History of Hypnosis
You might not realise this but Hypnosis goes back 1000's of years literally, it started with the ancient Greeks who used to have sleep temples where they would go and induce the hypnotic state for healing, the word even comes from the Greek god of sleep "Ypnos"
Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) an Austrian physician, is widely acknowledged as the "Father of Hypnosis". He believed that there was a quasi-magnetic fluid in the very air we breathe and that the bodys nerves somehow absorbed this fluid. As a doctor, his main concern was how to effectively treat his patients and he considered disease to be caused via a blockage of the circulation of this magnetic fluid in the blood and the nervous system. Curing disease would in his view, involve correcting the circulation of this liquid.
Initially he used a magnet and later his hand, which was passed over the diseased body in an attempt to unblock the magnetic flow. The hand (and later the eyes) was believed to unblock the fluid by increasing its amount and flow as his hand passed over the affected area. The term 'animal magnetism' was born, and the procedure referred to as Mesmerism.
In 1841, the British Doctor James Braid saw a demonstration of mesmerism by a french man named La Fontaine, he ws impressed, and started using the mesmerism techniques in his practice. He used his shiny bright lancet case to induce his patients to enter a deep 'hypnotic sleep'. In that state, his patients would accept his 'healing suggestions'.
He thought the reason this worked, was that staring at a bright object exhausted the nervous system, rather than it involving magnetism. He coined the word Neuropnology (literally 'nervous sleep'), from Ypnos, the Greek god of sleep.
While James Braid was making quantum leaps with Hypnosis another Scottish doctor, James Esdaile, was experiencing and gaining permanent recognition in the history of Hypnosis. Stationed in India, Esdaile used Hypnosis in surgery with astounding results and even today many would say that his work with applied Hypnosis almost borders on fantastic, as he said in one of his books, "Hypnosis is not purely the use of imagination, because even the greatest imagination in the world cannot ward off the pain suffered by one as the saw cuts through the muscle and bone during the removal of a diseased arm or leg".
More recently, the modern Father of Hypnosis has been Milton Erickson who realised that Hypnosis was beneficial in a healing capacity. Richard Bandler and John Grinder, the founders of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) modelled Erickson in the early 1970's when they were discovering how the mind works and how people are good at what they do.
Dave Elman (1900-1967) was one of the pioneers of the medical use of Hypnosis. Elman's definition of hypnosis is still widely used among many professional hypnotists. He is known for having trained the greatest number of physicians and psychotherapists in America in the use of hypnotism.
He is also known for introducing rapid inductions to the field of hypnotism. One method of induction which he introduced more than fifty years ago is still one of the favoured inductions used by many of today's masters.
In the last 20 to 30 years we have seen a real resurgence of interest in hypnosis. It has been proven scientifically that Hypnosis can help alter brain waves and help people overcome all sorts of issues including chronic pain conditions, addictions, habits and fears etc.,
