Hidden Depths: The Story of Hypnosis (61 page)
Read Hidden Depths: The Story of Hypnosis Online
Authors: Robin Waterfield
There are a few alternative therapies around today which, consciously or unconsciously, imitate or echo mesmeric technique. Here is a rapid survey of four of them.
Bioplasma
In a brief essay in
The ESP Papers
, a collection of articles by Russian and other pre-glasnost Iron Curtain scientists on their researches into psychic and other fringe phenomena, Vladimir Masopust of Prague uses the term âbioplasma' or âbiological plasma' for exactly what Mesmer used to call animal magnetism. By the use of hand passes, he claims to have evidence that something â bioplasma â is passed from the experimenter to the subject. He also claims to be able to use his own powers to draw the magnetic powers off a subject, leaving the subject weak and headachy, and causing in himself âan indefinable emotion of superiority over the subject'. When the flow of energy is the other way round, from him to the subject, he often finds himself weakened â something which few of the early mesmerists found, to my knowledge. Masopust is clearly, like Mesmer, identifying âbioplasma' with the vital force in humans, and regards it as a material substance, since he reports that in this experiment he loses over 300 grams of weight while the subject gains roughly the same amount. One subject gained clairvoyant abilities. But Masopust's experiments have not proved repeatable, and nothing significant has come of bioplasma.
Magnotherapy
Magnetic healing is especially popular in France, although it has invaded Britain too, especially in the form of little magnets worn on the wrist like watches (or as collars on pets). These are supposed to counter the harmful electromagnetic fields of overhead power lines and electricity in the home, and restore the natural healing effect of the earth's magnetic field, which has, according to one piece of publicity I've read, been depleted by up to 5 per cent in recent years.
Mesmer was of course working with fixed, solid magnets, but these days most magnotherapists work with devices that emit electromagnetic pulses. Nowadays, the kind of grandiose claims that Mesmer made for magnotherapy would not be tolerated, and so modern therapists are more modest. However, they do maintain that magnets are good for relieving pain and accelerating healing, and can reduce inflammation, ward off viruses, reduce stress and enhance athletic performance. More specifically, they are claimed to help with a range of ailments, but especially arthritis. There has been a surprising amount of respectable medical research on the subject, especially in Russia.
Orgone Therapy
Wilhelm Reich (1897â1957) was one of Freud's most talented pupils, but disagreed with the master in fundamental ways. Reich held, for instance, that psychoanalysis had a material and even organic basis, and also that it could be used to improve social conditions. Freud was uncertain about Reich's materialism, and did not believe that psychoanalysis could or should be used to cure society's ills. After splitting from Freud, Reich settled in the States in 1934 and established his own laboratories to research his ideas. In the medical field, he believed, just like Mesmer, that he had discovered a new form of material energy, basic to the universe and especially to living creatures, which he called âorgone'. Every living creature is maintained by orgone and gives a certain amount off as surplus to its own requirements. Orgone travels at the speed of light, in wave pulses, and usually from east to west.
Since he believed that orgone bounces off metal and is attracted by vegetable matter, Reich built a kind of accumulator â a modern
baquet
, as it were â consisting of layers of alternating metal and wood, which would concentrate orgone. An ill person sitting inside such an accumulator would be benefited, and in a number of trials some quite remarkable results were achieved. Details remain obscure, because in an act of extraordinary and shameful totalitarianism, reminiscent of the Nazism against which Reich had fought vehemently, his books and records were destroyed by US court order, but followers continue to report cures and alleviations. This act by a branch of the US government is unfortunately not unparalleled. At much the same time as its persecution of Reich, they were also hounding Ruth Drown, a pioneer of the alternative medical practice of radionics. Her equipment was destroyed as well, and she died shortly after being released from prison.
Towards the end of his life Reich seems to have become paranoid. He
believed that radiation and orgone reacted together to create something called âdeadly orgone' and that this was building up in the atmosphere, especially around the sites of US nuclear weapons tests. He visited the Arizona desert to conduct experiments in rain-making, and to try to disperse these supposed clouds of deadly orgone. He also came to believe that UFOs were visiting the planet from elsewhere in the galaxy and poisoning the air. Subsequently, following an investigation that had been going on since 1947, he was forbidden by the Federal Food and Drugs Administration from selling orgone accumulators and ordered to destroy them â for no very good reason, it has to be said, since at their worst these accumulators are merely harmless. But Reich had received a great deal of bad press as a promoter of sexual freedom. Reich refused to destroy his life's work and was imprisoned in 1956 for two years. While in prison he died of a heart attack, increasing his followers' belief in a massive conspiracy against him and his work.
Therapeutic Touch
There was something of a craze for Therapeutic Touch in the 1970s and 1980s. The name is misleading, though, since there is no laying on of the therapist's hands. Instead, the unnamed vital force (which we might as well call animal magnetism as anything) is manipulated at a distance of a few centimetres from the patient's body. Disease is seen as the disorder of the subtle energy, and the purpose of the manipulation is to realign or re-balance the energy field, and to restore its uninterrupted flow through, around and in the body. All this is strongly reminiscent of Mesmer, except that the claims made for Therapeutic Touch are more modest, with practitioners claiming only that it accelerates the body's natural healing processes.
