The first to give a really scientific direction to the investigation • appearances of this class was Mr. Braid, a surgeon in Manchester (see IIvrNoris3r), w • detaches them alto gether from the semblance of power exerted by one individu, over another, or by metallic disks or magnets, and traces the whole to the brain of tile subject, acted on by suggestion, a principle long known to psychologists, though nevdmade so prominent as it ought to be. The subject is ably handled in a paper in the ciforterly Review for Sept., 1853 (said to be by Dr. Carpenter). The reviewer traces the operation of this principle through the most ordinary actions, which no one thinks vcaiderful, up to the most miraculous of the so-called " spiritual" manifestations.
Ideas become associated in our minds by habit or otherwise, and one being awakened brings on another, thus forming a train of thought; this is internal suggestion. But im pressions from without originate and modify these trains, constituting external suggestion. While awake and in a normal condition, the will interfews with and directs these trains of thought, selecting some ideas to be dwelt upon, and comparing them with others and with present impressions. A comparative inactivity of this selecting and comparing faculty, leaving the flow of ideas to its spontaneous activity, produces the state of mind called reverie or abstraction. In dreaming and somnambulism, the will and judgment seem completely suspended; and under its internal suggestions the mind becomes a mere automaton, while external suggestions, if they act at all, act as upon a machine. TI-se are well-known facts of the human constitution, and independent of mesmerism, Ai their bearing upon it is obvious.
Another fact of like bearing is the effect of concentrated attention on any object of thought in intensifying the impression received. This may proceed so far, in morbid states of the nervous system, that an idea or revived sensation assumes the vividness of a present impression, and overpowers the evidence of the senses. Ideas thus bcc"me dominant, overriding the impressions of the outer world, and carrying themselves out into action independently of the will, and even without the consciousness of the individual. These dominant ideas play a greater part in human actions and beliefs than most are aware of. "Expectant attention" acts powerfully on the bodily organs, and often makes the individual see and hear what he expects to see and hear, and, without his conscious ness, moves his muscles to bring it about. These, too, are recognized facts in the science of physiology and psychology (see Carpenter's Human Physiology and Dr. Holland's chap ters on -Venial Physiology).
These principles enable us to bring together and explain a whole class of phenomena, reverie, dreaming, somnambulism, the inspiration of the Delphic priestess, re'igious ecstasies, the physical excitement attendant on " revivals" and "camp-meetings," belief in witchcraft, possession, and mania, individual and epidemic. And it is now held that
the manifestations of mesmerism, electro-biology, etc., belong to the same class, and are to be accounted for in the same way.
The mesmeric state is produced by a steady gaze at some fixed object. There is no peculiar virtue in the eyes of the mesmerist or in a metallic disk, for a spot on the wall will produce the effect. The thing requisite is a monotonous and sustained concentra tion of the subject's will, producing weariness and vacancy of mind; and this resembles the condition that induces reverie and sleep, and leaves the mind open to any suggestion, and at the command of any idea that may be made to possess him. But that he is governed by his own ideas, and not by the will of the mesmerizer, is clear No wish of the mes merizer, or of any other person, was ever known to the "subject" until it was conveyed to hin?, by voice or otherwise; while an idea suggested by putting his body in a certain posture, or by an accidental touch, has the same effect as a command. If he seems more subject to the will of the mesmerizer than of any one else, it is because he was previously impressed with that idea, and is therefore more awake to his suggestions. It is thus that lie operator is enabled to play upon him as an instrument—to make him taste, feel, ;link, and act, and lose and recover memory, the power over his limbs, or even his own "entity, as the operator dictates. We must content ourselves with thus indicating the Plimiple of explanation, to the reader to apply it in detail.
'he manifestations connected with table-turning, such of them as are genuine, are exInined by the operation of expectant attention. A of individuals sit round a table Vith their hands resting upon it, having the idea in their minds that it will or may inoveale direction of the expected movement being also agreed upon. Accordingly, if none o, party are very skeptical, it generally does move after a time, all declaring, and in Prfect good faith, that they did not press. And yet it has been proved, by a con trivance ‘f Faraday, that there always is pressure, though without the will or conscious ness of tilt performers; and this is only what is to be looked for from the involuntary effects of tidominant idea. This explanation does not suffice for many of the wonders related by believers to have happened. But all such are to be received with suspicion, and that witout accusing the relaters of bad faith. The very disposition to look for something on of the usual course of nature makes them incapable, for the time, of dis tinguishing wlat actually happens from what they expect to happen. The mysterious indications of tie divining-rod, and of an oscillating body, such as a ring, suspended from the finger, Ire all to be accounted for in a. similar way: they result from uninten tional muscular novement.