A New Theory of Mental illness

In deciding on the best way to use hypnotism for medical purposes, it is necessary to take into consideration certain facts which have already been definitely established.
From what has been said, we know that it is impossible to induce a deep trance in everybody, particularly at the first attempt. Figures vary, but it is generally accepted that approximately only 25 % of people can enter the somnambulistic stage, although this figure may be increased by repeated sessions and training in hypnosis.
Fully 90 to 95 % of people can, however, develop a light hypnosis. Further, in medical practice, where the subjects are usually nervous, apprehensive and highly strung, the percentage of somnambulists is likely to be even lower.

One specialist has estimated that about only one patient in ten will make a good somnambulist. Therefore, if hypnotism is to be used as a practical medical procedure and made widely available to the maximum number of patients, it will be necessary to make use of the light trance which is easily induced and which practically everybody can reach.
Hypnoanalysis as attempted by the psychiatrist, and direct symptom removal as practised by amateur hypnotists and stage professionals, both require a deep state of hypnosis and are therefore not practical propositions to be considered for the majority of patients.

Having decided upon light hypnosis, it is necessary to choose the phenomenon which will constantly be available in this condition and of which we can make the most use. It is no good expecting to make use of age regression, amnesia and bizarre posthypnotic suggestions in the light trance.
 As we have seen, however, the most characteristic phenomenon of hypnosis is hyper-suggestibility. This is present even in the lightest stage of hypnosis, and with a proper working knowledge of suggestion, excellent results can be obtained in the majority of patients. It is necessary, of course, to abandon the old fashioned Freudian outlook and most modern psychological theories which have developed from Freud or his disciples.
Briefly, it may be considered that all nervous disorders such as the psychoneuroses which constitute by far the greater proportion of all mental illness, are the result of self hypnosis.

Such a theory may at first appear fantastic, but on close examination it will be seen that there is much to be said in favour of the idea.
Is it not natural to reason that the psychoneuroses may be the result of self hypnosis? Self hypnosis, we know, is quite possible to achieve. Usually it requires considerable practice before it can be produced at will and controlled to suit the person’s desires. Nevertheless, everybody passes through a short period of hypnosis each night before going to sleep. The transitional period between waking and sleeping is identical with the hypnotic state, and an order given to the mind in this condition will be carried out faithfully.
This explains how very many people can awaken at a definite hour in the morning if they have thought about it before going to sleep at night. Similarly, a mother may sleep through the loudest storm or other disturbances but will wake at the cry of her baby. Again, this drowsy transitional stage is well known as the time when ghosts or visions are usually seen. The person may be sleeping in an alleged haunted room. His conscious mind has laughed the idea to scorn; but subconsciously there is a belief in the possibility of ghosts. Just as he is dropping off to sleep, the conscious mind is off guard; and lo and behold, the ‘ghost’ appears. Such a person is seeing a ‘ghost’ in the way any good hypnotic subject can.

In one case, the hypnosis is self induced, although not deliberately; whereas in the other, the subject is under control of the operator.
Certain circumstances, as we have seen, favour the onset of hypnosis - emotion, for instance, sensitizes the brain, and in this condition the reasoning powers are in abeyance. Relaxation, concentration or limitation of the field of consciousness and attention all help the onset of hypnosis.

