The History of Hypnosis

Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Carmen Lynne and welcome to Expert Village. We're talking about hypnosis today. And hypnosis has a very long history. You might not realize. In fact, It's been around for thousands of years, literally. It started with the ancient Greeks and the ancient Greeks used to have sleep temples where people would actually induce the hypnotic state for healing. Even the very word "hypnosis" comes from the Greek because the god of sleep is Hypnos. And then a guy called Fritz Mesmer in the 18th century reintroduced the concept of hypnosis to the Western world. And he used to have these theatrical presentations where he would, in fact, put people under. I suppose that would be the first type of stage hypnosis. That is where the word "mesmerized" comes from. Then in the 18th century along came a guy called Franz Mesmer and he reintroduced the whole concept of hypnosis to the Western world. And he used to have these elaborate theatrical rituals which were the first form of stage hypnosis and he would actually put magnets onto people. And he believed that it was the magnets that was producing these remarkable cures and these spontaneous healings. But in fact it was the fact that he was putting these people under, into hypnosis. So then later on James Braid in 1843 rediscovered this "mesmerism" as it was called in those days and he realized that there was something else happening, quite apart from the magnets, that there was something actually happening psychologically to these people. Then in the 20th century really the father of modern hypnotherapy is Milton Erickson and in the 1920's he introduced the idea that hypnosis could be used in a healing capacity. And then in the last 20 or 30 years we've seen a real resurgence of interest in this and the use of hypnosis in all sorts of medical and clinical applications and that's where we are today. That hypnotherapy has been proven scientifically that can help to alter brain waves, help people with all sorts of issues, help people over come chronic pain conditions and addictions, many other things. So that is a brief little history of hypnosis.

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