Hypnosis History
Prior to the 15th century,
disease was often considered to be a punishment from God or gods.
Healers of the time, such as shamans, priests and "witch doctors"
would induce an altered state of consciousness, to help heal or for
spiritual rituals. Sometimes they did this to their "patient",
sometimes to themselves, and sometimes both.
They would use many different
techniques. Chanting, drums, dancing, fire and drugs were all
incorporated in ritualistic ways.
"Suggestion"
in Ancient Healing
A common important element, was
creating a "suggestion" that the patient's conscious and
subconscious mind, would "accept", thus utilizing the patients
"power of belief". Believing that they were being
healed, would put their own mind power to work healing them.
Ancient Egyptians had the
Temples of Sleep, and the Greeks their Shrines of Healing - both places
where patients were given curative suggestion while in an induced
sleep.
One of the greatest uses and
needs for hypnosis was in the area of anesthesia. Because anesthesia as
we know it didn't exist at all until
the
mid-nineteenth century.
Mesmer and the
Misunderstanding of Hypnosis
Paracelsus had a theory that the
heavenly bodies exerted an influence upon disease and healing, working
through an all-pervading universal magnetic fluid.
In 1765, Franz Anton Mesmer, stated that man could
influence this magnetic fluid to bring about healing. He established
salons where patients applied magnets to afflicted parts of their body.
Later he moved to Paris where he further developed his theory.
In 1784, Louis XV1 set up a commission of investigation, which included
Benjamin Franklin, M. La Guillotin, and La Voisier. They concluded that magnetism
with imagination had some effect, but Mesmer's magnetism
theories were discredited, although his Society of
Harmonies continued.
Le Marquis de Puysegur, a member of the Society,
believed that the magnetic power was produced in
his own mind and was transferred to the patient via his fingertips. He
found that he could produce a sleep in which the patient would follow
his commands - very authoritarian - and introduced the terms, “perfect
crisis” and “profound sleep”.
1800s -
Surgery without Anesthetic and "Hypnotic Sleep"
In 1837, Dr. John Elliotson, Professor of Medicine at UCH London,
conducted public clinical demonstrations of hypnosis and hypnotic phenomena,
demonstrating its effects on voluntary and involuntary muscle,
somnambulism, analgesia, hallucinations etc., which he attributed to the magnetism
theory.
He was forced to resign, and began to edit the journal, The Zoist.
There, he reported on James Esdaile, a Scottish surgeon working in India, who had performed
several hundred operations painlessly using only hypnosis (mesmerism) as an
anesthetic.
Esdaile would produce something like suspended animation, now known as the Esdaile State, by stroking the
patient’s body for several hours. Esdaile's logs indicated that fatal surgical
shock or post operative infection occurred in only 5% of cases compared
with the then norm of 50%. The
medical establishment rejected these claims.
In 1841, the British doctor James
Braid saw a demonstration of mesmerism by
a French man named La Fontaine. He was 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 Neurypnology (literally ‘nervous sleep’),
from Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep.
This was the first use of the word
hypnosis.
Hypnotic
Suggestion?
In 1884, Dr. Ambroise-August Liebeault,
of France, proclaimed that he could cure people in a hypnotic state, by
"suggestion". In
1886, he was joined by Professor Bernheim, from Paris, and together they
published ‘De La Suggestion’, which further rejected the concept of
magnetism.
About the same time,
at the Salpetriere Hospital, Jean Martin Charcot was pushing his views that hypnosis was a pathological state akin
to hysteria, and that the two were interchangeable. After a falling out,
Bernheim’s theories won out over Charcot, and Charcot was discredited.
BUT...
In 1890, two of Charcot’s pupils,
Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud, changed the approach of hypnosis from
"suggesting" away the symptoms, to eliminating the apparent
causes. Breuer noticed that hypnosis
patients would often recall past events and talking about them would
bring about emotional outpouring. Then they would losing their symptoms.
He called this his "talking cure" (such an emotional state
would now be referred to as an abreaction). Freud was also experimenting
with it, and looking for other reasons behind illness, but eventually
stopped working with Breuer, and began developing what would later
become psychoanalysis.
Hypnosis for
Shell Shock (PTSD)
During WW1, between 1914 to
1918, the Germans realized that hypnosis could help treat shell-shock
quickly. It allowed soldiers to be return to the trenches almost
immediately. A formularized version of hypnosis,
autogenic training, was devised by Dr. Schultz.
After the second world war, Milton Erickson
of the US, had a major impact on the practice and understanding of
hypnosis and the mind. He theorized that hypnosis is a state
of mind that all of us are normally entering spontaneously and frequently.
Modern Medical
Understanding of Hypnosis
On the heels of Erickson's work,
hypnosis evolved into a well respected practice, used by doctors,
psychologists, business and law enforcement. It's also used for self
help, and self improvement. With the development of self-hypnosis,
one doesn't even need to rely on a therapist any longer.
Hypnosis is a tool, not a cure in
and of itself.
It is used for stress management, stress related disorders, dental and
medical anxiety and anesthesia, even in
obstetrics. It is also used for pain management, including pain
associated with cancer; as an adjunct to psychotherapy, and in the
management of a wide range of phobic, anxiety and other medical and
psychological problems.
Hypnosis can also help change
your subconscious programming, putting the power of your mind towards
improving your life.
If you browse all the various
self help categories we have for our hypnosis tapes and CDs, you'll see
just some of the many ways hypnosis and self hypnosis can benefit
people's lives.
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