Hypnotism, as we have seen, is a manipulation of the imagination; and the imagination is greater than the will power. Further, suggestibility is increased in the hypnotic state; and everybody is suggestible to varying degrees. Suggestion is very powerful, even in the waking state, and famous scientists have made mistakes by ‘seeing’ non-existent things under a microscope because they really wanted to see them!
Many famous men have been convinced of the truth of spiritualism because they have ‘seen’ a ghost or some such manifestation.
Hypnosis is no respector of persons; so that even the cleverest and most intelligent people can easily be deceived. A clever man, if hypnotized to the somnambulistic state, can easily ‘see’ a vision as the result of hallucination of the sense of sight. If a very good subject, he could see the ‘vision’ even after waking, as the result of a post-hypnotic suggestion. Knowing that he had been the subject of an hypnotic experiment, unless the amnesia was complete and the hypnotist suggested loss of memory for events, such a man would have a good idea of the nature of his ‘vision’.
If, however, he hypnotized himself, without knowing it, and saw the ‘vision’, nothing would convince him that it was not a genuine visitation. As we have seen, one person in four is a potential somnambulist and can be hypnotized easily and quickly by almost any means.
It is easy to account, therefore, for the fact that the ranks of spirituallsts never lack recruits. Such people are very likely to hypnotize themselves quite unknowingly or be hypnotized by others, and in this state produce a bewildering variety of ‘phenomena’ from ‘visions’ to automatic writing.
Other people may develop the typical signs and symptoms of the neuroses as the result of self hypnosis.

How does this situation come about? Well, as we have seen, emotion sensitizes the brain and tends to drive reason out. When we examine these various phobias and obsessions, we shall find that there is always an emotional circumstance which caused considerable upset. In this condition, with reason driven out, the patient’s mind is in the ideal state for hypnosis.
Then we shall always find that there has been one striking idea which forced its way in on a brain sensitized by emotion. As a result, the patient is self hypnotized and continues to act as though under the influence of a post-hypnotic suggestion.
Those who doubt the possibility of this theory of mental illness should consider the case reported in the Daily Express of 16 June, 1949.
Here it was stated that, shortly after seeing a Hollywood film called The Snake Pit, which depicted the conditions in a lunatic asylum, a fifty-two year old woman was admitted to a mental hospital.
Her husband stated that until she saw the film, his wife was perfectly normal. Immediately afterwards, she began to act strangely, thought her husband was poisoning her, and was frightened of everybody except her soldier son.
After the film she said, ‘It’s terrible what these souls go through.’ They went for an ice-cream, and she said, ‘Are you sure it is not poisoned?’ On the way home she accused him of having poisoned a cup of tea which he bought her. She Wanted everything in the house to be analysed, and had to be admitted to a mental hospital. The husband stated she had always been normal, and that there was no insanity in her family. If this report be true what is the more likely explanation of her sudden mental illness? Self-hypnosis as the result of an idea impinging on a mind rendered sensitive by emotion, or some far-fetched, fantastic theory of Freud concerning a childish neurosis before the age of five?
There is so much similarity between the feelings resulting from a phobia or obsession and a post-hypnotic suggestion, that they are to all intents and purposes identical.
Consider just one aspect of such a situation. The patient with a compulsion to wash the hands says he knows it is silly but he feels he must do it. He can resist it for a while but feels awful and has to give in to obtain peace of mind.

The same thing happens with a strong post-hypnotic suggestion. The patient knows that what he feels urged to do is foolish, but feels that he must do it. Often he can resist, but usually has to give in to ease his mind.
What greater parallel could there be? In the case of the post-hypnotic suggestion or ‘artificial obsession’ this can easily be removed, because the patient is under the influence of the hypnotist and is ‘en rapport’ with him.
In the case of the ‘natural obsession’, the patient is self hypnotized and ‘en rapport’ with himself, so that there is no one else to de-hypnotize him, as it were.

Here, again, we find further evidence to support this theory. If a person has been hypnotized by one hypnotist he will, in the great majority of cases, take no notice of anybody else, being seemingly in the closest rapport with the hypnotist. Should the latter suggest that nobody else could hypnotize him, then the patient might easily prove to be a difficult if not impossible subject for anybody else to influence.
Similarly, we find that people who have ‘hypnotized’ themselves and developed various phobias, compulsions or obsessions, usually make very difficult hypnotic subjects, for the simple reason that they are ‘en rapport’ with themselves! Further, we know that susceptibility to hypnosis varies, and hence we get degrees of hypnosis, varying from the very light, barely perceptible hypnoidal state to the deepest possible somnambulism. So it is with nervous diseases. Probably as the result of varying susceptibility we have all degrees of severity from mild anxiety to severe obsessions.
Again, it should be remembered that all the phenomena of hypnosis can be produced by suggestion in the so-called waking state. Thus it is that people, apparently wide awake, can have their hands ‘locked’ together by a stage hypnotist and be powerless to undo them.
The stage hypnotist makes use of the emotional atmosphere to implant a dominant idea (inability to undo the hands) on a brain sensitized by emotion, from which reason has been driven out. The mind seizes hold of this idea and imagination does the rest, for, as we have seen, imagination is far stronger than will power.

