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A Historical Perspective

Trance states have been used for ceremony, ritual and healing since time immemorial.

A Historical Perspective of Hypmosis and Hypnotherapy

Trance states have been used for ceremony, ritual and healing since time immemorial.

In the West, the evolution of hypnosis as a major technique for healing became known with the techniques of Franz Anton Mesmer in 1775. Mesmer attributed the power to "animal magnetism" which was later known as "Mesmerism".

1775: Franz Mesmer develops healing techniques by the use of what he called "animal magnetism" later renamed hypnosis.
1784: Count Maxime de Puysegut discovered a form of deep trance he called somnambulism.
1821: First accounts of painless surgery using animal magnetism.
1841: The Scottish doctor, Dr. James Baird, established that magnetism was a psychological phenomenon and changed the name to hypnosis.
1845-53: The surgeon James Esdaile uses hypnosis to perform over 2,000 operations including amputations while patients were under hypno-anaesthesia and reported feeling no pain.
1883-87: Sigmund Freud studies hypnosis and uses it in the treatment for psychological disturbances
1947: Dentists in the US regularly use Hypnosis.
1955: The British Medical Association accepts hypnosis as a valid therapeutic technique.
1958: The American Medical Association follows suit.
1901-80: Dr. Milton Erickson considered by many to be the father of modern hypnotic technique.
1970's: Dr. Richard Bandler and John Grinder analyze the hypnotic patterns of Erickson and the communication patterns of other effective therapists to create NLP.