The Invisible Influence

By Alexander Cannon


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Chapter IX

Dreams, Dissociation, and Disease

WE had been discussing the dreams of King Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel, chapters one to six, especially his two very mystifying dreams which were carefully analysed by Daniel to have a very realistic meaning and came true ; when once more we had an unexpected visit from the Knight Commander, whom we were delighted to again have the pleasure of meeting. I had by this time been able to confirm his telepathic communication that I had been made Knight Commander of Asia, for now I held the scrolls, the Arms of Office, the coat of arms, and weapons of war which went with this noble office. So our conversation gradually drifted into the value and meaning of dreams.

Dreams Which Perservate Into Waking Life

"Do you know," said the Knight, "that Brierre de Boismont first pointed out that there were well-known dream pictures which are not recognized as dreams and are believed to be [122] reality in waking life? The border here between hallucinations and delusions, and normal life, is very fine. It is common knowledge with us that even well-educated persons are influenced by dreams. I have known people to be depressed the whole of the next day following an unpleasant dream. How active is the unconscious mind during the sleep state. People who dream of their complaints are definitely worse during the next few days; it is as if the unconscious mind had undivided sway over the whole mind, and, for the time being, was ruler. The person who is lame will walk more lame for the next few days. Analogies of this are to be found in post-hypnotic suggestion. A person dreams of having been cured of neuralgia, and has afterwards been free from pain for months, and maybe for ever. This is how some people interpret being cured by Divine power during their sleep of the night. The same things happen in post-hypnotic suggestion. Many phenomenal cures are daily brought about, in this way. On the contrary a person who dreams for more than one night in succession that he is being chased by pirates, will become more exhausted each day. The person probably will not remember the dream in the waking state, but during hypnosis will no doubt clearly recall the whole dream; so that one can get at the root of the trouble.

"The earliest signs of mental disease frequently reveal themselves in dreams and [123] therefore a study of dreams, especially through subsequent hypnotically produced states, will quickly elucidate most of the patient's trouble. Aristotle wrote that a number of our dreams were responsible for our subsequent actions: 'As a man dreameth, so will he be.' And is it not also true that 'As a person is directed in the hypnotic state so will he surely be'?"

How Visions Come To Be

The one-armed Knight Commander — (for you will remember that he had only one arm, the right arm, for he belonged to the "Order of the Right Hand", symbolic of the fact that he could destroy the power of the "Order of the Left Hand" or the Black Magician; he had long ago had his left arm removed by a means which could not be accounted for, humanly speaking,) — said it was a long time since we had had what he termed a "childish evening", so we decided to make this one, an evening of simple interesting childish experiments, which to the uninitiated may seem of great interest, for psychologically speaking they have much to teach us. That evening we had a reunion dinner and dined well and also wisely.

I now gave the Knight an imaginary glass of bitter ale, but he deliberately scorned me for having stated an untruth, and demonstrated that he had nothing in his hand. I took no notice of his emphatic denial and raised his [124] hand to his mouth, so that he would drink. Slowly and with much hesitation he drank the imaginary ale from the imaginary glass, making the proper swallowing movements in his throat, and pulling a face; intimating that he had a very nasty taste in his mouth. When asked why he pulled such a face, he said he had a horrid taste in his mouth, just as if he had drunk something very tart and bitter. The suggestion had worked in spite of his reason. This is the very beginning and essence of most hallucinations.

Later, I told the Sage that he saw a cat sitting on the mantelpiece. This suggestion was at first rejected. He told me not to talk nonsense, for I never need expect him to believe such a silly thing. However, I repeated this suggestion several times, and the Sage repeatedly denied its existence. But I then made him agree to nod his head several times, each time I referred to the imaginary cat, and he did as requested; the nodding of the head gradually induced the Sage to accept such an hallucination which he now clearly saw. He said, "Oh! Yes, I know, but you have put the cat there since you tried to pull my leg. You cannot deceive me." Nevertheless there was no cat there.

