Suggestion at a distance: theory, practice and philosophy

SHUBRALOV E.A.

SUGGESTION AT A DISTANCE:

THEORY, PRACTICE AND PHILOSOPHY

UDC 159.9.072.422 BBK 88.6 B87 ISSN 2222-0453 99016

SHUBRALOV E.A. SUGGESTION AT A DISTANCE: THEORY, PRACTICE AND PHILOSOPHY / Evgeniy Anatolyevich Shubralov, Moscow, IP Shubralovo E.A., 2024, 282 p. It is published as an appendix to the almanac "Ochevidnoe – Neveroyatnoe".

Table of contents

INTRODUCTION 3

THE CLASSICAL DEFINITION OF SUGGESTION 4

–– V.M. BEKHTEREV

–– DEFINITION OF SUGGESTION 4

–– SUGGESTION AND PERSUASION 12

–– SUGGESTION IN HYPNOSIS 16

–– SUGGESTION IN THE WAKING STATE 20

–– THE MEANING OF FAITH 28

–– INVOLUNTARY SUGGESTION AND MUTUAL SUGGESTION 33

–– MASS ILLUSIONS AND HALLUCINATIONS 40

–– STEREOTYPICAL DECEPTIONS OF FEELINGS AND SELF-SUGGESTION 48

–– CONVULSIVE EPIDEMICS IN HISTORY 51

–– IS IT A MENTAL SUGGESTION OR A TRICK? 57

––L.L. VASILIEV

–– BASIC CONCEPTS OF SUGGESTION AT A DISTANCE 61

–– CASES TAKEN AS SUGGESTION 78

–– EXPERIMENTAL SUGGESTION AT A DISTANCE 97

–– COMPARISON WITH THE RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS 117

–– SEARCHES THE BEST CONDITIONS FOR EXPERIMENTS 126

–– TELEPATHIC COMMUNICATION 144

–– TELEPATHIC TALENT 157

–– PHYSIOLOGY OF SUGGESTION AT A DISTANCE 175

–– BIOLOGICAL TELECOMMUNICATION IN ANIMALS 189

–– THE ELECTROMAGNETIC HYPOTHESIS OF SUGGESTION 202

–– EXPERIMENTS AT A VERY LONG DISTANCE 216

–– POSSIBLE PRACTICAL APPLICATION 232

––E.A. SHUBRALOV

DEFINITION OF SUGGESTION AT A DISTANCE 245

ANALYSIS OF A CLASSICAL SUGGESTION SESSION 275

THE HYPOTHESIS OF THE AUTOGENIC NATURE OF SUGGESTION 277

FORMATION OF A METHODOLOGY BASED ON HYPOTHESIS 279

TRAINING OF SUGGESTION SKILLS AT A DISTANCE 282

The phenomena of telepathy cannot be questioned. Not only has a huge amount of relevant factual material accumulated, but almost every family member who has lived will not refuse to report personally experienced telepathic phenomena. An attempt to explain them from a scientific point of view is honorable.

K. E. Tsiolkovsky

Introduction

I was prompted to write this work by the results of more than twenty–five years of research in the field of suggestion and, in particular, the main question of philosophy, in relation to suggestion – what is primary in the phenomenon of suggestion – the reaction of the suggestible or the reaction of the suggestive?

The materials of this book in terms of describing the nature of the phenomenon of suggestion are mostly borrowed from the book by V.M. Bekhterev "Suggestion and its role in public life", with the author's comments related to the phenomenon of suggestion in reality without the use of any suggestion techniques in a state of hypnosis.

The materials of this book regarding the description and research of the phenomenon of suggestion at a distance are mostly borrowed from L.L. Vasiliev's book "Suggestion at a distance".

The materials of the practical part of this book are the quintessence of the results of the author's own research with comments and explanations.

All interested readers can continue practical training in the skills of suggestion in reality at seminars conducted by the author. You can sign up for such seminars, as well as ask questions or make suggestions by e-mail [email protected]

THE CLASSIC DEFINITION OF SUGGESTION

It is obvious that the essence of suggestion lies not in one or another of its external features, but in the special attitude of the suggested to the "I" of the subject during the perception of suggestion and its implementation.

Generally speaking, suggestion is one of the ways in which some persons influence others, which is performed intentionally or unintentionally by the influencing person and which can occur either unnoticed by the person being suggested, or even with his knowledge and consent.

To clarify the essence of suggestion, we must keep in mind that our perception can be active and passive. In the first case, the "I" of the subject necessarily participates, which directs attention, in accordance with the course of our thinking and the surrounding conditions, to certain external impressions. The latter, entering the psychic sphere with the participation of volitional attention and assimilated through reflection and reflection, become the property of personal consciousness or our "I".

This kind of perception, leading to the enrichment of our personal consciousness, underlies our views and beliefs, since the further result of active perception is the work of our thoughts, leading to the development of more or less solid beliefs. The latter, entering into the content of our personal consciousness, can temporarily hide in the so-called subconscious sphere or in the sphere of general consciousness, but in such a way that every minute, at the will of the "I", they can be revived again by reproducing the experienced ideas.

But in addition to active perception, we perceive much of the surrounding world passively, without any participation of our "I", when our attention is occupied with something, for example, when focusing on a thought, or when our attention, due to one reason or another, is weakened, as is observed, for example, in a state of distraction.

In both cases, the object of perception does not enter the sphere of personal consciousness, but penetrates into those areas of our soul that we can call general consciousness. This latter is to a certain extent independent of personal consciousness, so that everything that enters the sphere of general consciousness cannot be arbitrarily introduced into the sphere of personal consciousness by us. Nevertheless, under certain conditions, the products of general consciousness can and do enter the sphere of personal consciousness, and the source of their initial origin is not always even recognized by personal consciousness.

A number of heterogeneous impressions entering the psychic sphere during passive perception without any participation of attention and penetrating directly into the sphere of general consciousness, in addition to our "I", form those elusive for ourselves effects of the surrounding world that affect our well-being, often giving it one or another sensual tone, and which are the basis unclear motives and motives, which we often experience in both cases.

The sphere of general consciousness generally plays a special role in the mental sphere of each person. Sometimes an impression, perceived passively, then enters, thanks to an accidental concatenation of ideas, into the sphere of personal consciousness in the form of a mental i, the novelty of which amazes us. In some cases, this i, taking plastic forms, arises in the form of a special inner voice resembling an obsession, or even in the form of a dream or a real hallucination, the origin of which usually lies in the sphere of products of the general consciousness. When personal consciousness weakens, as we observe in dreams or in deep hypnosis, then the work of general consciousness is put on the stage of consciousness, completely disregarding either the views or the conditions of activity of personal consciousness, as a result of which in dreams, as in deep hypnosis, everything seems possible that we cannot even and imagine it in the sphere of personal consciousness.

Thus, in order to clarify the method of suggestion, it is necessary to keep in mind the division of our mental sphere into personal and general consciousness. Personal consciousness, or the so-called "I", through the agency of will and attention, reveals a significant influence on our perception of external impressions; it also regulates the flow of our ideas and determines the performance of our arbitrary actions. Everything that enters the sphere of mental activity through the medium of personal consciousness is usually subjected to more or less criticism and processing by us, leading to the development of our views and beliefs.

This path of environmental influence on our mental sphere can be called the path of "logical persuasion", since the end result of the mentioned processing is always a conviction in us: "we are convinced of the truth, we are convinced of the benefits, we are convinced of the inevitability of one or the other," is what we can internally say to ourselves after the aforementioned processing of external impressions, perceived through our personal consciousness, has taken place in us. But regardless of that, as we have already said, heterogeneous impressions can enter our mental sphere in the absence of any attention to them, in other words, in a state of distraction, when volitional attention is absorbed by some kind of work. In this case, external impressions enter the psychic sphere in addition to our personal consciousness and, therefore, in addition to our "I". They penetrate into our psychic sphere no longer from the front door, but, so to speak, from the back porch leading directly to the inner chambers of our soul. This is what we call suggestion.

Thus, suggestion is the direct inoculation of certain mental states from one person to another. In other words, suggestion is nothing more than the intrusion into consciousness or the instilling of an extraneous idea into it without direct direct participation in this act of the "I" of the subject, as a result of which the latter in most cases is either completely or almost powerless to reject it and expel it from the sphere of consciousness, even if it is aware of its absurdity. Penetrating into consciousness without the active participation of the "I" of the subject, suggestion remains outside the sphere of personal consciousness, due to which all its further consequences occur without the control of the "I" and without a corresponding delay. Due to this, suggestion leads to the appearance of one or another obsession, to the realization of positive and negative hallucinations, or causes the development of psychologically conditioned convulsions, contracture, paralysis, etc.

There is hardly any possibility to doubt that suggestion refers precisely to the order of those effects on the mental sphere that occur in addition to our "I" and penetrate directly into the sphere of general consciousness. If it is necessary to define suggestion in a few words, then I must repeat here what I said already in the first edition of my pamphlet – "The role of suggestion in public life" (St. Petersburg, 1898):

"Suggestion boils down to the direct inoculation of certain mental states from one person to another— inoculation that occurs without the participation of the will (and attention) of the perceiving person and often even without clear consciousness on his part."

