The book offers an exhaustive and practical system on use of hypnosis, methods and application. There is no doubt that hypnotism is a very old subject, though the name was not invented till 1850. In it was wrapped up the mysteries of Isis in Egypt thousands of years ago, and probably it was one of the weapons, if not the chief instrument of operation, of the magi mentioned in the Bible and of the wise men of Babylon and Egypt. Laying on of hands must have been a form of mesmerism, and Greek oracles of Delphi and other places seem to have been delivered by priests or priestesses who went into trances of self-induced hypnotism.