The firm establishing of the facts covered by the term hypnosis, and the discovery of the methods duly under control for the manipulation of the state, make it possible to give a more or less judicial opinion as to the permanent value of it for psychological and medical sciences. In the opinion of the present writer, it is still too early to state conclusions as to its use for education, moral, social reform, etc. Since the facts upon which such conclusions should rest are still too meagre to afford more than conjectural opinions.

Admitting the truth of the "suggestion" theory of hypnosis, the theory originally suggested, but in an extreme form by the Nancy School and contributed to in its present form by men of all shades of opinion, we find that in psychology proper, certain principles are supported by it which are of very great generality and importance. The suggestion theory applies the term suggestion in a very wide sense. Any more or less abrupt injection of an idea or thought into the patient's mind in a way to hold his attention fixed and thus to narrow his consciousness by withdrawal from other ideas, - this is called suggestion. This is an old fact, - the possibility of doing this. But the possibility of controlling the patient's thought through a series of such suggestions and furthermore of controlling the effects of such suggestion upon his action both during and after his hypnosis, - these are new and quite remarkable discoveries and from these certain consequences I shall state what I conceive to be the most important results to date of these investigations.

(1) They show that there is a quasi-mechanism of attention which can be made stationary or self-repeating. A single idea is made to hold the attention in a state of paralysis or static contraction and while the attention is thus held, locked as it were, a series of images or ideas is made to pass in succession through the focus of consciousness. Besides being theoretically of great importance, this gives us a method of experimenting with consciousness and finding out how ideas behave in the mind when the processes of selective and voluntary attention are held in abeyance.

(2) What is called the sensory-motor character of consciousness is demonstrated with great force in the hypnotic state. Ideas work themselves out in action, in a way quite remarkable for its precision and regularity. There are limits to this automatism of the hypnotized subject. Some suggestions of action are refused, probably as in many cases of criminal suggestion, because they come in conflict with the more deep-seated habits and disposition of the individual. But still the regular case is, that a suggestion to action is taken and carried out. This means a certain dynamic circuit through the brain which may work quite independently of the higher centers of attention and control, - a result which goes in well with the more remarkable results of so-called automatism to be mentioned below.

(3) With the preceding, go the physical effects which may be wrought by hypnotic suggestion. These effects are still obscure enough but they are real. They show an extraordinary responsiveness to the whole organism on the functional side, to the condition of the brain as this is set or manipulated through consciousness. There are no miracles here. No doubt, mental states are also, at the same time, brain states; and to say that physical generally are modified by suggestion is only to say that brain and nervous conditions dominate the entire organism. But never has this domination been so clearly shown nor its possibilities so opened up before. Here lies the reality of cures of functional troubles, rheumatism, nervousness of all sorts, etc., and in a measure, no doubt, also mental and moral complaints. It should be said, however, regarding these latter that they raise certain further questions. The ills of mind and morals involve the higher adjustments of life, - the adaptation to a social environment and the habits of conduct which result from long educative processes or from repeated indulgence and so have become, in a most intimate sense, elements of character.

While suggestion, therefore, may work physical cures and in a measure effect the moral tendencies of the patient, the cure of these things would seem to involve just those higher efforts of attention and volition which hypnosis temporarily inhibits. Nevertheless, cases of personal indulgence, alcoholism, sexual excesses, etc., together with tendencies which spring from abnormal or fixed ideas, may well be found amenable to suggestive treatment. In fact, many cases of cures of both of these sorts are recorded, notably those of the second class. Ideas, which persist to torment, dominate and at times craze the patient, have been successfully removed by suggestion, and the nervous ills, such as hysteria, springing from them, cured.

(4) Light has been thrown on the operations of memory. Memory as a mental function has been definitely thrown on the side of automatism. It is found that the lower circuit, the form of consciousness which is not voluntary, has its own memory not only for one period of the hypnotic state, but for several successive periods which become united in memory across the intervening normal periods, leaving no breaks. This shows that when the ordinary supporting and controlling influence of the brain hemispheres, or those parts of them which selective attention involves, is removed, the lower centers may still suffice to support a consciousness having a fairly adequate memory of its own. Yet, and this is the more remarkable, when the normal relations are reestablished, the memory series thus formed does not become part of the higher memory of the voluntary consciousness, but all the events of the successive hypnotic state are forgotten.

(5) The last point leads us to the general question as to the nature of this lower consciousness which has its own memory, and performs so many act3 of a seemingly purposeful sort. Here we reach the topic of most interest of all, in this obscure region. This lower consciousness has been naturally discovered, but investigated and much is now known about it. It goes by the name of the "unconscious" or the "secondary self." It seems that the materials of experience which come into consciousness are, in a measure, united and form a quasi-personality, as the facts of memory testify. It is a crude, low, sort of thing, this sub-consciousness, and most of its performances can be accounted for, in my opinion, by the principles of suggestion, habit and memory. It is demonstrated by what Janet has called psychological automatism - i. e., - the carrying out automatically of the normal results of association, habit, etc., in a very refined and personal-like way. It can count, can answer simple questions appropriately and do other things, which are ordinarily ascribed to intelligence.

Yet, when we remember what animals of low, mental endowment are capable of doing under the simple training of rewards and punishment, with association of ideas, we become cautious in-ascribing to the sub-conscious the attributes of a highly developed self. The theories, which find in the sub-conscious, the gifts of genius, the.attributes of self-consciousness and the refined powers of aesthetic and moral appreciation and production, are quite mistaken. For patients never do such things when they are only sub-conscious, the genius must have his higher centers and his mental powers of attention and will, in full operation in order to do his work and it is no argument for a sub-conscious genius to say that the genius may not be conscious of the methods of his thought. These are, in the mind of the writer, the main results so far established by hypnotic research. Certainly they are striking and valuable enough and it is only to bring them and the method into disrepute to make extravagant claims which go beyond the facts.