The Knight Commander was greatly interested in these simple experiments and said: "How do you account for these phenomena?" I explained: "I firmly believe that all hallucinations are primarily the result of suggestions, [125] either through dreams or the suggestion of others (hetero-suggestion); or the suggestion of the person to himself (auto-suggestion). It is interesting to relate that even these hypnotic hallucinations frequently tend to perseverate: this further explains how hallucinations sometimes come to stay, in the insane.

"A post-hypnotic hallucination can be produced by mere suggestion during hypnosis that a person will see or hear or feel a certain thing when he wakes up. A person is told in good faith, that the limb he had lost through accident would regrow during the night and that in the morning he would have two normal legs, when he awoke. In the morning he awoke, delighted (the hypnotic sleep was allowed to continue into the ordinary sleep), believing that his leg had regrown, he having visual and kinaesthetic hallucinations (he could both feel and see to this effect). For months afterwards he said he could even walk better, as he was at times quite unconscious of his absent leg, and could therefore keep his balance perfectly, using a stick, which he was accustomed to carry.

Not Seeing That Which One Sees

"In order not to see a thing, that thing must first be seen, and the result is a negative hallucination. Contradiction in terms seems evident but this is nevertheless true. Take as an example the experiments I conducted upon [126] my chief boy, when I told him to open his eyes but not awaken; and that he would only see a column of figures on the right side of the paper, when he opened his eyes; he obviously must have seen the left-hand column to know and add up the right-hand column of figures only."

The Sage, interrupting, said; "Could a person without hypnotic training be made not to see things in a room? If so, demonstrate it to us on the house boy."

The house boy was called forth, and as we had only once hypnotized him deeply, I wondered for the moment how the experiment would succeed. However, nothing attempted, nothing done; so on with the work! To my gratification, I soon placed the house boy again in a profound hypnotic sleep; and then said, "You will now open your eyes, without awakening, and you will be surprised to find that I alone remain in the room; the others having suddenly departed." Although four of us remained in the room, the Knight Commander, the Sage, the chief boy and myself; to command he carefully walked about the room, avoiding all of them, except myself whom he could see, hear and touch. He never, by accident, once bumped into one of them: it is therefore obvious that in order not to see and not to hear and not to feel them; he must first be able to see, hear and feel them. The point is that consciousness only records what it has been told by the unconscious mind to [127] record. Illustrations to this effect can be enumerated ad infinitum.

How Disease Can Be Produced and Dispersed

Without awakening the house boy who was in mental communication with me (en rapport with me), I handed him over to the Knight Commander; whereupon the Distinguished Guest immediately produced intense toothache in the boy, which appeared real, to us all; and most assuredly to the subject himself. With a silent mental determining, the Knight then dispersed the toothache and produced a feeling of great pleasure instead; without one word being spoken. He then made the boy suffer from pneumonia; and, behold, the signs and symptoms of pneumonia were soon classical. Then with a solitary wish, the pneumonia was dispersed. Many well-known diseases were likewise produced at will, and also dispersed by a single silent command.

"So you see," said the Distinguished Guest, "symptoms of disease (dis-ease) can be cultivated in the way hallucinations are produced; and symptoms can be dispersed in exactly the same way, as the negative hallucination is produced.

"In this careful study lies the secret to the workings of many a man's mind; to many a man's sorrow or happiness. It lies within our power to turn this sorrow into happiness."

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Hidden Memories and Tales of the Days of Long Ago

"Hidden memories can easily be brought out during the hypnotic state by merely telling the person in confidence what you wish him to remember, and assuring him that he will remember the facts which are so helpful, in his case. As if he had placed his hand on some magic key, the hypnotized subject speaks, without hesitation, of these hidden memories; just as if he were recalling the events of the day in question. This increased power of memory is known as hypermnesia. In this direction Benedikt's time-honoured case is an excellent example. Hansen hypnotized, whilst in Darkest Africa, an English officer, who to his surprise spoke in a strange tongue which was afterwards identified as the Welsh language. His history revealed that when a little child this officer had learnt to speak Welsh; but now he had long since forgotten that he had ever learnt such a language. I find that deep hypnosis is sometimes essential for this phenomenon to be produced; and that even then, in some cases where the patient has a strong auto-suggestion that you shall not know, he will still refuse to tell you, in no polite manner, under hypnosis; although on awakening he has no recollection whatsoever of what he has said. But the memory can be made to perseverate afterwards as a post-hypnotic suggestion; as can hallucinations and so forth; hence hypnosis, [129] in these cases, has an excellent therapeutic use. Hypnotism, even if used in its most simple form, is of great service to mankind."

