hello my name is John Melton and this is
hypnosis in history
hypnosis as we know it today had its
origins in the unique medical practices
of dr. Franz Anton Mesmer a physician
who lived in Vienna Austria during the
mid 18th century Mesmer was a fervent
believer in the more esoteric aspects of
Western medical tradition including the
influence of astrology and magnets on
human health in 1774 during a magnetic
treatment with a female patient
Mesmer felt that he perceived the fluid
flowing through the woman's body whose
flow was affected by his own will he
eventually named this fluid and its
manipulation animal magnetism and
developed an elaborate theory regarding
its effect on health
Mesmer believed that every individual
had magnetic fluid flowing through
channels throughout his body and that
blockages in the flow of this fluid
caused emotional or physical disease he
believed that certain individuals had
more or less innate animal magnetism and
therefore varied in their ability to
manipulate the flow of this fluid in the
late 1770s Mesmer moved to Paris and
found more interested students there
than in Vienna the process of animal
magnetism or mesmerism laid the
foundations for the later development of
hypnosis a contemporary english doctor
described Mesmer's technique in vivid
detail his patients were received with
the air of mystery and studied affect
the apartment hung with mirrors was
dimly lit a profound silence was
observed broken only by strains of music
which occasionally floated through the
rooms the patients were seated around a
sort of vat which contained a
heterogeneous mixture of chemical
ingredients with this and with each
other they were placed in relation by
means of chords or jointed rods or by
holding hands and among them slowly and
mysteriously moved Mesmer himself
affecting one by a touch another by a
look a third by passes with his hand
a fourth by pointing with a rod one
person became hysterical than another
one was seized with catalepsy others
with convulsions some with palpitations
of the heart perspirations and other
bodily disturbances the method was
supposed to provoke in the sick person
exactly the kind of action beneficial to
his recovery to the uninitiated the
scene was full of wonderment the
extraordinary tales of Mesmer's personal
power over individuals are probably part
exaggeration part real results of his
confidence and skill in the use of the
means he wielded by the mid 1780s
Mesmer's dramatic practices had drawn
the amazement and scrutiny of the
citizens of Paris including the king
louis xvi himself who commissioned a
panel of renowned scientists to examine
animal magnetism as fact or fiction once
and for all the results of the Kings
scientific panel when we returned to
hypnosis in history
you
what do you do when you've been at the
same job for 25 years and you just can't
take another day the HMI web TV news
crew hits the streets for this special
report spotlight on success the making
of a hypnotherapist
hello I'm Roseann MacDonald certified
hypnotherapist and proud graduate of HMI
before I became a hypnotherapist I was a
legal secretary an office manager of law
firms for 25 years came home one night
after work looked my husband in the eyes
and said I can't do this anymore
and he said why don't you become a
therapist you're always helping people
every day anyway in my hypnotherapy
practice
I help people release weight stress
anxiety fears phobias and any other
behaviors that they would like to modify
currently I'm seeing about 15 clients a
week sometimes 20 I built my practice
primarily on networking and referrals my
hypnotherapy career has not only allowed
me to help others it's allowed me
freedom to be my own boss make my own
hours enjoy my environment and the thing
that my family loves most about me being
a therapist is that I love what I do I
have a passion for helping people and I
actually look forward to coming to my
office every single day
and so much so that my son Joseph
followed in my footsteps
and one day he looked up at me and said
mom do you think I could do this you
have so many people with so many
problems and I says oh my god of course
so he has joined me in my practice and
we are here in Thousand Oaks and enjoy
every minute of it you can find me
Rosanna McDonald certified
hypnotherapist at wwh mi graves com
hello my name is Michele Ghazi and it's
intermission here at the American
hypnosis Association continuing
education conference I would like to
introduce you to just some of the HMI
students that are here today and we have
dr. Simone Ian with me dr. Simone Ian hi
how are you very well thank you
good tell us a little bit about yourself
and what brings you to HMI I've come to
HMI to learn about hypnotherapy because
I want to influence the subconscious
mind as well as the conscious mind and I
wanted to learn the technology I'm a
former graduate of Oxford University on
the Advisory Board of Oxford as well as
Harvard University on the Advisory Board
of Harvard I'm a surgeon scientist and
an educator and currently a UCLA
visiting professor and I want to help
people to learn how to have integrity
how to have sanity and how to have
morality and one of the problems is that
their subconscious mind might interfere
with them achieving these goals and
hopefully I'll be able to touch them by
learning hypnotherapy in order to
facilitate their ability to achieve
their goals so you're here at the
hypnosis motivation Institute and we
just started the program tell me a few
things that you've learned so far that
you're really enjoying well I'm enjoying
the fact that there's a long tradition
of experience of 40 years here with
dedicated staff with instruction manuals
wonderful instructors who are excellent
in both verbal and practical teaching
and training and as a world-renowned
doctor coming to the hypnosis motivation
Institute what is the message that you
would like to give the community I think
that hypnotherapy is a genuine useful
