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 Psychology Revivals

Hypnosis

Hypnosis is now being used by doctors, dentists and therapists to

help cure or relieve a wide range of illnesses, personality problems
and emotional and psychological conditions.

It has been used to treat phobias and many nervous symptoms; the
help people give up smoking, alcohol and drugs; to overcome
shyness, stammering, uncontrollable blushing, nail biting and
certain allergies; to curb weight problems (both obesity and anor-
exia); to help overcome impotence, frigidity and other sexual dif-
ficulties; in dentistry as a substitute to local anaesthetics and to
counter ‘needle-phobia’, tooth-grinding and excessive salivation; to
alleviate pain and insomnia; to achieve relaxation in pregnancy
and childbirth; and also in the treatment of behaviour problems
and in crime detection.

Originally published in 1981, in this book, the late Dr David

Waxman – a medically qualified therapist who had practised
hypnosis for over twenty years at the time of writing and who had
lectured on the subject throughout the world – explains exactly
what hypnosis is; gives a concise history of its practice; discusses
the scientific theories about it and how it is used today; and
describes what it can and cannot do and when and how it is best
used.
This page intentionally left blank
 Hypnosis
A guide for patients and practitioners

David Waxman
First published in 1981
by George Allen & Unwin
This edition first published in 2014 by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove BN3 2FA

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© David Waxman 1981

The right of David Waxman to be identified as author of this work has

been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.

Publisher’s Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this
reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may
be apparent.

Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and
welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact.

ISBN: 978-1-138-78717-9 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-76675-1 (ebk)
Hypnosis is now being used by doctors, dentists and therapists
to help cure or relieve a wide range o f illnesses, personality
problems and emotional and psychological conditions.
It has been used to treat phobias and many nervous sym p­
toms; to help people give up smoking, alcohol and drugs; to
overcome shyness, stammering, uncontrollable blushing, nail
biting and certain allergies; to curb weight problems (both
obesity and anorexia); to help overcome impotence, frigidity
and other sexual difficulties; in dentistry as a substitute to local
anaesthetics and to counter ‘needle-phobia’, tooth-grinding
and excessive salivation; to alleviate pain and insomnia; to
achieve relaxation in pregnancy and childbirth; and also in the
treatment o f behaviour problems and in crime detection.
In this book, D r David Waxman - a medically qualified
therapist who has practised hypnosis for over twenty years and
who has lectured on the subject throughout the world -
explains exactly what hypnosis is; gives a concise history o f its
practice; discusses the scientific theories about it and how it is
used today; and describes what it can and cannot do and when
and how it is best used. He also provides a list o f addresses from
which information about hypnosis and the names o f medically
qualified practitioners can be obtained.
D avid Waxman has practised hypnosis for over twenty
years, first as a general practitioner and then as a psychiatrist.
Author o f numerous articles on hypnotherapy and psychiatry,
he has lectured on these subjects in many parts o f the w orld and
was the founder and first President o f the Medical, and Dental
Hypnosis section o f the Royal Society o f Medicine. He is cur­
rently Chairman o f the British Society o f Medical and Dental
Hypnosis, Vice-President o f the Society o f Experimental and
Clinical Hypnosis, a member o f the Council and British
Representative o f the European Association for Hypnosis in
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine and a member o f
the International Society o f Hypnosis. D r Waxman has also
been very actively involved in clinical research on drugs used in
psychiatry and in campaigning for the amendment o f the law
on hypnosis in order to protect the public from improper use.
This page intentionally left blank
 HYPNOSIS
A Guide for Patients and Practitioners

DAVID W A X M A N
L R C P (Lond), M R C S (Eng)

UNWIN PAPERBACKS
London Sydney
 First published in Great Britain in the M edicine Today series
by George Allen & Unwin, 1981
First published in Unwin Paperbacks 1984
Reprinted 1984, 1987

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise, without the prior permission of Unwin Hyman Ltd.

UNWIN HYMAN LIMITED

Denmark House
37-39 Queen Elizabeth Street
LONDON SE1 2QB
and
40 Museum Street, LONDON WC1A 1LU, UK

Allen & Unwin Australia Pty Ltd

8 Napier Street, North Sydney, NSW 2060, Australia

Unwin Paperbacks with Port Nicholson Press

60 Cambridge Terrace, Wellington, New Zealand

© David Waxman, 1981

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Waxman, David
Hypnosis
1. Hypnotism — Therapeutic use
I. Title

ISBN 0-04-616027-2

Set in 11 on 12 point Bembo

and printed in Great Britain by
The Guernsey Press Co. Ltd, Guernsey, Channel Islands.
 To Shirley
‘First in thought . .
This page intentionally left blank
 Acknowledgements
--------------------- ♦ ---------------------

The author wishes to express his gratitude to the librarians o f the

R o y a l Society o f M edicine and to M rs J . Walters in the
bibliography department for their tireless assistance in supply­
ing countless references. Also to the librarians o f the Central
M iddlesex Hospital, and the R o y a l C ollege o f Physicians, to the
photographic department o f the British Museum and to the
M ary Evans Picture Library for the loan o f the prints o f M esm er
and hypnosis and for the photograph o f Freud.
Thanks are due to D r M . Jo yston Bechal, Consultant
Psychiatrist, Shenley Hospital and to D r J . Dom inian, Consult­
ant Psychiatrist, Central M iddlesex Hospital, w ho were
amongst the first to recognize the value o f hypnotherapy as an
additional discipline in the hospital psychiatric establishment in
Great Britain.
I am also indebted to D r M . Elian, Consultant Clinical
N europhysiologist and M r s J. Adam s, C h ie f Technician o f the
Electroencephalographic Departm ent o f the Central M iddlesex
Hospital, for the excellent recordings; to D r A nn W oolley-
Hart, Research Consultant to the M edical Electronics Depart­
ment o f St B arth olom ew ’s Hospital, for her co-operation in the
measurement o f skin resistance; and to D r H .B . Gibson o f the
Departm ent o f Psychology, Hatfield Polytechnic, for his in­
valuable comments and advice.
Finally, m y thanks are due to the Earl o f Kinnoull, M r D avid
Crouch, M P , M r Leo Abse, M P , and Professor W . Linford
R ees for their encouragement and support o f m y amendment
to the Hypnotism Bill.
This page intentionally left blank
 Preface
--------- ♦---------

The evolution o f the use o f hypnosis as an effective force for the

treatment o f various types o f nervous illness and in certain
specialized and clearly defined applications, has added a pow er­
ful com plem entary weapon to psychotherapy and psychiatry,
as w ell as to general practice, dentistry and m any other
disciplines o f medicine and surgery.
The chequered history o f hypnosis through the ages and its
misuse by charlatans and entertainers has added a dimension o f
folklore, m ythology, m ystery and misunderstanding to a
natural procedure which, it has recently been shown, could well
have a logical and scientific explanation.
In this volum e, although it is acknowledged that m any other
theories and techniques exist, an attempt is made to set the
record straight. The purpose is to present to the reader, both
professional and non-professional, some idea o f what hypnosis
was thought to be, what it is now believed by m any to be, what
it does and what it does not do, and how the hypnotic state is
achieved.
It is also intended to act as a w arning to the public and to those
not suitably qualified, to regard w ith some concern the still
unknow n processes o f the unconscious mind and the pow erful
effect w hich the uncovering o f early memories m ight pre­
cipitate i f carried out by those without medical or proper
psychological training.
DAVID WAXMAN
This page intentionally left blank
 Contents
♦ page
Acknowledgements vii
Preface ix
List of Illustrations XV

1 W H AT H Y PN O SIS WAS i

The Birth o f a Theory

Animal Magnetism
Lucid Sleep
Hynos or Nervous Sleep
D e la suggestion
A n Hysteria
A Dissociation
A Loving Relationship
A Child-parent Relationship
A Conditioned Response
Some Contem porary Theories o f Hypnosis
A Goal-directed Striving
The Atavistic Theory
Theories o f R o le Playing
A Goal-directed Fantasy
Other Speculations as to the Nature o f Hypnosis

2 W H AT H Y PN O SIS IS 30

Hypnosis and Sleep

The Electroencephalogram
Hypnosis and the W aking State
The Brain, Sensation and Response
Experimental Evidence o f Some Brain Functions
So What is Hypnosis?
A Definition

3 W H AT H YPN O SIS D O ES 44
The Psychodynamic Approach
Regression
T ransference

XI
 Hypnosis
Dream Interpretation
Free Association
T he Behavioural Method
Desensitization
H ypno-a version
Retrospective Counter-conditioning
Reinforcing Techniques
Self-hypnosis
Ego-assertive retraining
1. Ego-strengthening
2. Assertive retraining
Sum m ary o f Treatment Methods

4 H O W H Y PN O SIS BEG IN S 62

A Lesson in J^istory
It’s A ll in the mind
So H o w Does Hypnosis Begin?
Some Tests o f Hypnotizability
T he Hull B od y-sw ay Test
T he Postural Sw ay Test
The Hand-clasp Test
The Hand Levitation Test
A R eal Person
Resistance
R apport and the Transference

5 H O W TO USE H Y PN O SIS 76

T he Induction o f the Hypnotic State

Permissive Techniques
1. Eye fixation with progressive relaxation
2. Thumbnail technique
Intermediate techniques
1. Erickson’s arm levitation method
2. Eye fixation w ith distraction
Authoritarian Techniques
1. The direct gaze method
2. A confusional technique
Children and Hypnosis
1. Picture visualization
2. Thumbnail technique— a modification
Deepening o f the Hypnotic State
Hypnosis at a Signal
Stages o f Hypnosis

xii
 Contents
Hypnoidal State
Light Trance
Medium Trance
Deep Trance
Somnambulistic State
P roo f o f Hypnosis
1. Post-hypnotic suggestion
2. Eyelid catalepsy
Awakening

6 WHEN TO USE H YPN O SIS 99

The Neuroses
Anxiety
Psychosomatic Illness
1. The central nervous system
2. The cardio-vascular system
3. The respiratory system
4. The gastro-intestinal system
5. The urinary system
6. The skin
7. The musculo-skeletal system
Phobias
Obsessional Illness
Hysterical Neuroses
The Fugue State
Problems o f Personality
The Social Disabilities
1. Stammering
2. Blushing
3. Nail biting
4. Nervous ‘tics’
The Addictions
1. Nicotinism
2. Alcoholism
3. Other drugs
Gambling
Eating and W eight Problems
1. Obesity
2. Anorexia
Immature personalities
Psychosexual Problems
1. Impotence
2. Frigidity

X lll
 Hypnosis

3. The sexual variations

Reactive Depression

7 OTHER USES OF H YPN O SIS 131

Dentistry
The Reduction o f General A nxiety
Needle Phobia
Analgesia
G agging
Tooth Grinding
Excessive Salivation
Excessive Bleeding
Gynaecology (diseases o f women)
Obstetrics (Pregnancy, labour and confinement)
Pain R elief
Sleep Difficulties
Hypnosis and Crim e Detection

