LET THEM EAT CAKE
The Power To Control – J G Leonard
There are – to draw on author Susanna Clarke’s words in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell – books about magic... and then there are books of magic. I could instantly sense from Kev’s latest Ebay purchases littering our kitchen table that this particular book, The Power To Control by J G Leonard, is a book of magic.
Self-published in 1905 in Chicago, USA, Leonard’s book is ostensibly a course on “personal magnetism and mental suggestion.” It’s just the book I’ve been willing to come into our possession: a US-UK sense and wisdom gap seemed to open up when mesmerism took flight from Europe, with ‘operators’ from both sides of the Atlantic mirroring idiosyncratic – and, often, idiotic – hypnotic ways and means back and forth. Aside from brief interludes of intelligence from British TV magician and ‘psychological illusionist’ Derren Brown, not much has, IMHO, progressed in ‘hypnosis’ in terms of popular perceptions since the fin de siècle.
[I know, I know… “NLP MATTERS!” Blah, blah, blah. Ugh, you guys need to get over it. Perhaps the 1960s US counterculture movement, and whatever peak ‘hypnosis’ hit during the cult/sect infection that mesmerism fuelled and which later birthed things like Est and NLP, just reflected and amplified the follies of Victorian Spiritualism back at us – but via groovy tunes, psychedelic drugs, and abundant shagging..? ‘NLP’ means ‘natural language processing’ and, because humans reflect concepts of consciousness through the technology of the day, no one will know the older, niche meaning for much longer anyways.]
I can’t find anything of note about Leonard via my cursory Google search, but the front matter establishes him both as a doctor of psychology... and as a finely moustached suit-wearer in his author photo. The red cover with ornate gold typography communicates just the sort of aspiring cult leader production values I appreciate. I find myself further intrigued by the handwritten spine and author attribution – a Robert Kirk has inked his name at the back of the book, noting the date, 24 August 1941, and his age, of just 16 years.
Given we’re big fans of teenaged hypnotist sensations here at Cosmic Pancakes!, I decide to get into character as a World War II era teenaged boy so I can read with a fresh perspective in mind. Obviously I have no prior notion as to whether Robert Kirk was planning to use his hypnotic powers for good or evil; just that he seems to have been sufficiently enthused to improve the book’s cover, mark-up key text, and state ownership of this adult-man content.
The book kicks off with stern words about correctly studying and understanding Leonard’s work before you apply it. This is how you know you’re reading a book of magic – you can sense the author battling angels and demons to bring you his secrets, ‘Doctor Faustus’ style. For a 1940s teenaged boy, who might otherwise be reading the bible and boys’ adventure books, I imagine the solemnity and mystique must have been intoxicating. As I feast on the secrets to Leonard’s old skool spiritualism, swagger, and presumable success, I sense that this must have been as empowering as it was life affirming during such bleak times.
Leonard is mostly preaching personal mastery in harmony with a divine plan/force. I appreciated a lot of the granular sentiments; for instance, confidence is necessary to the development of personal magnetism because otherwise we “become like a cork on the waves, constantly tossed about by the Magnetic influence of everyone we meet.” These contemporary beliefs about magnetism are fascinating – I’ll never convince Kev, but I think it’s worth revisiting, eg, the difference between objective and subjective ‘operations’; or a person filled with “nervous energy” being “radiant with Animal Magnetism, and [capable] of attaining the highest degree of perfection as a Hypnotist.” (Robert underlined that bit!)
I’ve written previously about how Victorian mesmerists warred over blurring the words and works of God with the babblings of men excited by women’s bosoms Scientific progress. Leonard – who we assume was American – segues from inspirational divine wisdoms that wouldn’t look out of place in Facebook memes to the specifics of his belief system: that the objective mind is (a) God, and that the task of the hypnotist is to train their subjective mind to ‘master’ it. So, yes, the big Illuminati secret to becoming The Man is to train your mind to accept your intuitions, whims, biases, delusions, vices, hopes, dreams, confusions, moods, hormones, malfunctions, and madnesses as truth and reality, and to blaze on through life with that unshakable belief at the core of your being, doing – and ongoing legacy.
I wondered if the luck of the internet might reveal what sort of man Robert Kirk, our young World War II hypno-hero, grew up into... I was moved when I found this story on the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust website to fit the age, and I hope no one minds me sharing it here. I often diss the (predominately white Western) men who seek ‘hypnotic’ power and influence for questionable reasons on this blog, but I do somewhat and for a limited time endorse using the ‘father/son’, ‘man/boy’, ‘God/messiah’ hero’s journey narrative to one’s self if/when it fits. It’s something I simply seem unable to do after reading Arthur C Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey at a young age and not being able to apply the “master” (or “mistress”) to myself..? I’m genuinely curious whether other women, trans and non-binary people, and men who can’t bear the slightest whiff of messiah storylines are similarly rummaging around the edges of ‘hypnosis’ for future-fit means of self-support..?
Anyway, I’m saving my words on antisemitism and ‘hypnosis’ for a phantasmagorical mentalism demonstration of skin writing sometime in a rogue and foggy future. In the meantime, it’s encouraging that Leonard does use female pronouns when geeing up students of personal magnetism to voice their desires. But – this being a book of magic – he also stresses that all the golden secrets within this book must, alas, be kept hidden from your fellow man. So I’m not sure how us ladies and devils were supposed to find out... until Cosmic Pancakes! intervened.
Since this is a book of magic, it seems only fitting that I leave three forwards thrown breadcrumbs that fed my brain but otherwise have no place in this blog post:
1. Favourite mystical Illuminati-ish line: “The silent words of that deathless something within, are the words of Power.” Sounds like something Beyoncé sung into a glitch already. She’s been all over this Illuminati Mess since ‘Formation’.
2. Apparently there’s some ongoing omnishambles concerning ‘Angels’ vs ‘Man’ and where we belong on God’s omelette challenge barometer. Leonard seemed confident that the “COUNCILS OF ETERNITY” will see to “THE ULTIMATE DESTINY AND POWER OF THE HUMAN RACE” so: no action required for us mere mortals! Phew.
3. I’ve given up looking for magicians linked to tarot cards as I married The King of Swords and I can’t now make sense of all the Wands I keep yanking out the deck. So I’m now seeking a “Spatulate Type” of highly hypnotic male subject man. As Leonard outlines from his directory of 16 types of man to bend to our will, he is “a man of Independence” who “loves action and is very energetic.” I shall keep further identifying information under wraps until ALL MEN with “broad” and “flat” fingers have been rounded up in Amazon warehouses across the globe for hypnotic reprogramming.
Until next time, hypno-fans!
