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Up to this point
it has been necessary to lay the foundations of the science by the
statement of highly abstract general principles which we have reached by
purely metaphysical reasoning. We now pass on to the consideration of
certain natural laws which have been established by a long series of
experiments and observations, the full meaning and importance of which
will become clear when we see their application to the general principles
which have hitherto occupied our attention. The phenomena of hypnosis are
now so fully recognized as established scientific facts that it is quite
superfluous to discuss the question of their credibility. Two great
medical schools have been founded upon them, and in some countries they
have become the subject of special legislation. The question before us at
the present day is, not as to the credibility of the facts, but as to the
proper inferences to be drawn from them, and a correct apprehension of
these inferences is one of the most valuable aids to the mental scientist,
for it confirms the conclusions of purely a priori reasoning by an
array of experimental instances which places the correctness of those
conclusions beyond doubt.
The great truth
which the science of hypnotism has brought to light is the dual nature of
the human mind. Much conflict exists between different writers as to
whether this duality results from the presence of two actually separate
minds in the one man, or in the action of the same mind in the employment
of different functions. This is one of those distinctions without a
difference which are so prolific a source of hindrance to the opening out
of truth. A man must be a single individuality to be a man at all, and,
so, the net result is the same whether we conceive of his varied modes of
mental action as proceeding from a set of separate minds strung, so to
speak, on the thread of his one individuality and each adapted to a
particular use, or as varied functions of a single mind: in either case we
are dealing with a single individuality, and how we may picture the
wheel-work of the mental mechanism is merely a question of what picture
will bring the nature of its action home to us most clearly. Therefore, as
a matter of convenience, I shall in these lectures speak of this dual
action as though it proceeded from two minds, an outer and an inner, and
the inner mind we will call the subjective mind and the outer the
objective, by which names the distinction is most frequently indicated in
the literature of the subject.
A long series of
careful experiments by highly-trained observers, some of them men of
world-wide reputation, has fully established certain remarkable
differences between the action of the subjective and that of the objective
mind which may be briefly stated as follows. The subjective mind is only
able to reason deductively and not inductively, while the objective
mind can do both. Deductive reasoning is the pure syllogism which shows
why a third proposition must necessarily result if two others are assumed,
but which does not help us to determine whether the two initial statements
are true or not. To determine this is the province of inductive reasoning
which draws its conclusions from the observation of a series of facts. The
relation of the two modes of reasoning is that, first by observing a
sufficient number of instances, we inductively reach the conclusion that a
certain principle is of general application, and then we enter upon the
deductive process by assuming the truth of this principle and determining
what result must follow in a particular case on the hypothesis of its
truth. Thus deductive reasoning proceeds on the assumption of the
correctness of certain hypotheses or suppositions with which it sets out:
it is not concerned with the truth or falsity of those suppositions, but
only with the question as to what results must necessarily follow
supposing them to be true. Inductive reasoning; on the other hand, is the
process by which we compare a number of separate instances with one
another until we see the common factor that gives rise to them all.
Induction proceeds by the comparison of facts, and deduction by the
application of universal principles. Now it is the deductive method only
which is followed by the subjective mind. Innumerable experiments on
persons in the hypnotic state have shown that the subjective mind is
utterly incapable of making the selection and comparison which are
necessary to the inductive process, but will accept any suggestion,
however false, but having once accepted any suggestion, it is strictly
logical in deducing the proper conclusions from it, and works out every
suggestion to the minutest fraction of the results which flow from it.
As a consequence
of this it follows that the subjective mind is entirely under the control
of the objective mind. With the utmost fidelity it reproduces and works
out to its final consequences whatever the objective mind impresses upon
it; and the facts of hypnotism show that ideas can be impressed on the
subjective mind by the objective mind of another as well as by that of its
own individuality. This is a most important point, for it is on this
amenability to suggestion by the thought of another that all the phenomena
of healing, whether present or absent, of telepathy and the like, depend.
