MISTER MYSTERY RESPONDS

The Solinsky method. It’s about capturing the individual’s attention through magical passes made right under his nose. (If you are in a hurry, you can even grab his nose and twist it.) When you have captured his attention, you must try to capture also his will. For this, more radical procedures are required -magic passes are completely useless. You have to take out your wallet and try to bribe him. Try small bills first, then large bills. Once bribed, the individual is already in your possession. However, you should not lose sight of him since at any moment he can flee. An individual hypnotized by this method will do whatever you tell him as long as he agrees to do such a thing. If he doesn't agree, you have to offer him more large bills. 

German doctor Franz Mesmer always pretended that what he was doing was mesmerizing people. Nevertheless, when the word "hypnosis" was invented, it was discovered that what Mesmer actually was doing was hypnotizing people. But why had Mesmer been hiding it until then? And why did he persist in denying the evidence? Maybe hypnotists’ rates weren't enough for him? A hypnotist charged ten groschen per session, a mesmerizer twenty groschen. However, a magnetizer charged thirty three groschen an hour and he took tips. If it had been a matter of money, Mesmer would have declared himself a magnetizer. So, it seems that we must look elsewhere for answers: perhaps in Mesmer's everyday life. According to his housekeeper, Dr. Mesmer was fond of squeezing oranges. But when asked what he was doing, he replied: “Don't you see? I mesmerize oranges!” Likewise, when he hacked melons (another of his hobbies) he said that he was "mesmerizing melons". Dr. Mesmer gave his own...

Certainly. Anything fallen into the wrong hands can become a public danger. Unfortunately, hypnosis has long since fallen into the wrong hands. Perhaps the name Percy T. Carrington doesn’t ring any bells with you, but if I say "Bulging-Eyes", the unmistakable image of a certain magnate from the entertainment industry will come to your mind.  When Bulging-Eyes went to school received this nickname due to his eyes, which were the most salient feature in his face. “Salient” is not a metaphor: his eyes protruded by about 10 inches! You always felt watched in his presence! You wanted to run away! But you couldn't, because his piercing gaze was hypnotic. It can be said that Bulging-Eyes was a born hypnotist. From a very young age he was aware of the power that resided in his eyes. Before long, he discovered that he could withdraw money from any bank without having made a deposit previously. That provided him with the necessary funds to build an empire out of nowhere. A hypnotiz...

When repressed, the subconscious tends to look for an exit, just as the prisoners of The Rock would excavate tunnels with teaspoons intending to escape. To release the subconscious’ pent-up feelings, you need a teaspoon or, in its absence, a hypnotist. In any case, it’s necessary to be very careful because, just as it happened with The Rock prisoners, at any moment the alarm can sound and the escape attempt could be ruined. Mortimer Sinclair spent two years digging a tunnel in his subconscious, and when he finally thought he had reached the conscious, he stuck his head out and found a guard pointing a 12-gauge shotgun at him. Jerome Monroe dug in the wrong direction and ended up in the small intestine. Hypnosis is a more subtle, faster and more accurate method, but it also costs more money and success is not guaranteed. It’s the equivalent of bribing the guards. After several hypnosis sessions, during which he plunged deep into his subconscious, Julian Nairz was not entirely sure wheth...

Ernest Jennings never studied hypnosis techniques. He was just a born hypnotist. He didn’t need to use any technique, he just stared at you with that stupid face he had, and he got you under his control. However, he was not aware of his power until the day he went to ask for an autograph to Rita Hayworth after seeing her in the film “Charlie Chan in Egypt” and immediately she was signing not only the autograph but the marriage certificate by which both they became husband and wife. Naturally, she asked for a divorce immediately after the judge declared them as such, that is, as soon as the hypnotic effects wore off. She alleged mental coercion and the forensic psychologist ruled that, indeed, Jennings had a hypnotic power that he was unaware of until that moment. That also explained why when he went to ask for a job as maintenance worker at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., he was designated chief executive officer. Of course, when the Lehman brothers realized that the new CEO had difficu...

Soon Freud realized that hypnosis had its limitations. To begin with, not all patients were receptive to his hypnotic power. In fact, in some cases, Freud ran into patients who opposed resistance to being hypnotized, either an active resistance (such as punching him in the face) or a passive resistance. This one consisted in that the patient opposed, to the penetrating gaze of the hypnotist, a still more penetrating gaze, engaging both in a duel of gazes that the hypnotist did not always win. When Freud was the loser in this duel, his wife Martha noticed it right away. Small details revealed to her sharp discernment that, on that occasion, the hypnotist had succumbed to the hypnotic gaze of his patient. She deduced it from her husband's nudity when he came home, or from his crawling like a snake, or from his goose-stepping. Or from his non-recognition of her (then he started shouting that there was an intruder in the house). Or from... Phenomenology is very diverse, no need to cont...

To relate the history of hypnosis we have to go back to 1760, when a German doctor settled in Paris observed that the power of attraction of the magnets could be used on the sick without being arrested by the police and put behind bars. The doctor in question was called Mesmer and his discovery was baptized, in a display of inventiveness, with the name of "mesmerism." Mesmer soon saw that magnets could be dispensed with and even the sick, so he began to practice mesmerism on healthy people through the supposed magnetic power of his hands. Practicing wild gesticulations before a mirror to find those that were more spectacular (at that time he exhibited his discovery in theatres full of people who had paid a ticket), one day Mesmer hypnotized himself, staying in a catatonic state for several years until someone casually mentioned in his presence the word "gherkins". This gave him cause for thought and he decided to retire and pass the baton to a French doctor named Ch...

October 1885. A man named Persky is arrested by the police for standing on his head in front of the Scotland Yard offices. Only a few hours later, an overweight and respectable banker from the City is found frantically trying to stand on his head before Weistminster Parliament. Almost at the same time, another exemplary citizen is arrested for standing on his head facing towards number 10 Downing Street. The three of them excuse themselves saying that suddenly they felt an unstoppable need to stand on his head in front of official buildings. The government organizes a Crisis Cabinet in the course of which the minister of finances stands on is head without asking for permission. Then, at the request of the prime minister, comes into play the Society for Psychic Research (SPR). Sir Oliver Lodge interrogates witnesses and concludes that all the arrested acted under the effect of hypnosis. The next day all the newspapers have on the cover the sketch of a man in a turban to whom is attribut...