The History of Hypnosis & Hypnotherapy

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What is the History of Hypnosis?

Many Sports Psychology Coaches implement aspects of hypnosis and guided imagery for their clients.  The following is a comprehensive story of the origins of hypnosis.

Before we explore the uses of hypnosis for your future, we need to look to the past. It is important to understand the history of hypnosis if for no other reason than to be able to communicate to your client in an articulate and intelligent manner. You will hear comments from your potential clients that range from, “Hypnosis is old and out of date…” to “Hypnosis is untested, and too new to risk experimenting with.” The fact is, most people know very little or nothing about hypnosis other than what they have seen in the movies and at night clubs where hypnotists make people bark like dogs or quack like ducks. 

The fact is hypnosis has been an accepted form of treatment in the medical communities since 1955 and 1958 through the British Medical Association, and the American Medical Association respectively. This may seem like hypnosis has been accepted by medicine for a very long time, but considering how long hypnosis has been around, it’s surprising that it took so long for the formal institutions to actually recognize it – especially considering that all modern medical practices evolved from one place – hypnosis.

Hypnosis Origins

Hypnosis has been around since the beginning of recorded time. Approximately 4000 B.C. in the lands of ancient Egypt came to a priest named Imhotep. He was the first physician in recorded history and is also credited for building the first pyramid in the world – the step pyramid of ancient Egypt. Apparently, Imhotep must have been immortal, because he is still alive and well today – his name was most recently ‘resurrected’ as the priest, turned mummy for the popular movies, “The Mummy” and “The Mummy Returns” starring Brendan Fraser, and Arnold Vosloo (Imhotep).

Imhotep, as well as other priests, would practice hypnosis (although that term had not been invented yet) in sleep temples. Sleep temples have been found throughout the ancient worlds of Greece, Egypt, India, and many others. In these temples, people would come for healing. The healing could be for physical or mental disorders, it didn’t matter. The “patients” would be put to sleep by the priest’s incantations and chanting. In fact, the popular methods of hypnotic induction in the movies like, “you’re getting sleepy… very sleepy…” were taken from Egyptian papyrus papers found in these temples. These were the first hypnotic scripts ever discovered. Once the people had “fallen asleep” the priests would then offer suggestions of healing and suggestions of dreams. When awakened, the priests would interpret the dreams the ill had experienced and that interpretation of the dream would usually include a suggestion such as, “… and that means you have been healed.” 

Hypnosis can also be found in the ancient writings of Greece. In fact, the word Hypnosis is derived from Greece. Hypnos was the God of Sleep and the word hypnosis in its literal Greek translation means, ‘nervous sleep.’ Around the 4th and 5th Centuries, B.C. Asklepios (also spelled: Asclepius) was a healer that used a hypnotically induced process similar to that of Imhotep from Egypt. Over time, his reputation made him into a demi-god and the temples constructed in his honor were known as temples of healing dreams. The people who came to Asklepios (and the priests who followed him) looking for a cure or an insight to their problems were called Seekers. So named because they were seeking to contact the healing god, to get a new vision that would heal, guide, or provide comfort. 

There are historical writings from Greece which report seekers being cured of diseases that even in the modern day are still deemed to be incurable. The lame were able to walk again and people who were blind gained vision. In these temples, the seekers would enter a dreamlike state (hypnosis) for as many as 3 days. During this time, the priests would offer suggestions to the seekers thought to influence their dreams. When the seekers awoke, the priest would then offer an interpretation of what the dreams meant. A good dream would be one whereby the god would touch the part of the ailing body. If this were to happen in the dream, the priest would then deliver with much congruency the suggestion, “…this means you are going to heal.”. 

Over time, these priests developed a greater understanding of herbs and the effect they had on the body. They began to depart from the sole use of dream interpretation and began prescribing herbs. They developed ointments, tinctures, and medicines. The dreams began to take on a more metaphorical role rather than literal. The metaphors of the dreams were the deciding point for prescriptions and what types of medicine the seeker should use. Over the past 4000 years, these Sleep Temples, Priests, and herbs have slowly evolved into what have become modern hospitals, Doctors, and medicine. 

