HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 416, 27 January 1909, Page 5

HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION.

HOW THE KIND CAN HEAL TBI! BODY.

~ Dr. Frederick -van Eden is a physioian of international-, reputation, ' who believes in -. the moderate ;use..-:_of ; ; hypnotio suggestion ;iri "the .treatment of disease.-.. Some of the cases which Dr.- van Eden :has. just cited are" almost miraculous. The; following is an example: - > 5 .1n - order ,>to;;- give an idea, of . the,-wonderful and , mysterious;' ' of .suggestive phenomena, I;: will, tell of an - experiment,' perforined >- by - Dr: .'Debove, and:-afterward re■by Bernlieiin. • He touched .the. .normal ey®. uncultivated woman,- saying, 'Now; you-"are;:blind-in .this eye.' But the woman' opened her -eyes .widely, looked around and said,; . No! -. No!' I see perfectly well.'-' But when her-eyesightrwas tested by a simple apparatus, well known in ophthalmology,-to- investigate, simidated blindness in .one eye, it was showTi< ! that she .'had grown indeed .perfectly'blind in that eye without being- conscious of'it. - - ' •

,i. Nowj.'nobody , can suppose that an uncultivated woman, by a voluntary effort of the imagination, could eliminate the ■ sight of one eye.- And yet, on nearer investigation,- Bernheiin proved that the.-suggested blindness was entirely imaginary. _ The vision was .really., -.intact ;: Anayet this woman,' in unconscious obedience to tne command of suggestion,'knew ■how to,act;_the part of one-sided blindness, so .that, the; scientific, investigator, used ..to .detect simulation could.completely deceived ,by it. ; . ''.To explain this incredible fact we are compelled to accept a, division of personality. One is .the ordinary' woihan, unconscious that• anything has changed in her power of vision; the'-, other ;is her .sub-conscious self,' which' accepts the obediently, and tries to become blind' in- one eye,, and : does : this -so effectively i that, the vision of one. eye-is■;prac-tically -out, o£ function, . The .woman' becomes What, is, technically called ; 'soul';blind' in; one eye. To perform this feat'by:,voluntary effort is;,entirely .out of the question.' The cleverest student could not do it, and surely not-an uncultivated womantaken unawares. •

"This ourious : experiment shows, -to put-it in- a_ few ; words,- that . the part of ; our being which obeys, and. carries: out' suggestion is ,a far-more -clever- and. powerful agency than< our ordinary.; conscious personality; and, moreover, - our-everyday conceptions about; imagination and .'simtilation' are far too orude and siinple .to .cover., the ..facta discovered; by the new psychology. - Arid I am convinced ■ that in' qraerVto - assert -or - to 1 deny .what the effect of suggestion can be, and in order to approach sdmethihg like' an explanation of 'the wonderful- cures - effected by the mind •on the - body,we .have first of all;to know more about'that mVsterious agency.- called , by whatever name, which is able to obey such; diffloult commands, unheeded by the ordinary 'consciousness."