More about Bô Yin Râ, books available in English, sample texts, and reproductions of his paintings
It here will not, I trust, be necessary to offer detailed explanations of what the term "hypnosis" signifies, nor how one can induce the like abnormal state, in which a person's will and consciousness are bound and put to sleep.
Regrettably, too many people nowadays experiment with this phenomenon and aspects of hypnosis are discussed in detail and great length not only in more learned works, but also in some rather dubious pamphlets.
One should be far more cautious, I believe, in handing out directions on how hypnosis is induced, and even the description of that state is not devoid of danger.
Certainly, no benefit is ever gained by such discussions of the matter. Instead, it only may arouse curiosity in certain readers, and thus awaken the desire--depending on the person's stronger active, or more passive disposition--either to be able personally to "hypnotize," or merely to experience that condition as a subject.
Regarding the ability to bring about hypnotic sleep there still persists the widely held belief that the effective hypnotist possesses a mysterious power. And yet one is repeatedly assured that "anyone" can learn to hypnotize and that the whole thing is a question simply of the hypnotizer's will.
In reality, however, the matter is quite different.
To begin with, the hypnotic state cannot be brought about by simply anyone, even if a person knew every detail as to method and technique and, in addition, were able perfectly to concentrate his will to that effect. But secondly, and contrary to popular belief, it here is not at all a question of mere "will," as if one person had the power to dominate the will belonging to another.
There are remarkably effective hypnotists who yet are people of quite feeble will and nearly seem incapable of concentrating all their wishes on a single goal.
By contrast, strong-willed persons are often more susceptible to being hypnotized than others, whom one would scarcely credit with having any will at all.
In fact, the energies involved in this have very little to do with will itself, and if above I spoke of binding someone's will, this is not meant to imply that there is any way in which a person's will as such could in effect be weakened.
What really happens is simply that a person's physical organs, which in their normal state obey exclusively the signals of the person's own inherent will--organs which some outside, "alien" will can only reach inadequately and if the subject's proper will can be distracted--that these organs are being made incapable, by means of the hypnotic state, of apprehending any longer their normal owner's proper will, or that, in less intensive cases, they do so only rather poorly.
All hypnosis is, consequently, nothing more than a successively increased condition of detachment, separating the cerebral apparatus from the will that normally controls that organ.
But given that the human will is able to transmit impressions to the brain by way exclusively of the fluidic, subtle energies of the material body, which actually form part of the invisible domain of nature, the establishment of the hypnotic state amounts in fact to paralyzing these invisible fluidic energies.
To be sure, an act of will originating in the hypnotizer can be seen as the initial impulse toward producing this paralysis. However, the intensity of that specific impulse has no more bearing on the subsequent events than any theory the hypnotist might hold in trying to explain the various phenomena that he encounters.
He himself is truly not the one who causes the conditions that result from his initial impulse, whose direction he consistently maintains, but which need not by any means exert especial force.
Although it may sound strange in face of all existing theories pertaining to the subject, the various phenomena connected with hypnosis are in effect resulting from a state not unlike an "infection." Only it is here not germs and microbes that transmit diseases, but rather elements of energy, which even the most powerful of microscopes cannot detect, but which produce paralysis of the fluidic, subtle energies inherent in the human body. In this condition, then, these elements of energy are able to affect the human brain directly, while at the same time neutralizing its owner's proper will.
The hypnotist, however, is an individual whose psychophysical endowment is especially well suited for stimulating the respective elements and thereby to direct them according to his wishes. And then they must continue automatically to operate in the direction of the initial impulse.
From this it follows that not everyone can simply learn to hypnotize, just as not everyone will be successful as a spiritistic medium, even though in either case one has to deal with energies that every human being inherently possesses more or less.
The unseen elements of energy that one is here confronted with are present by the millions at every point in the invisible domain of the material world. As a homogeneous mass of substance they occupy the whole of space and merely need an impetus engendered by an act of will in order to become effective agents of that will, with the intent of which they now appear imbued. Considering the nature of these elements, one sometimes may get the impression of dealing with invisible, extremely small, but practically conscious living creatures.
Nor, for that matter, is the hypnotizer's will the only impulse that compels these elements to show themselves in action. Instead, they are continuously kept in motion, by even the most secret wish, the moment when that wish has gained the power to control a person's will.
In the majority of human beings the fluidic, subtle energies of the material body are insulated, as it were, so that the influence exerted by the hidden elements of energy occurs through only relatively feeble infiltration. Not too infrequently, however, one also finds examples of a psychophysical condition which almost represents an intermingling of the fluidic energies inherent in the human body with the mentioned elements of energy surrounding it. These constitutions then provide the naturally gifted spiritistic mediums and also the born hypnotists, depending on their disposition's being more the passive or the active kind.
