Hypnotism

a state of increased receptivity to suggestion and direction
(Redirected from Hypnotist)

Hypnosis is a psychological state with physiological attributes superficially resembling sleep and marked by an individual's level of awareness other than the ordinary conscious state.

Hypnosis on a "hysterical" patient


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Inasmuch as patients can throw themselves into the nervous sleep, and manifest all the usual phenomena of Mesmerism, through their own unaided efforts, as I have so repeatedly proved by causing them to maintain a steady fixed gaze at any point, concentrating their whole mental energies on the idea of the object looked at; or that the same may arise by the patient looking at the point of his own finger. ~ James Braid, the father of Hypnosis
  • You're doubtless well aware that most of the great hypnotic patients wind up referring to themselves in the third person, like little children. They see themselves from outside their own organisms, outside their own sensory systems. In order to get further outside themselves, and help them escape their physical personality, some of them, once in the state of clairvoyance, have the curious custom of re-baptizing themselves. The dream name comes to them, no one knows whence, and by this they INSIST on being called as long as their luminous sleep endures – to the point of refusing to answer to any other name.
 
...that “common sense”, by which he means a kind of intellectual intuition analogous to the ancient Greek concept of nous, is a combination of innate and acquired judgements, which have a “reflexive” or “automatic” quality and appear to consciousness as “self-evident” truths.
 
