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Schoolgirl Hypnotized By Classmate Saved By Doctor After Staring At Moon For 2 Hours
In 1909, innocent playing turning into a scary medical emergency for one teen girl
Even now in the midst of all of our technology and scientific advances, hypnotism remains a subject of endless fascination for many people. The ability to control the actions and minds of some individuals through suggestion still seems like the best kind of magic trick. It’s also best to be conducted by those who know what they’re doing, as a schoolgirl found out more than a century ago when her classmate put her under hypnosis and couldn’t bring her back, leading to the youth staring at the moon for hours before a doctor was finally able to coax her back to reality.
Studies suggest that as many as 10 percent of people can be deeply hypnotized, making them all the more susceptible when mesmerism is attempted. The May 29, 1909 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the scary case of 16-year-old Birdie West of St. Louis. At the time, hypnotism had been especially popular among school children in that area after a traveling hypnotist named Griffin had performed a series of tent shows there the year before.
So many school children in the city had been attempting to conduct their own hypnotism that parents were…
