The Transparent Hypnotist

Elman. It is a name that reads like a mantra for hypnotists. It is bandied around, nonchalantly in various interviews (do a search on this blog and it pops up often), articles, and scripts for inducing hypnosis. If you are a regular reader here, very often the hypnotists featured in the 10 Questions mention Elman as a most fabulous technique. I even posted my favorite five modified Elman inductions last week.

But for many reading this blog, it is a name like any other, just something to pass over quickly and forget. In many beginning hypnotists circles the name is also just a word, maybe slightly tinged with mystique. So the question is – who was Dave Elman and why is his name a modern mantra?

There are a few articles (see sources at the end of this post) that provide a decent biography. In these you will find the story of a boy who watched his father suffer the pains of cancer. A family friend who was a hypnotist helped the elder Elman find relief and this impacted Dave greatly. However it would take several more years before he would make a mark in the hypno world. He was a musician (not only did he play the violin but also the saxophone), an entertainer, a writer, went into radio and even advertising until at the age of 49, then going into hypnotism full-time. How odd to encapsulate a person’s life in such a sentence. There is definitely more to it than I mentioned, but for the sake of time, I will move on with this post.

Here is one of the important things to know about Dave Elman - his magic lies in creating a hypnotic induction that works rapidly and deeply. This came about during his experiments with doing hypnotism as entertainment. He wanted to find a way to induce hypnosis that would be fast and effectual. The results were that he created an induction that both mentally and physically relaxes the client and suspends that little critical voice we all have playing in our consciousness (the one that says, I can’t be hypnotized, this will never work, what is going on – you get the idea). Components of his induction include eye-lock (the client’s eyes remain closed and they feel unable to open their eyes), repetitive deepeners (or re-inductions that provide a deeper state of hypnosis), arm dropping (used to help create physical relaxation), and fading numbers. It also happened that a member of the medical community saw him do a stage show using such inductions and was so impressed that he asked Dave to teach him and his colleagues how to do hypnotism. This sparked his career in teaching dentist and physicians hypnotism, propelling his name forward is hypnotism fame and respect.

As this is just cursory, I have two sources you should visit. Both explain the induction in greater detail and provide wonderful background information on Mr. Elman.

Sources:

• Heroes of Hypnosis - Dave Elman by Tom Connelly
• A Tribute to Dave Elman: (1962) from Paul Durbin’s‘ web site

By Gary Noble

There are others, who like Mesmer, had studied and practiced hypnosis and other mystic phenomena, (or should we call them sciences?), and were willing to share their discoveries.

Take for instance Alexander Cannon K.C.A., M.D., PH.D., CH.B., D.P.M., M.A., F.R.G.S., ETC. He authored several books including The Invisible Influence (Rider & Co.), Powers That Be (Mott Co. LTD., London), Hypnotism, Suggestion and Faith-Healing (Heinemann, London), The Power of Karma (in publication, May, 1936).

After reading the entire volume, I quote from his book The Science of Hypnotism, first printing May 1936 and published by E. P. Dutton Co., Inc. where, in the chapter named “Hypnotic Colour Science” he tells about The Great White Lodge Psyche Lamp:

This is a great secret of the “White Lodge” which as a Master-the-Fifth, I am now permitted to make known to all, but to ensure that it gets into the right hands, have placed the powers of patent in the hands of The Colour Center of Blackpool, under the direction of Mr. Roland Hunt and others.

The power of this lamp can only be appreciated by those who use it and see it used. It is used in the “Magik” of the Lodge’s three golden rules:

1. Learn to build intelligently. (See Chapter One of Powers That Be.)
2. Give the impulse through the correct word which will animate that which he (the builder) has built; the thought-form then conveys the intended idea with force.
3. Send this thought-form correctly oriented to your goal: being truly directed it will reach the objective and accomplish that which it was sent forth to do.

To accomplish these three golden rules, the great rule of the Lodge must be obeyed in order that the rule may obey you. It is wrapped up in one word, SECRETIVENESS: Jesus Christ the great sage of two thousand years ago, when He cured the sick said: “Go thou thy way and TELL NO MAN.” He knew that the telling of it to others would make the rule non-operative, and the cure of sickness would not be permanent. All the great men in history have brought their plans to fruition by being secretive about them: to even mention them to your nearest friend causes them to lose their effect. For those who live in doubting castle, I counsel them to try practicing this law as I have directed, knowing that it will be proved to the hilt.

