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Some Important Issues in Philosophy |
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Page 1 by Celestine N. Bittle, O.F.M.Cap.
Table of Contents
(Please note: some of the terms used in the following discussion, such as, for instance, "imagination." have technical meanings in classical realism. Please consult the Academy's glossary of terms if necessary. Also, one of the major purposes of this essay is to show that these extranormal mental states, understood correctly, can be integrated without any problem into classical realism's over-all philosophical position regarding man and the world he lives in.) From the dawn of recorded history up to the present day, the claim has been persistently made that some persons are gifted with mysterious powers, outside and beyond the range of the normal capabilities. Instances of "premonition," "clairvoyance," "telepathy," "trance," "hypnotism," and the like, are cited in support of this claim. These phenomena are termed extranormal, because they do not occur with everybody or at all times. They are not abnormal, in the sense that there is anything, so far as is known, strictly pathological about them. Some of them are definitely supernormal, such as clairvoyance and telepathy; or so at least it would seem. Other phenomena, such as the mysterious workings of the hypnotic state, do not appear to be "supernormal," but they certainly do not belong to the "normal" experiences of everyday life; they are, therefore, at least "extranormal." The word "extranormal" can thus be used as a convenient term under which to group these exceptional experiences. These extranormal phenomena will be discussed under two main headings: hypnotism and extrasensory perception. (Please note that this is not a "scientific" discussion, but a "philosophical" one, although references are made to scientific data. Be advised that research into the phenomena discussed here is ongoing and some details given here may be subject to change based on new findings and interpretations.) We can describe hypnotism or hypnosis as a trancelike nervous condition resembling sleep, induced by the suggestions and (or) manipulations of the operator ("hypnotist"), the hypnotized subject remaining in mental communication ("rapport") with the operator and responsive to his suggestions. The hypnotic state is usually characterized by alterations of the character or "personality" of the subject, together with changes of the functions of memory and of perception. Hypnotism, except for the name, is nothing new. The trance state, so noticeable in the hypnotic condition, was known in antiquity. Pliny, Galen, and Aretaeus discussed the subject. Paracelsus attributed it to a force or fluid emanating from the stars, comparing it to the magnet and calling it magnale. It remained for Anton Mesmer (1733-1815), a Viennese physician, to bring the phenomena into the focus of scientific inquiry. He supposed the cause to be a universally diffused fluid, set in motion by the will. He gave it the name animal magnetism, because he considered it to be analogous to that of mineral magnetism but peculiar to organisms or animal bodies. Different kinds of inanimate bodies, such as metals, crystals, and magnets, according to his view, also possessed this force or fluid, sot that they could be used to induce and terminate the phenomena. In 1778 Mesmer came to Paris and publicized his views. The sick flocked to him in large numbers, and he effected numerous cures with his novel method. The French Academy investigated the matter through a commission and attributed the phenomena to imagination or imitation. "Magnetism" or mesmerism, as it came to be called, soon had a number of adherents, among them the Marquis de Puysegur, who discovered the phenomenon of somnambulism. Mesmerism dropped out of vogue during the French Revolution. Abbe Faria, about 1814, revived hypnotism. A true pioneer of science, he discarded the theory of a "magnetic fluid," showing that the phenomena were attributable to the power of suggestion. Nothing, he maintained, comes from the operator, everything from the subject; at bottom, the magnetic trance is nothing more than a form of sleep, the condition often being induced by fixedness of look and cerebral fatigue; the phenomena are produced through the action of subject's imagination in response to the suggestions of the operator. These acute observations aroused considerable interest among scientists for a time. James Braid (1795-1860), of Manchester, took up the matter (1841). He became convinced that the phenomena were a result of a mental concentration on a single idea. Fixed gazing, the concentration on a real or imaginary object, and so on, produced what he called mono-ideism, while in the normal waking state man's attention is divided among a number of things. The fixed gaze, he contended, brought on a paralysis of the frontal brain, thereby producing trance and somnambulism; in this matter the subject lost the power of neutralizing the dominant idea and fell under the power of suggestion. Later on, Braid realized that the theory of mono-ideism was too narrow in scope, because he noticed that several phenomena (psychic deafness and blindness, rigidity, anesthesia, etc.) could be present simultaneously. He called this trance condition "neur-hypnotism" (nerve-sleep), and from his designation the modern term hypnotism derives its origin. From this point on, hypnotism became an object of intense scientific study. Two schools of thought in France did much to bring hypnotism to the foreground through a heated controversy on