The development of the concepts and practices related to hypnosis have been documented for thousands of years, but became particularly popular in the 19th and 20th centuries. It entered the 19th century as an activity associated with quacks, only to later become an approved medical technique practiced in hospitals and other medical institutions. Source: wikipedia.org/History_of_hypnosis; historyofhypnosis.org
Hypnotism, as defined by the Standard Dictionary, is “an artificially-induced somnambulistic (trance-like) state in which the mind becomes passive, acting readily upon suggestion or direction.” Touching the same phenomenon, the Century Dictionary says: “The subject believes, and at last does all that is commanded.”
That these definitions are no more than the truth, is abundantly shown by the testimony of hypnotists themselves. One of the most prominent of these in America says:
“What is hypnotism? … What force is exerted that, after making a man sleep, rouses him to a false wakefulness in which he obeys any suggestion, loses his identity, speaks a language foreign to him, feels contradictory sensations, takes part in strange scenes, and then is suddenly aroused, to have no memory of what has happened? … It is the most wonderful thing on earth. … Hypnotism is a spell, or trance-like sleep, that one person, by certain simple methods, casts over another. …
“The mind of the subject is entirely under the control of the operator. He may be made to see and hear, to think and feel, exactly as the hypnotist wishes. … No pen could adequately describe the marvels that may be brought about by hypnotism. You must see it and learn to use it before you can fully realize how wonderful is that silent and mysterious force which enables one man to seize on its very throne the will of another, and make him conform to his slightest wish in every act and feeling.”
The divine law demands that all our powers be exercised in subjection to the will of God. “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,” says the Saviour; while the apostolic injunction is, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” (Mark 12:30; 1 Corinthians 10:31.)
But in hypnotism we have a “silent and mysterious force,” which usurps the place of the Creator and “enables one man to seize on its very throne the will of another man and make him conform to his slightest wish in every act and feeling.” Surely no man has any right to make such a surrender of his will, to so place himself under the power and will of another; and just so surely has no man the right to usurp such power over the mind and will of another. Such power belongs alone to God, for He only can safely hold such power.
Nor is it necessary in all cases that the subject make a conscious surrender of his will to the operator. L. W. DeLaurence, professional hypnotist and magnetic healer, in his book, Hypnotism, under the heading, “People Hypnotized Against Their Will,” says: “There is a way in which a shrewd hypnotist can succeed in putting people under the influence who really do not care to be hypnotized.” He then describes his method of entrapping an unwilling victim, and concludes thus: “You can then proceed by a few well-chosen suggestions to put him dead asleep and induce somnambulism or trance in the regular way. He will ever afterwards be your subject if you understand your business in giving post-hypnotic suggestions.”
Thus hypnotism not only accepts the sovereignty of the mind when voluntarily surrendered to it, but by force and fraud “seizes upon its very throne the will” of the unwary victim of its hellish arts. Is not such power satanic, if not in its origin, at least in its exercise?
Whether this power is satanic, that is, whether Satan or one of his angels merely works through the hypnotist or steps in to complete what he has begun, or whether “the silent and mysterious force” is simply the perversion of a God-given power, matters little. “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?” Romans 6:16. If the power is satanic, that is if it is conferred upon the hypnotist by Satan, then he who yields to it directly is the servant of Satan. On the other hand, if this “silent and mysterious force” which seizes “on its very throne the will of another,” is only a perverted and misused power, originally God-given and for that reason inherent in man, then he who yields to it becomes, not indeed primarily the servant of Satan, but a servant of one who is himself Satan’s servant; and of whom it may be truly said, “A servant of servants shall he be.” Genesis 9:25, last part. But in either case, the effect can only be ruinous to the one who thus surrenders his will.
How fully the willpower may be seized upon, and with what results, may be seen by the following warning from a noted hypnotist of the better class. He says:
“The hypnotized may fall hopeless victims to the most criminal and harmful actions, not only while they sleep, but after they have been awakened. … There lies such infernal power in the hands of the hypnotizer that every one ought to be strictly forbidden to meddle with hypnotism, except those who are honorable and trustworthy. The hypnotized can by all kinds of suggestions be made not only to harm themselves, but also others, and they may even be irresistibly driven to any crime.”
The question might be asked very appropriately, Where is there a man sufficiently honorable and trustworthy to be a safe custodian of such power, who would be willing to assume the responsibility? Any man who covets such power is an unsafe and dangerous man, no matter what his profession. No man has any right to such power over any human being.