Even the caduceus, the worldwide symbol used for medical doctors was inspired by Asclepius, who in Greek mythology was always depicted as holding a snake as shown in the picture of him previously. This evolution can be clearly recognized by the Greek term Klínè, which was the term used to describe these temples of dreams, or a sacred skin used to lie on while dreaming. The English word clinic was derived from Klínè. Asklepios had two daughters — Hygea and Panacea. The English words Hygiene and Panacea were derived from their names – Panacea being used to describe a pill or technique that can “cure-all”. 

Even today, all physicians are sworn to the Hippocratic Oath: Created by Hippocrates, the Greek physician, also referred to as “The father of modern medicine.” As time passed, hypnosis gained more and more popularity. The Austrian, Dr. Franz Fredrich Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) used hypnosis, although that term had still not yet been created. Instead, Mesmer would “mesmerize” people. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1766 after presenting a paper entitled, De Planetarium Influx (On the influence of the Planets). His belief was that there was a quasi-magnetic fluid in the air that we breathed, and this fluid was absorbed into the skin, and affected by the alignment of the stars and planets. 

To re-align the magnetic fluids to resonate with the harmony of the stars and planets he initially used magnets and passed them over the body. Then, one day during healing he could not locate his magnets, so instead, he waved his hands over the body of the sick individual. Astonishingly, the client healed as he would have with the magnets. Mesmer then theorized that he had worked so long with the magnets that he himself had become magnetized, and thus the phrase, ‘animal magnetism’ was created. 

Later in his career, he graduated from waving his hands over his clients to simply staring at them with his eyes. This is where the “… look into my eyes…” phrase came from popularized by movies. In 1784 the French Government investigated Mesmer and pronounced him a fraud. Their reason was simple; no one could duplicate the results that he had produced by doing the same thing, and one could not physically see this fluid that he spoke of – if you can’t see it, it must not exist, was the logic. Ironically, these claims were made by the person in charge of the commission – Benjamin Franklin, the man who in 1747 theorized about the existence of an electrical fluid that could be composed of particles – also something you could not see at the time. The Marquis de Puysségurr (1751-1825) was a pupil of Mesmer’s and used similar processes of healing as did his mentor. 

Characteristics of Hypnosis

One method was to have the individual in need of healing placed in a tub filled with water and iron filings protruding from which were larger iron rods. Dr. Mesmer would then suggest to his patients that as he touched them with his magnetic rod, they would become magnetized and inevitably go into a crisis (seizure). At the end of this crisis, the patient would emerge cured. 

Puysségurr did this as well but forgot to tell them they would have a seizure and ironically none of his patients would receive a crisis when touched by the iron rod. This led Puysségurr to focus more on suggestion than crisis, and his patients would experience profound levels of relaxation. This adaptation from Mesmer’s technique led Puysségurr to create the 3 cardinal characteristics of hypnosis. Characteristics that, as our understanding of hypnosis evolved were discovered as unnecessary: 

  1. Concentration of the senses on the operator – this fixation or concentration was eventually created by hypnotists of the day holding their pocket watch in front of the client’s face. However, they would not swing it back and forth like in the movies. In modern hypnosis, of course, we have realized the fallacy of this requirement and now do not require the client to focus on a single thought or object, although it is an option still used.
  2. Acceptance of suggestion without question – This qualification, “without question” was the beginning of the myth that during hypnosis the hypnotist is in control, and you are not. In modern hypnosis, we recognize of course that the client must be willing to accept the suggestions, and it is best if they do so without question, but they are the ones who ultimately decide whether they will or will not accept the suggestion without question in the first place.
  3. Amnesia for events in a trance – This phenomenon, while possible is not required. Often, hypnotists will suggest to their clients that they will remember everything in order to preserve any lessons learned from the hypnotic state. 

Hypnosis Gains Credibility

So far, hypnosis had been referred to by many names, yet all of them shared similar processes and results. It was not until November 13, 1841, all of this would change. A French magnetizer named La Fontaine demonstrated Mesmerism to Dr. James Braid, a well-respected surgeon from Scotland. Braid was against the notion of Mesmerism, and was skeptical throughout the demonstration. However, at the conclusion of the process, Braid acknowledged that something of significance had happened that day, and he began to research and experiment with mesmerism. 