8 H Y PN O SIS A N D THE LA W 143

H o w the L aw Stands
The Dangers o f Misuse
The Dangers o f Abuse

Appendix: Addresses 150

Bibliography 152
Index 156

x iv
 List o f illustrations
------------------ ♦------------------
P la tes
1 Hypnos, god o f sleep
2 Anton Mesmer
3 Mesmer’s Baquet
4 John Elliotson
5 Professor Charcot demonstrating hysteria
6 Sigmund Freud
7 A case o f psoriasis before and after treatment
8 Dr Oudet extracting a tooth under hypnosis

F ig u re s
1 The normal electroencephalogram 33
2 The reticular and limbic systems 39
3 Desensitization 51
4 Measurement o f skin resistance and temperature H7

xv
W hether the artificial production o f these
phenomena or the perform ance o f the processes
w hich so often induce them w ill mitigate or
cure disease, can likewise be determined by
experience only, it is the im perative, the
solemn duty o f the profession, anxiously and
dispassionately to determine these points
by experiment, each man for h im se lf. . . the
prevention o f pain under surgical operations,
the production o f repose and o f com fort in
disease and the cure o f m any diseases.
T he chief phenomena are indisputable and
w e ourselves are witness to them; and in it
wounds give no pain.
In the name therefore o f the love o f truth, in
the name o f the dignity o f our profession, in
the name o f the good o f all mankind, I
im plore you carefully to investigate this
important subject.
from the Harveian Oration
by Jo h n Elliotson M .D . Cantab., F .R .S .,
Fellow o f the College o f Physicians, London.
2 7 Ju n e 1846

xvi
 1

What Hypnosis Was

From the beginnings o f the human race, man has endeavoured

to impose his w ill and strength upon his fellow for good or for
evil. From the dawn o f history, w ith the use o f witchcraft or o f
w izardry, o f revelation through supernatural agencies, with the
p ow er o f the w ord or the use o f suggestion, he has sought to
influence the destiny o f others. From the accidental discovery o f
a natural phenomenon, through magical passes and magnetic
fluids have emerged the refined techniques o f the twentieth
century which produce the state know n as hypnosis.

The Birth o f a Theory

W here, when or how it originated is unknown. M any biblical
wonders are today attributed to the hypnotic abilities o f the
miracle w orker, the prophet or the saint. Th rough the sleep
temples o f ancient E gypt and the healing shrines o f the Greek
god Asclepius, it became evident that it wras possible for one
man to influence the mind and the body o f another.
O ne o f the most outstanding physicians o f early history was
Hippocrates. K n o w n as the ‘father o f medicine’, he was born on
the island o f Cos and lived from 460 to 377 b c . He travelled
through Greece practising and teaching the art o f healing. He
was the author o f numerous medical w orks and maintained that

1
 Hypnosis
our pleasures as well as our sorrow s— that is, our feelings or
emotions— arise from the brain. Madness and delusions,
Hippocrates concluded, dread and fear, sleeplessness and
anxieties as w ell as deeds which are contrary to habit, all derive
from the brain. Here was the seat o f disease and the centre w hich
controlled the entire body.
Som e 500 years later, another Greek physician, Galen o f
Pergam um ( a d 129—199), w ho was second only to Hippocrates
as one o f the greatest medical authorities o f antiquity,
elaborated on this idea and discussed the influence o f the body
and the mind upon each other. He conceived the notion o f some
heavenly or ethereal fluid as a bridge between the two, so that
physical ailments could derive from mental problem s and
physical or organic illness could cause mental disturbance,
through the flow o f this fluid. So gradually unfolded the idea o f
emotional illness and the hope that i f this ethereal fluid could be
harnessed, then man could indeed influence the course o f
disease.
The concept o f such a fluid and the idea o f a bridge between
the body and the mind continued to occupy the thoughts o f
scientists and philosophers. It was additionally held that this
fluid accounted for the transmission o f light, heat and impulses
o f the nervous system as w ell as o f magnetism.
Then, in the sixteenth century, a Swiss physician named
Theophrastus Bom bastus von Hohenheim, otherwise know n as
Paracelsus, revolutionized most o f the theories o f medicine held
at the time. Pursuing the ideas o f the ancient Greeks, he
developed the notion that the heavenly bodies could affect
humans and affect the course o f disease. A hundred years later, a
Germ an scholar, Athanasius Kirchir, proposed that some
natural pow er w hich he called animal magnetism was also
involved. The great British philosopher and scientist, Sir Isaac
N ew ton, also believed in animal magnetism and by virtue o f his
authority established considerable authenticity for the idea.
Thus, through the stars, through this indefinable ethereal
fluid and through the activity o f certain magnetic forces,
through the mind to the body, men could even influence each
other.

2
 What Hypnosis Was

T he inter-relationship between body and mind was not a

preoccupation limited to the thinkers and physicians and
philosophers o f Europe alone, however. In Africa, Asia and the
East the healing arts were practised b y the witchdoctor, the
yogi, the fakir, and the magi, each extolling the supernatural
powers o f healing o f his ow n particular skill, each claiming
special pow ers o f m odifying human responses and influencing
the action and reaction between one man and another.
Throughout the M iddle Ages the use o f suggestion as a
healing art was regarded as sacrilegious in Western Christian
civilization. M iracle cures were the result o f religious faith and
were often considered to be effected exclusively through sacred
relics or statuary or shrines endowed w ith the special powers o f
healing.

Animal Magnetism
In 1734, Franz Anton M esm er (plate 2) was born in the small
village o f Iznang near Lake Constance. The son o f a poor
forester, little did his parents know that in later years he was to
formulate the theory w hich was to take him to the very height
o f fame and fortune, and that his name was to add a new w ord
and a new dimension w ithin the international w orld o f healing.
Y ou n g M esm er first trained for the priesthood, but later
changed his mind and was accepted at the U niversity o f Vienna
as a student o f law. Som e time after this, however, he again
changed course. He transferred to medicine and obtained his
degree in 1766 at the age o f thirty-tw o, rather later in life than
the average doctor. But, he had the background o f a sound and
w orld ly training. He became a highly reputable physician and
was ever interested in the search for newer and m ore effective
methods o f treating his patients. D uring his studies he had
become involved in discussions w ith a professor o f astronom y
and Jesuit ecclesiastic, Father M axim ilian Hell. This man had
treated the sick by attaching specially shaped magnetized plates
to the affected parts o f the body, and had succeeded in relieving
them o f their ills.
Mesmer, w ith a broadness o f vision and a know ledge o f the

3
 Hypnosis
sciences as they were accepted at that time, combined the
theories o f astronom y w ith N ew to n ’s recently pronounced
laws o f gravity to advance an idea o f animal gravitation, w hich
was the natural pow er know n as animal magnetism.
As a result, in 1776, he w rote a dissertation on The Influence of
the Planets on the Human Body. Subsequently, w ith the persisting
ideas o f an ethereal fluid, o f animal magnetism and o f the w ork
o f Father Hell, he maintained that these forces could be
harnessed to restore the harmonious balance o f bodily functions
and for the relief o f human suffering.
M esm er had made his great discovery when he was treating a
young lady named Fraulein Oesterline w ho for several years
had been suffering from a ‘convulsive m alady’ together w ith
‘the most cruel toothache and earache follow ed b y delirium,
rage, v o m itin g 'a n d sw ooning’ . He prescribed for her the
continuous use o f ‘chalybeates’, w hich w ere presum ably some
form o f iron tonic. He prevailed upon Father Hell to have made
for him by his craftsmen a num ber o f magnetized pieces o f iron
w hich would fit to his patient’ s stomach and legs. Miss
Oesterline reported strange sensations running dow n her body
and she was relieved o f her ailments.
M esm er deduced from this that it was essential to maintain an
equilibrium between the natural magnetic fluid, which, it was
asserted, filled all living things, and the magnetic fluid w hich
was thought to fill the universe. Thus in the thrilling days o f the
great discoveries in gravity, mathematics, electricity, and
astronomy, the exploring mind o f Franz Anton M esm er offered
his name to that which he genuinely believed to be a scientific
and logical explanation o f the phenomenon he was able to
produce, the phenomenon o f animal magnetism.
From the very beginning it was evident in w hich w ay the
ideas o f M esm er w ere to evolve. He treated patients by fitting
magnets to various parts o f the body and was able to effect m any
wonderful and dramatic cures. As a result, his reputation
increased and he prospered greatly. He married the rich w id o w
o f a form er officer in the Austrian arm y, one Anna von Bosch
(or Posch), and together they established a large circle o f
w ealthy and famous acquaintances. T h ey owned an elegant

4
 What Hypnosis Was
house in Vienna in w hich they held lavish parties and gave
musical soirees. The great W olfgang Amadeus M ozart w rote an
opera called Bastien et Bastienne, the original perform ance o f
w hich took place in M esm er’ s garden theatre. Magnetism
became a cult and M esm er its high priest.
As a result o f his spectacular fame his w ork was regarded by
m any more orthodox physicians w ith considerable cynicism
however. He reached the zenith o f his glory, but was doom ed to
downfall. As was the failing o f m any w ho follow ed him, and is
even to this day, M esm er often failed to recognize the real
nature o f the illness he was treating.
His fate as a physician and magnetize]; in Austria was sealed by
the eventual outcome o f his treatment o f M arie-Therese
Paradis, a pianist w ho had been ‘blind’ since the age o f four.
M esm er had restored her eyesight, the loss o f w hich w ould
today be recognized as an hysterical blindness. (This type o f
problem is discussed in Chapter 6.) O ther physicians were
envious o f the results and caused doubt as to the credibility o f
M esm er’s treatment. M arie-Therese’s father, w ho was a secret­
ary to the Em peror and Empress, was afraid that his daughter’ s
pension and several other advantages m ight be forfeited, and his
attitude together w ith the manipulations o f M adam e Paradis
caused the unfortunate girl to relapse into her previous blind
state. As a result, a great furore arose. M esm er was repudiated
b y the U niversity o f Vienna and left the country to settle in Paris
in 1778.
In France, M esm er’s most prominent supporter was D r
Charles d ’Eslon, physician to the Count d’Artois w ho was later
to becom e Charles X . M esm er soon became the rage o f Paris.
His clinic was lavishly furnished, thickly carpeted and heavily
curtained. The great man him self is reputed to have w orn a lilac
cloak and to have held an iron rod in his hand. In the centre o f
his consulting room stood a large vat called a baquet (plate 3),
from w hich projected metal bars. W ater and iron filings filled
the baquet and his patients sat round it, each grasping one o f the
iron bars. M irrors, strategically placed around the room ,
reflected and concentrated the light and soft music which, said
M esm er, intensified the magnetism, filled the air. In this

