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.
In 1841 Braid, of Manchester, showed that the majority of the phenomena, which Mesmer had sought to explain by reason of Animal Magnetism, could be just as well, if not better, explained without the hypothesis of a magnetic fluid. He demonstrated, in other words, that we have no reason whatever to believe in the existence of a magnetic fluid as a cause of hypnotic phenomena; and this was certainly a most important step in our progress. Braid showed that it was possible to throw persons into a condition of trance, or sleep, without the use of magnetic passes, and without contact of any kind. . . . We may justly say that Braid was the first to study the phenomena of hypnotism in a scientific spirit, and to show that they were in no way miraculous or mysterious. Still his observations were very incomplete, for he failed to appreciate the nature of suggestion, and the subtle role it plays in the manifestations of hypnotism.
Spinoza says that our consciousness of free-will is but ignorance of the causes of our acts. If the act which has been suggested is one which might readily be committed spontaneously, the subject makes no comment upon it.
I Believe that, in reference to the subject of hypnotism, Charcot has committed a serious error in regarding a neurosis, which is unquestionably an artificial derivative of hypnotism, as the type of hypnotism itself, and it seems probable that this error is largely due to failure to appreciate the subtle role of suggestion.
Unfortunately, travelling magnètiseurs are not the only persons who give such exhibitions. . . . If a law similar to that of Belgium, prohibiting such abuses of hypnotism, were immediately carried into effect in other civilized countries, I believe there would be a timely prevention of much mischief. As it is, the matter will probably be overlooked, until enough harm has been done to convince thoughtful persons that some decided measure is necessary to prevent injury at the hands of ignorant or unprincipled persons.