Just as it is possible for waking hypnosis to be brought about in this way on the stage, so it is possible for the patient to hypnotize himself accidentally in certain emotional circumstances and have a dominant idea implanted in the mind.

Consider, for example, a typical case: An intelligent, elderly, well educated man of about seventy was travelling in a train. He gradually became sleepy and started to doze off. In the twilit transitional stage between the waking state and sleep, which is akin to hypnosis, he suddenly felt as though he was swallowing his false teeth which had slipped. He woke up with a start to find they had really slipped, and the idea flashed through his mind that they might choke him. Ever after that, he could not put his teeth in his mouth, no matter how he tried. He stated that he knew it was foolish but he just could not do it.
Another case, already described, was that of the elderly lady travelling in a train with her husband. They were alone and he was taken suddenly ill and nearly died. She was naturally emotionally upset and panic-stricken, and the idea crossed her mind that travelling by train was dangerous and had probably caused the trouble. Is it not likely that her phobia resulted from this experience as the result of a dominant idea (danger of travelling) being impressed on a mind rendered susceptible by suggestion? Surely the reader will say, this is obvious.

So it may appear to any intelligent person; but remember that she was under treatment by a psychiatrist for six months, without relief, before trying hypnosis, which cured her. In these cases, and indeed in most similar ones, it is obvious that there was a striking event which acted as the precipitating cause and threw the patient into a state of self-hypnosis in much the same way that some patients can be suddenly hypnotized by the stroke of a gong or the sudden cry of ‘sleep’.
Sometimes the cause is not so striking or obvious, but careful investigation will always reveal an emotional circumstance. One patient, for instance, complained of severe insomnia. She stated that this had started suddenly after a party where somebody had told a joke about a woman talking in her sleep. The patient had a guilty conscience which had not troubled her for a number of years, but the joke raised strong emotions and the thought crossed her mind, ‘Wouldn’t it be terrible if I talked in my sleep and my husband heard me.’ As a result she was afraid to go to sleep and developed severe insomnia.

Generally these cases develop what may be called secondary effects. As the result of anxiety and worry over their condition they generate nervous tension. This upsets the autonomic nervous system which in turn causes various unpleasant bodily symptoms such as palpitation, trembling, sweating, gastro-intestinal upsets, bladder frequency or sexual trouble.
It is rare to find a nervous patient who can relax easily; and this constant tension soon leads to nervous exhaustion. The tension frequently gives rise to headaches, feelings of fullness, giddiness, or bursting feelings in the head, while loss of memory and inability to concentrate are common. Worst of all, because patients do not understand where these peculiar feelings come from, they often fear that they must be going mad.
One such case was that of this woman. Her doctor wrote:

‘I have a case for whom I feel sure you will be able to do a great deal of good if only you can get her co-operation. I am referring to a lady I should like you to see. She is a grossly hysterical woman, sexually and emotionally immature, who cannot face up to the reality of life and has now got herself into a real jam by her marriage some months ago to a man whose size is a constant source of irritation to her. He is slightly smaller in stature than she is. She is not living with him now. She is extremely introspective and very emotional. She has been seen by psychiatrists both in London and and after many months of constant attention, I find I can do nothing with her. She refuses to have electrical convulsive therapy (which I feel would help her) or have a pre-frontal leucotomy (for which she appears to be an ideal candidate), so I am referring her to you for a trial of your methods.’

