Chapter 12 - Deductive Reasoning

As you will see in the following illustration, reason or a logical explanation capable of being followed and understood by the subconscious mind, will aid in obtaining the results desired. I once hypnotized a girl to relieve her of the discomforts of hay fever attacks. They were frequent and annoying. I learned that she had been raised in the dust bowl of Oklahoma and that she had developed this condition while in her early teens and that she had been so afflicted for about fourteen or fifteen years. While under hypnosis, I suggested to her that she no longer lived in Oklahoma and that her system did not need to protect her lungs and nose from dust, that she lived in a land free from dust; that she was breathing nice, clean fresh air; that her system did not need to protect her lungs and throat from dust by stopping her nose and throat passages. Then I suggested that her nose and throat would relax and she could breathe freely again. This was reasoning her subconscious mind could follow and made clear the suggestions. Needless to say, and somewhat to my surprise, she got well.

For another example, it is suggested to a patient that she will feel fine and be well when she awakens. If she has a headache, backache, sickness or what not, she will awaken with the disturbance gone. In other words, from the general statement made to her, her subconscious mind deduced the ultimate results and the autonomous nervous system was activated by the proper motor nervous channels to put the general conclusions into effect. Now, this is accomplished by a regular chain reaction through the nervous system. Given a certain stimulus like the command to swallow, this command stimulates certain cells and channels and swallowing takes place. The command is usually given by the conscious mind when awake, but while under hypnosis, the command activates the subconscious through the hearing faculties and the chain reaction is set off. It is the result of ideation; to some, stimulus. Now, I hope that the secrets of hypnotism are beginning to dawn on the reader and that he is beginning to realize that it is nothing more than a natural nervous or mental reaction. The foregoing are some of my conclusions after studying many available books and after experimentation. If anyone has a better theory, I would like to read it.

The Conscious Mind May Be A Slave To The Subconscious

The conscious mind controls the voluntary acts and thinking of the individual while awake, as a general rule. I stated that I would show you how this is not always true, but without the conscious mind being able to realize it, the subconscious mind may effectively block actions by the conscious mind. This may happen when all the powers of reason and all the drive of will power are back of the putative act. I will give you an example:

Subject's eyes are open but she is in deep hypnosis. Note the facial expression but especially the lack of expression in her eyes.

A woman is walking along a sidewalk. She comes to a ladder leaning over the sidewalk. She refuses to walk under it. No amount of reasoning or persuasion will coax her under it. Why? Because she was told in her childhood that it was bad luck to walk under a ladder. She may admit that there is nothing to it, that the superstition is foolish, but still she goes around the ladder. Have you done this very thing? Another woman goes into hysterics at the sight of a large bug. No amount of reasoning will calm her or get her near the bug. Another is depressed all evening because a black cat ran across her path. Another faints at the sight of blood. These things happen regardless of the fact that the conscious mind admits that they are silly, foolish things to do. They are the results of ideas stored in the subconscious mind. The person may not be able to explain such acts or know how to avoid doing them. They are compulsions, coming from the subconscious mind. That is what I mean by saying the conscious mind does not always control the acts and thinking of a person while awake.

The- above does not take into account those acts, or conditions of the body which are brought about by deep-seated inhibitions, fears, conflicting desires and other mental conditions which bring about paralysis, blindness, ulcers, heart trouble and other afflictions. The illustrations I have mentioned are things commonly known and easily understood, but the others are just as real and just as dependent on the subconscious as are the illustrations.

Walking while under hypnosis. Note the expression in the eyes and face. Face is expressionless and eyes are blank. Note the peculiar smooth and unworried look.
 
Now, there are rules of the mind involved here, as you will see later. Let us go a step further and prove the points made above that the subconscious mind may in certain instances control the conscious mind and body while awake. Let us implant an idea in the subconscious which will control the conscious mind as you saw it controlled by the superstitions above. We call this post-hypnotic suggestion. Suppose we wished the same woman to walk under the ladder. We would put her under hypnosis and tell her that it would be good luck for HER to walk under a ladder. That the old saying was not true as to her and that she had a special personality not affected by such silly superstitions, that hereafter she would not object to walking under a ladder and that no bad luck could come to her. The next time she would not refuse to walk under a ladder. The same rule holds as to the fixed habits of any individual. The mind has become accustomed to a certain line of nervous reactions and it tends to follow that line, unless altered deliberately. Sometimes this alteration cannot be accomplished by the usual mental efforts but extraordinary remedies or efforts must be used, such as the use of hypnosis.

Now, let us carry this a step further and into the field of muscular reaction. While a person is in hypnosis, she is told that when she is awakened, she will be unable to lift a chair; that it will be so heavy she cannot move it off the floor. You awaken her and dare her to lift the chair. She can not. No matter how hard she may try, or how much she may be reasoned with she will not be able to lift the chair. You may tell her that when she awakens, she will be unable to see her pocketbook which is on a table near her hands. When awakened, she will not be able to see it. No matter how much she may be reasoned with that it is there and that she ought to be able to see it, she cannot see it.

Here I wish to caution the student to always be sure to remove any suggestions which are given a person, not desired to be retained, for the very obvious reason that such person might carry the suggestion away with him and later be embarrassed by it or injure himself as a result of it. To make myself clear, suppose you hypnotized a person and gave a demonstration of anaesthesia in a hand and forgot to restore feeling in that hand. The subject might severely burn his hand by carelessly putting it too near a hot stove; or cutting it or any number of things might happen to it because of lack of feeling in it to warn the subject of danger. ALWAYS RESTORE NORMALCY IN A SUBJECT BEFORE AWAKENING HIM.

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