B557 <=> B559 (BTG XXXII Hypnotism, p. 559)

Chapter XXXII Hypnotism

AND so,” Beelzebub continued, “at this sixth sojourn of mine in person on the surface of that planet Earth of yours, I decided to settle there for a long stay and to become a professional physician there. I did indeed become one, only not such a physician as most of them are there, but I chose for myself the profession of what is called there ‘physician-hypnotist.’

“I became such a professional there firstly because during recent centuries only such physician-professionals there obtain an entree to all their ‘classes’ or ‘castes’ of which I spoke, and, since they enjoy great confidence and authority, ordinary beings are disposed to a sincerity towards them that permits them to penetrate, as is said there, their ‘inner world.’

“Secondly, I decided to become such a professional, in order, also parallel with the attainments of my personal aims, to have the possibility at the same time of giving genuine medical assistance to certain of those unfortunates.

“Indeed, my boy, on all the continents there and among all the beings, to whatever class they may belong, there has been during recent times and there still is a great need for just such physicians.

“I may say that I already had a very wide experience in this specialty, having during my previous elucidation of certain subtle points of the psyche of individual favorites of yours many times had recourse to methods used there by such a kind of physicians.

“I must tell you that formerly your favorites, like all the other three-brained beings of the whole Universe, were without that particular psychic property which permits them to be brought into what is called a ‘hypnotic state.’ To get into that state became proper to your favorites, thanks to a certain combination obtained in their psyche and derived from the disharmony of the functioning of their common presence.