Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 12.djvu/240

FUETHEE PEOBLEMS OF .HYPNOTISM. (l.) 227 bally suggested or read of in a book, it would be remarkable if the idea when telepathically suggested were able to take effect on him. But on any theory which excludes mental sugges- tion, it is difficult to see how the fact of the ' subject's * previous hypnotisation could make a difference ; for apart from mental suggestion, he would not be attacked at any special vulnerable point. Such a point consists simply in the idea of entrancement by A (localised in particular brain- changes), which has been specialised and sensitised by association with the actual fact of such entrancement on previous occasions ; and in the supposed case, ex liypothesi, no idea of entrancement makes its appearance. Now, except when attacked at the vulnerable point, there is no reason why previously-hypnotised persons should be more liable to be entranced than anyone else the existence of the vulner- able point being simply an explanation of the fact that they are so liable. Thus, to take another case, if a strong man has felt giddy and has tottered when standing over the brink of precipices, the idea of standing over a precipice may after- wards make him feel giddy and totter ; but he is not more given than other people to tottering when walking across the room, and would oppose as much resistance as other people to an external push. Just so, apparently, should previously-hypnotised persons oppose as much resistance as their neighbours to the supposed push or compulsion of an external will, or to other telepathic influences which differed in character from any to which they had previously yielded ; so that the confinement of the hypnotising effect of such influences to that particular class of persons would need fresh assumptions to explain it. We may now proceed to examine the hypothesis of mental suggestion at a distance a little more in detail. First, what are we to suppose the contents of the transferred idea to be? The answer will naturally be found by examining the con- tents of the idea which is found to be hypnogenetically effective when suggested through the recognised channels of sense, in the presence of the 'subject'. And it at once becomes evident that something more than the mere idea of trance is included. That idea might be suggested by reading a description of a hypnotic experiment in a book ; it has often been suggested when hypnotic phenomena have been described and discussed by persons in the same room with the ' subject ' ; but in such circumstances it has not been found to produce any effect. Is the additional condition, then, that the idea shall be suggested with some show of authority or insistance, as in the tone of the word Dor-