Hypnotic therapeutics : illustrated by cases : with an appendix on table-moving and spirit-rapping / by James Braid.

  • James Braid
Date:
[1853]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hypnotic therapeutics : illustrated by cases : with an appendix on table-moving and spirit-rapping / by James Braid. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    whether originating 8pontaneou.sly, or from previous associations, or from the direct suggestions of a second party. This led me to advert to Dr Caqjenter's term, ideo-motor, used by him to signify unconscious muscular motion from an idea, in contradistmction to voluntary motion. I then said that term was admirably well chosen for characterising the single phenomenon which he was describing, l)ut that, inasmuch as a dominant idea might arrest as well as excite muscular motion and other functions, it was highly desirable to adopt some terms which might characterise the whole range of phenomena which might arise from dominant ideas in tlie minds of individuals. I have now come to the conclusion that the following would be most appropriate for the purpose :— 1st, To ideize, would be to induce the state of al)straction or mental concentration favourable for manifesting the power of suggestion, and of predo- minant ideas. ^ 2d, Ideized would indicate the state or condition of the person when so impressed. 3rf, Ideo-dynaniic, or ideational phenomena, would indi- cate the character and intensity of tiie phenomena to be anticipated, according to the all-absorbing idea with which the mind of the subject was occupied, coupled with the known temperament and susceptibility of the subject. It must be obvious that these terms would comprehend every conceivable variety of phenomenon, according to the function of the part on which the dominant idea of the subject was concentrated, and the liveliness of his faith. Thus, let the mind of the person be engrossed with the notion, that he is to be irresistibly drawn, repelled, or paralysed, or catalepsed, and the ideo-dynamic or ideational condition of the muscles corresponding to this idea will take place, without any conscious volition of the subject to that effect. It is this very ideational or un- conscious muscular action which is the cause of Table-moving, which has lately so much astonished and excited the public. The experimenters perceive the fact that the table moves ; but not being conscious of putting out any volun- tary effort, they imagine that the table is drawing them, whilst all the while their own muscles are imparting the requisite impulse to the table, although they are unconscious that they are doing so. This theory of table-mov- ing 1 published anonymously on the 30th of April last, in the Manchester Examiner and Times, from'which I make the following extract:— This unconscious muscular influence from dominant ideas in the minds of subjects, Dr Carpenter, Sir Henry Holland, and Mr Braid, all bring to bear upon and explain the phenomena of the gyrations of the odometer of Dr Mayo, the mag- netometer of Mr Rutter, ihe. divining rod; and we know that Ml- Braid attributes the supposed levity of a human body, in an experiment described by Sir David Brewster, as well as these furniture movements, to the same cause, viz., the extraordinary influence of dominant ideas in the minds of some indivi- duals, in producing muscular action in accordance with those ideas, without any conscious efi'ort of volition on the part of said subjects. It therefore be- comes a complete illusion as regards the parties so experimenting, as is seen in biologised subjects ; and others witnessing the experiments, beconie so engrossed by watching and anticipating the movements, as to oveiiook their real exciting cause. In this paragraph, I referred to Dr Carpenter's lectures at the Manchester lioyal Institution, .so recently reported in the Manchester newspapers, where I said, The key to the solution of this mystery maybe found. By this mode of expression, I did not mean to intinmte that Dr Carpenter had made any special or direct reference to table-moving, either in these lectures, or in that at the London Institution, which was reported in the Athenreum for the 12th March 1862, for I well knew that his observations inboth institutions had reference to the ideomotor, or unconscious muscular action as the cause of certain biological phenomena, and of the movements of Dr Macro's odometer, of i IKJausing iiidividimls to look for a coiisidflralilo length (if time, with fi.\cd attention, at any unexciting iuaniniatf iA<]<-ri. \» iri ncrally the most spocii.v and certain iiioilc of iiulut-inn tlii» oonditiou.1
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