History of Hypnosis

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History of Hypnosis

It is believed the origins of hypnosis stem from ancient Egypt and Greece (the Greek word "hypnos' meaning sleep) with evidence being traced back to 3000BC. Both of these cultures established some form of religious healing centre, or sleep temple, which people visited to address problems. Visitors were put into a sleep-like state which enabled them to dream; these dreams were then analysed by priests to try and identify the root cause of the subject's problems. Other cultures such as Hindu and Chinese also have historical examples, between 1500BC and 2500BC, of practicing various forms of hypnosis such as passing hands over the subject to induce trance-like states. Ultimately a common thread across these differing civilisations is the recognition that once a subject had achieved some form of trance-like state it was often followed with various types of "suggestive' communication which could have a positive healing effect. These "suggestions' could be anything from coherent statements to wild incoherent ranting from the tribal witchdoctor. However what was indisputable was evidence that when the subject received suggestive messages from what, in their view, was an important, credible "healer', that in many cases they did indeed get better. Ultimately this spawned the recognition of a connection between the mind and the body and more specifically the ability for the mind to influence the physical condition of the body, either positively or negatively.

Popular opinion suggests that the first modern examples of hypnosis were founded by an Austrian medic called Franz Anton Mesmer (1734 – 1815) practicing in Vienna. Mesmer was able to put his subjects in a trance, usually requiring a lengthy period of remaining motionless and focusing on a single object. It is Mesmer's name that spawned the term "mesmerised'. However Mesmer's true interest was in magnetism and healing patients by passing magnets across their body to influence their bodily fluids. It is believed that on one occasion Mesmer forgot his magnets during a healing session so instead used his hands and discovered he could achieve the same results. Mesmer was a showman and potentially this led to his downfall. He liked to demonstrate his skills to an audience accompanied by much drama, flowing capes and staring eyes. Unfortunately for Mesmer, this brought distain from the medical profession, many of whom were jealous of his success, resulting in them turning their backs on him and leaving him a discredited outcast.

Subsequently a professor at London University named John Elliotson (1791 - 1868), who is famous for introducing the stethoscope into England, took up the challenge to champion the cause of mesmerism. His fate was similar to Mesmer's and he was forced to resign. Nevertheless he continued demonstrating mesmerism in his own home to any interested parties, and this led to a steady increase in literature on the subject.

The next breakthrough came from a Scottish eye doctor named James Braid (1795 – 1860). The story goes that one day he was late for an appointment and when arriving at his surgery he saw his patient sitting in his waiting room staring with glazed eyes into an old lamp. Fascinated by this Braid gaze the patient some suggestive instructions to close his eyes and sleep, and to his amazement the patient obliged. This fired Braid's interest and focused his believe that one of the most important things to get a patient into a trance is have them fixate on an object. This led to such items as the clichéd swinging watch to be used, however despite the Hollywood myths, the actual object is not important, it's the fixation by the patient that matters. Once Braid discovered that it was not necessary to go through the long-winded induction process as used by Mesmer, he published a book proposing that the phenomenon now be called hypnotism. Another Scottish surgeon working in India named James Esdaile (1808-1859) also used eye fixation to prepare a patient for surgery, apparently inducing a deep hypnotic sleep and causing full amnesia throughout the body. Braid and Esdaile are considered to be the first real "scientific' pioneers of researching and using hypnotism. They took the mysticism out of hypnosis and embarked on a journey of experimentation to see how it could really be used to help people with their disorders.

A Frenchman, Emile Coue (1857 - 1926), pioneered the use of auto-suggestion. His technique was one of affirmation which has since been championed in many modern books. A compassionate man, Coue understood the importance of the subject's own participation in the healing process and that he simply facilitated their own self healing. This became the forerunner of those modern practitioners who claim, 'There is no such thing as hypnosis, only self-hypnosis.'
Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939) was also interested in hypnosis and for a time used it extensively before eventually abandoning the practice. His preferred psychoanalysis, having the patient lying on the couch with himself doing most of the listening, believing that repressed memories of traumatic incidents were the main cause of psychological problems. Unfortunately it was Freud's early rejection of hypnosis that impacted and delayed the development of hypnotherapy, diverting attention of psychology away from hypnosis and towards psychoanalysis.

