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HYPNOTISM
67
In one case, there is necessity, in the other, no neces. sity; therefore an artificial condition is produced, The nerves are not ready to take rest; the blood is not ready. I do not mean to say that the blood is not ready to stop; it is circulating over the human body during sleep, but still there is a difference in the circulation. With regard to the other organs of the Senses, they are not ready to stop their functions, but this artificial condition stops their working. If all this is done, then what will be the condition of the body ? It will be like a machine which has been overworked, without giving it the necessary food in the form of coal, or of gas, or whatever is required. We all see the state which is produced in hypnotism, even at the slightest suggestion of the operator. The subject follows him, and does not know what he is doing. The strength of a human being consists in his being able to maintain his individuality, to maintain his individual character, to perform the functiors of reasoning, but in hypnotism, he does not perform those functions. When a suggestion is given to him he indeed deduces a conclusion from this suggestion, but he has 10 reasoning power of his own, so far as the external circumstances of the world are concerned; he is not himself. Still there are higher phases in which a certain lucidity is manifested, but this we do not call the hypnotic state. It is another stage; it ccmes after this induced sleep. But if a person knows a thousand times as much
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