HYPNOTISM IN COURTS by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Aug 23, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 34.

HYPNOTISM IN COURTS.

By Editor

The Devil to Be a Helper in Reform.

WE have given favorable comment in times past on the Juvenile Court of Denver, Colo., as an earnest effort to reform the young. But we wish to take all back if the method proposed in the following news item is to be followed:

DENVER, July 28.—Hypnotism is to be adopted by Judge Lindsey as a distinct feature in the work of the Juvenile Court, in which work he has won prominence. This fact was announced to-day by the judge on his return from Portland, Ore., where he has been attending the International Convention of Charities and Corrections. The manifold possibilities which lie in this new method, which is undoubtedly the most sensational ever introduced in any court in any place, were discussed at length by Judge Lindsey. He is under the impression that he will be able to do more good, which will be lasting good, by this mode of treatment than he has ever done heretofore.

"My intention is," said he, "to practise myself, so that I may become proficient. I shall also have my other workers study the subject. I shall endeavor when I am away to secure the services of prominent hypnotists to take my place in dealing with the children. When I take it up, as I have determined to do, I shall go into it for all that it is worth."

While the children are in a hypnotic state the cessation of objectionable behaviour will be suggested to them and they will be released.

The Lord Jehovah created the mind free. All the effort put forth by Him through all the ages has been for the purpose of freeing men from bondage and establishing that freedom. Even the Creator will not enter the sacred circle, which He has placed around humanity, to compel man to do right. "Choose ye" is the only way Infinite Love can deal with man, and the only true way. Only by free choice is character rightly developed and the will properly trained and strengthened.

But hypnotism—suggestion to enslaved minds—has ever been one of the potent means that Satan has ever used for the weakening and enslaving of minds. The Creator's plan was and is that man's mind should be subject to one will alone in all the universe, and that is the will of his God and Saviour, in the subjection to which he finds perfect freedom. But hypnotism subjects the human will to that of the human, to the creature, weakens its resisting power, and leaves the soul a prey to the devil for all time to come.

For it is well known that a person who has been once hypnotized more readily yields to its influence the next time, and still more easily the next time. The power to resist the influence is finally destroyed, and the soul is left a derelict on the sea of irresponsible mentality. And all such will be used by the chief hypnotist in all this world, the devil; men may subject souls to their own will by its influence with the best of motives, but by that very means they are weakening that soul's will, they are destroying its resisting power, and are rendering him a much easier prey to the master of hypnotism—the devil. And therefore he who is using this means—he be judge or physician or teacher or minister—is acting, the unconscious to himself, as an agent of the devil. If that is the method of this Denver court, whatever its temporary result, it will reap a fearful harvest in the judgment.