Even spiritistic mediumship must draw upon these unseen elements of energy. Only here the hypnotizer must be sought in the invisible domain of nature. The medium passively surrenders and obeys his will, but without knowing who it is. In hypnotically induced paralysis, by contrast, there is at least a human being one can see, someone who by artificial means creates his own experimental medium, using people who are not by nature mediumistic in the spiritistic sense.
The whole procedure of hypnosis is ultimately nothing more than what is meant by "spiritism." The difference is mainly that in hypnotism it is human beings who are influencing one another, while in spiritist séances the human hypnotizer's place is taken over by an entity inhabiting the unseen realm of physical reality.
Hypnotically induced paralysis and spiritistic trance are in appearance often very different; in essence they are practically alike, produced by even the same energies. Profoundly different, however, are the initiating factors: here the impulse of a human being, there the instinct-driven craving for expression typical of the "lemurian" creatures that inhabit the invisible dimension of physical reality.
If all the hidden laws of nature were revealed as clearly to the human hypnotist the way they are to those lemurian phantoms, he would be able to produce a respectable number of the apparent "miracles" of spiritism by experimenting with the subject he has hypnotized. The only feats beyond his powers would be such phenomena as of necessity require an authentic medium. As explained above, the latter merely represents the same, but passive type of psychophysical endowment, the active form of which we find in every hypnotist.
Yet since the human being who subjects another person to hypnotically induced paralysis is limited, in all he knows of nature, exclusively to the perception of his merely physical senses, that human hypnotist is neither able to prevent, nor can he even recognize that the invisible inhabitants of physical reality are temporarily taking possession of the subject whom he artificially has turned into a kind of temporary medium.
Thus it became possible for some observers to believe in earnest that they had found the human being's ultimate spiritual reality within the deeper layers of hypnotic sleep. And so one gullibly received the revelations of something one believed to be a "superpersonal subconsciousness," without suspecting that one merely had conducted a spiritist séance. With pious reverence one bowed before a "secret wisdom" stemming from the same domain as all the other tales which the "familiars" of any spiritist conventicle are but too glad to tell their worshipful disciples. Only here the offered insights were tailored to the taste of the particular audience. As all communications from these denizens between the worlds will always, with stupendous cunning, adopt precisely the required tone a given circle calls for if a "message" from beyond is meant to foster credence.
At first rejected as mere "fraud" and "superstition," hypnosis has today become another tool of medical practice. It is believed a wide variety of therapeutic benefits can be derived from its professional employment.
It here is not for me to judge to what extent the cures achieved by virtue of hypnosis can in the long run meet the test of critical examination.
I must point out, however, very plainly that any therapy by virtue of hypnosis is comparable to casting out the devil through Beelzebub, and that its use is equally dangerous for both patient and physician.
On balance it seems highly questionable whether the attainment of possibly authentic, but just as likely no more than apparent cures, is truly worth incurring such a risk.
To decide this issue must be left to the physician's practical experience. My sole intention here is to alert him to a present danger and, furthermore, to specify its kind.
Anyone who carefully examines the phenomena of spiritism will doubtless know--if not from personal experience, then certainly from writings on the subject--that a medium tends to fall increasingly more quickly into trance the more consistently it will experiment.
Every hypnotist will be familiar with the same experience regarding subjects in hypnotically induced paralysis.
The elements of energy which are the cause of the abnormal state in either situation have been preset and programmed and now are permanently focused on attaining that condition in the given person. In other words, they function as a kind of hidden, magic chain that constantly connects the active with its related passive pole.
The plane on which this contact is maintained is the invisible realm of physical nature. Equally belonging to this realm are the fluidic subtle energies of the material human body, through the effect of which pure impulses of will are manifested in the brain. When these fluidic energies are paralyzed, however, the person's self is forced from its position of control and then must let some other power use its brain at will and at its pleasure.
The more frequently a hypnotist experiments with a particular subject, or a physician with a patient, the more unbreakable becomes the hidden chain of unseen elements of energy that links the two related poles. And this connection is not severed even if the given poles were separated by thousands of miles.
Such a magic chain can be extended almost to infinity, and the more it has been tempered by numerous experiments, the less can it be broken.
Needless to say, both the practicing physician and the hypnotist, but equally the patient and the subject may experience decidedly unpleasant influences. For the relationship between the given poles is not by any means so rigidly determined in all circumstances that the normally active pole could not at times turn passive, while conversely the latter might suddenly assume an active role.
