Conditional Functioning #1

By Atom Bergstrom

Atom’s Blog

According to Adano Ley (Swami Nitty-Gritty) …

“ATG is the worst disease in the world, even worst than AIDS. Even God suffers from it.”

<>

ATG = attention-getting syndrome = conditional functioning.

<>

Spencer Timothy Hall (Mesmeric Experiences, 1845) wrote …

“(Copied from the Tyne Mercury of June 25th, 1844.).

“‘We are not going to discuss with Mr. Hall or his opponents the question, as to whether the mind may have only one, or as many as one hundred organs; or, whether the sanative influence by which he performs his mesmeric cures be moral, nervous, magnetic, or all three; but we should, as public journalists, be ill performing our duty, were we to pass over in silence the cures themselves, some of which, in this town and neighbourhood, are of a very striking character, and can be well attested by numbers of credible witnesses, whose names are in our possession. Indeed, we have not been without ocular demonstration of Mr. Hall’s sanative power as a mesmeriser, in private as well as in public; and we feel compelled to acknowledge that, however startling some of his experiments may have been at the lecture-room, those we have seen on highly respectable parties in private are not less so.

“‘To enumerate a few of them. On Friday week Mr. Hall was introduced to a young lady, well known as a talented vocalist, then staying in Newcastle. She was suffering severely from a rheumatic affection of the head and jaws. A tooth had been extracted a few days previously, but without advantage. The pain continued to agonise her until the mesmeric “passes” were tried. These, in five minutes, were successful in accomplishing a perfect cure. A number of gentlemen, troubled with pains in the head and giddiness, have been completely relieved with facility, during his short stay here, by Mr. Hall, who, so far from evincing any mystery on the subject, goes about the business in a manner the most unassuming and simple imaginable, contending that every man who pretends to mystery or exclusiveness in it is a quack.'”

(To Be Continued)
.
.