With this brief sketch in mind, we are prepared to examine some of the more important phenomena of hypnotism, both in its early and its later developments. A simple case would be as follows:--
A patient comes to the physician's office complaining of continual headaches, general debility, nervousness, and unsatisfactory sleep. She is willing to be hypnotized, and is accompanied by a friend. The physician seats her comfortably in a chair, and, seating himself opposite her, he takes her thumbs lightly between his own thumbs and fingers, asks her to look steadily at some convenient object--perhaps a shirt-stud or a specified button upon his coat. Presently her eyelids quiver and then droop slowly over her eyes; he gently closes them with the tips of his fingers, holds them lightly for a moment, and she is asleep.
He then makes several slow passes over her face and down the front of her body from head to foot, also some over her head and away from it, all without contact and without speaking to her. He lets her sleep ten or fifteen minutes--longer, if convenient--and then, making two or three upward passes over her face, he says promptly: "All right; wake up."
She slowly opens her eyes, probably smiles, and looks a little foolish at having slept. He inquires how she feels. She replies:
"I feel remarkably well--so rested--as though I had slept a whole night."
(Looking surprised.) "It is quite well--the pain is all gone."
"Very well," he says. "You will continue to feel better and stronger, and you will have good sleep at night."
And so it proves. Bernheim or a pupil of his would sit, or perhaps stand, near his patient, and in a quiet but firm voice talk of sleep.
"Sleep is what you need. Sleep is helpful and will do you good. Already, while I am talking to you, you are beginning to feel drowsy. Your eyes are tired; your lids are drooping; you are growing more and more sleepy; your lids droop more and more."
Then, if the eyelids seem heavy, he presses them down over the eyes, all the time affirming sleep. If sleep comes, he has succeeded; if not, he resorts to gestures, passes, the steady gaze, or whatever he thinks likely to aid his suggestion.
When the patient is asleep he suggests that when she awakes her pains and nervousness will be gone, and that she will have quiet and refreshing sleep at night. What is the condition of the patient while under the influence of this induced sleep? Pulse and respiration are little, if at all, changed; they may be slightly accelerated at first, and later, if very deep sleep occurs, they may be slightly retarded. Temperature is seldom changed at all, though, if abnormally high before the sleep is induced, it frequently falls during the sleep.