It was obvious from the doctor’s letter that the patient would be a very difficult case, and this was confirmed when she wrote giving a disjointed account of her symptoms and feelings. Among many other things, she said:

‘I have a fear of going mad or horror of even a temporary mental breakdown. I am afraid of going to bed in case I wake up in a mental hospital. I keep wondering where my other self (the heavy emotional feeling) has disappeared to. I have many, many conflicts and much psychological matter worrying me, such as my idea that I must be mad, as I have bottled up all emotions. I am worried that I might be a dangerous lunatic or perhaps murder - who lives with me. I have horror at the thought that I shall never know when I am well, as I feel that the depression is so deep that it is sub-conscious.’

When seen, the patient gave the history that she had lost her mother at an early age and had lived with her father, brother and a relative. The brother had been very quiet, whereas she had been very lively; and one day he said to her, ‘You ‘will go mad’.
When he died later of a brain tumour, the idea that he had implanted was reinforced by her own belief that, as her brother had died with ‘something wrong with his head’, there must be madness in the family. Hence she began to act according to this false belief and became more and more irresponsible. She received regular treatment from an eminent psychiatrist for a number of years without any improvement, and finally she was given up as hopeless. She then met a man who asked her to marry him.
After the marriage, while going up the steps of the honeymoon hotel, the patient noticed that her husband was about an inch shorter than she was. Being in an emotional state, the idea flashed into her mind, ‘You must have been mad to marry him’ and this was rapidly followed by the thoughts ‘Of course, I am mad - my brother said I would go mad, and I have’.
As a result, the patient got into a panic, ran away from the hotel, and never lived with her husband as man and wife. She felt that she could never live with him, and at the same time felt that she could not bear people to know the marriage had been a failure. As a result of this secondary worry, she became more and more confused, and was finally reduced to the pitiable state of mind as indicated by her letter. Being unable and afraid to sleep, she had to take heavy doses of sleeping tablets in order to get any rest. 

As may be expected, the patient proved to be a very poor hypnotic subject, and only the lightest stage of hypnosis could be induced, even after repeated attempts. However, she made steady improvement and was soon able to give up taking sleeping tablets. After a couple of months, during which treatment was given three times a week and the patient lived a normal, social life between sessions, she had recovered sufficiently to return home in order to deal with a domestic crisis which had arisen.
Most psychiatrists would scoff, of course, and say ‘Oh, the condition will relapse’ or ‘she will develop other symptoms’ or some such foolish remark. Quite apart from the fact that the opinion expressed by people who were unable to produce any improvement whatever even after years of treatment is without value, the fact remains that the cure has been maintained. The patient has been able to stand on her own feet and make her own decisions. The marriage problem has been settled and the other domestic crisis arranged satisfactorily. A year later the patient wrote to say: ‘I am still very well and have not in any way fallen back.’

Now how is a cure such as this and many similar ones brought about, using only light hypnosis? Simply by disregarding the old-fashioned and pernicious theories of Freud and his modern disciples, and applying certain well-known laws of suggestion to overcome the patient’s complaint, which is regarded in the nature of self-hypnosis.

First of all, an ordinary history as related by the patient will more often than not reveal the emotional incident which upset him. Contrary to what is generally stated, this is usually fairly easily remembered, as may be expected from anything which made such a profound impression. If the patient does not volunteer the in-formation, a few judicious enquiries will soon elicit the facts. For instance, in the case described, the patient had a fear of going mad.
Simple enquiry as to whether she had ever seen or heard of any-body going mad quickly brought to light the facts she related about her brother. Is it not more logical to regard this as the start-ing point of her trouble, rather than to consider her adult neurosis as the result of an ‘infantile neurosis’ developed before the age of five, according to Freud? If Freud’s theory is correct—’no adult

