In this condition, which is induced in a number of ways by keeping the attention fixed on some non-exciting object, and by weak continuous and monotonous stimulation, as stroking the skin, the patient can be made to act conformably to the verbal or other suggestion of the operator, or to the bodily position which he is made to assume.

Thus, for example, if a glass containing ink is given to him, with the command to drink, he proceeds to drink.

If his hands are folded, he proceeds to act as if he were in church, and so on.
Braid, the writer who did so much to get at the facts of hypnotism, and Dr.Carpenter who has helped to make known Braid's careful researches, regard the actions of the hypnotized subject as analogous to ideomotor movements; that is to say, the movements due to the tendency of an idea to act itself out apart from volition.

On the other hand, one of the latest inquirers into the subject, Professor Heidenhain, of Breslau, appears to regard these actions as the outcome of "unconscious perceptions" (_Animal Magnetism_, English translation, p.

43, etc.).
In the absence of certain knowledge, it seems allowable to argue from the analogy of natural sleep that the actions of the hypnotized patient are accompanied with the lower forms of consciousness, including sensation and perception, and that they involve dream-like hallucinations respecting the external circumstances of the moment.
Regarding them in this light, the points of resemblance between hypnotism and dreaming are numerous and striking.