Heidenhain was able to take possession of the hypnotized subject's gaze and control him by sight, through producing mimicry . He looks fixedly at the patient till the patient is unable to take his eyes away. Then the patient will copy every movement he makes. If he rises and goes backward the patientwill follow, and with his right hand he will imitate the movements of the operator's left, as if he were a mirror. The attitudes of prayer,melancholy, pain, disdain, anger or fear, may be produced in this manner.
The experiments of Donato, a stage hypnotizer, are thus described :"After throwing the subjects into catalepsy he causes soft music to be played, which produces a rapturous expression. If the sound is heightened or increased, the subjects seem to receive a shock and a feeling of disappointment. The artistic sense developed by hypnotism is disturbed; the faces express astonishment, stupefaction and pain. If the same soft melody be again resumed, the same expression of rapturous bliss reappears in the countenance. The faces become seraphic and celestial when the subjects are by nature handsome, and when the subjects are ordinary looking, even ugly, they are idealized as by a special kind of beauty."
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