A brief and unofficial introduction to the Origins of Hypnosis

In modern days Hypnosis has acquired a degree of skepticism, in part this is resulting from the lack of a scientific definition but is also due to the fact that the range of arguments the both support and decry the value of hypnosis can be off putting to all but the most curious.

Tracing its roots back to the time of Franz Anton Mesmer, despite all of this ambivalence, hypnotism has a place in history and remains a force in medicine and nature.  Hypnotic interventions remain the pain relief of choice for many people and an aid to the medical and dental professions.

Hypnotic like behaviors are often represented on television as 'magic' or trance like states showing demonic figures taking advantage of the native tribes.  Much of the myth that has built up is now known to be in part true, but not hypnotic, more psychotic, induced by drugs derived from plants and exacerbated by group hysteria.  One of the best descriptions of early development of “suggestion therapy” is given by Brian Inglis (Natural Medicine), in which he deals with Shamanism, Witch Doctors etc..  Of particular interest to us is Tribal Doctors.

As global exploration commenced, traders, explorers, missionaries began to describe tribal customs.  There early accounts showed that shamans, witch doctors or medicine men used ritual to provide a public health service to early man. Often unwell showed signs of having lost consciousness and the tribal doctor would perform well practised rituals.  It is suggested that these rituals and loss of consciousness enabled the unwell (and perhaps onlookers) to  enjoy enhanced instinct or intuition that might lead to a recovery.  A medicine man who could induce others enter into a state of trance was regarded as different, a power to be respected.

There were many observations made of the tribal doctor.  Some would simply claim they became detached for a while whilst others were seen to fit; foaming at the mouth, raging, convulsing.  True or otherwise, these reports indicated a common acceptance that “associating with the inner mind or perhaps more accurately, disassociating from the here and now,  represented a power of cure.

Kroger and Fezler (Hypnosis and Behavior Modification) write about the ancient Hebrew's use of magical rites and incantations. These formalised ritualistic practices were alleged to induce an ecstatic state' or Kavanah (the term Kavanah implies relaxation, concentration, correct attention ).

Not confined to Hebrews, other traditional religious practices also achieved mind altered states of consciousness and what Benson (The Relaxation Response) terms the 'relaxation response.

During the Hellenistic Period (ca 500 BC) there were numerous Aesculapian Sleep Temples built which included a room for use by those with unknown injuries (e.g. of the mind). In this room priests listened to the dreams and ranting of the sick and attempted to cast out the “bad spirits.”   You can imagine how the wildly dressed priest, the ritualistic procedures and the magnificence of the colossal temple, all conspired to great effect!

Temple sleep was known to another civilisation, the ancient Egyptians.  According to World History of Psychiatry, 'one of the interesting psychotherapeutic methods ancient Egypt was the 'incubation', or 'temple sleep'. This method was associated with the name of Imhotep, the earliest known physician in history.  The Temples of Imhotep were reported to be busy centres for sleep therapy and is still encountered in some parts of the world.

It is suggested that “under the influence of incantation, and through the performances of religious rituals, sick persons were psychologically prepared for such therapeutic procedures'.

Imhotep was recognsied in early Greek history as a healing mad, associated with the Gods.

According to World History of Psychiatry, (Ed. John G. Howells), Pietro D'Abano was a teacher of medicine, philosophy and astrology in Padua.  Pietro D'Abano  wrote Conciliator Differentiarum and he held '... that suggestion (pracentatio) when practiced by a kind and, at the same time authoritative personality, had definite effects on mentally disturbed people well disposed toward this method of treatment.'

KutadguBilig writes about efsuncus. These were a kind of medical auxiliary, a professional who used 'suggestion' to ward off jinns (or demons).

Hermann Boerhaave, the Dutch physician and scientist wrote how metals, particularly copper, were influenced with a certain power or force that could be efficacious. To this effect,  eighteenth century Europe saw magnets being used in the treatment of stomach upsets,  toothache and mental (nervous) illnesses.

A Jesuit priest, Maximillian Hell (court astronomer and head of the observatory in Vienna) carried out a number of experiments and published several reports of these in a news sheet.
In January 1775, following reading the report Anton Mesmer published a letter to the public in which he asserted that the magnet merely acted as a conductor of the force or fluid that influenced the patient.

Franz Anton Mesmer was no charlatan. He was well educated and enjoyed a very learned background (having spent over sixteen years at Universities and acquiring two doctorates: medicine and philosophy).  Clearly, Mesmer was a credible person in his day. Mesmer's great interest in astronomy was evident in the thesis he wrote for his final doctorate. This was entitled: 'The influence of the Planets on the Human Body'.

It is impossible to say who first used magnetism in the field of mental illness but it is safe to suggest that controversial introduction of 'animal magnetism' had entered the world of medicine.  Mesmer is credited with much of the work although he was also attributed as suggesting that magnets were not crucial to the healing, but an aid.  .

