SOME THOUGHTS ON HYPNOTISM.
By Editor
HYPNOTISM is defined by the Standard Dictionary to be:—
(1) An artificially induced somnambulistic state in which the mind becomes passive, acting readily upon suggestion or direction, and upon regaining normal consciousness retaining little or no recollection of the actions or ideas dominant during the condition. (2) In therapeutics, a method of treatment that acts through and directly on the mind and nervous system, resulting in the condition defined above; now much used by some physicians.
It is identical with mesmerism. One of the great hypnotic schools, classes personal magnetism as "a manifestation of hypnotism," as "really the only dangerous phase of hypnotism." This school declares that personal magnetism
is an effect produced by hypnotic influence in which the person operated upon is entirely unconscious of the fact that you are influencing him. He is perfectly wide awake, and accepts your suggestions because he thinks he has reasoned over the matter and believes that his reason tells him to do so. But in truth he has not reasoned, he can not reason while this subtle influence is upon him. He is practically an automaton, obeying a will more royal than his own.
We are told further that all sorts of folly is committed under this form of hypnotism, and that
simply because you have a strong will you are not exempt from this influence. No man is so easy to influence as the one who believes in his great strength of will power and imagines that it will render him immune. In his fancied security he fails to provide against attack.
Professor Sheppard, cited as the best authority in the world, is quoted as saying, in his lectures before the Universities of St. Andrews and Aberdeen:—
All this mesmeric [hypnotic] power of which we read so much, works out from the physical side of our nature.
The school above referred to presents scores of letters from judges, lawyers, physicians, dentists, members of State university faculties and boards, professors, preachers, business men, and others in all the walks of life, indorsing the use of hypnotism. We are told that
the day is not far distant when the person without this knowledge will stand practically no chance in the race of life.
Thus much for its claims, indorsements, etc. There is no doubt that as never before this occult power is being used to influence thousands. Many are in doubt regarding it. Is it not good, they inquire, when it will heal the sick and influence for good? As a sample of these inquiries an earnest soul asks us the following questions:— Please tell me what is hypnotism as taught by the Institute of —, and others. Is it a power for good? Can it be used to heal disease? Is it a great good in surgical operation, as they claim? Is it right for Christians to spend time and money to investigate it with a view to using it in curing disease? Is it in line with "Christian Science" and "Spiritualism"? Can a person be hypnotized without the consent of his own mind? I am very desirous of knowing the truth in regard to this subject. In reply to the above, we would say:—
1. The definition of hypnotism has been given above. If we were to suggest a definition, it would be, "An abnormal control of one creature's mind, will, and actions by the will of another creature." Some of those who have used it longest (or been used by it) speak of it as a force or influence which exists, but of which they know little.
2. Unquestionably there is a class of nervous functional and imaginary diseases which have been temporarily helped by it, perhaps permanently. It has been used as an anaesthetic, seemingly successfully. It has also been used to destroy the habits of strong drink and morphia.
"Why, then, is it not good?" you ask. And we answer, Because it is contrary to the law of God and the liberty of the Gospel.
## God's Purpose for Man.
It is God's design that man shall be free, as free as the bird, the streamlet, the air. He created the mind free. Man enslaved it to sin, and the natural man is sin's servant; for "every one that committeth sin is the bond-servant of sin." John 8:34, R.V. Jesus Christ came to awaken men from sin's hypnosis, to set men free from sin's bondage. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; . . . to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." Luke 4:18. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." John 8:36. And in knowing Him, "ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Verse 32. His word of power speaks to every willing soul in sin's death-sleep: "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee." Eph. 5:14, R.V.
Submission to God is submission to the mind and will and love of Him who fills the universe. It is liberty in all His glorious infinity so far as we are capable.
