SECRET SEANCES

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 May 1931, Page 4

SECRET SEANCES

ERROR BY MESMERIST

A wave of interest in hypnotism has been passing over Cambridge, and has been winning fresh recruits from among undergraduates every day, says a correspondent of the Morning Post. The present cult of hypnosis in Cambridge appears to have originated during the long vacation of last year, when a small circle of undergraduates who were spending their vacation at Cambridge decided to enliven their otherwise uneventful lives by carrying out some hypnotic experiments. One of Cambridge’s smallei’ colleges was the scene of these early experiments. An undergraduate who has been in contact with the movement since its origin states that these experiments were first of all conducted in a light-hearted manner, but are now taken seriously. “Undergraduates are surprised,” he said, “to realise what powers they possess, and many of them now practise hypnotism in earnest.”

The informant stated that in his own college he could mention the names of at least half a dozen undergraduates who regularly held hypnotic seances. “I have reason to believe,” he added, “that in other colleges the cult is even more widespread. It appeals not only to the neurotic and highly-strung undergraduates, who might be expected, to dabble in occult sciences, but also to normal, healthy-minded people who are first attracted out of a spirit of curiosity.” >

Hypnotism is practised under conditions- of great secrecy? and it is doubtful whether the university or college authorities are aware of what is going on. One tutor to whom the matter was mentioned said that he had no idea that., any such practices existed. “I can well understand,” he said, • “what a bad effect hypnotism would have on certaih types of young men; but I think that the authorities would have considerable difficulty *n suppressing it.” 1 > Some undergraduates have, however, learnt by bitter experience, and have abandoned hypnotic experiments of their own free will. Attention hasi been called to the tragi-comic case of an undergraduate who consented to be put into a trance, in order that his mesmerist might try the well-known trick of . saying, “There is nothing wrong with your right hand, “and at the same time hitting it with a redhot poker. Unfortunately, the experiment was a failure, as the mesmerist hit his subject’s left hand by mistake —and badly burned it.