When we are hypnotized, we do it by passing through different states and accompl ishing some steps. There are different states of hypnosis, each one with its own characteristics and depth. We can reach each one of the different states depend ing on which level of hypnosis we wish to reach.
While you go accomplishing the different steps which lead you into the hypnosis, you go entering different hypnotic states and depths of trance. And once all th e hypnosis steps are accomplished and you are completely hypnotized, the depth o f your trance can still fluctuate and slightly change from one depth to another.
The main hypnosis states can be identified as four: The hypnoidal or waking stat e, the lethargic state or light trance, the cataleptic trance or medium state an d the deep or somnambulistic state. Each one of them has characteristics of its own as well as a different depth from the one which precedes it and from the nex t one.
The first hypnotic state is the one called and known whether as waking or as hyp noidal state. This state is the one which happens at the initial stage of the hy pnosis induction. It is a state in which the patient starts feeling relaxed and loose. We go into this state everyday when we are about to fall asleep or when w e just wake up. We are fully conscious during this stage, but we feel very relax ed and start loosing focus on what surrounds us. This stage is already considere d a hypnotic state, and some suggestions can be successfully employed in it.
The lethargic or light state is the one that follows the hypnoidal one and is ch aracterized by being a light trance state in which the patient would feel lazy a nd sluggish. During this stage, the hypnotist could notice on his patient eyelid s some flickering as well as movements of the eyeballs under them. This can be u
sed as means of recognizing when the patient enters this lethargic state, since it shows him to be in a deeper level of hypnotic trance than the hypnoidal one.
The next state is the cataleptic trance, also known as medium state. This state follows the lethargic one and it is where the patient looses focus on what happe ns around him and starts feeling disconnected from the environment in which he i s. From this stage on, the patient memories of what has happened after he comes back into the natural awake state will be somehow diffuse and misty. During this state, the patient easily responds to the hypnotist s voice and suggestions, and although the hypnotized person always has some level of control of himself, on t his stage the hypnotist will have a strong influence on him. This is the ideal h ypnotic state for employing suggestions and applying therapies.
During the medium or cataleptic trance is the state in which, per example, stage hypnotists can make the subject with whom they are working to make his body com pletely rigid as to be able to put them horizontally sustained by two chairs bac ks without falling or loosing the stone-like aspect.
The last hypnotic stage which a patient can reach is the deep or somnambulistic state. When it comes to hypnotherapy, it is not good that the patient comes into this state, since he will not want to keep following suggestions or paying atte ntion to the hypnotist. People under this state are feeling extremely relaxed an d good and do not want to be distracted or kept away from it by the hypnotist s vo ice. Therefore, hypnotists should avoid that their patients enter this state, an d in case they do, they should awake them from it.
There are also some main steps which are the most commonly followed in order to induce people into hypnosis. The first step would be a conversational and rappor t creation one which is done through talking and conversation until a pacing is followed by the therapist and the patient. Then, the hypnotic trance state start s being induced by the hypnotist and once its effects can be noticed, it will be taken into a deeper trance. After this is achieved, the hypnotist first applies an ego-strengthening therapy to his patient, and then the proper therapy is car ried. At this point, the suggestions are done as part of the therapy when they a re needed. And at last, the patient is awaken from the trance and taken back int o his natural conscious state.
LESSON SIXTEEN - ORIENTAL SECRETS
CERTAIN HIGH CASTE societies in the Ear East conceived the idea that by persiste nt practice, the power of the eye as the source of magnetism could be developed to a degree that made it a weapon greatly to be feared. We are not seeking that end, as we do not think we live in anage when fear should rule mankind. But ther e are other reasons why the excessive and unusual power of the human eye should be developed, and these have been fully statedin the two preceding lessons. Behi nd these reasons there exists still another which has been touched upon in a pas t lesson and which will be further stated as we proceed; that of the collective generating of the latent magnetism of the body, which can be effected by a numbe r of processes.
The eye has been described by scientists as a small-sized volcano; in most cases latent, quiet, sleeping in its embers, but the center of the most intensely hea ted zone, in all Nature, ready to glow when aroused.
What is known as the Oriental Practice is not by any means a newmethod. It has h ad uses in other departments, notably in developing a wonderful memory, and in s timulating thought, creating fertility of ideas, building inventive powers and a
voidingmental breakdown. None of these purposes will be insisted upon in these l essons, although they will follow naturally. The trouble with the minds of unsuc cessful people is that they are not alert in a way that wins results. Most of th em are sluggish except in pursuit of the needs of the Four Appetites which gener ally rule mankind. This kind of mental alertness results in placing them under t he sway of craftier minds. The field of human activities in other directions is almost unlimited, and in them the powers of mental alertness and keenness are ab sent.
