In this final article in the series on the links between inspiration, motivation and hypnosis, I wish to reiterate that the main purpose of the articles is to spread knowledge and a basic understanding of hypnotism, in the hope that it will be less marginalized and can be used to best effect for the benefit of all. To do that, I feel I must point out some of the dangers of misuse.
Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 in Austria. In 1908 he moved to Vienna where he rented a room. During the five years he spent in the city he was a frequent visitor to the municipal library.
One of the books thought to have particularly interested Hitler was the work of the French psychologist Gustave Le Bon. Le Bon (1841-1931), had written a book entitled Psychology of the masses. It had been translated into German in 1908, and records show that a copy was given to the library frequented by Hitler that same year.
Le Bon’s book describes his theories about crowds and their behavior. He had identified that group behavior could be manipulated by hypnotic suggestion and that few individuals in a crowd possessed a personality strong enough to resist such suggestion.
It describes how an individual in a crowd is little more than a grain of sand among other grains of sand, which the wind lifts at will. He identified that individuals, when they were part of a crowd, became automatons, no longer guided by their own will.
You only need to see a newsreel of Hitler appearing at a rally to recognize that he is using mass suggestion. It shows how the delivery is done in a positive and confident way. His use of repetition is also notable. Over and over he uses the same words. Consider why he repeatedly says ‘Jew, Jew, Jew’. Hitler had learned that repeating a word three times had a recognizable effect on the crowd. Add and repeat, ‘blame, blame, blame’, and you have mass hypnosis being used for sinister purposes.
The work of other psychologists such as Moscovici shows how crowds initially watch and listen to a speaker. By using certain words and behavior, a speaker can very quickly establish rapport with an audience. Repeated exposure to the same speaker can result in them being viewed admiringly on the brink of adoration. Every word spoken is accepted as the complete truth.
Audience members are likely to rebuff any attack or criticism of the speaker’s name. Eventually, they refuse to believe that the person could be capable of any crime or evil. In the case of Hitler, many followers, despite knowing the truth about the concentration camps, continued to believe that Hitler was unaware of these horrors. In Russia, Lenin, and later Stalin, were equally capable of commanding mass audiences.
History is peppered with examples of mass hysteria, when ordinary individuals have been drawn into a mob. During the last 18 years of the 20th century there were approximately 3,000 lynchings in America. Nearly 300,000 people participated in these mob proceedings.
Mass suggestion still takes place to this day. Notice how newspapers and television can quickly foment hysteria over little more than a football game.
Human behavior changes little. The mass hysteria that Le Bon described in his last Victorian writings is still true today. He only needs to consider the behavior of the people in a riot to realize that they have surrendered their individual will to the consciousness of the masses.
Today’s comedians use an aspect of the same phenomenon to enhance their performance. An audience member will start laughing. Before long two, then three and four are doing it. Halfway through the performance, the entire audience laughs uncontrollably. Check out some of the short videos on my website if you want to see a positive use of Phenomena in action. During many of my performances, I’m convinced that some audience members don’t know why they’re laughing, but somehow they feel an irresistible urge to laugh.
Hitler described in his writings how, ‘What you say to people collectively in that receptive state of fanatical abandon remains in their minds like an order given to someone under hypnosis, which cannot be erased and resists all logical argument.’
There have been few in history who have brought such horrible pain and suffering to the world as the psychopath known as Adolf Hitler. Whatever his thoughts on the man, and of course he is entitled to them, there is no denying his popularity with most Germans at the time. My only wish is that it somehow helps you better understand why what happened happened.
I’ll close by reiterating an important point I made in article one: the tremendous benefits that people can gain from understanding what hypnotism is and how it works far outweigh the reasons people often give for keeping it ‘secret’.
