Hypnotism Books

“For example, those who have experimented with hypnosis find that, at a certain depth of trance, it happens not too infrequently that subjects, if they are left alone and not distracted, often associated with a perception of light and of spaces vast but not solitary. Sometimes the entranced person feels impelled to speak about his or her experience. Deleuze, who was one of the best observers in the second generation of Animal Magnetists, records that this state of somnambulism is characterized by a complete detachment from all personal interests, by the absence of passion, by indifference to acquired opinions and prejudices and by "a novel manner of viewing objects , a quick and direct judgment, accompanied with an intimated conviction...Thus the somnambulist possesses at the same time the torch which gives him his light and the compass that points out his way. "This torch and this compass", Deleuze concludes, " are not the product of somnambulism; they are always in us, but the distracting cares of the world, the passions and, above all, pride, and attachment to perishable things prevent us from perceiving the one and consulting the other." (Less dangerously and more effectively than the drugs which sometimes produce "anesthetic revelations" hypnotism temporarily abolishes distractions and allays the passions, leaving the consciousness free to occupy itself with what lies beyond the haunt of the immanent maniacs.) "In the new situation," Deleuze continues, "the mind is filled with religious ideas, with which, perhaps, it was never before occupied".”
― Aldous Huxley, The Devils of Loudun