Just The F.A.Q.s

Hypnotism as a tool for health seems to have originated with the Hindus of ancient India, who often took their sick to sleep temples to be cured by hypnotic suggestion, as in ancient Egypt and Greece. Hypnotic-like inductions were used to place the individual in a sleep-like state, although it is now accepted that hypnosis is different from sleep]

The Scottish surgeon James Braid coined the term “hypnotism” in his unpublished Practical Essay on the Curative Agency of Neuro-Hypnotism (1842) as an abbreviation for “neuro-hypnotism,” meaning “sleep of the nerves.” Braid fiercely opposed the views of the Mesmerists, especially the claim that their effects were due to an invisible force called “animal magnetism,” and the claim that their subjects developed paranormal powers such as telepathy. Instead, Braid adopted a skeptical position, influenced by the philosophical school of Scottish Common Sense Realism, attempting to explain the Mesmeric phenomena on the basis of well-established laws of psychology and physiology. Hence, Braid is regarded by many as the first true “hypnotist” as opposed to the Mesmerists and other magnetists who preceded him.

Braid is credited with writing the first ever book on hypnotism, Neurypnology (1843). After Braid’s death in 1860, interest in hypnotism temporarily waned, and gradually shifted from Britain to France, where research began to grow, reaching its peak around the 1880s with the work of Hippolyte Bernheim and Jean-Martin Charcot.

Hypnosis was used by field doctors in the American Civil War and was the first extensive medical application of hypnosis. Although hypnosis seemed effective in the field, with the introduction of the hypodermic needle and the general chemical anesthetics of ether in 1846 and chloroform in 1847 to America, it was much easier for the war’s medical community to use chemical anesthesia than hypnosis.

The First International Congress for Experimental and Therapeutic Hypnotism was held in Paris, France, on 8–12 August 1889. Attendees included Jean-Martin Charcot, Hippolyte Bernheim, Sigmund Freud and Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault. The second congress was held on 12–16 August 1900.

Hypnosis, which at the end of the 19th century had become a popular phenomenon, in particular due to Charcot’s public hypnotism sessions, was crucial in the invention of psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud, a student of Charcot. Freud later witnessed a small number of the experiments of Liébeault and Hippolyte Bernheim in Nancy. Back in Vienna he developed abreaction therapy using hypnosis with Josef Breuer. When Sigmund Freud discounted its use in psychiatry, in the first half of the last century, stage hypnotists kept it alive more than physicians.

Hypnosis will feel different for everyone but a general rule will be that you will feel extremely relaxed. Our goal using hypnosis is not to attempt to take your mind over and convince you to do anything that would normally be foreign to you or go against your religious, spiritual or moral beliefs. What we are attempting to do is to put you in touch with the “all-knowing” whether that takes the form of GOD, your Higher Power, your Unconscious, your Superconscious or your Guardian Angels. Whichever form the answers come to you is not really the question. By allowing yourself to be led down the road and guided through the forks in the road is only part of the journey. I will be your tour guide for the session.

I have had hypnosis clients who went totally deep in a session and snored while answering my questions. I have others who drift off into a dream-like state and others who simply lose track of time. Regardless, you will always be in total control. Again, I am simply your guide.

Hypnosis can be considered an alternative form of healing which induces the mind to tap into an unused portion of the brain that knowingly has all answers. We have all heard someone say, “I don’t know, it just came to me.” Or, “I had the strangest dream last night.” Better known to almost everyone is the feeling that overcomes you when you are sitting in front of the tv and sort of lose yourself. This is why many people cannot go to sleep unless the tv is on; they are inducing hypnosis by using the T.V.!

By using hypnosis to overcome limitations, fears, quit smoking, lose weight, make positive changes or simply learn to relax, you will be finally be able to tap into the unlimited power of a specific section of the mind that science truly does not yet understand.