A.
Hypnotism (催眠)is now entering an era of wider acceptance and use. An event which occurred recently in a state mental hospital proves this. A doctor examined a young woman in her late twenties. A few months earlier she had fallen from a chair. It looked like she had damaged her spine(脊柱), causing paralysis, but X-rays showed no damage to her back. Doctors did not feel that her fall had been serious. They felt that her paralysis was purely mental. At last the doctors reasoned that hypnotism might help her. A hypnotist was called, and soon he put her into a trance (睡眠状态). He told her she could walk across the room with a pair of canes near her bed. Although she was weak from her months in bed, she was able to get across the room. Then the hypnotist told her she could walk with the aid of two nurses. Again she did as he said. Within three weeks she was out of the hospital, her paralysis cured.