A BRIEF EARLY HISTORY OF HYPNOSIS
Hypnosis has been around since the dawn of recorded time, and at least to the time of the ancient Babylonians, Greeks and Egyptians. It was know to Hippocrates. Indeed, hypnosis is named after the Greek word for sleep, hypnos, although the actual state of hypnosis is very different from sleep. It has, however, been called different names, by different cultures, different religions, and different individuals. The use of chants, drumming, and monotonous dancing rituals to change or alter consciousness fall under the definition of hypnosis. Such methods have been used successfully by the Druids, Vikings, Indian Yogis, Dervishes, Hindu priests, and holy men of all religions and denominations for centuries. In 2600 BC, the father of Chinese medicine, Wong Tai, wrote about techniques that involved incantations and passes of the hands. Accounts of what we would now call hypnosis can also be found in the Bible, the Talmud, and The Hindu Vedas written about 1500 B.C..
A VERY SELECTIVE MODERN WESTERN HISTORY OF HYPNOSIS
1775: Dr. Franz Mesmer developed healing by “animal magnetism” or mesmerism, which was later renamed hypnosis.
1784: Count Maxime de Puysegur discovered a form of deep trance he called somnambulism.
1821: First reports were received of painless dentistry and surgery in France using magnetism. Many breakthroughs were made by such Frenchmen as Ambrose Liebeault (1823-1904), J.M. Charcot (1825-93) a Paris neurologist, and Charles Richet (1850-1935).
1791-1868: John Elliotson, president of the Royal Medical and Surgical Society of London and a professor at London University, professed belief in mesmerism and used hypnotic trance to perform 1,834 surgical operations.
1795-1860: A Scottish eye doctor and physician, James Braid, renamed mesmerism as hypnosis.
1845-53: A British surgeon in India, James Esdail, performed 2,000 painless operations, even amputations, with the patients under hypno-anaesthesia
1857-1926: Another Frenchman, Emile Coue, pioneered the use of autosuggestion and the use of affirmations such as his now famous phrase, “Day by day in every way I am getting better and better”.
1883-1887: Sigmund Freud, father of cathartic method, free association and psychoanalysis, became interested in hypnosis and began to practice it. Not being very good at it, he went on to develop psychoanalysis instead!
1891: The British Medical Association reported favourably on the use of hypnosis in the field of medicine.
1901-80: Milton H. Erickson MD, the recognized leading authority on clinical hypnosis and a master of indirect hypnosis, was able to put a person into a trance without even mentioning the word hypnosis.
1914: World War I ushered in a new era of hypnosis. The revival was due to the multiplicity of paralytic and amnesia cases with psychogenic origin and few psychiatrists available.
1925-1947: The use of hypnosis in dentistry was developed in the United States.
1950s: Both the British Medical Association and the American Medical Association issued statements supporting the usefulness of hypnosis as a form of therapy.
1962: A brain operation was performed under hypnosis in Indianapolis in the United States.
1993: The journal New Scientist published the results of largest survey ever recorded of stopping smoking methods, reporting that hypnosis was proven to be the most effective.
FAMOUS USERS OF HYPNOSIS
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92) repeated names to himself like a hypnotic mantra in order to access different states of consciousness in which whole poems came to him.
Mozart (1756-91) apparently composed the famous opera Cosi fan tutte while hypnotized.
Rachmaninov (1873-1943) reputedly composed one of his concertos following a posthypnotic suggestion.
Goethe (1749-1832) writer and scientist and,
Chopin (18 10-1849) pianist and composer both took classes in hypnosis at the University of Strasbourg.
Thomas Edison (1847-193 1) inventor,
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) inventor,
Henry Ford (1863-1947) car manufacturer,
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) physicist, and
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) novelist all used trance-like states to develop their ideas.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) politician, counted backwards in 3s in order to stay awake all night and avoid tiredness during World War II.
Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud developed modem psychiatry as a result of learning about (and practicing) hypnosis.
Louis XVI of France appointed a committee to investigate the healing powers of “mesmerism”. The committee included Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) U.S. statesman, philosopher and physicist, Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794) father of modern chemistry, and Dr. Joseph Guillotin (1738-1814) inventor and doctor.
Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits reportedly beat his smoking habit through hypnosis.
Kevin Costner flew his personal hypnotist to Hawaii to cure his seasickness during the filming of Waterworld.
