Hypnotism Made Practical
by J. Louis Horton.
Comments by G. Day-Lewis
I came across this little book, and bought it, some thirty years ago, not long after I had finished a degree in psychology. I must admit to being a book buyer, always have been and often the subject matter need not bear any resemblance to anything else I may have studied. Books, and reading of course – although it must not be taken for granted that the two always go together, they do not; the very rich can still purchase entire libraries, books by the metre one might say, but they rarely read what they have bought. For me whilst the subject matter of the book may be totally new to me, it matter not, I see it, the book I mean, as yet one more byway or leafy path that might lead to an even more leafy glade. Of course the leaves will not be green, not often anyway, but they will be covered in print, print which usually I devour greedily.
I thought that visitors to this site might care to know just what one of the leading exponents of hypnotism had to say about it at a period which is now almost a hundred years ago. You see the book was first published in serial form in The Weekly Times and Echo in the year 1911. Clearly one can infer from that statement, quoted in the edition I possess, that the author Mr Orton was a well established practioner of hypnotism for a considerable number of years before being invited to write the series of articles for a popular journal. He remarks that he had reached a set of conclusions about hypnotism, the results of nine years study, practice and experiment in the year 1909. These result were further published in a more developed form in a book he calls "Rational Hypnotism," in which all his view are expressed. That book was published in 1914 although he says he had completed the research for it by 1910.
[ To be continued ]