The following rules are subsidiary and are directed towards the training of the right thinking against wrong thinking (as the East puts it: to prevent the disciples from the harmful force of the Black Magic.)

1. View the world of thought and separate the false from the true, retaining only the true.
2. Learn the meaning of illusion (see Chapter One of Powers That Be which fully explains this), and in its midst locate the golden thread of truth: the real meaning of truth.
3. Control the emotions of thy mind and soul, for the waves that rise upon the stormy seas of life engulf the swimmer, shut out the sun as he sinks and so render all his plans futile.
4. Discover that thou has a mind, and a dual personality, and to use the duality of thy mind.
5. Concentrate on the principle of thought-power and be master of thy mental world.
6. Learn that the thinker and his thought and that which is the means of thought are diverse in their nature, yet one in ultimate reality.
7. Act as a powerful thinker and learn the error of selfish thought, and that what-so-ever man wishes for another he wishes for himself. Think success to another and success also comes to the thinker.
8. Picture the thought-form before constructing it and ascertain its goal and verify its motive.
9. Think only good of others: if thou canst not say good of another never say evil of them, for as thou speakest of others so do others speak of thyself. Bar fast the doors of thought to hate and pain, to fear, jealousy and low desire. Take heed lest thou fall!
10. Watch close the gates of thought. Physical life is mostly centered on the plane of concrete life, and so thy words and speech will indicate thy thought. Pay close attention to these facts.
11. Speech has a triple nature: idle, selfish and hateful words. Idle words if good it matters naught, but if evil the speaker is sooner or later adversely affected thereby. Selfish words sent forth with strong intent build around its speaker a wall of separation and loneliness. Hateful words spell ruin to the speaker of them, for he falls into the grip of their doisonous fangs: and these words kill the flickering impulses of the soul, and cut at the very root of life itself, bringing in their train the Angel of Death. All thoughts, words and deeds sent out to others sooner or later return to their owner with increased power.
12. Never ask another to do anything that thou thyself wouldst not do. “Don’t trouble trouble “till trouble troubles you, you’ll only double trouble and trouble others too.” The secrete formula is OM MANI PADME HUM. If spoken between the hours of midnight and two of the clock in the early morning, under the deep red ray or infra-red ray, the thought sent out by him is most potent for good or evil according to the mind of the commander.

These are the twelve so-called “Laws of Magik” which in the East is not associated with conjurors and jugglers, but with real science as many have borne witness thereto. This Great White Lodge of the Himalayas is the remnant of the Great University of Atlantis, which was sunk by the selfish powers of mankind about the year 254,666 B.C.

This Great Seat of Learning knows secretes which are ours for the searching, for the power of study, for the ability to learn the power of persistent concentration (practically unknown in the West). It is in this ancient University that the real science of colour, sound and perfume values and their hypnotic effects are fully known and understood.

I felt it necessary to give this introduction to my Lodge before describing its physic lamp, lest anyone might not appreciate its value and therefore never even inspect it and test it out to his own advantage.

The author continues to describe the room in which the magnificent lamp is housed. Its colours are mostly black, indigo and blue with some red panels with golden edges. Each part of the room is described in detail, as are the pieces of furniture.

Dr. Cannon next describes the Lamp. He talks of a globe 12 inches in diameter and composed of seven strips or bands of colour, some being red, some being violet and some being orange. I cannot give out the order of color for fear of someone possibly creating this magnificent lamp. There is a mechanism (clockwork) to drive it so as to turn in a special way. He compares the drive to a unit he adopted for his psychostethokyrtographmanometer drum (the “thought-reading machine”). He claims the use of the lamp for an hour a day soon straightens out permanently those bent on negative poles and so ensures health, one of the secrets of happiness in this short and fleeting earthly life.

This book is a wealth of information for the hypnotist who wants to learn from the old masters. It includes the techniques used and mastered by Lloyd, Tuckey, Bernheim, Grossman, Liebeault, Erskine, Binet and Fere, as well as the Bernheim-Coue Method.

There are chapters on the theory of hypnotism and chapters on methods of hypnotizing.

For those who grimaced at yesterday’s one-on-one description of a Mesmer Animal Magnetism Session, maybe you would have been more interested in a group environment. Yes, indeed, folks - step right up and be amazed. You ailments will be relieved and you will be entertained.

