Is Man a Free Agent?

Part 1

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THE LAW OF SUGGESTION

Photo by Rentschler, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Santanelli]

IS MAN A FREE AGENT?

THE LAW OF SUGGESTION

INCLUDING

HYPNOSIS WHAT AND WHY IT IS, AND HOW TO INDUCE IT

THE LAW OF NATURE MIND, HEREDITY, ETC.

BY SANTANELLI

THOSE WHO SEE SHOULD LEAD THE BLIND

LANSING, MICH. THE SANTANELLI PUBLISHING CO. 1902 BURNS & OATES, 28 ORCHARD ST., LONDON, W.

COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY JAMES H. LORYEA

ENTERED AT STATIONERS’ HALL

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Printed and Bound by Robert Smith Printing Co. Lansing, Mich., U.S.A.

“A friend in need is a friend indeed.” Oh! how true; touch a man’s pocket and you instantly touch his heart, which seems to be at the other end of the nerve. Like the elevator boy, I have had many “ups and downs,” but unlike him, I feel that my “downs” have been twice or thrice to every “up.”

Acquaintances I have by the score, friends but two, therefore am at least a hundred per cent better off than most of mankind. These two friends have had their faith tried many and many a time, yet were always ready to respond.

Many the hour, both day and night, have I thought of them; many the resolution have I formed, but my good intentions availed them not. ’Tis said that Hades is paved with good intentions, but they are of no commercial value and repay no material loans. Some day “when my ship comes in”—if it be laden with other than air castles,—I may have something other than good intentions to repay my true friends, Frank H. Doolittle, of Lansing, Mich., and Col. Le Gage Pratt, of East Orange, N. J. To them, with all my heart, is this book dedicated.

Santanelli ]

(J. H. Loryea.)

Lansing, Michigan, January, 1902.

Contents

FOREWORD 7 HYPNOSIS 11 MIND 104 HEREDITY 132 SUGGESTION 156 WORDS 216

FOREWORD

A word of itself puts no thought into action, though a series of word sense-picturing may. Thoughts are made up of associated ideas through the different senses; two senses must be affected to put a thought in action. I must arouse a sight memory (picture), a feeling memory (picture), as well as a sound through words, to have my reader gain a thorough understanding.

Though accredited with an extensive vocabulary and having a large dictionary at hand, I will have trouble in making you comprehend.

There are no synonyms, as no two things are the same. Therefore, all words used here must have but one meaning. The following words and phrases will be used to mean only the here-affixed definitions.

Part 2

Suggestion, anything that arouses an action (environment, bodily or external).

Hypnosis, a simulated sleep, the subject having the “thought of sleep.”

Inspiration, a thought forced by an operator after Hypnosis has been induced. Man is ruled by suggestion; we inspire a hypnotized subject.

Personal suggestion, where a thought is deliberately forced upon a person free from Hypnosis—exemplified by Christian and Mental Scientists.

Post-hypnotic suggestion, a misnomer. It is a deferred action, and will not happen if the subject is actually awakened.

Inspired awakening, “the thought of being awake,” the opposite to Hypnosis,—“the thought of being asleep;” commonly known as the waking state.

Auto-suggestion, can only mean a “sleep walker.”

Pre-inspiration, an act decided upon by the subject to be done after Hypnosis has been induced, (erroneously called Auto-suggestion).

Mind, the consensus of all actions acquired during gestation, and seated in the Sympathetic System. As it is inconceivable for anything to happen without an intelligence to guide it, I believe that intelligence to be within all matter, call it Mind and show its action to be forced by external (the only kind) suggestion.

“Mind,” what is commonly believed to be the seat of intelligence.

Sympathetic System, all brain matter contra-distinguished from the cerebrum.

Thought, two or more associated ideas. Thoughts are forced not chosen.

Idea, a percept through any sense. Ideas transform into action.

Thinking, transforming of energy,—man only realizes.

Memory, registration of ideas. Man never forgets, but fails to recall.

Negation, an inconceivable word. Everything is positive; positive for or positive against.

Abnormal, impossible. Everything is normal or a natural result from the cause.

Objective mind, subjective mind, mere words.

Authority, a conceited juggler of words.

