The history of hypnosis

Hypnosis is an age-old therapeutic technique, which was used by all the great civilizations of humanity. In fact, even the Sumer, the oldest known civilization has been known to have used hypnosis since the 4th millennium BC! Indeed archaeological research has brought to light excerpts from the works of the famous priesthood school of Erech, according to which, the practicing doctors used hypnotic suggestions as a means of treatment for the while the patients were asleep. We should note here that they ranked hypnosis according to three stages: light, medium and heavy. In India, hypnotherapy for treating diseases was particularly popular. Besides, even in our days, the school of Yoga teaches a plethora of self-projective techniques leading to complete relaxation and meditation for higher truths! In the same manner, the Egyptian priest – healers practiced hypnotic techniques. According to the Ebers scroll, a very popular hypnotic technique was the following: the priests held in front of the patient’s eyes shiny objects, such as a golden disc, so as to tire them and force them to close. By means of the other-suggestion, they tried not only to diagnose the disease but also cure it. Ancient Greece could not be an exception in this medical practice. As was the case in all other scientific sectors, the Greeks developed it even further. It is perhaps enough to stress that the Greek priest-healers practiced the inducement of trance for medical reasons even during the first Christian centuries, particularly in the Asclepeions. To be successful, they used suggestion while their patients were in deep sleep. They were able to activate inner powers of self-suggestion which could lead to self-healing. For those patients that could neither dream nor be hypnotised, the priests took up the role of the medium, re-establishing contact with the god Asclepius1. But also, Pythia’s oracles at Delphi were due to a hypnotic trance she was induced into while she breathed in, sitting on a tripod, the vapours that escaped from a crack on the ground.

Christianity never officially accepted hypnosis as a means to prophesise or heal. But since the 16th century, the study of ancient sources has favoured researching the phenomenon, which however is now conducted on the basis of scientific observation. Paracelsus2 mentions that the monks of his time healed patients by forcing them to look at shiny spheres. They thus were induced into a hypnotic trance and the monks proceeded with the proper suggestions. The first observer who by means of experiments understood that apart from humans, animals could also be hypnotised was the mathematician N. Schwender. In 1636 he observed that he could hypnotise a chicken if he placed a p