What is Hypnosis?
Hypnosis brings out of a person a naturally occurring state of trance. It is an enabling technology used to amplify a person’s deepest desires effecting rapid and long lasting change in human behavior and provides a means by which mind and body can become congruent.
While in a state of focused attention, hypnosis, you create an environment of relaxation and heightened imagination. Mental imagery is a very powerful tool, especially in this state of focused attention. Hypnosis promotes accelerated human change; some of the more common uses of hypnosis are to lose weight, quit smoking, and be free of physical pain. Hypnosis is an empowering tool for health care professionals, practicing therapists, and all individuals seeking to make positive change.
History of Hypnosis
The origin of Hypnosis as a cultural ritual can be traced as far back as the ancient Egyptians with their Temple of Sleep and the Greeks with their Shrines of Healing, both places where patients were given curative suggestion while in an induced sleep.
Modern Hypnosis in the medical community has been attributed to Franz Anton Mesmer, an Austrian physician who grew up in a world turning more and more to science. He spent sixteen years at Universities and was awarded two doctorates in medicine and philosophy. He believed that there was a quasi-magnetic fluid in the very air we breathe and that the bodies’ nerves somehow absorbed this fluid. As a doctor, his main concern was how to effectively treat his patients. Initially, he used a magnet, and later his hand, which was passed over the diseased body in an attempt to unblock the magnetic flow. The term ‘animal magnetism’ was born, and the procedure referred to as Mesmerism. Franz Mesmer’s fame continued to spread and he had many followers to Mesmerism throughout all of Europe.
James Braid, a Scottish surgeon, is best known for giving the phenomena usually associated with mesmerism a respectable scientific rationale and coining the terms ‘hypnotism’ and ‘hypnosis’ after the Greek work “Hypnos” meaning sleep. This term replaced ‘Mesmerism’ as Braid found through his research that some experimental subjects could go into a trance if they simply fixated their eyes on a bright object or even a word. Braid maintained a good professional standing in his community during his entire lifetime, and was not only noted as an excellent hypnotist, but also was widely acclaimed for his surgical skills on various deformities. Braid’s scientific approach to hypnotism, and his new terminology, made it possible for many influential people to embrace the subject who would not otherwise have done so.
John Elliotson, like Braid, received his M.D. from Edinburgh and went on to receive a full Professorship of Medicine at the London University. Elliotson began writing the journal “Zoist” in 1843, which was the first journal dealing with hypnotism. For over thirteen years article after article was published by Elliotson, and many other brilliant physicians at that time, testifying to the excellent results of hypnotic treatment for medical cures and usage in surgery.
Sigmund Freud studied hypnotism and was convinced of the ‘powerful mental processes, which nevertheless remain hidden from the consciousness of men.’
In the 1920’s and 30’s, Milton Erickson, a noted psychiatrist, who studied with some of the most influential hypnotists of modern times, including Clark Hull, had a major impact on the practice and understanding of hypnosis and the mind. He theorized that hypnosis is a state of mind that all of us are normally entering spontaneously and frequently. Until his death in 1980 Milton Erickson, almost single-handedly, took hypnosis off the stage and into respected medical practice. On the heels of Erickson’s work, along with his legacy of zealous followers and important contributions to the field, hypnosis evolved into a well-respected practice, used by doctors, psychologists, business and law enforcement.
Two of Erickson’s zealous followers were Richard Bandler and John Grinder who formally modeled Erickson’s genius in hypnosis. This came to be known as Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). The purpose of this discipline is to model people of true genius, from hypnosis to business to psychotherapy. Since it’s beginning in the early 1970’s it has grown into a popular and useful addition to our knowledge of hypnosis.
One of the most important developments from NLP is the notion that you can use words to induce a hypnotic trance, and even more importantly produce change. Bandler and Grinder modeled Erickson’s ability to produce covert trance with just words in what came to be known as the Milton Model.
Hypnosis can change your subconscious programming, putting the power of your mind towards improving your life.
©2007 - Integrative Empowerment Group
