Animal magnetism, or, Mesmerism and its phenomena.

  • William Gregory
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Animal magnetism, or, Mesmerism and its phenomena. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    THE INFLUENCE OF THE OPERATOR. / wise, of describing it. The subject of clairvoyance, in its multi- tudinous forms, is one of so great interest, and of so great extent, that it must be considered separately ; in fact, as belonging to a different, or higher stage of the sleep. I find it quite impossible to draw any definite line between the various degrees or stages of the sleep, save only between those in which clairvoyance, or else a very high degree of sympathy, is present, which we may call the higher or later stages of the sleep, and those which we may call the lower or earlier stages, in which these powers are absent. The state or stage of perfect trance or extasis, may be regarded as the third and highest; but of this I am not yet qualified to speak from personal observation. In many cases, the sleeper passes at once into the higher, the lucid, or clairvoyant stage, without arresting himself in the lower or non-lucid state, which yet he may formerly, at an earlier period of the investigation, have exhibited distinctly. Most of the facts observed in that earlier stage, con- tinue to appear in the later, but naturally attract less attention when we are occupied with the astounding facts of sympathy or of clairvoyance. As I have already stated, these will be afterwards separately considered. In the meantime, having noticed the first glimmerings of an unusual mode of vision, we shall go on to describe other phenomena, which appear without clairvoyance, while they often continue also in the lucid state. 6. The sleeper is very often deaf to every sound, save the voice of the operator. This is not, however, always the case. I have seen subjects, who readily heard and answered every question addressed to them by any of the persons present, without being in contact with them, or being purposely placed en rapport with them. In some of these cases, the subjects, either spontaneously, or at the will of the operator, or by passes, etc., made by him, pass into a higher state, and then instantly become deaf to all sounds, except his voice. Nay, I have seen and examined one very remarkable case, in which the sleeper, when she had passed spontaneously into a higher state of lucidity, became deaf even to the operator's voice, unless he spoke to her through the tips of her fingers, holding his mouth, while speaking, so as to touch them. When this was done, she started, and, after a moment, answered questions thus put, as readily as before. You might bellow in her ear, or fire off a pistol, without her countenance indicating the slightest change, or with- out her ceasing for an instant to dwell on and describe what she was engaged in looking at, which she readily did without questions being asked at all. Any one else could converse with this subject in the same way, and I did so for an hour or two. In some similar cases, any person, besides the operator, must be placed en rapport with the subject, physically or mentally, by the operator, before they are heard or answered. In others, again, we must address our words to the epigastrium, or to the head. There is here, as in all these phenomena, an endless variety in the details.
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