522 B. The following are extracts, slightly abridged, from a paper by Edmund Gurney on "The Stages of Hypnotism" in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. ii. pp. 61 et seq.

Before the hypnotised subject reaches the profound sleep in which his mental condition is a mere blank, there lie before him two, and only two, markedly distinct states or stages, each of which, however, may present within itself a very large amount of variety. We may conveniently designate them as the alert state or stage and the deep state or stage.

The alert state is that in which a " subject" is when after hypnotisation and the usual involuntary closure of his eyes, the strain on his eyelids is released by a few touches and words, and he is restored to what may look quite like his natural waking condition. Sometimes, it is true, the difference is very marked, and he will sit with a vacant air, irresponsive to every voice except that of the operator, and clearly not in possession of his ordinary faculties. He may be made to perform imitative actions, and to obey commands in a mechanical way; but his consciousness may be at a very low ebb, or (as some have held) may have lapsed altogether. But in any case the "subject's" eyes will be open and capable of seeing; and he will (almost invariably) prove sensitive to pain if he be pinched or pricked. Often he will be found to converse with perfect comprehension, memory, and even humour.

But though perfecdy capable of sustaining a conversation, he does not originate remarks. If not spoken to he will sit quiet, and if simply asked what he is thinking about, he will almost always answer "Nothing." The essential difference between this condition and the waking one lies in two possibilities attaching to it, either of which demands appropriate treatment to become a reality. In the first place, if the "subject" be left completely to himself, he will rapidly sink into the deeper state, and thence into hypnotic sleep, in either of which he will prove insensitive to any moderate amount of torture. The passage into these deeper conditions, it should be observed, is often so rapid that the fact of their being reached through the alert stage may be wholly unnoticed.

The alert state is characterised, in the second place, by the possibility of obtaining, while it lasts, certain special phenomena of an active sort. The "subject " can be made to do, and to continue doing, any action which the operator commands, although he may be perfectly conscious of making a fool of himself, and may strongly desire to resist the command. He can also be put under the influence of delusions.

Passing now to the deep stage, we find that this in turn is liable to be confounded with a contiguous condition, namely, the genuine hypnotic sleep into which it tends to merge. It resembles that condition in the fact that the eyelids are closed; that, if one of them be forcibly raised, the eyeball is found to be rolled upwards; in the general insensibility to pain and to ordinary modes of stimulation. And there exists here precisely the same chance as we noted in the former case, that the particular stage will escape detection. If the "subject" be left to himself, he will have no opportunity to manifest its characteristics, but, passing rapidly through the period during which these might be evoked, will soon lose consciousness and individuality in profound slumber. With some "subjects," moreover, the invasion of mental torpor is so rapid that it might be hard to fix and retain them in the genuine deep stage, even if the proper means were adopted. But many others, if taken in time, after their eyes are closed and they have become insensible to pain, but before sleep has intervened, will prove quite capable of rational conversation: they are mentally awake, even when their bodies are almost past movement, and when even a simple command is obeyed in the most languid and imperfect manner.

The state is, however, harder to sustain at an even level than the alert one, owing to a stronger and more continuous tendency to lapse into a deeper condition.

[The writer goes on to give many instances of variability of characteristics In the two stages].