According to one source, hypnosis in the west was derived from the practices of Asian shamans brought West by Jesuit missionaries. However, ancient Celtic priests already claimed to possess a skill called "glamour" which meant to dazzle another's mind, often with only words.
The man credited with discovering hypnosis in the West is Marquis DePuysegur, a disciple of Dr. Franz Mesmer (1733-1851). From his studies of primitive shamanistic trances, Mesmer developed "animal Magnetism," an early form of hypnotism. DePuysegur carried on mesmer's research and during one session he observed one of his patients entering a trance-like state of true hypnotism.
By the mid-1800's, DePuysegur's hypnotism (a.k.a "magnetic sleep") was being used to relieve patients pain during operations in London. After observing patients reactions while in magnetic sleep Sigmund Freud formulated his theory of the unconscious mind.
In 1852, Researcher James Braid coined the term "hypnosis." Since the, hypnotism has been used to heal and to entertain. Hypnotism has also been used by mind-slayers for dark purposes.
Whether you know it or not, you've been in a hypnotic state literally thousands of times. Anytime you've been caught daydreaming or being absent-minded, you've been under a form of hypnosis. Ninety percent of people can be deliberately hypnotized to some degree and of that number, fully 10 percent are highly suggestible and thus susceptible to being in deep levels of trance.
How does hypnotism work? We still don't know. We do know, however, that effective hypnotism depends on the power of suggestion.
The term absent-minded is appropriate since during hypnosis our usual controlling conscious "higher" mind is temporarily absent or asleep, while our "lower" subconscious "shadow mind" (responsible for emotion and motor control) is still awake.
Under hypnosis, our brains go to sleep while our lower brains, accustomed to being given commands by our higher brains, continue to take orders from the hypnotist. Thus, under hypnosis, this lower brain simply substitutes the outside commands of the hypnotist for the commands of its sleeping higher brain.
Three things make this hypnosis possible:
First, the subjects focus is narrowed to the point where only a single source of information is coming into the subjects brain, information controlled by the hypnotist. The hypnotist the literally defines reality for the victims subconscious mind.
Second, it is important the subject believe in the process of hypnosis and in the hypnotist.
Finally, for hypnotism to be successful the subject must be willing to suspend logic and temporarily accept distortions in cause and effect, and in his perception of time and space.
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