Doctor Cornwall Round was, like his name, quite round and plum. In his younger years he had been an officer in the army, and he sometimes wondered if some indulgences in his early years might have kept him from the full demonstration of the abundant life. He was knowledgeable of Hinduism. He accepted in principle the relationship of the subjective and objective minds, together with its power building and rebuilding the body but frequently made himself the exception to the rule.
Dr. Cornwall Round was a physician and surgeon. A friend of both Harry Gaze and Thomas Troward, he was probably a student of both of their works.
“I accept the idea of a physical as well as spiritual immortality, but please do not publicize me as Doctor or I may be ruled out of the medical profession.”
At that time it was against the ethical code of the B. M. A. to use the tide of Doctor in connection with his personal opinions in the press.
Round had experimented extensively with hypnotic subjects. Because some of his results were so full of interest and significance a series of experiments were arranged in his home. Thomas Troward, Harry Gaze, officers of the Psycho-Therapeutic Society[1] and most of the physicians who had accepted and practiced mental healing attended (Some had tested hypnosis for medical usage, sometimes as an anesthetic for the milder operations). ...
A young streetwalker was selected for one particular experiment. She was paid considerably in excess of what she might normally earn. She consented after being assured the experiments would in no way harm her and she proved to be good subject.
She had excellent concentration, mind wandering is not a good attribute of a hypnotic subject.
First she was required to look intently at a bright shining coin, and then directly into the eyes of the operator (Round). In a quiet but positive voice, Round repeated a number of times, “You are a high priestess in the Temple of the Sun. You have a message for those who are here. You will speak to us clearly and brilliantly. You know great truths. You will tell us about them. You have wise and able associates, and are open to their wisdom. You are fluent and able. Remember, you are a wise, high priestess, and you can instruct us.” (This reeks of leading the subject and the power of suggestion, similar in some aspects to stage hypnosis)
After much repetition, in substantially the same words, her personal characteristics seemed to disappear, and a new and more attractive individual appeared. Finally, she lifted herself up, proudly, and even regally, an impersonation of a Goddess, and launched into a discourse in which she talked eloquently and learnedly of life, philosophy, and immortality.
One attendee viewed it as proof of spirit communication. The consensus, however, was that it illustrated the normal powers of the subjective mind, and that the ideas advanced were a composite of the ideas held by those present, or ideas received from the treasury or storehouse of the Universal Subjective Mind. This consensus was shared by Gaze, Troward and Round.
To Thomas Troward, hypnotism demonstrated quickly and dramatically the marvelous powers of the mind when used for research purposes in trustworthy hands. The results of thought power were better in the long run when the cooperation of the subject’s whole mind, subjective and objective, with the priority of spiritual cooperation was obtained.
Cornwall Round, on the other hand, accepted in principle the relationship of the subjective and objective minds, but the spiritual, the dynamic power behind healing, didn’t impress him as deeply as the influence of mental suggestion. That doesn’t mean Round left God out of his thought, as Gaze says it’s a matter of emphasis and proportion.
Dr. Round had once noticed the gardener on his mother’s beautiful estate, who was still active in his hundredth year, take some small round slugs from the grass and put them in his mouth. Round linked it to what was then called “organo-therapy”[4].
Round provided Troward with scientific tests of mind which demonstrated the nature of mind provide material for closer spiritual and mental reflection.
