A. Alpheus - Snake Charming

This ebook edition first published in 2012 by Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.

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Copyright 2012 by Red Wheel/Weiser LLC. All rights reserved.

Excerpted from Alpheus, A. Complete Hypnotism, Mesmerism, Mind Reading and Spiritualism. Chicago: M.A. Donohue &, 1903.

eISBN: 978-1-61940-040-5

Cover design by Jim Warner

If I caught a leprechaun or rubbed the magic lamp just right, one of the wishes I would make would be to have the power to command animals. Imagine, having animals that would do your bidding! It is probably a good thing that the chances of this happening are low to zero (yet there is always hope!) because I guarantee you I would not use my powers for good. I would use them for selfish, evil purposes. Don't cross me, because I will arrange for a horse to trample you. You won't die, you'll just suffer irreparable internal damages. And don't even think of shoving me aside to board the bus in front of me, because before you know a cuh-ray-zee squirrel is going to get medieval on your ass! And speaking of asses, I would command all donkeys and mules to stop their boring work of schlepping stuff for poor farmers and have them come over to my place to kick anyone in the shins who was rude to me while bagging my groceries.

I would use the animal's powers for some positive things though. All bunnies would immediately come bounding up to small children for a sweet snuggle, and rats would be able to whip up a five-star meal on the quick (remember The Muppets Take Manhattan?!?) And lest you think I don't have the animals' best interest at heart, no animals would be harmed in the execution of my tasks. In fact, the animals would all have a force field of protection around them (this is my fantasy, so don't judge!)

And o' the wonderful powers of snakes. Just think of the easy vengeance you could unleash with just the mere presence of a snake. People fear snakes. Big time. They are possibly one of the most misrepresented animals in the entire Animal Kingdom. People still actually think snakes are slimy! Snails are slimy. Snakes are smooth, cool, and incredible! Here are a few other fun facts about snakes that I've stumbled upon:

• The success and diversity of snakes over thousands of years is due in part to their prey of choicerodents, which are numerous and everywhere!
• The largest snakes in the world are the reticulated python, which can get up to 30 ft. long and the anaconda that averages around 25 ft. long.
• The smallest snake is the Barbados Threadsnake (Leptotyphlops carlae): about 4 inches long!
• Snakes were worshiped in Ancient Egypt as one of the gods. The Nile cobra, or the asp, was used by Cleopatra to commit suicide.
• One of the antidotes for venomous snake bites is made by injecting a horse repeatedly with increasing doses of snake venom until the horse is immunized, and then with the extracting the blood of the infected horse.
• Snakes do not have lymph nodes.
• There is great debate among the scientific community as to the origins of the evolution of snakes. Two main theories exist: That snakes evolved from mosasaursextinct aquatic reptiles from the Cretaceous period (about 65 million years ago); or snakes evolved from burrowing lizards from the same period.
• Pit vipers, pythons, and some boas have infrared-sensitive receptors in the deep grooves between the nostril and eye or just below the nostrils, which allow them to see radiated heat of warm-blooded mammals
• In Southeast Asia, gliding snakes can perform a controlled glide for hundreds of feet. They launch themselves from the ends of branches and spread their ribs out laterally, undulating as they leap from tree to tree. (Yep!)
• Unlike horror movies or my own fantasies may reveal, snakes do not ordinarily prey on humans and will actually go out of their way to avoid contact.
• Medusa had snakes instead of hair and could turn men to stone. She was one of the three Gorgon sisters from Greek mythologyall of whom were children of Gaia (the earth). For this reason snakes are thought to be symbolic of the earth.
• Snakes play an important role in Indian mythology. Snakes are believed to be symbols of fertility and there is a Hindu festival every year to honor snakes. The Hindu god Vishnu is usually depicted as a snake with seven heads and Shiva is often represented with a snake on his neck.
• The Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 prohibited snake charming in India as a way of protecting snakes from animal cruelty.

A. Alpheus was born in 1868 and was an American occultist and astrologer. His study on the subjects of hypnotism and mesmerism, written in 1903, were at the forefront of the New Thought movement. His greater work, Complete Hypnotism, Mesmerism, Mind-Reading and Spiritualism took a very scientific approach to the concept of mentalismback then the areas between science and spirituality were far more blurred than modern day. This excerpt on animal hypnotism is as serious as it is quirky and surely deserves a place on the shelves of your Paranormal Parlor.

And remember to be kind to the fauna of the earth. You never know when they might turn on you.

IN FURRY FREAKITUDE,

VARLA VENTURA

SAN FRANCISCO, CA 2012

We are all familiar with the snake charmer, and the charming of birds by snakes. How much hypnotism there is in these performances it would be hard to say. It is probable that a bird is fascinated to some extent by the steady gaze of a serpent's eyes, but fear will certainly paralyze a bird as effectively as hypnotism.

Father Kircher was the first to try a familiar experiment with hens and cocks. If you hold a hen's head with the beak upon a piece of board, and then draw a chalk line from the beak to the edge of the board, the hen when released will continue to hold her head in the same position for some time, finally walking slowly away, as if roused from a stupor. Farmers' wives often try a sort of hypnotic experiment on hens they wish to transfer from one nest to another when sitting. They put the hen's head under her wing and gently rock her to and fro till she apparently goes to sleep, when she may be carried to another nest and will remain there afterward.

Horses are frequently managed by a steady gaze into their eyes. Dr. Moll states that a method of hypnotizing horses named after its inventor as Balassiren has been introduced into Austria by law for the shoeing of horses in the army.

We have all heard of the snake charmers of India, who make the snakes imitate all their movements. Some suppose this is by hypnotization. It may be the result of training, however. Certainly real charmers of wild beasts usually end by being bitten or injured in some other way, which would seem to show that the hypnotization does not always work, or else it does not exist at all.

We have some fairly well known instances of hypnotism produced in animals. Lafontaine, the magnetizer, some thirty years ago held public exhibitions in Paris in which he reduced cats, dogs, squirrels and lions to such complete insensibility that they felt neither pricks nor blows.

The Harvys or Psylles of Egypt impart to the ringed snake the appearance of a stick by pressure on the head, which induces a species of tetanus, says E. W. Lane.

The following description of serpent charming by the Aissouans of the province of Sous, Morocco, will be of interest:

The principal charmer began by whirling with astonishing rapidity in a kind of frenzied dance around the wicker basket that contained the serpents, which were covered by a goatskin. Suddenly he stopped, plunged his naked arm into the basket, and drew out a cobra de capello, or else a haje, a fearful reptile which is able to swell its head by spreading out the scales which cover it, and which is thought to be Cleopatra's asp, the serpent of Egypt. In Morocco it is known as the buska. The charmer folded and unfolded the greenish-black viper, as if it were a piece of muslin; he rolled it like a turban round his head, and continued his dance while the serpent maintained its position, and seemed to follow every movement and wish of the dancer.