History of hypnosis
There are traces of hypnotic-like phenomena which have been seen in many ancient cultures. The writer of Genesis talks about anesthetic power of hypnosis. He says that God put Adam "into a deep sleep" to take his rib to form Eve. There are some ancient records which say that hypnosis was used by the oracle at Delphi. It was also used in rites in ancient Egypt and the modern history of hypnosis started in the late 1700s. This happened when a French physician, Anton Mesmer, revived an interest in hypnosis.
1734-1815 Franz Anton Mesmer was born in Vienna and he was regarded as the father of hypnosis by many people across the world. He is remembered for the term "mesmerism". He describes that as a state of inducing trance through a series of passes which he made with his hands and/or magnets over people and he worked with a person’s animal magnetism. This included psychic and electromagnetic energies and the medical community eventually discredited him. This was despite his success in treating many ailments and his successes offended the medical establishment. This was the time when they arranged for an official French government investigating committee and this committee included Benjamin Franklin. He was then the American ambassador to France. This also included Joseph Guillotine. He was a French physician who introduced a never-fail device. This device was for physically separating the mind from the rest of the body.
During the period 1795-1860 James Braid, an English physician, originally opposed to mesmerism. Hypnosis was beginning to develop and according to him cures were not due to animal magnetism. He then started to develop the eye fixation technique which is also called as Braidism. This method had inducing relaxation and later it was called it hypnosis. It got its name after Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep. He thought the phenomena of hypnosis was a form of sleep and after that he realized his mistake and tried to change the name to monoeidism.
During the period 1825-1893 Jean Marie Charcot a French neurologist, disagreed with the Nancy School of Hypnotism. She contended that hypnosis was simply a manifestation of hysteria and then there was rivalry among these two groups. She later revived Mesmer’s theory of Animal Magnetism. Later she identified the three stages of trance. These included lethargy, catalepsy and somnambulism.
In the time of 1845-1947 Pierre Janet was a French neurologist and psychologist. She initially opposed hypnosis but later after knowing its effect advocated it. In the period 1849-1936 Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, Russian psychologist was known primarily for his development of the concept of the conditioned reflex. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology in 1904. Though he has nothing to do with hypnosis, his theory linked to NLP.