In 1842, he published a book entitled, Neuryptnology where he coined the phrase hypnosis to describe mesmerism. So named after the Greek God of sleep, Hypnos. This apparently made a profound effect, because, unlike Mesmer, Braid was able to maintain a good reputation in the medical community. Later in life, Braid realized the errors of his ways. For hypnosis wasn’t sleep at all. As a result, he tried renaming hypnosis to monoideism, but the term hypnosis was already widely spread and used in every language throughout Europe, so the new name never caught on… thankfully! Dr. John Elliotson, another respected surgeon from Scotland, who later went on to receive a full professorship at London University and was named President of the Royal Medical and Surgical Society practiced hypnosis on a regular basis. Except for introducing the stethoscope to England, Elliotson is Dr. John Elliotson probably most recognized for publishing the first journal on hypnosis called Zoist. 

This journal was published quarterly from April 1843 until December 31, 1855. In its thirteen-year lifespan articles were published by Elliotson, Esdaile, and many other brilliant physicians of that time. These articles are to this day some of the most impressive collections of cases using hypnosis to cure everything from insanity to epilepsy. There were hundreds of cases documented using hypnosis to conduct pain-free surgeries – everything from the removal of a cataract to the amputation of legs by Dr. James Esdaile. Dr. James Esdaile conducted more surgeries using hypnosis than any other person of his time, and possibly even to the modern day. 

Before his use of hypnosis in surgeries, the mortality rate (or death ratio) was around 50/50. The reason for this was not an infection; it was due to excruciating pain. This was before the invention of anesthesia. When a patient needed an operation (this was in the early 1800s) they would be strapped to the table and have a horse’s bit wrapped in leather (hence the term, ‘bite the bit’) and placed in their mouth. The surgeon would then conduct the operation with the client completely awake and writhing in pain. The heart would beat rapidly causing excess blood flow, and the patient would most likely die of shock while bleeding to death.

On April 4, 1845, Esdaile conducted his first operation on a Hindu convict with a double hydrocele at a hospital in India. This was the beginning of a career that would carry him through thousands of painless operations before he left India and returned to the home of his father in Scotland.

Hypnosis’ Major Roadblock

While it seemed as though hypnosis could not be stopped, around this time, hypnosis met a major roadblock: the advent of modern Christianity. The Church of England lashed out against hypnosis in surgery after proclaiming that, “…if a patient feels pain, he probably deserves it, because pain is necessary to cleanse and purify the soul.” Shortly thereafter, chloroform was invented, and pain was no longer necessary to cleanse and purify the soul. 

Nevertheless, Christians interpreted hypnosis as witchcraft and the profession faced a major setback. This did not deter people from practicing hypnosis, it just went underground, and was practiced in secret. The irony of this was that Jesus allegedly employed hypnosis to perform many of His miracles. A complete discussion of this is to be found in the book entitled, Religious Aspects of Hypnosis published by Charles C. Thomas and Co. Springfield, Illinois in 1962. 

As hypnosis was “rejected” by the medical community, it landed in an unusual place – the stage. This was the beginning of stage shows where people began barking like dogs and quacking like ducks. As if being evil wasn’t bad enough, now we began to lose serious credibility, but the true advocates never gave up.

Modern Hypnosis

While Franz Anton Mesmer is known as the father of hypnosis, Dr. Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault is recognized as the father of modern hypnosis. He was born in 1823, began his study of medicine in 1844, started experimenting with hypnosis in 1848, and graduated from medical school in 1850. After a successful therapeutic career in hypnosis, he wrote a book which took nearly 2 years to complete. With the bad reputation of hypnosis, and skepticism at an all-time high, the book was a dismal failure – he only sold one copy. The purchaser of his book was Dr. Hippolyte Bernheim. 

The reason Bernheim purchased the book was that in 1882 Dr. Liébeault cured a persistent case of sciatica, which Bernheim had treated without results for over six months. More than likely, Bernheim purchased the book to expose Dr. Liébeault as a charlatan. This did not happen, however. Bernheim was so impressed with Liébeault’s work, he became his pupil and lifelong friend. Perhaps Liébeault’s greatest contribution toward hypnosis was the discovery that for most hypnotic processes, the client did not need to go into a deep state of relaxation. 

Liébeault became an expert at rapid inductions. At the apex of his career, Liébeault would simply wave his hand over the patient’s eyes and utter a phrase such as, “sleep, my little kitten…” He would then suggest away the ailment and have them awaken at their own time. The majority of Liébeault’s clients were treated in less than 15 minutes. Liébeault and Bernheim developed the School of Nancy, in Nancy France. There, hypnosis was a regular course of the curriculum. 

