What is Hypnosis... Andrew Salter
I picked up this thin book, What is Hypnosis by Andrew Salter, from The Occult Bookstore...
First let me say, great book. Great explanations of how hypnosis works (I suppose... of course I need to still find other corroborating sources and experiment with self-hypnosis). But...
Well, just check out these passages:
Page 14:
As a result of hypnotic suggestion subjects have stolen money, rushed to pick up rattlesnakes, and thrown sulphuric acid into a man's face, which, unknown to the subject, was protected by invisible glass. These researches are amazing and are commended to the reader. Put bluntly, through hypnosis it is possible to force persons to commit crimes. Those who speak of the necessity for hypnotic suggestion to fit in with a subject's moral code should revise their concepts.
Page 46:
In total anesthesias of the head, the subject reported a feeling as if she were compressed in a shell. She pinched her cheeks, and explored her face, and declared that this was very uncomfortable mentally. It will be noted that the phenomena were produced despite the subject's complaints. She could easily have been conditioned to like the procedures, but this was not felt to be fair. In this connection I must again repeat my belief that appropriate hypnotic technique can unquestionably produce a liking for anti-social behavior in subjects, their so-called moral code notwithstanding.
Page 55-56:
Results are definitely a function of interaction of technique and subject. Poor subjects may be transformed into good ones. Whether or not a subject believes he is a good subject has nothing to do with the case. Faith is an extraneous issue. Simple mass procedures applied to soldiers could quickly filter out one of five or at worst one of eight who can quickly be taught to make themselves immune to such sounds and pains as they wish. It is not impossible to imagine battalions of self-anesthetized soldiers going into battle.
A general sense emerges that the book only superficially addresses the question "What is Hypnosis?", and much more makes a case for the military application of hypnosis. Salter emphasizes patients' reaction to air raid sirens, pain, lifting objects and gunshots. If Salter has not overstated the case, and hypnosis can reliably effect these changes, then I must form dark assumptions as to who exactly he was pitching these ideas to and to what extent these techniques have been employed and are employed today.