Hypnosis
has been around since the dawn of recorded time and at least
from the time of the ancient Babylonians, Greeks and Egyptians.
Hypnosis is named after the Greek word for sleep, hypnos,
although the actual state of hypnosis is very different from
sleep. It has, however, been called different names, by
different cultures, different religions, and different
individuals. The use of chants, drumming, and monotonous dancing
rituals to change or alter consciousness fall under the
definition of hypnosis. Such methods have been used successfully
by the Druids, Vikings, Indian Yogis, Hindu priests, and holy
men of all religions and denominations for centuries. In 2600
BC, the father of Chinese medicine, Wong Tai, wrote about
techniques that involved incantations and passes of the hands.
Accounts of what we would now call hypnosis can also be found in
the Bible and The Hindu Vedas written about 1500 BC.
HISTORICAL DATES AND PEOPLE
1734 -1815: Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer –
,an
Austrian doctor recognizing the healing ability of ancient
shaman
Mesmer's
dissertation at the University of Vienna (M.D., 1766), suggested
that the gravitational attraction of the planets affected human
health by affecting an invisible fluid found in the human body
and throughout nature. In 1775 Mesmer revised his theory of
“animal gravitation” to one of “animal magnetism,” wherein the
invisible fluid in the body acted according to the laws of
magnetism. According to Mesmer, “animal magnetism” could be
activated by any magnetized object and manipulated by any
trained person. Accused by Viennese physicians of fraud,
Mesmer left Austria and settled in Paris in 1778. There he
continued to enjoy a highly lucrative practice but again
attracted the antagonism of the medical profession, and in 1784
King Louis XVI appointed a commission of scientists and
physicians to investigate Mesmer's methods; among the
commission's members were the American inventor and statesman
Benjamin Franklin. They reported that Mesmer was unable to
support his scientific claims, and the mesmerist movement
thereafter declined. Whatever may be said about his therapeutic
system, Mesmer did often achieve a close rapport with his
patients and seems to have actually alleviated certain nervous
disorders in them. More importantly, the further investigation
of the trance state by his followers eventually led to the
development of legitimate applications of hypnotism.
1808-1859:
James Esdail A British
surgeon in India, , performed 2,000 operations, even amputations
- with the patients under hypno-anesthesia and feeling no pain.
1795-1860:
James Braid
– British surgeon and a pioneer investigator of the word
hypnosis who did much to divorce that phenomenon from prevailing
theories of animal magnetism. In 1841, when well established in
a surgical practice at Manchester, Braid developed a keen
interest in mesmerism, as hypnotism was then called. Proceeding
with experiments, he disavowed the popular notion that the
ability to induce hypnosis is connected with the magical passage
of a fluid or other influence
from the operator to the patient. Rather, he adopted a
physiological view that hypnosis is a kind of nervous sleep,
induced by fatigue resulting from the intense concentration
necessary
for staring fixedly at a b right, inanimate object. Braid
introduced the term “hypnosis” in his book
Neurypnology
(1843). He
hoped that hypnosis could be used to cure various seemingly
incurable “nervous” diseases and also to alleviate the pain and
anxiety of patients in surgery.
Braid
introduced the term “hypnosis”
1784: Count Maxime de Puysegut
discovered a form of deep trance he called somnambulism.
1825-1893:
Jean-Martin Charcot
–
In 1885
one of his students was Sigmund Freud
founder
(with
Guillaume Duchenne)
of modern
neurology and one of France's greatest medical teachers and
clinicians. Charcot took his M.D. at the University of Paris in
1853 and three years later was appointed physician of the
Central Hospital bureau. A teacher of extraordinary competence,
he attracted students from all parts of the world. In 1885 one
of his students was Sigmund Freud and it was Charcot's
employment of hypnosis in an attempt to discover an organic
basis for hysteria that stimulated Freud's interest in the
psychological origins of neurosis.
1856-1939:
Sigmund Freud,
born Sigismund Schlomo
Freud (May
6,
1856
–
September 23,
1939),
was an
Austrian
neurologist and
psychiatrist who founded the
psychoanalytic school of
psychology. Freud is best known for his theories of
the
unconscious mind, especially involving the mechanism
of
repression; his redefinition of
sexual
desire as mobile and directed towards a wide variety
of objects; and his therapeutic techniques, especially his
theory of
transference in the therapeutic relationship and the
presumed value of
dreams
as sources of insight into unconscious desires. He is commonly
referred to as "the father of psychoanalysis" and his work has
been highly influential — popularizing such notions as the
unconscious. Father of
cathartic method, free association and psychoanalysis, become
interested in hypnosis and began to practice it. Not being very
good at it, he went on to develop psychoanalysis instead!
Today! Samir Shamoun,
Hypnotherapist
Contact us if you have any
behavioral concerns. Together we will develop a special program
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Looking Forward to Helping You Achieve Great Health and Wealth!
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