Why is it that the person who enters the deeper stage of hypnotic sleep hears and obeys the hypnotist alone and nothing and nobody else in the world outside? Why is it that on awakening he even does not then remember what he said or did? The answer to both questions is the same. It is not his own but the hypnotist's mind which operates during his sleep. It is not the subject who is doing this or saying that during the sleep, but the hypnotist himself who is doing or saying it, unconsciously using the subject's vocal organs and bodily limbs for the purpose. Those who cannot concede this should try, if they can, to find an explanation of the following further problem: if a person during ordinary sleep cannot hear spoken words or obey spoken commands, why can he do so during a sleep induced hypnotically? The fact is he does not really do so but merely yields the illusion of it to outside observers. What happens is that the hypnotizer superimposes his own mind on the sleeper's and unconsciously utilizes his body. He who hears the hypnotizer speak is his own self. He who obeys his commands is likewise himself. But the process of using the medium's senses and obsessing his mind, being an unconscious one, hides these facts. The value of this instance for our present purpose is that it helps to throw light on the inner mechanism of certain mystical phenomena which accompany advanced meditation.
-- Notebooks Category 16: The Sensitives > Chapter 13 : The Occult > # 98
