"On the following evening I was hypnotized twice lying on the sofa by Dr. von Speyr, and on the following day once by Professor Forel. The experiments mentioned were repeated with great ease, and, further, an arm was rendered rigid, and certain acts were required of me. The suggested analgesia often lasted for such a short time that when other suggestions were given immediately the pricks, which I had only felt as touches while they were being made, began to pain during the same hypnosis. Painful stiffness of my legs after a long walk, on the other hand, disappeared permanently after a few suggestions. When the impossibility of carrying out a certain movement was made to me I no longer observed the contractions of the antagonists so frequently. The power over my will appeared to be interfered with; my muscle would not contract, notwithstanding all my efforts. In the later suggestions my will had become so weakened that I no longer innervated at times, contrary to my intentions, because the vain attempt was too exhausting, or because I did not think for the moment of opposing the suggestion. When I was required to perform an act I was able to struggle against it for a long time. At length, however, I carried it out, partly from want of will-power to resist it, just as one gives in to a reflex which costs a great effort to resist. At other times I felt that the movement was made without any active taking part of my ego, this being especially marked with unimportant commands, such as the lifting of a leg. I had the feeling on several occasions of giving in in order to please the hypnotist. But since I was still mostly clear enough in such cases during the carrying out to attempt to resist, the uselessness of the latter convinced me of the incorrectness of my views. I felt every new suggestion, even the command to desist in an act which I had begun, at first to be unpleasant, and this made the resisting easier for me. I was able to oppose the order to fetch something outside the room with comparative ease, but could not do so when the act was divided up into its component parts - e.g., when I received the suggestion to move one leg, then the other, and so on until the act was accomplished.

"I was able to resist the carrying out of a posthypnotic suggestion. However, this cost me considerable trouble, and if I forgot my resolve for an instant during talking not to take any notice of the plate, which I was supposed to place somewhere else, I suddenly found myself fixing this object with my eyes. The thought of what I had been ordered to do worried me until I went to sleep, and when I was in bed I nearly got up again to carry it out, merely to ease my mind. However, I soon fell asleep, and the action of the suggestion was then lost.

"It was only possible once to call forth a hallucination. Professor Forel commanded me to put my finger into my mouth, and I would find it taste bitter. I expected to find a bitterness like that of aloes, and was very astonished to perceive a sweetish bitter salt taste, so that I believed that my hands must have been soiled. On awakening, a control showed that my fingers were free from any substance possessed of a taste. It therefore appears that the suggestion in this case had worked differently on my conceived thoughts than on my unconceived ones; the latter determined the realization of the suggestion.

"My consciousness was scarcely changed. However, after awakening from the two last hypnoses, in which amnesia had been suggested to me, although not very intensely, I had some difficulty in recalling everything. The temporary sequence of the experiments remained forgotten, while I could recall the logical connection to mind. I did not retain any recollections for a brief period of the third hypnosis. Once when the hypnotist made me lie quite quiet, slight traces of hypnogogic hallucinations made their appearance (I had attempted to study these several years ago).

"The awakening took about ten seconds in response to suggestion, against my will and unaccompanied by any marked symptoms, and was similar to the awakening from a light sleep.

"The condition in which I had been must be considered as being a milder degree of hypnosis, since no amnesia had been present. As is frequently the case, it could not be classified exactly according to the degrees of hypnotic sleep formulated by the various investigators. However, I have observed apparently identical conditions on several other occasions.

"The publication of further self-observations by educated persons is much to be desired, and would assist not inconsiderably in understanding hypnotic phenomena. For the present it would be important to know if the subjective symptoms of hypnosis are as enormously manifold and varying as are the objective symptoms, or if there may perchance be some regular rule in this respect."

I myself experienced a sort of autohypnosis some time ago (1878), when going to sleep on a sofa or in an easy-chair in the afternoon. I was only able to awaken myself with difficulty, and at first only partially, so that to begin with only certain muscle groups awakened - i.e., could be voluntarily moved - while the rest of the body remained cataleptic. At the same time partial dreams occurred (hallucinating of steps or of movements, which I really had not made, and the like).

Bleuler's observation is very instructive, for it shows very clearly the important part which the hypoconceived cerebral activity plays in suggestion.

A certain Dr. W. Gebhardt reproduced improperly, under the title "Medical Certificates," in an advertising prospectus which he circulated all over the place, quotations from the third edition of this book (cures), to which ho appends my name without mentioning the source. This gives the impression that I (and also my colleagues Bernheim, Wetterstrand, Ringier, and Burck-hardt, with whom he has dealt in a similar manner) had tried and approved of the method of cure called by him (Doctor Gebhardt) the Lie'beault-Levy method, and also that I had communicated these cases to him for publication. My colleagues mentioned above and I have already publicly objected to the misappropriation of our names, and Drs. Liebeault and Levy have done the same. All seven of us have stated that we have absolutely nothing to do with Doctor Gebhardt's publication. Not one of us is acquainted with I wish to add here that I naturally do not give certificates for methods of treatment to anyone, and I warn the reader of this book against any future misuse of the kind. Lastly, 1 state that Dr. C. Bertschinger (U. S. A.), who publicaly claims to be a former assistant of mine, never was my assistant.-DR. A. FOREL.