Enter Mesmer, gold slippered, robed in lilac, and maybe even a turban. Then take your place in front of the large vat or rather, if you must be proper, the baquet. This is a tub that was filled with liquid (presumably water) that has been charged with Mesmer’s Animal Magnetism. He had discovered his own Animal Magnetism became super-charged if he stood in a pail of water with an iron rod in it, so he used this concept for the group experience.

As part of the group, you would take your place at the baquet. You would press the afflicted area of your body onto one of the iron rods that protruded from the vessel and be tied to it by the ropes. When settled in, you would all link fingers and create a “circuit.” Mesmer would circulate amongst you, occasionally tapped in the baquet with a magnetized wand. Like in a private session you might find yourself laughing, convulsing, or doing any other type of odd body contortion.  Interestingly enough, if you got too out of line of experienced screaming pain, one of Mesmer’s assistants would escort you out of the room to a mattress lined recovery room.  Hmmm?  Abreaction or no upstaging allowed?

In thinking about this, it was probably a great stress reliever, acting crazy and free. It was a place where such things were warranted, much like a modern hypno show. Apparently, Mesmer had similar reactions with the group as today’s stage hypnotist do - the participants happily play their parts and get into it.

The is only one reported baquet that is available for public viewing currently. It is at the Musée d’Histoire de la médecine et de la Pharmacie, Lyon, France.

Source: Cabinet Magazine

When you go grocery shopping, do you look at the tabloids, the scandals, and try to keep up with what those crazy Hollywood types are doing? Sometimes, its is a little more enthralling than watching the person in front of you (though I do find people’s habits interesting). But somehow I suspect Mesmer, Mr. Animal Magnetism himself, if he lived today, he would be one of the people gracing the pages of such publicaitons.

When one goes in search of the truth of the legends of the past, I think one does find the extent of tabloids of the time. History seems to be filled with vague murmurings that probably were the stuff of tabloid printing that becomes legend today.

So, I think I owe an apology to Mesmer. I think I might have been about to fan the flames of myth with my ending comments on Saturday’s post. I mentioned a scandal. Luckily, I did not carry that statement too forward. Many have said that Mesmer left Vienna because of the scandal caused by his relationship with a young pianist. Rather I believe it was as I put in my original Mesmer post, that he left for a more receptive audience in France. His views were being malingered in Vienna by his contemporaries. What was his choice? Give up something he believed in to go “along” with peer pressure or continue pursing that which drove him - the idea of healing through one’s animal magnetism?

What brought me to all this was the discussion page about Mesmer on wikipedia (don’t groan - if I ever site wikipedia, then I sight it, otherwise, I go with other sources). It was actually a good page. It mentions this idea about the Mesmer scandal, which made me double-check what I had written. Here is an interesting quote from wikipedia (but I cannot find a real source):

It should be noted that he left Vienna equipped with a letter of recommendation written by the Austrian Lord Chancellor, Kaunitz, directed to the Austrian Ambassador in France.

It would seem then that he left Vienna in good standing, or at least on his own ideas rather than fleeing.

Rush, rush, rush.  Wednesday’s are the day for it.  So, it’s another quickie.  I read something I rather liked this morning.  It is the idea of getting in touch with your inner critic as a hypnosis tool.

This comes from Georgia Foster in the UK, who is the author of The Drink Less Mind. She is doing workshops based on her book, which look really interesting.  Apparently there are four sessions to each workshop and also time with a nutritionist that speaks about the health of the liver.

Working with the nutritionist is what I find particularly attractive. There are times when I feel hypnosis clients would truly benefit from seeing a complimentary health person in addition to the hypnosis session.  Weight loss is a great example.  Most of us are not trained in nutrition and it would be good to have a team member who is.

Just my thoughts.

Source: The Daily Record 

For a little while, we romanced Charcot and his hysterical ideas that hypnosis could only be experienced by those thought to suffer from hysteria. Well, alas, it is time to wipe our hands clean of the spectral from this early performance art and get back to the therapeutic side. But before you roll your eyes, yawn and click off this post, the story is hardly boring.