It is clear that this definition contains a significant difference between suggestion as a method of direct mental influence of one person on another from persuasion, which is always carried out only through attention and logical thinking and with the participation of personal consciousness.

Everything that enters the sphere of personal consciousness comes into relation with our "I", and since everything in personal consciousness is in strict accordance and combination with the "I" of the subject, a combination that serves as an expression of the unity of personality, it is obvious that everything entering the sphere of personal consciousness must be subjected to appropriate criticism and processing by the "I".

But it is also obvious that in addition to this method of influence acting on another person through personal consciousness, there is another method of influence in the form of suggestion acting on the mental sphere by directly instilling mental states, that is, ideas, feelings and sensations and without requiring the participation of personal consciousness and logic.

It is obvious that suggestion, unlike persuasion, penetrates into the psychic sphere in addition to personal consciousness, entering directly into the sphere of general consciousness without special processing and strengthening here, like any object of passive perception in general.

When, by suggestion, a person develops a cramp in the arm or, conversely, the arm is completely paralyzed, the question is, what determines the implementation of this suggestion? Obviously, nothing else but the direct penetration of the suggested idea into the sphere of general consciousness, which is not coordinated with the "I" of the subject, as a result of which the latter has no power over this suggestion and cannot counteract it.

But what prevents the "I" with its volitional attention from allowing suggestion to penetrate into the general consciousness? Why does it not introduce him, under the specified conditions, into the sphere of personal consciousness?

Because the will is either paralyzed by faith in the power of suggestion, or the subject cannot focus volitional attention on suggestion; therefore, it enters the sphere of general, not personal consciousness, thereby giving full scope to automatism.

Thus, if by suggestion we understood any direct influence on a person in general besides his "I" or personal consciousness, then we could identify this form of influence on us by environmental conditions with a form of passive perception that occurs without any participation of the "I" of the subject.

But by suggestion it is usually accepted to understand the effect of not all environmental conditions in general, but the effect of one person on another, which occurs through passive perception, that is, in addition to the participation of personal consciousness or the "I" of the subject, in contrast to another kind of influence, which always occurs through active attention with the participation of personal consciousness and consists in a logical a belief that leads to the development of certain views.

Lowenfeld, among other things, insists on the difference in the definitions of the process of suggestion itself (suggeriren) from its result, known as suggestion proper. It goes without saying that these are two different processes that should not be confused with each other. But, in our opinion, only such a definition can be recognized as the most appropriate and more correct, which embraces both the very method of influence characteristic of the process of suggestion and the result of this influence.

The fact is that suggestion is characterized not only by the process itself or the method of influencing the mental sphere, but also by the result of this influence. Therefore, in the word "suggest" we mean not only a special way of influencing this or that person, but also the possible result of this influence, and, on the other hand, in the word "suggestion" we mean not only the known result achieved in the mental sphere of this person, but also to a certain extent the way in which which led to this result.

As it was previously clarified, the concept of suggestion primarily contains an element of immediacy of influence. Whether the suggestion will be made by an outsider through a word or influence, or it will be made through some kind of impression or action, that is, whether we have a verbal or concrete suggestion, everywhere it does not affect by logical persuasion, but directly affects the mental sphere, in addition to the sphere of personal consciousness, or at least, without processing on the part of the "I" of the subject, due to which there is a real instillation of an idea, feeling, emotion, or one or another psychophysical state.

Similarly, those states that are known as autosuggestion and which do not require extraneous influences usually arise directly in the psychic sphere, when, for example, one or another idea has penetrated into consciousness as something ready, in the form of a thought that suddenly appeared and struck consciousness, in the form of a dream, in the form of a seen example etc .

In all these cases, mental influences that arise in addition to outside interference are also grafted onto the mental sphere directly bypassing the critical and self-aware "I" or what we call personal consciousness.

Thus, to inspire means to more or less directly inculcate ideas, feelings, emotions and other psychophysical states to the mental sphere of another person, in other words, to influence in such a way that, if possible, there is no place for criticism and judgment; by suggestion, one should understand the direct inculcation of ideas, feelings, emotions and others to the mental sphere of this person psychophysical states, in addition to his "I", that is, bypassing his self-aware and critical personality.

SUGGESTION AND PERSUASION

From the above it is obvious that suggestion and persuasion are the two main forms of influence of one person on another. Although among the methods of psychic influence of some persons on others, in addition to persuasion and suggestion, we can also distinguish between command and example, as well as advice, wishes, etc., but there is no doubt that to a certain extent both command and example act exactly like suggestion and cannot even be distinguished from it; otherwise, as an order, as well as an example, acting on a person's mind, can be quite likened to a logical conviction. So the order acts primarily by the power of fear for the possible consequences of disobedience through the consciousness of the need to comply, by virtue of the reasonableness of obedience in this case, etc. In this regard, the order acts like a conviction.

But regardless of that, the command acts at least in certain cases and directly on the psychic sphere, as a suggestion. The best example of the influence of an order as a suggestion is the command. The latter is undoubtedly a form of command, and who does not know that the command acts not only by force of fear for disobedience, but also by suggestion or instilling a certain idea. On the other hand, an example, in addition to its influence on the mind through persuasion of the usefulness of one or the other, can also act like a mental infection, in other words, by suggestion, as a completely involuntary and unaccountable imitation.

Who does not know the contagious effect of public executions? Who does not know the contagious effect of suicide?

Everyone knows, finally, the transmission of convulsive painful forms by direct imitation.

Thus, both command and example act in some cases by persuasion, in other cases by suggestion; most often they act simultaneously as both persuasion and suggestion. Because of this, they cannot be considered as independent ways of influencing some people on others, like persuasion and suggestion.

Similarly, advice, wishes, as well as other forms of mental influence of some persons on others can also act on the psyche either in the form of suggestion or in the form of persuasion, depending on the attitude of the person to whom they are expressed.

So, it is obvious that while verbal persuasion usually acts on another person by the power of its logic and immutable evidence, suggestion acts by directly instilling mental states, that is, ideas, feelings and sensations, without requiring any evidence at all and without needing logic. It acts directly and directly on the mental sphere of another person through an order or persuasion, through fascinating and excited speech, through gestures and facial expressions.

It is easy to see from here that the ways to convey mental states through suggestion are much more numerous and diverse than the ways to convey thoughts through persuasion. That is why suggestion is generally a more common factor than persuasion.

The latter can act primarily on persons with sound and strong logic, whereas suggestion acts not only on persons with sound logic, but even more so on persons with insufficient logic, such as children and commoners.

Undoubtedly, therefore, the suggestion or inculcation of mental states plays a particularly prominent role in our education, at least until the logical apparatus of the child reaches a certain degree of its development, allowing him to assimilate logical conclusions no less than the finished products of the mental work of others, assimilated through so-called mechanical memorization and imitation, in which suggestion, or mental inoculation by caregivers and others plays a significant role.

Similarly, in the ordinary class of the population, suggestion, or inoculation of ideas, plays an important role as a factor that significantly affects the worldview of individuals and even entire societies.

Anyone who has treated the people knows this well from his own experience and knows the value of logical beliefs, which, if successful, are only by slowly assimilating them, whereas suggestion in the form of persuasion or command almost always acts quickly and correctly here, of course, if they do not contradict the ingrained beliefs of the people.

The influence of the command in the troops, as we have already mentioned, is also mainly reduced to suggestion, which acts stronger than any persuasion. But even on intelligent people with well-developed logic, suggestion acts in certain cases hardly less strongly than on children and commoners, at least in such cases when it does not contradict the established worldview.

If suggestion, as it was clarified above, is nothing more than the influence of one person on another by directly instilling ideas, feelings, emotions and other psychophysical states without the participation of the personal consciousness of the person being suggested, then it is obvious that it can manifest itself most easily when it penetrates the mental sphere imperceptibly, insinuatingly, in the absence of resistance on the part of the "I" of the subject, or at least with the passive attitude of the latter towards the object of suggestion, or when it immediately suppresses the psychic "I", eliminating all resistance on the part of the latter. Experience really confirms this, since suggestion can be introduced into the psychic sphere either little by little through constant statements of the same kind and persuasion, or immediately like an imperative order.

SUGGESTION IN HYPNOSIS

Although all of the above defines the subject itself quite accurately, nevertheless it should be mentioned that we could not form a clear idea about the effect of suggestion and the spread of mental infection or contagion until the conditions necessary for the implementation of suggestion and the spread of mental infection were more closely clarified.

We were able to find out these conditions only later, along with the development of the doctrine of intentional suggestion produced in hypnosis. Just as the spread of physical infection was so recently dominated by the most vague ideas until it became possible to produce pure cultures of microbes and with their help to produce artificial inoculations of diseases, so in the matter of suggestion and mental infection there were many the most confused and unclear ideas until it became possible to study more closely conditions for the inoculation of certain mental states with the help of intentional suggestion.

Experience shows that for the most part such intentional inoculation of certain mental states succeeds best in a special state of consciousness, which we call hypnosis and which, in my opinion, is nothing more than a modification of ordinary sleep caused by certain techniques. See V.Bekhterev. Hypnosis and its significance as a medical remedy. Nervous diseases in individual observations, 1894; The therapeutic value of hypnosis. St. Petersburg, 1900.

