MISTER MYSTERY RESPONDS

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...

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...

In 1890, on the outskirts of Croydon, South London, stood a stately mansion of victorian style surrounded by a six-meter wall. The exaggerated height of the wall was due not to the fear that someone would slip into the mansion but that someone could escape from it. No, it was not a prison: it was the most elitist asylum for men in all of England. It was such a select establishment that it was only allowed to madmen who thought themselves to be historical figures of lineage such as  Henry VIII, Benjamin Franklin, Ramses II or Frederick the Great. When several individuals coincided with the same obsession, a court of experts decided which of them was the real personality, and the impostors were rejected. However, the case that we will now deal with is not that of a historical celebrity but that of a fictional character of the time, protagonist of a series of famous cheap serialized booklets, named Spring Heeled Jack. Since in the asylum there was already a Spring Heeled Jack, the co...