History of Hypnosis
Although Hypnosis is well known now, and is increasingly becoming more popular than ever before, it is not a new science, it is as ancient as any of the oldest known human civilizations.
In Greek Mythology, Hypnos means personification of sleep, though, Hypnotic sleep is very different than normal sleep. In In ancient Egypt times, people used to visit sleep temples to heal and get enlightenment which is a kind of hypnosis. There are scrolls depicting images of people fixated on shiny objects to bring about the trance state dating back to that era. The sleep temples were so popular that news travelled across the globe to Europe where they sprang up in Greece and were a prominent feature of ancient Roman society as well.
In Hindu scriptures, there is mention of Yoga Nidra, and it is said that Lord Vishnu enters Yoga Nidra or Yogic sleep, on the 11th day of the waxing moon of Ashadha month and it last for four months, which known as chaturmas, till the 11th day of the waxing moon of Kartik month. Basically, Yoga Nidra is state between waking and sleeping, which is similar to Hypnosis.
Going back even further there is evidence and writings that have been discovered that refers to the ancient Sumerian priesthood using hypnosis some 5-7 thousand years ago.
Like many of the ancient rituals and therapies, the advent of medicine and advances in medical care saw the traditional therapies such as hypnosis being replaced with the latest drug quite often driven by a commercial agenda, but because of these pioneers of modern time, this wonderful science of Hypnosis has managed to survive and is becoming popular with its tremendous potential.
The modern father of Hypnosis was an Austrian physician, Franz Anton Mesmer (1734 – 1815), from whose name the word ‘mesmerism’ is coined. He believed that there is a subtle energy, a fluid that surrounds us all of the time and that ailments and illnesses were simplya lackof or a mixup in the ether or the fluid energy that surrounded the individual. Thus he developed the theory of ‘animal magnetism’.
His success triggered jealousy among many of his colleagues and this eventually led to his public humiliation. He had to leave his native Vienna and move to Paris to continue his work, but news of his animal Magnetism show; had already reached the Parisian society and it was not long before Mesmer again found himself trying to justify his theory with the medical community branding him a fraud and demanding scientific evidence of his ‘powers’. However, despite all of this the seed had been sown and hypnosis started to gather interest amongst other physicians and psychologists that were taken much more seriously than Mesmer.James Braid famously had great results with hypnosis but was unable to convince the medical community of its use as a viable therapy or as an aid to medical treatment. He published book Neurypnology which outlined the basic principals of trance induction and fixation.
It wasn’t really until psychologist and neurologist Sigmund Freud started experimenting with hypnosis that the world started to really take notice. In very recent times, the recognized leading authority on clinical hypnosis was Milton Erickson, MD (1901-80), a remarkable man and a highly effective psychotherapist. As a teenager he was stricken with polio and paralyzed, but he re-mobilized himself. When he was paralyzed he had an unusual opportunity to observe people, and noticed that what people said and what they did were often very different. He became fascinated by human psychology and devised countless innovative and creative ways to heal people. he healed through metaphor, surprise, confusion and humor, as well as hypnosis. A master of covert hypnosis, he was able to put a person into a trance without even mentioning the word hypnosis.
Looking back, it is quite incredible that hypnosis survived in these early years, and I am hopeful that it will continue to grow more popular, more useful and discover its complete potential.