The History of Hypnosis

The history of hypnosis can be traced back to ancient societies even earlier than the Egyptians. The ancient Chinese and Indian civilizations are thought to have performed healing using words to help cure patients. The Greeks and Egyptians had used 'sleep temples' for types of healing and meditation, the idea was that as a patient slept in the temple the cure for his or her ailment would appear in a dream.

Throughout history, our acceptance of the power of great people, for example, kings and leaders, to cure others simply by their presence or touch was widespread. The English King Edward the Confessor (1003 – 1066) and Philip I of France (1053 – 1108) were also credited with this ability and King Charles II (1630 – 1685) used the ‘Royal Touch’ many times.

In 1774 Franz Anton Mesmer came across what he called ‘animal magnetism’ (after unsuccessfully treatment of a patient he decided to try the unorthodox methods of one of his contemporaries – Father Maximilian Hell). Mesmer believed that there was a universal magnetic fluid – and something similar to this fluid existed in the human body. He believed that by manipulating this magnetic fluid, he could cure various disorders. Even though we still use terms such as mesmerism and mesmerized, and Mesmer is rightly remembered as an early pioneer of hypnosis, he himself believed the cause of his cures were physical rather than psychological.

In the more modern history of hypnosis, a man named James Braid (1795 – 1860) coined the term hypnosis, the term first came about because Braid believed that sleep was involved, he later learned that it was not sleep, but the term hypnosis had stuck.

The first extensive medical application of hypnosis was during the American Civil War, when it was used by field doctors. Although it was accepted as affective, the emergence of chemical anesthetics and their ease of use, lessened the need for hypnosis in these applications.

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