As you know, the most diverse suggestions are easily successful in hypnosis. However, the question of whether we can inspire in hypnosis everything that we wish, still remains to be fully clarified. According to some authors, there are no boundaries at all for suggestion, others, on the contrary, hold the view that in hypnosis only what corresponds to the mental nature of a person can be suggested. Practically, the question boils down mainly to the possibility of suggesting certain crimes, and some authors were inclined to assert that a hypnotist is able to perform any crime under the influence of suggestion, whereas other authors saw in these statements only a simple fascination with laboratory crimes committed in hypnosis, rightly noting that the hypnotist is not completely devoid of consciousness and therefore when he is inspired by this or that crime, he is well aware that this crime is not a serious matter, that it is really only an imaginary crime and that all this is done only to test him and therefore he carries it out without much resistance, as an innocent joke.

As for me, guided by my experience, I do not take the side of those authors who attribute to suggestion in hypnosis the role of an all-powerful factor that can make anything out of a hypnotist. The power of his suggestion in this, as in other cases, undoubtedly depends not only on the ability to inspire and support suggestion, but also on the soil on which suggestion acts, in other words, on the mental nature of the person being subjected to suggestion. Thus, the mental resistance to suggestion produced in hypnosis largely depends both on the greater or lesser depth of hypnosis, and on the extent to which this suggestion is in conflict with the ideas, inclinations and beliefs of the person being subjected to suggestion. In the absence of such a contradiction, suggestion acts strongly and faithfully; on the contrary, when meeting with a strong nature holding opposite views, suggestion may be powerless.

But does this diminish the importance of suggestion as an important mental factor? Not at all. After all, there are not many people with strong character and persistent ideas. And there are few people who are so morally ill-mannered that they do not commit certain crimes, for example, against morality and property, only because of fear of responsibility before the law. Is it not enough, therefore, in one way or another, to lull them into this fear by hypnosis and instill faith in the possibility of avoiding responsibility before the law, while at the same time strengthening in their imagination the beneficial consequences of a crime in order to persuade them to commit this crime, which under other conditions they would never have done?

But we would digress very far if we were to elaborate on this issue in detail. Therefore, without touching on the more purely practical side of the question of the meaning of hypnotic crimes, we will note here that hypnosis is of deep interest to us not only from the practical side, but also with regard to studying the question of the most favorable conditions of suggestion. What really explains the fact that hypnosis is good at suggestion? One can think that hypnosis, as a state close to or akin to normal sleep, in itself already constitutes a favorable condition for suggestion. But experience shows us that the degree of suggestibility does not always go hand in hand with the depth of sleep. There are very deep degrees of hypnosis, such as the lethargic phase of Charcot, which are completely inaccessible to suggestion. On the contrary, in other cases, already weak degrees of hypnosis are characterized by extraordinary suggestibility.

It is also known that ordinary sleep for the most part does not constitute a favorable condition for suggestion, although in some states of natural sleep there are conditions as favorable for suggestion as in hypnosis.

Hence it is clear that the degree of suggestibility is determined not by hypnosis or sleep itself, but by that special state of consciousness or mental activity that we have in hypnosis, and sometimes in ordinary sleep.

These conditions, which favor suggestion in hypnosis, consist in the fact that with a change in normal consciousness, expressed by a greater or lesser falling asleep of the "I" and not excluding communication with the outside world, or at least not excluding communication with the hypnotist, the suggestions produced by the latter enter the mental sphere directly and independently of the personal consciousness of the hypnotized subject in other words, besides his "I". Anchored in those depths of the soul that have often been called and are called unconscious or subconscious and which are more correctly called the sphere of general consciousness, these suggestions subsequently enter by themselves into the sphere of personal consciousness and, without being recognized as extraneous suggestions, since their primary source for personal consciousness remains hidden, subjugate personal consciousness more or less to a significant extent.

Thus, the whole essence of hypnotic suggestions lies in the fact that the hypnotized person experiences a special state of passivity, which is why suggestions act on him in such an overwhelming way.

However, there is no doubt that the state of passivity is only one of the most favorable conditions for the introduction of suggestion into the unconscious sphere. It is only a suitable environment for suggestion, eliminating to a greater or lesser extent the interference of personal consciousness. Since, however, this state of passivity does not go hand in hand with the depth of sleep, but also depends to a large extent on individual conditions, it is obvious from here that the degree of susceptibility to suggestions is not in direct relation to the depth of hypnosis.

SUGGESTION IN THE WAKING STATE

Experience further shows that there are persons for whom the waking state of consciousness is almost as favorable a condition for suggestion as hypnosis. In such persons, any suggestion at all is possible even in a completely awake state, therefore, with the presence of will. In short, in these individuals, suggestions can be made in the waking state as easily and simply as in others in a state of hypnosis.

For the validity of suggestion, nothing is required from such a person except that he listens and does not resist. If he begins to counteract suggestion, it is enough to strengthen the latter, and if this is not enough, then it is only necessary to suggest that resistance is impossible, and the suggestion opens up full scope.

The whole peculiarity of these people boils down to the fact that they allow an extraneous idea to invade their consciousness passively, without interfering with their "I" in the essence and criticism of this idea, in other words, letting it into their consciousness without active attention, just as a person perceives something in distraction.

Everyone knows that, being distracted and inattentive, we can give answers to questions that are completely unsuitable for us; we can admit what we would undoubtedly reject if we treated the question with attention, often we do not even know that this question was asked to us, in other words, we have a real amnesia. On the other hand, when distracting attention, we often do not notice our feelings, we can even drown out sharp painful sensations. In other cases, we experience unaccountable longing or mental pain for no apparent reason, or one or another motive may be imposed on us, one or another idea may be instilled in us, etc

. In short, in a state of distraction, when our "I" is busy with something or distracted in a certain direction, we we get a state favorable to suggestion, as a result of which, being introduced into the psychic sphere, it penetrates into it in addition to the "I" or, at least, without its active participation and cannot be subjected to appropriate criticism and processing.

Thus, there is no doubt that a facilitated susceptibility to suggestions is sometimes observed in a normal mental state. But the bottom line is that in this case, the suggested persons in relation to the suggestions made, believing in their magical power, are unable to detect any mental resistance and obey them completely passively.

Due to this, suggestions easily enter their mental sphere in addition to their "I", more precisely, in addition to their personal consciousness, therefore they are grafted directly, so to speak, into the very depths of the mental sphere, in addition to any participation of the will and act as irresistibly on the subject as suggestions produced in hypnosis.

It goes without saying that in this kind of person, suggestion in the waking state can be used for treatment as easily as suggestions produced in hypnosis.

The following case may serve as an example of the validity of such suggestions produced in the waking state.

In the autumn of 1896, we admitted to the clinic a young man who suffered from severe convulsive hysterical attacks and complete paralysis of the lower extremities, which developed in one of the hysterical attacks.

This paralysis lasted for more than 1.5 months, not yielding to any therapeutic methods at all, and thus threatened to turn into those chronic paralysis that last for years, not yielding to cure.

But during the examination of this patient, together with the doctors of the clinic, his eyes were closed and then, by suggestion, he was immediately completely cured of paralysis and began to walk in hypnosis. When he was woken up, he was surprised to find that he was standing on his feet and could walk freely.

The patient was delighted to go to his room himself and amazed all those who had seen him in a wheelchair in a state of complete paralysis of the lower extremities a few minutes before.

Since then, the patient had only hysterical epileptic seizures, which happened to the patient quite often and often lasted for a very long time, if they were not stopped in time by appropriate suggestions.

Before demonstrating the patient at a lecture in front of students, I examined him again and made sure that suggestions can be freely made to him in a waking state. Immediately, he was impressed with the cessation of convulsive seizures and his recovery.

The suggestion had such an effect on the patient that he completely recovered and the seizures stopped.

The next day, at a lecture, a patient in a completely awake state could be inspired with a variety of convulsions, contractures, paralysis, illusions and hallucinations, in short, anything.

I asked the patient many times how he could explain to himself the effect of suggestion in reality, but he only expressed surprise along with other people present. Over time, however, this patient developed two or three more mild hysterical seizures under the influence of special occasions, but these were only isolated seizures, which then, after new suggestions, were no longer repeated.

In another case, the typesetter, who suffered from clear signs of lead poisoning, had, along with right-sided hemianesthesia and pain in the left side of the head, hemichorrhea on the right side of the body, especially pronounced in the right arm. The patient had to constantly hold this hand with his left hand, as it greatly disturbed him with constant convulsive movements, which were even more intensified with every agitation and examination. The patient, being an insolvent person, had been without any work for many months, being in the full sense a helpless person. But it was enough to convince him once, without resorting to hypnosis, that his convulsions had stopped and he could use his hand freely again, and it turned out that the convulsions immediately disappeared completely. Since then, the patient could at any time cause a convulsion at will, thanks to a simple suggestion, and also simply destroy it. It turned out to be possible to do the same with his pain and with hemianesthesia, which disappeared at a word of suggestion and could be recalled in a waking state any number of times. Upon recovery, this subject reproduced all his painful disorders under the influence of suggestion, among other things, both at a lecture to students and at the same lecture he was freed from them.

