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Hypnotherapy:
History of Hypnosis
History of Hypnosis
Hypnosis has an interesting history. Earliest references date back to ancient Egypt and Greece . In fact, “Hypnos” is the Greek word for sleep, although hypnotic trance is different from the sleep we experience at night. Both cultures had religious centers where people came to have hypnosis induced dreams which were then analyzed to get to the root of their troubles. In 2600 BC the father of Chinese medicine Wong Tai wrote about using incantations and the passing of hands for healing. Trancelike states occur in many shamanistic and religious practices.
The modern father of hypnosis was an Austrian physician, Franz Mesmer, who lived in the late 1700's and from whom the term “mesmerism” is derived. Mesmer developed the theory of “animal magnetism” – the belief that disease resulted from blockages in the flow of magnetic forces in the body.
The next pioneer was James Braid who appeared in the mid-nineteenth century. James Braid was a Scottish eye doctor who would have a patient fixate on something (the swinging watch) in order to put them in trance. He suggested the term hypnotism for the Greek word ‘hypnos” for sleep.At about this same time, a British surgeon in India, James Esdaile recognized the enormous benefits of hypnotism for pain relief. Esdaile performed hundreds of major operations using hypnotism as the only anesthetic.
A Frenchman, Emile Coue' who lived in the early 1900's pioneered the use of auto-suggestion. Coue' recognized that he did not heal people himself but merely facilitated their own self-healing and that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. He also recognized that where will and imagination are in conflict, imagination will prevail.
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