It is time to introduce Hippolyte Bernheim, nemeses of Charcot. Can you hear the hisses from the Salpêtrière School (where Charcot practiced)? Enter in the idea of suggestibility. That’s right. This is where that whole concept begins to manifest itself into consciousness. (1) Bernheim believed that Charcot’s provocation of hysteria during hypnosis came about from suggestions given at that time - hence the hysteria was induced via suggestion not heredity. He also took Charcot’s studies forward a bit and believed that hypnosis could be used therapeutically. He even surmised that hypnosis could be used to even treat hysteria. Charcot’s main interest was in studying hysteria, not helping those suffering from it. (2)

Now we need to add a little somnambulism to the mix and we have a most modern notion of hypnosis. While a professor at the aculté de Médicine at Nancy (or the Nancy School of Hypnosis), Bernheim learned about a gentleman doctor who worked with patients using artificial somnambulism. This gentleman was Liébeault. So, this acquaintance influenced Bernheim to adjust his views of hypnosis a bit more. He defined hypnosis as a heightened state of artificially induced suggestibility. (2) Amen.

So, powerful advocate of modern hypnosis - Yes! Friend of Charcot - No. Not only did Bernheim disagree with Charcot’s ideas, he also implied that the study controls of Charcot’s students were suspect, as well as Charcot.

Sources:
Library of Congress Exhibit
Serendip

You have to love the classic, now cliche, spinning disk as a hypnotic tool. You know the one - the disk is divided into four parts, two black and two white that merge together when spun. Simply mesmerizing.

Well, in the interest in studying the famous masters of this art form and our talk about Charcot’s hypnotic sessions, I was hoping to find an induction that he used. I have not given up on it, but it is taking some time. But what I did come across was a reference to a tool he or his assistants may have utilized for hypnotizing his patients. Indeed it was a spinning disk. However, it is described as being a four-inch long cylinder that is about one and half inches in diameter. Within this is a little spinning disk, black and white segmented as mentioned above. Without spinning the disk, it is placed three inches away from a midpoint between the eye brows (eye fatigue inducing). After a few moments there is a button on the cylinder that starts the revolution of the disk. The patient is told to concentrate on it. The theory is that as the patient does this it causes a state of suggestibility.

It is good to know that somethings don’t change.

Source:
Hypnotism by L. W. deLaurence

Maybe there is a manic quality. Maybe there is anger. Maybe there is an uncommunicative quality. Maybe there is intense passion. Maybe there is intense fear. And maybe there is nothing but a swoon.

Half dressed and on display, Blanche Marie Wittman does just that in Andrè Brouillet’s portrayal of a Jean-Martin Charcot hypnosis session. Charcot is on the left. If you are in hypnosis, art or neurology circles, you may have seen this painting. Perhaps you wondered about it, perhaps not. But recently, these people came back to life for me, or at least at my imagination. Who are they? To begin with, let’s take the beautiful swooning woman. Just an average Victorian? Not so. She was Blanche Marine Wittman, known as the “Queen of the Hysterics” (5) at the Salpêtrière Hospital. The man to her left? Why that is Jean Jean-Martin Charcot, the subject of this posting. We also briefly met him during our Freudian Esoteric Saturday.

*Note the photo series below - this is the reality of Blanche.

Interesting things to know about Charcot:

• He was a professor at the University of Paris for 33 years. (2)
• In 1862 he became involved with the Salpêtrière Hospital, where he established a neurological clinic. He also became director of it. (2)
• He discovered and described many neurological maladies. (3)
• He was opposed to animal testing (a hurray from the animal lovers). (3)
• He utilized hypnosis (yes,this is where it comes in) to study hysteria.

His premise: Hysteria is caused by hereditary that creates a weak neurological system. Traumatic events could cause the hysteria to manifest, and the hysteria would be “progressive and irreversible.” (2)

His hypnotic theory: Hypnosis could induce hysteria. The only people who could be hypnotized were those for a propensity towards hereditary hysteria. He did not use it to cure hysteria or alleviate it; he used only to study hysteria. (2)

So what is so special about Charcot hypnosis? You guess it - hysteria. Through hypnotic means, he studied hysteria in women - inducing it to create universal rules for hysteria attacks. He used hypnosis to support his theories, devised from his profession of being a neurologist.

For those who have not kept up with hypnosis, his findings have been laid to rest and are no longer necessarily believed by practitioners or the psychological community.

But what he also did, was bring back some validity towards hypnosis after poor Mesmer caused it to go out of favor (that is a whole another story for a different rainy day, but suffice to say, Mesmer brought hypnosis into the lime light in the 1800s and it did not go so well).

However, somewhere along the line, the results Charcot was getting may have had more to do with phenomenon related to hypnosis shows of today. In fact, in his demonstrations, he used the Salpêtrière’s amphitheatre and was know for his dramatics. His results were thought to be more like those of hypnosis show, where the desire of the person being hypnotized is to please and give the results that are suggested. (4) Along with putting his subjects in a theatrical light in the amphitheater, he also photographed his clients in the midst’s of their hysteria. (6) See photo to the left.

