Let us now suppose that the stimulus comes from the outer world, instead of from the brain of the sleeper, and we have precisely what happens in hypnotism.
Suggestibility is by no means peculiar to hypnotized persons. Almost everyone is sensitive to suggestion to a certain extent when awake; for in every human being, no matter how skeptical he may consider himself, there exists a certain degree of credulity, and this credulity may be played upon and taken advantage of in a measure.
There appears to be no serious reason why the term hypnotism should not be so far extended in meaning as to include those exceptional cases in which the phenomena characteristic of the hypnotic state can be produced without first inducing sleep.