Needless to say, we had in the clinic and in its outpatient clinic many other patients who, in their waking state, also easily carry out various suggestions, such as illusions, hallucinations, etc., and who, with these suggestions in their waking state, were easily cured of various nervous seizures. Usually, every year in the lectures I give on hypnosis, I demonstrate a number of patients with excellent suggestibility in a waking state.

The above examples, the likes of which could be cited in many ways, leave no doubt that suggestions in the waking state in certain cases can be just as easily implemented and just as valid as suggestions in the state of hypnosis. But even in cases where there is no such suggestibility in the waking state, there is often no significant need for sleep to influence suggestion. All that is needed is faith in the power of the suggestion being made and complete concentration of thought on the content of this suggestion is possible, in other words, it is necessary for the subject to surrender to the action of this suggestion completely. When the doctor reaches these conditions in a waking state, then he can freely dispense with hypnotic sleep during suggestion treatment, which in some cases even interferes with suggestion, if, for example, the patient, believing in the magical power of only suggestions produced in hypnosis, does not fall asleep deeply enough.

Thus, for suggestion, in essence, no sleep is needed, even no subordination of the will of the person being suggested is needed, everything can remain as usual, and nevertheless suggestion, entering the psychic sphere in addition to personal consciousness, or the so-called "I", acts on the latter as if magically, subordinating him to the suggested idea.

To prove this truth, there is no need to even turn to one or another pathological example, since we can learn similar and no less vivid examples outside clinics. It is known what magical power the conspiracies of healers have in some cases, which immediately stop bleeding, and the healing value of the so-called sympathetic remedies, which were so readily resorted to, especially in the old days, with the strong spread of faith in these remedies, is no less well known. The well-known healing value of the royal hand, the magical effect of bread pills, the treatment with yellow and red electricity by Matthew, the once famous treatment of Baron V. in St. Petersburg with simple Neva water and other indifferent means, the magic word of Abbot Faria, who healed the sick with one command, the treatment of paralytic patients with one zouave, known in Paris, is based on this suggestion in the waking state., who used only imperative suggestion for this purpose , etc .

One of the good examples of suggestion in the waking state, produced on a mass of people at the same time, are the famous sessions of Mesmerism during the glory period of its founder Mesmer. The latter arranged a special tub, around which more than thirty persons were simultaneously magnetized. The patients, having placed themselves around the tub in several rows and holding on to movable rubber handles, connected with each other with a rope around the torso or connected with each other with their hands. Then the patients remained waiting. During these sessions, complete silence was observed, but the sounds of a harmonica, a piano, or the singing of a human voice were usually heard from the next room. The phenomena that were observed in patients and which were explained by special magnetic currents, according to the description of an eyewitness of the Bailiff, were as follows: "Some patients are completely calm and do not experience anything, others cough, spit, feel slight pain, local or general warmth and sweat; others agitate and fall into convulsions, unusual in their numbers, duration and strength; sometimes these convulsions last for more than three hours and are characterized by involuntary jerky movements of all members, the whole body, spasms of the throat, tremors of the ilium and epiglottis, blurred and wandering eyes, piercing screams, tears, hiccups and uncontrollable laughter. They are preceded or followed by a state of fatigue or drowsiness, a special kind of exhaustion, and even sleep.

At the slightest unexpected sound, the patients shuddered, and any change in tone or tempo in playing the piano affected them to the point that some later more intense movement acted in a stunning way and resumed the intensified convulsions.

However, there were also such subjects who, trying to suppress this state in themselves, turned to each other, chatted affectedly, laughed, thanks to which they naturally managed to prevent a crisis. Those who submitted entirely to the magnetizer quickly succumbed to an imaginary sleep, his voice, gesture and even look brought them to themselves.

In view of the constancy of such phenomena, it is impossible to refrain from recognizing the powerful force that dominates the sick and, as it were, emanating from the magnetizer. This convulsive state is called a crisis. It has been noticed that of the patients who fall into crisis, most are women, few are men. It has also been noticed that the crisis occurs within one or two hours and that, having appeared in one, it then gradually, after a short time, is revealed in all the others." Similar examples are possible today. Binet and Fere. Animal magnetism. St. Petersburg, 1890, pp. 15 and 16. So, more recently in Berlin, the authorities were greatly concerned about the spread of occultism, which was expressed, among other things, in peculiar methods of healing. According to the newspapers, two Englishwomen, English teachers, set up a kind of clinic in a Berlin women's lyceum, in which patients were treated without medication with mysterious spells alone. These spells seemed to direct the healing influence of some secret forces on the patient, and even the unbelieving patients recovered. By the way, a lot of ladies of high Berlin society believed in the mysterious gift of the mentioned Englishwomen. Their success was extraordinary both in terms of fame and money.

THE MEANING OF FAITH

Faith in general plays an extraordinary role as a factor contributing to suggestion. One of the clearest examples of such an influence of faith is the recent exploits in America of the German emigrant Schlater, who, starting as a shoemaker in Danver, imagined that his vocation was to enlighten the whole of America with the gospel teaching. Since then, he closes his trade and, turning into a wanderer, pretends to be the messiah and heals many by laying on his hand. Soon, the rumor of the miracles he performed led to crowds of adherents following him, in front of whom miraculous healings were performed. Many patients began to flock to him, eager for his hand, so that he no longer had time to satisfy everyone who sought his help.

To borrow a description of one scene made by a reporter and characterizing in vivid strokes the influence of the Actor on the crowd: "Men, women and children with the stamp of mental suffering on their faces were visible from all sides; every minute the crowd increased, and soon the whole area represented a sea of heads, as far as one could cover with a glance. Then a sudden movement passed through the assembly, and even the slightest whisper died away… Schlater came. As I approached him, I was overcome by a supernatural fear that was difficult to analyze. My faith in this man grew in spite of my reason. The waking, controlling, thinking, reasoning self began to waver, lose its strength, and the reflexive, encouraging self began to strengthen. When he let go of my hands, my soul recognized some kind of power in this man, which my mind and my brain apparently resisted. When he opened my hands, I felt that I could fall on my knees in front of him and call him the lord." B. Sidis. Psychology of suggestion. p. 302.

The actor enjoyed special fame in the state of Colorado. Then he went to Mexico, after which he soon disappeared, and no one knew what had become of him. His followers claimed that he had gone to other countries to preach, others that he had ascended to heaven. Taking advantage of this, his imitators, false Hatters, began to appear here and there.

In the end, the skeleton of a real Hatter was found quite accidentally under a tree by two Sierra Madre researchers 50 miles from casas grandes in the province of Chiguaguay.

This striking example, taken from the life of modern society, shows us with all the vividness what the effect of suggestion can be in the waking state, provided blind faith in the power of the influence produced.

The well-known healing influence of faith, to which, among other things, the studies of N. Tuke, Regnard, Littre, Banrneville, Charcot (La foie, qui guerit), and others are devoted, has been pronounced here with all vividness. Among other things, faith is such a favorable ground for autosuggestion that it often performs miraculous cures in this way even where ordinary suggestion proves powerless. In this regard, the example of Schlater makes clear to us many of those sudden healings during religious inspiration that were already known in ancient times (for example, in the Egyptian temples of Serapis or in the temples of Asclepius of ancient Greece), which happened at all times and which are still repeated today. The healings that took place at the beginning of our era, as well as during the Middle Ages (healings at the grave of Louis IX, in the Basilica of St. Denis, etc.), later the so—called Saint-Medard phenomena, are especially well known.

For the sake of illustration, I will cite here a case of miraculous healing that happened several years ago in St. Petersburg.

The boy G. suffered from paralysis of hysterical origin, the nature of which, unfortunately, remained unrecognized by a well-known psychiatrist in St. Petersburg, who recognized him as incurable. The paralyzed boy remained helpless for many years, when suddenly one day in a dream he saw the face of the Mother of God, who ordered him to worship the holy icon, located in the chapel along the Shlisselburg Highway near the Glass Factory and known for being struck by lightning in 1888. everything inside the chapel was destroyed, but only the i of the Mother of God was preserved, and her face turned out to be dotted with copper coins from the national team of the people's circle in the form of a crown. Upon waking up, G. persistently began to ask himself to be taken to the said icon and, when his wish was fulfilled, it turned out that already during the prayer service he was able to stand on his feet and from then on began to walk.

An equally instructive case occurred several years ago in Moscow with a private associate professor D., who was diagnosed by a well-known specialist with an incurable skin disease on his head in the form of sycosis. It turned out that it was enough for him to heal that an old woman took him to church and prayed with him there.

Even earlier, in Moscow, there was a case of miraculous healing of blindness, obviously of a hysterical nature, with one touch to an i that was in a silver robe, as a result of which, during the period of the then fascination with metallotherapy, some doctors tended to explain this case by the action of metal, whereas it was most simply explained by the influence of faith. We still see the healing influence of the latter at the confluence of worshippers, such as in France in Lourdes, in Ireland in M. Unfortunately, we have in Kiev and other places, especially on certain solemn occasions, for example during large religious festivals, when the religious enthusiasm of the flocking people reaches an extraordinary degree.

