I saw this and thought of a number of folks I know . . .

“the moment I was settled on the sofa, with my hands in his — all apprehension vanished, a calmness, a delightful resignation to his will came over me. My eyes were irresistibly drawn to his and in vain did I combat the superior power of my Mesmerist. A pleasant thrill ran from my fingers throughout my body towards my feet — my heart pounded with joy . . .

“The faces and figures of those around me dissolved, one melting into another until the last vision of them seemed to vanish in …[his]… eyes. He was no longer …[him]… to me, but my all, part of myself; what he wished, I wished. In fact the attraction astonished me. The cares, the interest in this life ceased. I felt no longer a common mortal but infinitely superior and yet felt my Mesmeriser far superior to myself.”

Sound familiar? Does to me. A lot of folks actually look for that sort of reaction, they seek that sensation of melting away . . . part of the social expectation of hypnosis that isn’t really part of the inherent power of hypnosis, but which often occurs because of unconscious expectations and the excitement of the imagination. For the right folks, it’s very powerful stuff.

This is from a testimony by a woman treated with mesmerism (early hypnosis) by Dr. Scoresby as quoted in Alison Winter’s Mesmerized: Powers of the Mind in Victorian England (pp. 257-8), an excellent historical text well worth the read.

The illustration for this entry is of Svengali hypnotizing Trilby, the full size version of the image is here and you can get the George Du Maurier novel here.