5
 Hypnosis
mysterious and awe-inspiring setting, D r M esm er passed
around the circle o f patients, each in a high state o f expectancy,
and touched each one w ith the iron rod. M an y then fell about in
convulsive movements and described strange and bizarre
sensations. A fter tw o or three sessions they proclaim ed them ­
selves cured o f the affliction from w hich they were reputed to be
suffering.
In spite o f all w hich is now regarded as theatrical and
meaningless ritual, M esmer firm ly believed that he was in fact
harnessing this ethereal force and that he could cause it to flo w
through his body, to his fingers and through the iron rods to the
bodies o f his patients, to restore in them the natural balance o f
health w ith the universe. Later he maintained that he could
achieve such a balance personally and w ithout the aid o f the
magnetic rods.
O nce again, however, M esm er’s great healing art caused
much enm ity amongst his contem porary physicians and in 1784
K ing Louis X V I set up a R o y a l Com m ission to investigate
animal magnetism. Am ongst its members was the statesman,
scientist, writer, and n ew ly accredited Am bassador o f the
U nited States o f Am erica, Benjam in Franklin; D r Joseph
Guillotin, the inventor o f the notorious beheading instrument
used in France; and Antoine Lavoisier, scientist and discoverer
o f oxygen. The fact that both D r Guillotin and Lavoisier w ere
subsequently executed by the very instrument w hich bears the
name o f the inventor, was in no w ay a reflection o f their w ork
on this Com m ission. Nevertheless, the great and important
standing o f these people alone was sufficient p ro o f o f the impact
w hich magnetism or mesmerism had on the events o f the time.
T h e Com m ission concluded that the cures could be explained
only by the im agination and imitation o f the subject. U n fortu­
nately no report was made o f the positive results o f M esm er’s
w o rk or o f the psychological implications o f the illnesses and the
results o f his treatment. U nfortunately too, the Com m ission
also failed to comprehend that the cures w ere genuine enough
even i f there appeared to be no physical or organic origin to the
illness. M esm er stood condemned and soon afterwards, refusing
to renounce his beliefs, he was forced to retire. He fled through

6
 What Hypnosis Was
Europe, returned to Paris for a b rief spell and then m oved to
M eersburg on Lake Constance where he died on 5th M arch
18 1$ . He left behind a name, a legend and a charisma w hich still
haunts the consulting room s o f legitimate psychotherapy.
One o f M esm er’ s disciples was the M arquis Chastenet de
Puysegur. It was Puysegur w ho discovered somnambulism, a
new dimension o f magnetism, a state in w hich subjects could
open their eyes and talk and obey instructions and yet remain
‘m agnetized’ . The somnambulistic subjects w ere thought to be
endowed w ith particular powers o f prophesy and o f diagnosis
and their em ploym ent for the latter purposes became a
fashionable and profitable venture. U nder the influence o f
Puysegur, the unlimited enthusiasm o f the magnetizer again
earned the antagonism o f orthodox medicine.
The ideas o f M esm er and his contemporaries spread to the
U nited States and throughout the western w orld. The earliest
record o f the use o f animal magnetism in Britain is o f J .B . de
M ainauduc, a pupil o f Charles d’Eslon w ho lectured on the
subject in 1788 in London and in the West o f England. He was
greeted w ith a great deal o f enthusiasm but hardly w ith the same
fervour w hich met the disciples o f M esm er in France.
Later, in 1829, R ichard Chenevix, a Fellow o f the R o y a l
Society, having learned his skills from a w idely renowned
priest, the A bbe di Faria, demonstrated his technique to a
num ber o f English physicians, amongst them on ejoh n Elliotson
(plate 4).
C henevix had said, ‘in the w hole dom ain o f human argu­
ments, no art or science rests upon experiments m ore numerous,
m ore positive or m ore easily ascertained. T o me (and before
m any years the opinion must be universal) the most extra­
ordinary event in the w hole history o f human science is that
M E S M E R IS M even could be doubted’ .
B o rn in 1786, Elliotson was the son o f a prosperous druggist
in South London. He went to Edinburgh U niversity, graduated
in 18 10 and continued his studies at Jesus College, Cam bridge.
He was a contem porary o f the poet Keats. A fter qualifying as a
physician, he toured the Continental schools and then started a
practice in London in The Borou gh near the united hospitals o f

7
 Hypnosis
G u y ’ s and St Thom as’ s. At that time the teaching o f medicine
was organized through private enterprise. A n y physician w ith
sufficient capital could open his ow n lecture theatre, conduct his
ow n course and be sure o f a regular attendance. Elliotson was
appointed assistant physician at St Thom as’ s Hospital on 17th
O ctober 18 17 , and in 1823 he was appointed full physician but
was not allowed to lecture. In fact, no physicians o f St Thom as’ s
Were allowed to do so at that time, but another factor was that
he had specialized in medical jurisprudence w hich was a new
science not then taught at the United Hospitals. His lectures
w ere vivid and popular w ith students but unpopular w ith Sir
Astley C ooper w ho owned the lecture theatre. Later, however,
he managed to get the clause in his appointment w hich barred
him from lecturing, rescinded.
Elliotson was nevertheless angered and complained to the
Board. It is reported that the Grand Com m ittee o f St Thom as’s
Hospital regretted that he had not written ‘in language m ore
temperate and decorous’ . This indicates the character o f the
man. He subsequently delivered his lectures in a private medical
school in Southw ark and the m ore popular they became the
m ore did he gain the disfavour o f the establishment within St
Thom as’s.
Som e time later, he was to become one o f the champions o f a
new venture— the N e w U niversity College, the U n iversity in
London which was to be the stronghold ofnon-denom inational
education. That ‘godless institution o f G o w er Street’, as it was
called, was eventually established and the foundation stone was
laid in 1827. Elliotson was elected Professor o f Medicine in 18 3 1.
In 1834 the N orth London Hospital was opened and Elliotson
was appointed physician. In 18 37 it was to become U niversity
C ollege Hospital and largely through Elliotson’s efforts, the
study o f medicine had m oved to university level. Elliotson
believed that students should be taught at the bedside rather than
by serving a five-year apprenticeship to an older doctor. It should
be remembered that he was practising at a time w hen physicians
treated their patients by bleeding, w ith leeches and w ith purging.
Surgeons operated without anaesthesia and Joseph Lister had not
yet been heard of. P asteur w asj ust ten years old and psychological

8
 What Hypnosis Was
medicine was still in its infancy. A t this point Elliotson saw the
demonstration o f Chenevix and later met a pupil o f Mesmer
himself, the Baron Dupotet. He was inspired to explore for
himself, the mysteries o f the human mind.
In those years, Elliotson was making medical history. He was
one o f the first to use the stethoscope and taught the proper
manner in which to examine the chest. He made many
discoveries and valuable observations on the use o f drugs. He
gave the highly prestigious Lumleian lectures at the R o y a l
C ollege o f Physicians in 1829 on ‘The A rt o f Distinguishing
Various Diseases o f the Heart’ , and his notes on the ‘T h eory and
P ractice o f M edicine’ were a great contribution to treatment. But
he was restless and highly industrious and his modern inno­
vations in medicine, in attire and in behaviour resulted in a certain
lack o f popularity amongst his colleagues. Perhaps because o f
this, and his dark and handsome appearance, he was reported to
be a Je w , not a very popular distinction at that time.
He was influenced by the theories o f Franz Joseph Gall, a
Viennese physician, w ho was the founder o f the study o f
phrenology in w hich it was claimed that mental development
could be measured by examination o f the skull. Gall was a great
student o f the mind and maintained that emotions acted
independently o f the w ill and that this often resulted in physical
effects. W e m ay read in this the anticipation o f the discovery o f
the unconscious mind. The later acceptance by Freud that our
neuroses or nervous habits are buried in the unconscious and
that therein lies the origin o f subsequent neurotic illness could be
said to be the direct result o f Elliotson’s w ork.
M esm er and di Faria had maintained that animal magnetism
was effected through the united wills o f the doctor and the
patient. The patient exhibited convulsive movem ents o f the
body and passed into the mesmeric trance state, in which state he
could be cured o f his ills. Som nam bulism and the highly
receptive state o f the patient’s mind then follow ed. U nder its
influence, Elliotson said ‘wounds give no pain’ and certain
diseases could be cured. It was thought that through super­
natural forces special diagnostic powers were given to the
doctor, so that he was able to understand the true meaning o f

9
 Hypnosis
disease. Elliotson accepted these ideas w ithout dispute. O rigin ­
ally sceptical about what he had seen, he suddenly changed his
view s and began givin g demonstrations himself.
He realized that apart from physical treatment there was
another h alf to medicine— the study o f the m ind— but he was
halted at its frontiers. He recognized the seem ingly im pregnable
resistances, the emotional defences and the pow ers o f im agi­
nation o f the patient but was unable to penetrate the barricades.
He experimented continuously and lectured and demonstrated
repeatedly to hundreds o f students and to men o f fam e and o f
fortune, but still under the disapproving eye o f the hospital
authorities.
Elliotson’s close friend was a man named Thom as W akley
w ho qualified as a m em ber o f the R o y a l C ollege o f Surgeons in
18 17 but w ho gave up medicine, became a M em ber o f
Parliament and started a medical magazine called the Lancet.
W akley reported Elliotson’s demonstrations o f various trance
and somnambulistic states extensively, and was at first a
considerable supporter o f these experiments.
A fter some demonstrations by the Baron Dupotet o f mes­
merism in seven cases o f epilepsy, Elliotson felt that it was his
duty to investigate the matter further. A t that time tw o sisters,
Elisabeth and Jan e O key, presented themselves at the hospital
and came under his care. U nfortunately, Elliotson failed to
recognize their hysterical personalities. He demonstrated on
them publicly and showed the effects o f mesmerism. H e used on
them the somnambulistic state for the purposes o f diagnosis and
by doing so created a great deal o f antagonism. He was finally
tricked by W akley and denounced by him in the Lancet. The
medical authorities requested him to cease these public ex­
hibitions and as a result he resigned from the hospital on 24th
D ecem ber 1838. This is described by M errington in his book
University College Hospital and its Medical School: a History.
Elliotson was a friend o f G eorge Cruikshank, the painter and
illustrator, and also o f the famous British novelist, W illiam
M akepeace Thackeray. In fact, he had once saved Thackeray’s
life and the novelist showed his gratitude by portraying him as
D octor Goodenough in his books Pendennis and The Adventures

