349. Q. What historical incident supports the modern theory of hypnotic suggestion?

A. That of Chullapanthaka, as told in the Pali Commentary on the Dhammapada, etc.

350. Q. Give me the facts.

A. He was a bhikkhu who became an Arhat. On that very day the Buddha sent a messenger to call him. When the man reached the Vihara, he saw 300 bhikkhus in one group, each exactly like the others in every respect. On his asking which was Chullapanthaka, every one of the 300 figures replied: "I am Chullapanthaka."

351. Q. What did the messenger do?

A. In his confusion he returned and reported to the Buddha.

352. Q. What did the Buddha then tell him?

A. To return to the vihara and, if the same thing happened, to catch by the arm the first figure who said he was Chullapanthaka and lead him to him. The Buddha knew that the new Arhat would make this display of his acquired power to impress illusionary pictures of himself upon the messenger.

353. Q. What is this power of illusion called in Pali?

A. Manomaya Iddhi.

354. Q. Were the illusionary copies of the Arhat's person material? Were they composed of substance and could they have been felt and handled by the messenger?

A. No; they were pictures impressed by his thought and trained will power upon the messenger's mind.

355. Q. To what would you compare them?

A. To a man's reflection in a mirror, being exactly like him yet without solidity.

356. Q. To make such an illusion on the messenger's mind, what was necessary?

A. That Chullapanthaka should clearly conceive in his own mind his exact appearance, and then impress that, with as many duplicates or repetitions as he chose, upon the sensitive brain of the messenger.

357. Q. What is this process now called?

A. Hypnotic suggestion.

358. Q. Could any third party have also seen these illusionary figures?

A. That would depend on the will of the Arhat, or hypnotiser.

359. Q. What do you mean?

A. Supposing that fifty or five hundred persons

were there, instead of one, the Arhat could will that the illusion should be seen by all alike; or, if he chose, he could will that the messenger should be the only one to see them.

360. Q. Is this branch of science well known in our day?

A. Very well known; it is familiar to all students of mesmerism and hypnotism.

361. Q. In what does our modern scientific belief support the theory of Karma, as taught in Buddhism?

A. Modern scientists teach that every generation of men is the heir to the consequences of the virtues and vices of the preceding generation, not in the mass, as such, but in every individual case. Every one of us, according to Buddhism, gets a birth which represents the causes generated by him in an antecedent birth. This is the idea of Karma.