THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL — AUGUST 09, 1896
(Devices to Produce the Mesmeric State Mechanically.) ♢ WHIRLING MIRRORS AND CRYSTALS ♢ Influence of Certain Chemicals Upon Sensitive Subjects.
U S E S O F T H E P O W E R
EVEN HYPNOSIS may now be produced by machinery. We are approaching a day when the direct influence of Svengalies will not be necessary to throw Trilbies into subjective states, when hypnotists will exert their powers through machinery set to operate at given times, the presence of the instruments being unknown to the subjects. The mechanical mesmerizer will then find an essential place in the burglar’s tool kit, and we will have to look under our beds to see if such traps have been set by our enemies. The mechanical hypnotizer as now made, however, is strictly a scientific instrument. The government’s bureau of education recently purchased a collection of such apparatus, which are new in this country. They will be used by a specialist for studying the values of hypnotic suggestion in the education of the abnormal classes. [???] Experiments will be made determining their effect upon the sensibilities, emotions, breathing, circulation and temperature of the body.
AN ELABORATE APPARATUS.
