POWER OF HYPNOTISM

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 March 1920, Page 6

POWER OF HYPNOTISM

.WORLD MAY BE AMAZED. Will hypnotism take the place of anaesthetics? (asks the “Daily Chronicle”). * Great specialists in every branch of surgery are beginning' to feel that the application of the power of the mind to the weakness of the body can be directed in such a way as to solve medical and surgical problems in a manner which our forefathers worn have denounced as magic. Quietly and unobstrusively, on account of the grave danger of proceeding with such work on a grand scale until continued and repeated experiments have justified its claims, doctors and dentists, too, are beginning to replace chloroform and other anaesthetics with magnetism and auto-sugges-’tion.

They will not, as a rule, discuss the matter with laymen unless they are sure of a sympathetic hearing, which shall not lead to a mischievous and ill-considered, if not scandalous, criticism; for to' the lay and unsympathetic mind the idea that difficult operations may he conducted without any other anaesthetic than the personal magnetism of the operator, and yet leave neither pain nor the memory of pain in the mind of the patient, is one which might well he rejected as incredible, and denounced as something little better than charlatanism. And yet the men who are experimenting in this way are the last men in the world to be charlatans.

If the names of the specialists ■who are to-day studying- auto-sng-g-estion with the idea of incorporating- it into' the practice of surgery could he published, the lay world would he astounded, for they include men whose reputation in the medical profession and in scientific circles is far too high to he affected hy the breath of suspicion. In their heart of hearts, these great men hope that it will not he long- before a patient who is wheeled into the operatingroom will not recmire chloroform or methyl-ether-alcohol, hut will he “put to sleep” by the influence of a stronger mind acting upon his own.

Nor will the dentist’s chair, to compare small things with great, maintain its former terrors.

“But this is the joke upon a serious matter,” said an authority upon medical hypnotism. “We want to go on with our experiments quietly and systematically, and Ate do not want to let anyone know our results they are so complete that they will stagger the world and demand public confidence in us. Already, as scientific men, we are satisfied that we can do what we claim.”