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You are completely relaxed there is a wonderful warm feeling spreading through your body. you have a great desire to sleep your eyelids are getting heavy heavier and heavier you hardly can keep them open any longer now they are closed with every word I am saying, you are getting sleepier. and sleepier. you are going to SLEEP deep, sound sleep deeper and deeper asleep SLEEP! You just read the exact words of a hypnotist, using the classical technique of verbal suggestion. His subject is sound asleep.
Is this a science or just a fascinating fraud, a little frightening? Think... What is hypnotism? According to the Websters New International Dictionary: The induction of a state resembling sleep or somnambulism, which is called hypnosis or hypnotic sleep; also loosely the induced state of hypnosis There are degrees of hypnosis which have been characterized as lethargic, cataleptic and somnambulistic hypnosis and, again, simply as light and heavy hypnotic sleep, with corresponding variations in suggestibility.
A STATE OF SUSTAINED SUGGESTIBILITY In order to gain a better understanding of this greatly misunderstood science, remember these words: Not witchcraft, not black magic, just on of mans eternal search for a better understanding of his environment and himself, science. Because hypnosis is induced by verbal suggestion, the history of hypnotism dates back to the early stages of lingual communication in pre civilized society. It is a great loss to modern science that hypnotism has been studied only in the last 200 years in any organized form. One of the early practitioners in the eighteen century was Franz Anton Mesmer and his technique became known as Mesmerism, magnetism or animal magnetism.
because he attributed his results to magnets placed at various parts of the human body. It is almost unthinkable, but this tremendous misconception prevails even today. The word hypnotism originated from the Greek hypnos, meaning sleep, transplanted into its present day meaning by the nineteenth century Scottish doctor, James Braid. It has been a proven scientific fact for more than 100 years that hypnosis can be induced without sleep (because sleep is a symptom and not the basic character trait of hypnotism) so, the word itself is a misnomer. The above state is usually referred to as waking hypnosis. HYPNOTISM DIVIDED INTO TWO CATEGORIES From the viewpoint of induction, hypnotism can be divided into two categories: 1.
Hetero-hypnosis, the state of sustained suggestibility is induced by a hypnotist. 2. Auto-hypnosis, the state is self induced. The results are both the same. Any suggestion that is carried out a period of time after hypnosis, is known as post-hypnotic suggestion. The use of hypnosis is extremely wide, ranging from psychoanalysis of hysteria and nervous disorder to an anaesthetic in dentistry, surgery and childbirth.
At times, it has been used as a pain killer in WW-II when drugs were not available. On the average, about twenty-five people out of a hundred are highly susceptible to suggestion meaning that this percentage is very easily hypnotized. Almost all children belong to this group. About 50 - 55 % are fairly good subjects, but it takes a longer period of time to hypnotize them, and the remaining 20 - 25 % may never be hypnotized.
The percentage varies with the personality, technique and experience of the individual hypnotist. People who can not maintain focused attention, for whatever reason, can not be hypnotized. NO DANGER IN COMPETENT HANDS No person can be hypnotized against his or her will and it is generally accepted by the majority of practitioners that, while under hypnosis, the subject will not act against his religious beliefs or moral principles. In the hands of a competent operator, there is absolutely no danger involved in the use of hypnosis, for the obvious reason that any suggestion that can be put in the subconscious can also be removed just as easily. The false, monster-like image created by the radio, television, movies and sensation-thirsty newspaper reporters has done a great deal of harm to the scientific study, development and application of this truly great science... hypnotism.
STAGE HYPNOTISM Stage Hypnotism is a unique branch of hypnotism which focuses on providing theatrical entertainment for money. Stage hypnotists face many unique challenges that are not encountered in a clinical setting. Timing, pace of the show, and the entertainment value must be maintained by the performer to hold the spectators attention for the entire duration of the show. Rigged props and occasional human confederates sprinkled amongst the spectators are not unknown to stage hypnotists. Generally, hypnotists preselect participants before the show to speed up the induction process during the show. The people whom the hypnotist selects are not plants, they are just the best and most susceptible hypnotic subjects available from the current group of spectators.
