The Power of Chevreul's Hypnotic-Pendulum

History... In the 1800's, tales of spiritualist phenomenon were on the increase. Many of the weird and wonderful characters that are often thought of today as charlatans, were plying their trade in the middle and upper classes of western Europe and America. They frequently demonstrated tables flying around the room with people barely touching them, spirits making contact through pendulums, and ouiji boards revealing insights from the great beyond. Not only were they making a good living from their arts and capturing public attention, they were also producing phenomenon that was catching the attention of the scientific community.

One man who was keeping a keen eye on the paranormal goings on was Michel- Eugene Chevreul, a highly thought of French chemist. Chevreul was a man who believed highly in the laws of science, and whose scientific skills were more than up to the task of making scientific breakthroughs and accurate observations. In fact Chevreul was so highly thought of that on his 100th birthday in 1886 a gold medal was minted for the occasion, which was celebrated as a national event in France. He was honoured with a public funeral and commemorative statue at his death in 1889, at the age of 102. Now as a nationally acclaimed scientist in France, Chevreul was an empassioned enemy of charlatarian phenomonem. He was not only Sceptical, but determined to prove them wrong. He couldn't.

After undertaking many studies into many of the phenomonem, Chevreul found out the many of the phenomenom were real. However the cause of the phenomenom turned out to prove far more interesting than even the spiritualists had been claiming! What Chevreul found was that the movement was caused not by spirits and paranormal phenomenom, but involuntary muscle movements that were outside of the persons conscious awareness. This internally constructed phenomenom became known as ideomotor movements. The person was making the movements themselves but was not aware of it, and neither were others watching. The persons unconscious was taking responsible for the movements.

What does all this mean?

This meant that it was possible to communicate with the unconscious mind. The unconscious mind being the area of the mind that controls everything outside of our awareness, our blood pressure, the release of hormones, the area that regulates our mood, our temperature and many other thousands of processes. However, it also provided an explanation for many of the paranormal phenomenon being branded around by the spiritualists. Automatic handwriting, mind-reading (muscle reading), table turning, dowsing, and the paranormal pendulum! So when people were holding onto a glass on a ouiji board they were claiming spirits were moving the glass, and they had no control of it, whilst the scientific community were arguing that at least one of them was in fact moving the glass, and were defrauding the others. They were both right. As the scientists claimed the subjects were moving the glass, but as the spiritualists claimed they really didn't have any awareness that they were moving it!

So we now have a phenomenon that's not controlled by outside forces, but by internal ones. We have a phenomenon that can demonstrate to others the power of our unconscious mind, to make movements without making movements, to make decisions without having to make decisions. Our unconscious, the area that has far more control over our body's internal processes, the area that has far more information surrounding our lives than just our conscious awareness does, was now communicating with us.

How to use it...

Hold a pendulum in your dominant (writing) hand. And make it fall still so it is hanging straight down. Then without moving your hand just begin to think 'Left....Right...Left....Right' in your mind over and over. Will the pendulum to move left and right, in time with how it should move to the left, and then back to the right. Just hear the words 'Left....Right...Left....Right', in your head, even say them out loud to yourself. Visualize the pendulum moving 'Left....Right...Left....Right', see it in your mind moving 'Left....Right...Left....Right', and without moving your arm feel the momentum of the pendulum moving 'Left....Right...Left....Right' over and over. When the pendulum moves to left in your mind, feel, hear, and see it moving left, as it swings back to the right, feel, hear, and see it moving to the right. But don't consciously move your arm. Focus solely on the pendulum moving, beginning to swing to across a left and right axis in front of you. It may help to be in a place where there is no distractions, and you can focus on nothing but that pendulum there moving.

Once you have mastered this, Then change direction. Stop the pendulum and repeat the process, but this time feel the pendulum moving back and forth, back and forth. Then maybe moving round and round, round and round. Feel how powerful a movement you can get without moving your arm, just by thinking, by willing that pendulum to move. Now if you want to have a more clear signal of the movements you can add a signal board (see below) which will give you a clear guideline of how your pendulum is moving. Just hold the pendulum over the board and will it along the axis.

You now have the perfect tool to help you connect with your unconscious mind, and to help friends connect with theirs. If you want to demonstrate the power of the mind to friends this is it! Just get them to repeat the same process you've gone through.

How to make your own...

- The pendulum: A pendulum consists of a long piece of material that has movement to it, with a weight at the end. This can be a traditional crystal pendant available from alternative health shops. Or, as I use, it can be a necklace or chain that you wear around your neck, with a ring threaded on to create the weight. You can make your own with string and a plumbing washer, or any other method you can think of. I personally like to use my chain as I always have it with me, and can use it anytime, anywhere to provide hypnotic demonstrations to people. You can buy necklaces and pendants to wear that work perfectly as a hypnotic pendulum. There are no real rules for the pendulum, except does it swing? If it does it will probably work. So use things like a small pocket watch, or whistle on a string if that's all you have available.

- The Signal Board: The signal board can be created in many ways, with the different possible answers written on it. Here's an example: Just draw a cross as above (the circle is optional) and choose two opposing suggestions, one written on both ends of the vertical axis, and one written on both ends of the horizontal axis. Above you can see the suggestion for the pendulum to move left and right written on the horizontal axis, and the suggestion to move up and down written on the vertical axis. You can substitute these suggestions with your own, but these are the basic, and arguably most effective suggestions, as they are very clear for your unconscious to provide movements for.

A Stage further...

Now, our unconscious minds are an infinitely powerful resource. Our unconscious minds have access to far more information than we do, which is limited by the span of our attention. Our unconscious mind is also there to protect us. For example when a fly comes near our eye, automatically we blink (automatic movement, ring any bells?) to protect ourselves. We do not consciously think 'Oh there's a fly coming towards our eye, should we move? Or maybe it will miss? Will it matter if does hit us in the eye? Is it definitely a fly? Ok I'll move, but in what direction?'.

If we consciously went through this process we would end up with a fly in the eye! Now because of this many people believe in trusting your intuition or gut instinct. This is really a metaphor for the tendencies we pick up off of our unconscious mind. So you can use the hypnotic pendulum to get more in touch with your unconscious or intuitive decision making capabilities. All you do is this: Hold a question in your mind. For example let's say you're not sure whether to buy a new Harmony CD. You hold the question in your mind... "Should I buy a new Harmony CD....Should I buy a new Harmony CD..." and repeat it over and over, over and over, and wait for your unconscious to give you an answer. In this case 'Yes' or 'no' on the signal board via your pendulum. The question can be anything, just change the answers on your signal board! This will give you an intuitive answer, which won't be burdened with conscious pressures. (Please read the warning below before putting this into practice!).

Warning!

The purpose of the Hypnotic Pendulum at this moment in time is to give you a tool by which you can demonstrate, to yourself and to others, some hypnotic phenomenon. It should not be made to make life altering decisions. Obviously this will be patently obvious to most of you! But feel free to use it to make decisions whereby there is no consequence in the decision. Use it for a bit fun and for training your mind to experience hypnotic phenomenon, which will put you more in touch with your unconscious mind. If you're at a party and want to demonstrate something interesting, pull out your Hypnotic-Pendulum! If you want to train you mind, then use it to make small insignificant decisions about things that really doesn't matter which decision you make. Do not use it to decide whether you should invest in the local snake oil salesman's inflatable dart board business!

Have fun!