History of Hypnosis

The Ancient Use of Hypnosis

Before the 1400s, most of the world commonly felt that a disease or other form of suffering, mental, emotional, or physical, was a form of punishment by one deity or another. For this reason, healers felt that they needed to reach a different plane in order to assist their patient in recovery. This would often include magical spells that required an altered conscious state for themselves, their patient, or even both.

Many techniques were employed for reaching this altered state of consciousness. These include chanting, dancing, drumming, fire, and even drugs all utilized in a ritualistic fashion.

Commonly, within this state, a suggestion was created so that the unconscious and subconscious mind of the patient would be better equipped to accept alterations to behaviors or health. This allows the power of the mind to be applied to encouraging their own healing. The belief at the time was that they had reached a higher spiritual level and the gods, spirits, or a spell, was made to work for the health of the patient.

There were often specific places where these rituals would be enacted, including the Temples of Sleep of the ancient Egyptians and the Shrines of Healing of the ancient Greeks.

Among the most beneficial uses of hypnosis in the past was its ability to function as a form of anesthetic. As medicinal anesthetic did not exist until the mid-nineteenth century, the ability of hypnosis to dull physical pain was very important when surgical and other potentially painful techniques were required in healing.

Mesmer and Hypnosis

In the eighteenth century, a prevailing theory of the time, created by Paracelsus, was that heavenly bodies, such as the moon, planets, the sun, stars, comets, etc. had an influence on our health and the spread of disease. The theory stated that this influence was based on an all- pervading universal magnetic fluid.

Franz Anton Mesmer (from whom we have the word mesmerize) stated in 1765 that people can influence the magnetic fluid in order to encourage healing. He opened shops where patients had magnets applied to the different areas of the body for healing. He later moved to Paris for further exploration of his theory.

Louis XVI, interested in new forms of healing, established a commission of investigation in 1784. Its contributing minds included four members of the Faculty of Medicine: Benjamin Franklin (American Ambassador), Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (founder of the French Academy of Medicine), Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (father of modern Chemistry), and Jean-Sylvain Bailly (French astronomer and orator). This commission concluded that with some imagination, this magnetism had some impact, but by the whole, the magnetism theories of Mesmer were discredited. Still, though, Mesmer's Society of Harmonies continued.

In fact, a member of the Society of Harmonies, Le Marquis de Puysegur, believed that his own mind was the producer of the magnetic power of which Mesmer spoke, and that he was able to transfer this power to patients through his fingers. He discovered that he was able to produce a sleep-like state within patients, where he could make very authoritarian suggestions. Puysegur introduced the terms profound sleep and perfect crisis.

Further (Mis)Understanding of Hypnosis

Dr. John Elliotson, Professor of Medicine at University College Hospital in London, conducted public clinical demonstrations in 1837, which demonstrated hypnosis and hypnotic phenomena. He showed how hypnosis could influence both voluntary and involuntary muscular movements, sleepwalking, hallucinations, and the sensation of pain. These, Elliotson linked to the magnetism theory.

When he was forced to resign for his unorthodox ideas, he became editor for the journal called The Zoist. There he reported on a Scottish surgeon working in India named James Esdaile, who had performed several hundred procedures using hypnosis (mesmerism) as the anesthetic, without any pain to the patient. Esdaile's technique achieved what is known today as the Esdaile State, where the patient remains in a state somewhat comparable to suspended animation after having the body stroked for several hours. Esdaile's records showed that post operative infection and fatal surgical shock occurred in only 5 percent of all cases, which was staggeringly low next to the average of 50 percent at the time. The medical world, however, rejected Esdaile's claims.

A British doctor named James Braid saw a demonstration of mesmerism in 1841 by a man named Charles Lafontaine. Braid was impressed with what he saw, and began the application of mesmerism techniques in order to bring his patients into a deep hypnotic sleep where they would be open to accepting the hypnotic suggestions of Braid. It was Braid's belief that the reason the technique functioned was not magnetism, but because staring at a bright object for a long time would wear out the nervous system. He coined the word Neurypnology (nervous sleep), and was the first to use the term hypnosis.

In 1884, Dr. Ambroise-August Liebeault, of France, was the first to use suggestion to bring someone into a state of hypnosis. He was joined by Paris Professor Bernheim in 1886, and published De la suggestion with him, furthering the rejection of magnetism as an element of hypnosis.

At approximately the same time, Jean Martin Charcot at the Salpetriere Hospital theorized that hypnosis was a pathological state comparable to hysteria, and that these two states were interchangeable. Charcot was, however, discredited and Bernheim's theories were accepted.

Two students of Charcot, Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer, changed the approach to hypnosis in 1890. They felt that instead of functioning to suggest that symptoms be eliminated, it was instead the elimination of the root cause of symptoms. This was a result of Breuer's observation that hypnosis patients were frequently capable of remembering their past and could speak of it without a strong emotional response. Through this process, patients would be freed of symptoms of which they complained. Breuer referred to this as a talking cure. Freud also experimented with hypnosis and sought other causes of illness, but eventually left his work with Breuer to begin his work on psychoanalysis.

Hypnosis in the 20th Century

Between 1914 and 1918, the Germans in WWI discovered that hypnosis was very effective for helping to quickly treat shell-shock. Soldiers were capable of returning to the trenches virtually right away. During this time, Dr. Schultz created a form of hypnosis called autogenic training.

After the completion of the second world war, American Milton Erickson theorized that hypnosis is, in fact, a state of mind that everybody will ordinarily spontaneously and frequently move in and out of. From that discovery, hypnosis became a well-respected practice utilized by psychologists, doctors, businesses, and even law enforcement. It has been practiced both for self help and self improvement. Self hypnosis as a technique was soon to follow, allowing patients to achieve the many of the same benefits without having to depend on a therapist.

Hypnosis is a useful tool practiced for a wide range of desired outcomes. It is very effective for improving life on many different levels.