Magi - James Braid:Inasmuch as patients can throw themselves into the nervous sleep, and manifest all the usual phenomena of Mesmerism, through their own unaided efforts, as I have so repeatedly proved by causing them to maintain a steady fixed gaze at any point, concentrating their whole mental energies on the idea of the object looked at; or that the same may arise by the patient looking at the point of his own finger, or as the Magi of Persia and Yogi of India have practised for the last 2,400 years, for religious purposes,...
  • ...during a period in history psychology was still a branch of academic philosophy. The psychological concepts developed by philosophers of mind, such as “dominant ideas” (akin to the automatic thoughts of Beck’s cognitive therapy) “habit and association” (a subjective precursor of Pavlovian conditioning), and “imitation and sympathy” (which we now call “role-modelling” and “empathy”), are repeatedly mentioned by Braid as the theoretical framework upon which his science of hypnotism, “neuro-hypnology”, was built. Braid’s friend and collaborator, Prof. William B. Carpenter, discusses the theoretical principles of this in his Principles of Mental Physiology (1889), especially in the chapter ‘Of Common Sense’ which concludes by quoting an approving letter from the philosopher John Stuart Mill sent to Carpenter in 1872. Mill agrees with Carpenter’s contention that “common sense”, by which he means a kind of intellectual intuition analogous to the ancient Greek concept of nous, is a combination of innate and acquired judgements, which have a “reflexive” or “automatic” quality and appear to consciousness as “self-evident” truths.
  • ...by the term Hypnotism, or Nervous Sleep, I mean a peculiar condition of the nervous system, into which it may be thrown by artificial contrivance, and which differs, in several respects, from common sleep or the waking condition. I do not allege that this condition is induced through the transmission of a magnetic or occult influence from my body into that of my patients; nor do I profess, by my processes, to produce the higher [i.e., supernatural] phenomena of the Mesmerists. My pretensions are of a much more humble character, and are all consistent with generally admitted principles in physiological and psychological science. Hypnotism might therefore not inaptly be designated, Rational Mesmerism, in contra-distinction to the Transcendental Mesmerism of the Mesmerists.
  • Inasmuch as patients can throw themselves into the nervous sleep, and manifest all the usual phenomena of Mesmerism, through their own unaided efforts, as I have so repeatedly proved by causing them to maintain a steady fixed gaze at any point, concentrating their whole mental energies on the idea of the object looked at; or that the same may arise by the patient looking at the point of his own finger, or as the Magi of Persia and Yogi of India have practised for the last 2,400 years, for religious purposes, throwing themselves into their ecstatic trances by each maintaining a steady fixed gaze at the tip of his own nose; it is obvious that there is no need for an exoteric influence to produce the phenomena of Mesmerism. The great object in all these processes is to induce a habit of abstraction or concentration of attention, in which the subject is entirely absorbed with one idea, or train of ideas, whilst he is unconscious of, or indifferently conscious to, every other object, purpose, or action.
    • James Braid, in “History of hypnosis International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Assoctation”
  • In the First Account of Self-Hypnosis, it is commonly said that seeing is believing, but feeling is the very truth. I shall, therefore, give the result of my experience of hypnotism in my own person. In the middle of September, 1844, I suffered from a most severe attack of rheumatism, implicating the left side of the neck and chest, and the left arm. At first the pain was moderately severe, and I took some medicine to remove it; but, instead of this, it became more and more violent, and had tormented me for three days, and was so excruciating, that it entirely deprived me of sleep for three nights successively, and on the last of the three nights I could not remain in any one posture for five minutes, from the severity of the pain. On the forenoon of the next day, whilst visiting my patients, every jolt of the carriage I could only compare to several sharp instruments being thrust through my shoulder, neck, and chest. A full inspiration was attended with stabbing pain, such as is experienced in pleurisy. When I returned home for dinner I could neither turn my head, lift my arm, nor draw a breath, without suffering extreme pain. In this condition I resolved to try the effects of hypnotism. I requested two friends, who were present, and who both understood the system, to watch the effects, and arouse me when I had passed sufficiently into the condition; and, with their assurance that they would give strict attention to their charge, I sat down and hypnotised myself, extending the extremities. At the expiration of nine minutes they aroused me, and, to my agreeable surprise, I was quite free from pain, being able to move in any way with perfect ease. I say agreeably surprised, on this account; I had seen like results with many patients; but it is one thing to hear of pain, and another to feel it. My suffering was so exquisite that I could not imagine anyone else ever suffered so intensely as myself on that occasion; and, therefore, I merely expected a mitigation, so that I was truly agreeably surprised to find myself quite free from pain. I continued quite easy all the afternoon, slept comfortably all night, and the following morning felt a little stiffness, but no pain. A week thereafter I had a slight return, which I removed by hypnotising myself once more;...
    • James Braid, in The First Account of Self-Hypnosis Quoted in “The Original Philosophy of Hypnotherapy (from The Discovery of Hypnosis)”
  • Although Braid believed that hypnotic suggestion was a valuable remedy in functional nervous disorders, he did not regard it as a rival to other forms of treatment, nor wish in any way to separate its practice from that of medicine in general. He held that whoever talked of a "universal remedy" was either a fool or a knave: similar diseases often arose from opposite pathological conditions, and the treatment ought to be varied accordingly. He objected being called a hypnotist; he was, he said, no more a "hypnotic" than a "castor-oil" doctor.
  • Travel opens your mind as few other things do. It is its own form of hypnotism, and I am forever under its spell.”
  • The purpose of hypnosis as a therapeutic technique is to help you understand and gain more control over your behavior, emotions or physical well-being.
    • The Mayo Clinic, in "The Most Common Conditions Treated With Hypnotherapy Today (December 2003)".
  • Having removed all misconception, foretelling of the future, explicit or implicit invocation of the devil, the use of animal magnetism (Hypnosis) is indeed merely an act of making use of physical media that are otherwise licit and hence it is not morally forbidden, provided it does not tend toward an illicit end or toward anything depraved.
    • Roman Curia (Sacred Congregation of the Holy office) decreed on July 28, 1847, in “History of hypnosis International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Assoctation”.
  • Hypnosis typically involves an introduction to the procedure during which the subject is told that suggestions for imaginative experiences will be presented. The hypnotic induction is an extended initial suggestion for using one's imagination, and may contain further elaborations of the introduction. A hypnotic procedure is used to encourage and evaluate responses to suggestions. When using hypnosis, one person (the subject) is guided by another (the hypnotist) to respond to suggestions for changes in subjective experience, alterations in perception, sensation, emotion, thought or behavior. Persons can also learn self-hypnosis, which is the act of administering hypnotic procedures on one's own. If the subject responds to hypnotic suggestions, it is generally inferred that hypnosis has been induced. Many believe that hypnotic responses and experiences are characteristic of a hypnotic state. While some think that it is not necessary to use the word "hypnosis" as part of the hypnotic induction, others view it as essential
  • Hypnotism as therapy seems to have originated among the Hindus, who often took their sick to the temples to be cured by hypnotic suggestion or “temple-sleep,” as in Egypt and Greece. The Englishmen who introduced hypnotherapy into England—Braid, Esdaile and Elliotson—“undoubtedly got their ideas, and some of their experience, from contact with India.”
    • Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage : India and Her Neighbors.
 
