History of Hypnosis

-Franz Anton Mesmer was an Austrian physician who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries.

-He is considered the father of hypnosis.  He believed in a quasi-magnetic fluid in the air that the nervous system absorbs. 

-He believed disease was a blockage of circulation of this fluid in the blood.  He moved a magnet, and later his hand, over the body to unclog it.

-Franz Anton Mesmer was an Austrian physician who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries.

-He is considered the father of hypnosis.  He believed in a quasi-magnetic fluid in the air that the nervous system absorbs. 

-He believed disease was a blockage of circulation of this fluid in the blood.  He moved a magnet, and later his hand, over the body to unclog it.

-Le Marquis de Puysegur, a pupil of Mesmer’s, believed that magnetic power was produced in his mind and transferred to the body through his fingertips.

-In 1841, James Braid began using mesmerism for his patients.  He used a shiny object to put them into a deep “hypnotic sleep” in which they could accept healing suggestions.  He believed staring at the shiny object exhausted the nervous system.  He was the first to use the word “hypnosis.”

-Hypnosis has been accepted in the mainstream as a way to induce a state of relaxation in stressed individuals for over 35 years. 

-It is now also said to stimulate physical healing.

Franz Anton Mezmer