The numbers in square brackets refer to the bibliography that follows.
1. Hypnosis in Fact and Fiction
8â9 | To the serious-minded ⦠entertainment |
10 | A stage operator ⦠knocked him down |
12 | The ordinary ⦠corruption of morals |
17 | The business ⦠or panic |
17â18 | The process ⦠to leave me |
25 | The Unconscious ⦠conscious of |
26 | I could easily ⦠was curious |
30 | The noise ⦠but doing little |
39 | The hidden observer ⦠It's just there |
2. In the Beginning
43 | You take a boy ⦠that you wish |
46 | exegetically indefensible |
54â5 | The significance ⦠Jesus' home town |
57 | that superior intelligences ⦠camel into a pit |
3. Franz Anton Mesmer
73 | The first patients ⦠which Gassner did |
75 | Mesmer sat ⦠up and down |
90 | Science is ⦠his need |
94 | After having attended ⦠perfectly chimerical |
96 | Bergasse and Kornmann ⦠proprietary rights |
4. Magnetic Sleep and Victor's Sister
109 | A young man ⦠to be convinced |
110â11 | I no longer know ⦠fluid exists |
114 | He hypnotized her ⦠to cure it |
5. Crusaders and Prophets in the United States
136 | Daily ⦠outherod Herod |
137â8 | I use this term ⦠are produced |
140 | Never has there been ⦠space and spirit |
143 | Dr Darling ⦠to the life |
149 | a deranged state of mind |
150 | The poverty ⦠nebula |
156 | Before the discovery ⦠passes for wisdom |
6. âMesmeric Mania' in the United Kingdom
158â9 | small army ⦠publications |
161â2 | I looked ⦠my hand |
162 | advocated ⦠drop their h's |
162 | That in the nineteenth century ⦠phreno-mesmerism |
163 | in quarters ⦠Phreno-Magnetism |
164 | The new Mesmeric ⦠the more respectable |
165 | By the exercise ⦠under the influence |
166â7 | In his body ⦠senses cannot see |
169 | in a state of philosophical doubt |
180â1 | Why has some knowledge ⦠medical men |
182 | It is a measure ⦠efficacy |
186 | I have no hesitation ⦠convince me |
190 | And speaking of magnetism ⦠rather alarmed |
200 | your bigoted ⦠your instruments |
204â5 | But instead ⦠sense of this |
207 | Now, I do not consider ⦠testimony to the fact |
7. Murder, Rape and Debate in the Late Nineteenth Century
219â20 | He would transfer ⦠afflicted her |
222 | The hypnotic condition ⦠idea of a neurosis |
223 | The views ⦠scientific men |
223 | forced to abandon ⦠the subject |
224â5 | On one occasion ⦠out of hypnosis |
228 | The subject ⦠sleep condition |
230 | I felt heavy ⦠my legs |
232 | A certain patient ⦠feared detection |
8. Psychic Powers and Recovered Memories
247 | almost impossible ⦠mesmerisation |
248 | The points ⦠a murmur |
255â6 | We discovered ⦠English title |
260 | Did she put a fork ⦠the fork |
274 | Because ⦠hypnotist as well |
277 | Similarly ⦠this burn |
9. Freud and Other Alienists
282â3 | These sisters ⦠everything afresh |
286 | Gurney's ⦠its importance |
287â8 | I believe ⦠possession |
292 | The hypothesis ⦠if it were true |
292â3 | Well, Dr Wilbur ⦠home going |
296â7 | a new way to be an unhappy person |
296 | While I was still a student ⦠hypnotic suggestion |
299 | I gave up ⦠it returned |
301 | I held my finger ⦠confusion |
10. State or No State: The Modern Controversy
308â9 | A resistant subject ⦠into a trance |
310â11 | The guideline ⦠he's failed |
311 | A lot of people ⦠he will talk |
316 | The responsive ⦠is receiving |
318 | Common sense ⦠moral pressure |
318 | that level ⦠conscious mind |
321 | I have every month ⦠decide for themselves |
323 | In summary ⦠controversial issues |
324 | The view expressed ⦠unique hypnotic process |
324 | postulates ⦠from others |
11. Hypnotherapy: Mind and Body
330â1 | When I first heard ⦠still under control |
334 | I feel relaxed ⦠occasionally |
335 | Hypnosis ⦠past century or so |
346â7 | his method ⦠patients about him |
348 | Genetic ⦠scope of hypnosis |
349â50 | Those two realms ⦠immune system's business |
350 | Your honour's players ⦠lengthens life |
354â5 | There remains ⦠How misleading!: |
357 | The great lesson ⦠cures were effected |
359 | that when ⦠will be effective |
360 | I am often asked ⦠hypnotic patterns |