The Oracle at Delphi was famous for her divinatory trances throughout the ancient Mediterranean world -Carla Emery:...Psychoanalytically-trained hypnosis researchers believed trance obedience was rooted in an unconscious longing for, or regression to, a childhood behavior (or instinctual early programming) of total dependence on, and uncritical love of, the parent figures. Little children can believe anything.
  • Freud called rapport transference. He believed it was a revival of the original parent-child relationship. Psychoanalytically-trained hypnosis researchers believed trance obedience was rooted in an unconscious longing for, or regression to, a childhood behavior (or instinctual early programming) of total dependence on, and uncritical love of, the parent figures. Little children can believe anything.
  • [Hypnosis] can also be applied to improving study habits, stress reduction and raising self-esteem...If you are having difficulty controlling your appetite, sleeping or just need to relax, hypnosis might help you toward your goal.
 
Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Bavarian Illuminati -Illuminati Formula:...New patterns of thought, feeling and behavior are inserted to build confidence in the goals of the Illuminati. Positive experiences are used to help boost the person’s feelings, and then the new messages are anchored “imagine these messages taking root". Your new messages are growing stronger and stronger.
  • It is very probable, too, that the application of our therapy to numbers will compel us to alloy the pure gold of analysis plentifully with the copper of direct [hypnotic] suggestion.
    • Sigmund Freud, in 1918, said never denied the connexion between hypnosis and psychoanalysis. … The position of hypnosis in analytic psychotherapy was accurately foreseen by Freud himself, quoted in Hypnosis, (1 January 1966), p. 64.
  • Hypnosis is not sleep,... it has no special relationship to sleep, and the whole concept of sleep when applied to hypnosis obscures the situation.
    • Clark L. Hull, who introduced the modern study of hypnotism, usually considered to have begun in the 1920s, emphatically demonstrated once and for all that hypnosis had no connection with sleep, quoted in “History of hypnosis International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Assoctation”
 
[W. Jeffrey Kramer:An Indo-Portuguese priest, Abbé Faria, revived public attention to animal magnetism. In the early 19th century, Abbé Faria introduced oriental hypnosis to Paris. Faria came from India and gave exhibitions in 1814 and 1815 without manipulations or the use of Mesmer's baquet. Unlike Mesmer, Faria claimed that it 'generated from within the mind’ by the power of expectancy and cooperation of the patient.
  • A century ago, hypnotherapy often consisted of a hypnotic induction, followed by suggestions of symptom removal. Consequently, hypnotherapy has been viewed by some writers as a mode of therapy that might be compared with psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioural, or other therapeutic approaches. However, suggestions for symptom relief play a relatively minor role in contemporary hypnotherapy. Instead, hypnotherapy generally consists of the addition of hypnosis to some recognised form of psychotherapy.
    • Irving Kirsch et al., 1995: 214) in The Story of Hypnotic Psychotherapy in “The Original Philosophy of Hypnotherapy (from The Discovery of Hypnosis)”
  • The covert hypnosis techniques I developed needed to work quickly at the unconscious level. And they did. I easily gained control, commanded attention and compelled compliance from anyone.
    • Igor Ledochowski, in “Master Hypnotist Reveals Forbidden Secret Of How To Control People's Minds (Without Their Knowledge) And Make Them Obey Covert Commands During Normal Conversation!”
  • Despite conclusive evidence for the efficacy of clinical hypnosis in the management of many cancer related symptoms and particularly acute and chronic pain, hypnosis is currently under-utilized in these applications.
 
