owing Criminal Suggestion Is not Possible.--Dr. William James' Theor

fluence by means of post- hypnotic suggestion. He says to him while in the hypnotic sleep: "Whenever I look at you, or point at you, you will fall asleep. No one can hypnotize you but me. Whenever I try to hypnotize you, you will fall asleep." He says further: "Suggest to a subject while he is sound asleep that in eight weeks he will mail you a letter with a blank piece of note paper inside, and during

We hope to show that it is not true; but we must admit that many scientific men have tried experiments which they believe demonstrate beyond a doubt that criminal use can be and is made of hypnotic influence. If it

nch law would be valid), which he will hand over to you, and of which he will never know the existence. He is ready to fulfill the minutest legal formalities, and will do so with a calm, serene and natural manner calculated to deceive the most expert law officers. These somnambulists will not hesitate either, you may be sure, to make a denunciation, or to bear false witness; they are, I repeat, the passive instruments of your will. For instance, take E. She will at my bidding write out and sign a donation of forty pounds in my

d, such as suggesting the theft of a watch or a

ul: A person who has nothing will give away any amount if told to do so; but qui

It was suggested to her that his clothing was on fire and she was commanded to extinguish the fire by throwing the lighted lamp at the individual, she having been told, as was previously mentioned, that it was a glass of water. Without her knowledge a person was placed behind her for the purpose of quickly checking her movements, if desired. I then commanded her to throw the lamp at the man. She raised the lamp, hesitated, wavered, and then became very hysterical, laughing and crying alternately. This condition was so profound that she came very near dropping the lamp. Immediately after she was quieted I made a number of tests to prove that she was deeply hypnotized. Standing in front of her I gave

no person can be hypnotized against his

t a familiar acquaintance of a similar character might hypnotize that person and cause him to commit the crime to which his moral nature is by no means averse. If, on the other hand, the personality of the

ity because she had been hypnotized. In none of these cases, however, was there any really satisfactory evidence that hypnotism existed. In all the cases reported there seemed to be no doubt of the weak character and predisposition to cr

dinary means than by hypnotism. The man who "overpersuades" a business man to endorse a note uses no

the suggestion of the operator, the patient is really conscious all the time of the real facts in the case--indeed, much more keenly so, oftentimes, than the operator himself. For instance, if a line is drawn on a sheet of paper and the subject is told there is no line, he will maintain there is no line; but he has to see it in order to ignore it. Moreover, persons trained to obey, instinctively do obey even in their waking state. It requires a special faculty to resist obedience, even during our ordinary waking condition. Says a recent writer: "It is certain that we are naturally inclined to obey, conflicts and resistance are the characteristics of some rare individuals; but between admitting this and saying that we are

ed to the subject, while asleep, that he should restore the stolen object; the command was energetically and imperatively reiterated, but in vain. The theft had been committed by the subject, wh

"'If I were ordered to throw myself out of the window I should do it, so certain am I either that there would be somebody under the window to