B579 <=> B581 (BTG XXXIII Beelzebub as hypnotist, p. 580)

“It cannot be denied that, as I have already told you, it is possible to bring them into such a psychic state by making them fix their gaze on a brilliant or bright object, but not all beings there, not by a long way, the reason being that although from their fixed gaze on a shining object there may proceed in their general blood circulation the change of the ‘filling-of-the-blood-vessels,’ nevertheless the chief factor for this must be the, on their part, intentional or automatic concentration of thought and feeling.

“And this latter can be obtained in them either from an intense expectation, or from that process proceeding in them which they express by the word ‘faith,’ or from the arising emotion of the sensation of fear of something about to happen, or finally from the functions already contained within the presence of the given being which they call ‘passions,’ as for instance ‘hate,’ ‘love,’ ‘sensuality,’ ‘curiosity,’ and so on and so forth.

“That is why in beings called there ‘hysterical,’ in whom there is lost temporarily or forever the possibility of concentration of ‘thought’ and ‘feeling,’ it is impossible by means of fixing their gaze upon a shining object to obtain in their blood circulation the change of the difference of the ‘filling-of-blood-vessels,’ and hence it is also impossible to obtain in them this said hypnotic state.

“But by the means I invented, namely, a definite action upon the ‘blood vessels’ themselves, it was possible to bring into this state not only anyone you please of these three-brained beings who have taken your fancy, but even also many one-brained and two-brained beings breeding there, as for instance, various what they call ‘quadrupeds,’ ‘fishes,’ ‘birds,’ and so on and so forth.

“But as regards the said impulse, love-of-kind, which led me to seek for a new means of bringing your favorites into such a state which had already become proper to them – this arose in me and gradually became dominant in me for a while chiefly because, during these therapeutic activities of mine, ordinary three-brained beings there belonging to all castes, here, there, and everywhere, soon began to love and esteem me and to consider me almost as one sent to them from Above to help them to deliver themselves from their pernicious habits; in short, they began to manifest toward me their most sincere, almost genuine being-impulse of ‘Oskolnikoo’ or as they themselves say ‘thankfulness’ and ‘gratitude.’