Chapter 4
About Myself
This is the least valuable chapter in the book, and may be skipped by all those who are Interested in Hypnotism from the professional point of view. As I have often explained, there is nothing personal to me in my methods of hypnotism, and the technique generally has nothing to do with the personality or the character of the hypnotist. Given the necessary self-confidence, hypnotism and self-hypnotism can be taught to all and sundry. It is like swimming: once take the first plunge and the rest is easy.
Some people, however, are always interested in "how it all began", and since most of my ideas are naturally the result of my parentage, environment and upbringing, I give the following few facts about myself.
I am the eldest of six children. My childhood in Upper Clapton, then one of the pleasanter suburbs in London, was not a particularly happy one. My father, who was a very wealthy man, gave me every opportunity for education, but because of his tremendous interest in my mother and in his very successful business life, he did not give me the thing I needed most—understanding. I was always alone and was considered by my family as a strange boy who refused to take advantage of his parents' desires to see him as a great surgeon or successful business man, and who instead spent most of his time reading books on psychology and the science of the mind, which, to my parents, made me a "hopeless case", destined to come to no good.
It had been one of our neighbours in Clapton—a retired writer in the late seventies, who first influenced me towards the study of psychology. When I was only twelve he lent me my first books on the science of the mind, which has been my preoccupation ever since. He remained for many years my friend and when, at about the age of twenty, I left for America to seek my fortune there, I still continued to correspond with him on the subjects which interested us both.
At this time it was my father's idea I should train to be a surgeon, while my mother, who was very much under the spell of the famous violinist Mischa Elman's playing, was determined I should be a violinist. I took a few lessons but couldn't make a go of it, although I have remained interested in music ever since. At that age I was a bit of a rebel against my parents anyway— most young men are—and after my very casual and haphazard upbringing it would have been a miracle if I had settled easily to anything. For many years in America I was just too busy trying to survive to study anything or immerse myself in anything seriously. I took various jobs—radio announcer, actor (for one day only), composer of light music and assistant to a man on an ice-cart. (This last job didn't last long, since I weighed only 90 lbs. at the time and was called on to lift blocks of ice so much heavier than myself that I collapsed one day.)
Then I began to practise on a few of my friends the ideas about hypnotism that had been simmering in my mind all these long years. I was determined for a start to eliminate 95 per cent of all the vast accumulation of stuff I had read on the subject. No nonsense about soft lights and sweet music for me. I wished to perfect a technique of double-quick hypnotism, so I could hypnotise a patient in about the time it takes a Doctor to give an injection, or less if possible. And as I believed in myself this was indeed the technique I perfected and have since demonstrated on the stage of many theatres on both sides of the Atlantic.
I gave my first public demonstration to a restricted group of five physicians. Among the group was a famous New York doctor, who was at once tremendously impressed by what he saw. He took me aside afterwards to give me some advice. "Young man," he said, "I have been greatly interested by your performance; but you understand that if I was to proclaim publicly my belief in your methods, my official doctors' association would step on me like a cockroach, and probably on you too. The thing for you to do is to go out into the world and make a big name for yourself with the public. Remember that when you're downstairs shouting up, no one hears you; when you are upstairs shouting down, they all hear you—and come back to ask for more."
So I took this doctor's advice and he gave me during all my early years as a hypnotist his constant help and support for nothing. I said to myself, "Well, why not start at the top, if it's the top we're aiming at?"—and though I had to beg and borrow the money, I took New York's huge Carnegie Hall one night and gave there a demonstration to a selected audience—all guests personally invited by me—including 1500 doctors and disabled servicemen. Later I played Carnegie Hall seven times in one year, and I am the only man in the world to have done that.
On one of these occasions I found myself billed next to Mischa Elman, who had appeared there just before me. You may be sure that I had the notices photographed and sent a copy to my mother in England who had been so keen for me to follow Elman's steps as a violinist!
You can imagine too the great feeling of satisfaction which it gave me, on my return to Britain in 1949 as a star, to see my mother and father proudly stand up and take bows at every opening night, whether it was in a theatre or an auditorium like the Empress Hall, Earl's Court, where I set a new precedent by appearing "solo" at this huge arena for an entire week, with no other scenery but twelve chairs.
People often ask me why I appear in theatres. There are two answers: (1) that desire for security which influences us all in more or less degree, and (2) the feeling that I have a definite mission to interest the public, and especially the informed medical public, in the vast possibilities of hypnotism. During the recent war I spent practically all my time in U.S. Army and Navy camps working on disabled men and giving demonstrations to groups of doctors. For this all I have to show is a series of beautiful diplomas. One cannot unfortunately pay one's rent with beautiful diplomas.
Again, I know that a theatrical performance is the quickest, most dramatic way of demonstrating my burning faith in the curative power of hypnotism. There are by now thousands of people in Great Britain—people who would otherwise have dismissed hypnotism, if they thought of it at all, as unreliable black magic—who have seen such "miracles" as this happening before their own eyes on the brightly lit stage of a public theatre:
About Myself
This is the least valuable chapter in the book, and may be skipped by all those who are Interested in Hypnotism from the professional point of view. As I have often explained, there is nothing personal to me in my methods of hypnotism, and the technique generally has nothing to do with the personality or the character of the hypnotist. Given the necessary self-confidence, hypnotism and self-hypnotism can be taught to all and sundry. It is like swimming: once take the first plunge and the rest is easy.
Some people, however, are always interested in "how it all began", and since most of my ideas are naturally the result of my parentage, environment and upbringing, I give the following few facts about myself.
