What Braid Really Said:

The Original Hypnotic Eye-Fixation Technique

Copyright (c) Donald Robertson, 2008-2010.  All rights reserved.

This is a modified excerpt from the book The Discovery of Hypnosis: The Complete Writings of James Braid, The Father of Hypnotherapy.  Available online from Amazon. 

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In Neurypnology (1843) Braid explicitly described the original hypnotic eye-fixation induction technique as follows,

Take any bright object (I generally use my lancet case) between the thumb and fore and middle fingers of the left hand; hold it from about eight to fifteen inches from the eyes, at such position above the forehead as may be necessary to produce the greatest possible strain upon the eyes and eyelids, and enable the patient to maintain a steady fixed stare at the object.

The patient must be made to understand that he is to keep the eyes steadily fixed on the object, and the mind riveted on the idea of that one object.  It will be observed, that owing to the consensual adjustment of the eyes, the pupils will be at first contracted: they will shortly begin to dilate, and after they have done so to a considerable extent, and have assumed a wavy motion, if the fore and middle fingers of the right hand, extended and a little separated, are carried from the object towards the eyes, most probably the eyelids will close involuntarily, with a vibratory motion.  If this is not the case, or the patient allows the eyeballs to move, desire him to begin anew, giving him to understand that he is to allow the eyelids to close when the fingers are again carried towards the eyes, but that the eyeballs must be kept fixed, in the same position, and the mind riveted to the one idea of the object held above the eyes.  It will generally be found, that the eyelids close with a vibratory motion, or become spasmodically closed.  After ten or fifteen seconds have elapsed, by gently elevating the arms and legs, it will be found that the patient has a disposition to retain them in the situation in which they have been placed, if he is intensely affected.

If this is not the case, in a soft tone of voice desire him to retain the limbs in the extended position, and thus the pulse will speedily become greatly accelerated [i.e., doubled], and the limbs, in process of time, will become quite rigid and involuntarily fixed [i.e., cataleptic].  It will also be found, that all the organs of special sense, excepting sight, including heat and cold, and muscular motion, or resistance, and certain mental faculties, are at first prodigiously exalted, such as happens with regard to the primary effects of opium, wine, and spirits.  [The “primary” stage, of sensory excitation.]  After a certain point, however, this exaltation of function is followed by a state of depression, far greater than the torpor of natural sleep.  [The “ulterior” stage, of insensibility.]

Most accounts of Braid’s method are based on this passage.  However, even in this, his first book on the subject, he described several variations of the basic eye-fixation technique.  In a footnote, he adds,

At an early period of my investigations, I caused the patients to look at a cork bound on the forehead.  This was a very efficient plan with those who had the power of converging the eyes so as to keep them both steadily directed on the object.  I very soon found, however, that there were many who could not keep both eyes steadily fixed on so near an object, and that the result was, that such patients did not become hypnotised.  To obviate this, I caused them to look at a more distant point, which, although scarcely so rapid and intense in its effects, succeeds more generally than the other, and is therefore what I now adopt and recommend.

This technique clearly resembles the “eye-roll” induction popularised in recent decades by Herbert and David Spiegel. 

Crucially, and contrary to a widespread misconception, Braid also acknowledged at this stage in his career that expectation and other psychological factors could produce the same hypnotic state without eye-fixation, or any induction process whatsoever.  With some justification, however, he maintained that the physical procedure must usually be carried out at least once for this to be possible.  It might be argued that for suggestion or autosuggestion to be completely effective, the subject must (typically) be able to imagine the response suggested – a feat that is much easier if they have previously experienced it.

It is important to remark, that the oftener patients are hypnotised, from association of ideas and habit, the more susceptible they become; and in this way they are liable to be affected entirely through the imagination.  Thus, if they consider or imagine there is something doing, although they do not see it, from which they are to be affected, they will become affected; but, on the contrary, the most expert hypnotist in the world may exert all his endeavours in vain, if the party does not expect it, and mentally and bodily comply, and thus yield to it.

Although Braid clearly believed that the process of eye-fixation had certain inherent effects, it seems he thought that these could be enhanced or undermined by the subject’s expectations and mental attitude.  The same is true of many other physical procedures, such as progressive muscle relaxation.  In truth, therefore, Braid interpreted his eye-fixation induction in terms of what he later described as the “reciprocal” interaction of psychological and physical factors, i.e., a genuine physical process of eye-fatigue compounded by verbal suggestion and expectant imagination.  In modern terminology, this might be described as a circular feedback model of the interaction between cognitive and behavioural factors or strategies.

In his later writings Braid adds further details, probably because he modified his technique over time, with growing experience. However, it also seems likely that the description in Neurypnology was incomplete, and did not represent the variations employed by Braid even at an early stage in his work.  There is a common misconception that Braid’s method took a long time, however, he now clarifies that the used of eye-fixation to induce eyelid closure is limited to 3-4 minutes.  In Magic, Witchcraft, etc. (1852), he writes,

My usual mode of inducing the sleep is to hold any small bright object about ten or twelve inches above the middle of the forehead, so as to require a slight exertion of the attention to enable the patient to maintain a steady, fixed gaze on the object; the subject being either comfortably seated or standing, stillness being enjoined, and the patient requested to engage his attention, as much as possible, on the simple act of looking at the object, and yield to the tendency to sleep which will steal over him during this apparently simple process.  I generally use my lancet case, held between the thumb and first two fingers of the left hand; but any other small bright object will answer the purpose.  In the course of about three or four minutes, if the eyelids do not close of themselves, the first two fingers of the right hand, extended and a little separated, may be quickly, or with a tremulous motion, carried towards the eyes, so as to cause the patient involuntarily to close the eyelids, which, if he is highly susceptible, will either remain rigidly closed, or assume a vibratory motion – the eyes being turned up, with, in the latter case, a little of the white of the eyes visible through the partially closed lids.  If the patient is not highly susceptible, he will open his eyes, in which case request him to gaze at the object, etc., as at first; and, if they do not remain closed after a second trial, desire him to allow them to remain shut after you have closed them, and then endeavour to fix his attention on muscular effort, by elevating the arms if standing, or both arms and legs if seated, which must be done quietly, as if you wished to suggest the idea of muscular action without breaking the abstraction, or concentrative state of mind, the induction of which is the real origin and essence of all which follows.

Braid may be implying here that he employed what subsequently became known as an “eyelid catalepsy test”, i.e., verbally challenging the subject to try to open their eyes as a test of responsiveness.  Otherwise, it seems unlikely he would claim to know that their eyes were sealed rigidly closed.  He describes the induction of rigid arm catalepsy in a way that resembles his notion of “muscular suggestion”, i.e., that the manipulation of the body suggests a certain response to the subject’s mind.  As with the eye fixation induction itself, this appears to have been conceptualised in terms of Braid’s reciprocal interaction model of suggestion, whereby physical manipulation and expectation mutually reinforce each other.  His caution suggests that he may have previously found that carelessly handling the subject’s arms and legs sometimes broke their concentration and interfered with the technique.

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