The history of hypnosis can be traced back from the time when man began interacting as a social being. Man realized that he could reap more fruits by influencing other people to change their beliefs and actions in his favor. People in the ancient times, especially during the Vedic Period of the Hindus used incessant chant, like “Om” and other mantras that all produced hypnotic trance to the devotees.
The history of hypnosis can be summed up according to its sequence:
• Animal hypnosis was the first to occur in the history of hypnosis that came up during the 17th century when farmers could hypnotize chickens to calm down. French farmers practiced hypnosis with their hens. They hypnotized their hens to sit on eggs that do not belong to them. During the 1800s, people hypnotized different animals, such as birds, frogs, rabbits, and a lot more. It was B. Danilewsky who practiced animal hypnosis and made physiological experiments on animals.
• The “Father of Hypnosis,” Franz Anton Mesmer (1733-1815) started the concept of magnetism. This Austrian doctor believed that a cosmic fluid and quasi-magnetic in the air we breathe could be stored in magnets and can be transferred to patients to cure their illness. This process is referred to as mesmerism.
• Marquis de Puysegur (1751-1825), a student of Mesmer was the first person to describe and coin the term “somnambulism.” He noticed that the patient could still communicate and respond to suggestions during the process of hypnosis. He further believed that cosmic fluid is electric and not magnetic.
• In 1834, Dr. John Elliotson (1791-1868) who was an English surgeon reported a number of painless surgical operations using mesmerism.
• It was James Braid (795-1860), a Scottish surgeon who scientifically explained mesmerism. He found that if subjects focused their eyes to a bright object, they would then experience going into a trance. He was also the one who coined the word “hypnosis,” which is derived from a Greek word, “hypnos.” He opposed the idea of Mesmer that hypnosis was all about magnetism.
• Jean Martin Charcot (1825-1893), a French neurologist categorized hypnosis as an abnormal neurological activity and he used it to treat hysterics.
• It was Hippolyte Bernheim (1837-1919) and Auguste Ambroise Leibeault (1823-1904) who regarded hypnosis as a normal phenomenon.
• Freud became interested in hypnosis when he read the book of Bernheim entitled, “De la Suggestion.” He was in search for a physiological explanation of the nervous system. He observed that patients who are hypnotized are unconscious. But he rejected the thought that hypnosis is a tool used to unlock repressed memories.
• The modern history of hypnosis started in the 1930s when Clark Leonard Hull (1884-1952) of Yale University worked on Hypnosis and Suggestibility (1933), a rigorous study of the hypnosis with the application of statistical and experimental analysis. He also demonstrated that hypnosis has nothing to do with sleep.
At present, hypnosis is considered to be a popular and effective medical tool that is widely used to control bad habits, like smoking, obesity, and other health problems. The history of hypnosis has contributed much to the present application of hypnotism.
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Article Source: History of Hypnosis-Where it All Started
