Following the negative publicity surrounding the Edward Kline incident, Perry A. Baker decided a name change was in order. Adopting the last name of his step-father, John Bernard, Baker next made headlines in January of 1898 when he conducted a demonstration of self-induced hypnosis as Professor P. A. Bernard of the San Francisco College of Suggestive Therapeutics. Dr. Semple Turman of the college presided over the demonstration, while a Dr. D. M. McMillan assisted Bernard. There were ten physicians and a number of reporters present to witness Bernard’s powers of mesmerism. None of the newspapers appeared to make the connection that this was the same hypnotist who only six months earlier had used his hypnotic abilities to hold a local couple’s son captive and exploit him for financial benefit. Instead articles painted him as a recent arrival in San Francisco from Des Moines, Iowa.
Dressed in a flowing white robe, the white-haired Dr. Turman positioned the newspaper photographers present at the exhibition and requested soothing music from the college’s resident piano player. “Soft music, you know, is of great assistance in putting the professor to sleep.” The college was housed in the woman’s home at 911 Van Ness ave. As Professor Bernard sat quietly in an easy chair, the pianist tapped out a gentle melody on the vintage piano. Soon the mood was set and the great and powerful Oom rose to address those assembled, embarking on the next step of his journey to omnipotence.
“I’m doing this purely for the benefit of science and I want the M.D.’s present to pay strict attention. Of course, I ain’t doing nothing for my health, and I want to tell you right here that my classes will be opened right away. This is business with me, and I don’t want any of you people to think that you are going to get something for nothing. But this exhibition tonight is for the benefit of science and the M.D.’s here. I’m going to let you do anything you want to me within reason. You can sew me up in any style you’ve a mind to, but you can’t cut off an arm or a leg, or do any monkey business like that. We ain’t here for monkey business nohow. I’m here to give you the straight thing. I’m telling you that any physician can learn how to do suggestive hypnotism if he wants to, and I’m in this town to teach it to those who want to learn it. I will now, with your kind permission, go to sleep.”
As tranquil music flowed from the piano, Professor Bernard, again seated in his easy chair, composed himself and momentarily drifted off to sleep. Next, Dr. McMillan invited the physicians to examine Bernard. One by one, they poked and thumped the subject, took his pulse and peeked under his eyelids. While there was no response forthcoming from the sleeping Bernard, the doctors remarked that he did not show signs of being under anesthesia. Then McMillan took out a needle and thread of the variety used in surgeries. He dipped the needle in alcohol, passed it through Bernard’s right cheek and proceeded to sew Bernard’s ear to his cheek. Next, McMillan sewed the professor’s upper lip to his nose, and as a grand finale, ran a hat pin through the professor’s tongue. Alas, a slick yoga move of sewing the professor’s ass to his face was, in this instance, overlooked. Once the thread and the hat pin had been removed, McMillan revived the professor. Despite the towel placed around Bernard’s neck being soaked in blood, the professor declared that he felt no pain. As Bernard’s face slowly reverted back to its original form, he then demonstrated how to produce sleep in a subject using his techniques of scientific hypnotism.
Bernard’s demonstration garnered national attention and stirred some debate among medical doctors regarding the usefulness of hypnosis as an alternative to anesthesia. However, most physicians agreed Bernard’s techniques were of little value to medical science, and it appears the San Francisco College of Suggestive Therapeutics experienced little demand for Bernard’s course on suggestive hypnotism. But the Great Oom was in no way discouraged and in very short order was, once again, embroiled in scandal.
Sources:
Census records
The Chicago Tribune
The Leon Journal-Reporter
The San Francisco Call and Post
The San Francisco Examiner
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