Synopsis: The stories in this volume have been selected by Don Ward and commented by Milton V. Kline, a psychologist well known to the public for his writings on hypnotism. Although Kline takes hypnotism seriously as a scientific phenomenon, he notes that most of the stories in this volume regard it as a preternatural influence, sometimes giving access to spiritual or posthumous realms, while in others it belongs to the domain of speculative science, thought of as having the potential to unify the scientific and the spiritual. He traces the depiction of hypnotists as charismatic and usually malevolent figures.