"Let me take a look at the weather report for today. Ah, fair and warmer. It certainly is warmer, much warmer. Do you mind if I take off my coat? I do not recall, you know, a hotter day in the City. Not for several years, at least. It is surely above 90, perhaps above 100. In a tropical country, say in the West Indies, I should not be surprised. There you expect it, you get used to it. And, of course, you wear clothes appropriate to the climate. But here, in New York City, it is amazingly warm for the month of September. In spite of the fact that I am lightly dressed, perspiration just flows down my face and back. Where is my handkerchief?"
He gets uneasy and, true enough, perspiration bedews his face. Nothing surprising, one may remark: he has merely received a suggestion and has reacted to it in a natural way. This is precisely my contention: the phenomenon is a natural reaction to suggestion under hypnosis. But this reaction, though quite normal under the circumstances, is not one you can reproduce by an effort of conscious will. Try, indeed, with all the imagination you possess, to develop sweat by a sheer strain of your fancy. It simply cannot be done. Obviously, we have witnessed a case of auto-suggestion considerably intensified by means of hypnosis. It brought into operation certain natural powers of the subject's body, making the imaginary experience sufficiently realistic to evoke drops of sweat out of the pores of his skin.
