Hypnosis has existed in the plant and animal kingdom in one form or another
since time began. In hibernating, animals 'turn inwards' and are able
to exist for long periods of time without sustenance...
Egyptians
No-one knows for certain when the practice of hypnosis originated but it is
known that ancient Egyptians used a form of it in their dream temples.
Some ancient Egyptian paintings depict an apparently sleeping
person with others who seem to be making hypnotic passes over them.
Perhaps the best source of reference to hypnosis in early
Egypt comes from the famous 3rd century CE Demotic Magical Papyrus which was
discovered in the 19th century in Thebes. Column 16 of this papyrus gives
instructions for preparation of a lamp which is to be used in a ritual: It
states:
You take a boy and sit
him upon another new brick, his face being turned to the lamp and you close his
eyes and recite these things which are written above down into the boy's head,
seven times. You make him open his eyes. You say to him: 'Do you see
the light?' When he says to you, 'I see the light in the flame of the
lamp', you cry at that moment, saying 'Heoue' nine times. You ask him
concerning everything that you wish.
Source: Hidden Depths - The story of hypnosis by Robin
Waterfield.
Mesmer
In the eighteen century an Austrian doctor named Franz Anton Mesmer found he
could cure people of different diseases without medicine or surgery, and he
believed he had a magnetic force which could regulate the flow of magnetic
fluids in people to produce cure. In many cases his cures were successful and
this method of healing came to be known as Mesmerism.
Mesmer treated very rich and very poor people. For the less well-off he
‘magnetised’ a tree from which hung ribbons or cords for his followers to hold
and receive his magnetic therapy.
Another method he used was to fill a large tub with water, containing bottles of
iron filings. Protruding out of the tub were iron rods which the common-folk
held onto. Many of the patients had violent seizures or fell into deep sleeps
which could cure many different kinds of ailments.
Mesmer became very famous in Paris at that time and the French government, at
the suggestion of Marie Antoinette, offered him a life pension and enough money
to set up a clinic. Because Mesmer refused to allow the government
representatives to supervise the clinic a huge controversy raged and in 1784 the
King of France appointed a Commission to investigate mesmerism.
The report concluded that animal magnetism and the magnetic field were figments
of the imagination and Mesmer’s practices and theories were regarded as
worthless. The fact that many people had been cured of their ailments seemed of
no consequence.
To learn more about Mesmer and the history of hypnosis, we
recommend you click on
From Mesmer to Freud, (the title is self explanatory) - for a very informative
read!
In the middle of the 19th century a Scottish doctor named James Braid published
a book called Neurhypnology or the Study of Nervous Sleep. He invented the word
neurhypnosis from which the word hypnosis originated.
Facts about Freud
Mason
In 1951, a young doctor named Albert Mason called upon to help
a 16 year old boy who was suffering with an extremely bad case of ichthyosis.
This is usually a hereditary condition in which the patient has fewer sweat and
sebaceous glands than usual, which causes the skin to become dry and scaly.
The boy's body was almost covered in a thick, smelly, black
layer of hard, dried skin which often oozed with a bloody serum. He had
suffered this condition since birth and conventional medicine had failed to help
him. On two occasions he had been given skin graft operations but each
time the new skin flared up like the rest of his body.
It is thought that Dr Mason perhaps did not realize that
hypnosis was not intended to be used to heal congenital diseases when he offered
to help the boy.
At a hospital in East Grinstead in Sussex, in front of a dozen
skeptical doctors, he hypnotized the boy and gave him suggestions that his left
arm would become clear.
Five days later the blackened skin became crumbly and fell off
to reveal underneath, reddened but otherwise normal skin. Ten days later
the boy's arm was clear. Dr Mason proceeded to use hypnosis on the other
parts of the boy's body, achieving remarkable results and the case was reported
in the British Medical Journal for 1952. Three years later Dr Mason wrote
a follow up article reporting that the results appeared to be permanent.
