A Brief History of Hypnosis
The term 'hypnosis' was coined byJames Braid, an early nineteenth century Scottish surgeon. It is a word derived from the word 'Hypnos', the Greek God of sleep, but the phenomenon of hypnosis has origins much, much older than that.
The Dim and Distant
You might find it hard to believe, but as early as 3000 BC, the Egyptians had knowledge of, and were using, hypnosis. This is proven by hieroglyphics found on tombs of that period. The Greeks also understood it, as did the Mayas of South America, and it was also used by Hindu fakirs, the Chinese teachers of religion, the Persian magi, the Celtic druids and African witch doctors.
Since then, literally thousands of people have contributed to the advancement and understanding of the phenomenon. However, I'm just going to give you a quick run through the edited highlights, or you'd be here all day.
Franz Anton Mesmer
I'm going to start with the man who is probably the most famous in the history of hypnosis – Franz Anton Mesmer. Born in Austria in 1734, he received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1766, and became familiar with the theories of hypnotism, although it wasn't called that in those days, and he incorporated it into his nowledge and medical practice.
He actually called the phenomenon 'animal magnetism', mistakenly believing that it had its origins in magnetism and magnetic fields, and that good health depended on the direction of magnetic flow in and around the body, which could easily be reversed. Over time, he modified this view and developed the idea of passes of the hands near and around the body, which many people today still believe to be one of the secrets of the hypnotist.
When he started, he'd place a number of so-called 'magnetic rods' in a tub in the centre of a room and people would sit around holding on to these magnetic rods, believing that the magnetic flow in their bodies would be corrected and that they would be cured of whatever ailment they had. It proved to be successful, with people claiming to be cured, and news of Mesmer and his accomplishments spread far and wide. At one time, he had 3000 patients a day coming to see him at his Paris practice. As he couldn't possibly see to each one of them individually, he went out into his yard and touched a tree with his so-called 'magnetic rod' and declared the tree to be magnetized. Now all the people had to do was to touch the magnetized tree to be cured of their ills.
What he was doing became known as 'mesmerism', but unfortunately for Mesmer, not everyone thought he was the 'bee's knees' and a commission was set up by Louis XVI to investigate his work, headed by Benjamin Franklin. One of the experiments that Franklin observed was with a woman who drank a cup of magnetized water which she believed to be normal. Nothing happened. Yet when she drank a cup of normal water that she believed had been magnetized, she fell into a trance.
Franklin concluded that Mesmer was a fraud, and that all of his cures and theatrical results were caused by the patients' own imaginations.
This conclusion contained elements of both right and wrong.
Franklin was correct in saying that Mesmer's cures were caused by the imagination of the patients, but that was only part of the reason. He didn't pick up on the fact that Mesmer's patients had belief and conviction in Mesmer and they expected to be cured, and imagination, belief, conviction and expectation are the four ingredients required for successful hypnosis.
However, Franklin was wrong in calling Mesmer a fraud, because Mesmer did cure people and was an expert at what he practised, even if he didn't understand how he obtained his 'miracle' cures.
Unfortunately for Mesmer, that negative verdict that was the beginning of the end for him. However, his contribution to the cause was a major one, and even today people still talk about being 'mesmerised', though not always fully understanding what the expression truly means.
James Braid
Although it was curtains for Mesmer, many other doctors had been studying his work in secret. One of those was the gentleman I mentioned earlier – James Braid – who carried out many experiments for himself, before renaming 'mesmerism' as 'hypnosis' (derived from the word 'Hypnos', the Greek God of sleep). Later, as he came to realise that the state did not involve sleep, he wanted to rename hypnosis as 'mono-ideaism' – total concentration on a single thought – but it was too late. 'Hypnosis' was far too sexy, interesting and mysterious, and the name stuck.
James Esdaile
At the same time, another Scottish doctor, James Esdaile, was experimenting and gaining recognition in India. Working as a surgeon, he started operating using the principles of mesmerism. It took him a long time to get the patients ready – up to an hour and a half, if not longer, but by the end of 1846 he had performed several thousand minor operations and about 300 major ones, including 19 amputations, painlessly. And he cut the usual 50% mortality rate of the time down to less than 8%.