A network of dendrites from neurons in the hippocampus-Andreas Mayer: In the late nineteenth century, scientists, psychiatrists, and medical practitioners began employing a new experimental technique for the study of neuroses: hypnotism. Though the efforts of the famous Frenchneurologist w:Jean-Martin CharcotJean-Martin Charcot to transform hypnosis into a laboratory science failed, his Viennese translator and disciple Sigmund Freud took up the challenge and invented psychoanalysis.
  • In the late nineteenth century, scientists, psychiatrists, and medical practitioners began employing a new experimental technique for the study of [[w:Neurosis|neuroses: hypnotism. Though the efforts of the famous French neurologist w:Jean-Martin CharcotJean-Martin Charcot to transform hypnosis into a laboratory science failed, his Viennese translator and disciple Sigmund Freud took up the challenge and invented psychoanalysis. Previous scholarship has viewed hypnosis and psychoanalysis in sharp opposition or claimed that both were ultimately grounded in the phenomenon of suggestion and thus equally flawed. In this groundbreaking study, the relationship between hypnosis and psychoanalysis, revealed that the emergence of the familiar Freudian psychoanalytic setting cannot be understood without a detailed analysis of the sites, material and social practices, and controversies within the checkered scientific and medical landscape of hypnotism.
  • I have long recognised as a fact that judgements really grounded on a long succession of small experiences mostly forgotten, or perhaps never brought out into very distinct consciousness, often grow into the likeness of intuitive perceptions.... When states of Mind in no respect innate or instinctive have been frequently repeated, the Mind acquires, as is proved by the power of Habit, a greatly increased facility of passing into those states and this increased facility must be owing to some change of a physical character, in the organic action of the Brain.
    • Stuart Mill, in “The Original Philosophy of Hypnotherapy (from The Discovery of Hypnosis)”
  • ...using hypnosis, scientists have temporarily created hallucinations, compulsions, certain types of memory loss, false memories, and delusions in the laboratory so that these phenomena can be studied in a controlled environment.[ "The Truth and the Hype of Hypnosis". Scientific American: July 2001
  • Hypnosis can help. A growing body of research supports the ancient practice as an effective tool in the treatment of a variety of problems, from anxiety to chronic pain.
  • The findings suggest that hypnotherapy is a valuable tool when it comes to enhancing the coping mechanisms of cancer patients...most patients (19 out of 20) reported that after the first two hypnotherapy sessions they were able to relax for the first time in a very long period, felt less tired and more energetic, had more refreshing night sleep and as a result were able to cope better with their daily activities.
  • Speech, on account of the whole preceding life of the adult, is connected up with all the internal and external stimuli which can reach the cortex, signaling all of them and replacing all of them, and therefore it can call forth all those reactions of the organism which are normally determined by the actual stimuli themselves. We can, therefore, regard ‘suggestion’ as the most simple form of a typical reflex in man.
  • The use of hypnosis by health care professionals for diagnosis and treatment is permitted. In an address from the Vatican on hypnosis in childbirth, the w:Pope Pius XIPope gave these guidelines:
    Hypnotism is a serious matter, and not something to be dabbled in.
    In its scientific use, the precautions dictated by both science and morality are to be followed.
    Under the aspect of anaesthesia, it is governed by the same principles as other forms of anaesthesia.
    • Pope Pius XII, gave his approval of hypnosis in 1956, quoted in “History of hypnosis International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Assoctation”
  • In the new book "Secret, Don't Tell: The Encyclopaedia of Hypnotism" Carla Emery, the author maintains that 10% of the population, the ONLY method needed for total mind control is hypnotism. No physical abuse is necessary.Like most people, I thought that hypnotism was not all that important, because people cannot be made to do things that they would not do if they were conscious. This is far from the truth. Carla Emery gives many examples, including some from court proceedings, which show that hypnotism CAN make people do incredibly immoral and unethical things, including prostituting themselves, robbing banks, giving away all their money to the hypnotist, and even murder!!! This is done by secretly putting a person into a trance, and then making them forget that they were ever hypnotized. After that, it is easier for the hypnotist to put them into a trance a second time, and each time they are put under they become more and more susceptible to the commands from the hypnotist. Perhaps the most amazing fact I learned from this book is that the more intelligent you are, the HIGHER is the likelihood that you can be hypnotized!!!!
  • Hypnotism will become more and more a tool of scientific investigation. Telepathy will be proven without a doubt, and utilized, sadly enough in the beginning, for purposes of war and intrigue. Nevertheless telepathy will enable your race to make its first contact with alien intelligence.
    • Jane Roberts in The Early Sessions: Book 2, Session 45, Page 21.
 
