Max Freedom Long - Self-Suggestion: The New Huna Theory of Mesmerism and Hypnosis

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This information concerning those parts of psychology which we have come to call hypnosis, mesmerism and suggestion, is being presented as an addition to the scant literature on the ancient psycho-religious system of the Polynesians called "Huna" or the "Secret".

It is taken for granted that the reader will already have gone through the first three books dealing with the rediscovery of Huna (The Secret Science Behind Miracles, The Secret Science At Work, and Growing Into Light). But for those who come to this book without knowledge of what has been uncovered up to the present time, an appendix is supplied giving a brief outline of the ten simple elements which make possible the more practical application of certain psychological principles hitherto unknown, at least in modern days.

Although a perusal of the appendix will enable one to understand the ideas embodied in Huna, and which are frequently mentioned in this treatise, it will be well for the serious student who wishes to have all of the proofs of the verity of Huna beliefs to read the books mentioned above. In them will be found background materials which will bring one up to date on what is perhaps the most important specialized collection of anthropological findings in this century.

A word of thanks is given here for assistance in testing the theories and methods here presented for validity and practicality. Foremost amongst those to be thanked are the Huna Research Associates, and, especially, some of the more able researchers in that widely scattered organization. The secondary thanks goes to the many men who have explored the field of human consciousness in the past and who have helped bring to us such psychological knowledge as we now possess.

Max Freedom Long
Vista, California, U. S. A.

Back in the dawn ages, so we are told, everything lived in the seas which covered most of the earth. Then some of the creatures began to evolve and to come out onto the land. Amongst these was the serpent, and while he failed to develop legs or wings in the many centuries which followed, he managed to develop a most amazing method of capturing his prey.

He became the first mesmerist.

In the very new and poorly constructed semi-science called "Psychology", so little is known as yet of the nature of the forces of mind and thought that no differentiation is made between mesmerism, such as is used by the serpent, and hypnotism, in which suggestion is the key.

As all students of Huna now know, one can accumulate an extra supply of vital force very easily, and this force, when converted to the "will" type of energy of either the low or middle self, becomes a strange and exceedingly potent thing.

The serpent evolved the ability to accumulate extra vital force and to project it along the line of its vision toward a bird. The force had a startling effect. The bird lost the power to control its actions, and could only flutter helplessly in a state of "fascination" while the serpent wriggled near, reached out, and began to devour it.

Close observers have noted that Mother Nature provides an anesthetic for the prevention of pain in many of her smaller creatures who must serve as food for the others. The bird or the rabbit faints and becomes unconscious just as the snake reaches it. It is popularly believed that this death is caused by fright, but the evidence of Huna indicates that, with the close approach of the mesmerist serpent, the full power of the surcharge of vital force strikes the victim and causes the unconsciousness.

Human mesmerists have demonstrated similar powers by walking into a room where volunteer subjects are seated and waiting. The mesmerist then sweeps his gaze down the row, projects his mesmeric force, and the more sensitive of the subjects tumble unconscious to the floor, lying there for several minutes before returning to consciousness. No suggestion is given. Both the serpent and the mesmerist rely on the impact as the executioner does on the shock of the electrical current.

Another point which is not well understood by the psychologist is that it is the low self (subconscious) which is affected by the vital force shock which is directed and put into such violent action by the mesmerist.

Birds and animals are all low self creatures. Only man has added to his inherited animal or low self, a middle self (a conscious mind self) which in turn has a connection with a still higher self (the Superconscious) which still is not recognized in the text books.

Over a hundred years ago, mesmerism came to public notice because of the healing work of a Dr. Anton Mesmer. He used it and it came to be named for him. His healing was spectacular as well as successful. He soon became famous through the whole of Europe.

He called the force "animal magnetism", and believed that when he was more highly charged with it than a patient, it would flow from his body to that of the patient and would bring about healing. The very fact that he expected this flow of the force, acted as a mental command to cause it to flow, and it did.

But like the serpent, he sometimes caused so much vital force to enter one who was waiting to be healed, that fluttering movements, hysteria or even unconsciousness resulted. This unconsciousness was supposed to be sleep, but it was something very different. However, it gave rise to the belief that sleep and mesmerism were in some way related.

In England, some time after Dr. Mesmer was gone, Dr. James Braid, working on this problem of mesmeric sleep, made what he considered a very remarkable discovery. He found that "suggestion" could produce the same artificial sleep. In addition he discovered that by having a patient stare in a certain way at a small bright object held well above the eye level, he could produce this form of sleep without (so he thought) the use of either suggestion or anything resembling magnetic force.

Not knowing what lay behind mesmerism, he did not realize that suggestion always contains a slight amount of vital forceMesmer's "animal magnetism"or that suggestion can be silently administered just by expecting the subject to fall asleep when causing him to stare at a bright eye-tiring object. (Simple tiring of the eyes causes natural sleep. Given the element of suggestion or the impact of a charge of vital force directed by the will, the sleep produced is artificial.)

From Huna we learn that suggestion is the planting of a thought or idea in the mind of the subject, either by vocal or telepathic means. We further learn that an implanted idea has no mesmeric or hypnotic power at all unless mesmeric force is added to the idea at the time it is created or while it is being implanted. One may say to a friend, "Go jump in the lake", but, lacking the mesmeric force to go with this idea as it is given to the friend, he does not react to it even in the slightest way. On the other hand, if a hypnotist gave this idea in the form of a suggestion accompanied by enough mesmeric power, the subject would obediently begin to look for a lake into which to jump.

We may well marvel that men as clever as were Mesmer and Braid, should fail to unravel the mystery of what happens in mesmerism and suggestion. For one who knows Huna, it seems so very simple. But overlook it they didand in doing so, they overlooked the most important element in the whole matter.