CONTENTS --History of hypnotism--Mesmer--Puysegur--Braid--What is hypnotism?--Theories of hypnotism: 1. Animal magnetism; 2. The Neurosis Theory; 3. Suggestion Theory --How to Hypnotize--Dr. Cocke's method-Dr. Flint's method--The French method at Paris-- At Nancy--The Hindoo silent method--How to wake a subject from hypnotic sleep--Frauds of public hypnotic entertainments. --Amusing experiments--Hypnotizing on the stage--"You can't pull your hands apart "--Post- hypnotic suggestion--The newsboy, the hunter, and the young man with the rag doll--A whip becomes hot iron--Courting a broom stick--The side-show --The stages of hypnotism--Lethargy-Catalepsy--The somnambulistic stage--Fascination --How the subject feels under hypnotization--Dr. Cocke's experience--Effect of music--Dr. Alfred Warthin's experiments --Self hypnotization--How it may be done--An experience--Accountable for children's crusade--Oriental prophets self- hypnotized --Simulation--Deception in hypnotism very common--Examples of Neuropathic deceit-- Detecting simulation--Professional subjects--How Dr. Luys of the Charity Hospital at Paris was deceived--Impossibility of detecting deception in all cases--Confessions of a professional hypnotic subject --Criminal suggestion--Laboratory crimes--Dr. Cocke's experiments showing criminal suggestion is not possible--Dr. William James' theory--A bad man cannot be made good, why expect to make a good man bad? --Dangers in being hypnotized Condemnation of public performances--A commonsense view--Evidence furnished by Lafontaine; by Dr. Courmelles; by Dr. Hart; by Dr. Cocke--No danger in hypnotism if rightly used by physicians or scientists --Hypnotism in medicine--Anesthesia--Restoring the use of muscles--Hallucination--Bad habits --Hypnotism of animals--Snake charming --A scientific explanation of hypnotism--Dr. Hart's theory --Telepathy and Clairvoyance--Peculiar power in hypnotic state--Experiments--"Phantasms of the living" explained by telepathy --The Confessions of a Medium--Spiritualistic phenomena explained on theory of telepathy-- Interesting statement of Mrs. Piper, the famous medium of the Psychical Research Society