Mesmer left Vienna for Paris, under a barrage of criticism and protracted disagreement.  It is reported that one of his cures, a blind girl, was a hoax. 

When Mesmer first set up his Salon in a large rented mansion in the Place Vendome, there was no lack of interest. His reputation had preceded him, and there were many wealthy patients to be seen at high fees, as well as those who would pay less. After several months, he moved to a house in the village of Ceteil, just a few miles from Paris, and it was here that the famous baquet made its first appearance.  Baquets became the first “group” therapy session using a mixture of relaxing music, aids (magnets etc) and relaxations.

Mesmer and his partner and friend,  Dr Charles D'Eslon were so successful that patients had to leave without receiving treatment, bitterly disappointed.  At this juncture, Mesmer realised that he did not need the baquet so he used a large tree, as he had done before in Vienna, and often a hundred people were said to be sitting around the tree in the Paris suburbs and holding cords that were attached to the branches of the tree. Many of these subsequently reported that they were cured-or felt better. It is not difficult to see why Mesmer was attacked by orthodox medical practitioners.

In 1782, Mesmer and his associates founded the Society of Harmony. One hundred subscribers would each pay 100 louis d'or (a vast sum) and receive, in return, full instruction in Mesmer's methods and the right to practice in specified towns.

Despite his apparent success, hostility towards Mesmer and D'Eslon continued and grew and a number of students became rising stars. One, Marquis de Puysegur, with a friend Professor Jean Deleuze, demonstrated post hypnotic suggestion, probably for the first time.

John Elliotson appointed Professor of the Practice of Medicine, in 1831, was a leading physician (he introduced the use of the stethoscope into England and was noted for other medical advances), and was instrumental in founding University College Hospital. Elliotson had seen the demonstrations by Chenevix and attended lectures of Dupotet in 1837,which sparked off his own research into animal magnetism. Sadly he ran into organised opposition to his research and the Council of University College ordered EIliotson to cease the practice of mesmerism. Elliotson was so enraged that he resigned his appointments at the College and the Hospital.

It was at this point (c1843) in which Elliotson and his followers started the publication of a quarterly journal called the Zoist in which Elliotson wrote numerous reports on painless mesmeric operations of thigh, leg, arms, breast. 

Another contributor to Zoist was James Esdaile who made his first mesmeric experiments in 1845, at the Native Hospital, Hooghly, India. He subsequently used mesmeric analgesia successfully in numerous operations though he was not the first. Esdaile carried out thousands of “painless” operations, and no less than three hundred of them were major operations (many were amputations and the removal of scrotal tumours).

A Scottish surgeon of high repute. James Braid was to give the phenomena usually associated with mesmerism a respectable scientific rationale, and it was he who coined the words: hypnotism, hypnotic, hypnotise, etc. (Greek. Hypnos sleep).  

Braid first witnessed mesmerism in 1841 when it was demonstrated by Lafontaine. He was not impressed by this, believing mesmeric effects to be due to trickery.

But Braid was present at a second 'seance' when Lafontaine's presentation of a somnambule was greeted with accusations of trickery, and several members of the audience, including Braid, went up onto the rostrum to investigate the 'mesmerised' girl. Braid tested her by forcing a pin beneath a finger nail and was very impressed that she showed no signs of discomfort. Thereafter, Braid carried out numerous experiments and became a true convert. He writing 'Neurypnology, or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep' was published in 1843 and sold eight hundred copies.

Braid's “scientific” approach to hypnotism, and his new terminology, made it possible for many influential people to embrace the subject who would not otherwise have done so. But even more important was Braid's assertion that hypnotic effects were a subjective phenomenon, and not produced directly by the hypnotiser.

Braid can not be viewed as the originator Hypnosis but his work was on a considerable scale and the James Braid society still meets in London each month.

The end of that application of mesmerism was inevitable following the introduction of Ether (later chloroform) in medical operations.

Auguste Ambrose Liebeault (1823 1904) and Hippolyte Bernheim (1840 - l919) founded the so called Nancy school, which was to prove to be of very great advancement in the establishment of a hypnotherapy.

Liebeault is often described as a 'simple country doctor', but by offering to treat without charge the peasants of Nancy he was able to amass a considerable experience and expertise with hypnosis. His first study of hypnosis began in 1860. In 1882 he reportedly obtained a cure for sciatica in a patient. As a consequence of these reports, Bernheim began making regular visits to Nancy, and the two men became good friends and colleagues. Bernheim published the first part of his book, De la Suggestion, in 1884. The second part, La Therapeutic Suggestive, followed in 1886.