Automatic Writing

Whilst the Knight Commander was discussing hidden memories, the Sage who was listening intently, was at the same time drawing a castle on a piece of paper; and when challenged with the fact would hardly believe it." That is the same thing as automatic writing," I said. "The basis of automatic writing," I continued, "is dissociation of the mind, as is evidenced even in slight degrees where a person can be seen whilst he is talking or listening to a speech, to be scribbling something either legible or illegible on the table, or some scrap of paper at hand without realizing that he is doing it, at the same time. If instead of merely scribbling; words or even letters are actually written, without the person being conscious that he has written such words or letters, then automatic writing has taken place."

Here the Sage chimed in: "Moll, Schiller and Max Dessoir have carried out some very simple experiments such as the following. A person in the waking state, as in everyday life, is handed a pencil and is asked to reply to some question on paper. However, he must leave his hand still holding the pencil and forget about it. It would not be strange for such a person [130] to write down something which passes through his mind; that is, of which he is thinking. But when I meanwhile talk to the person of various shows he has attended, of various functions we have figured in, and so forth, he unconsciously writes down, '£57,235 . . . ham . . . kill it!' this is a very different matter. It appears that the sum refers to his hope in the Calcutta sweepstake; that 'Ham' is what he ate for breakfast, and that 'Kill it' refers to some crime which a friend of his had been briefed for. This is true automatic writing. Many wonderful cases can be recorded. In hypnosis, writing can be produced at will, which to all intents and purposes is automatic, but is different from the above."

We now went to visit a large isolated farm some few miles away. The evening was delightful and we all enjoyed the walk, although there was no real footpath and one had to be guided there by pure observation and instinct. As we drew nigh unto the farm, we heard the note of a singing bird. The sage commented, "How true is the adage that, 'As a bird is known by its note, so is a man known by his conversation!' "At last we arrived there; and as we entered the gate a hen crossed our path.

Animal Experiments

"Have you tried any of your experiments on hens and animals?" asked the Knight, turning [131] to the Sage and myself. "Yes," replied the Sage. "You may recall that in 1631 Schwenter first carried out experiments of this kind on hens. Then in 1646, the Jesuit Kircher recorded the experimentum mirabile Kircheri. Schwenter's first experiment is the famous hen hypnosis: he held a hen so that its head in particular was pressed on to the ground. With the other hand he then drew a thick straight white chalk line on the ground, from the hen's beak to a distance of three feet away; direct in line with the hen's line of vision. The hen remained motionless, so long as he left it there. In the first experiment it remained so for half an hour. It could not move. He believed that the hen thought that it was fastened to the ground and so did not try to move.

"In 1872 Czermak repeated this experiment with many other birds and animals; and also produced this hypnotic state in them.

"In 1880 Preyer began to perfect his experiments which he had been interested in for a few years; not only did he confirm Czermak's work, but also noted that two mental states could be produced: one of catalepsy, in which the animal kept its limbs in any position in which they were placed, and this state he believed was due to fear; and the true hypnotic state, in which the animal 'went as if to sleep.'

"You will also remember that Danilewsky, Heubel, Moll, Richet and Rieger also interested [132] themselves in such experiments later. Moll specialized on frogs, guinea-pigs and crayfish. In each experiment the cataleptic (rigid) states produced resembled in many ways the condition produced by the Charcot school of Paris.

"Richet demonstrated that a sudden Drummond limelight produced exactly the same effect on a cock as it did on an hysterical patient."

With these few remarks the Sage immediately proceeded to experiment in like manner with the hen, and some other of the farmyard stock, much to the amazement of our hosts, who looked upon us even now as the Wizards of the North; a name which we had long since acquired in the East and the Far East.

As it was growing dusk, we entered the farmhouse and partook of good food, with the host thereof; and stayed there for the night.



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