History of Hypnosis Hypnosis and hypnotherapy are one of the most misunderstood of all sciences. Although the principles of hypnosis have been with us for thousands of years, most people know very little about it. Franz Anton Mesmer Western scientists first became involved in hypnosis around 1770, when Dr. Franz Mesmer (1734-1815), a physician from Austria, started investigating an effect he called "animal magnetism" or "mesmerism" (the latter name still remaining popular today). Although Mesmerism remained popular and "magnetic therapies" are still advertised as a form of "alternative medicine" even today, Mesmer himself retired to Switzerland in obscurity, where he died in 1815. James Esdaile James Esdaile rediscovered this age old method of hypnosis in India. He started using it in his medical practice, performing operations under “mesmerism”. He moved back to England only to have his practice closed down due to the stigma attached to mesmerism/hypnosis in the West. Some books claim that James Esdaile performed over 300 abdominal operations under the hypnotic state. Doctors Mesmer and Esdaile were condemned by their fellow doctors for their use of hypnosis. James Braid The evolution of Mesmer's ideas and practices led the Scottish neurosurgeon James Braid in 1842 to coin the term, and develop the procedure known as, "hypnosis." Popularly called the "Father of Modern Hypnotism," Braid rejected Mesmer's idea that hypnosis was induced by magnetism, and ascribed the "mesmeric trance" to a physiological process resulting from prolonged attention to a bright moving object or similar object of fixation. He postulated that "protracted ocular fixation" fatigued certain parts of the brain and caused a trance—a "nervous sleep" or, from the Greek, "neuro-hypnosis." Later Braid simplified the name to "hypnosis" (from the Greek hypnos, "sleep"). Finally, realizing that "hypnosis" was not a kind of sleep, he sought to change the name to "monoideism" ("single-idea-ism"), but the term "hypnosis" had stuck. Braid tried hypnotism to treat various psychological and physical disorders. He had little success, especially with "organic" (that is, "physical," or non-psychological) conditions. Other physicians claimed better results, particularly in using hypnosis for pain control. An 1842 report described a painless amputation performed on a hypnotized patient. This was widely dismissed, and there was strong resistance in the medical profession to the idea of hypnosis; but there followed other reports of success. Braid is credited with writing the first book on hypnosis, Neurypnology (1843). Dave Elman Dave Elman (1900-1967) was one of the pioneers of the medical use of hypnosis. Elman's definition of hypnosis is still widely used today among many professional hypnotherapists. Although Elman had no medical training, he is known for having trained the most physicians and psychotherapists in America, in the use of hypnotism. He is also known for introducing rapid inductions to the field of hypnotism. One method of induction which he introduced more than fifty years ago is still one of the favored inductions used by many of today's masters.