neurosis without an infantile neurosis’—how can we possibly account for her cure?
Anyway, having obtained a history from the patient and formed an opinion as to the plan of action, it is necessary to prepare the patient for hypnosis. Now most hypnotists will agree that it is fatal to explain to the subject beforehand that there are degrees of hypnosis and that not everybody can be deeply hypnotized. This they consider is rather like a conjuror explaining his tricks before-hand. They prefer to attempt to hypnotize the patient deeply; and then, if they fail, to begin explaining that some people can only be lightly hypnotized. This attitude may be justified if the hypnotist, like the stage performer, is striving to obtain deep hypnosis. If, however, it is decided to use light hypnosis only, which is all that is necessary in medical work, then it is far better to explain to the patient that he is not expected to develop anything more than a light stage of trance.
Patients nearly always have a wrong idea of hypnosis and generally imagine that they will be completely unconscious, remem-ber nothing and behave like subjects on the stage. As relatively few patients can achieve this state, disappointment at what they imagine is failure to achieve hypnosis can often act as a form of counter-suggestion, and so prejudice what would otherwise be excellent results.
However, if it is explained beforehand that, for medical work, only light hypnosis is necessary, many patients will be greatly relieved. Many of them, particularly nervous cases, are often afraid of ‘going unconscious’ and ‘knowing nothing about it’. They are usually told that they are expected to do no more than go into a pleasant, drowsy, relaxed state like being half asleep and half awake.
In this condition they will be quite conscious and know all that is going on, but they will be able to pay attention to the hypnotist exclusively and absorb all his suggestions.
Hypnosis, it is pointed out, enables the patient to concentrate his mind on the suggestions of the hypnotist, excluding practically all other thoughts. As the mind is concentrated on one thing instead of being occupied with hundreds of other distracting thoughts, then its power must obviously be increased.

The mind has tremendous reserves of power which are never used—just the same as the body has. It has been seen that these reserves of bodily power can be called forth under hypnosis so that there is apparently a tremendous increase in muscular strength. For instance, a slender boy can, under the influence of hypnotic suggestion, support the full weight of the hypnotist, a man much heavier than himself.
In the same way the strength of the mind can be greatly in-creased and all its energies directed into useful channels instead of being wasted in thousands of ‘scatter-brained’ thoughts.
The only use of hypnosis, it is pointed out, is to convey curative suggestions, and this can be done just as well with light hypnosis as deep.
Hypnotists of experience know perfectly well that response to suggestion does not depend upon depth of hypnosis. Many patients have the impression that ‘deep’ hypnosis is ‘more powerful’, and this misconception should be corrected, for practical results show that, for medical work, deep hypnosis is unnecessary.
Further, it should be explained that the patient will remember everything that happens in the trance and in particular the hypno-tist’s suggestions.
In this way, hypnotism is used as a sort of mind training. The patient knows why he is doing certain things, and by bringing back the hypnotist’s suggestions in his mind, the treatment is reinforced.
This enables the patient to feel that he is co-operating in the treatment and helping to bring about his own cure under the guidance of the hypnotist.
As a result, self-confidence is increased, for the patient feels that he is no longer helpless in the grip of his particular phobia or neurosis, but that he has a weapon which can easily overcome it when he learns how to use it.
Few people relish becoming mere automatons, and nearly all secretly dread being in the power of the hypnotist.
Used in the way which has been indicated, as a sort of mind training, far from being dependent on the hypnotist, the patient learns how to deal, not only with his immediate problem, but with any future difficulties which may ever arise.
The objection that the subject becomes dependent on the hypno-