part of human living and I would
recommend that we believe in this
methodology in order to help us create a
better world better relationships and a
more moral and right world for all of us
thank you so much thank you dr. Simone
Ian and thank you so much for watching
us today Thank You Michelle
you
Luise sixteenths panel included medical
doctors from the Royal Faculty of
Medicine in Paris as well as respected
scientists from other fields
these included the chemist Antoine
Lavoisier Discoverer of oxygen and
hydrogen dr. Joseph dieta co-founder of
the Academy of Medicine in Paris and the
inventor of the guillotine astronomer
John baiii a senior member of the French
Academy of Sciences who studied the
moons of Jupiter an American scientist
and ambassador to France Benjamin
Franklin after months of investigation
and observation the Commission
determined that Mesmer had not
discovered a real physical fluid that
the human body did not contain
previously undiscovered channels and
that any effects of his treatments were
due to solely the imagination of the
subjects his reputation ruined by the
Commission's findings
Mesmer returned to Vienna the following
year eventually returning to the
countryside near his place of birth
living out the last 30 years of his life
in near total obscurity though the idea
of animal magnetism had been debunked
within scientific circles a number of
individuals continued the practice into
the 19th century many making their own
unique changes to the underlying
theories and procedure some performing
it in stage mesmerism shows mesmerism
took a turn towards something closer to
modern hypnosis with one of dr. Mesmer's
followers the Marquis they boy secured a
lower noble men of the French
aristocracy
the story of his session where the
peasant named Victor is widely thought
to be the first use of mesmerism to
improve the mood or psychological state
of a person the story is described in
detail by an English doctor of the time
he took occasion to mesmerize the
daughter of his agent and another young
person for the toothache and in a few
moments they declared themselves cured
this questionable success was sufficient
to lead Monsieur de Poissy secure a few
days later to try his hand on a young
peasant of the name Victor who was
suffering with a severe reflection on
his
what was monsieur de Poissy sagir
surprise when at the end of a few
moments Victor went off into a kind of
tranquil sleep without crisis or
convulsion and that's Lee began to
gesticulate and talk and enter into his
private affairs then he became sad and
monsieur de voice gear tried mentally to
inspire him with cheerful thoughts he
hummed a lively tune to himself
inaudibly and immediately Victor began
to sing the air
Victor remained asleep for an hour and
awoke composed with his symptoms
mitigated while reflecting upon this
episode the Marquis noted a connection
between some of Victor's reactions and
sleepwalking and became the first person
to refer to this reaction as artificial
Sonnambula so a term which has carried
with us to this day
when we return more innovations in
mesmerism on hypnosis in history
it's intermission here at HMI the
hypnosis motivation Institute and
welcome we just wanted to interview a
few students that are in class right now
for HMI WebTV so let's see who we have
tonight and let's ask them a few
questions how they're doing in class and
how they're feeling about the
hypnotherapy hi how are you introduce
yourself tell us a little bit about what
you're doing here what class are you in
I'm right now in the case history my
name is viktoria I'm a 501 student so I
love hypnosis and everything that that
the mind body represents so what is it
like for you to watch the live therapy
sessions we bring clients into the
hypnosis Institute and we're able to do
some demonstrations with hypnotherapy
and really break it down what is it like
for you to sit in the class and observe
that and be a part of that fascinating
there's nothing like a real hands-on I
mean you can learn about it in class
there's a lot of different types of
school out there but this is where you
get first hands on and I love that and
what's your background what were you
doing before or what are you doing now
very opposite I work behind the scenes
in the entertainment business so I
represented people so yeah and now I'm
helping them I can't open up my practice
in a different form Adams just baby
steps start excellent excellent well
thank you so much for coming here have a
great class for being a little bit all
right take care
hi my name is Ted a Mareno and I
graduated from HMI in March of 2004
before I became a hypnotherapist I did a
lot of different things mostly worked in
retail stores but I did sell books
door-to-door in Petersburg Virginia and
I had a short stint as a cowboy in
Montana
that was interesting after I graduated I
started my private hypnotherapy practice
here in beautiful South Pasadena this is
the lobby of my office in my
hypnotherapy practice I really help
people to deal with fears and phobias as
well as many different kinds of
anxieties including driving anxiety test
anxiety social anxiety I also help
people quit smoking in an average week I
see about 10 to 12 clients and I only
work about four days a week
I built my practice primarily by just
telling people going out to mixers
Chamber of Commerce events writing
letters to people hanging fliers I just
kept telling people what I was doing the
best part of being a hypnotherapist is
that it's allowed me to be my own boss
but that's the thing that my family
likes the most about what I do two days
a week I get to stay home and be a daddy
for my two little daughters there are
three and five years old that's one of
the best things about my job that I have
time to be with my family I control my
own schedule I'm my own boss and I
really like that the thing that I love
most about being a hypnotherapist is
that I get to help people discover their
