Nobody can say for sure when hypnosis started. But historians seem to agree that his has been used for more than a thousand years. Remember witch doctors or spiritual priests entering into a trance talking to the supernatural and the spirits in order to save people from diseases or misfortune.
Ancient Egyptians has been using hypnosis to relieve pain and cure diseases. They would have healing temples which are called Temples of Sleep. Those who are sick are given suggestions while induced to sleep. This suggestions are to direct their mind that they would be healed of their illnesses. Ancient Egyptians, aside from healing through sleep, has also used hypnosis to endure prolonged physical pain. They used this as we use anaesthesia right now.
Hundreds of years later, in 1765, Franz Anton Mesmer introduced animal magnetism. He stated that man could influence a magnetic fluid which could help in the healing process. His thought became an influential school. There were salons were he would apply magnets in people’s afflicted body parts.
After a few years, Le Marquis de Puysegur, believed the magnetic power the Mesmer is talking abour is actually present in his own mind and transferred through fingers to the person sick. He discovered that you could induce a very deep sleep where the person who is sleeping will follow the command. This is referred to as the perfect crisis or the profound sleep.
During this time hypnosis was referred to as mesmerism. In 1837, Dr. John Elliotson cited that hypnosis can be associated to voluntary and involuntary movement which he claims to be linked to the mesmerism theory. Dr Elliotson claimed that there is a doctor in India who has been amputating legs with the aid of hypnosis. The doctor saving lives if India is named Dr. James Esdail. And upon on his departure from India, it was said that he able to perform 300 operations and 19 of them is amputation.
Dr. James Baird saw a French man named La Fontaine in his mesmerism demonstration. After experiencing this, he put it into practice and were able to put the patients into a deep sleep that would make them accept any medical suggestion made by the doctors.
Actually during World War I, hypnosis was used by the Germans to make sure that their soldiers were able to recover from shell- shock. This would enable them to return immediately to their trenches.
Hypnosis started to gain interest among practitioners in the medical field. Sigmund Freud was said to be the firs proponent of hypnotherapy. Originally, Freud started studying hypnotherapy in late 1890s until he shifted into a new practice or method on 1905. Freud stated that suggestion can be made in an attempt make treatment speedy.
Dr. Milton Erickson is one of the few people who greatly influenced hypnotherapists. He has accomplished a lot of books and research about hypnotherapy. Dr. Erickson’s study became the foundation of NLP or the neuro-linguistic programming which became widely used in trading and marketing.
Currently, hypnotherapy are used on only on adults but also with children. Hypnosis for children were proven to have resolved some issues concerning behaviour and health disorders. Hypnotherapy was formally endorsed by the British Medical Association in 1955. Three years after, the American Medical Association did the same. They endorsed hypnotherapy as a form of treatment.
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