Positron Emission tomography) scanned image of the brain.
  • This study [with a PET (for positron emission Tomography) scanner to monitor activity in the brain's visual areas] lends considerable weight to the idea that hypnosis is a real neurological phenomenon," said. But our goal is not just to verify a hypothesis. With hypnosis, we can help people modulate perceptions in ways that are therapeutically helpful.
    • David Spiegel, in “Research supports the notion that hypnosis can transform perception.”
  • Hypnosis can be very helpful in allowing you to focus on what you want to focus on.
    • David Spiegel in “Research supports the notion that hypnosis can transform perception.
  • They are not just suffering in silence ¬ they are able to change their perception of pain.
    • David Spiegel, in “Research supports the notion that hypnosis can transform perception.”
  • The phenomena of Mesmerism could be salvaged by physicians adopting a more rational and scientific approach, while avoiding the worst excesses of its metaphysical speculations. Moreover, in a discussion of similar ideas propounded by the philosopher Francis Bacon, he specifically recommends that physicians, like Braid, should develop a ‘doctrine of the bond between mind and body’ (i.e., Braid’s “psycho-physiology”). Moreover, Stewart urges enquiry into ‘the effect of fixing and concentrating the attention, in giving to ideal [i.e., imaginary] objects the power of realities over the belief.
    • Dugald Stewart, in “The Original Philosophy of Hypnotherapy (from The Discovery of Hypnosis)”
  • As far as hypnosis is concerned, I had a very serious problem when I was in my twenties. I encountered a man who later became the president of the [[W:American Society of Clinical Hypnosis|American Society of Medical Hypnosis. He couldn't hypnotize me.
  • Music makes me forget myself, my true condition, it carries me off into another state of being, one that isn't my own: under the influence of music I have the illusion of feeling things I don't really feel, of understanding things I don't understand, being able to do things I'm not able to do (...) Can it really be allowable for anyone who feels like it to hypnotize another person, or many other persons, and then do what he likes with them? Particularly if the hypnotist is the first unscrupulous individual who happens to come along?
 
Freemasonry Universal:All kinds of nice inspiring symbolical interpretations of the ritual are generally given for the benefit of people who seem to want them, but it is here evident that the candidate, unknown to himself or herself, has acted throughout the ceremony of initiation under the stress of hypnotism. No longer a free agent, the initiate takes the oath under hypnotic force which, has also been used to instil into him the feeling of fear. Fear guards the secret of initiation...
  • All kinds of nice inspiring symbolical interpretations of the ritual are generally given for the benefit of people who seem to want them, but it is here evident that the candidate, unknown to himself or herself, has acted throughout the ceremony of initiation under the stress of hypnotism. No longer a free agent, the initiate takes the oath under hypnotic force which, has also been used to instil into him the feeling of fear. Fear guards the secret of initiation, fear born under the power of hypnotism to serve henceforth as the controlling agent of the initiators over the initiated. The Right Worshipful Master must be a genuine occultist, as it is up to him to charge (hypnotise) the candidate.
  • A democratic civilization will save itself only if it makes the language of the image into a stimulus for critical reflection, not an invitation for hypnosis.

Anonymous

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