tist is only valid if hypnotism is used for direct symptom removal, as it often is by psychiatrists, amateur hypnotists and stage professionals.
In any case, it would be difficult to imagine a patient as dependent on a hypnotist as the poor neurotic who attends for ‘psycho-analysis’ one hour a day, five or six days a week for five or six years!
Having explained all this, gained the patient’s confidence and induced a light hypnosis, the hypnotist may proceed much as follows. First of all, the patient’s mind should be put at rest and the belief in the absolute certainty of cure firmly established.
Most nervous patients, as in the case described, have a secret fear that they might go mad or have a severe nervous breakdown.
A simple but nevertheless forceful statement to the effect that they show no signs of any real mental disease whatsoever, usually brings tremendous relief. This is more likely to be accepted if definite reasons are given for this opinion.
For instance, they may be told that they have nothing more than a bad habit of thinking, just as some people have a bad habit of smoking or drinking; belief in the certainty of cure will be estab-lished when they are told that, as they know, all bad habits can be broken, and that they will be shown how to break theirs, and develop a good habit of thinking correctly.
Doubters may be reminded that their way of thinking has got them where they are, so that if they wish to be cured they had better accept the hypnotist’s suggestion of a change in thought.
Next, it helps if they are shown briefly how their trouble arose. For instance, in the case described the patient was told that she showed no signs of real madness. It was pointed out that the very fact that she worried about her mind showed that she had no real mental disease, for patients who are really mad never worry about their own minds.
‘Napoleon’ in the asylum is notoriously satisfied with his own condition and inclined to think anybody is mad but himself! She was shown how the idea of madness had been put in her head by her brother, confirmed by the circumstances of his death, and re-activated by the emotional factors involved in her marriage. It was further demonstrated that worry and anxiety had upset the balance

of her nervous system, so that it was no wonder she could not think clearly.
Nobody could be expected to solve a difficult problem, either in chess, mathematics or anything else, if they were flustered and upset. Therefore, she could not be expected to solve her particular difficulty until she had learned to calm her nerves.
However, this did not mean she was mad. As a result, it was obvious that she had never been mad, was not mad, and would never go mad. Further, as her nerves became calmer, all the organs and glands in her body, including her brain, would work smoothly and well, and as a result she would be able to think clearly, and easily solve her own problems.
As we have seen, all this did come to pass, and when the patient had been cured she was able to exercise her own judgment and have the marriage annulled. She did not do it as an automaton under the control of the hypnotist.
Most nervous patients complain of what may be called secondary symptoms. The original fear or worry generates nervous tension, which discharges itself through the autonomic nervous system and so produces various bodily symptoms. It is common knowledge that worry may give rise to a nervous headache or migraine, while fright may cause palpitation. Difficulty in breath-ing, often asthmatical, gastro-intestinal upsets, bladder frequency, trembling and sweating are common symptoms. Everybody knows how students who are keyed up before an examination frequently visit the lavatory.
The aim, of course, is to remove the cause which is bringing about these symptoms. At the same time, however, it helps tremen-dously if the patient learns to control this autonomic nervous system and so dispel nervous tension. Generally, when the patient feels something wrong such as palpitation of the heart, this causes more worry. More tension is generated which in turn is discharged through the usual channels and so upsets the affected organ even more. Thus a vicious circle is set up. This can be broken in many ways. Alcohol will do it, for instance, and so will heavy doses of sedative drugs.
These, however, are only temporary expedients and act by deadening the nerves. Unfortunately they have side effects so that

the cure is worse than the disease, in addition to which the patient worries more than ever because of his addiction to alcohol or drugs.
There is a very simple and natural way of breaking this vicious circle and so quietening the nerves. This is by means of complete relaxation of both mind and body. Few people can relax properly, and nervous patients will always declare that they cannot possibly relax.
Under hypnotism, as we have seen, it is possible to obtain com-plete relaxation even in the lightest stage. Thus patients who have been fidgeting, twisting and turning and clenching their fists a short while before, will, on being hypnotized, remain perfectly still, often in an awkward position, for perhaps half an hour or more.
While in the trance, the benefits of relaxation should be explained to the patient. It can be pointed out that all athletes achieve the knack of relaxation. Swimmers relax between strokes
—one arm is relaxed while the other is pulling—and this gives them the endurance to swim perhaps twenty miles.
Nervous tension wears people out and creates exhaustion. They may be told, for instance, that their own heart relaxes between beats and this little pause or rest enables it to recuperate its energy and so go on beating day in and day out as long as they live.
They should be told that they will be able to relax for them-selves in future and that as they do so, all nervous tension will go out of their body, leaving their nerves feeling calm and peaceful. To master the art of relaxation, like anything else, needs practice.
At first it will be necessary for them to sit quietly in a chair in order to relax; but as they get better at it they will be able to relax at will, even when up and about.
It may be suggested that each day after they have achieved complete relaxation, the suggestions made by the hypnotist will come back into their head and thus reinforce the treatment.
Having given these general instructions, specific suggestions may then be made. There are certain laws of suggestion which should be observed in order to get the best results.
 First of all, it must be remembered that the patient is a human being and that hypnosis has not converted him into the helpless automaton he is popularly supposed to be.
Although it is true that suggestibility is increased, the patient is

