574. Our survey of that important, though inchoate, appeal to the subliminal self which passes under the name of hypnotism is now nearly as complete - in its brief sketchy form - as the present state of knowledge permits. I have traced the inception of the mesmeric or hypnotic processes; I have followed out in both directions the development of the sleeping phase of personality which hypnotism involves. In the first place, I have illustrated the hypnotic extension of that regenerative or vivifying power which the subliminal self habitually manifests in sleep. In the second place, I have indicated the still more important hypnotic development of that greater detachment, that supernormal faculty, which also the subliminal self has been found in the visions of slumber not rarely to display.

Here, then, my review of hypnotism might not unfitly close; and I might venture to hope that I had welded many scattered and obscure phenomena into at least something more of apparent unity than previous writers have achieved.

And yet from my point of view - attaching to hypnotism the grave importance which has here been attached to it - one line of reflection seems still lacking before we can pass on with satisfaction to another topic.

I have attempted to trace the inevitable rise of hypnotism - its necessary development out of the spontaneous phenomena which preceded and which might so naturally have suggested it. I have shown, nevertheless, its almost accidental initiation, and then its rapid development in ways which no single experimenter has ever been able to correlate or to foresee. I am bound to say something further as to its prospect in the future. A systematic appeal to the deeper powers in man - conceived with the generality with which I have here conceived it - cannot remain a mere appanage of medical practice. It must be fitted on in some way to the whole serious life of man; it must present itself to him as a development of faiths and instincts which lie already deep in his heart. In other words, there must needs be some scheme of self-suggestion, - some general theory which can give the individual a basis for his appeal, whether he regards that appeal as directed to an intelligence outside himself or to his own inherent faculties and informing soul.

These helps to the power of generalisation - to the feeling of confidence - we must consider now.

575. The schemes of self-suggestion which have actually been found effective have covered, not unnaturally, a range as wide as all the superstition and all the religion of men. That is to say, that each form of supernatural belief in turn has been utilised as a means of securing that urgently-needed temporal blessing - relief from physical pain. We see the same tendency running through fetichistic, polytheistic, monotheistic forms of belief. Beginning with fetichistic peoples, we observe that charms of various kinds, - inert objects, arbitrary gestures, meaningless words, - have probably been actually the most general means which our race has employed for the cure of disease. We know how long some forms of primitive belief persisted in medicine, - as, for example, the doctrine of likenesses, or the cure of a disease by some object supposed to resemble its leading symptom. What is, however, even more remarkable is the efficacy which charms still continue in some cases to possess, even when they are worn merely as an experiment in self-suggestion by a person who is perfectly well aware of their intrinsic futility.

The experiments on this subject, given in 575 A, seem to show that the mere continual contact of some small unfamiliar object will often act as a reminder to the subliminal self, and keep, at any rate, some nervous disturbances in check. Until one reads these modern examples, one can hardly realise how veritably potent for good may have been the savage amulet, the savage incantation.

576. The transition from fetichistic to polytheistic conceptions of cure is, of course, a gradual one. It may be said to begin when curative properties are ascribed to objects not arbitrarily, nor on account of the look of the objects themselves, but on account of their having been blessed or handled by some divine or semi-divine personage, or having formed part of his body or surroundings during some incarnation. Thus Lourdes water, bottled and exported, is still held to possess curative virtue on account of the Virgin's original blessing bestowed upon the Lourdes spring. But generally the influence of the divine or divinised being is more directly exercised, as in oracles, dreams, invisible touches, or actual theophanies, or appearances of the gods to the adoring patient. It will be seen as we proceed how amply the tradition of Lourdes has incorporated these ancient aids to faith.

But at this point our modern experience suggests to us a remarkable interpolation in the antique chain of ideas. It is now alleged that departed persons need not exert influence through their dead bones alone, nor yet only by their supposed intermediacy with higher powers. There intervenes, in fact, the whole topic of spirit-healing, - which cannot, however, be treated fully here.

Next in the ascending scale from polytheism to monotheism we come to the "Miracles of Lourdes," to which I have just alluded, where the supposed healer is the Virgin Mary, reverenced as semi-divine. This form of belief, however, retains (as has been said) some affinity with fetichism, since the actual water from the Lourdes spring, supposed to have been blessed by the Virgin, is an important factor in the cures.

Much further removed from primitive belief is the appeal made by Christian scientists to the aid of Jesus Christ; - either as directly answering prayer, or as enabling the worshippers to comprehend the infinite love on which the universe is based, and in face of which pain and sickness become a vain imagination or even a sheer nonentity.