Milton H Erickson, MD (1901 - 1980), was a highly effective psychotherapist. He was paralysed through polio as a teenager but remobilised himself. He took the time to observe people and realised that what they said and did were often very different. This inspired his fascination for human psychology and he devised many innovative and creative ways to help people. He became a master of "indirect hypnosis' and was able to put a person into a trance without even mentioning hypnosis. The root of his technique was healing through metaphor, surprise, confusion and humour as well as hypnosis. It's now widely accepted that Erickson's approach and its derivatives are probably the most effective techniques.

Dave Elman spent his entire career working with the medical profession while practising hypnosis in the USA, leading to the Council on Medical health of the American Medical Association accepting the use of hypnotherapy in 1958. Many of Elman's techniques are widely used and taught to student hypnotherapists today.

What seems incredible is that despite an enormous wealth of knowledge being available describing what hypnosis is and how it originated, there has always been (in modern times) such a distorted understanding of what hypnosis is, how it works and what it can and cannot do. I suspect Hollywood played a significant part in this, although it must have been an extremely creative writer who transitioned the concept of someone being in a naturally relaxed and yet fully aware state to suddenly becoming a mindless zombie who unquestionably followed the instructions of a "master' irrespective to and uncaring of the consequences of their actions. There has undoubtedly been a huge industry built on this misconception, ranging from films, television, comic books and stage shows.

Probably the man who has had the greatest impact on the modern British public perception of hypnotism is Paul McKenna with his stage hypnosis shows. He creates an impression that any unwilling subject can be instantly hypnotised to perform various bizarre acts with no ability to recall their actions once "awakened'. Interestingly despite logical analysis of what is actually taking place by more informed practitioners, the unanswered question of exactly why someone would behave in such a way if they did have control over their actions leaves an air of mystery over the event which retains our interest. Of course if the public had full access to the stage hypnotist's pre-show induction process, then much of the mystique and impact of the performance would be lost.

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Why Hypnotherapy?

Did you know we have a conscious and subconscious mind to enable us to function? Think about it the next time you perform an everyday task, maybe making some tea or going for a drive in the car. Take note of the actions that require your conscious consideration versus those that you don't have to think about. You may have to decide how much water to put in the kettle depending on the number of cups you want, but do you have to think about how to turn the tap on?

When driving you may have to think about directions, but I bet you don't have to consider how to change gear? The exception of course is if you've yet to pass your test, but that's because your subconscious mind hasn't learned the behaviour, so your conscious mind has to do the work. Now our conscious mind can only focus on a small number of simultaneous tasks, typically up to ten, whereas our subconscious mind is mighty powerful, able to process millions of simultaneous tasks! But of course because they're happening subconsciously, we're not usually aware of them; but we've been learning and storing them in our subconscious mind since the day we were born. On that basis it figures that most of the subconscious thoughts stored away are there for our benefit, ie they assist us in our lives. But quite often some of these thoughts can prevent us doing what we consciously want to do.

Think about the singer who knows a song intimately then forgets the words during their first live performance. Or the businessman who is normally such a confident, self-assured person but stutters and blushes when is giving a presentation to a large audience. We've all seen examples in sport, such as the snooker player being ten frames in the lead and needing one more to win the championship, but their performance deteriorates and they lose the match. In all of these examples do you believe the person consciously desired this outcome? Of course not, but something in their subconscious mind dictated their behaviour that determined the end result.

Many of us have developed a fear of failure; we grew up learning that failure was not good for us, therefore when confronted with an important challenge our subconscious fear of failure can trigger our "flight response' to protect us from the potential pain it believes we may incur. It does this because it believes it is good for us – remember our subconscious believes it is always doing the right thing. If we can re-educate our subconscious to believe in an alternative then suddenly it can work to help us overcome our challenge rather than succumb to it.

Hypnotherapy combines two specialist techniques. The first is to use hypnosis to enable direct communication with the subconscious mind. The second is to identify the errant thought or belief and exchange it for one that will support the desired behaviour. It's simple, effective and achievable by most people. And the really great thing is that if the conscious mind believes that the new thought will be harmful, it will reject it. So the therapist can't make you change your behaviour to the detriment of your own well being.