What Is Hypnosis?

For many people, hypnosis is seen as a strange or mystical practice. Many believe hypnosis is a way of controlling minds, that a hypnotist, by the power of suggestion, can impose his will on the subject and make them do something they have no control over themselves. These beliefs however are unfounded.

In recent years though, by having a greater understanding of the therapy, we know that hypnosis is a highly effective, therapeutic tool in positive development.

The origins of hypnosis could be said to go back as far as ancient times and there is evidence that forms of hypnosis were used by shamans, healers, tribal doctors and Indian yogi. The earliest references date back to ancient Egypt and Greece. The term 'hypnos' being the Greek word for sleep.

In Hypnosis for Change, Hadley and Staudacher (2001) describe how shamans, "In preparation for healing"... "adhered to certain practices that allowed his powers of concentration to be heightened".

This would involve visualisation techniques and would be accompanied by drumming or chanting which were rhythmic and monotonous. It was this repetitive beat that helped the shaman focus their subconscious mind. "The shaman actually engaged in a powerful process of visualisation and suggestion during which he willed the sick person to be healed".

If we look to more modern times however, the decisive moment when hypnosis became more familiar with how we see it today can be attributed to Austrian physician, Franz Anton Mesmer. Mesmer believed that a mysterious fluid ran through the body and by applying magnets to certain areas of the body, this fluid could be unblocked or allowed to flow correctly. The term 'animal magnetism' was created from this very practice. Whilst carrying out group therapy sessions, Mesmer believed his patients would enter a sort of trance like state allowing the healing process to take place. In one session, Mesmer forgot his magnets and instead passed his hands over the body. This also seemed to have the same positive effect and Mesmer believed he had enough of this 'animal magnetism' or 'mystical fluid' in himself to heal people.

One of Mesmer's students, the Marquis de Puysegur, did not quite believe Mesmer's theory of this fluid being magnetic but instead thought it was electric and that this fluid was in all living things. One of Puysegur's techniques was to attach his patients to a tree by a cord and this 'connection' would allow the healing fluid to flow to the affected parts of the body. His patients would enter a trance like state during the treatment and Puysegur noted that although in a seemingly deep sleep, he was still able to communicate to the patients.

Although Mesmer's techniques were quite flamboyant and had an air of showmanship about them, the theory of 'animal magnetism' and 'mesmerism' was picked up by fellow physicians and surgeons and spread throughout Europe.

James Braid, a Scottish surgeon working in Manchester in the mid 1800's, developed Mesmer's techniques and realised that some people would go into a trance if they focused their eyes on a particular spot or object. It was Braid who introduced the term 'hypnotism', relating it to the word Greek word 'Hypnos'. This was not considered an appropriate title however as it gave the impression that the subject is asleep during the hypnosis, but, the term stuck.

At the same time as Braid, a British surgeon in India, James Esdaile and John Elliotson a professor at University College Hospital in London saw the benefits of hypnotism when performing surgery. Esdaile performed hundreds of surgical procedures, using hypnotism as a way of anaesthetising his patients.

In France at this time, the technique was also favoured by several doctors, including Auguste Ambroise Leibeault, Jean-Martin Charcot and Hippolyte Bernheim. Bernheim and Leibeault were some of the first physicians to recognise hypnosis as a 'normal phenomenon'. "They asserted that expectation is a most important factor in the induction of hypnosis, that increased suggestibility is its essential symptom, and that the hypnotist works on the patient by mental influences." (Hadley and Staudacher, 2001). It was the practice by such respected doctor's that gradually allowed hypnosis to be considered as a valid therapeutic or medical tool and was seen less and less as something mystical or theatrical.

Sigmund Freud also took an interest in hypnosis, studying with Leibeault and Bernheim, and used it in his own work. However, Freud was more concerned with psychoanalysis and dream interpretation and subsequently rejected the use of it. Being as highly regarded as he was, this had a detrimental impact on the popularity of hypnosis.

It was in the mid 1900's when well known and well respected psychiatrist, Milton H Erickson, developed a more indirect form of hypnosis that the style we are familiar with today came into practice. Were it not for the initial pioneers such as Mesmer, Leibeault and Bernheim however, hypnosis may not have become as established as it has.

As a therapeutic technique, hypnosis is difficult to measure in terms of its ability to be a one size fits all, cure all. It is wrong to assume that each person will respond in the same way, as each individual will have a different experience depending on their own psyche, beliefs, character and understanding of hypnotherapy. What we do know is that during hypnosis, a patient is in a deeply relaxed state, the conscious mind becomes less active, allowing the subconscious mind to be more open. In this state, the mind becomes open to positive suggestion allowing patterns of behaviour to be reprogrammed.

Being in a hypnotic state is actually very natural; in fact everyone will experience it at some point during their waking lives. This can be seen when driving for example. Once