the fundamental nature of hypnotism. These were the Salpetriere School of Paris, headed by Charcot, and the Nancy School, represented by Liebeault, Beaunis, Bernheim, and Liegois. Charcot (1825-1893) and the Salpetriere (Paris) School explained hypnotism in terms of nerve physiology. Charcot made his experiments with patients afflicted with hysteria. To induce hypnosis, he made use of a bright light or a sudden sound; he also made the patient stare fixedly at some object. Correspondingly, he considered the inducing cause to be physical, not mental, and hypnosis itself due to a nervous or cerebral modification of the subject. Hypnosis, therefore, Charcot and his followers claimed, is a pathological condition, a neurosis, a form of hysteria; consequently, there is a profound difference between normal sleep and hypnotic trance. Since hypnosis is a condition induced by purely physical means, Charcot contended that a person might be hypnotized, as it were, unknown to himself. Bernheim and the Nancy School took a diametrically opposite view. Hypnosis, according to this view, has but a single cause, and it is a psychical cause, namely, suggestion; suggestion is the only essential factor. Everybody is suggestible; to suggest to a person to be more suggestible, that is neither more nor less than hypnotism. Consequently, no fundamental difference exists between normal and hypnotic sleep. The state of normal suggestibility is simply increased by the action of suggestion itself, because every idea has the tendency to actuate itself. Hypnotic phenomena are very similar in character to many normal acts; even under normal conditions we perform acts which are automatic, involuntary, and unconscious. The controversy between these two schools attracted the attention of the entire scientific world. It gave a tremendous impetus to the experimental research into the phenomena in question and into the methods of inducing and controlling them. Many interesting facts were brought to light, so that our present knowledge of hypnotism is quite extensive. The phenomena which occur in the hypnotic state are many and varied. Some are psychological, others physiological. Psychological Phenomena Consciousness. The hypnotic condition may be light or deep. Light hypnosis is, at times, hardly distinguishable from the normal waking state. There are many degrees and stages in hypnosis, shading imperceptibly from the nearly normal waking state to deep hypnosis. In deep hypnosis, the subject is in a trance and apparently, though not actually, asleep. Generally speaking, the subject is, to a lesser or greater degree, always conscious in hypnosis. Even in deep hypnosis the subject hears the voice of the hypnotist and carries out suggestions. Hypnosis, therefore, can be said to be a mental state which lies between ordinary sleep and normal waking. The hypnotized person is more conscious than in sleep, but less conscious than in the waking state. Suggestibility. Everybody is suggestible in some measure. We see someone yawn, and we also yawn; we hear an orchestra play a tune, and our feet tap the rhythm; we observe a person staring at a certain spot, and we involuntarily do the same: such and similar actions are the result of "suggestion." The inclination or tendency to carry out a suggestion is termed "suggestibility." In hypnosis this suggestibility is increased and heightened, so that the hypnotized person carries out the suggestions of the operator with greater facility and readiness than in the normal waking state. Rapport. A mental alertness exists in the subject toward the suggestions given by the operator. When the subject is in a state of deep hypnosis, he will respond to the operator's suggestion, no matter how slight, whether it be expressed by word or sign. As a rule, the suggestion is carried out without opposition. At the same time, the subject is, to all appearance, totally oblivious of his surroundings, paying no attention to the presence or suggestions of other persons, unless ordered to do so by the operator. Provided rapport has been established through definite suggestion, the subject will remain in mental contact with the operator, responsive to his voice, even after an interruption of hours or days. If, for any reason, this rapport is broken during deep hypnosis, the subject passes over into a state of normal sleep, to awaken later of his own accord, just as he would in ordinary sleep. Memory. Memory is affected by hypnosis, but the change, if there is a change, depends on a number of factors -- the personality of the subject, the kind of suggestion given by the operator, and the depth of the hypnotic state. Sometimes memory remains unchanged, particularly in light hypnosis. The subject then remembers in hypnosis everything that has occurred in the waking state and also remembers everything in the waking state that has occurred in hypnosis. Furthermore, the operator can suggest that the subject shall remember in the waking state what has occurred in hypnosis. During deep hypnosis, however, there ordinarily occurs a change of memory. In deep hypnosis the subject is able to recall the events of his normal waking life and also the events of former hypnoses; on waking, however, the events occurring in the hypnotic condition are forgotten, especially if posthypnotic amnesia has been suggested. It is a controverted point whether a subject in the waking state can recall, either by reflection or change association, something which has occurred in deep hypnosis, if the operator has suggested complete amnesia. The trance of deep hypnosis, characterized by complete posthypnotic amnesia, is