Bad, perverted good.

Good, natural response.

Hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, feeling, the correlation of the different nerve-end stimuli of the respective organs.

Degenerate, above (plus) or below (minus) what is considered average man. Seemingly the same irritation may produce either extreme, subservient to external environment.

Everything is a combination of attributes; i. e., one thing an impossibility.

Matter is comprehensible only to the degree it affects the senses, and to be conceived must affect two senses. To be comprehended, three or more.

Form is comprehensible (when acquired) only when it affects sight and feeling.

Form is the outline of matter, and but transitory. Only matter is appreciable.

Man can conceive of nothing greater nor worse than his individual experience.

Part 3

Will (will power), I cannot comprehend it, though everyone prides himself on possessing IT.

Instinct, a word used to express intelligence in animals, in contra-distinction from intelligence in man. Man reasons! Animals do not. (?)

Law of Nature, a phrase that conveys no meaning. If you can comprehend the phrase “Law of Nature” then you will know the Law of Suggestion, and it will be a useless waste of time to read the following pages.

THE LAW OF SUGGESTION

HYPNOSIS

Since man began assembling, some few have spent their lives in trying to comprehend the most incomprehensible of all beings,—man. The net result of all their work and discoveries has resulted in nothing but theory, and that not worth the candle. With all of our alleged knowledge the few truths we have are of but little value. The myriads of theories are so impracticable that I often wonder why and how the “authorities” obtain their titles. The authorities of a hundred years ago are the laughing stock of to-day.

Up to fifty years ago man was bled as a cure for every disease; to-day they claim he is full of bugs that require slaughtering and try to make of him a bacilli abattoir. They write tomes of books on “mind,” yet nowhere can I find it comprehensively defined. Everyone prides himself on his will power, yet I must own that such a thing which is so ambiguously defined is incomprehensible to me. Volumes are written as to hearing, seeing, smelling, feeling and tasting, and yet no one seems to be able to grasp the true significance of these terms.

Crime is punished, yet more penitentiaries are yearly required. Our alienists, truly foreigners to their subjects, know all (?) about the brain and with the greatest assurance pronounce upon man’s sanity, yet offer us no cure, and our institutions for the insane are too small for the ever increasing demands upon them. We know the effect, need no experts, why does not some one demonstrate the cause.

In all sensational murder trials our most learned(?) and wise doctors(?) go on the stand as experts(?)—whatever that may mean—swearing directly opposite to one another, and still maintain their standing in their profession and the community. If they know anything, how is it possible for the truth to be in both of two contradictory assertions. They study in the same schools, from the same books and from the same “authorities,” yet one says “yes,” the other “no.” Verily, gentlemen, you must lack a true premise.

Effect, man comprehends fairly well, but as to cause our most learned scientists seem to have no conception. Now, dear reader, if you would know a bit of truth follow me. I am a graduate of no great college; am professor in no great institution; have been exposed(?) many times, yet truth is, was, and always will be, and year after year my following increases. If you will follow through the ensuing pages, unsophisticated as I am, I will try to teach you something about man—a mere machine; his every thought and action forced, possessing no will power, and in no way responsible for his actions. For twelve years I have studied nightly from ten to twenty-five hypnotized subjects and have found that they are ruled by the same general law as the non-hypnotized man. In other words, a hypnotized subject is a slowed-down machine which one knowing how, can watch each and every movement of, and thereby comprehend cause and effect. Through a hypnotized subject we can learn how “normal” man is forced to act. Consequently, we can thoroughly analyze the whys and wherefores of every act performed by a subject while in hypnosis, during which time I believe the cerebrum to be entirely inactive.

The cerebrum is like the receiving or correlating mechanism of the phonograph; after the thought is registered in the ganglion of the Abdominal Brain it is then purely automatic and free from the cerebrum, which is the realizing brain. Everything we do and say is purely automatic—an effect. The babe at birth fails to withdraw its foot when tickled. After that action is associated with the peculiar sensation, the action always takes place when the sensation is produced, it being purely automatic, otherwise, a result or transformation of the cause. After the babe has learned to speak the word “papa,” whenever the environment forces the desire for father, automatically the word is said without any predetermination.

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