La Fascinazione come Fenomeno Psicofisiologico — Donato e la Scienza/en

Page title: Fascination as a Psychophysiological Phenomenon — Donato and Science

Fascination is the most original and disruptive contribution of Donato to the history of hypnosis. It is not sleep, not somnambulism, not catalepsy in the traditional sense: it is a fourth state, distinct from all others, which Donato himself describes as an "intermediate state between wakefulness and sleep" in which the subject is fully conscious but has lost control of their own motor and psychic will.

The Journal de Psycho-Physiologie (1880-1886), the scientific journal founded and directed by Donato in Paris, contains the most complete scientific documentation of this phenomenon.

Fascination is not sleep

The most revolutionary point of the Donato method is that fascination occurs with eyes open, in full wakefulness. The subject sees, hears, and understands everything happening around them. They can recount it afterwards. They have not lost consciousness, are not asleep, and are not in a trance in the Mesmerist sense of the term.

As the subjects themselves describe in their accounts published in the journal's column "Les Fascinés peints par eux-mêmes", the sensation is that of being "bound to the gaze by a bond stronger than oneself." Marius Koning, a medical student from Amsterdam, writes in 1886:

"After a few minutes I found myself forced to follow his steps. I could barely bend my limbs anymore, and it seemed to me that the strength of the extensor muscles surpassed that of the flexors. When he made me lie on the ground, I tried with all my strength to get up, but it was impossible."

And he adds the most significant detail: "A simple breath on the eye was enough to bring me back to the normal state."

The neurophysiological structure of fascination

Doctor Brémaud, a French naval physician who conducted one hundred experiments in 1884 replicating Donato's method, identifies the physical signs of fascination that cannot be simulated:

"Among these symptoms, there are two that absolutely cannot be simulated and that protect the observer from any deception: these are the immediate increase in pulse and the considerable and instantaneous dilation of the pupil."

Fascination therefore produces objectively verifiable effects on the autonomic nervous system: cardiac acceleration, mydriasis (pupil dilation), facial congestion. It is not theater, not conscious suggestion by the subject — it is an involuntary physiological response.

Marco Paret, studying these texts, synthesizes the mechanism in terms of physio-psychology:

"Catalepsy is due to the reduction of inhibitory or intentional central activity and the exaggeration of reflex or automatic activity of the spinal cord. In fascination, will and attention no longer block movements."

In modern terms: the prefrontal cortex — the seat of voluntary inhibition — is bypassed. Movements are no longer filtered by conscious will but become automatic responses to external stimuli.

The automatism of imitation

One of the most documented phenomena in fascination is automatic imitation. The fascinated subject repeats the gestures, expressions, and words of the operator — not by will but automatically, as if the motor neurons directly followed the observed movements without the filter of consciousness.

Doctor Brémaud describes the third experiment:

"The faculty of imitation, no longer governed by will and the free play of reason, manifests itself with a bizarre energy. I laugh, the subject also laughs; I raise my arms, same movement from the subject; I jump, he jumps; I make faces, he makes faces. The different expressions assumed by my face are immediately reflected on his. If I speak, the subject repeats every word with the same imitation of musical tone — with scrupulous imitation of accent and pronunciation even in German, English, Russian, and Chinese."

This phenomenon — which Donato calls "echomimia" and "echokinesia" — is the practical demonstration of what neuroscience today calls the mirror neuron system, discovered experimentally only a century later.

Fascination as pure psychic suggestion

Donato is very clear about the nature of the phenomenon: it is not a physical fluid, not a magnetic force, not telepathy. It is psychic suggestion transmitted through gaze and gesture. The subject "understands," at an unconscious level, from the fixity of the operator's gaze, that their eyes must follow those of the magnetizer. A non-verbal rapport of absolute authority is established, which the sensitive subject receives and obeys.

As Marco Paret notes in his study notes: "It is a matter of suggestion through gesture... it is a psychic suggestive fascination and in no way physical."

Suggestion in this context is not verbal — the subject is not told what to do. It is state communication: the operator is in a state of total presence, absolute certainty, concentrated energy, and the sensitive subject "discharges" their voluntary resistance in response to this communication.

The continuum: from fascination to somnambulism

Donato distinguishes two progressive phases:

Phase 1 — Fascination with intact consciousness: The subject is motorically paralyzed but fully conscious. They know what is being done to them and can recount it. They do not sleep. This phase is characterized by selective motor paralysis, automatic imitation, analgesia, and the inability to move on their own command.

Phase 2 — Deep fascination (unconscious phase): Gradually, the subject's psychic identity dissolves into the operator. They no longer see, hear, or perceive anything that does not come from the operator. They accept false ideas, illusory sensations, and unnatural desires without resistance. This is the phase Donato calls "unconscious" — which is not sleep, not catalepsy, but something different.

Doctor Brémaud's scientific note adds:

"After the state of fascination, catalepsy, lethargy, and somnambulism can be induced using ordinary means."

Fascination is therefore a gateway to deeper states — it does not contain them, but makes them accessible.

Disruptive fascination: why it changes everything

Before Donato, hypnosis required long times, elaborate techniques, and already trained subjects. Donato demonstrates that in twenty percent of subjects taken at random from any audience, a sudden, close-up gaze produces immediate and profound effects. Without fluid, without baquet, without passes, without music, without long ceremonies.

This is the paradigm shift. Fascination is:

Immediate — it occurs in seconds, not minutes
In normal subjects — it does not require hysteria, neurosis, or pathological predisposition
With eyes open — the subject does not sleep, does not simulate
Verifiable — it produces non-simulable physiological signs (pulse, pupils)
Instantly reversible — a breath on the eye is sufficient

The Paret Method inherits this vision and takes it to its logical development in the Ball of Light: a therapeutic fascination that operates in full wakefulness, without eye closure, without prolonged verbal induction — direct, immediate, transformative.

Testimonies of the fascinated

The column "Les Fascinés peints par eux-mêmes" in Donato's journal is a unique document: it collects letters from subjects describing their own first-hand experience. Recurring elements emerge:

Omen Coppens, painter artist (Brussels, 1884): reports waking up with bruises on his legs made during the fascination, without having noticed them.

Adriaan Marius Koning, medical student (Amsterdam, 1886): describes the "two sparks" in Donato's eyes that merge into a "single ball of fire," then a single bright white point — then the loss of control of his legs, the impossibility of getting up, and full consciousness of everything while it happened.

Claudine Bonnetin (Lyon, 1886): describes the fascination at the Gymnase theater, a prolonged ecstatic posture, waking up tired but without pain.

These accounts — from independent witnesses of different nationalities and backgrounds — are the most solid documentary evidence of the authenticity of fascination phenomena.

Primary sources ISI-CNV Drive

Documented anecdotes

The physiological nature of the phenomenon was already measured in the 19th century: in the clinical experiments of Dr. Brémaud (1884), the pulse of the fascinated subject went from about 70 to 120 beats in a few seconds. Before the doctors, the contracture induced by Donato was so real that the subject could be stripped to the waist to study their muscles: urged to strike, the young Cornat made "efforts inouïs" without succeeding and ended up saying, exhausted, "Je ne peux pas!" Donato also distinguished the power of suggestion from physical anesthesia: to a waking subject, simply suggesting the idea of a burn was enough for them to shout "ça me brûle!" while looking for signs of a non-existent burn, while in other cases he obtained real insensitivity where a pin or fire was not felt.

Sources of anecdotes: session report / Brémaud 1884 (Drive) · autobiography Cosmopolitan (Drive).