called "somnambulism." Upon suggestion, the subject can be made to forget selected events of the normal waking life and also events of a former hypnotic state. This amnesia can again be abolished through counter-suggestion. For example, it may be suggested to a person who knows German that he be unable to speak it on awakening; he will not be able to use the language on returning to the normal waking state. In all probability, however, this condition will not be permanent, unless reinforced periodically by renewed suggestions. One must bear in mind, too, that the willingness of the subject is presupposed and required; a subject can always resist things disagreeable to himself and refuse to have items blotted out from memory. Increased memory is a common phenomena associated with hypnosis. Many items can be recalled in the hypnotic state which are unavailable for memory in normal life. While the earliest remembered incidents of an individual's life history ordinarily date from about the sixth or fifth year, the subject, when hypnotized, is often able to remember events pertaining to the fourth and third year. All events are remembered with greater fullness of detail than is possible under normal circumstances. It was this fact which led the way to psychoanalysis. Memorizing is much easier in hypnosis than in the waking state. After a single reading, difficult prose passages or verses can be retained and, upon suggestion, be repeated later when out of hypnosis. Posthypnotic Suggestion. By "posthypnotic suggestion" is meant a suggestion given during hypnosis, but to be carried out by the subject after hypnosis has been terminated. The operator, for example, may suggest to the subject an abhorrence for alcohol or tobacco after awakening and, if the subject uses either, an attack of vomiting; after hypnosis is terminated, the suggestion will be carried out. Again, during hypnosis, a point of time may be specified in the normal waking state for a certain phenomenon to manifest itself; at the appointed time it will occur. The suggestion, for instance, may be given to the hypnotized subject that, one hour after being awakened, his leg will feel lame and he will walk with a limp for ten minutes; the lameness will appear at the specified time, and the subject, due to posthypnotic amnesia, will be unable to account for the fact. Not all persons are post-hypnotically suggestible, but practically all subjects in deep hypnosis are capable of carrying out this type of suggestion. Another very interesting and mysterious phenomena of hypnotism is that of posthypnotic appreciation of time. In order that a certain act be performed at a specified future moment, it seems evident that some sort of time calculation must be made by the subject. Many experiments have been made involving time appreciation and time calculation. The subject was told, for example, to perform a simple act after 300, 450, 700, 1500, etc., minutes; posthypnotic amnesia was suggested, and the subject awakened immediately. No clock or watch was allowed to be seen by the subject, so that the subject had no starting point for the calculation of time. The operator himself did not know at what time of the day or night the act would be due. In most cases the suggestion would be carried out correctly, though there was a deviation of a few minutes in some instances. Sometimes the subject resisted the impulse, because the act seemed senseless and ridiculous; but the impulse itself was present at the appointed time. J. Milne Bramwell made a series of 55 experiments with one subject, telling her to make a cross on a piece of paper with a pencil and write down the time of the writing without consulting a watch or clock. The time element varied, of course, in the different experiments. On one occasion, the subject was ordered to make the cross and write the time after 21,434 minutes. Forty-five experiments of the series were carried out successfully; in one experiment the performance occurred five minutes too soon; in the remainder, one to two minutes too soon. On being re-hypnotized and questioned as to the method of calculation employed, she informed him that at the time of the suggestion she made no calculation and did not remember the suggestion in the waking state, but that at a specified moment she felt an impulse to take paper and pencil and experienced the idea of making a cross or watch while doing so. Other experimenters have encountered the same situation. The subjects do not seem to know just how they estimate and calculate the time. Change of Personality. By means of suggestion, the hypnotist can modify the personality of the subject to a great extent. He can make the subject relive the developmental stages of his past life, so that the subject will think, speak, write, and act like a person of 5, of 10, of 15, of 20 years, and so on. Similarly, at the command of the hypnotist, he will assume the character of a general, a lawyer, a salesman, a preacher, a woman, a dog, a lion, etc., and do his utmost to play the role assigned to him. These hypnotic "personalities" may become so distinct and pronounced, that the one has apparently no knowledge of the other. Automatic Writing. As a result of posthypnotic suggestion, the subject in the waking state can be made to read aloud from a previously unknown book and simultaneously write out a discourse of some kind at the same time. The subject knows and remembers what was read, but has no waking knowledge of what was written. When re-hypnotized, the subject recalls the mental processes involved in the writing. |
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