Yoga Philosophy

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi, Bhagu F Karbhari
Publisher: Devchand Lalbhai Pustakoddhar Fund

Page 69

Hypnotism. I wish to include in this subject mesmerism, 1 hypnotism and Christian Science, and like means of curing disease, and at the same time the philosophy of all these different systems and their practical results, and what our opinions would be from the Hindu standpoint. We know that there are several different schools, of these different sciences. Mesmerism is the oldest so far as the study of the people in Europe is concerned. It began with Mesmer, who performed certain experiments in Europe and introduced some of his methods in France, and was successful in those methods of curing, and later on, after his death, his followers conducted the same experiments by the same methods, and succeeded. But the principal idea connected with mesmerism is that a certain magnetic fluid passes from the body and impresses itself upon the aura or some other subtle part of the patient, and makes a change in his bodily condition. That is the opinion, or rather the theory, on which mesmerism is based; but hypnotism was introduced later on, and its advocates say that this condition of the patient is not due to any magnetic fluid ; that it is simply the result of the suggestion or of some other physiological or nervous change. In this way the hypnotic school is divided into two divisions, one the Nancy and the other the Paris school. The first thinks that the