A curious experiment by Freidrich Engels
came to my attention while browsing through some old papers.The subject was Hypnotism
Considering the knowledge base and the development in the subject since his time most of his observations may look inexact now. But yet there is something novel in Engels being interested in such subjects.
He was commenting on the experiments of Alfred Russell Wallace an eminent Zoologist and botanist of his time. In turn Wallace was influenced by the exploits of one Mr. Spencer Hall a mesmerist. Alfred Wallace was no mean figure in history. He had put forward the theory of evolution about the same time as Darwin . Darwin’s work caught public interest and Wallace’s work went largely unnoticed except in scientific circles. It is interesting to know that he was also into the occult and hypnotism. He states he was “intensely interested in the subject and pursued it with ardour”.
The ardour was evident in the manner he conducted his experiments. Engels reports that Wallace could produce magnetic sleep together with the phenomena of articular rigidity and local loss of sensation on his subjects. Wallace had further established his subject, merely by being touched partook of all the sensations in the operator. He made him drink a glass of water and made the man drunk by telling him that it was brandy. He could make one of the young men so stupid, even in waking condition, that he no longer knew his own name.
Engels in his characteristic style has inserted a comment here stating that “a feat , however, that other schoolmates are capable of accomplishing without any mesmerism.” Well the same holds true even now!
Now Engels had the occasion to see Mr. Hall at his mesmeric act in the winter of 1843-44. Let us hear what he thought of him. “He was a mediocre charlatan….and undertook magnetico-phrenological performances with a young woman in order to prove there by the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, and the incorrectness of materialism” He adds at the end of the sentence that “right at the top of the skull he discovered an organ of veneration, on toughing which his hypnotic miss sank to her knees, folded her hands in prayer, and depicted to the astonished, philistine audience an angel wrapt in veneration. That was the climax and conclusion of the exhibition. The existence of God has been proved.”
But Engels was intrigued no doubt, especially since it had immediate relevance in the social and political climate at that time. He and one of his acquaintances took the challenge and tried to reproduce the effects as far as possible in their own experiment. A wide awake boy of 12 years was found who was willing to assist them in the experiment and “Gently gazing into his eyes, or stroking sent him without difficulty into the hypnotic condition.” They were naturally not as “credulous” as Wallace they arrived at quite different results.
“ apart from muscular rigidity and loss of sensation, which were easy to produce, we found also a state of complete passivity of will bound up with a peculiar hypersensitivity of sensation……we also fabricated any amount of other organs, organs of singing , whistling, piping, dancing , boxing , sewing , cobbling, tobacco smoking etc, and we could make their seats wherever we wanted. Wallace made his patients drunk on water, but we discovered in the great toe an organ of drunkenness which only had to be touched in order to cause the finest drunken comedy to be enacted.. But it must be well understood, no organ showed a trace of action until the patient was given to understand what was expected of him; the boy soon perfected himself by practice that the merest indication sufficed. The organs produced in this way retained their validity for later occasions of putting to sleep, as long as they were not altered in the same way. The patient had indeed a double memory, one for the waking state and a second quite separate one for the hypnotic condition.”
Engels adds that the subjection of the will of the patient to that of the performer can only be produced with the assent of the subject and that “ the most powerful magician of a magnetiser in the world would come to the end of his resources as soon as his patient laughs him in his face.”
The essay was not really about Hypnotism at all. It was a comment on the fall of a scientist. Wallace later seems to have lost his way further by mingling with “mediums” and the spirit world.
Hypnotism has come a long way since the time of Engels. But most of his statements hold valid still. Their experiment clearly suggested that the programmed subject would retain induced states and experiences in his subconscious to be called up again. The “state of complete passivity of will bound up with a peculiar hypersensitivity of sensation” is what is being aimed at by the modern day “man managers” who use the technology to assist them in process. Once a person is thus programmed it is difficult to erase it without resorting to the same technique. The important difference of today’s hypno- programming is that it is being done indirectly and subliminally without the person being consciously aware of it. So the statement that “the most powerful magician of a magnetiser in the world would come to the end of his resources as soon as his patient laughs him in his face.” Would not hold true. Infect none of those being subjected to covert hypno- programming today are capable of laughing at their tormentors faces. They would probably feel like crying instead.
I know that there are still people who raise an eyebrow or hide a smirk when they listen to the stories of mentally invaded individuals. Yet ask them what they would like to drink “I prefer Coke “(or other brands) the reply invariably come without even a perceivable pause. There is human scanner at the web site of Mind Guard which let you know how many logo’s becomes a part of your being. It is all done in jest. But the reality is disturbing. You can be sensitized or programmed for any thing using the media.
Now your entire skin is going to be colonized too it seems.
Did Engels know that there were such pitfalls to progress?
The article of Engels "Natural Science in the Spirit World" could be found in his book Dialectics of Nature . I do not know if it is available now.
If the highlighted links do not work you can use these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Engels
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnosis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Russel_Wallace
http://books.google.co.in/books?id=EwLDEB3v3HMC&pg=PA128&lpg=PA128&dq=Spencer+Hall+19th+century&source=web&ots=IQ2OE37osV&sig=gg273kqcfqTuZRS9hbgRPyuyp50&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
http://totl.net/VirusScanner/?
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