But is not the influence of faith more or less revealed in relation to the doctor who approaches the patient's bed? Everyone knows what a magical healing effect one comforting word from a doctor can acquire and, conversely, how sometimes the harsh cold verdict of a doctor who does not know or does not want to know the power of suggestion has a deadly effect on a patient in the literal sense of the word.

How many patients, turning to a doctor for the treatment of their toothache, must admit already in the doctor's waiting room that their help becomes unnecessary due to the fact that the toothache disappeared even before the patient could see his doctor.

It should be noted, however, that not all people blindly believe in the power of one or another doctor in relation to their disease, and therefore the mental influence of a doctor on his patients is not the same.

INVOLUNTARY SUGGESTION AND MUTUAL SUGGESTION

In general, it must be admitted that, since most people cannot restrain themselves from involuntary resistance to extraneous mental influences, it is natural that the effect of suggestion in the waking state to a more or less pronounced degree is not possible for everyone. In order to carry out suggestion in these cases, it is precisely the preparatory environment mentioned above that is needed, which eliminates involuntary resistance on the part of the person being subjected to suggestion.

Nevertheless, in everyday life we often encounter the effect of involuntary suggestion produced by the natural communication of one person with another.

This suggestion occurs unnoticed by the person on whom it acts, and therefore usually does not cause any resistance on his part. True, it rarely acts immediately, more often slowly, but it is surely strengthened in the mental sphere.

To clarify this fact with an example, I will remind you here what a magical effect on everyone is produced, for example, by the appearance of one cheerful gentleman in a bored society. Everyone immediately involuntarily, without noticing it themselves, becomes infected with his fun, cheers up their spirits, and society turns from boring, monotonous into very cheerful and lively.

In turn, the revival of society has an infectious effect on the person who brought this revival, which makes his spiritual tone even more uplifting.

Here is one of the many examples of the effect of involuntary suggestion or the natural inoculation of mental states from one person to another.

Since in this case we are talking about the mutual mental influence of one person on others and vice versa, it is most correct to call this condition involuntary mutual suggestion.

At the same time, it should be borne in mind that the effect of involuntary suggestion and mutual suggestion is much broader than one might think from the very beginning.

It is not limited only to certain more or less exceptional persons, like intentional suggestion produced in the waking state, and also does not require any special unusual conditions for itself, like suggestion produced in hypnosis, but acts on everyone and everyone under all possible conditions.

It goes without saying that with regard to the involuntary inoculation of mental states, there are great differences between individuals in the sense that some, as more impressionable, more passive and therefore more trusting natures, are more easily amenable to involuntary mental suggestion, while others are less; but the difference between individuals exists only quantitative, not qualitative, in other words, it consists only in the degree of susceptibility to unintentional or involuntary suggestion from others, but no more.

Involuntary suggestion and mutual suggestion, thus, as we understand it, is a more or less universal phenomenon.

However, the question arises, in what way can the ideas and mental states of others be instilled in us and subordinate us to their influence? There is every reason to think that this inoculation takes place exclusively through the senses.

The question of mental influence at a distance from one person to another has been repeatedly raised in science, but all attempts to prove this method of transmitting thoughts at a distance more or less irrevocably collapse as soon as it is subjected to experimental verification, and at present no strictly verified fact can be given that I would speak in favor of the real existence of telepathic transmission of mental states.

Therefore, without denying in principle the further development of the above-mentioned question, we must admit that the supposed similar transmission of thoughts by some in the present state of our knowledge is completely unproven.

Thus, discarding any assumption about the possibility of telepathic transmission of ideas at a distance, we are forced to dwell on the idea that the inoculation of mental states from one person to another can be transmitted in the same ways as the influence of one person on another is transmitted in general, that is, through the senses.

There can hardly be any doubt that the main transmitter of suggestion from one person to another is the organ of hearing, since verbal suggestion is, generally speaking, the most widespread and, apparently, the most valid.

But there is no doubt that other organs, especially vision, can also serve as intermediaries in the transmission of suggestion. Not to mention the influence of facial expressions and gestures, I will only point out the fact that very few people can see a yawn so as not to yawn themselves; similarly, the sight of a lemon being eaten involuntarily causes lips to clench and excessive salivation.

There is a well-known anecdote that an entire orchestra was stopped this way by one spectator, who engaged in eating a lemon in front of the musicians.

All these are examples of visual suggestion, which, as it is easy to see, works in certain cases no less correctly than auditory suggestion.

Examples can also be given of the transmission of suggestion through the tactile and muscular senses. Everyone knows that mutual handshaking is often a very effective means of conveying emotional feelings and sympathy between close people.

Further, there is an example that one medical student experienced great fear at the thought that he had cut off his finger with a scalpel, whereas in fact only the blunt back of the scalpel slipped over his finger.

Another example of suggestion by means of a tactile organ is the well-known story about a criminal sentenced to death, who, with his eyes closed, was told that one of the veins had been opened and that his blood was constantly flowing.

After a few minutes, he turned out to be dead, despite the fact that instead of blood, warm water was flowing through his body.

As for suggestion by means of a muscular sense, it has been studied repeatedly on hysterics in Salle-Petriere, and it turned out that in certain cases suggestion can be performed very successfully in this way. It is enough for a hysterical patient in hypnosis to fold her hands, as they fold when praying, and immediately her face assumes an expression of supplication. If in another case you fold her right hand into a fist, then her face takes on an expression of threat.

It is obvious, therefore, that the muscular sense, generally very little adapted for the communication of individuals, makes it possible to transmit suggestions.

In general, it must be recognized that various sense organs can serve as transmitters of suggestion, not excluding touch and muscle sense, but it goes without saying that organs such as hearing and vision, as the devices most adapted for communicating people with each other, are the most important organs through which suggestions are most often and most accurately transmitted.

In fact, involuntary suggestion and mutual suggestion, being a universal phenomenon, operates everywhere and everywhere in our daily lives. Without noticing it ourselves, we acquire to a certain extent feelings, superstitions, prejudices, inclinations, thoughts and even character traits from those around us, whom we most often treat. Such inoculation of mental states occurs mutually between persons living together, in other words, each person in one way or another inoculates another feature of his mental nature and, conversely, accepts certain mental traits from it. Consequently, in the full sense of the word, there is a mental interchange between people living together, which responds not only to feelings, thoughts and actions, but even to the physical sphere, since the influence of mental activity can generally be reflected on it.

This influence especially affects facial expressions, which give a certain expression to the face and outline its features to a certain extent. This fact, among other things, explains to us the fact that, as has long been noted, there is in a significant number of cases a great similarity in the features of husband and wife, which obviously depends most of all on mental assimilation by mutual suggestion of both persons who are in cohabitation. In happy marriages, this similarity of facial features is apparently even more common than in the mass of all marriages in general.

But there is nothing more convincing in the sense of direct transmission of mental states from one person to another, as the transmission of pathological phenomena.

Everyone knows that a tantrum that has occurred in society can lead to a number of other tantrums; on the other hand, stuttering and other convulsive forms are easily transmitted to predisposed subjects quite directly, through involuntary and imperceptible inoculation or suggestion.

An excellent example of this is the following case, which occurred during the American mental epidemics known as the renaissance: "A gentleman and lady, well known in fashionable society, were attracted to a field meeting in Cave Ridge. On the way there, they made many contemptuous remarks about the poor, headless creatures lying screaming in the mud and jokingly promised to help each other if any of them got convulsions. They did not look long at the strange scene in front of them as the young woman lost consciousness and fell to the ground. Her companion, forgetting his promise, immediately left her and ran with all his might. But running didn't save him. Before he had gone 200 yards, he also fell in convulsions."

We have no less instructive cases in mass suicides and in the so-called cases of induced or, more precisely, vaccinated insanity (folie a deux). In both cases, we are talking about the effect of suggestion, thanks to which the infection of suicides occurs, on the one hand, and, on the other, the transmission of painful mental states from one person to another. There are examples when cases of vaccinated insanity, studied in detail by Lassegue'om and Falret, Legrand du Saulle'om, Schman'om, Regis, Marandon'om, Promier'om, Yakovenko, Agadranyants (from our clinic) and many others. others, were sometimes observed even in an entire family consisting of 4.5 and even 6 and 8 persons. These cases thus represent a real mental family epidemic.

Even healthy individuals sometimes assimilate the delusions of patients (Solder, Moreau, Morel, Baillarger, etc.).

It is also known that the best way to eliminate such a borrowed brand is to immediately disconnect the persons influencing each other.

MASS ILLUSIONS AND HALLUCINATIONS

In the above examples, there is no doubt about such pathological cases, which are particularly susceptible to mental influences from others. However, there is no doubt that in some cases the transmission of mental infection appears to be extremely facilitated even among perfectly healthy individuals.

Especially favorable conditions for such transmission are the ideas of the same kind prevailing in the minds of many people and the affects and moods of the same nature. Due to these conditions, illusions and hallucinations of an identical nature develop in many people at the same time.