This explains why most lives are failures.
In the Oriental Practice as it was employed in the Far East, the results hardly warranted the time devoted to it had these people had other lines of usefulness in the world. They were not educated except in religious theories. They were not engaged in anything really worth while in life. Of course this gave them time f or their practice; and led them into methods of concentration that, if their cla ims were to be believed, gave them knowledge of some of the mysteries of other p owers of a superhuman nature. If such claims were in fact true, there was nothin g gained by what they acquired.
We are in this world primarily to live the life that is thrust upon us.
No normal human being is a hermit; hence our duty lies far and wide among mankin d. The more people we meet the better it is for us. Interests are interwoven eve rywhere. Duties involve home and the social relations, as well as business, prof essional and productive activities; and the practice indulged in by other people s who are not so interbound in their duties, does not help us except in the very limited use we make of it.
But any natural and highly beneficial practice that will stimulate the brain int o its best uses, and start a new line of habits tending to establish great menta l keenness and alertness, will at the same time develop collectively the latent power of magnetism where now it is diffused in the body. Thus the Oriental Pract ice, kept within such limits, serves a double purpose:
1. It produces, so far as its influence reaches, what is called the Magnetic Eye .
2. It creates collectively a fund of magnetism from the diffused magnetism of th e body.
Its direct result in accomplishing these two ends is found in developing the hab it as a natural gift of separating details from masses, following the plan set f orth in the two preceding lessons;and basedon the two following accepted facts:
1. Persons who do not possess as a natural gift the power of separating details from masses are never mentally magnetic.
2. Persons who do possess this power as a habit, and thereby as a natural gift, are exceedingly magnetic mentally, and become more so as they put this power int o daily and practical use in dealing with other persons.
The method now to be pursued is what is called cumulative.
A process is cumulative, at least in art and particularly in this practice, that begins with the least unit, adds one at a time, and so goes on, always beginnin g at one. No other plan succeeds in this branch of the training. But few readers will understand what is meant by always beginning with one, or the first unit, or any one unit whether the same is the first or not.
Take a step to an open door leading to an adjoining room; give one quick glance at the contents of that room; then withdraw. While out of the range of vision of those contents, mention one article that is in the room. This is the first unit . The same article may or may not be included in the next glance. Go again to th e door, look into the room, and withdraw, mentioning two articles in the room. R epeat by taking a third glance, which must be as quickly done as the eye can loo k. Again repeat by taking a fourth glance, always going out of sight of the room , and name aloud the four articles that are seen in the fraction of a second. Tr y now to name five articles that are seen at a fifth glance after retiring from the sight of the contents. Then six, and so on until you are not able to add any more.
What is meant by cumulative will now be explained.
After reaching your limit in the number of articles that can be seen in a fracti on of a second, rest for any length of time that you may choose. Progress and de velopment take place during periods of rest, but following periods of activity o f the mind.
When you feel again an interest in resuming the practice, tart with one unit; no t with the number following where you left off. There are two kinds of mistakes that you can make at this stage.
1. The first mistake is to try to see how many articles you can take in at a gla nce, instead of beginning with one, and adding one at each trial.
2. The second mistake is in not going back over the same ground after taking a r est.
A room in an ordinary house would not contain enough articles to reach a real te st. The mind by the cumulative process will soon be able to include from fifty t o one hundred items in less than one second of time. Women train themselves to s ee in one very brief look everything that another woman has on at Easter time, m eaning everything that is visible. In the present style of dress the number of a rticles is limited compared with those of a generation ago. We once heard a woma n witness in court describe an occurrence in which a well-dressed woman particip ated; and on being asked to tell what she saw, enumerated twenty-five items worn by the other woman, although she declared that she was passing at the time and did not stop to see all that was happening. She first noted what a well-dressed person of her sex was wearing, and then lost interest in the other matters.
This method of seeing details in mass is of very limited benefit unless it can b e made to grow by the cumulative plan.
The Chinese employ the shop-window system, but do not make it cumulative except in the early stages of the training. The plan is to walk along the street past a shop window and to note only one item at first. Then they walk past the window again, and note two items. Then three; four, etc., and by actual test it was pro ved that the experimenter, in less than one second of time, could see more than five hundred details and could describe them accurately. Claims have been made t hat one person reached more than five thousand items. We are willing to stop at a much smaller number; although what the human brain can be trained to do is unb elievable until known.
The principle involved in the method is all that interests us.
