a short history of hypnosis
Hypnotherapy is rooted in ancient traditions. Around 40.000 years ago, Shamans began to induce trance in themselves and others to reach non-ordinary states of consciousness for the purpose of healing and divination.
Hypnotism as a tool for healing seems to have originated in India where the ailing were taken to sleep temples to be cured by hypnotic suggestion The book the Law of Manu, classified different states of hypnosis distinguishing the "Sleep-Waking" state, the "Dream-Sleep" state, and the "Ecstasy-Sleep" state.
There were also sleep-temples ancient Egypt and Greece, in which “sleeping” (entranced) initiates were given whispered teachings and suggestions by the priests . There are ancient cave-temples in Malta, showing reclining women, who may be goddesses or priestesses, enjoying a deep state of trance.
Franz Anton Mesmer (May 23, 1734 – March 5, 1815) a German physician who rose to fame in France by curing the sick by the use of magnetism. also called “mesmerism”. He believed that the magnetism of a practitioner corresponds to the ‘tides’ in patient’s body, and that cures can be effected by magnetism and rapport between patient and practitioner. Even though Mesmer became famous, an aura of charlatanism hung over him all of his life.
In 1841 James Braid, an English physician, examined a patient who had been “mesmerized”. He recognized the psychological nature of the patient's condition and coined the words "hypnosis" and "hypnotism" (from the Greek word hupnos, meaning "sleep") Braid was an innovator who conducted the first scientific studies of hypnosis as a psychological state.
In the twentieth century, Hypnotherapist like Emile Coué, Dave Elman, Milton Erickson,Cheek and Rossi, E.A. Barnett, Ormond McGill, and Gil Boyne have perfected and promoted the use of hypnosis as a valid therapeutic tool.
Gil Boyne, especially, helped lift hypnosis from being a slightly dubious curiosity associated with stage performances, to being accepted as a legitimate healing modality .
In 1958 hypnosis was recognized by the American Medical Association as a legitimate, safe approach to medical and psychological problems. The American Psychiatric Association (APA), and the British Medical Association (BMA), have both recognized hypnosis as a viable therapeutic tool. It is expected that, within the next ten years, virtually every hospital will be utilizing hypnosis.
In the field of personal growth, hypnosis appears as an element of many different popular modalities, such as, meditation, NLP, visualization, EMDR and past life regression, among many others.
