MIRACLES AND MESMKRISM.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 30, 15 November 1889, Page 5

MIRACLES AND MESMKRISM.

Our Scientist*, Agnostics, Infidels aad tut (i quant t, writes tbe IndoJuirnpcan Correspondence of the 4th Seu'ember, have progressed one btep lately , ;u d we are co glad of it mat we hascen to proclaim it to the whu.e world.

Hitherto they had poon-pooheu all our miracles of Lourdes in mere shams, priestly nnpostuies, or anything as unsubstantial. But now they recognise our miracles as real phenomena; only they account for them in their own scieutittical way — "Hypnotif-m is in JCihty, the tiring of one of the senses, and it may be induced by acting upon the ciedu'.iiy. Thus, for inst.nce, in the well-known cases of the pilgrims to Notre Dame de Lourdes, the people are first fully convinced that they are going to be cuied ; iv other words, they are bynotieed, thu cure is tnen l suggested ' to them, and tae result is a no-cailed miracle, which is no miracle at all."

This is tbe opinion of Dr. Charcot, the great hypnotiser of hysterical tersons m the SiltpcLncre, of Dr. Gnllot, and of other scientific stars, which are to form a new constellation in the shape of a '• Society for the introduction of hypnotism into Therapeutics."

We call that explanation a great progress ; for it is an implicit confession that then- m something to be explained. Little by little they will come to s 3 e tbat their owu " explanation " is inadequate, and the most sincere am >ng them will finally acknowledge that the Bles&ed Virgin Mary is after all the real bypnotiser.