10
 What Hypnosis Was
of Philip. Elliotson opened the M esm eric Hospital in London’ s
Fitzroy Square where one o f his disciples was Charles Dickens,
to w hom he taught the art o f mesmerism. U nfortunately,
Dickens used this to treat a certain lady suffering from delusions
and hallucinations, w ith almost disastrous results and causing a
profound threat to his ow n marriage.
Elliotson later started a new journal called The Zoist which
was m ainly concerned w ith mesmerism and in w hich numerous
cases o f treatment w ere reported. For example, he quoted the
case o f a young w om an w ho had an amputation o f the thigh
under mesmerism and felt no pain. T he operator noted that,
whilst the patient’ s pulse rate remained around fairly normal,
his ow n increased to double its rate! There follow ed details o f
seventy-six operations completed without pain. It must be
understood that, apart from the use o f brandy, at this time
mesmerism was the only form o f anaesthesia available before
ether was introduced by M orton in 1846 and chloroform by
Sim pson in 1847. O nce the surgeon R o b ert Liston had used
ether for a m ajor surgical operation on 21st Decem ber 1846
mesmerism as an anaesthetic was abandoned. A fter that time,
the w orld became familiar w ith the perform ance o f painless
surgical operations by means o f ether or chloroform , so that
operations under mesmerism passed unnoticed. Y et there
remains a record o f no less than 400 operations perform ed by this
method.
In Issue N o. 23, the last issue o f The Zoist published in 1848,
there appeared an article by D r Elliotson entitled the ‘Cure o f a
true cancer o f the female breast w ith mesmerism ’. In this article
the rem oval o f a diseased mass, not w ith a knife but w ith
mesmerism alone, is reported in detail. T he patient was an
unmarried m iddle-aged lady. In 18 4 1 she was discovered to
have a breast tum our w hich had become widespread. It was
Elliotson’s intention first o f all to prepare the patient for
surgery. She was seen by many famous surgeons o f the day,
including B ro d y, Liston and Cooper, and all confirmed the
cancerous nature o f the grow th, some advising immediate
surgery, while others declared it inoperable.
Elliotson decided to take the matter into his ow n hands. The

11
 Hypnosis
patient, R osin a Barber, was mesmerized, frequently as often as
three times daily. She was a deep hypnotic subject and was kept
in what was described as a ‘happy trance’ for hours at a time.
She made slow and steady progress. She put on w eight, her
well-being im proved, her strength increased. The skin healed
and there was eventual resolution o f the mass. It is interesting to
note that on an occasion when D r Elliotson was aw ay in Europe
the patient relapsed, but she made rapid im provem ent again on
his return. ‘Five years and upwards, was she mesmerized’ w rote
Elliotson, and in September 1848 the report stated, ‘the
cancerous mass is now com pletely dissipated, not the slightest
lump is to be found nor is there the slightest tenderness o f the
bosom or the arm pit’ . This finding was also verified by m any
eminent surgeons o f the day, some o f w hom had originally
examined the patient.
Perhaps this story o f Jo h n Elliotson and R osin a B arber should
not be view ed w ith too much scepticism. There is a good deal o f
research in progress today on the consequences o f stress and o f
the suppression o f anger, and any possible effect these m ay have
on the production o f illness and even o f cancer. It m ay therefore
not be too far-fetched an idea to consider that the reduction o f
anxiety and tension w hich Elliotson was able to produce w ith
his mesmeric treatment was sufficient to cause the gro w th to
subside.
Thus the greatness o f the man surpassed his difficult person­
ality and unpopular ideas and, when the controversy w hich
the O key sisters created had subsided, he was invited to give the
annual oration at the R o y a l C ollege o f Physicians in London, in
m em ory o f W illiam H arvey. H arvey was also an extrem ely
controversial figure. He was famed for his discovery o f the
circulation o f the blood and had him self been reviled and
denigrated for his convictions.
In a deed executed on 21st Ju n e 1656, H arvey exhorted his
fellow physicians ‘to study and search out the secrets o f nature
by w ay o f experiment and for the honour o f the profession’.
Elliotson was able to draw a parallel between his ow n
discoveries and the discoveries o f W illiam H arvey and indeed
between the fate o f H arvey and his own decline and fall. ‘The

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 What Hypnosis Was
medical profession’ said Elliotson ‘was not contented w ith
denial o f the truth— they stigmatized H arvey at the time as a
fool and so the w orld thought he must be a fool and did not
consult him as before and he fell in his practice extrem ely.’ O f
the effects o f mesmerism he said, however, ‘never was it more
necessary than at the present moment to bear all these things in
mind. A body o f facts is presented to us not only w onderful in
physiology and pathology but in the very highest importance in
the prevention o f suffering and in the cure o f disease . . .’ .
A t about the time that Jo h n Elliotson was publishing the
reports o f his experiments w ith mesmerism, numerous other
reports o f operations w ere published in The Zoist. A certain
D octor Engeldue wrote, ‘M r W ard a surgeon o f W ellow in
1842 rem oved a poor m an’s leg under the mesmeric superinten­
dence o f m y friend M r Topham and this case was to be the most
important w hich had been presented to the medical profession’.
Jam es Esdaile, a Scottish surgeon w orkin g in Calcutta,
perform ed several hundred operations quite painlessly. M an y o f
these are reported in copies o f The Zoist w hich are still available.
His instructions to the ‘anaesthetist’ w ere usually "to be
mesmerized for an hour and a h alf daily for five days’ . He
founded the Calcutta M esm eric Hospital and received the
blessing o f the Earl o f Dalhousie, the G overnor-G eneral o f
India. U nfortunately, however, the British medical authorities
o f the time rejected his reports.

Lucid Sleep
In the year 18 13 , a Portuguese born in Goa, the A bbe Jo se
Custodio di Faria, w ho had taught R ichard Chenevix, was
givin g public demonstrations o f animal magnetism in Paris. He
com pletely ignored M esm er’s elaborate ritual o f magnets and
sim ply asked his patients to concentrate on feelings o f relaxation
and sleep. Thus he regarded the necessity o f suggestion as the
important factor in producing the desired state. A lthough his
subjects had to possess certain necessary predispositions, he
considered the relationship between the patient and him self o f
greatest importance. His term for animal magnetism was ‘lucid

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 Hypnosis
sleep’ and it w ill be seen that these ideas w ere a genuine and
significant advance towards later theories o f the nature o f the
hypnotic state.

Hypnos or Nervous Sleep

Jam es Braid was born in Fifeshire in Scotland in the year 1795.
He was educated at the U niversity o f Edinburgh and after
qualifying as a surgeon he settled in Manchester. In 18 4 1 he
attended demonstrations o f mesmerism given by a Frenchman,
Charles de La Fontaine and learning the art from him became
intensely interested in the w o rk o f Elliotson. He too entirely
rejected the concept o f animal magnetism and o f ethereal fluids,
and developed his ow n theories o f a condition o f increased
susceptibility and suggestibility. He maintained that the mes­
meric state was in fact a form o f sleep and in 1843 published a
book entitled Neurypnology or The Rationale o f Nervous Sleep
Considered in Relation with Animal Magnetism. A t first he
considered it to be a physical condition o f the nervous system,
but later changed his mind and decided that it was hypnos— a
form o f sleep. Thus the term hypnotism was coined. A lthough
now adays a m ore scientific explanation o f the state as in fact
both a psychological and a physical condition is generally
accepted, the w ords hypnosis and hypnotism have becom e part
o f the English language. Braid entirely discounted the exotic
effects claimed by the mesmerists and magnetizers. From
evidence it had received, the French R o y a l Com m ission had
concluded that patients under the influence o f the mesmeric
state could be made to perform certain deeds against their w ill.
T o d ay w e kn ow that this is a m yth and a recent article by
C am pbell Perry o f M ontreal, in the International fournal o f
Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, clarified the problem o f
possible hypnotic coercion and compliance.
It was Braid, how ever, w ho really first attempted to set the
record straight and to disprove some o f the m ore sensational
claims o f the mesmeric state. He demonstrated in both public
and private experiments that, whilst they w ere in hypnosis, the
judgem ent o f his subjects was such as to make them even m ore

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 What Hypnosis Was
fastidious as regards propriety o f conduct than when they were
fully awake.
Braid, in accordance w ith the discovery o f the A bbe di Faria,
also maintained that hypnosis could be induced sim ply by fixing
the patient’ s attention on some object— a technique that is basic
to most o f the induction methods used today. Certainly there
was no need for the lilac cloak or the baquet or the iron rods, nor
for any o f the paraphernalia required by the early follow ers o f
Mesmer. Hypnosis, or animal magnetism or mesmerism, call it
what you w ill, was once and for all time established as a
condition in w hich both the physical and the mental state are
altered, a state in w hich the mind and the body are finally
bridged, a state the evidence for which could no longer be
disputed.
Jam es Braid died in i860. The great inventor o f psycho­
analysis, Sigm und Freud, said o f him that he, perhaps m ore
than anyone else up to that time, could be regarded as the first
really scientific student o f hypnotism.

De la suggestion
In the year i860 a medical practitioner named D r Am broise-
August Liebeault founded a clinic at N ancy in France. Here he
began to test the ideas o f Jam es Braid, using the method o f fixed
attention. A t the same time he gave the patient pow erful and
repeated suggestions o f relaxation and o f sleep. He had
considerable success w ith his methods but unfortunately was
discredited by Professor H ippolyte-M arie Bernheim , a famous
neurologist w orkin g in the university o f the same town.
Subsequently, however, the latter was com pletely converted to
Liebeault’ s view s, not only o f the part that the im agination
played in illness but also o f the value o f suggestion under
hypnosis. W ith scientific precision he proceeded to investigate
the use o f hypnotism and in 1886 he published the results o f his
labours. His w ork was entitled D e la suggestion or Suggestive
Therapeutics. He agreed w ith Braid that hypnosis was a form o f
sleep but maintained that it was brought about by a specific
condition o f enhanced suggestibility, by a method o f especially

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 Hypnosis
concentrated verbal suggestions. There is no doubt that the
strength o f Bernheim ’s reasoning and the great and important
status o f the man himself, helped to establish hypnotherapy as
one o f the most valuable forms o f treatment for nervous illness
know n at the time.
Professor August Forel (18 4 8 -19 3 1) was a Swiss psychiatrist
o f great repute. His w ritings occupy a prominent place in the
w o rld ’ s literature on hypnosis and he maintained that the ideas
o f Braid and Liebeault w ere amongst the great discoveries o f the
time. As a physician, he had extensive experience o f the use o f
hypnosis and castigated the ‘scoffers and unbelievers’ w ho made
rash judgem ents about its nature and effects. He supported the
idea o f the N ancy school that hypnosis was produced by
suggestion. Most important o f all, he maintained that the
hypnotic state could be achieved in the m ajority o f people w ith
very little trouble and was not peculiar to persons o f a
particularly abnormal nervous sensibility.
Later, however, Freud concluded that one could no m ore
satisfactorily define suggestion than one could explain hypnosis!

