Mental condition of the operator - Certainty of results - Mental strain upon the operator - Principle of action - First steps In producing hypnosis - Concentration of thought - Impressing the subject - Taking a dare - Medium of the senses - Attracting the subject's attention - Objects used by the operator - Oriental mirror - The Sheik's plate - Snakes of India's fakirs - Glass marble - Chinese idol - Metal disk - Rubber disk - The author's disk - Sense of hearing - Monotonous tones - Oriental chants - Public speakers and preachers - Chanting of snake charmers - Effect of music upon animals - Use of the voice - First suggestions - Tone of the voice - Hypnotizing small children - The sense of touch - Mesmeric passes - Mesmerizing a subject - Rubbing the fingers - The sense of smell - Odore - Tobacco smoke - Sense of taste - Eating and drinking - Use of orange water.

In order to correctly and quickly hypnotize a subject, there must be no timidity whatever on the part of the operator. At the start he must manifest the greatest self-confidence and aggressiveness, and such characteristics must not only be manifested, but they must be actually experienced. A false assumption of self-confidence is quickly realized by others and is fatal to the successful performance of hypnotic experiments.

First of all, the operator must determine that to be successful - believing not only that he must not fail, but that he cannot fail. He is about to perform an act that has been performed by others many hundreds of thousands of times. He has studied the philosophy of hypnotism and realizes the nature of what he desires to accomplish. He has learned the methods by which others have hypnotized their subjects. All the precautions have been observed, and therefore success must naturally follow, and will not be due to chance or accident. There is no more uncertainty about it than there is about any of the daily actions of life. These facts the operator must unreservedly realize and not simply believe them in a perfunctory manner.

The labor of producing hypnosis falls upon the operator, and one who attempts the work for the first time is very apt to become wearied by the excitemental action. We realize that any severe and unusual physical exercise will tire the muscles and, if carried too far, will produce exhaustion. In a similar manner unusual mental exercise is fatiguing and cannot be indulged in too severely without producing bad effects.

Persons unaccustomed to hypnotizing others must remember these facts while conducting their first experiments. This does not imply that hypnotism is an injurious study and that it is apt to bring about permanent mental exhaustion. It will not produce any more evil effects than any other form of mental labor. How often do we hear of lawyers and ministers and public speakers in general being tired out after some unusual effort. They may be in the habit of speaking in public for an hour at a time with perfect ease, and yet experience the greatest fatigue after half an hour's earnest endeavor to convince doubtful hearers of the truths they wish to impart. It is a species of hypnotism, or mental control, by which a public speaker wins the close attention of his audience and forces the acceptance of his ideas.

There are many methods by which a subject can be hypnotized. These methods differ in particulars, but are essentially the same in principle. The first principle of action is to aim to concentrate the subject's mind upon some one unimportant thought to the exclusion of all others. This thought must, indeed, be so unimportant that when it is the only thought entertained the mind is almost absolutely passive. When this condition is obtained, the second general principle of action may be employed, which consists in making sudden and emphatic suggestions to the passive mind.