I am the eldest of six children. My childhood in Upper Clapton, then one of the pleasanter suburbs in London, was not a particularly happy one. My father, who was a very wealthy man, gave me every opportunity for education, but because of his tremendous interest in my mother and in his very successful business life, he did not give me the thing I needed most—understanding. I was always alone and was considered by my family as a strange boy who refused to take advantage of his parents' desires to see him as a great surgeon or successful business man, and who instead spent most of his time reading books on psychology and the science of the mind, which, to my parents, made me a "hopeless case", destined to come to no good.
It had been one of our neighbours in Clapton—a retired writer in the late seventies, who first influenced me towards the study of psychology. When I was only twelve he lent me my first books on the science of the mind, which has been my preoccupation ever since. He remained for many years my friend and when, at about the age of twenty, I left for America to seek my fortune there, I still continued to correspond with him on the subjects which interested us both.
At this time it was my father's idea I should train to be a surgeon, while my mother, who was very much under the spell of the famous violinist Mischa Elman's playing, was determined I should be a violinist. I took a few lessons but couldn't make a go of it, although I have remained interested in music ever since. At that age I was a bit of a rebel against my parents anyway— most young men are—and after my very casual and haphazard upbringing it would have been a miracle if I had settled easily to anything. For many years in America I was just too busy trying to survive to study anything or immerse myself in anything seriously. I took various jobs—radio announcer, actor (for one day only), composer of light music and assistant to a man on an ice-cart. (This last job didn't last long, since I weighed only 90 lbs. at the time and was called on to lift blocks of ice so much heavier than myself that I collapsed one day.)
Then I began to practise on a few of my friends the ideas about hypnotism that had been simmering in my mind all these long years. I was determined for a start to eliminate 95 per cent of all the vast accumulation of stuff I had read on the subject. No nonsense about soft lights and sweet music for me. I wished to perfect a technique of double-quick hypnotism, so I could hypnotise a patient in about the time it takes a Doctor to give an injection, or less if possible. And as I believed in myself this was indeed the technique I perfected and have since demonstrated on the stage of many theatres on both sides of the Atlantic.
I gave my first public demonstration to a restricted group of five physicians. Among the group was a famous New York doctor, who was at once tremendously impressed by what he saw. He took me aside afterwards to give me some advice. "Young man," he said, "I have been greatly interested by your performance; but you understand that if I was to proclaim publicly my belief in your methods, my official doctors' association would step on me like a cockroach, and probably on you too. The thing for you to do is to go out into the world and make a big name for yourself with the public. Remember that when you're downstairs shouting up, no one hears you; when you are upstairs shouting down, they all hear you—and come back to ask for more."
So I took this doctor's advice and he gave me during all my early years as a hypnotist his constant help and support for nothing. I said to myself, "Well, why not start at the top, if it's the top we're aiming at?"—and though I had to beg and borrow the money, I took New York's huge Carnegie Hall one night and gave there a demonstration to a selected audience—all guests personally invited by me—including 1500 doctors and disabled servicemen. Later I played Carnegie Hall seven times in one year, and I am the only man in the world to have done that.
On one of these occasions I found myself billed next to Mischa Elman, who had appeared there just before me. You may be sure that I had the notices photographed and sent a copy to my mother in England who had been so keen for me to follow Elman's steps as a violinist!
You can imagine too the great feeling of satisfaction which it gave me, on my return to Britain in 1949 as a star, to see my mother and father proudly stand up and take bows at every opening night, whether it was in a theatre or an auditorium like the Empress Hall, Earl's Court, where I set a new precedent by appearing "solo" at this huge arena for an entire week, with no other scenery but twelve chairs.
People often ask me why I appear in theatres. There are two answers: (1) that desire for security which influences us all in more or less degree, and (2) the feeling that I have a definite mission to interest the public, and especially the informed medical public, in the vast possibilities of hypnotism. During the recent war I spent practically all my time in U.S. Army and Navy camps working on disabled men and giving demonstrations to groups of doctors. For this all I have to show is a series of beautiful diplomas. One cannot unfortunately pay one's rent with beautiful diplomas.
Again, I know that a theatrical performance is the quickest, most dramatic way of demonstrating my burning faith in the curative power of hypnotism. There are by now thousands of people in Great Britain—people who would otherwise have dismissed hypnotism, if they thought of it at all, as unreliable black magic—who have seen such "miracles" as this happening before their own eyes on the brightly lit stage of a public theatre:
- a cripple walking with a stick, who had to be helped up the stairs on to the stage by others, leave the same stage walking steadily and proudly under his own steam. (I still have that stick, which he left with me as a souvenir!)
- a confirmed chain-smoker (60 cigarettes a day) throw away two cigarettes running with every sign of disgust immediately after the first puff, after I had given him post-hypnotic suggestion to this effect.
- an old man shaking all over with some functionalnervous disorder, who was regarded by himself and others as unemployable and had drawn a war-disability pension for years at his country's expense, stand up straight and strong again like the fine young soldier he once had been,
- a well-known journalist stretched stiff like a board between two chairs—head on one chair heels on another and nothing between—so that I myself could take my stand on him, and he could bear my whole weight on his unsupported stomach with ease. (See illustration.)
All these things were unrehearsed by-products of my ordinary stage show; for when at each performance I call for volunteers to come up on the stage, I have no way of telling what sort of people will come—and they are a mixed lot, believe me! Such "miracles", then, have been witnessed by thousands—general public, medical men and newspapermen alike—and it is only natural that these many thousands will be wondering to themselves, in sickness and in health, how can hypnotism help ME? It is to try and satisfy this very natural curiosity that I have written this book.