An Hysteria
D uring the latter part o f the nineteenth century the figure o f
Jean M artin Charcot (plate 5) bestrode the medical stage in Paris
like a giant. B orn in 1825, he was tall in stature, alo o f and
im m ensely popular. It was considered to be a great privilege to
w o rk under his guidance and physicians o f eminence travelled
from far and w ide to attend his demonstrations.
As a professor in diseases o f the nervous system at the
Salpetriere Hospital, there came under his care a large number
o f patients suffering from epilepsy and hysteria and in the year
1878 he began to investigate them w ith the use o f hypnosis. A t
this time, both he and the pupils w ho hypnotized for him still
believed in the use o f magnets and the ideas o f magnetism. O ne
o f the features o f an hysterical illness is the imitation o f other
diseases and C harcot’s young hysterical patients w ere able to
m im ic the unfortunate seizures o f the epileptics w ith w hom
they w ere housed. A t first he failed to recognize this but later

16
 What Hypnosis Was

discovered that these symptom s could be rem oved or even

produced through the use o f hypnosis. He w ron gly concluded
that only patients suffering from hysteria could be hypnotized
and that the hypnotic state itself was a form o f hysteria.
Nevertheless, he had made the dramatic discovery, through the
use o f hypnosis, o f the true nature o f hysterical illness. U p to that
time it was com m only believed that hysteria occurred only in
w om en and that it was due to a misplacement o f the w om b. In
fact, the Greeks had a w ord for it and that was the w ord for
w o m b — hustera.
Because o f the large num ber o f patients available to him and
his persistent enthusiasm and relentless investigations, Charcot
showed that the condition could occur in either sex. M oreover,
because o f his experiments w ith hypnosis he revealed the true
nature o f hysterical sym ptom s— that they w ere without doubt
the result o f a nervous condition and in no w ay related either to
epilepsy or to the ‘wandering w o m b ’ .
U nfortunately, Charcot persisted in his beliefs in magnetism
and the physical origin o f the hypnotic state. He supported the
view that the condition was brought about by stroking with
magnets or other external methods w hich then resulted in an
altered state o f the nervous system. M oreover, it could only be
effected in certain persons o f a particular disposition and
especially in hysterics. In this he was com pletely at odds w ith the
Liebeault-Bernheim school and as the latter ideas became more
firm ly established, so C harcot’s w ork was attacked as being
unscientific. W ith his death in 1893 it can be said that the last
remaining ideas o f animal magnetism had been finally laid to
rest and were interred w ith his bones for all time. His fame
remained unsullied, however, and no physician o f this century
w ould deny the enormous contribution o f Professor Charcot to
our know ledge o f diseases o f the nervous system and to modern
psychiatry.

A Dissociation
A dissociation means a separation or a splitting. In this case, the
idea advanced by Pierre Janet (1859 -19 47) was that in the true

17
 Hypnosis

nature o f the hypnotic state, there occurred a dissociation or

splitting o f the conscious from the unconscious parts o f the
mind. Janet was one o f the most famous pupils and collaborators
o f Charcot. He w as an author and philosopher and qualified as a
doctor o f medicine in 1893. In 1902 he became Professor at the
C ollege de France and made enormous contributions to the
principal subjects studied at the Salpetriere, nam ely hysteria and
hypnosis. O ne o f his most famous books, Psychological Healing,
is even today considered a very valuable reference and is an
impressive contribution to the subject o f psychiatry.
Janet developed his ow n individual explanations o f the nature
o f hysteria and o f the hypnotic state and believed that the
dissociative process was a progressive one occurring during the
induction o f hypnosis. As the conscious mind was suppressed,
he thought, so the unconscious gradually surfaced until in deep
hypnosis it took over completely. That is, the subconscious
became the conscious. He felt that this was the same process that
took place in hysteria and was also responsible for other nervous
disorders. Thus he concluded that most neurotic symptom s had
a hidden meaning. He anticipated the theories o f Freud,
advanced shortly afterwards, that because the true meaning o f
our nervous problem s was often too painful to be faced, it was
therefore pushed back into the unconscious mind w here it
became responsible for all sorts o f problems.
Although today w e appreciate that a state o f dissociation m ay
occur in hypnosis, it does not always do so and cannot be
accepted as an explanation o f the hypnotic state as a whole. N o r
can it explain the basic suggestibility o f hypnosis and various
other phenomena w hich can be produced.

A Loving Relationship
It was left to D r jo s e f Breuer (18 4 2-19 2 5), a Viennese physician,
to find the vital clue and to extend the use o f hypnosis into a
m ore valuable and therapeutic field. Breuer was a talented
pioneer in the use o f hypnosis for the treatment o f hysteria. He
elaborated the view that it was due to earlier traumatic

18
 What Hypnosis Was
experiences. D uring the years 18 8 1 and 1882 he was treating a
young girl named Bertha Pappenheim. She was know n in his
case-book as Anna O. and was diagnosed as suffering from an
hysteria. In her case this was characterized by various paralyses,
disturbances o f vision, speech disorders, and mental changes. He
hypnotized her and allowed her to speak about her problems.
He invited her to recall details o f their origin and while she was
unburdening herself to him she gave vent to feelings o f severe
agitation and restlessness w ith considerable outpouring o f
emotion. These w ere the original feelings w hich she had
experienced when her problem had started. In this w ay Miss O.
was able to retrace her buried memories to the events that she
had considered to be the cause o f her troubles. In the terms o f
Janet, her subconscious had com e to the surface. The result was
that w ith the recovery o f these memories and w ith the fact that
she had simultaneously given vent to her feelings, the symptoms
now disappeared. Thus Breuer developed the technique o f
regression, o f taking his patients back, in time, in place and in
m em ory, to the origin o f their problem s— or to what they
considered to be the origin. He allowed them to talk, to express
those feelings which had occurred at the time and to re-enact the
emotional responses. In fact, to liberate the ‘strangulated affects’
or suppressed emotions o f certain painful memories, as Janet
was additionally thought to have discovered. In this w ay they
were relieved o f their symptoms.
Breuer was a friend o f another Viennese physician, the great
Sigm und Freud (plate 6). Freud was born in M oravia in 1856 o f
a middle-class Jew ish fam ily. He chose a scientific career and
enrolled as a medical student in the U niversity o f Vienna at the
age o f seventeen. His earlier w o rk was in research and he
certainly put these interests first. He was the author o f several
learned papers and finally qualified as a physician in 18 8 1. A fter
establishing a firm reputation for himself, he was awarded a
much coveted travel scholarship to study w ith Charcot at the
Salpetriere— an experience w hich was to revolutionize his ideas
and bring about a profound change in his life.
It was at the Salpetriere that his interests turned to psy­
chology. He formed a good relationship w ith Charcot by

19
 Hypnosis
translating some o f his w orks into Germ an, and acquired a
sound know ledge o f hypnosis. In 1887 he began to experim ent
w ith it him self but, dissatisfied w ith the theories held in Paris,
visited Bernheim at N an cy on the advice ofP rofessor Forel. He
studied Bernheim ’s ideas o f suggestion and his techniques and
on returning to Paris incorporated these methods w ith those
used by Breuer. T h ey form ed a close relationship, w orkin g and
researching together for m any years. Freud was fascinated b y
the case o f Anna O. and persuaded Breuer to continue w ith the
method so that they could study the effects.
T h ey called the release o f em otion w hich this hypnoanalytic
technique had produced, a catharsis. This is a w ord derived
from the Greek, meaning a cleansing or purging, and it was used
because they maintained that patients had purged themselves o f
their problems. This was the reason for their recovery. In a join t
w o rk published in 1895 called Studies on Hysteria, Breuer and
Freud affirmed that by the use o f this method hysterical patients
could be relieved o f their symptom s. But Freud, exploring the
problem later in greater depth, recalled that whilst in hypnosis,
Anna O. had been able to retrace the origin o f her sym ptom s to
the time o f the severe illness o f her father w hom she had been
nursing and to w hom she was particularly devoted. C ould it
have been that she had seen in Jo s e f Breuer this fatherly figure
and w ith that im age had experienced w hatever love or erotic
sensations this had evoked? T he possibility o f some sexual
emotions was established in Freud’ s mind and he called this the
transference situation, w hich was to become one o f the
cornerstones o f his future theories. W ith this and Jan et’ s idea o f
the dissociation o f the conscious from the unconscious mind,
the entire concept o f psychoanalysis was born. Thus, as a
direct result o f the use o f hypnosis, by the end o f the last
century psychiatry had taken a great leap forw ard into the
future.
It was from these early experiments and his collaboration
w ith Breuer that Freud developed his ideas o f sexual sym bo­
lism. He formulated what was to becom e almost a science in its
ow n right, the idea o f dream interpretation, and subsequently
discarded the use o f hypnosis entirely to pursue the method

20
 What Hypnosis Was
know n as free association. Nevertheless, he maintained that i f
psychotherapy was ever to become w idely available to the
public, the use o f hypnosis as a short-cut procedure w ould be
essential.
Throughout their w ork, Breuer continued to support C har­
cot in his theory that hypnosis was a form o f hysteria, but his far-
seeing observation eventually led Freud to believe that this was
not the w hole truth o f the matter. Freud compared the hypnotic
state w ith that o f being in love. Hypnosis, he said, is a very
particular form o f loving relationship.
So popular was the use o f hypnosis at this time, that when, in
1900 the Russian composer, Sergei Rachm aninov, became
depressed and unable to concentrate on his music, he sought
help through the use o f hypnosis. His condition had occurred as
a result o f learning o f some adverse criticism o f one o f his works.
D aily, he attended at the consulting rooms o f a successful
physician in M oscow , D r N ikolai Dahl. He was treated by
hypnosis and given suggestions for relaxation and for relief o f
his mental ‘block’ . A t the appropriate time these suggestions
w ere follow ed by positive feelings o f w ell-being and confi­
dence. His coping abilities and pow ers o f concentration in­
creased and soon after he composed one o f his greatest
masterpieces, w hich he dedicated to the doctor. This was the
Piano Concerto N o. 2 in C M inor.
The rejection o f hypnosis by Freud was nevertheless a serious
setback to its use, particularly to research on the subject and to
further understanding o f its meaning. Apart from its occasional
em ploym ent for the treatment o f ‘shell shock’ during the tw o
W orld Wars, hypnosis was abandoned for the m ore fashionable
and less evocative technique o f psychoanalysis, whilst orthodox
psychiatry, assisted by the enormous contributions in research
by the pharmaceutical industry, developed extensive physical
and chemical methods o f treatment.
In retrospect, however, what was disappointing was that the
man w ho opened the road to exploration o f the mind by the use
o f hypnosis, w ho veritably laid the foundation stone and built
the edifice o f the new science o f psychoanalysis, and w ho
invented a new language by w hich it could be described,

21
 Hypnosis
rejected the enormous potential w hich set him on his course.
Freud was eventually forced to leave Austria in 1938 by H itler’ s
invading armies and m any o f his case notes and publications
were destroyed. He died in London a year later at the age o f
eighty-three.

A Child-parent Relationship
Sandor Ferenczi, born in H ungary in 1873, was a w orker o f
renow n and distinction in the developm ent o f the practice o f
psychoanalysis and contributed considerably to the view s
expressed by Freud. He agreed w ith him, too, that the state o f
hypnosis was similar to being in love. But he maintained that
this was m ore in the nature o f the relationship o f child to parent.
The patient trusted the hypnotist, he did w hat he was bid and his
attitude was one o f blind faith based on both love and fear, said
Ferenczi. The therapist must have the prestige and authority o f
the all-pow erful father so far as the patient was concerned. In
Ferenczi’ s view , therefore, the patient must trust the hypnotist
as a child has im plicit trust in his father. Additionally, in the
Freudian sense, the patient must have a deeply em otional liking
for the doctor w hom he can trust.
The weakness o f this theory, how ever, is that just as the child
does not autom atically obey his father, the patient in hypnosis
w ill not necessarily obey blindly any suggestion that is made to
him.
B y the time o f his death in 1933 Ferenczi had been acclaimed
one o f the greatest w orkers in the field o f psychoanalysis. But as
w ith all the theories so far expounded, he had failed to explain
the true nature o f the hypnotic state.