At some point, Charcot started to doubt his findings and even told his protege, Sigmund Freud that he felt that there is always an underlying reason for hysteria. (1) Later Freud, Alfred Binet, and Pierre Janet, his students, went on in the study of hypnosis, advancing it and disproving that only those who are hysterically minded can be hypnotized. (2)

Sources:

1. Sigmund Freud - Life and Work - Jean-Martin Charcot
2. People and Discoveries - Jean-Martin Charcot
3. Jean-Martin Charcot Biography (1825-1893)
4. Human Intelligence: Jean-Martin Charcot
5. Jean Martin Charcot and Blanche Wittmann
6. Image & Narrative:Gender, Ideology and Display
7. Wikipedia

In the somewhat recent past, Freud has been a topic of conversation. And though Freud is not so esoteric in terms of hypnosis, books the reference him and hypnosis in the same volume seem perfect.

In a recent Sunday Book Review in the New York Times,George Prochnik reviewed George Makari’s Revolution In Mind: The Creation of Psychoanalysis. According to Prochnik (I have to rely on him as I have yet to read this, but it is now on the list), there is discussion about Freud’s background in hypnosis. Apparently one of Freud’s mentors, Jean-Martin Charcot who apparently believed that the affects of hypnosis “depended upon the abnormal nervous condition of the hypnotized.” Apparently, though, Charcot was diagnosed by Hippolyte Bernheim as having moments of hysteria, too. Bernheim’s theory of hypnosis was that hypnosis worked with “exaggerated human credulity” or the idea of suggestibility rather than genetic hysteria. It was with this idea that Freud became the man we all know and love - the psycho analytic theorist. He utilized Bernheims ideas about hypnosis, but changed it a bit with the idea that the mind is more susceptible to suggestions made within rather than form outside sources.

There is a lot more to Procnik’s review, so do check it out, but it is always interesting to see anything about those who helped make hypnosis the tool it is now.

Once upon a time there was a man name Sigmund Freud who became a legend in the psychiatric field. This particular man decided to use hypnosis in his practice. Through the use of authoritative hypnosis techniques, he had his clients access the unconscious to help with various mental afflictions. However, he had a few issues with this. He believed that the unconscious mind was a collection of the unseemly aspects of the human mind. It is also rumored that he did not like this process and wandered away from it because many of the clients felt like they had fixed themselves, rather than with heralding Freud with the success. (1)

Though if Freud were reading this, I suspect he might balk at it and reprimand me in that famous German accent we all love to imitate. It may be further noted that he was opposed to Bernheim’s hypnotic suggestions (direct, authoritative suggestion for symptom removal), but he himself was known to be intense and leading in an authoritative manner. (2) This would either cause the client to never return or “remember” traumas that caused their hysteria (often sexual abuse). We could talk about false memories here, which has been a problem in the history of regression hypnosis, and more about Freud’s hypnotic processes but that would cause us to digress, so we shall save it for another post.

So then, where is leading, Ms. Blunt, you might ask? This segways from authoritative techniques to the need for more permissive ones, where the client is not forced to create memories and feels more secure in the therapist’s hands or rather - words.

Enter Milton Erickson, the more modern hero for the present hypnotist. Feeling a bit of an opposite, he believed it was just fine for the client to feel they had fixed themselves. One might say, he had his ego a little more together than Freud (ouch, I feel the harsh slap across the dimensions of time and space). Sorry. Erickson also found success in using the client’s own belief system and terminology to induce a trance. The idea of being kinder and more supportive of the client was felt in his hypnotic work. And one of his biggest concepts brought out the use of the metaphors as a handy tool. But again I digress. We will come to that later.

Let’s go back a few sentences to “Feeling a bit of an opposite, he believed it was just fine for the client to feel they had fixed themselves.” Erickson was the one who believed that unconscious mind was full of solutions and possibilities and that a person could find their own inner answers to their ailments. By being polite and allowing clients to feeling in control during hypnosis, they would relax more easily and be more open. (1)

So hence, we have permissive hypnosis.

Sources:

1. Headcleaners.com
2. Freud and hypnosis: The hypno-suggestive roots of the Oedipus complex
3. Getting Past that Old-Style Hypnosis