quite capable of accepting or rejecting a suggestion, even in the deepest state of hypnosis.
This is even more marked in the light stage, and therefore the suggestions should be thought out and presented with care.
Most people resent being ordered about and told ‘you must do this’ or ‘you must not do that’. Therefore domineering methods should never be used in medical treatment.
The suggestion is much more likely to be accepted if it is pre-sented in a reasonable manner, and particularly if a sound, logical reason is given as to why it should act.
For instance: suppose the patient has a twitching eye, it is use-less to say ‘Don’t twitch’, ‘Stop your eye twitching’, or some other such order. If, however, suggestions are given that, as the patient relaxes the nerves will get calm and peaceful and that the eye muscles will therefore get steadier and steadier, then success will be more probable.
It is always advisable to give the suggestion time to act. Con-cerning suggestions, it may be explained that they are like seeds planted in the ground. At first nothing can be seen; then they send up a little shoot, and may finally grow into beautiful flowers or even big trees. So the suggestions planted in the mind will grow in strength day by day.
It may be suggested that some improvement will be noticed at once, and that this will increase as time goes on. In this way, the patient’s expectancy is raised and the suggestion given time to act.
It is no good, for instance, if the patient has a neuralgic pain, to say ‘The pain is gone’, ‘You cannot feel it’ because (except in a few very susceptible cases) the patient would still feel it and lose faith in the treatment. Therefore it is best to suggest definite but gradual disappearance, saying, for instance, ‘As you relax, more and more your nerves are becoming quieter and more peaceful, and as a result the pain is getting less and less every minute and will soon be entirely gone’.
Suggestions should always be positive rather than negative. In-stead of saying ‘You will never be depressed’ it is better to say ‘You will always be cheerful and happy and well’. Full use should be made of emotion wherever possible, as this increases the force of the suggestion.

It is said that only words which come from the heart can reach the heart. Therefore the hypnotist should have a firm faith in him-self and his form of treatment.
It has been seen that even a weak, frail youth can be made phenomenally strong by calling forth his reserve muscular power under hypnotism. It is obvious that considerably greater strength could be expected from a trained athlete, say a weight lifter, in similar circumstances.
Little children have implicit faith and believe anything they are told. As a result, they are happy believing in Father Christmas or fairy-tales, until some sceptical person destroys their illusions. Children are notoriously susceptible and make excellent hypnotic subjects. Christ knew that unless people could have faith and be-lieve like little children, then the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ was not for them, because they could not make use of the power within themselves.
When using emotion to aid the acceptance of suggestion under hypnosis, it often helps to paint a mental picture. For instance: a feeling of disgust and a dislike of alcohol may be caused by paint-ing a picture of what the patient looks like when under the influence.
On the other hand, a patient who stammers may be given con-fidence by teaching him to call up a mental picture of himself speaking freely and easily, perhaps addressing an important meet-ing and making a great success of his speech.
The patient can learn to call up these little ‘success pictures’ whenever he wishes, particularly when relaxing. In combination with ‘success suggestions’ they form a very powerful means of rais-ing the patient’s self-confidence and reinforcing hypnotic treatment.
It is well known that an idea once implanted in and accepted by the mind will tend to be carried out; and also that there is always what may be called the dominant thought. It is impossible to think two opposite things at once.
Nobody can think ‘I can do it’ and ‘I cannot do it’ at the same time. They can think one after the other, or one more than the other; but one is always dominant. And here we meet another curious law of suggestion which is sometimes known as the law of reversed effort.