These collective or mass hallucinations, which occur under certain conditions, represent one of the most interesting psychological phenomena. In almost every family chronicle, you can hear stories about the vision of deceased relatives by a whole group of people.

There is a well-known story about a cook on a ship who died unexpectedly, which amazed all the passengers of the ship. The usual naval funeral was performed in such cases, that is, the corpse was lowered into the sea, and in the evening of the same day many of the passengers saw the deceased cook walking behind the ship and hobbling on one leg. Needless to say, everyone was thrown into indescribable fear and that many passengers spent an anxious night.

The next morning, the matter was clarified. Instead of the cook, there was a stump of wood tied to the stern of the ship.

It is said that in the old days, when ships moved under sail and when they were caught in a calm under the tropics and had to stay in boundless space for a long time during the terrible heat, passengers sometimes developed mass illusions and hallucinations, while they often seemed to be near the earth with extremely beautiful views and picturesque outlines of the shores.

One of the interesting examples of mass illusions and hallucinations is, among other things, the case that happened to French military vessels in 1846. The frigate Belle-Poule and the corvette Berceau were caught in a terrible hurricane near the islands of the Compound. The first of them survived the hurricane safely, but lost sight of the corvette "Berceau" and, considering it useless to search for it in the open ocean, headed for a pre-arranged rendezvous point off the eastern coast of Madagascar, to the island of St. Mary. There was no corvette here, and all searches near the island were fruitless. Naturally, this was followed by a painful waiting period for the Belle-Poule crew. Every day brought more and more concern for the fate of the unfortunate corvette, whose crew consisted of 300 people. A whole month has passed in such agonizing expectation. Finally, one hot sunny afternoon, a signaller sitting on a mast noticed a ship without masts in the west near the shore. The entire crew fixed their eyes on the indicated point and made sure that the signaller's message was fair.

It goes without saying that this event excited everyone, and the excitement reached an even greater degree when everyone saw before them not a wrecked ship, but a raft filled with people and towed by sea boats, from which signals of death were given. This vision lasted for several hours, and with each passing minute, more and more horrifying details of this scene became clear. On the order of the commander, the Archimede cruiser standing in the raid was immediately sent to help the dead. The day was already coming to an end and the southern night was beginning to descend when the Archimede approached its destination. It should be noted that all this time the crew of the cruiser Archimede saw people dying on the raft; there were even cries for help, drowned out by the splash of oars. This amazing illusion was dispelled only when the boats launched from the cruiser approached an object that was mistaken for a raft with people and turned out to be a mass of huge trees torn from the shore, brought here by the current. At the same time, the hope of seeing the passengers of the wrecked ship "Berceau" was finally lost, and their very fate was covered with a thick darkness of uncertainty.

Needless to say, the influence of suggestion is evident in the development of this mass hallucination, so to speak. Undoubtedly, the disasters experienced at sea greatly aroused the nerves of the passengers of the cruiser Belle-Poule and Archimede, and anxiety and fear for the fate of the 300 companions who were on the Berceau contributed a lot to a well-known trend of minds. Naturally, everyone's thoughts focused on the assumption of the possible death of their unfortunate companions. All the conversations boiled down to the same topic. At such and such a time, the signaller notices a strange object with vague outlines on the horizon towards sunset, and under the influence of the thought of the wreck of the corvette, the i of the latter is recreated from his eyes. His mere words that a wrecked ship could be seen in the distance were enough to inspire everyone with the same illusion. Next comes the development of the same inspired illusion. When exchanging thoughts about a visible object, everyone agrees that it is not a wrecked ship, but a raft filled with people and towed by boats from which distress signals are heard. This general illusion and hallucination lasts until the boats sent crashed into the dense foliage of floating trees.

There is no doubt that similar phenomena are possible in other cases and, perhaps, even occur more often than is usually accepted. Many of us probably still remember that when aggravated the relations with Germany had begun, a strange flights to Russia Prussian balloons. Whole masses of faces testified to the simultaneous vision of these balloons by many people, despite the fact that modern aeronautics did not give reason to believe in the reality of these flights. In view of this, it was not without reason that the idea was expressed that these flights of Prussian balloons belonged to the field of mass hallucinations caused by the direction of minds towards possible hostile actions against us from Germany.

Has the same story happened with Andre's balloon, which flew to the north pole? How many telegrams were received at one time from different parts of the northern hemisphere about the vision of the Andre ball by a whole mass of people. Was there not also a case of mass illusion or hallucination, just as it was, apparently, with the Prussian balloons? Such an explanation at least suggests itself when you read the smallest details about the vision of the Andre ball by several persons of one or another area.

No less well-known are historical examples of collective hallucinations. Among such hallucinations are, among other things, the vision of the heavenly army by one detachment of Russian troops before the Battle of Kulikovo, the vision of the crusaders clad in armor and descending from heaven by the heavenly army led by St. George, Demetrius and Theodore, the vision of the bright knight on the Mount of Olives waving a cross during the storming of Jerusalem, the famous vision of the cross in heaven with the inscription "you will win with this", experienced by Constantine the Great and his retinue before the start of a decisive battle and many others.

Mass religious visions have happened repeatedly and in later times. So, during a severe cholera epidemic in 1885, residents of the village of Corano near Naples began to see the Madonna in a black robe praying for the salvation of people on the nearest hill where the chapel stood. Word of this incident spread quickly through the surrounding area, and people began to flock to Corano. The vision continued until the Government took decisive measures against the further spread of this epidemic hallucination. The chapel was moved to another place, the hill was occupied by a detachment of Carabinieri, after which the vision stopped (Verga). There is also a known hallucinatory epidemic that developed among the peasants of the Rhine province during the Franco-Prussian War and was expressed by mass visions of religious and military content, such as visions on roof skates, on glass and other objects of is of the Madonna, crucifixion, zouaves, cannons, etc

. According to the doctor of our clinic, Dr. M. I. Nikitin, during recent religious celebrations, a massive hallucination occurred in front of his eyes.

In one well, many of the worshippers began to see the object of their worship as it was usually depicted on icons; some even saw that the face made a movement with his hand. Such a vision, experienced by a large number of worshippers at the same time, lasted for several minutes, until one praying mantis who had just approached the well, who was not aware of the object of the vision in the well, when asked if she saw anything in the depths of the latter, replied decisively that she saw nothing but stones lying at the bottom the well. From that moment on, the mass hallucination quickly dissipated.

Such visions are explicable only from the point of view of mutual suggestion, completely involuntary on the part of some persons on others.

When one or another mood prevails in a population or in a group of people, and when thought works in a certain direction, then one or another person, especially with mental imbalance, easily develops deceptions of feelings that correspond in content to the mood and direction of his thought, which are immediately communicated to other persons by involuntary suggestion, verbal or otherwise being in the same mental conditions.

If those who knew the Andijan circumstances completely did not see the situation in a rosy light, imagine those to whom all this reached in forms inflated to chimerical, and you can easily imagine the state of the dark soldier's environment.

The orderlies were especially zealous suppliers of various absurdities in the soldier's environment.

The night when the alarm occurred in Andijan was dark-a dark southern night, cloudy. It was preceded by rain, it seems, with a thunderstorm.

The newly arrived riflemen were stationed in barracks and camps. The barracks were still poorly lit inside, and the barracks were almost the same as on the fateful night of May 18, that is, very sparsely. The rest of the city and the surrounding area were drowned in the thickest darkness. Lanterns in the city of Andijan were not lit that night, according to the glorious Russian custom of not lighting them if the moon is supposed to be on schedule, even if it was hidden by clouds (sic!).

It was after midnight. Soldiers both in barracks and in camps slept side by side, holding their guns tightly and feeling for cartridges. The silence was truly depressing and oppressive.

Suddenly, from somewhere in the distance, some vague noise came, which made all of us shudder, and a second later be horrified, and then gasp, because the noise grew and grew… now it's the hubbub of the crowd, now individual wild screams break out, then whole sheaves of screams, screams, screams.

Then a "hurrah" joined all this, at first rare, then loud, then thunderous… The victorious "hurrah"… "Hurrah" grew, covering the camp, the barracks.

Suddenly, gunfire crackled. The witness came to the camp when another day guard, having applied himself, fired the last charge after the fleeing enemy. At that moment, all the other people were standing, already lined up in their barracks-canopies, carefully looked around and reassured by their superiors. Everyone openly told where he had fired and how many times, but where the shooting and alarm came from, no one really knew either in the camps or at the posts.

Meanwhile, the reason for the false alarm was that the wounded man jumped up in delirium and started running screaming: after that, all the other wounded also jumped up.

The hunting team closest to the infirmary, instantly awakened, grabbed their guns and, shouting "hurrah!" rushed to the rescue of their wounded.

This has stirred up the camp! People started jumping up, putting on whatever they could, shouting and shouting. A "hurrah" was shouted, which, growing and rolling, reached the remotest corners of the garrison.

Then someone fired a rifle into the darkness, and the mass hallucination grew in all its glory – everyone saw, heard and shot the enemy. People became deaf for seconds to the voice of their superiors, to the signals.

Fortunately, there were no casualties, except for a few bruises and scratches.