It requires the growing use of the mind as the agent of separating details in th e human face, and of reading what is behind those details in the mind; and for t he purpose of highly developing this power, the Oriental Practice is exceptional ly valuable.
As personal magnetism is power, first over self, then over all human beings with whom you come in contact, it must follow that the ability to know what is in th e mind and purposes of other persons, is one of the most valuable and important adjuncts to this power.
Oriental Methods in Hypnotism, Telepathy, Concentration, Magnetic Healing, Magic and Wonders of the Orient
BRANCH SIX of the Elmer E. Knowles System of PERSONAL INFLUENCE and HEALING From the beginning of civilisation, the Orient has always been regarded as the h ead and front of what we may for want of a more comprehensive term call magic an d mysticism. For this eminence, she is indebted to the reports of the wonders wo rked by Eastern occultists, reports which have been accompanied by accumulated e vidence, too convincing to be ignored.
The Magic of the East the devotees of which are to a great extent members of the Hindu caste is not a product of the professional illusionist. Rather is it a ma nifestation of the marvellous pent-up forces, inherent in all of us.
All the phenomena of hypnotism, telepathy, clairvoyance, magnetic Healing, etc.
etc. seem to have been well-known and to have been currently practised among the Hindus many thousands of years before our present Era, and it is not surprising , therefore, that the most accomplished adepts in the occult arts are to be foun d in India.
The powers which these adepts are reported to possess seem well-nigh incredible.
Thousands of earnest investigators, travelling in the East, have gone, in a sce ptical mood, to witness these uncanny experiments. Their scepticism has been dis pelled and they have gone away mystified and puzzled, out believing.
It. is common knowledge that those who are in possession of a complete knowledge of Eastern magic, have been able, by look or word, to restrain ferocious tigers and other wild beasts of the forest from attacking human beings, but they are a ble to do more, for they have exercised their Will-Power upon their subjects at immense distances, even thousands of miles.
My students, who study this Course conscientiously, will recognise that it is a successful attempt to bridge over the great gulf, which separates the mental fro m the purely material.
Elusive though these doctrines may be, they are nevertheless tangible facts, gle aned by the author from the storehouse of the East only after long and patient i nvestigation and study. There is nothing supernatural in these experiments, whic h depend for their successful execution on the trained exercise of the Human Wil l and on the Will only. Through the Power of Concentration, the student is taugh t to play on chords to borrow a metaphor from music which are beyond the reach o f the uninitiated.
No one can deny that we live in daily, hourly, contact with forces of a realm, w hich is imperceptible to our physical senses and in endeavouring to duplicate, a t will, these marvellous manifestations of the East, the student must give full
and unfettered play to all his psychic forces, for it is only in this way that s atisfying success can be achieved.
It is, however, not my intention to superimpose any tuition of my own on the ver y clear exposition of the Eastern methods for which our thanks are due to the Hi ndoo Priest, Swami Ramayanda. The methods expounded are crystal-clear ; the lang uage used is such that none will experience difficulty in following the thought of the Master, so that the Student cannot fail to acquire at least some addition al inner force, through learning and applying these methods of the occult.
As is very generally known, Eastern psychics have a repertory of at least sixty methods of inducing hypnosis, a few of which may be briefly "described as follow s :
Method No. 1. The operator rotates his right hand, fingers extended, before the subject's eyes, which gradually close in sleep. This method may be varied by mak ing downward passes as shown.
Method No. 2. The subject who is seated, is told to repeat monosyllables in a lo w voice, the operator simultaneously making passes before his eyes. This results in drowsiness followed by deep hypnosis.
Method No. 3. The operator places his right hand on. the subject's head and simu ltaneously makes passes over the spine of the medium who is seated in an erect p osition.
Method No. 4. By this method, the operator induces hypnosis by gazing downward i nto the subject's eyes, at the same time, issuing suitable suggestions, either v erbally or mentally.
Method No. 5. A book is handed to the subject with the request to read and spell every word in it. Hypnosis usually follows before he has read a page.
Method No. 6. The operator strikes a metal cup with an iron, rod and informs the subject that she will fall asleep at the hundredth stroke.
Method No. 7. The subject's eyes being closed, the operator rests his index-fing er lightly on the lids, the remaining fingers reposing on the forehead and issue s appropriate hypnotic suggestions.
Method No. 8. The operator makes passes over a glass of pure water within sight of the subject and tells her that on. drinking it, she will fall asleep. After s
Method No. 8. The operator makes passes over a glass of pure water within sight of the subject and tells her that on. drinking it, she will fall asleep. After s