Self-synthesis: a means to perpetual life [1907]
• {Review: This is a suggestive little book by a man who revolves a matter in his mind before he writes of it, and whose common sense never quits the hub of his thoughts. Mr. Round never rolls off down a side street, but always keeps to the high road between them all. He does not, so at least we read him, wobble more towards mysticism than towards materialism. He believes that a perfect equilibrium between the Subjective mind ___ S, and the Objective mind ___ O, produces the Individual mind, which he symbolises as being neither round nor square, but a simple I or line, connecting the S and O. This I is the self-renewing link between these two, which, when it is truly balanced, renders death the most unnatural, in place of the most natural event, that we may expect once we are born.}
• "Why die?" asks Dr. Cornwall Round In n little book called "Self-Synthesis: a Means to Perpetual Life," published at the office of 'Light. *. Dr. Round is of opinion that this custom of dying is nothing more than a bad racial habit. The "body, he argues, is not a machine that need wear out, but one that can be kept in good repair for an indefinite period by right suggestion. Our forefathers set us a bad example, which has hypnotised us into the belief that death is inevitable, a hypnotisation which can be conquered by self-suggestion in the conscious state, "when the S. (or subjective mind) is under the protection of its O. (or objective mind)." To be aged and ailing shows that we have ignorantly mismanaged our bodily affairs. It is right, however, to add that others besides Dr. Round have held disease to be unnecessary. Dr. S. A. Russell, of Poughkeepsie, shared this opinion until lately, abstaining from food to demonstrate that the mere will to live was enough. The "Yorkshire Observer", announces Dr. Russell's death from starvation. The Advertiser (Adelaide, Friday 30 March 1906), Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 62, 14 March 1906, Page 4 One Day--one Diet [1916]
[1]The Psycho-Therapeutic Society : Founded in London, England, on April 1, 1901, for the advocacy of health reform, medical hypnotism, suggestive therapeutics, curative human radiations, and general drugless healing. The first president was George Spriggs[2], whose services as healing medium were at the disposal of patients for a generation.
From 1903 until 1905 he gave free medical advice in the rooms of the London Spiritualist Alliance. The Psycho-Therapeutic Society was largely formed through his efforts. For years he diagnosed diseases for the society without charge.
[3] (1837-?) American direct voice and materialization medium of the nineteenth century, controlled by spirit guides "James Nolan" and "Skiwaukee" (a Native American). In 1874 and 1880 she visited England, where she demonstrated slate writing, the script frequently said to be produced by a materialized hand in full view. Hollis was born April 24, 1837, in Jeffersonville, Indiana, into a wealthy family. She was an exemplary member of the Episcopal Church until she began to see and talk with spirits. During the years 1871 to 1873 N. B. Wolfe of Chicago made exhaustive investigations into her phenomena. The account is included in his Startling Facts in Modern Spiritualism (1873). According to Wolfe, Hollis's direct voice mediumship was well developed. As many as 30 or 40 spirits were said to have come in a single sitting. They spoke only in the dark, but they could sing along with the sitters. Sometimes the sitters were given the Freemasonry challenge. Objects frequently moved. Sometimes the medium was levitated to the ceiling and left a pencil mark there. One of her manifesting spirits was fond of making dolls and rosettes from the material provided for this purpose, and the sewing was done accurately in the dark. Hollis produced materialized forms from a cabinet without going into trance. Phantom hands quickly appeared. As a test the medium's right hand was blackened with cork. The spirit hand was clean. The faces were often flat, and the sitters looked at them through opera glasses. On one occasion six heads materialized simultaneously. Famous people were claimed to have manifested at the Hollis séances, including Napoleon and Empress Josephine, who wore a jeweled crown and strings of pearls.
[4]Organotherapy: The use of extracts of animal glands or organs to treat disease. Pituitary extracts from pigs, for example, were used for many years to treat hormone disorders.
My Personal Recollections of Thomas Troward
http://www.newthoughthistory.org/resources/Thomas-Troward---the_teacher_and_the_man.pdf
Wiki suggests that hypnosis is pseudoscience, in particular the use of past life regression.
“Some aspects of suggestion have been clinically useful. Other claimed uses of hypnosis more clearly fall within the area of pseudoscience. Such areas include the use of hypnotic regression beyond plausible limits, including past life regression.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience
The same page includes Colon Cleansing.
I took a hypnosis course from someone in Toronto that included a method for Colon Cleansing. I never could figure out how that was approved as part of a course curriculum. What place do “New Age” beliefs like “Ascended Masters” have in hypnosis. None I believe. The greats like Milton Erickson were firmly planted in the now.
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