Very seldom only are instances of such unplanned reversals identified for what they are, even though one clearly has observed phenomena which cannot be accounted for except by that kind of reciprocal connection, resulting from a permanent fluidic bond.
The possibility of influencing others in this way is systematically employed by certain schools of "occult training." Yet this amounts to nothing more than being an increasingly intensive series of more or less disguised hypnotic trances, through which the "teacher" gradually attaches his victim so firmly to himself that in the end there is no longer any question of the "pupil's" independent active will.
An occult operator of this stripe will not, however, very likely be in danger of experiencing unwanted things from his so thoroughly enmeshed disciples; for he knows very well that his entire power would be put at risk if he were to relinquish, even for brief periods, his rigidly enforced position as the active pole.
The physician, on the other hand, who will restrict his active posture to the duration of the therapeutic session is never safe from being suddenly invaded by the will of any patient, even one he may have long forgotten. He thus may find his psychophysical organism, his thoughts, and his emotions unexpectedly assaulted.
The likelihood that this may happen is given to an even far higher degree in respect to the patient, simply owing to the nature of the willingly established type of bond.
Far more dangerous than all the more or less technical problems connected with hypnosis is the consequence, however, that any kind of hypnotic paralysis, whether for the purpose of experiments or therapy, creates an insulation between the subject's will and his cerebral apparatus. Now in persons who are hypnotized repeatedly this very insulation will gradually extend its influence and be effective long after the actual hypnotic session.
I am not speaking of the practice known as "posthypnotic suggestion." Such instructions are only obeyed because an image of the hypnotist, together with a certain sense of time he latently embodies, has in such a way hypnotically conditioned the individual's fluidic subtly energies, through which the will is able to affect the brain, that they will automatically relapse into hypnosis after the required interval. And in this state the subject then will execute, following the hypnotist's command, whatever had been ordered in the course of the hypnotic session but was not yet performed: as if, in fact, it were occurring during the session itself.
Nor do I mean the blocking of the will's effect, a method used for therapeutic reasons. Here the hypnotized subject, once awakened, will find itself prevented, even for extended periods, from pursuing certain inclinations, harboring specific fears, and other problems of that kind.
All these results are merely the delayed effects the hypnotist had wanted to instill. Strictly speaking, they are still a part of the original session, even though they only will become apparent at a later time.
Far more troubling aftereffects which threaten subjects who are hypnotized repeatedly emerge as harm that neither party had intended. This harm consists in that a person who has grown accustomed to absolute passivity, while other minds manipulate its will at their discretion, becomes increasingly incapable of seriously resisting the suggestions, will, and influences to which he is subjected from without.
Even where a hypnotist may have the very best intention in suggesting to his subject that it must not let itself be influenced by anyone but him, this command will not provide the least protection in this matter.
To be sure, the subject thus instructed will be very difficult to hypnotize by someone else; in daily life, however, such a person's continuously trammeled will shall not be able to exercise exclusive power over its cerebral apparatus.
The brain of such a person will thus become a veritable playground for every kind of impulse, will, and influence imaginable.
Certainly, no person of some insight would suggest that such a state might be desirable for attaining higher spiritual development .
Furthermore, the application of hypnosis for therapeutic reasons is for the most part still intended to correct shortcomings that are more properly addressed within the moral sphere.
If the sought correction is achieved by virtue of the person' s proper will, even after many setbacks and though it took a very long time, something highly positive has been accomplished for his entire inner life and soul.
The human will in this way gains continuously more complete control of the cerebral apparatus, so that external and unwanted--even undesired influences stemming from the person's own condition--will less and less be able to subdue its brain.
If one attempts, however, to deal with such defects, which basically are moral problems, by recourse to hypnotic influence, the questionable tendencies indeed may disappear, but then the person will not spiritually benefit in any way. On the contrary, the human will's potential to control the brain, a faculty which is the key to all authentic spiritual progress in this life, will thus be systematically destroyed.
It follows from the things I here discussed, even though I only dealt with the essentials, that all experimenting with hypnosis must be viewed as an extremely risky gamble. No less dangerous, indeed, than operating as a spiritistic medium, or seeking to acquire powers to perform authentic fakir tricks.
What the established facts connected with hypnosis plainly show, however, ought to be sufficient to give pause to even superficial minds when dealing with the unexplained, mysterious dimensions in which the human being's inner life unfolds.
To know of these phenomena can be a helpful factor as we are forming our concept of reality, and thus prove very valuable for each and everyone.
But never shall humanity gain any benefit from contact with that sphere, and even less shall some experiment reveal to any human being the mystery of man's existence in this life.
HOME · BOOKSTORE · CATALOGUE · GALLERY · SEARCH THE SITE · CONTACT US