A History Of Hypnosis

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The History of Hypnosis | HypnoBusters.Com

Western scientists first became involved in hypnosis around 1770, when
Dr. Franz Mesmer (1734-1815), a physician from Austria, started
investigating an effect he called "animal magnetism" or "mesmerism".

Mesmer developed his own theory and inspired himself also to the
writings of the English physician Richard Mead. Mesmer found that,
after opening a patient's vein and letting the patient bleed for a
while, by passing magnets over the wound would make the bleeding stop.
He also discovered that using a stick instead would also make the
bleeding stop. Mesmer managed to occasionally complete cures that
other medical professionals of his era were not able to.

An Indo-Portuguese priest, Abbé Faria, revived public attention to
animal magnetism. In the early 19th century, Abbé Faria introduced
oriental hypnosis to Paris. Unlike Mesmer, Faria claimed that it
'generated from within the mind’ by the power of expectancy and
cooperation of the patient.

The evolution of Mesmer's ideas and practices led the Scottish
neurosurgeon James Braid in 1842 to coin the term, and develop the
procedure known as, "hypnosis." Realizing that "hypnosis" was not a
kind of sleep, he sought to change the name to "monoideaism" ("single-
idea-ism"), but the term "hypnosis" had stuck.

Popularly called the "Father of Modern Hypnotism," Braid rejected
Mesmer's idea that hynosis was induced by magnetism, and ascribed the
"mesmeric trance" to a physiological process resulting from prolonged
attention to a bright moving object or similar object of fixation. He
postulated that "protracted ocular fixation" fatigued certain parts of
the brain and caused a trance—a "nervous sleep" or, from the Greek,
"neuro-hypnosis."

Braid tried hypnotism to treat various psychological and physical
disorders. He had little success, especially with "organic" (that is,
"physical," or non-psychological) conditions. Other physicians claimed
better results, particularly in using hypnosis for pain control. An
1842 report described a painless amputation performed on a hypnotized
patient. This was widely dismissed, and there was strong resistance in
the medical profession to the idea of hypnosis; but there followed
other reports of success.

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