STEREOTYPICAL DECEPTIONS OF FEELINGS AND SELF-SUGGESTION

From the same point of view, it is necessary to explain the stereotypical deceptions of feelings, peculiar only to well-known families, in which these hallucinations are given one or another, mostly fatal significance.

It is known that in the Habsburg House, for example, such a hallucination, which is given the fatal significance of a harbinger of death, is a vision of a black woman. The appearance of this woman has long been considered a faithful messenger of the approach of someone's demise and is transmitted by word of mouth in the form of a family, or generic, inspired idea, which is personified in appropriate cases in the form of a stereotypical hallucination.

Occasionally, in one or another family, you can meet with other kinds of inspired ideas, which also play an important role in the lives of members of this family. I had information, for example, about one family in which fear of fire was transmitted from generation to generation because of the possibility of dying from it, and, indeed, many of the family members died from careless handling of fire or even from suicide by self-immolation. In another family, the idea was held that the death of its members occurred from firearms, whether by suicide or by one or another accident, and it turned out that even the last descendants of this family, despite the terrible fear they showed of firearms, died from shots from a rifle or revolver, either completely accidentally or intentionally in the form of suicides.

It should be borne in mind that in such cases, autosuggestion often helps suggestion, by which we mean the inoculation of mental states caused not by extraneous influences, but by internal causes, the source of which is in the personality of the patient himself, who is undergoing autosuggestion.

Everyone knows that a person can set himself up in a sad or cheerful mood, that he can, in certain cases, develop his imagination to the appearance of illusions and hallucinations, that he can even instill this or that belief in himself. This is autosuggestion, which, like suggestion and mutual suggestion, does not need logic, but, on the contrary, often acts even contrary to all logic.

Who knows that it is enough to give free rein to your imagination and it is ready to draw all sorts of scary is in the dark of night, despite the fact that we can be firmly convinced that nothing terrible really exists.

But this is only one of the weak examples of the action of autosuggestion, which in certain cases can lead to real deceptions of the senses.

One must think that the stereotypical vision of a black woman before her death in the house of Habsburg is explained not only by mutual suggestion, but perhaps also by self-suggestion, which involuntarily adjusts the imagination in a certain direction. By involuntary autosuggestion, apparently, some other dark psychic phenomena, such as premonition, can also be explained.

It is also known that autosuggestion in some cases, like hypnotic suggestion, can have a dramatic effect on the vasomotor and vegetative spheres of the body. This way, among other things, explains various stigmata and even periodic hemorrhages from those areas of the body from which the blood oozed from the crucified Christ, as shown by the example of Louise Lato, known in the medical literature and carefully verified by prominent scientific authorities.

But we would be distracted far away from the main subject of our conversation if we set out to explain in more detail the phenomena of our mental life just mentioned.

CONVULSIVE EPIDEMICS IN HISTORY

The power of suggestion is no less pronounced in the so-called psychopathic epidemics.

These psychopathic epidemics are primarily reflected in the prevailing views of the masses of the people of a given era, a given stratum of society or a given locality. But there can be no doubt that the immediate impetus for the development of these epidemics are: suggestion, mutual suggestion and autosuggestion.

The prevailing views here are a favorable ground for spreading through the involuntary transmission of certain psychopathic conditions from one person to another. The epidemic spread of the so-called demoniacality in the Middle Ages undoubtedly bears all the traces of the popular views established at that time on the extraordinary power of the devil over man; but nevertheless it is also indisputable that the development and spread of these epidemics is largely due to the power of suggestion. For example, a medieval pastor during a church service talks about the power of a demon over a person, exhorting people to be closer to God, and during this speech

The place does not allow us to dwell any longer on this burning issue; but the whole picture of the self-destructive incidents in the Ternovsky farms resolutely defies any other explanation, if we do not take into account the influence of suggestion and mutual suggestion on the basis of already ingrained superstitions, which undoubtedly played a major role here. A detailed description of the Ternovsky events, except for newspapers, can be found in the article by Prof. I. A. Sikorsky: Free deaths in Ternovsky farms. Questions of neuropsychic medicine for 1897 in one of the pathetic places, to the horror of the audience, an imaginary demon exerts its power over one of those present, plunging him into terrible convulsions. This is followed by another and a third victim. The same thing is repeated at other divine services.

Is there any doubt that here we are talking about the direct suggestion of impotence, which then passes into the life of the people and snatches its victims from the latter even outside of liturgical ceremonies.

When well-known beliefs about the possibility of the incarnation of the devil in man took root, this belief in itself already acts by mutual suggestion and auto-suggestion on many psychopathic personalities and thus leads to the development of demonopathic epidemics, which are so rich in the history of the Middle Ages.

Thanks to autosuggestion, certain mystical ideas arising from the worldview of the Middle Ages were often at the same time the source of a number of convulsive and other manifestations of great hysteria, which, thanks to prevailing beliefs, also tended to spread epidemically.

This is obviously the origin of convulsive and other medieval epidemics known as the dances of St. Nicholas. Witt and St. St. John's, a folk dance in Italy, called tarantella, and, finally, the so-called quietism. Even getting acquainted with the description of these epidemics by contemporaries, it is not difficult to make sure that mutual suggestion played a role in their spread.

The epidemic of self-flagellation that spread from Italy to Europe in 1266 is remarkable, about which the historian reports the following: "An unprecedented spirit of self-accusation suddenly took over the minds of the people. The fear of Christ attacked everyone; noble and simple, old and young, even children of about five years old wandered the streets without clothes with only a belt around their waists. Each had a whip made of leather straps, with which they scourged their members with tears and sighs so cruelly that blood poured from their wounds."

Then, in 1370, the dancing mania spread in Europe in an equally striking way, which in Italy

It took a peculiar form of tarantism. At that time, dancers filled the streets of European cities. Everyone abandoned their usual activities and household chores to indulge in a frenzied dance.

In Italy, dancing spread under the influence of the belief that a tarantula bite, which often happened in Italy, becomes safe for those who danced to the music of the so-called tarantella. This mania for tarantella spread with extraordinary rapidity throughout Italy and, as a result of its absorption of a huge number of victims, became in the full sense of the word a social ulcer of Italy.

The epidemics of convulsions are no less striking. Here, for example, is a short excerpt about medieval convulsions from Louis-Debonnaire:

"Imagine girls who on certain days, and sometimes after a few premonitions, suddenly fall into trembling, trembling, convulsions and yawning; they fall to the ground, and they are placed with pre-prepared mattresses and pillows. Then great unrest begins with them: they roll on the floor, torment and beat themselves; their head rotates with extreme rapidity, their eyes roll up and close, their tongue comes out and then retracts inside, filling their throat. The stomach and lower abdomen swell, they bark like dogs or sing like roosters; suffering from suffocation, these unfortunate people moan, scream and whistle; convulsions run through all their limbs; they suddenly rush to one side, then rush to the other; they begin to somersault and make movements that offend modesty, take cynical poses, stretch out, stiffen and remain in this position for hours and even for whole days; they temporarily become blind, mute, paralyzed and do not feel anything. There are also those among them whose convulsions are in the nature of free actions, and not unconscious movements."

Having read this description of a contemporary, who among those familiar with nervous diseases will not doubt that here we are talking about fits of great hysteria, which, as we know, is often developing epidemically?

An even more instructive picture appears to us in the description of convulsive epidemics that developed in Paris in the last century, the unifying object of which was the Saint-Medard cemetery with the grave of Deacon Paris, once famous for his ascetic lifestyle. This description belongs to the famous Louis Figuier.

"The convulsions of Jeanne, cured at the grave of Paris of hysterical contracture in a fit of convulsions, served as the signal for a new dance of St. Witt, revived again in the center of Paris in the XVIII century. with endless variations, one darker or funnier than the other.

People from all parts of the city came running to the Saint-Medard cemetery to take part in the antics and twitches. Healthy and sick, everyone insisted that they were convulsing, and they convulsed in their own way. It was a world dance, a real tarantella.

The entire area of the Saint-Medard cemetery and the neighboring streets were occupied by a mass of girls, women, patients of all ages, convulsing as if in a race with each other. Here, men hit the ground like real epileptics, while others swallow pebbles, pieces of glass and even burning coals a little further away; there, women walk on their heads with a degree of strangeness or cynicism that is generally compatible with this kind of exercise. Elsewhere, women, stretched out at full length, invite the audience to hit them on the stomach and are satisfied only when 10 or 12 men fall on them at once with all their weight.

People writhe, grimace and move in a thousand different ways. However, there are also more learned convulsions, reminiscent of pantomimes and poses in which some religious mysteries are depicted, especially often scenes from the sufferings of the Savior.

In the midst of all this discordant sabbath, only moaning, singing, roaring, whistling, recitation, prophecy and meowing are heard. But dancing plays a predominant role in this epidemic of convulsionists. The choir is led by a clergyman, Abbot Becheron, who, in order to be in full view of everyone, stands on the grave. Here, every day, with an art that cannot withstand competition, he performs his favorite "pas", the famous carp race (saute de Carpe), which constantly delights the audience.