Stage hypnotists walk the very thin line of morality, decency, and fairness. Unless the hypnotists demeanor project the highest respect for the audience volunteers during the presentation, the stage show can degenerate into an obscene spectacle of poor taste and psychological abuse. Making fools of people who are willing to participate in stage experiments is the despicable act of a scoundrel. To do stage hypnotism requires the highest ethical level from its practitioners. Professor Leitner, the highly respected German hypnotist provided an excellent early model for a dignified, lecture type presentation. A more recent notable exponent of a well-executed stage presentation is Peter Review, the Australian stage hypnotist.
Stage hypnotists in the theatre and on television have an enormous opportunity not only to provide good entertainment but to correct the publics perception about hypnotism. Seeing a heavy smoker on the stage reject, with great disdain, the offered cigarette is something to behold. Hypnotism is one of the great non-invasive, drug free medical treatment methods discovered in the past two hundred years. When hypnotists correctly apply hypnotic suggestions, the results can be phenomenal. The possibilities of using the power of hypnotism are limited only by our imagination. In the future, it can be and it will be a very useful instrument for the better understanding of one of the greatest mysteries...
man himself. Some of the important people in the History of Hypnotism. Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer (1734 - 1815), French physician, lawyer, and the earliest modern medical hypnotist and researcher in Europe. His name became synonymous with hypnotism, which was known at the time as mesmerism, magnetism, or animal magnetism. Mesmer published his findings in Schreiben Uber die Magnetic, mistakenly attributing the observed results to magnetism created by magnets placed on various parts of the patients body.
Dr. James Braid (1795 - 1860), Scottish doctor who is probably the best known early researcher and practitioner of hypnotism in the English speaking world. He was introduced to the subject by La Fontaine, a Frenchman, in 1841. It was Braid who coined the phrases hypnosis and hypnotism (Hypnos Gr. = sleep) in 1842 to describe the induction techniques used to create states of increased suggestibility. The terms were first published in his book Neurypnology in 1843. The new labels became the part of everyday language and quickly replaced the misleading labels of Mesmerism, magnetism and animal magnetism created by Mesmer.
Dr. John Elliot son (1791 - 1868), brilliant Scottish physician, Professor of Medicine, lecturer, researcher and writer. Among many other medical diagnostic innovations, he introduced the use of stethoscopes in England, and in 1846 he started publication of the first journal (Zoist) that focussed strictly on hypnotism. The Marquis de Puysegur, who early in the nineteenth century identified three characteristic features of hypnosis.
He stated that under hypnosis the subject will: 1. Focus on the hypnotist, 2. Accept the hypnotist suggestions and (if suggested by the hypnotist), 3. Experience temporary amnesia for a suggested time period. (Today it is known as posthypnotic amnesia. ) Dr. Ambrose-Auguste Liebeault (1823 -), French physician known as the Father of modern hypnotism. A brilliant communicator, who developed a quick induction method during his practice and also performed significant research into experimental methods of hypnosis.
Dr. James Martin Charcot (1825 - 1893), eminent French neurologist who gained international fame for innovative diagnostic techniques and procedures. He was probably the best known physician to research the subject of hypnotism, in France, in the 19 th century. Dr. Josef Breuer, physician and medical hypnosis researcher who became the catalyst to the application of hypnosis to psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.
Freud had investigated the work of Breuer, which lead to the application of an indirect form of hypnosis by Freud in his psychoanalytic procedures and a joint publication of a book with Breuer in 1895, titled Studien uber Hysteria, which is still studied by scholars of modern psychiatry. Dr. Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), physician and world renown as the father of psychoanalysis was a very poor hypnotist. Probably, Freud's free association and dream interpretation techniques were substitutes for his inability to create the state of heightened suggestibility in his patients, which often can be attained through hypnosis. He was a most complex man, full of contradictions who created a new branch of medical science called, psychoanalysis. Interested individuals might also wish to research the works of Dr.
Hip polite Bernhiem, Dr. James Esdalie, Dr. Eugene Azam, Emile Code and several other sources for relate
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