As the popularity of hypnosis began to rebound, other theories and schools of thought began to arise. Most notable was the Salpetriere School. There, the French physician, Jean Martin Charcot, while very well respected in the field of medicine was discredited over time because of his beliefs that hypnosis was a pathological state that weakened the mind over time. Still, he pursued hypnosis himself and even taught it to one of his star pupils, Dr. Sigmund Freud.

The Use of Hypnosis in Psychology

Dr. Sigmund Freud, possibly the most well-known name in psychology was once a hypnotist. However, he did not employ the techniques of hypnosis for long. There are several theories as to why he did not continue his practice of hypnosis. 

His last known case was working with a young boy with a tick (Tourette syndrome). After only one session, the boy’s ticks went away. Freud never used hypnosis again. One theory is revealed in the collected papers of Sigmund Freud where he states, “… psychology will not be the poor man’s therapy. It will be very expensive and a great deal of time to affect a cure.” Freud was openly concerned about the monetary disadvantages in hypnotizing someone once, and then losing them as a client. Perhaps one of his reasons for no longer using hypnosis was that talk therapy was more profitable. Another theory stems from his own physical ailments. Freud had badly infected gums which left him with repellant breath. To have a client look into your eyes, or speak to them closely also meant they would have to smell his breath. This is one of the reasons, although not the main factor, why in psychoanalysis the patient is told to lie on a couch, and the therapist sits on a chair out of their view.

One other contribution that may have led Freud to leave hypnosis was competition. Dr. Josef Breuer, a one-time friend, teacher, and co-author of Studien uber Hysterie with Freud was much more advanced and contributed much more to the field of hypnosis than Freud – although Freud’s creation of the term ‘Subconscious mind’ was monumental in the explanation of hypnosis. Around 1880, Breuer discovered something by accident. In working with one of his most famous patients named Anna O, who had a litany of ailments in the mind and body, one of which was that she couldn’t swallow water, he discovered through hypnosis that she had witnessed a former governess let a dog drink water from a glass. This disgusted Anna O and installed within her this aversion to water. After the hypnotic session, she turned to Breuer and asked him for a glass of water. Up until this point, hypnosis was mainly used for the alleviation of pain. 

In the book, Medical Hypnosis, by Wolberg, he states, “The importance of Breuer’s work lies in the change of emphasis in hypnotic therapy, from the direct removal of symptoms to the dealing with the apparent cause of these symptoms.” From then on, Breuer attempted to associate all of his client’s symptoms with trauma from the past. The birth of hypnosis in psychology had begun. Over the next 50 years, several individuals made impressive strides in the advancement of hypnosis, but none so much as perhaps the most famous and well-respected hypnotist of the modern day – Milton Erickson (1902 – 1980). Milton is credited for taking hypnosis off the stage and making it an acceptable form of therapy. It was his influence that many believe opened the door for the American Medical Association to formally accept hypnosis’ use as a healing modality (1958). 

Perhaps the most influential contribution that Dr. Erickson had to offer was his method of induction. Up until this time, to induce someone into hypnosis, either rapidly or slowly, the hypnotist would use a commanding tonality and an authoritative stance. “You are getting sleepy…”, “You will close your eyes…”, “Sleep now…”, and “You are going deeper into a trance…” were all common phrases used. Erickson instead believed that since hypnosis was a naturally occurring state instead of forcing someone to go into trance, you should just let them go into trance at their own pace. 

This was the birth of indirect, permissive hypnosis. Phrases such as, “you may want to close your eyes…”, “you may find my voice relaxing…”, and “you can close your eyes only when you want to…” are all Dr. Milton Erickson’s examples of this new form of induction. This opened the door for many people to be hypnotized that otherwise would abreact to such a commanding tone.

Of course, hypnosis continues to evolve and improve. 

Where Can I Learn More?

Curious to learn more about the use of hypnosis in coaching? Check out these blogs:

To learn how hypnosis and hypnotherapy is used in sports and fitness performance, review the Sports Psychology Coach Certification.  

There is always something exciting about earning a new training or coaching certification and applying that new knowledge of how you train your clients. This also helps you hit the reset button.

NESTA and Spencer Institute coaching programs are open to anyone with a desire to learn and help others. There are no prerequisites.

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