SUGGESTION WITHOUT HYPNOTISM.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 477, 4 June 1890, Page 4

SUGGESTION WITHOUT HYPNOTISM.

EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIMENTS. Ocr special correspondent, v. ; riting from London on April 18, says:—“One of th e most interesting events of last week in Paris was Dr. Bernheim’s soiree to the scientific world,' at the Hotel Dieu, on Saturday, for the purpose of proving that suggestion (i.e., the power of suggesting a thought or a belief to another _ person’s mind) does not depend on hypnotism. Dr. Bornheim is the head of the Nancy clique | of nerve specialists (who are opposed to the great Charcot’s school), and has studied under Berillon. His appearance is in no way remarkable, but his voice thrills you. Every accentindicates a “he- who-3WM.se- be-obeyed, to plagiarise Mr Haggard. Dr. Bernheim experimented before the chief doctors, scientists, literateurs, and men of the world on Saturday. None of the patients knew anything of Bernheim nor why he came amongst them. Each set was taken in a separate ward. The Nancy medico first made suggestions to patients sleeping naturally, and then to waking ones. Without touching the latter, or making any attempt to hypnotise them, he was able to strike them dumb, to paralyse their limbs, to make them weep or laugh, and, in short, to play on their nervous systems as one has seen hypnotists play on those of their victims. A gentle, determined voice appeared to be the doctor’s only stock in trade. Of course, he explained at some length, it would be impossible bo exercise the faintest control over a thoroughly healthy person. The patient, or victim, must be neurotic. The difficulty in these days oF extreme nerve pressure was to tell who was thoroughly healthy. Personally. he often found most unexpected persons “ potter’s clay ”in his hands. The danger of his power or influence of course lay chiefly in the fact that the victim was unconscious of its being used against him.