Sum up the most important points of the passage in a paragraph of around 100 words.
Hypnosis
There are many methods of producing hypnosis; indeed, almost every
experienced hypnotist employs variations differing slightly from those of
others. Perhaps the most common method is something along these lines. The
hypnotist tries to obtain his subject’s co-operation by pointing out to
him the advantages to be secured by the hypnosis, such as, for instance, the
help in curing a nervous illness to be derived from the patient’s
remembering in the trance certain events which otherwise are inaccessible to
his memory. The patient is reassured about any possible dangers he might
suspect to be present in hypnosis, and he may also be told (quite truthfully)
that it is not a sign of instability or weakness to be capable of being put in
a hypnotic trance, but that, quite on the contrary, a certain amount of
intelligence and concentration on the part of the subject is absolutely
essential.
Next, the subject is asked to lie down on a couch, or sit in an
easy-chair. External stimulation is reduced to a minimum by drawing the
curtains and excluding, as far as possible, all disruptive noises. It is
sometimes helpful to concentrate the subject’s attention on some small
bright object dangled just above eye-level, thus forcing him to look slightly
upwards. This leads quickly to a fatigue of the eye-muscles, and thus
facilitates his acceptance of the suggestion that he is feeling tired and that
his eyes are closing. The hypnotist now begins to talk to the subject in a soft
tone of voice, repeating endlessly suggestions to the effect that the subject
is feeling drowsy, getting tired, that his eyes are closing, that he is falling
into a deep sleep, that he cannot hear anything except the hypnotist’s
voice, and so on and so forth. In a susceptible subject, a light trance is thus
induced after a few minutes, and the hypnotist now begins to deepen this trance
and to test the reactions of the subject by giving suggestions which are more
and more difficult of execution. Thus, he will ask the subject to clasp his
hands together, and tell him that it is impossible for him to separate his
hands again. The subject, try as he may, finds, to his astonishment, that he
cannot in actual fact pull his hands apart. Successful suggestions of this kind
are instrumental in deepening the hypnotic trance until, finally, in
particularly good subjects, all the phenomena which will be discussed presently
can be elicited.
Having induced a reasonably deep hypnotic trance in our
subject, what types of phenomena can be elicited? The first and most obvious
one, which, indeed, may be responsible in large measure for all the others, is
a tremendous increase in the subject’s suggestibility. He will take up any
suggestion the hypnotist puts forward and act on it to the best of his ability.
Suggest to him that he is a dog, and he will go down on all fours and rush
around the room barking and yelping. Suggest to him that he is Hitler, and he
will throw his arms about and produce an impassioned harangue in an imitation
of the raucous tones of the Führer! This tremendous increase in
suggestibility is often exploited on the stage to induce people to do foolish
and ridiculous acts. Such practices are not to be encouraged because they go
counter to the ideal of human dignity and are not the kind of way in which
hypnosis ought to be used; nevertheless, they must be mentioned because it is
probably phenomena such as these which are most familiar to people from
vaudeville acts, from reading the papers, and so forth.
It would not be true
to say, however, that all suggestions are accepted, even in the very deepest
trance. This is particularly true when a suggestion is made which is contrary
to the ethical and moral conceptions held by the subject. A well-known story
may be quoted to illustrate this. Charcot, the great French neurologist, whose
classes at one time were attended by Freud, was lecturing on hypnosis and was
demonstrating the phenomena of the hypnotic trance on a young girl of eighteen.
When she had been hypnotized deeply he was called away, and handed over the
demonstration to one of his assistants. This young man, lacking the seriousness
of purpose so desirable in students of medicine, even French ones, suggested to
the young lady that she should remove her clothes. She immediately awakened
from her trance, slapped his face, and flounced out of the room, very much to
his discomfiture.
(Abridged from Sense and Nonsense in Psychology by H. J. Eysenck)
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