A Conditioned Response
The significance o f suggestion and the psychoanalytic theories
o f Freud w hich emerged all-pow erful into the twentieth
century, were met w ith considerable resistance b y a dominating
figure whose ideas revolutionized psychological thinking
throughout the w orld.

22
 What Hypnosis Was
Ivan Petrovic P avlo v (1849—1936) was a great Russian
physiologist. Th rough his brilliant animal experiments he
showed how habits, reactions and responses in humans are
form ed from our earliest days, to establish our behaviour in our
every w alk o f life, unless or until new habits are learned. The son
o f a clergym an o f peasant stock, young Ivan attended theolog­
ical college and then continued his studies in science at the
U niversity o f St Petersburg w here he was to become one o f the
w o rld ’ s most brilliant researchers. He developed an interest in
the physiology o f digestion, and from 1902 until his death he
worked on the functions o f the brain. For his achievements, he
was awarded a N obel prize in 1907 and in 19 13 became the
D irector o f the Institute o f St Petersburg.
In his investigations, P avlo v cut the salivary ducts (the tubes
w hich convey the saliva to the mouth) in the cheeks o f dogs. He
was then able to attach a tube to the cut end o f the duct in each
dog and divert the saliva to a receptacle. In this w ay he could
measure the drops o f saliva w hich flowed each time the animal
was given food. O n each occasion the givin g o f the food was
preceded b y the ringing o f a bell. In time, the same num ber o f
drops o f saliva w ere produced by the sound o f the bell alone,
without the accom panying food. He called this a conditioned
reflex and he found that this w ould eventually die out or
become extinguished i f the bell was continuously sounded
w ithout the presentation o f food to the animal. The reaction
could be strengthened or reinforced b y giving food again. It was
also found that this type o f conditioning could be extended to
numerous other habit reactions.
So far as hypnosis was concerned, P avlov thought that this
too was a kind o f conditioned response in w hich the suggestions
given by the therapist could produce certain changes in the
physical and psychological w orkings o f the mind. He felt that
the cortical or higher centres o f the brain— that is, those centres
w hich w ere m ore recent in evolution, the civilizing and critical
centres— w ere inhibited or dampened dow n b y the words o f
the hypnotist, allow ing the m ore prim itive, less inhibited parts
o f the brain to become dominant. These prim itive centres are
m ore susceptible to suggestion, and i f the same w ords are

23
 Hypnosis
repeated on each occasion, then a conditioned response to these
w ords w ould be established. This particular response could be
the state w e kn ow as hypnosis. Nevertheless, he still maintained
that this was a particular form o f sleep.
In his researches, P avlo v had also demonstrated how even a
very m inor stimulus could result in a particular and similar
response on each occasion. This w ould account for the reason
that a patient could go into hypnosis at a signal, a w ord or, say, a
tap on the shoulder, having previously been conditioned so to
do. There is no doubt that in hypnosis, conditioning does take
place: conditioning to close the eyes at a certain signal,
conditioning to achieve complete physical relaxation, con­
ditioning to allow mental calm, and conditioning to respond to
certain other signals in a specific manner— but, overall, a
conditioning which has only been achieved by the absolute and
trusting and w illing compliance o f the subject.

Some Contemporary Theories o f Hypnosis

A Goal-directed Striving
In 1 941 R o b ert W hite o f Harvard U niversity, in an article in the
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, stated that ‘hypnotic behaviour
is meaningful, goal-directed striving, its most general goal
being to behave like a hypnotized person as this is continuously
defined by the operator and understood by the subject’.
He stressed the importance o f m otivation— that is, that the
subject must want to be hypnotized. He concluded that a w ell-
intentioned patient w ith a good relationship w ith the therapist
w ill allow him self to play the role expected o f him and one
w hich has been repeatedly explained to him b y the latter. Thus
he hears and understands perfectly and tries to behave in the
different w ays suggested to him.
This striving is well illustrated by W hite in his paper, in the
exam ple which he gives o f the state know n as catalepsy. This is a
condition in w hich the body and the limbs remain rigidly in
w hatever position they have been placed. For example, the
operator m ay instruct the subject to extend his arm and w ill
then go on to suggest that the limb has become so rigid that it is

24
Another random document with
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hundreds of miles over hills and mountains. Here and there are
villagers, it is true, mostly Karens, in Lower Burma, who cultivate
only small areas; but only one year in a place, making a new clearing
each year to avoid the work of digging or plowing, and then they let
the last year’s clearing grow up to forest again, which it quickly does.
There is room for a vast population to make an easy living in the
hills of Burma alone. If those fertile hills were in America, they would
be all occupied as cattle and horse ranches, if not cultivated.
Wherever the forest is thinned or cut away, a great luxuriant growth
of grass and bamboos springs up, on which cattle feed and flourish.
They can get plenty of grazing the year round in these hills, and
there would always be a ready market for beef and for bullocks for
plowing.
Among the many natural resources of Burma, there are two that
require careful attention. Here we find one of the greatest rice-
growing countries of the world. Here also are vast forests of the
famous teak wood, that is used so extensively for ship-building and
other structures.
Rice-growing is the one line of cultivation that characterizes the
land of Burma. In India there are greater rice fields, because the rice
lands are more extensive. But in India they cultivate other crops, and
this even on the rice land. In India they frequently, if not generally,
grow two or more crops on the same land in one year, or different
crops on adjacent land at the same season. But the Burman grows
one crop only, and that is uniformly rice. He is a rice-grower and a
rice-eater. In the plains there is no other grain grown that is generally
used for human food. There is a little Indian corn cultivated, but not
in sufficient amount to break the force of this general statement.
The rice fields of Burma amount to over six million acres. There
are often as many as one hundred bushels of unhusked rice grown
on an acre. Of course, the average yield is far below this amount. Yet
the aggregate rice crop is enormous. It feeds all Burma, and there
are vast quantities shipped to India, China, Europe, and South
America. No year since I have been in Burma has there been
insufficient rice for her people. If rice of a different variety comes to
Burma for the immigrants that are used to the Indian article, there is
also much Burma rice shipped annually to various ports in India.
A word should be added as to rice cultivation. Perhaps all
readers are aware that rice is grown usually in water, though there is
some dry cultivation. The land is inclosed in very small fields,
averaging less than one acre, but often not more than one-tenth of
that area. There are embankments round all these fields, and
several inches of water are kept always on the ground. Sometimes
the water is a foot deep. So long as the rice can have a very little of
the upper blade out of the water it will flourish. The ground is stirred
with a wooden rake like a plow when it is covered with water. The
mud is made very fine, and as deep as this mode of cultivation, will
stir it. The rice has been sown in nurseries, and when from a foot to
fifteen inches high it is pulled up, bound into bundles of
approximately one hundred plants each, and taken, usually in boats,
to the prepared field, where it is all transplanted by hand. Often the
root is divided, so that from one grain there come to be grown
several bunches of rice. In appearance a rice field looks very much
like a field of oats. The reader will hardly be prepared to believe that
it takes nearly twice as long to mature a rice crop under a tropical
sun, as it does to grow a field of oats in the northern latitudes,
especially in America. The rice is sown in the nursery in May or
June, and the ripened grain is not harvested before the last of
December or in January. It is all cut with a sickle. I have never seen
any one harvesting with any other instrument in Southern Asia. The
grain is always threshed under the feet of cattle, and winnowed by
hand. An American sees hundreds of ways wherein this crop could
be grown more economically, and some missionary will yet introduce
modern methods successfully. The missionary is the only man likely
to succeed in such a task.
When speaking of the great food-producing industries of Burma,
that of fishing should have special prominence. Burma has a vast
area of swamps submerged every rainy season, and these are
classed as “fisheries,” and a very large revenue is secured from the
sale of the fish. The fisherman makes an excellent living, and the
people almost universally are able to eat fish with their rice. So long
has this been the case that no Burman considers that he has been
well fed unless he has fish of some sort with rice every day. Then he
shares the characteristic of all Asiatics in desiring much condiment
with his rice. He therefore takes the fish, which is of fine flavor and
excellent quality when fresh, and rots it, and mixes with it peppers
and other spices until it suits his taste and smell, and then feasts!
Other less Burmanized people declare that his “gnape,” as he calls
this preparation, is simply very rotten fish.
The teak-wood forests, before mentioned, are among the most
valuable in the world. This famous wood will not shrink under the
most intense sun’s rays, nor will it expand when wet with the rain. It
does not warp, and has a smooth grain and works easily. In the
tropics, when used for building purposes, it is not eaten by white
ants, which destroy almost all other building material in hot countries.
The Government has taken hold of this industry, and protects the
trees from fires, regulates the cutting, and does all it can to maintain
and extend these exceedingly valuable forests. The cutting of the
trees, their transport to the sea, and conversion into lumber is one of
the greatest organized industries in the country. The amount of
money required to carry on this business in the process of cutting the
timber from the stump, hundreds of miles inland, gathering it out of
the forests, carrying it in rafts to the seaports, and putting it through
the great sawmills, to the final disposal to the European and other
purchasers, is enormous. The time element is a large one. It takes
years to get these logs through the process. I have often desired to
know just how long this timber has been waiting or is in transit from
the time it was felled. This at least must be several years, for the
logs often show signs of hard usage through a long period. They are
sometimes cracked and worn as if decades old.
 The Elephant at Work

It is in this timber industry that the elephants of Burma are very

useful. All travelers visiting Burma have at least seen the elephant at
work in the mills of Rangoon. They drag the great logs from the river,
place them in position to be guided to the saws, drag away the slabs
and squared lumber, pile all these in orderly heaps ready for further
handling, and manipulate the logs and ropes and their own chains in
a marvelous way. They go in and out of the mills with every part of
the great machinery running, and never make a false motion to
tramp on a carriage, become entangled in the belting, or allow a
whirling saw to touch their precious skins. Why a great beast with
such strength, joined to such intelligence and self-possession, will
submit to the feeble and often stupid man who sits on his neck, and
work for man at all, is a marvel. But the transient visitor only sees the
elephant working in the mills. This is only a small part of his task. He
does all the heavy dragging of the logs to get them to the river from
the forest where they are grown. This is often over the most difficult
ground. He will go into a thicket where no other beast can go, where
a horse or an ox could not climb at all, or if he did, would be perfectly
useless for work. But the elephant goes into these worst places and
drags the logs over fallen trees, bowlders, and through mud, not
being dismayed by muddy ditches or rocky steeps.
It is no wonder that the Government protects the herds of wild
elephants. But sometimes they invade the rice fields in great
numbers. When they do, the destruction is so great that the officials
give license to go and shoot them. Sometimes the hunters succeed
in killing a few. If they are males, the tusks are very valuable. The
feet are also skinned, including the leg, sole of the feet, and the
nails, and when so prepared are often used as waste-paper baskets,
and are regarded as great curiosities.
Burma has great ruby mines; but as these stones are not of so
much value as formerly, the mining is not to be considered as
constituting a great industry. But the oil fields of Burma are very
valuable, and it is supposed that the industry is as yet only in its
early beginning. It is said that the company that owns the chief
refinery, and many of the oil fields, will not sell any part of the stock
they hold, and that they are getting rich rapidly.
It will be seen from the foregoing facts that Burma is a great land
in itself. It belongs to the Indian Empire, and it is the richest province
in the whole country. It pays all its own expenses, which are heavy,
and gives largely to the deficit of other provinces. As a field for
mission work, there is none more promising so far as natural
conditions are concerned.
 CHAPTER V
The City of Rangoon

