hand upward and then downward over the vertebral column, without contact, and each time the hand arrived at that sensitive point she complained of the pain. She could not assign any reason for it, aside from the thought that my hand in some way exercised an influence of which she was very apprehensive, and which irritated a sore spot in the upper lumbar region. This is by no means an uncommon phenomenon to those who give "magnetic treatment."

Again, an experiment that I have often made is to blindfold the subject or place him in a distant part of the room; then to put a half dozen or more coins upon a table, and with a finger tip touch one or two for a moment. Calling the subject to the table, I ask him to pick out the "hot ones." This, as a rule, is done without hesitation.

It seems to me that it must be reasoning drawn to an exceedingly tenuous thread, or pointing to a most subtle correlation of fore-brain centers, that would account for these incidents by suggestion. Better the alternate term "impression" that some use, and which seems to us as involving naturally the operation of some force.

An American observer of considerable original research, and inclined toward the suggestion theory, Mr. Henry Clark, remarked in.a letter to the writer, after some show of sarcasm toward those who accept the "force idea": "Part, and I doubt not a large part, of such a sleep is the result of the man's own act, unconscious, involuntary, or automatic; and if I were to guess, wthout knowing, I should guess first that he was the principal master in the case."

Ochorowicz, I think, it is, notes that Liebault, himself, has admitted that there is a specific influence exerted by the mes-merizer upon his subject, which did not come within the range of his line of suggestion. This the master of mental healing could say with sincere consistency, for suggestions work with sufficient effect in the simple primary sleep of hypnosis. In the advanced sleep or trance of mesmerism, we have the relation of rapport between subject and agent that exhibits its remarkable features. This rapport, as I have said substantially in another place, (Human Magnetism) shows a concentration of the subject's attention upon his magnetizer that much exceeds the relation between physician and patient in hypnotic treatment.

Ochorowicz notes with marked clearness that, "Molecular dynamic differences (of personality, say) pass beyond the surface of the body in the magnetic rapport; that a certain vibratory tonic movement, peculiar to a given organism, is propagated beyond its periphery, and can influence the subject so definitely, so palpably, that there is real action." Further, the magnetizer's organism, already active by its very presence, becomes more active when in the dynamic mass that constitutes its personality, there is developed by concentration of thought and tension of will, a center force, strengthening the invisible but most real bond that unites the two organisms. Should the operator be relatively inattentive to the subject, or be preoccupied in mind by some extraneous matter, the effect of his influence will be much weakened. This could scarcely be the case in mere suggestion.

Also, it is beyond question that in the somnambulic state the organs do not act in the ordinary way; the subject sees or becomes conscious of conditions in himself or others by a process of sense perception that is quite foreign to the ordinary. In his "Psychology and Occult Psychic Phenomena," Dr. Raue offers an explanation of this process on the basis of a theory that the organs of the body possess a consciousness which becomes highly percipient in the magnetic state. He says in one place, "One who is accustomed to self-observation will readily discern any functional disorder that takes place in any part of his body; though we do not, as a rule, mind the normal workings of our physical frame, any disorder therein makes itself quickly felt by the corresponding percipient forces, - the vital senses. Although we do not call this a 'seeing' of what goes on within us, it is nevertheless, a consciousness of the process and sometimes a pretty painful one. If we now add to this fact, that in the mesmeric" (and consequently still more in the deeper somnambulic) "state, the higher senses are completely subdued and the vital senses correspondingly exalted, it is not difficult to see that the perceptions by those lower senses must likewise be exalted, approaching in weakness and power the normal activity of the higher senses with which they form a whole, - a human soul.

The perception by these lower senses then becomes 'seeing, comparatively speaking; that is, a becoming conscious of certain states of the organs within the body, as if they were seen, which knowledge will necessarily correspond to the knowledge the subject has acquired in normal life, but which may be cultivated gradually by continued exercise to higher concepts, which in the course of time may become very clear conscious mental modifications."

I am not sure that this explanation will suit the hard-headed inquirer, but it is evident enough to the candid one that we can scarcely get down to the hardpan of materialistic logic in discussing such matters, and that we must assume certain premises as belonging to psychic inquirers and having a quality of their own, apart or distinct from premises adapted to the solution of merely physical questions. For myself, I am not ready to accept Dr. Raue's view of the subduction of the higher senses in the mesmeric state, and the complete dominion of the lower or "vital" senses; for it seems to me that the higher or psychic faculties take on an activity often in the magnetic trance, which imparts to the mental expression of a subject, characteristics of so extraordinary a nature and powers so wonderful that to interpret them without the co-operation of the higher senses would be impossible. In these exalted states of mind, the expression may be almost purely psychic, and without the higher senses, how could the manifestation assume that character? It may be the players could give "Hamlet" without Hamlet, but the audience would be at a loss because of the interruptions in the action, and the gaps in the dialogue.

Dr. Raue, however, says - I will not venture, inconsistently - "One's sense organs are shut off from the influence of external simuli" (in the dream state and in its analogue the somnambulic sleep) "and what he sees, hears, so he perceives immediately by his primitive psychic, and not through his sense organs." This attitude toward the psychic elements of the human soul, I am ready to accept, and to ask how this and the other phases of expression in the advanced hypnotic trance are to be accepted as but the effects of sugggestion?

Many times I have been appealed to, by persons of intelligence, to relieve them from the influence of some other person, which had become a burden and hindrance to the prosecution of everyday duty. These unfortunates were not soothed by the assurance that their trouble was due only to a delusion, or a suggestion, which they had incidentally taken up, for they insisted that they had been magnetized and, in some way, made subject to an influence exerted by another who in some cases they could name. If I could interpose a cross or counter influence, they were hopeful of escape from the slavery that was making life intolerable.

To the average thinker whose brain is unencumbered with gleanings from the great mass of speculation on this subject, it may seem easy to infer from opinion that has been published officially by legal authority, that they who undertake to induce hypnosis do something, i. e., exercise a power upon their purposed subjects, and are, therefore, responsible, in some degree, for any untoward results that may follow.

Of course, for mere "suggestions" one would not be held responsible for a grave offence, although it is now recognized that in the everyday life of men, suggestion is a factor of large importance, affecting the education of the young and the conduct and morals of all. It should be admitted, too, that in our later study of psychic matters, with the aid of hypnotism, our appreciation of the part played by suggestion in mental operations has been greatly heightened.

Forel may say that the muddled views of hypnotism have to be replaced by the rational views of sugggestion, i. e., we should speak of the "suggested sleep" instead of the "hypnotic sleep." I cannot see that he relieves the muddlement by such dogmatic statment, for muddlement, if it exist in the phraseology employed, is not cleared in this instance by a mere substitution of terms. We may be clear enough in elucidating much of the process that goes on in the mind during the activity of the faculties, and so be enabled to resolve the greater part of the apparent mys-try that clouds the phenomena of the magnetic sleep. This I consider to be our position to-day, and that the time is not far distant when the curtain will be quite withdrawn so that we may peer behind the scenes and, with unprejudiced impressions, glean facts of the highest value regarding the central sources of psychic functions, meanwhile relegating the phenomena of hypnotism, magnetism or whatever else may be the term used to designate the state of the subjective or secondary consciousness, to the category of natural manifestations.