He was then assigned to the Calcutta hospital to continue his work by the British Medical Association, who considered that mesmerism could quite easily be expected to work for the uneducated masses in India. They were correct in thinking that, of course, because India had long been known as the home of the occult sciences, and so Esdaile was relatively assured of success from the beginning because of the common belief and expectation system.
Esdaile didn't realise that he was working with the power of suggestion, and so later, when he returned to England and met a very negative and disbelieving attitude from the medical establishment, who ridiculed his work, he failed to produce the same outstanding results that he had in India. Furthermore, none of the other doctors could reproduce the state, because they didn’t know or understand the concept of mesmerism – and they certainly weren’t going to ask Esdaile. As a result of this negativity and lack of belief, Esdaile was labelled a quack and a charlatan, and his life and career went into a rapid nosedive.
Sigmund Freud
However, work was still going on in the UK and elsewhere with hypnosis as greater understanding was sought and, interestingly, Sigmund Freud, the founder of modern psychoanalysis, was unable to master the techniques to bring about a workable state of hypnosis.
Lean Times
As a result of his lack of success, he rather rubbished the phenomenon and led a general movement turning against it. Despite this, however, it was not entirely forgotten and between Freud's discoveries of modern psychoanalysis and WWI, a few noble souls kept the torch lit.
Things Can Only Get Better
After World War One, there were too many cases of war neuroses and other traumas for doctors and psychotherapists (both in short supply) to handle, so the medical profession turned in desperation to hypnosis, which was there to provide the answers as it has done since the dawn of time.
World War Two saw hypnosis being used for similar purposes, and also for providing suggestive anaesthesia when drugs were in short supply. Again with success.
The Only Way Is Up
As reports of the successes spread, young doctors and dentists started applying the techniques in practice, greatly aided by Dave Ellman, one of the foremost hypnotists of the 20th century.
As early as 1955, the British Medical Association was so convinced of the effectiveness of hypnotherapy that it advised all physicians and medical students to receive fundamental training in hypnosis.
And that, my friend, is the end of the whirlwind tour through the history of hypnosis, although there are plenty of books and information on the internet if you would like to know more.
The Dim and Distant
You might find it hard to believe, but as early as 3000 BC, the Egyptians had knowledge of, and were using, hypnosis. This is proven by hieroglyphics found on tombs of that period. The Greeks also understood it, as did the Mayas of South America, and it was also used by Hindu fakirs, the Chinese teachers of religion, the Persian magi, the Celtic druids and African witch doctors.
Since then, literally thousands of people have contributed to the advancement and understanding of the phenomenon. However, I'm just going to give you a quick run through the edited highlights, or you'd be here all day.
Franz Anton Mesmer
I'm going to start with the man who is probably the most famous in the history of hypnosis – Franz Anton Mesmer. Born in Austria in 1734, he received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1766, and became familiar with the theories of hypnotism, although it wasn't called that in those days, and he incorporated it into his nowledge and medical practice.
He actually called the phenomenon 'animal magnetism', mistakenly believing that it had its origins in magnetism and magnetic fields, and that good health depended on the direction of magnetic flow in and around the body, which could easily be reversed. Over time, he modified this view and developed the idea of passes of the hands near and around the body, which many people today still believe to be one of the secrets of the hypnotist.
When he started, he'd place a number of so-called 'magnetic rods' in a tub in the centre of a room and people would sit around holding on to these magnetic rods, believing that the magnetic flow in their bodies would be corrected and that they would be cured of whatever ailment they had. It proved to be successful, with people claiming to be cured, and news of Mesmer and his accomplishments spread far and wide. At one time, he had 3000 patients a day coming to see him at his Paris practice. As he couldn't possibly see to each one of them individually, he went out into his yard and touched a tree with his so-called 'magnetic rod' and declared the tree to be magnetized. Now all the people had to do was to touch the magnetized tree to be cured of their ills.
