Practical Mental Influence; A Course of Lessons on Mental Vibrations, Psychic Influence, Personal Magnetism, Fascination, Psychic Self-Protection, Etc - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII. HYPNOTIC INFLUENCE. ( A S we have mentioned in the previous lesson, 11 I tnere s a general resemblance between the I manifestation of Mental Influence, known as "Fascination," and that known as Hypnotic Influence. In the manifestation known as Fascination, the influence is exerted solely by ThoughtWaves passing from mind to mind without a physical medium or channel other than the ether. In Hypnotic Influence, on the contrary, the influence is heightened by means of passes, strokings or eye-influence. In Hypnotic Influence the mind of the person affected, whom we shall call the "subject," is rendered passive by a flow of mental energy calculated to render it more or less drowsy or sleepy, and therefore less calculated to set up powers of resistence to the Thought-Waves of the person using the influence. But the power employed is the same in all cases, no matter whether they fall under the classification of Fascination or whether that of Hypnotic Influence. The two classes of manifestation, as a matter of fact, really blend into each other, and it is difficult to draw a dividing line in some cases. Hypnotic Influence is a form of that which was formerly termed Mesmerism, which name was given to it in honor of its discoverer, Frederick Anton Mesmer, who practiced this form of Mental Influence during the latter half of the Eighteenth Century. As a fact, however, the force and its use was known to the ancients centuries before Mesmer's time, the latter person having merely re-discovered it. Mesmer taught that the power was based upon the presence of a strange universal fluid which pervaded everything, and which had a peculiar effect upon the nerves and brains of people. He and his followers believed that it was necessary to put...