“Unfortunately for Mesmer, he effected a startling and rapid cure in a young girl suffering from an imposing array of physical symptoms through the use of magnets the very first time he put his theory into practice. Thus buoyed by success, Mesmer embarked on a career aimed at convincing the medical community of the soundness of his theory.”
Dr. Hollander took a sip of water from a glass that rested on his podium. Shindler scanned the assembly of attentive students and concluded that the professor had them appropriately mesmerized.
“The Vienna medical fraternity viewed Mesmer as a charlatan and he was forced to flee to Paris, where, in 1781, he founded a clinic. Mesmerism became a popular fad among the wealthy. Eventually, Mesmer was discredited by a commission appointed by the French Government and he retired to Switzerland, an embittered man.
“While Mesmer was being sidetracked by his theories, one of his disciples, Marquis de Puysegur, observed that the ‘magnetized’ subject could hear only what the ‘magnetizer’ said and was oblivious to everything else, that he accepted suggestions without question and that he could recall nothing of the events of the trance into which he was put when restored to normal consciousness. De Puysegur called this condition ‘artificial somnambulism’ and explained that a subject in this condition could accomplish incredible feats like reading sealed messages, suffering needles to be jabbed into his skin and permitting, without flinching, the application of a red hot poker to his body.”
The bell rang, ending the period, and several students hurried to the front of the lecture hall to talk with Dr. Hollander. Shindler walked to the front in a leisurely manner and waited until the last of this enthusiastic group had left. Dr. Hollander was gathering up his notes when he noticed Shindler.
“I enjoyed your lecture, Doctor.”
“Thank you. I try to be entertaining and I am always gratified when I succeed. I don’t believe I have seen you before. Are you a student?”
Shindler fumbled for his badge and managed to flip it open.
“I’m with the Portsmouth Police, Dr. Hollander. My name is Roy Shindler.”
Hollander looked intrigued.
“I hope I haven’t done anything wrong,” he said with a puckish smile.
Shindler laughed.
“No, you’re clean as far as I know. Dr. George Tucker gave me your name.”
“George. Certainly. Well, I am mystified. How can I help you?”
“Is there someplace we can talk? This is a bit complicated and it may take a while. It concerns a murder case and we may need your specialized knowledge of hypnosis to help us solve it.”
Hollander looked surprised, flattered and flustered all at once.
“I’ll do what I can, of course. I’ve never worked with the police before and I don’t know what I can do for you, but if you think…Say, I know a quiet pub near here. If that is okay. You fellows can drink on duty, can’t you?”
Shindler smiled.
“You’re a man after my own heart, Doctor.”
“Do you teach at the University full-time, Doctor?” Shindler asked.
“No, no. Just one freshman Psychology course to keep me young. My practice keeps me pretty busy, but I enjoy being around youngsters. And you can call me Art. Doctor is way too formal and makes me feel old enough to counter any good I might have gotten out of tonight’s class.”
Shindler laughed and leaned against the back of the wooden booth. They were seated in the rear of “The Victorian Age,” an imitation English pub that catered to a predominantly college clientele.
“Art, what exactly is hypnosis?”
“Nothing magical,” Hollander said. He smiled faintly as if he had heard and answered the question a thousand times before. “Simply a form of suggestion. We sit here and I suggest another beer. You weigh the suggestion. The beer is good but you are on duty and you have to think clearly. However, if I suggest that everything I am going to suggest is reasonable, then you will stop evaluating and you will depend on me.”
Hollander took a pen out of his pocket and pulled a white napkin in front of him. He placed a dot at the top of the napkin.
“Think of this point as being a state of complete alertness. You are alert now. You can see and hear all the things that are going on in this pub, as well as listen to our conversation and think your own thoughts. But there are other states of awareness that are not total.”
Hollander drew a line from the dot straight down the napkin to the bottom and ended it with another dot.
“You know the expression ‘dead to the world’? A person is so sound asleep that his mind is practically completely at rest. This would be a point represented by the dot at the bottom.
“Okay. Along this line we’re going to get various stages of alertness and somewhere on this line is a state where a person becomes susceptible to suggestion. This might be a point where the person is at thirty minutes after he has gone to bed. His eyes are closed, he’s lost contact with the general sounds around him, but he’s still aware of very important sounds, like a baby crying or, in a doctor’s case, that darn telephone ringing. A person in that state can be alerted rather easily, because in that state he is paying all of his attention to a single thing.”
“If you asked a person in this state a question, would they respond normally?” Shindler asked. “I mean, the way you’re answering my questions?”
“Oh, yes. It depends on the depth of the hypnosis. The lower the state of awareness, the more their attention is focused and the more accurate the response.”
“Doctor…Art. Let’s suppose that a person has seen something so frightening and so upsetting to them that they have repressed the memory of that event. They have amnesia. If you ask them about the event, they deny that they were ever there. If you put that kind of person under hypnosis, could you make them talk about the event, tell what really happened?”
Hollander raised his eyebrows and regarded Shindler with new interest.
“‘Repressed,’ ‘amnesia.’ You and George had a nice talk. He must have told you the answer to your questions already or else you wouldn’t have come to see me.”
Shindler smiled.
“George said he thought you could. What do you say?”
“Possible. Hypnosis is frequently used in amnesia. One of the biggest uses of psychiatry is to recall repressed material of the kind you have just mentioned.”
“What would you do in a case like this?”
“Well, you have not given me much information, but I assume you will when you are ready. In the general situation, I would develop a hypnotic state to relax the individual. When the patient is relaxed, the repressive mechanisms in the mind that watches over the forbidden memories are off guard. The relaxation permits the memories to be brought from the subconscious to the conscious.
“Now, this is not an easy process. Especially when we are dealing with amnesia that is due to a very frightening, very threatening experience. The individual might be afraid that they will go crazy, that they will be punished severely or something like that if it is ever discovered that they have been involved in the event that they are repressing. When they come close to the repressed memory, they fight hard. They do their best to avoid contact with it. They will have bodily reactions we call conversion reactions. They will have headaches, upset stomachs, diarrhea. All sorts of physical reactions as well as just refusing to discuss the matter. It is not easy.”
“Do you want another beer?”
“Certainly. It is always a pleasure to live off the public dole.”
Shindler signaled the waitress and ordered two more beers.
“Can you get through?”
“Not in every case.”
“Would you like to take a shot at a very unusual case?”
Hollander smiled and his eyes twinkled.
“Roy, you know you have me hooked. Tell me what the facts are.”
“Art, this is a case I have been working on for some time. Have you ever heard of the Murray-Walters murders?”