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The History of Hypnosis

Hypnotherapy or suggestive therapy is the oldest of all healing techniques. In the sleep temples of Egypt the locals experienced hypnosis as part of their religious ritual as depicted in Egyptian hieroglyphics. The histories of ancient Greece and Rome show some form of hypnosis has always been an intimate part their culture. People would come to the Temple of Aesculapius, the Greek God of medicine, there priests would talk to them as they slept, offering suggestions for healing.

In the Middle Ages, healing through touch and prayer became the major way of treating disease.

It is impossible to say where hypnosis came from. From the time that mankind developed speech there has probably been some sort of practice where one person expressed words that induced a trance state, in order to alter everyday awareness. Many early cultures have evidence of eliciting hypnotic phenomena for both spiritual and healing purposes.

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The history of hypnosis is a fascinating subject. If you read about hypnosis over the centuries, different cultures view it differently. It often had a reputation of dubiousness, and/or power, associated with it. The main reason for this reputation is because, until the 19th century, the concept of the unconscious mind was unknown and hypnosis may have seemed like a religious or possibly a supernatural practice. It was James Braid in the 1840’s who coined the term Hypnosis after Hypnos, the Greek God of Sleep and Master of Dreams, and for a time hypnosis became a scientific technique with scientific respectability.

In the early part of the 20th Century hypnosis was used almost exclusively by stage hypnotists, thereby projecting a hopelessly distorted view of this very powerful therapeutic tool. However, in 1955 the British Medical Association endorsed the practice of hypnosis in Medical School education, since when it has become a valuable addition to conventional medical treatment.