Professor E. Bleuler1 writes on the "Psychology of Hypnosis" as follows:

"Very few self-observations by hypnotized persons have so far been published. The following notice may therefore be of some interest:

"After I had often attempted in vain to allow myself to be hypnotized by other methods (among others by Hansen), my friend Professor von Speyr succeeded in placing me in a hypnotic sleep according to Liebeault's method (verbal suggestion and fixation). In order to assist the conception of sleep, I had gone to bed (it was already somewhat late in the evening). I was quite willing to become hypnotized, but attempted during the" hypnosis to back out of the majority of the suggestions in order to learn the power of the latter and their influence. Since the strained fixation did not exercise any soporific influence on me, and pure verbal suggestion seems to have but little effect on persons who themselves hypnotize, I employed the following little trick: I had carried out experiments on myself some years before on the importance of peripheral retinal pictures, of accommodation, etc, for the apperception of visual pictures, and had discovered that by certain inexact fixing a definable but alternating portion of the visual field is completely excluded - e.g., if I looked at a framed picture, the one side of the frame. The exclusion of this caused exactly the same subjective phenomena as the blind spot when brought to consciousness. I therefore fixed the eye of the hypnotist in this way, which was familiar to me. The defects in the visual field which appeared assumed a much greater expansion, probably as a result of the accompanying verbal suggestion, than I had ever noticed before. Soon the objects still perceived by me became hazy, then I felt a alight burning, and then a somewhat more marked dampness of the eyes, and at length I only saw light and shadow, but no longer the outlines of any objects. To my astonishment, this condition did not tire me; my eyes remained quietly and wide open without an effort and without blinking; a comforting feeling of warmth crept from my head over my body down to my legs. It was only in response to suggestions pointing in this direction ('Your eyes will close of themselves') that I felt the need of closing my eyes (up to that time I had the feeling that I could only close them by making an effort), and closed them apparently actively, as one does on going to sleep quickly when one is tired. The hypnotizing had taken about one minute.

1 Professor E. Bleuler. "Psychology of Hypnosis" (Munch. Med. Woch., 1889, No. 5). My colleague Doctor Bleuler, now Professor of Psychiatry in Zurich, had himself hypnotized a great deal at the time of writing, and had completely mastered the method. See also his publications on Hypnotism. (Forel.)

"My condition then was that of a pleasant, comfortable rest; it occurred to me that I was not in the least inclined to alter my position, which, under other circumstances, would not have been actually comfortable. Psychically I was quite clear, observing myself; my hypnotist was able to confirm all the objective things, which I told him of, later. My conceived thoughts were not influenced in a different way to the waking condition during the following suggestions, but in spite of this the greater part of them were realized. I did not fix my particular attention on the hypnotist, but did so on myself alone.

"My friend placed one of my forearms horizontally in the air, and told me that I could not put it down. I tried to do this directly afterwards with success, but was prevented from carrying this out completely by a light touch of his hand and by renewed suggestion, I then felt my biceps contracting against my will as soon as I attempted to move my arm by means of the extensor muscles; once, on making a stronger effort to carry out my intention, the contraction of the flexors became so energetic that the arm, instead of moving outward as I had intended, moved backward on the upper arm.

"Then my friend said that my right hand was anesthetic.

I thought to myself that he had made a mistake in this, as it was still too soon for such a suggestion, and when he stated that he had pricked me on the back of the hand I thought that he was trying to deceive me to make me more confident I only felt the touch of a blunt object (I thought that it was the edge of my watch). On awakening, I was not a little astonished to find that I had been pricked. He did not succeed in producing real anaesthesia; only once when he remarked that the hand was as if it had gone to sleep I felt a tingling sensation for a short time, and only felt a touch as if through a thick bandage.

"The suggestion was then given me to awake at 6:15 a.m. (I had never been able to awaken at a previously determined time). I was then supposed to open my eyes and to blow out the lamp. I did this so clumsily that I felt somewhat ashamed that my friend should see me. It seemed as if my stereoscopic vision was impaired; I wanted to hold my hand obliquely over the lamp-glass to deflect the air-current produced by blowing, but held it at one side several times, without noticing it. Then I held the hand over the flame for a considerable time without feeling any pain, which I could not have done without hypnosis without feeling considerable pain of burning. The frequently and energetically repeated suggestion to awaken at 6:15 a.m. had an unpleasant result. I did not awaken during the whole night, but I believe that I kept on thinking whether it was not yet a quarter-past six. As I was fairly conscious of my position, from time to time I tried to listen to the church clock so that I could reassure myself, but I did not hear it strike a single time, although my room is situated opposite the church tower. It was only when six o'clock struck that I counted the four quarters and then the six hour strokes, but without awakening. Exactly at the stroke of 6:15 there was a knock at my door, and I awakened immediately. The next time the suggestion of awakening at a definite time succeeded without any disturbance after a pleasant sleep, as the suggestion was applied differently.