THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF HYPNOSIS

It will seem strange to many that there can be any connection between hypnotism and religion, for hypnotism is regarded in so many quarters as suspect. Men still shrink from it as from one of the black arts. This is not to be wondered at when one knows its history. It has been exploited and misused by the magic-mongerer and the organizer of crude exhibitions in village market-places and the like, until it has come to be regarded almost as an unholy thing. This attitude to it has been the more readily taken because the subject is so little understood. One of the tasks of modern psychology will be to rescue the practice of hypnotism from this degrading position and show it to be, in skilled hands, a normal way of making an examination of the unconscious mind, and of suggesting to that mind ideas which afterwards will be realized by the personality to the great benefit of the latter. As one patient said to a psychologist, 'when I came I thought I was going to be doped. . . . Now I know that I have lived for years in a cellar, and that you have lifted me out and liberated what was in me.'

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In conclusion, though hypnosis is not to be regarded as a method to be used where other methods would suffice, yet with proper safeguards, and in skilled hands, it will yet come into its own as a useful method of making an examination of the unconscious mind in the search for those hidden and repressed complexes which do so much to disturb the harmony of so many lives, and as a means of getting into the mind those suggestions of confidence, strength, well-being, and courage which in many cases can alone bring about the health of the soul. Leslie D(ixon) Weatherhead  ~ Psychology in Service of the Soul ( 1930 )

Leslie Dixon Weatherhead ( 1893 – 1976 ) was an English Christian theologian in the liberal Protestant tradition. Weatherhead was noted for his preaching ministry at City Temple in London and for his books, including The Will of God, The Christian Agnostic, and Psychology, Religion, and Healing.

The three books of his sermons which Weatherhead considered his best were That Immortal Sea, Over His Own Signature and Key Next Door.

Weatherhead drew crowds wherever he preached. He did this even with a rather unattractive highly-pitched voice. What was his secret? Weatherhead always appealed strongly to the emotions — he was a "feeling" preacher and would use the proverbial tearjerker. Weatherhead loved language and could turn a phrase but was always forthright if not blunt. Weatherhead had a great sense of humor and after his preaching at St. Giles in Edinburgh it was said that it was "the first time they had laughed in St. Giles." His language was quite free and had to be edited for publication. He delighted in the loud laconic whisper. But above all, he genuinely cared for people. Weatherhead could embrace a crowd of people.