Hypnosis and suggestion have been used as a part of healing since ancient times. It was used as a central feature in the early Greek healing temples. In the 18th century, Franz Anton Mesmer explained many effects of hypnosis and suggestion as “magnetic healing” and “animal magnetism”. Following Mesmer, Dr. James Esdaile reported using hypnosis on 3000 patients in Calcutta, India. A Scottish physician, Braid gave hypnosis its modern name and introduced an upward eye roll as a form of induction to initiate the trance. Since then, Freud used hypnosis and suggestion but rejected it because he felt that it didn’t deal with subconscious emotional processes.

Ahead of his time in an era that saw little serious investigation of hypnosis, Dr. Milton Erickson’s extensive research and experimentation with hypnosis brought trance out of the largely mysterious place it held in the early part of the 20th century. Until his death in 1980, Dr. Erickson, psychiatrist, was widely acknowledged as the world’s foremost teacher of hypnosis, practitioner and theorist. Erickson’s extensive research, experience and experimentation with hypnosis enabled it to be embraced by the medical and therapeutic communities all over the world. Known as the “father of hypnosis” and for “Ericksonian hypnosis”, Erickson founded The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis in 1933. It is estimated he treated 30,000 patients from around the world. To this day, his writing remains the definitive word of hypnotic methodology including induction techniques and trance.

Content last modified on Mar 24, 2003