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Serviss perceived the folly of any subterfuge, and briefly presented Viola's history, without na in detail the sitting of the night before, while Tolman ate imperturbably at his chop and toast with only now and then a word or a keen glance
When the story was finished, he looked up, like a lawyer assue of a witness "Now there's a whole volume to say upon what you've told me, and our time is limited to a chapter Make your questions specific What point do you particularly want my opinion on?"
"First of all, has the preacher in this case been controlling the girl?"
"Undoubtedly, but not to the extent you ireat and constant source of suggestion"
"You would advise taking the patient out of her present surroundings, would you not?"
"Yes, that would be helpful, but is not absolutely necessary The essential step is to fill her estions" Here he launched into an exposition of the principles and potentialities of hypnotism, and was in full tide of it when Weissmann interrupted to ask: "But suppose these phenomena actually and independently exist? Suppose that they are not illusions but objective realities, how then will your suggestion help?"
This put Tolman on his mettle He entered into a discourse filled with phrases like "secondary consciousness," "collective hallucinations," "nerve-force," wherein, while adood men believed in the phenomena of "spiritis causes For his part, the realm of hallucination was boundless "The mind has the power to create a world of its own--it often does so, and--"
Here Weissain broke in "You will enroll yourself with Aksakof and Von Hartmann and Lombroso?"
"Not precisely They admit the reality of the appearances I do not believe that the mind has power to delass last night, which was a trick"
"But the mind can produce a blister without external cause," said Serviss "You hypnotic sharps have proved that it can also deaden nerves and heal skin diseases, if not bone fractures"
"Yes, we produce anism, but we draw the line at the periphery of the body Telekinesis is to me the word of a lively fictionist"
"One is as easy to believe as the other, and Crookes, Lodge, Lombroso, Tamburini, Aksakof, Von Harts," retorted Serviss "They differ only in their explanations One party believes them due to disembodied spirits, the other relates theenerated within the sitters and acting on objects at a distance I a I aentle"