Who invented hypnosis

Who invented hypnosis? Hypnosis has been around for a very long time. It is a natural state in which suggestions are taken. Children are constantly in that state if you compare brain activity to people in deep hypnosis. So you could say that as long as modern man has existed, hypnosis has existed

Who invented hypnosis

As a form of therapy, it was already used in ancient Egypt and Greece. There it was called differently, but if you read what they did there, they were rituals in which hypnosis played a major role.

Even in the Bible, it was already written that God put Adam into a deep sleep and removed a rib. God was also already a hypnotist.

Modern hypnosis

Hypnosis as we know it today is based on a few people. Mesmer was someone who worked in the ^18th century as a doctor with lots of patients in a way that was reminiscent of hypnosis. He used magnets, his authority and suggestions.

James Braid, a Scottish physician who studied Mesmer first wrote about hypnosis in 1843. He was the first to describe the term, making him the inventor of hypnosis. He invented hypnosis as a term. The state, of course, had existed much longer.

Milton Erickson, an American psychiatrist put hypnotherapy on the map as a treatment modality. Today there are lots of training programs based on his work. They also call it modern hypnotherapy.

Without Erickson, hypnosis would never have become so famous probably though he was not the only one using hypnotherapy. Dave Elman proved as early as the 1950s that hypnosis worked very well. He trained about ten thousand doctors in hypnosis and hypnotherapy using direct suggestions and rapid hypnosis.

Elman taught doctors to put someone into hypnosis within a minute. Spectacular then and still today. Especially when you compare it to Ericksonian training that teaches you to put someone into hypnosis in 30 minutes. Elman was ahead of his time.

Gil Boyne was the first to start certifying people in hypnotherapy in the 1970s. Boyne was also a phenomenon and you can still find some of his videos on YouTube. His hallmark was also rapid hypnosis and regression. Our regression variation that we teach trainees in the master is inspired by his work.

So who invented hypnosis?

That was James Braid. He first wrote down the term in his book "Neurypnology" in 1843, but essentially no one invented the state. You grew up in it and when you are older you are also a hypnotist. So the state is not that strange.

In that state, you are susceptible to suggestions and those suggestions become true faster. So make sure those suggestions create positive associations. Especially with children.