## The Bondage of Creature-Worship.
Nay, more: the liberty given of God is freedom even to enslave ourselves in the utter bondage of sin and death. He who is God's freeman is free to do good, and has all the infinite power of God by which to do it, and all the infinite possibilities of eternity in which to do it. He is also free to turn at once from this blessed liberty to the bondage of the creature; and the bondage of the creature is the bondage of sin. For to submit to the finite the control of mind and will is missing the mark of God's glorious purpose concerning man, and coming short of God's glory. Rom. 3:23. God sets man free, that he may have liberty for infinite good.
But bondage of the creature to the creature, the subjection of one creature's will to that of another, is bondage and not freedom. While he is so submitted, in the words quoted above, he even "can not reason while this influence is upon him. He is practically an automaton, obeying a will more royal than his own." But obeying another will from that of God is sin, and is falling from the glorious liberty of the Son of God.
Says the Spirit, "Ye were bought with a price; become not bond-servants of men." 1 Cor. 7:23. Even the Christian slave is not to serve his earthly master because he is a slave, but he is to serve in singleness of heart, fearing God. "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Christ." Col. 3:22-24.
## Spiritual versus Physical.
Moreover, God rules, and we gladly accept His rule, by the spiritual nature controlling the fleshly. The base, the low, the selfish is dominated, controlled, "put to death by the Spirit." But in control of the human by the human, as above stated by a high authority, hypnotism "works out from the physical side of our nature." It is the ministration of the flesh. It is controlling man's mind through the physical, carnal side. It is contrary to the Spirit.
## Its Origin.
Is it therefore good?—Nay, it is evil. Satan, the highest of all God's creatures, who sealed up the sum of creature-wisdom and perfectness of beauty, chose the path of selfishness and sin; by his personal magnetism deceived and led astray a third of the angelic host; conspired against the government of God, and is using all his seductive craft and vast array of hellish forces to destroy the inhabitants of this little world, where is being wrought out the great problems of eternity, and where will be eternally settled the triumph of righteousness over sin, of love over force. Satan is working through men to enslave and destroy souls. And every sin which teaches the subjection of the mind and will to that of any other creature, dead or alive, angel or human, let it be called "Science" or "Christian," is of Satan, of evil, and not of God.
It will come in the garb of righteousness; it will clothe itself with seeming light and healing; it will deceive if it were possible the very elect. 2 Cor. 11:14; 15:2 Thess. 2:10; Rev. 12:9; 13:13, 14. But all its cloaking in borrowed garments, all its pretended beneficence, all its miracles, are wrought for the flesh, as deadly opiates to the spirit. Liberty to the flesh is given that the soul may be enchained in the eternal bondage of death.
Hypnotism is of the same origin as "Christian Science," and "Spiritualism," and every other scheme of self-salvation, or salvation by the human. However many good, well-disposed souls have been led away by them, they are all of the same origin, having the Edenic falsehood as their base. "Ye shall not surely die; . . . ye shall be as God."
## The Christian Can Not Use It.
3. The Christian can not use such a power as hypnotism, because he will not counterwork God's purpose in any soul. He will not seek to break the power of choice and freedom in a single soul, and bind that soul to his own limitations. To do that would be to exalt himself to the place of God, and then he would be no longer Christian, but antichrist. He will be gladly content to point every soul to the One who is "mighty to save" "even to the uttermost" every soul who will come to Him. The true Christian, then, by whatever name he may be called, will not seek to use, nor will he care7to investigate, the counterfeit of Satan when he knows the genuine of God.
#### How May We Escape?
Hypnotists tell us that by far the greatest amount of the exercise of the influence, and that which is the most potent for good or ill, is when the subject is wholly unconscious of the influence. Man can be hypnotized, evidently, without the conscious, active consent of his own mind. But it is only when the mind is under the control of evil, actively or passively, that Satan can control it in hypnotism.
But every soul can resist its influence by active, willing service in the liberty of Christ. He who abides in Christ will "walk at liberty." Satan can not control him in whose heart Christ dwells by faith. No man is able to pluck the sheep from the Shepherd's hand. Trust in Him. Yield will and heart and life only to the Infinite One, who "is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory," and, despite all the power of Satan, "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."