That this “silent and mysterious force” is sometimes used for the alleviation of pain and the subduing of incorrigible children, does not make it any less dangerous. For when the occasion requires it, “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers [and agencies] also be transformed as the ministers [and agencies] of righteousness.” 2 Corinthians 11:14, 15
Moreover, this false angel of light collects an awful and lasting toll for all the supposed or pretended benefits conferred. The willpower of the subject is forever broken, and he is ever afterwards subject to the will of the hypnotist, unless rescued and set free by divine grace.
Nor is this all; in a book giving instructions in hypnotism, the would-be operator is warned in these words: “If you become excited after having the subject under control, he may remain in that condition for hours, but in my experience there is no danger if you manage right.”
That there is not only danger of mismanagement, but that it often occurs, is shown by the facts connected with two out of a number of cases that might be cited.
In one of these cases the subject was made to believe that he was a pugilist (a fighter). The hypnotist lost control first of himself and of course of his subject, who soon cleared the house and then began the destruction of fences and other property outside, using as his weapon a heavy ornamental urn. Sixteen young men present were unable to restrain the fury of the subject, who, after thrusting aside his friends, as he might have done so many children, began tearing the clothing from his own body like the man described in Luke 8:26–29. The police patrol was called, and after a desperate struggle by five policemen, the young man was handcuffed and held down while a physician administered morphine to him by hypodermic injection; but even after arriving at the hospital he again became violent, and it was again necessary to quiet him with powerful drugs. We are told that after this experience “he was weak and nervous.” Is it any wonder?
The second sample case, illustrative of the “no danger” assurance is that of a young man, a teacher of music, who submitted himself to a professional hypnotist to be taught the “art.” Very soon dangerous symptoms began to manifest themselves, such as unnatural nervousness, great mental agitation, rapid dilation and contraction of the pupils of his eyes, etc., and in a short time he became hopelessly insane.
And let no one suppose that the hypnotist is himself safe. No man can debauch the will and mind of another without sinning against his own soul. Nor is this all; the operator may become self-hypnotized and fall into that form of hypnotic sleep technically known as the “lethargic” or “independent state.” This is a condition so closely resembling death as to deceive even experts. “There is no doubt,” says Professor DeLaurence, “that Bishop, the mind reader, was in this condition when the autopsy was performed upon his supposed dead body.” Nor is self-induced hypnotism uncommon. In the fall of 1904, the newspapers reported the case of a hypnotist in New York City who went to one of the hospitals there and begged to be taken care of, as he feared that he was about to pass involuntarily into the lethargic state, and was in terror lest he might be buried alive.
Surely such facts alone, if there were no moral principle involved, ought to deter anyone from meddling in any way with this “silent and mysterious force.”
Another statement made by hypnotists, and which is doubtless true, demands special consideration. It ought to appeal strongly to Christian minds. It is the claim that under this “silent and mysterious force” the subject “loses his identity” and “speaks a language foreign to him.”
The power thus to speak in an unknown tongue is one of the gifts of the Spirit of God; but it would be blasphemy to assert that it is the Divine Spirit that confers this power upon the hypnotized subject. Nobody claims this; indeed it is asserted that the mind and will of the subject are controlled by the mind and will of the human operator, the hypnotist. The real truth, however, is that the hypnotic gift of tongues is nothing more nor less than a satanic counterfeit of the Divine Spirit’s gift of tongues on the Day of Pentecost. In its nature and tendency, it is closely akin to the false miracles wrought by Jannes and Jambres for the purpose of discrediting the signs shown by Moses and Aaron. Now, as these magicians withstood Moses, so will there be in the last days men professing godliness who will oppose and seek to discredit truth by various counterfeits and substitutes. (See 2 Timothy 3:8.)
Hypnotism is new only in name, for it has long been practiced by heathen conjurers in India, and has been known to Western Civilization for more than a century and a half under the name of “Mesmerism;” while its principles are doubtless as old as the human race. But its modern growth and the wonderful claims made for it are nevertheless suggestive of the dawn of the time foretold by the apostle, when Satan shall work “with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10
Another evidence that hypnotism is not of God is found in the fact that while this power, or at least the knowledge of how to exercise it, may be bought with money, the gift of God is beyond purchase. “Thy money perish with thee,” said Peter to Simon the sorcerer, “because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.” Acts 8:20. But hypnotism is a commodity to be bought and sold, the same as the knowledge of any other money-making art.
Hypnotism, under whatever name it may be known, is evil and only evil continually, for it violates the great principle of liberty of soul, of individual responsibility and accountability. Whosoever surrenders his will to any man, should know that once out of his own keeping, his will can be restored to him only by a miracle of divine grace, and that he is in imminent danger of being led captive by Satan at his will. Therefore “avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.”
Past, Present, and Future, James Edson White, ©1909, 337–345
[All scripture taken from the King James Bible.]