Such bacchanalia ruined the whole business. The king, receiving daily the worst reviews from the clergy about what was happening in Saint-Medard, ordered the police lieutenant Hero to close the cemetery. However, this measure did not stop the insane frenzies on the part of the convulsionists. Since it was forbidden to convulse in public, the seizures of the Yancinists began to occur in private homes and the evil was further intensified. The Saint-Medard cemetery concentrated the infection in itself; its closure served to spread it.

Everywhere in the courtyards, under the gates, one could hear or see some unfortunate being tormented; his appearance had an infectious effect on those present and encouraged them to imitate. The evil took on such significant proportions that the king issued a decree according to which anyone convulsing was tried by a court specially established at the arsenal and sentenced to imprisonment. After that, the convulsionists only became more adept at hiding, but they did not get out." Regnard. Mental epidemics.

Having become acquainted with these peculiar social phenomena, can there be any doubt that the epidemics of convulsions developed due to mutual suggestion on the basis of religious mysticism and severe superstitions.

IS IT A MENTAL SUGGESTION OR A TRICK?

(Published by: Review of Psychiatry, Neurology and Experimental Psychology, 1904, No. 8).

Questions of mental suggestion cannot fail to interest mankind until the existence of this suggestion is finally resolved in one sense or another on the basis of reliable data. In view of this, the collection of factual material related to this issue should be in the foreground, since an appropriate assessment of this material should serve to finally clarify this extremely important and at the same time highly sensitive issue.

Guided by this, we cannot but draw readers' attention to the experiments of mental suggestion performed by Dr. Kotik and Dr. Pevnitsky in collaboration with other doctors over Sophia Starker, who performed in one of the Odessa booths.

It should be noted that such performances in folk theaters do not seem to be exceptionally rare, and as recently as April 1903, I myself managed to observe a similar demonstration of mental suggestion in one of the folk theaters in Vienna, where the very demonstration of phenomena was carried out under the following conditions.

A young lady sat on a chair in the middle of the stage in front of the audience, and her eyes were tightly blindfolded with a large handkerchief. Then someone from the audience was invited to participate in the experience and think of one word or another – it doesn't matter which one. The participant of the experiment sat down near the guesser, who put her hand on his forehead and after a short period of time said aloud the words that he was thinking. This was done with several people, and the guessing of both specific and abstract words was carried out with apparent ease and unmistakably. Then experiments were carried out with guessing objects in the pockets of the audience present with the help of an elderly inductor, with whom experiments of this kind were usually carried out. For this purpose, the latter walks around the audience, gropes for things in his pocket and, if he does not recognize them by touch, asks them to take them out so that he can make sure what exactly is in front of him; then, thinking about them and without uttering a single word, he asks the guesser: what is here or what is it? All questions were posed quite monotonously, things in most cases remained in the pockets of the audience and only if they were not recognized by touch, were shown to the inductor, but in such a way that only he, their owner and the nearest neighbors could know them; the guesser during these experiments was at least 15-40 steps away and She remained blindfolded all the time; therefore, she could not see objects in any case.

There could also be no conditional communication between the inductor and the guesser, since the questions of the former were always monotonous and without any special changes in the intonation of the voice, and there could be no question of any mechanical communication. The answers for the vast majority of subjects were given by the guesser correctly, and simple objects such as an orange, lemon, comb, rope, knife, toothpick, etc., were given quickly and confidently, while less ordinary objects were guessed, although also in the vast majority of cases accurately, but less quickly. Guessing some items even required a decent amount of time. Occasionally mistakes were made in this case; but these mistakes were almost immediately corrected after pointing out that the answer was incorrect on the part of the inductor. Sometimes errors indicated the subject only approximately, for example, instead of "notebook" the answer was "ticket", when then the inductor pointed out her mistake and demanded that the guesser think further, after some time she said correctly: "Book"; to the question: "Which one?" she answered: "The notebook." This was followed by questions about what was written in the book, and the inductor consistently forced the guesser to say at least two dozen entries that were made in this book, and all these entries were read relatively quickly and with punctual accuracy without even the slightest signs on the part of the inductor.

According to the general formulation of the case with guessing thoughts, there was obviously a lot of similarity with how Sophia Starker did her experiments. Unfortunately, I was deprived of the opportunity to do a number of experiments with the guesser under different conditions, I can only say that, being myself the closest observer of those demonstrations discussed above, I found absolutely nothing in them that could be recognized as a deception or trick. Nevertheless, in order to solve the question of mental suggestion, it is highly desirable not only to state the fact, but also to comprehensively study the conditions under which the experiments themselves are carried out.

If it is confirmed that in cases of this kind we are dealing with a real mental suggestion, then the explanation of the phenomena themselves by means of energy transfer from one person to another is imposed by itself. Be that as it may, we must not lose sight of the fact that the question of mental suggestion is gradually moving out of the realm of the mysterious and unknown, since with the development of the doctrine of the psyche as a manifestation of energy and with the discoveries of Blondlot and Charpentier about the rays emanating from the nervous tissue during its activity, the very possibility of mental suggestion becomes a phenomenon, not at all it does not contradict our basic scientific views. Bekhterev V. Psyche and life. 2nd ed. 1906. pp. 167-168.

In view of this, it is highly desirable that serious scientific figures cease to treat the study of the phenomena of mental suggestion with the disdain that, with small and well-known exceptions, manifested itself in their environment until

later.

1906

THE BASIC CONCEPTS OF SUGGESTION AT A DISTANCE

In his book devoted to the scientific interpretation of the so-called "mysterious phenomena" of the human psyche, L.L. Vasiliev has already had the opportunity to tell readers about verbal suggestion and about the amazing phenomena caused by suggestion. Repeated repetition of words: "Go to sleep, go to sleep! Sleep! Sleep deeper, more calmly!" the one who inspires manages to put some subjects into a hypnotic sleep. The features of this dream were studied in detail in our country by V.M.Bekhterev, and its physiological basis was revealed by the experiments of I.P.Pavlov, his teaching on higher nervous activity. In hypnotic sleep, suggestibility increases enormously. Thanks to this, hypnotists manage to verbally inspire a lot: various kinds of movements, certain actions, sometimes very complex; various sensations, illusions, even hallucinations; and moreover, it creates the opportunity to influence the physiological functions of the body with a word, seemingly not at all controlled by the will, the psyche of the subject. For example, to cause him an induced burn.

Some of these phenomena can be caused in a weakened form by verbal suggestion in sleep-deprived subjects, if only they have an increased "excess" suggestibility already in the waking state.

Such facts were to some extent known to Greek and Roman doctors, but centuries passed before hypnosis and suggestion were finally recognized and formed the content of a special science – hypnology.

In the same book, in the chapter devoted to the question of whether there is a brain radio, the author has already touched on the topic of this brochure: does suggestion necessarily have to be verbal, i.e. be caused by words understandable to the subject? Is it also possible to have a "wordless", "mental" suggestion, such as when the experimenter inspires something not with spoken words, but only with a mentally repeated order, sometimes at a considerable distance from the subject?

Mental suggestion belongs to such questions that for centuries have been capturing the attention of scientists, then thrown into the trash can of the pseudoscientific quest of the human mind (there have been quite a few of them in the history of science) then they come to the surface again, enriched with new observations, and again they are forgotten for many years.

In foreign countries, especially in the USA, England, France, Holland, India, Argentina, as well as in some socialist countries, great attention is paid to the study of this phenomenon. In capitalist states, there are institutes, laboratories, even university departments (for example, in Utrecht) engaged in the study of mental suggestion and other "parapsychic" phenomena related to it.

From time to time, information about sensational experiments and discoveries in the field of brain and psyche studies comes to us from abroad. For example, in December 1959 and February 1960, articles appeared in French popular science magazines describing a sensational experience allegedly conducted in the summer of 1959 aboard the American nuclear submarine Nautilus. The boat with the participant of the experiment (A) on it sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for 16 days. Another participant in the experiment (B), who stayed on the shore, twice a day, at a strictly defined time, mentally inspired the subject with one of the five figures: a circle, a square, a cross, a star, wavy lines.

Numerous cards with the i of these figures were automatically shuffled by a special device, which threw these cards one after another at regular intervals. At exactly the same time, subject A, at a distance of many hundreds of kilometers, through the thickness of seawater and the hermetically sealed metal skin of the boat, tried to perceive these mentally transmitted signals and wrote them down on paper. The experiment was conducted under conditions of apparently impeccable control over the participants of the experiment, lasted 16 days and gave a result more than 3 times higher than the result that could be expected according to probability theory: over 70% of correct answers instead of the expected 20%.

Of course, we have the right to believe or disbelieve such information coming from abroad, to recognize or not to recognize the phenomena of mental suggestion as an established fact, but complete denial and ignoring them can hardly be considered prudent. It is necessary to be aware of what has already been done and what is being done on this issue in capitalist countries, not to mention that it is necessary to give a correct, materialistic explanation to all this. That is why, at the Physiological Institute of Leningrad University in 1960, under the guidance of the author of these lines, the first laboratory in the Soviet Union was organized to study mental suggestion.

First of all, it was necessary to familiarize yourself with the extensive literature that has accumulated over the past two or three decades. To some extent, it was possible to do this and partially use the studied literature when writing this brochure.