Hypnotism Made Plain

This study treats hypnotism as a serious psychological and medical force, not a stage curiosity, and shows how suggestion operates constantly in daily life, shaping health, conduct, business, and social relations. It opens with the history of "personal magnetism," tracing ideas of healing power from Paracelsus through van Helmont and Robert Fludd to Mesmer, whose dramatic animal magnetism, court patronage, and theatrical baquet made him famous even as they exposed him to charges of quackery. From there, the book follows the shift from mystical fluid theories to a modern science of mind. It highlights pioneers such as Puységur, Faria, Elliotson, and especially James Braid, who redefined hypnosis as a product of focused attention and mental concentration. Later thinkers like Liébault, F. W. H. Myers, and Émile Coué deepen the account by emphasizing suggestion, the subconscious, and auto-suggestion as practical powers of healing. The text then explains modern methods of induction, the conditions for successful treatment, and the wide therapeutic uses of hypnosis, while also warning against careless mind-healing and exploring hypnotic sleep, somnambulism, and the astonishing limits of consciousness. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.