R ANGOON may not perhaps be rated as a great, but it is an

important, city. The population of Rangoon numbers above two
hundred thousand, without the usual thickly-inhabited suburbs. It is a
seaport third in importance in Southern Asia. Calcutta and Bombay
are the only cities that surpass it. The capital of the province of
Burma, it is the center of official life. Being situated so near the sea,
only twenty miles inland, and having the best of harbors and every
connection with the interior, both by rail and river, its importance as a
trading center is very great. Compared to other Indian cities, it is
more important than many with a greater population, while it is
doubtful if any city in all the seacoasts of Southern Asia is of equal
importance in proportion to its population. Then, it has the advantage
of being a newly-planned city. As such it has straight streets,
crossing at right angles for the most part, like Western cities of the
modern plan. However, this admirable arrangement has been of far
less advantage than it would have been, because the blocks are too
narrow to be utilized to the best advantage. This blunder has,
unhappily, been perpetuated in the great new addition that has been
made on the eastward of the city. It would seem that experience in
this matter would have taught the municipality better things; but like
other things Oriental, I suppose, they found it very difficult to get
adapted to anything new. As the beginning was made that way, the
end must be the same. But in the one fact that the streets are
straight and at right angles, there is an advantage that is not found in
any other Oriental city. The streets are kept well paved, and the
general improvements are progressive, except in two very important
particulars. They still use poor kerosene in inferior lamps for street
lighting. Ten years ago I went to the municipal engineer, and asked
him if it was not feasible to light the city with electricity, instead of the
obsolete methods then, as now, in vogue. He said: “Yes, it might be;
but we are not so enterprising as you in America. We will wait ten
years, and see if a new thing works well before we adopt it.” The ten
years are passed, and still the smoky old lamps send out their
indifferent light and obnoxious odors—too many of which befoul any
Oriental city—because the municipal authorities have not yet found
out that electric lighting is a success. This is being written in
America, where most little towns of one or two thousand population
are being well lighted with electricity, while over the sea the great city
of Rangoon, with two hundred thousand inhabitants and large
revenues, can not yet venture on this modern system of lighting its
streets.
There is, also, a lamentable backwardness in the matter of street
railways. There is a poorly-built and poorly-kept street railway run by
steam. But there is little comfort in the car service, and the motive
power is antiquated steam engines. The street railway, such as it is,
is not extended to such limits as it should be. Were the streets
lighted with electric-lights and a system of electric cars adequate to
the city and suburbs running, these public improvements would be in
keeping with what Rangoon is in the matter of trade.
There is only one other city in Burma of nearly the same number
of inhabitants as Rangoon, and that is Mandalay, the capital of
Upper Burma. This city was the capital of independent Burma in
modern times. When the British annexed Upper Burma in 1886, they
projected the railway to the city of Mandalay, and as it already had
steamer connection with Lower Burma, its many advantages as a
distributing center maintained its continued growth. While it has a
population nearly equal to Rangoon, it has nothing else to be
compared with the latter city.
There is a very great contrast between the two cities in the
matter of racial population. While Mandalay has some immigrants
from other lands, like other cities and towns of Burma, the city as a
whole is distinctly Burman. Rangoon, on the other hand, is so foreign
in its makeup that it can not be called a Burmese city. Relatively, very
few Burmans live in the main part of the city. Here you find many
peoples of India. There are wide areas of the city given over to the
Tamils, Telegus, Bengalis, Gujaratties, and Chinese; while yet other
Indian people are found in this Indian community to the exclusion of
the Burmese. The Burmese live chiefly at both ends of the city of
Rangoon, where there is much trading in rice and other dealings of a
Burmese character. The Burmese have given way before the
immigrants of India, largely because they are an independent and
proud race, and will not do the work commonly done by the coolies
and servants about the city. They look upon the immigrant from India
as an inferior, and they will not allow themselves to be his competitor
for the more menial services and work of the city. The Burmese,
therefore, collect chiefly where they have occupation congenial to
their tastes. It is significant that the Burman will work at almost
anything, where the Madrassis and other Indian people are not
working alongside of him. But where there may be constant
contrasts or comparisons in inferior positions, he will not condescend
to go. So he gives way to the native as indicated, not from necessity,
but from choice.
Rangoon is a great trade center. The two greatest industries are
that of the lumber trade and the traffic in rice. The lumber
manufacture and sale has had previous mention. I will only add that
immense sawmills line the river front at frequent intervals, and the
logs lie in the river in great rafts, or in heaps on land. There are
perhaps scores of elephants at work in connection with these mills.
The rice mills are conducted on a very large scale. The plan is
common to make advances to brokers, who go out and loan money
on the growing crop and agree to take the rice, which in the husk is
called “paddy,” at harvest time, at a given rate per hundred baskets.
The basket holds about a bushel. Usually the price ranges about one
hundred rupees for a hundred baskets, though often the rice is a
fourth above or a fourth below this amount. The rupee is equal to
thirty cents. As the price of rice is impossible of calculation so many
months in advance of harvest, the millers who advance the money to
the brokers, who are usually Burmans, and the brokers who advance
the money to the cultivators agreeing to take “paddy” at a given rate
at harvest, and the cultivators, all base their calculations upon
guesses usually wrong, the whole system has much of the elements
of gambling, like the dealing in futures on an American Board of
Trade. The rice is husked and cleaned in these great mills, and sold
to buyers from abroad, or in the local markets for food. Often the
cleaned rice is sent to Europe, and converted into some kind of
intoxicants, and comes back to curse the land out of which it grew. It
is noteworthy that most of these greater business enterprises that
call for great organization are managed by Europeans. But there are
many merchants in wholesale or retail business that are of all races.
The Chinamen are busy traders, and will doubtless have a more
controlling voice in the affairs of business as time goes forward.
Of all the trade in the country, there are two features that are a
source of unmixed evil—the trade in opium, and the trade in liquor. It
is true that the Government tries to keep the opium trade under very
severe regulations; but it is always a failure to try to regulate that
which itself feeds upon vice. The amount of liquor brought into
Burma is something enormous. It is true that there are more people
that do not drink than formerly, and those that still drink are less
given to excessive drunkenness than in earlier years; yet there are
more people in the land, and there are more of the natives,
particularly Burmese, that are using intoxicants, in imitation of
Europeans, and therefore the quantity of liquor brought to the
country to supply this demand is greater than ever before. The ship
that our party went on to Rangoon carried three missionaries and
three hundred tons of liquor. I have no doubt this would not be above
the average cargo for steamers plying between European ports and
Burma. It is astonishing how this liquor has entered into ordinary
trade. Most of the great importing houses deal in liquors. Most of the
retail houses likewise. So it becomes difficult for a young man who is
hostile to the whole liquor business to get work in any of the retail
“shops,” as they are called, without staining his hands in this unholy
traffic. One of the great reforms on the temperance questions in the
East will be to develop a sentiment antagonistic to the traffic, until
liquor-selling can not be countenanced as a respectable business.
 The New Public Offices, Rangoon

Rangoon has several good public buildings, the greatest of these

being the Government House, the residence of his honor the
lieutenant-governor, and the great secretariat building, which is
situated on grounds reserved for its use, in the center of the city. The
latter building has been completed only about five years, and when
newly occupied was considerably shaken by the heavy earthquake,
which shook Rangoon and vicinity. But the damage done has been
repaired, and the great building adorns the city and serves the
purpose for which it was erected. There is also the elegant Jubilee
Hall erected in honor of Queen Victoria’s illustrious reign.
Rangoon is divided into two distinct parts. The one is on the flat
land adjoining the river, and extending a third of a mile back, and
some four miles in length. This includes most of the business portion
and all the crowded districts of the city. Here many thousands of
people literally swarm by day, and sleep twenty in a single room at
night. This portion of the city is called “The Town.” It is almost always
very dirty, except when washed by heavy rains. Here are still seen
old buildings of every sort. However, these are disappearing more
rapidly than one would anticipate, from the fact that they were
originally all constructed of wood, and during the dry weather there
have been frequent friendly fires of late years, and the town is by this
means relieved of a good many unsightly structures. Henceforth
there are to be no wooden buildings erected in the center of the city.
During the rains we are treated to a curious effect of the
excessive moisture of the climate. Many of the old houses have
been roofed by clay tiling. When this tiling is not frequently turned,
the spores of certain weeds, which have gathered on the tiles as the
rains increase and the clouds settle down in unbroken shadows over
the land, spring up and grow to the height of two feet or more,
growing as thick as grass in a meadow. This makes a house a very
curious-looking object. A human habitation or church grown all over
with weeds! When the clouds break away and the sun comes out,
these weeds dry to a crisp.
Any student of a people, and most of all a missionary, is early
attracted by the religious life of men. Of the many races that mix, but
do not blend, in the population of Rangoon, each brings his own
religion from the land of his birth. Each holds to his own faith with the
greatest persistency, as a rule. Men will have dealings together on all
subjects, except in religion. Here they differ widely, and they
generally do not compromise their religious convictions or
observance. Sometimes their dispositions to each other are that of
covert hostility. But generally they get on in outward peace, but do
not think of becoming proselytes to any other religion. The religious
rites at the shrines are kept up faithfully. The great religious feasts
are observed with much pomp. The social customs that are
connected with each religion are seldom broken. So living side by
side are adherents of every religion under the sun.
In the center of Dalhousie Street in Rangoon is a large pagoda,
a shrine of the Buddhists, with its gilded conical shape rising far
above all other buildings in the vicinity, while from its umbrella-like
top there goes out on the tropical air the sweet sound of bells that
hang on the rim of the umbrella. Just across the street from this
pagoda is a mosque where the Mohammedan business men and
passers-by go five times a day to pray. Two blocks east from these is
a Hindu temple, and three or four blocks west is a Chinese temple,
where their religious rites are observed, consisting mostly of
offerings to devils. These temples are only samples. I understand
there are a score of mosques in Rangoon. The number of Hindu
temples I do not know, while there are pagodas in every quarter.
There are various Chinese temples also. Throughout the city are
now found several Christian Churches. Here the gospel light is held
up to dispel the soul-darkening counsels of the Christless faiths. At a
glance at these sacred places and religious rites it will be seen that
the conflict between religious ideas and practices is general, and
probably will become world-wide. The Europeans that go to that
country must represent the Christian religion, or deteriorate
religiously. The non-Christians must stand by their own, or in time
they too will become modified. This is wholly independent of the
aggressive battle that the missionary would wage against all these
non-Christian religious systems. It is a significant fact that the
missionaries who are in the midst of the religious life, so opposed to
all they hold dear in faith and practice, have unbounded confidence
in the final triumph of the gospel in leavening the present-day pagan
faiths, as it did those of the New Testament times. I have yet to meet
a hopeless missionary. This note of the hopeful conquering
missionary force is an inbreathing of the Spirit of our Lord, who from
his throne sends forth his heralds.
One fact will show how intense is the religious faith among some
of the Asiatics. The Mohammedans and the Hindus are often very
hostile to each other. If it were not for the hand of the English
Government in India, this hostility would be almost continually
breaking out into open violence in some parts of the country. As it is,
it is not seldom that religious riots occur. In 1894, during a
Mohammedan feast, in which they are accustomed to sacrifice a
cow, the Mohammedans were determined to slaughter the animal
not far from a business house of a rich Hindu, on whose premises
there was also a private temple. As the Hindus worship the cow, and
as the killing of such an animal, especially in religious services, is an
abomination to them, they were naturally much incensed, and the
Mohammedans probably meant that they should be. In this case the
Mohammedans seemed to be the aggressors throughout. The
fanatical antagonism was growing dangerous. The authorities were
watching the movements of these two parties, the Mohammedans
giving most concern. Several days went by, and the feeling was at
fever heat. Sunday came, and as I rode to church with my family in
the early morning, I saw on every street companies of
Mohammedans carrying clubs faced with irons, hurrying toward the
center of the town where their greatest mosque is, and near which
they meant to sacrifice the cow. Just as I concluded the morning
service, I heard the sound of distant firing. In a few moments a
Mohammedan ran by the church, with his face partly shot away. The
excitement in the city grew as the facts became known.

