AMATEUR HYPNOTIST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13927, 8 December 1908, Page 6

AMATEUR HYPNOTIST.

UNABLE TO " WAKE" SUBJECT.

AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE. A case which has excited much comment at Gilgandra (New South Wales) is that in which Theodore Burton, son of the late Dr. Burton, is the principal figure. He and several others one evening attended a rehearsal in connection with a forthcoming entertainment, in company with a young fellow said to possess some power as a mesmerist. The latter, by prearrangement, practised this on a lad present, with the idea of mystifying the uninitiated,' as a joke. Apparently he (succeeded - admirably. Theodore Burton was completely entranced by what he had witnessed, and offered himself as a subject to the amateur mesmerist, who at first declined, but oventually yielded. He put Burton on a chair, made the orthodox passes over him, and commanded him to sleep. The subject proved wonderfully passive, and was in a state of repose in a few seconds.

The user of the occult power thought Burton had caught the spirit of the joke perpetrated in the first instance; but when he tried to awaken Burton, and could not do 60, there was consternation. "One— two—three," he counted, clapping his hands, and commanding his victim -to wake, but to no purpose. Everyone present was dismayed, and it was said that some young ladies fainted. This was intensified when Burton showed signs of interest in the surroundings, and immediately behaved like a person suffering from a delirium. No device that was tried brought anything coherent from him, and ho was taken home on a stretcher. There he suffered such fits of violence that he had to be held down by main force. A medical man was called in, and, ignoring the story about mesmerism, came to the conclusion that Burton was the victim of a seizure of some kind, and administered sedatives. Next morning the patient was apparently so far recovered that he went to his employment at MoDonagh's store. Before midday, however, evidences of the attack returning became pronounced, and that night the youth was worse than. ever. The doctor then feared a serious mental breakdown, and treatment' was resorted to. As it did not provo effective, the doctor advised the removal of the patient to the Dubbo Hospital for observation. This advice was followed on the evening of Saturday week, and there Burton has been since. The latest reports ore that he is on his way to recovery from an attack of acute hysteria. While Burton was in a state of delirium he kept calling on the young companion to whom he submitted himself to awaken him, and alternately appealed to the persons in attendance to* arrest the mesmerist. He recounted with minute accuracy the leading events of his own life, and a most painful scene was enacted when he repeated a demonstration of grief, to which he gave way nt his father's death-bed three years ago. He seemed to live through the whole sorrowful experience again, even to the shock he received on being acquainted of his father's death, which was sudden.