Dramaturge: Somnambulist
SOMNABULISM
A somnambulist – SLEEPWALKER- is one who engages in daytime ACTIVITIES, during the night without being aware of it. There is no memory- a state of amnesia-.
The phenomenon has been reported from the times of Hippocrates to modern times and
continues to amaze the spectator/audience. Older theories coupled somnambulism with
clairvoyance – independence from the ordinary senses that guide human movement-action
- A somnambulist was a dreamer that had the power to act out his dreams and pursuit
complex actions if his intent was set on it.
Current medical perspective looks upon it as a “Disorder of Arousal “ the somnambulist
is caught between the different stages of sleeping cycles and the body sleep and mind
sleep is dissociated- disengaged- removed from their togetherness.
Causality ranges from being genetic to environmental. It is more prevalent in children.
EYES SHUT WIDE OPEN
…The somnambulist meanders through the night and knows nothing from what he saw or
did… the soul remains unfathomed, as no trace is led, the mind does not remember unless
one wakes the SOMNABULIST….
RELATIONSHIP To hypnosis and to the idea of being MESMERIZED (Franz Anton Mesmer 1734-1815) and the ODIC force (Carl von Reichenbach 1788-1869).
LIFE forces…. Mind over matter
Franz Mesmer reported that in his sessions where he taped into the “animal magnetism”
(magnetic fluid that embodies all living animals) to cure patients of various ailments
that he was able to induce people into a mesmeric trance a “ artificial somnambulist
state”. Hypnosis which was later developed is based on the concept that the power
of suggestion is the tool to initiate the trance like state.
Further noted with the occurrence of the “magnetic lucid somnambulism” was the untouchable
state of the person (impervious to noxious stimuli) but responsive to the VOICE of the MAGNETISER to follow HIS orders.
The induction of the state was most likely to occur in people that “are most ignorant
and ordinary “ …..
The MAGNetiser operates through touch and “passes” . HIS Hands are moving from head to face, to
the center of the abdomen where it seeks the solar plexus, always at a distance from
the patient’s body, mostly not touching but connecting with the magnetism…. To awake
the patient He may blow wind at his face or make transverse passes across the face.
..
The more often a person has been magnetized the less induction it requires… while the mesmeric trance lasts - The Somnambulist may have clairvoyance, intuition, internal paravision, insensibility, a sudden and considerable increase in STRENGTH”
The Magnetiser upon moving his body can through his will and physical action of his own body elicit muscle contractions and movement in the one that is magnetized.
Sources:
Animal Magnetism and magnetic Lucid Somnabulism, Edwin Lee MD 1866