He’s got bulging eyes, with large, black pupils, which grab you and drain your will. He has you in his power. You are his slave. He will make you do unspeakable things. I’m not talking about a tyrannical despot, a cult leader, or a mad scientist. I’m talking about a hypnotist, who is commonly portrayed as a cunning, even diabolical, huckster. With the wave of a charm and with commanding words, he robs you of your will. He blots out your sense of morality. He can make you into something like a great artist or a blood-thirsty killer. In films and literature, one of the most infamous hypnotists was "Svengali" (after George DuMaurier’s classic novel Trilby). An Austrian silent film was made in 1914, and John Barrymore portrayed Svengali in 1931. He turned a timid woman into a renowned opera star. That may not, in itself, sound bad, but Svengali is portrayed as selfishly manipulative, rather than as a self-help guru.
Another evil hypnotist was the doctor in I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957). He used hypnotism to regress Michael Landon to an ape-like, primal species that went on a killing spree at his high school. (And all he wanted was overcome shyness and get an A in geometry!) Hypnotists have been featured in an amazing number of films, including silent movies as Billy Bumps And The Hypnotic Eye (a short, animated comedy) and The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, both of which were filmed in 1919. Horrors Of The Black Museum (1959) featured a overzealous author who hypnotized his assistant to kill people to gain subjects for his lurid novels and newspaper articles. (That’s taking "plot development" too far!) Another film, Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies (1994) was about a young man who was hypnotized to become a murderous zombie by a gypsy fortune teller at a carnival. (Next time you go to a fortune teller, insist on the cards!). Other films depicting hypnotists were The Devil Doll (1964), The Hypnotic Eye (1960), The She-Creature (1958) and The Undead (1958, both based on the late Fifties Bridey Murphy reincarnation-through-hypnosis craze) and The Hypnosis Murder (1998). And of course, all self-respecting filmic vampires can hypnotize their victims at will. The common notion of hypnotism and hypnotists is making people do things against their will, or, more popularly, making them act in a ridiculous manner, like walking or crowing like a chicken.
But what is hypnotism? It is a mean of inducing, through words and instruments (i.e. lights, watches, charms), an altered state of consciousness, or trance. While entranced, a subject will hear clearly what the hypnotist says. He/she will respond to "suggestions" given by the hypnotist. In primitive societies, entering an altered state might be accomplished by ecstatic drumming. At Delphi, in ancient Greece, oracles, or female prophetesses, entered a hypnotic state by chewing laurel leaves. In addition to the leaves, they were influenced by a gas that emanated from beneath the site. Thus, they conveyed messages from the gods.
An early term for hypnotism was "animal magnetism" which was derived from the work of Dr. Franz Mesmer, an Austrian physician. He used magnets for healing which, he believed, therapeutically influenced the magnetic field of the body. Magnets could realign a patient’s condition and restore him/her to wellness. There was a fascinating side-effect of animal magnetism. Not only did it induce healing, but it also, in certain cases, connected the subject with a higher, transcendent realm. It caused them to convey messages from spirits. In Europe, Frederica Hauffe, of Prevorst, Germany, began delivering messages from the spirit realm after she was "magnetized." Her revelations were compiled in a book entitled Leaves of Prevorst. In the United States, Andrew Jackson Davis, a young man from Poukeepsie, New York, began delivering trance lectures after being magnetized and even conversed with the spirits of the Swedish seer Emanuel Swedenborg and the Greek physician Galen. In another case, Edgar Cayce, at age nineteen, went to a "magnetizer" for treatment of a throat ailment. Following his experience, he began diagnosing complex medical conditions while entranced, as well as propounding spiritual wisdom.
Not all people who have been hypnotized, of course, have become medical or spiritual prophets. Hypnosis has been used to reduce pain in childbirth or in dental and surgical procedures, to relieve stress, and to enable clients to quit smoking. Some doctors have been trained in hypnosis in the treatment of their patients. The method of hypnosis is fairly simple: the client relaxes, attunes him/herself to the voice of the hypnotist, and there is usually some form of induction (i.e. counting to three) to enable the client to enter a trance. If applicable, the hypnotist may help the client relive a traumatic event (i.e., an accident, war trauma, a painful childhood experience). The hypnotist may, then, give a "post hypnotic suggestion," as "you will feel stuffed next time you smell food," or "you will feel nauseated if you taste alcohol (or a cigarette)." There are some variations on hypnotism. For example, meditation, either guided or self-induced, is a means of altering one’s consciousness to relieve stress or serve a therapeutic purpose.
A technique similar to hypnosis is the "reverie," which has been used in Dianetics, a therapy devised by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard (as described in his book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health). In a reverie, a client, in a relaxed state, examines moments of mental stress (or engrams). As they are released in a series, one after another ( in an engram chain), the client becomes "clear,"( or attains a state of heightened being). A problem in hypnosis is that of "false memories." A hypnotist may, unknowingly or inadvertently, create certain experiences, or memories, in the mind of a client, for example, a "past-life" memory or recall a "alien abduction". In other words, a hypnotist may, unwittingly or intentionally, make a client say and experience what he/she wants, either that they were probed by aliens or that they were beheaded in Elizabethan England. Commonly, hypnotism is used as entertainment. Entertainer/ hypnotists may be either trained as hypnotists or learned their craft from books or from other hypnotists. I saw an entertainer/hypnotist when I was in high school. The hypnotist was a "doctor" (what kind, we were never told). He explained what hypnotism was, then hypnotized a group of students to get up and sing a song and another to stand up and "spontaneously" shout a ridiculous statement. Other entertainer/hypnotists have caused people to walk like chickens or bark like a dog.
Some may feel hypnotism as entertainment is harmless fun (so what if you walked into Kentucky Fried cawing like a hen–the red on your face will go away!) Yet I am skeptical about using hypnotism as entertainment. Hypnotism is, practitioners declare, a serious profession, providing a useful service. It relieves stress and pain, and can help people break addictive habits. But imagine a physician–a guy in a tux, or a woman in red sequins–injecting volunteers from the audiences with "shots of love"? Or how about a chiropractor "cracking the back for fun and profit"? It is my humble opinion, but hypnotism as entertainment belittles the profession and makes it less credible. What faith can you have in a practitioner who, on one hand, breaks people of smoking, then makes them croak like a frog? Hypnotism has had enough trouble in its history trying to assure the public that it is not a black art. Hypnotism has a dubious reputation as a result of its fictitious, infamous practitioners (i.e., Svengali), as well as of those who get a laugh out of making people do weird things. However, in a literary sense, the hypnotist has contributed to the gothic theme of the damsel pursued by the evil villain. The hypnotist is the "bad guy" who is, to our relief, overtaken by the forces of good. Perhaps the therapeutic value of hypnotism has yet to be seen, but its popular meaning is less about healing and more about intrigue. In film and literature, it’s about overcoming the evil forces of life. We’re always thrilled when the evil Svengalis get their just due. Right you are, Joel. We've been long entranced by the enthralling performances of the monstrous mesmerists that haunt so many horror films. Hypnotism and horror make a natural thematic match...ask any vampire! Article copyright © Joel Bjorling |