What he was doing became known as 'mesmerism', but unfortunately for Mesmer, not everyone thought he was the 'bee's knees' and a commission was set up by Louis XVI to investigate his work, headed by Benjamin Franklin. One of the experiments that Franklin observed was with a woman who drank a cup of magnetized water which she believed to be normal. Nothing happened. Yet when she drank a cup of normal water that she believed had been magnetized, she fell into a trance.
Franklin concluded that Mesmer was a fraud, and that all of his cures and theatrical results were caused by the patients' own imaginations.
This conclusion contained elements of both right and wrong.
Franklin was correct in saying that Mesmer's cures were caused by the imagination of the patients, but that was only part of the reason. He didn't pick up on the fact that Mesmer's patients had belief and conviction in Mesmer and they expected to be cured, and imagination, belief, conviction and expectation are the four ingredients required for successful hypnosis.
However, Franklin was wrong in calling Mesmer a fraud, because Mesmer did cure people and was an expert at what he practised, even if he didn't understand how he obtained his 'miracle' cures.
Unfortunately for Mesmer, that negative verdict that was the beginning of the end for him. However, his contribution to the cause was a major one, and even today people still talk about being 'mesmerised', though not always fully understanding what the expression truly means.
James Braid
Although it was curtains for Mesmer, many other doctors had been studying his work in secret. One of those was the gentleman I mentioned earlier – James Braid – who carried out many experiments for himself, before renaming 'mesmerism' as 'hypnosis' (derived from the word 'Hypnos', the Greek God of sleep). Later, as he came to realise that the state did not involve sleep, he wanted to rename hypnosis as 'mono-ideaism' – total concentration on a single thought – but it was too late. 'Hypnosis' was far too sexy, interesting and mysterious, and the name stuck.
James Esdaile
At the same time, another Scottish doctor, James Esdaile, was experimenting and gaining recognition in India. Working as a surgeon, he started operating using the principles of mesmerism. It took him a long time to get the patients ready – up to an hour and a half, if not longer, but by the end of 1846 he had performed several thousand minor operations and about 300 major ones, including 19 amputations, painlessly. And he cut the usual 50% mortality rate of the time down to less than 8%.
He was then assigned to the Calcutta hospital to continue his work by the British Medical Association, who considered that mesmerism could quite easily be expected to work for the uneducated masses in India. They were correct in thinking that, of course, because India had long been known as the home of the occult sciences, and so Esdaile was relatively assured of success from the beginning because of the common belief and expectation system.
Esdaile didn't realise that he was working with the power of suggestion, and so later, when he returned to England and met a very negative and disbelieving attitude from the medical establishment, who ridiculed his work, he failed to produce the same outstanding results that he had in India. Furthermore, none of the other doctors could reproduce the state, because they didn’t know or understand the concept of mesmerism – and they certainly weren’t going to ask Esdaile. As a result of this negativity and lack of belief, Esdaile was labelled a quack and a charlatan, and his life and career went into a rapid nosedive.
Sigmund Freud
However, work was still going on in the UK and elsewhere with hypnosis as greater understanding was sought and, interestingly, Sigmund Freud, the founder of modern psychoanalysis, was unable to master the techniques to bring about a workable state of hypnosis.
Lean Times
As a result of his lack of success, he rather rubbished the phenomenon and led a general movement turning against it. Despite this, however, it was not entirely forgotten and between Freud's discoveries of modern psychoanalysis and WWI, a few noble souls kept the torch lit.
Things Can Only Get Better
After World War One, there were too many cases of war neuroses and other traumas for doctors and psychotherapists (both in short supply) to handle, so the medical profession turned in desperation to hypnosis, which was there to provide the answers as it has done since the dawn of time.
World War Two saw hypnosis being used for similar purposes, and also for providing suggestive anaesthesia when drugs were in short supply. Again with success.
The Only Way Is Up
As reports of the successes spread, young doctors and dentists started applying the techniques in practice, greatly aided by Dave Ellman, one of the foremost hypnotists of the 20th century.
As early as 1955, the British Medical Association was so convinced of the effectiveness of hypnotherapy that it advised all physicians and medical students to receive fundamental training in hypnosis.
And that, my friend, is the end of the whirlwind tour through the history of hypnosis, although there are plenty of books and information on the internet if you would like to know more.
