A Professional Hypnotic Subject Blog

Mr. Ernest Hart had an article in the Century Magazine on "The Eternal Gullible," in which he gives the confessions of a professional hypnotic subject. This person, whom he calls L., he brought to his house, where some experiments were tried in the presence of a number of doctors,whose names are quoted. The quotation of a paragraph or two from Mr. Hart's article will be of interest. Says he:

"The 'catalepsy business' had more artistic merit. So rigid did L. make his muscles that he could be lifted in one piece like an Egyptian mummy.He lay with his head on the back of one chair, and his heels on another, and allowed a fairly heavy man to sit on his stomach; it seemed to me,however, that he was here within a 'straw' or two of the limit of his endurance. The 'blister trick,' spoken of by Truth as having deceived some medical men, was done by rapidly biting and sucking the skin of the wrist. L. did manage with some difficulty to raise a slight swelling,but the marks of the teeth were plainly visible." (Possibly L. had made his skin so tough by repeated biting that he could no longer raise the blister!)"

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