Description | As you can guess by the title, Mackay believes that hypnotic phenomena are all faked. Besides this uninformed view, written just as Braid was lifting hypnotism out of the dark ages, this book charts the theories of Paracelsus and the alchemists to the work of Mesmer and the early mesmerists, such as Father Hell and the Marquis de Puysegur, as well as unknowns such as Sir Kenelm Digby, Valentine Greatraks, D'Eslon, Dr. Haygarth, Benjamin Perkins, and Chevalier de Barbarin. One of the earliest mentions of speed hypnosis is mentioned here, performed by Abbe Faria . "He placed his patients in an arm-chair; told them to shut their eyes; and then in a loud commanding voice, pronounced the single word, "Sleep!" This techniques is still used by stage hypnotists today. |