When a person thinks, ‘I would like to do that, but I do not think I can’, then he will be unable to do it, and all the ‘will-power’ in the world cannot help him.
This is well illustrated in the case of people who suffer from insomnia. No matter how they grit their teeth and exert their ‘will-power’ to sleep, they think or believe they cannot, and so stay awake. The harder they try to go to sleep the wider awake they become.
Using ‘will-power’ to overcome a complaint such as this is just like pushing with brute strength and no intelligence against a stronger opponent. Failure is certain.
Using imagination, however, is like using Ju-Jitsu which turns the opponent’s strength against himself. The person who suffers from insomnia and gives up caring whether he sleeps or not but simply thinks, ‘I am going to relax completely’, ‘As I relax, my nerves get calm and peaceful’. ‘As they get calm and peaceful I begin to feel tired’, ‘I am beginning to feel tired already, and the more I relax the more tired I become’—such a person will be asleep before he knows it.
It is sometimes useful to demonstrate this form of dominant thought and inability to think two things at once by giving the patient a simple test. He is told to clasp the hands tightly together and think, ‘I can not undo them’.
It will be found that while the patient honestly thinks this and nothing else, he will be unable to undo them. The minute he changes his mind, he can do so. He may be told that, just as he does not want to go through life with his hands locked together and changed his mind in order to free himself, so he can avoid going through life with a ‘locked mind’ by changing his thoughts.
Hypnotism, by invoking a natural law, can make use of the wonderful power which is within all of us and increase the strength of the mind just as it can increase the strength of the body.
This increased strength of mind combined with the imagination which has been directed into proper channels, results in an irresist-ible power of dominant thought which brooks no opposition. Thus the alcoholic no longer gives way to drink, the stammerer speaks clearly and distinctly, while the neurotics give up their phobias and

obsessions. Psychiatrists endeavour to damn hypnotism by claim-ing that it suppresses symptoms.
Used in the way it often is by psycho-analysts, amateur hypno-tists and stage professionals, such criticism may be sometimes justified.
However, a valuable method of treatment should not be con-demned merely because the majority of people do not understand it and use it wrongiy.
Used in the manner already indicated, as a form of mind train-ing, there is no suppression of symptoms, any more than there is when a child discards the habits of infancy and learns to walk, talk and control itself generally.
Further, it is often stated that other symptoms will appear to take the place of those which have been removed.
This is quite impossible, for the patient who has once learnt to use this God-given power within himself, becomes invulnerable and is quite capable of dealing with any circumstance which may arise.
For instance, the patient who overcame her fear of madness had no difficulty in discarding her sleeping-drugs, dealing with a com-plicated domestic affair, and settling her own personal problem connected with her marriage.
This wonderful power which lies within all of us may be likened to the latent power of steam in an engine. If the fly-wheel is stopped for any reason with the piston exactly at top dead centre or bottom dead centre, then the force of the steam is unable to act and the engine will not work.
A slight flick or touch will tip the balance and set the wheel going round, so that the machine works perfectly.
When a person thinks, ‘I cannot do this’, or ‘I cannot do that’, he is like an engine, the wheel of which has been stopped in the position described above. Hypnosis supplies the ‘flick’ or ‘touch’ which sets the wheel going and so allows the latent power within to come into play and ‘I cannot’ becomes ‘I can’. Just as the engine must have fuel and water to keep up the pressure of steam and in order to drive itself properly, so it is necessary for man to have a driving force if he is to function at maximum efficiency.
Such a force is available to all in the simple teachings of Christ.