The Mosque, Rangoon

The deputy commissioner and other officers were present at the

center of the disturbance with a small company of Seik soldiers. The
mob grew to many thousands, and the officers commanded them to
disperse. This order they refused in derisive language. Then blank
cartridges were fired to frighten the multitude, and still they refused
to disperse. As there was nothing left to do, the troops were ordered
to fire into the crowd that thronged about the mosque. Some thirty or
more were shot, several being killed outright. This dispersed the
crowds, but there was rioting for days whenever Mohammedans
would find a Hindu away from his associates, or in unfrequented or
unprotected localities. Had it not been for these rigorous measures
of the authorities, the whole community would have been given over
to violence. As it was, the whole Mohammedan community was
doubly policed for six months, and the extra expense was put on to
the tax of that particular community. This was effective in keeping
order, and when the time had run its course, the Mohammedans
petitioned the local Government that if these extra police were taken
away, they would behave themselves, which they have done ever
since.
While “the Town” is such a center of life and strife, the suburbs
are a place of quiet, rest, cleanliness, and beauty unsurpassed. The
military cantonment is here, with perhaps nearly a mile square, laid
out in large blocks and roomy compounds, or yards. A rule has long
been in force in the cantonment, that there could only be one house
erected on a lot. Most of these lots contain from one to four acres.
This gives the room necessary to beautify the grounds, and to
secure pure air. The cantonment is now being curtailed, and
doubtless this admirable regulation may be modified. But as this land
rises a little higher than the town, and, being a little apart from it, it
will continue to be of great value for homes. The entire suburbs have
a fine growth of trees, many of them natural forest trees and others
ornamental, and planted for shade.
 Entrance of Sway Dagon Pagoda

The chief object of all the region, the great Pagoda, is situated
about the middle of this cantonment portion of the suburbs. But the
suburbs run far beyond the cantonment. It reaches on three sides of
this reserve, while the whole region to the northward is being
occupied and built upon. There is a fine grove of forest and fruit trees
extending most of the way to Insein, nine miles from Rangoon, and
nearly all the intermediate area is built up with fine residences of
Europeans, or rich natives. The homes out in the groves, and with
large fruit gardens, furnish the ideal place for rest and refreshment
after the work of the hot day in “the Town.” It is a fact that Europeans
who have lived for a while in this portion of the city of Rangoon seem
loath to leave it for any place. If they go back to Europe, they mostly
return again to Rangoon. Government House, a large palatial
building, the residence of the lieutenant-governor, is the central
attraction of all the fine residences of this region.
 There are three areas of great beauty reserved by the authorities
—the Zoological Gardens, the Cantonment Gardens, and the Royal
Lakes. All these reserves are beautiful with every variety of tree,
bush, and flower that grows in the tropics, and the grounds are laid
out with artistic care, and lakelets beautify the whole. But the “Royal
Lakes” are a series of natural and artificial water basins, all
connected and adorned with beautiful little islands and curved shore
lines. A portion of the inclosure is kept as a public park, and a
winding drive is maintained along the water’s edge, which gives an
ever-changing picture of tropical beauty. The effect of the palms, the
mangoes, and other shade and ornamental trees, toning down the
fierce glare of the sun, and these shades reflected from the clear
water on a tropical evening, is a blending of color that I have never
seen anywhere equaled. The world has many places of beauty, but
of those views I have seen nothing equals the “Royal Lakes” of
Rangoon for combinations of charming scenery in a limited area.
Evening and morning this drive is crowded with vehicles of every
type. Rangoonites of every race are out taking in the air and scenery.
Here in the evening may be seen hundreds of people dressed in the
coolest apparel, visiting and resting, while two or three evenings a
week the band entertains with music. It is no wonder that Rangoon
makes an attractive city for business and pleasure for any whose lot
is cast in this tropical land. The heat is never as intense as in Indian
cities, and always in the hottest weather it is modified with a sea-
breeze. In the long and heavy rains also the people seem to get no
harm from a frequent exposure.
Royal Lakes at Eventide, Rangoon
 CHAPTER VI
Europeans, Anglo-Indians, Eurasians

A LL people of foreign blood from western lands, and the

descendants of these, however remote or however little the
trace of Western blood they have, are in India technically called
“Europeans.” Before the law they have the rights of a trial by jury,
and in the school laws they are classed as “Europeans.” But it is far
more accurate to divide this class into three divisions—the pure
“Europeans,” the “Anglo-Indians,” and the “Eurasians.” By this
division the Europeans are people born and reared in Europe, or
America, who are now found in Southern Asia. The Anglo-Indians
are those people of mixed European blood who have been born and
reared in India. The Eurasian, as the name implies, is a man who
has both European and Asiatic blood. For the purposes of
comparison these may be named in two classes, the Western born
and bred man, the European, as distinguished from Eastern born
relatives, Anglo-Indians and Eurasians. I want it made very clear that
in discussing the characteristics and relations of these several
peoples, that I am not drawing invidious comparisons. I have no
sympathy whatever with asperities heaped upon men because of
their race; neither do I patronize any man because of his race. I long
ago concluded that character is not a matter of race; that lovable or
royal manhood is not a question of ancestry or position, but that
nearly all essential differences in men are due to environment and to
personal conduct, for which each man is responsible. But
comparisons not invidious must be made to bring out the various
features of social and business life that enter into the complex racial
intermingling of Southern Asia. At best this complexity of life can be
but partially understood by readers in America, who have never seen
anything quite like it.
 The characteristics of Europeans and Americans are well known
in the Western world. My subject calls for only those characteristics
which they hold in common, and these features of character as
modified by residence in the tropics and under the social conditions
of Asia. These characteristics are contrasted in a decided way, as
compared with any and all Asiatic trained men of any race or racial
mixture. These elements of character are most noticeable in the
energy that takes them to the tropics, their capacity to organize
business or government, and maintain a modern and systematic
organization of the highest efficiency, and that peculiar capacity for
just and progressive governmental domination. This energy and this
capacity for organization, which of course involves the power to work
out painstaking details, are characteristic of the Northern civilization,
and never found in the same degree, as far as I know, among any
peoples that have been bred in the tropics. It is a matter of great
importance in working out the simplest framework of a theory of
racial influence in the world to recognize the fact that all real
pioneering, all colossal accomplishments in all lands in modern
times, have been made by men bred in the colder countries of the
temperate zone. These are the men who forge the world forward in
their own native climes, and in the frigid zone, and also in the
scorching tropics. The tropical world presents no people who hold
their own with these exotics, even under their native skies. It is this
quality of the European that makes him the dominating man in India.
He creates and fosters government and business enterprises on a
large scale. As a man, the European is a mightier personal force
than Asia can produce.
That this energy is largely a result of climate and social
environment is very plain when we compare the Western man with
the characteristics of the descendants of Europeans who have had
only an Indian upbringing. And in all comparisons I will class the
Anglo-Indian and the Eurasian together, for so they belong. They
both follow the same habits of life, so far as style of living is
concerned, similar to that of the European resident in India. In these
respects they have much in common with all Europeans. They are all
classed together as compared with the native. But here the similarity
between the imported man and his Indian-bred relative comes to an
abrupt end. The driving and conquering energy of the Western man
is wanting in his relative of even one generation of Asiatic breeding.
It is clear that this difference, which all observing men recognize, is
purely due to environment of climate and social customs. They are
as bright in mind as the Western men. They are excellent students to
a certain point. They are specially facile letter-writers. But the line of
occupations which their Asiatic life and conditions fit them for, is very
limited indeed. The limitations of their lives are many. The most
depressing of all their conditions grows out of the fact that they from
infancy are dependent for the greater part of all life’s duties on the
native servant. The baby is nursed by a native ayah; his clothes are
kept in order for him by a servant. He is fed, clothed, and cared for
by half a dozen menials. His boots are blacked for him; his books
carried to school; his umbrella held over his head; his pony is
groomed, saddled, and led while he rides, by a servant whom he is
accustomed to command in everything. He is helped and coddled
out of all independence and self-helpfulness. In all this he is not to
be blamed, but pitied. In this he does as all his relatives and
neighbors do. His household and business methods, all that he sees,
is being done this way. Not one man of European descent in India
lives entirely by his own efforts, as is common in Western countries.
His dependence on menials is therefore a necessity of respectable
life, as he sees it. He is not to be blamed, for he sees nothing better
around him. But this admission does not require that we approve the
social conditions that unman him and rob him of much energy and
resourcefulness in the matter of self-help. It is a fact that he develops
a softness of character in matters of personal habit, and lacks in the
energy which is required only by long and sustained self-dependent
work. For this reason all the hardier traits of manhood are feebly
developed, or lacking. You do not find these men entering callings
where hard service is required. They do not make either soldiers or
sailors. Some of them become engineers, but they are only found in
places where the work is largely done by native helpers, and even
here few of them compete with the Scotch or German engineer.
But the difference wrought by social conditions is seen more in
matters of disposition than elsewhere. No race of the human family
can boast of good dispositions. However, we do find that Indian-born