hypnotism is much easier and more
systematically developed than with us of the West. The performances of
the dervishes, and also of the fakirs, who wound themselves and perform
many wonderful feats which would be difficult for an ordinary person,
are no doubt in part feats of hypnotism.

While in a condition of auto-hypnotization a person may imagine that he
is some other personality. Says Dr. Cocke: "A curious thing about those
self-hypnotized subjects is that they carry out perfectly their own
ideals of the personality with whom they believe themselves to be
possessed. If their own ideals of the part they are playing are
imperfect, their impersonations are ridiculous in the extreme. One man I
remember believed himself to be controlled by the spirit of Charles
Sumner. Being uneducated, he used the most wretched English, and his
language was utterly devoid of sense. While, on the other hand, a very
intelligent lady who believed herself to be controlled by the spirit of
Charlotte Cushman personated the part very well."

Dr. Cooke says of himself: "I can hypnotize myself to such an extent
that I will become wholly unconscious of events taking place around me,
and a long interval of time, say from one-half to two hours, will be a
complete blank. During this condition of auto-hypnotization I will obey
suggestions made to me by another, talking rationally, and not knowing
any event that has occurred after the condition has passed off."

CHAPTER VI.

Simulation.--Deception in Hypnotism Very Common.--Examples of Neuropathic
Deceit.--Detecting Simulation.--Professional Subjects.--How Dr. Luys of the
Charity Hospital at Paris Was Deceived.--Impossibility of Detecting
Deception in All Cases.--Confessions of a Professional Hypnotic Subject.

It has already been remarked that hypnotism and hysteria are conditions
very nearly allied, and that hysterical neuropathic individuals make the
best hypnotic subjects. Now persons of this character are in most cases
morally as well as physically degenerate, and it is a curious fact that
deception seems to be an inherent element in nearly all such characters.
Expert doctors have been thoroughly deceived. And again, persons who
have been trying to expose frauds have also been deceived by the
positive statements of such persons that they were deceiving the doctors
when they were not. A diseased vanity seems to operate in such cases and
the subjects take any method which promises for the