Under the control of the practised hypnotist the very personality of the
subject becomes changed for the time being; he believes himself to be
whatever the operator tells him he is: he is a swimmer breasting the
waves, a bird flying in the air, a soldier in the tumult of battle, an
Indian stealthily tracking his victim: in short, for the time being, he
identifies himself with any personality that is impressed upon him by the
will of the operator, and acts the part with inimitable accuracy. But the
experiments of hypnotism go further than this, and show the existence in
the subjective mind of powers far transcending any exercised by the
objective mind through the medium of the physical senses; powers of
thought-reading, of thought-transference, of clairvoyance, and the like,
all of which are frequently manifested when the patient is brought into
the higher mesmeric state; and we have thus experimental proof of the
existence in ourselves of transcendental faculties the full development
and conscious control of which would place us in a perfectly new sphere of
life.
But it should be
noted that the control must be our own and not that of any external
intelligence whether in the flesh or out of it.
But perhaps the
most important fact which hypnotic experiments have demonstrated is that
the subjective mind is the builder of the body. The subjective entity in
the patient is able to diagnose the character of the disease from which he
is suffering and to point out suitable remedies, indicating a
physiological knowledge exceeding that of the most highly trained
physicians, and also a knowledge of the correspondences between diseased
conditions of the bodily organs and the material remedies which can afford
relief. And from this it is but a step further to those numerous instances
in which it entirely dispenses with the use of material remedies and
itself works directly on the organism, so that complete restoration to
health follows as the result of the suggestions of perfect soundness made
by the operator to the patient while in the hypnotic state.
Now these are
facts fully established by hundreds of experiments conducted by a variety
of investigators in different parts of the world, and from them we may
draw two inferences of the highest importance: one, that the subjective
mind is in itself absolutely impersonal, and the other that it is the
builder of the body, or in other words it is the creative power in the
individual. That it is impersonal in itself is shown by its readiness to
assume any personality the hypnotist chooses to impress upon it; and the
unavoidable inference is that its realization of personality proceeds from
its association with the particular objective mind of its own
individuality. Whatever personality the objective mind impresses upon it,
that personality it assumes and acts up to; and since it is the builder of
the body it will build up a body in correspondence with the personality
thus impressed upon it. These two laws of the subjective mind form the
foundation of the axiom that our body represents the aggregate of our
beliefs. If our fixed belief is that the body is subject to all sorts of
influences beyond our control, and that this, that, or the other symptom
shows that such an uncontrollable influence is at work upon us, then this
belief is impressed upon the subjective mind, which by the law of its
nature accepts it without question and proceeds to fashion bodily
conditions in accordance with this belief. Again, if our fixed belief is
that certain material remedies are the only means of cure, then we find in
this belief the foundation of all medicine. There is nothing unsound in
the theory of medicine; it is the strictly logical correspondence with the
measure of knowledge which those who rely on it are as yet able to
assimilate, and it acts accurately in accordance with their belief that in
a large number of cases medicine will do good, but also in many instances
it fails. Therefore, for those who have not yet reached a more interior
perception of the law of Nature, the healing agency of medicine is a most
valuable aid to the alleviation of physical maladies. The error to be
combated is not the belief that, in its own way, medicine is capable of
doing good, but the belief that there is no higher or better way.
Then, on the same
principle, if we realize that the subjective mind is the builder of the
body, and that the body is subject to no influences except those which
reach it through the subjective mind, then what we have to do is to
impress this upon the subjective mind and habitually think of it as
a fountain of perpetual Life, which is continually renovating the body by
building in strong and healthy material, in the most complete independence
of any influences of any sort, save those of our own desire impressed upon
our own subjective mind by our own thought. When once we fully grasp these
considerations we shall see that it is just as easy to externalize healthy
conditions of body as the contrary. Practically the process amounts to a
belief in our own power of life; and since this belief, if it be
thoroughly domiciled within us, will necessarily produce a correspondingly
healthy body, we should spare no pains to convince ourselves that there
are sound and reasonable grounds for holding it. To afford a solid basis
for this conviction is the purpose of Mental Science. |
