There exists other evidence showing a definite distinction between sleep and the hypnotic state, which easily escapes the attention of an untrained observer. Since appearances are often deceptive, it was important, for determining the exact nature of hypnosis, to apply some scientific test to processes within the body, particularly to the nervous system. Having selected reflex activity of the organism as such crucial test, M. J. Bass found that, whereas in sleep the knee-jerk is clearly inhibited, it shows "no differentiation between the normal waking state and the hypnotic trance. . . These results make it quite clear that the hypnotic trance can not be considered as having any more than a superficial resemblance to sleep. Physiologically we may assume that the states are quite different."8 Drs. E. N. Harvey, G. Hobart and A. L. Loomis arrived at a similar conclusion in their study of the "brain-waves" (fluctuations in the electrical potential of the brain).
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