YOU GOT MAIL
Hypnotism – Fernando Institute of Science
“I shall do it the Swiss way!”
In March 1918 a Mr Louis Peverada, of Middle Street in Portland, Maine, USA, sent off for this sales booklet showcasing the secrets of “well known” Swiss hypnotist, Professor Fernando. It was a time of world war, misunderstood plague, economic gloom, and fraught progress. But also thus of glittering possibility amid shifting power dynamics…
Who knows whether Mr Peverada fancied himself a winner or loser of the vintage silent staring contests between Two Gents of Popular Prestige that so appealed to lay hypnotists. That he spent $5 – a not inconsiderable sum for 1918 – on sales gumpfh made me wonder if Louis lost his hypnotic mojo before he’d even gone toe-to-toe, knee-to-knee, hand-to-hand, eye-to-eye with his fellow amateur mesmerists, having realised Fernando is likely just a front for a US mail-order hypno-scam. (“Ah, such a fool! Such a fool… Take it away, Fido… The mailman taunts me, so! Ah!”)
Inside the 2.30pm, March 22, 1918 franked envelope (a Friday), we find a bundle of advertisements for ‘Fernando Institute of Science’ books published by the ‘Fernando Publishing Co’ inside. Professor Fernando – aka Ernest C Freyer – clearly helmed a significant operation from his Erie, Pennsylvania, hypno-HQ, producing such works as:
- Personal Magnetism: The Secrets of Mental Fascination, authored by ‘Theron Q Dumont’ – who is described as an “Instructor in the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism” from Paris, France. We’re assured that Dumont has 20 years of experience in the study of magnetism and the occult, and hence the $1.10 for his booklet-plus-postage is a bargain compared to his $100 private fee for teaching dramatically French hand passes.
- Next is The Secret of Mental Magic by William Walker Anderson. “This is a Real Book – a Strong Book – a big Book,” the sales copy drones. I love how chapter ‘summaries’ in these old occult sales materials read like modern AI summaries of emails and meeting transcripts, etc, trained on “high-level executive key takeaways”. Chapter 10, “Examples of Dynamic Mentative”, is summarised as: “The fascinating power of Julius Caesar. The Mystic Power of Alcibiades. The Napoleonic Charm. How William Jennings Bryan swept a convention off of its feet. The force of Henry Ward Beecher. The strange power of Hugo, who tamed the two great great [sic] English Kings.” Bound in silk and priced at $1.15, I for one am sold on promises of keeping mad monarchs and insecure despots in their places – where’s my chequebook, darling..?
- Finally, there’s The Science of Regeneration; or Sex Enlightenment: A Study of The Sacred Laws That Govern The Sex Forces. Whether seeking basic sex education and/or unspecified ye olde ‘spiritual shudderings’, there’s no doubting the extreme to-the-point-of-psychotic conservative religious values ‘Fernando’ represents. If wanking between bowlfuls of Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut Cornflakes is a Sin, then Hell’s breakfast buffet must already be overrun by the ghouls of corporate America who confused a high-fibre diet with being anointed for greatness by God..? I dunno… I’d despair, but sometimes you just gotta be glad that public health information on how to fill up a douche or to at least boil that rusty coat-hanger first reaches people whatever they believe.
Hypnotism, the 32-page booklet itself, is packed with fun photographs of hypnotic feats. Scenes featuring hatpins through human cheeks, our presumed author besting submissive man-babies, and The Bridge obligatory ‘money shot’ (above, left) are sinisterly vaudevillian. I imagine that the quantity of photos justified the $5 investment ahead of sending off $10/$25 (the two order forms are confusing) for the complete course. I can’t say, having seen quite a few Victorian (1837-1901) and Edwardian (1901-1910) photos of hypnotic demonstrations, that there’s anything discernibly, um, Swiss in Professor Fernando’s style. That’s what I’d have been seeking had I bought it way back when – the missing Swissness of my mind control... But buried-alive Indian fakirs is as globally illuminating as it gets.
After a predictable sales spiel on the magical ‘silver bullet’ that hypnotism proffers, the booklet features testimonials from satisfied students, whose addresses are provided for the undecided in need of further *cough* unbiased views on the Professor’s credentials. We’re assured that these are genuine, of course – hypnotists, like major publishing outlets, are notoriously trustworthy, so “$1,000 will be paid if these letters are not absolutely unsolicited.” The newspaper excerpts of Fernando’s Swissy feats are equally dependable: “We do not ask you to take our word for this statement. Read the reviews of the Buffalo Sunday Courier and the Baltimore Evening Sun, two of the foremost papers in the country. They can not be bought.” Mmn. Yeh. Right.
Given his anti-evolutionary views, “Professor Fernando, the Swiss hypnotist” may be an antisemitic reference to Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, psychologist, and theorist Carl Jung (1875-1961). I googled Fernando’s real name, “Ernest C Freyer,” and it does not feature in search results. Good. There are hypnotists and there are Hypnotists, and then there are grifting Americans dabbling with advanced Swiss/’Swiss’ hypnosis techniques such as ‘Coincidence’, ‘Dreaming’, ‘Curiosity’, and ‘Empathy’.
This LUNACY of masculine ritual, superstition, and magic – aka ‘hypnosis’ – must cease!
The Swiss way, if necessary.
Don’t make me get my hatpin!
