asleep, one of its arms be lifted, it will remain, in a certain number of cases, just where it is put. It is rigid, and resists any attempt to change its position; that is, it is cataleptic. The phenomenon is called suggestive catalepsy, because it is the result of suggestion and is not spontaneous. The arm is lifted into a certain position; it remains, because the act of putting it there—the suggestion—insinuates into the mind the idea of keeping it there. The psychical process which determines this phenomenon is purely automatic. The will does not come into play.
It often happens that patients whose sleep is no deeper than that just described imagine, upon waking, that they have not been asleep, because they remember what has been said to them; or they think that their somnolence has been due to their desire to be obliging. If they are again hypnotized, the catalepsy can be made to reappear, although the subject may have previously avowed his intention of preventing it.
In the third degree the phenomena just described are present, but the sleep is deeper than before. The sensibility to pain is nearly or quite abolished, and can generally be entirely abolished by verbal suggestion. The physician says authoritatively, "Your hand is dead and can no longer feel anything," and he may then puncture the skin with a needle, and the subject shows no sign of pain. Automatic movements of various kinds can be produced in this stage. The arms may be made to rotate about one another, and the subject may be dared to stop them, but he can not. He hears and remembers everything that is said to him.
All these phenomena are present in the fourth degree, but, in addition, there is loss of relationship with the outer world. The sleep is so deep that the subject only hears what the hypnotizer says. He is in relation with the hypnotizer and no one else, but may be switched off, so to speak, into relationship with any one else at pleasure.
The fifth and sixth degrees are distinguished by forgetfulness of what has happened, or amnesia, upon waking, and constitute somnambulism.[1] In the fifth degree the amnesia is not complete. The patient still vaguely remembers what has been told him, or may have a confused recollection of what has occurred during a certain period of his sleep, while he may have completely forgotten everything else.
Persons who exhibit this degree of sleep are extremely sensitive to suggestion. They may be made cataleptic and absolutely insensible to pain. They can be made to execute the most varied auto-
- ↑ The word somnambulism is commonly used to designate sleep-walking. As used in hypnotism, it has the more extensive meaning of forgetfulness after waking from hypnotic sleep. Very often, however, this amnesia is associated with such highly developed automatic movements that the person is able to walk about.
