The Harveian oration on experimental psychology and hypnotism delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London, October 18, 1909 / by George H. Savage.

  • Savage, George H. (George Henry), 1842-1921.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Harveian oration on experimental psychology and hypnotism delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London, October 18, 1909 / by George H. Savage. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    upon him which reappear; but for complete success of post-hypnotic suggestion more profound hypnosis is required, so that, for instance, he is told that a certain thing will happen at a certain time, or he will be told to do a certain thing under certain conditions. He may be recalled to consciousness without being informed as to what he is to do later, and then he will proceed to do what has been suggested to him in his hypnotic state without having any memory or recollection of the instruction given. Some of the examples that are given—and given on good authority— are so extraordinary that one is obliged to say that, given their truth, they are beyond our human com- prehension. The sense of time, for instance, is one that appears to be fairly well understood, but beyond the ordinary normal it is the experience of very many, including myself, that a determination to wake at a certain time will be followed by awaking at that time. Or if by chance I am called at an unusual or unexpected hour, say at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning for some days, I and those like myself will awake exactly at the same hour on succeeding days, regardless of the time of going to bed. The exactness with which that awakening takes place has astonished me very much, so that I have found myself as correct as the clock. In post-hypnotic suggestion it has been pointed out that with some people one has only to suggest, while they are in the hypnotic stage, that in so many thousand minutes, or in so many hours and minutes, they are to do a certain thing, and that act will be performed within quite a reasonable time of that ap- pointed. Some cases are so astonishing that one hesitates almost to give them. This is one of BramweH’s: A woman is told that in so many thousand minutes she is to write her name, the hour of the day, and the date. She is not very well educated, and would have con- siderable difficulty in working out the number of hours and minutes; and yet at the time appointed she writes