Chapter 3
THE POSTHYPNOTIC SUGGESTION AND AUTOSUGGESTION
"THERE is a rule in hypnotism that everything we get in the trance can also be obtained by means of the posthypnotic suggestion. Also, that anything we find in either can be found in autosuggestion; and, finally, that everything we obtain in any of the three will be encountered in everyday life. In this latter case we refer to the subject as hysteric, neurotic, or even insane and will leave the consideration of these everyday cases to a later chapter on mental disease."
snip
"There is a second characteristic of the posthypnotic suggestion which is of the very greatest importance. This we term rationalization. The subject tends to rationalize, to find excuses for his actions and, strange to say, while these excuses
may be utterly false, the subject tends to believe them.
For example, the writer says to a very good somnambulist, "After you awaken I will sit down by the piano. You will then go to the bookshelves, select the third book from the left hand side, second row from the top, turn to page 127 and read the first paragraph." The subject remembers nothing of what the operator has said, yet, when he seats himself by the piano, the subject wanders over to the library, selects the proper book, opens to page 127 and starts reading. It happens to be a textbook on biology.
The operator interrupts. "Why are you reading that stuff to me?" "Well, yesterday I had an argument with Professor Smith about the action of the chromosomes in reduction-division, and I thought you could help me out." The subject was a medical student, the story fitted together neatly, and he evidently believed it-only it was quite untrue. He had not seen Professor Smith for a week and had had no argument about the action of the chromosomes. This case is typical. The subject always finds an excuse to justify his conduct, and this conduct may be pretty hard to justify, as in the following case.
The operator hypnotizes a subject and tells him that when te cuckoo clock strikes he will walk up to Mr. White, put a lamp shade on his head, kneel on the floor in front of him and "cuckoo" three times. Mr. White was not the type on whom one played practical jokes, in fact, he was a morose, nonhumorous sort of individual who would fit very badly in such a picture. Yet, when the cuckoo clock struck, the subject carried out the suggestion to the letter.
"What in the world are you doing?" he was asked. "Well, I'll tell you. It sounds queer but it's just a little experiment in psychology. I've been reading on the psychology of humor and I thought I'd see how you folks reacted to a joke that was in very bad taste. Please pardon me, Mr. White, no offence intended whatsoever," and the subject sat down without the slightest realization of having acted under posthypnotic compulsion."
Xenu and the space cooties?
Scientology "works"?
"Just a final word. Hypnotism may explain many forms of insanity. That does not mean to say that hypnotism can cure them. In some cases it may help, but the fact is that, while we may know why Mr. Smith is in hospital and thinks he is Napoleon, this does not guarantee a cure by hypnotism or any other means."
A world without insanity, war or crime?
Chapter 4
SOME CURIOUS STATES IN EVERYDAY LIFE
WHICH ARE DUE TO HYPNOTISM
"All these conditions illustrate a very important principle of which we will later deal at greater length. Certain experiences of childhood and later life are "repressed," are forced out of consciousness because of the fact that they are very unpleasant. These are completely forgotten so far as our everyday life is concerned, but while "down" they are not "out." As a matter of fact, they may cause a great deal of trouble, being the origin of all sorts of mental disorders.
"Shell shock" is a case in point. It really should be called "war neurosis" since it has nothing to do with shells necessarily, but is a reaction to fear. In general, it will be found that these shell shock cases have a period of amnesia, a memory blank, for some very terrible experience. They remember nothing about it, yet for purposes of a cure it is necessary that it be restored to consciousness. Hypnotism is excellent, or any other trick, which taps the unconscious, including crystal gazing.
The writer recalls one such case in the last war. The patient was suffering from a violent tremor all over his body, so violent that he could not walk or even feed himself. The doctor, thinking that he would try hypnotism, began explaining to the subject just what he would want. In the course of the conversation the subject volunteered the information that he had once been very much interested in crystal gazing and had been quite successful in obtaining visions. This seemed a good lead so the doctor proposed he try it and report his experiences.
The patient did so, and saw in the glass the whole terrible experience of a bombing attack in which most of his company had been killed and he himself had bombed three of the enemy in a dugout under very harrowing circumstances. Yet previous to this vision he would not recall any details of the attack, his mind being a complete blank for a period of roughly twentyfour hours. "
Hubbard thinks to himself: Hmmm, if I call these incidents Engrams... and give it a new title, something like Dianetics.... people won't know that Im using Estabrook's hypnosis!
and here is how to handle my enemies... I'll hypnotize them!
"Crime, insanity, but most important of all, our everyday life. We can more or less isolate the two first in our jails and our asylums. At any rate we don't approve of criminals and the insane, but we do most sincerely approve of ourselves and our neighbors. And here, unfortunately, is where hypnotism does its most terrible damage. Consider the present World War. All the insanity and crime we have in this world of ours becomes a colorless grey compared to the lurid red of bursting bombs and torpedoes.
It has always been the writer's contention that Hitler is the greatest hypnotist of our day, and this statement is not just a play upon words. To be sure he may never have read a book on the subject or know the meaning of the word. We recall the gentleman in the old French play who was delighted to find he had been speaking prose all his life. We can I think, make out a very convincing case that basically Hitler's emotional domination of the crowd-or, speaking professionally,
his attack, is only the attack of the stage hypnotist, one step removed. If we can only understand the laws beneath mob psychology, perhaps we can be happier and more useful in this sadly torn world of today. And then, again, perhaps we cannot. That will depend on ourselves. "
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That will depend upon the scientologists and soon to be ex-scientologists and recovering scientologists reading this!
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