Dr. C., a known psychoanalyst, on whom I carried on a series of experiments, goes into a deep somnambulistic state. He is an excellent visualizer and takes readily visual hallucinations. Being a physician and psychiatrist the subject’s account is all the more valuable. Now Dr. C. describes his hypnotic hallucinations as “mental pictures,” as “auditory memories,” which “lack exteriority, are not located in space.” He aptly characterizes his hallucinations, visual, auditory, and others, as “fixed ideas.”
Mr. M. goes into deep hypnosis. When in one of the deep trance-states a suggestion is given to him that on awakening he shall see a watch. When awake he claims he sees a watch. He was asked: “Do you really see it?” He replied, “Yes.” The interesting point here was the fact that the subject did not even look in the direction where the suggested hallucinatory watch was supposed to be placed and where he himself claimed that the watch was located. When tested by automatic writing[259] the hand wrote: “Yes, I see the watch.” The subconscious then was also under the influence of the suggested hallucination. It is well to bear in mind this point.
Re-hypnotized, and suggested that on awakening he would see two watches. One was a real silver watch and the other was suggested hallucinatory. The subject claimed he saw both, but he only handled the hallucinatory one, and when asked which of the two he would prefer he pointed to the hallucinatory watch. When asked why, he replied that the suggested watch was bigger. He was really indifferent to the chosen watch and paid no further attention to it, as if it did not exist for him. He tried to please the master hypnotizer of whom he was subconsciously in awe.
He was again put into the hypnotic state and was suggested to see a flower. On awakening he claimed he saw a flower and smelled it in an indifferent, perfunctory fashion. The subconscious was then tested by automatic writing and the writing was to the effect that he saw it. “I see a flower.” The subconscious then had also the same hallucination. A series of similar experiments was carried out with the same results. The subconscious claimed in automatic writing that the suggested hallucination was real.
The subject was again put into hypnosis and was given the suggestion that he would see a watch[260] on awakening, but here I made some modification. “When you wake up you will be sure to see a watch,” I said, emphatically. “Look here; I want you to write what you really see and not what you do not see.” When awake he saw a watch, but he immediately wrote: “I do not see anything.” Here the subconscious disclaimed the suggested hallucinations which it had claimed and insisted on before.
Re-hypnotized, and was given the suggestion that on awakening he would see three watches. He was awakened and a real silver watch was put before him; the other two were suggested hallucinatory. He claimed he saw all three. Meanwhile, in automatic writing he wrote: “One silver watch, real, the others golden, not real; nothing there.” A series of similar experiments was made and with the same results. The automatic writing disclaimed the hallucinations, although before, under the same conditions, it most emphatically insisted on their reality.
The subject was put into hypnosis and a post-hypnotic suggestion was given to him that he would see his wife and child. When awake, he began to smile. When asked why he smiled he said: “I see my wife and child”; but he wrote “I see nobody.” When put again in hypnosis he still continued to smile and said: “I see my wife and child”; but he wrote (in hypnotic state): “I really do not see them; I see nothing; I see my child, but I really[261] see nothing.” That was when the psychopathic patient got the inkling that I wished to know the truth rather than to be misled by his sl............