Reason is the great truth-organ of the soul. Let us be true to it. Now, the class of phenomena investigated under the name of hypnotism attracts more general attention, because the scientific and the popular mind is more advanced and in a more receptive mood. As the race advances in knowledge of hypnotism and in psychic lore, and in an unfoldment of the spiritual nature, the faculty of hypnotism will become more and more stimulated into activity and become a guide and power in the human family. Sixty eminent physicians and dental surgeons conducted some very remarkable hypnotic experiments, in Berlin, in the case of a girl whose tonsils were removed by an absolutely painless operation. During the state of coma, the patient obeyed the slightest suggestion of the hypnotizer. Another patient was hypnotized by a letter, in the absence of the operator, written to a surgeon named Turner, and worded thus: "Go to sleep by order of Br. Bramwell. Obey Mr. Turner's commands." Dr. Bramwell also hypnotized another patient by a note sent by the hands of his daughter; and still another, by a message sent by telegraph. The subject is one of deep interest in all departments of human nature, but more especially in the domain of life. Persons can also be influenced by mental suggestions alone.
No one can fathom the limit of consciousness. Invisible agents or forces in their inter-relation with the imperceptible particles of matter make up the subtle states of the phenomenal universe; therefore, we may say that every gross form is but an expression of some subtle force acting upon subtle particles of matter. In some individuals, the hypnotic suggestion received may, in its effects, ebb and flow through a lifetime; with others it vanishes as soon as they are out of the magnetic aura. All physicians who have devoted themselves closely to the magnetic sleep, are unanimous that the hypnotic sleep is simply deeper than ordinary sleep, and that it is not only harmless but even refreshing, like the latter. Every psychologist knows that ordinary sleep presents many analogies to insanity; yet no one would, on that account, forbid us to sleep. No tale in the "Arabian Nights," no story of the wondrous treasures taken by mystic power from magic nutshells, surpasses what hypnotism is doing to-day. This is an age of sleepless inquiry, and consequently of innumerable doubts touching God, man, life and immortality. The protoplasm or molecule as a fact, and evolution as a theory, have set adrift a large percentage of mankind. Old anchors have been weighed or are dragging.
If you do not understand the visible things which appear to your objective mind or the invisible which vibrate on your subjective mind, and refuse to learn from nature the great lessons of life, light and love, how is it that you expect to know anything of the higher spheres of human ethics or immortal psychics? To understand a picture one must be sure of the central figure. To mistake the central figure, is to mistake the picture.
ref. Hypnotism and Suggestion by E. Virgil Neal and Charles S. Clerk