Origin of
hypnosis dates back to the time when man started interacting as a
social creature and realized the benefits that can be reaped from
influencing other people’s beliefs and actions in their favour .
History of all major cultures around the globe is dotted with
anecdotes of the use of hypnosis in one way or other, though it
was not recognized or acknowledged as such till the beginning of
the last century.
The incessant chant of “Om” and other mantras during the Vedic
period of the Hindus (still practiced all over India) produced
hypnotic trance in the devotees. The witch doctors of the middle
ages and the mass faith healing sessions of the religious sects
and the miracle healing communes of the so called ‘God men’
mistook the hypnotic trance produced in the suggestible, receptive
devotees as a sign of the ultimate spiritual attainment. It is
also no secret that many of these religious rituals utilized
herbal psychotropic drugs to enhance the psychedelic experiences
of the devout.
Charismatic political leaders of the modern era often put their
listeners into a hypnotic trance through their forcible oratory
skills. Personalities like Hitler and Saddam had skillfully
manipulated the resulting highly suggestive and receptive state of
their followers to further advance their political and genocidal
agenda.
History of Hypnosis
The history of hypnosis
with regard to its origin and theories is an eventful and
fascinating one and calls for at least a cursory review
here.
The Animal Magnetism Theory: The distinct concept of
hypnosis was created by the charismatic 18th century
Austrian healer Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815). He believed
he could "store" animal magnetism as a ‘cosmic fluid’ in
inanimate objects like iron filings or magnets and transfer
it to patients to cure them of illnesses. Later he discarded
the magnets and started using his own body as the store of
the healing force. His success in inducing the trance
(though not recognized as such), made mesmerism a cult
around the world. It was indeed the forerunner of hypnotic
suggestion.
The Electric Theory: Mesmer’s disciple, the Marquis
de Puysegur, who introduced a new twist that the cosmic
fluid was not magnetic but electric and that it was present
in all living beings, including plants. His healing sessions
were conducted in the natural environment.In the mid 1800s,
a leading English physician, John Elliotson used the trance
state to perform 1,834 surgeries painlessly. In India,
during the same period, James Esdaile, a Scottish surgeon,
performed many major and complicated surgeries like
amputation of limbs using the ‘magnetic sleep’ as the only
anaesthesia.
Nervous Sleep or Hypnosis: It was in the late 19th
century that James Braid finally gave mesmerism a scientific
explanation. He explained mesmerism to be a nervous type of
sleep and coined the term hypnosis, derived from the Greek
word hypnos, meaning sleep. Braid recognised hypnosis as a
state of exaggerated suggestibility.
The phenomenon of
divided mind: Pierre Janet saw hypnosis as a
“dissociation” phenomenon, where a group of dissociated
memories might develop into a second personality.
Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893), leading French neurologist
of his day, regarded hypnosis as a pathological state of
artificial hysteria.
Freud explained that a sort of paralysis of the will and
power of movement took place in hypnosis. He thought that
the power of hypnosis resided in the paralysis produced by
the influence of an omnipotent person, on a defenceless,
impotent subject!
Acceptance of hypnosis in medicine that we have today is
largely owed to the efforts of pioneers in the experimental
study of hypnosis, starting in the early 20th century.
Foremost among the researchers were Clark Hull and his
student, Milton Erickson. Hull's 1933 discussion of
scientific research into hypnosis (Hypnosis and
Suggestibility) is still considered a classic among
scientific literature on hypnosis.
1935 saw the
birth of medical hypnotherapy through Milton Erickson
(1901-1980) who started using hypnosis on a large scale in
his patients. He practiced and established many successful
induction techniques like metaphor and indirect hypnosis.
Theodore Sarbinin in 1950 pioneered
the ‘sceptical’ modern concept of hypnosis. Hypnosis was considered
as a social-psychological alternative to the views that (1) a single
distinctive neurological and psychological state underlies all
hypnotic phenomena (Paris school of thought), and (2) that
suggestions somehow mechanically produce responses without the
participation of the subject (Nancy school).
In addition to Erickson and Hull,
modern scientific research into hypnosis has been advanced through a
period of intense experimental research in the late 1950's and early
1960's by notables such as J.P Sutcliffe, T.X. Barber, M.T.Orne, E.R.
Hilgard and R.E. Shor. The work of these researchers had been
particularly influential on the current scientific view of hypnosis,
especially in the context of medical hypnotherapy.
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