Liebeault confined himself to working for the poor, refusing to accept any fee. Bernheim, from 1882, made a practice of hypnotising all hospital patients who came into his care. After four years, about five thousand hypnotic inductions yielded a seventy five per cent success rate. Several years later, the number of inductions had risen to ten thousand and the success rate was eighty five per cent.

In 1882, Jean Martin Charcot (1835 1893) presented his findings on hypnotism to the French Academy of Sciences.  Charcot believed that hypnosis was essentially hysteria, and being an understanding neurologist of his day he was listened to with great respect. In fact, Charcot had obtained much of his knowledge of hypnotism from his work with twelve hysterics at the Saltpetriere, and most of his conclusions on the subject were based on that tiny sample. The Nancy school opposed Charcot's conclusion of hysteria, and won acceptance of hypnosis as an essentially normal consequence of suggestion. In 1885 Sigmund Freud (1856 1939) spent some time with Charcot, and was very impressed. He used hypnosis successfully in psychotherapy (and wrote about Hysteria).  Freud visited Nancy c1889 and became convinced of the 'powerful mental processes which nevertheless remain hidden from the consciousness of men'. Freud noted the 'positive transference' that occurred when a female patient he had awakened from hypnosis threw her arms around his neck. On this Freud wrote 'I was modest enough not to attribute the event to my own irresistible personal attraction, and I felt that I had now grasped the nature of the mysterious element that was at work behind hypnotism'. He subsequently abandoned hypnosis and developed free association and psychoanalysis and was able to control and use the transference phenomena. At the end of the nineteenth century Wetterstrand, Kraft Ebing, Albert Moll and numerous others were adding to the written record. Dr. Oskar Vogt developed the induction method of fractionation, and one of his students, Johannes Schultz, was later to introduce Autogenic Training considered by many to be a form of auto hypnosis.

The first decades of the 1900’s produced workers such Emile Coue. Coue studied at Nancy and is associated with the “New” Nancy school. He made a reputation with theories on Auto Suggestion and gave us what is now coined the law of “reverse effort.'

Another name, Pierre Janet followed on from Charcot. Janet was largely responsible for the 'dissociation' theory of hypnosis.

Ivan Pavlov is known to almost every school child for his work on conditioning (conditional reflex) and he put forward his reciprocal inhibition of the cortex theory to explain hypnosis.

In the thirties, Milton Erikson expanded on the practical use of Hypnosis and has become the kind of father figure to the profession with his teaching tales and legendary inductions.  George  Estabrooks is a Rhodes Scholar who took his Doctorate at Harvard authored many articles and books on clinical hypnosis and human behavior.  Eastbrooks, a little known figure outside of the USA also wrote about Hypnosis and in particular how hypnosis could be used to help develop spying techniques!  He describes how working with the US Military he helped train “hypnotic couriers“ who provided a unique solution to gathering intelligence during World War II.  One successful case Eastbrooks wrote about involved an Army Service Corps Captain named Mr Smith.  “Smith had undergone months of training. He was an excellent subject but did not realise it. I had removed from him, by post-hypnotic suggestion, all recollection of ever having been hypnotized.”

In 1933, C.L. Hull, published Hypnotism and Suggestibility and in recent years many more scientific journals and research have grown.   As technology advances, so has the knowledge we acquire about hypnosis and its benefits.

Dr Christina Liossi (University of Wales) presented evidence that hypnosis can help relieve the pain suffered by children with cancer in a reports that claims "We now have experimental evidence to say that hypnosis is an evidence-based intervention, at least for children who undergo painful treatment procedures" Liossi said.

In 2009 the Centre for Clinical Neuroscience, University of Hull reported “Hypnosis is increasingly being used in clinical settings, as a way of helping people lose weight or stop smoking. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recently approved the technique for treatment of irritable bowel syndrome, but despite such endorsements there is still a great deal of scepticism about whether there really is a hypnotic state.  This report was made after Dr McGeown showed evidence of “changes in anterior brain activity observed in our study occurred only in highly suggestible subjects, those most open to the idea of hypnosis. By contrast, no changes in brain activity were detected in these areas in the low suggestible subjects. This shows that the changes were due to hypnosis and not just simple relaxation.”

We can read much of the history of hypnotism and it is easy to see how science shaped our questioning of the existence of Hypnosis and now, as functional scans develop, supports the existence of hypnotic effects.  What is missing from here is a discussion on the impact of religion (regardless of your belief and time in history), and also much of the philosophical debate about man versus mind (who controls which).   Much pioneering research is being undertaken at Universities in Sussex, Hull and London and some of these are made public, some are discussed on our courses and of course, some are hidden from view.

For a detailed and yet readible analysis of the treatment of mental illness in western society we recommend the Edward Shorter, A History of Psychiatry: From the Era of the Asylum to the Age of Prozac.