A Dangerous Plaything

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 22, 1903

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 16.

A Dangerous Plaything

It is well known that the power of hypnotism is a power divorced from good, a power whose possibilities for mischief are manifold. This has been proved again and again and in many ways. The following occurrence will further illustrate the dangerous and wicked possibilities of that power. A despatch from Monmouth, Ill., dated April 6, says: “Mrs. Marshall Mink, who, with her husband, was hypnotized by reading Professor Harraden’s books on hypnotism, died at Watertown Asylum to-day. The case is one of the most peculiar and mystifying ever known to the medical fraternity.”

The victims were under thirty years of age and the parents of two children. Both were sound mentally and physically. Recently they saw an advertisement of Professor Harraden, of Jackson, Mich., who purported to teach hypnotism. The Minks sent for books. In the first lesson both became partially under hypnotic influence, and for several days continued in that state, both endeavoring to wield their will power over the other. The husband at last lost control over his wife and both were brought here. The case puzzled the physicians. A local hypnotist partially succeeded in restoring Mrs. Mink to her normal state, but only for a brief period. She became worse and was sent to an asylum. Superintendent Taylor says the case developed into the most violent mania he had ever seen; the patient’s sufferings were terrible; she imagined she had been melted into a liquid state, turned into stone, and born again; she continued growing worse and sank into a comatose state, from which she never rallied.”

It is not a difficult matter for a Christian to decide what is the source of a power which accomplishes such results. The Christian will not be found playing with any such power. It is one of Satan’s agencies for destroying the mind, that men may be unable to discern the truth of God.