greatness a lot of people aren't in
touch with their own natural skills and
abilities so when I get a card from
somebody saying that I really helped
them discover their true potential well
that's really fulfilling I really like
that part of the job my name is Ted
Marino I'm a certified hypnotherapist
and you can find me at HMI grads comm
you
though Mesmer's theories about the
mechanics of animal magnetism were
proven to be false
many early mesmerist c-can't in you to
practice and expound upon their own
theories and procedures into the 19th
century one of these early practitioners
was a man named abbe Faria who wrote a
book on the subject in 1819 entitled on
the cause of lucid sleep
ma Faria was near the end of his life
when he wrote this work and the road
which led him there reads like a novel
literally he was the real-life basis of
a character of the same name
Nia Alexander Dumas classic The Count of
Monte Cristo but the real-life Abbe
Faria did not die in prison like in the
novel but eventually served out his
prison sentence and moved to Paris where
he became fascinated with mesmerism born
in Portuguese colony on the coast of
India in 1746 he spent the majority of
his life as a Catholic priest and a
doctor of theology in his forties he
became involved in an attempted revolt
in his native India and fled to France
which itself was in the throes of its
own revolution he befriended many
notable revolutionaries during this time
which was suspicions enough for Napoleon
Bonaparte to throw him into the infamous
Chateau d'If prison for nearly 20 years
based on his lengthy observations of
mesmerism once he was free he wrote his
influential book was put forward the
idea of mesmerism was a mental process
of the subject he called the state lucid
sleep and explained it as the result of
a combination of visual fixation and
mental fatigue just a year later another
mesmerist Etienne de Cuvier published
the first work to name the phenomenon
hypnotism and call the practitioners
hypnotist based on the Greek word for
sleep first recorded instance of using
hypnosis for anesthesia and surgery was
on April 12 1829 in Paris dr. jewel
kukais worked in conjunction with the
local Mesmer's by the name
chef's plan to perform surgery on a
female patient with breast cancer
Herbert Mayo and English surgeon
described the operation she was prepared
for the operation bomb on tiara Chaplin
who on several successive days threw
into trance by the ordinary mesmeric
manipulations
she was then like an ordinary
sleepwalker and would converse with
indifference about the contemplated
operation the idea of which when she was
in her natural state filled her with
terror during the whole of the operation
the patient in her trance exhibited not
the slightest sign of suffering her
expression of countenance did not change
nor was the voice the breathing or the
pulse at all affected when asked by dr.
Mayo why he did not begin utilizing the
stay for all his operations the French
doctor replied that he had not dared the
prejudiced against mesmerism was so
strong in Paris he probably would have
lost his reputation and his income by
doing so the public distrust of
mesmerism led to many such instances of
hypnotists keeping the results quiet
without publication which in turn
contributed to the air of mystery
surrounding the subject hypnosis finds a
new ally in James Braid in a moment
hello my name is Felice Austen and I
graduated HMI in January 2011 after
graduation I opened my private practice
in both Tarzana and Culver City the
reason I decided to become a
hypnotherapist is because after I had my
baby
I wanted more flexibility and free time
to spend with my daughter in an average
week I see about 10 to 15 clients
working an average of three days a week
my hypnotherapy career has not only
allowed me to help others which I truly
love it's also given me the flexibility
and free time to spend with my daughter
and as a single mother it's important to
me to spend as much time as I can with
her in my hypnotherapy practice I
specialize in helping women transition
to motherhood meaning everything from
conscious conception to joyous labor and
childbirth and parenting skills I also
am passionate about helping artists
writers and creative people of all types
have more confidence motivation and
bliss I built my practice primarily by
networking public speaking and through
some complementary services such as I
teach pregnancy yoga my HMI mentor was
John Melton and he really helped me to
grow as a person and as a hypnotherapist
the thing my daughter loves most about
my new career as a hypnotherapist is
that I'm home more and that I hypnotized
her to sleep every night
my name is Felice Austin I'm a certified
hypnotherapist and you can find me at
HMI grads comm hello my name is Michele
gauzy and I want to take a moment to
tell you about the world's largest
resource for continuing education in
hypnotherapy it's the american hypnosis
association's online video library did
you know that the eh-eh-eh has over 200
one-hour continuing education classes in
their online library all free for
members but that's not all
now the AAA has added additional online
libraries once again all free to H
members we have the hypnotherapy live
library which features more than 100
hypnotherapy sessions with real clients
recorded live in the HMI classroom
there's also the clinical supervision
library which features hundreds of hours
of recorded classes for HMI clinical
supervisors answer questions and provide
guidance to the HMI interns on their
clinical work with clients and then we
have the HMI web TV library that's right
all the shows that you see here on HMI
web TV are also available to watch
on-demand anytime day or night in
addition to the hundreds of hours of
free education available to the eh-eh-eh
members don't forget our pay-per-view
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/a h a you'll be glad you did now back
to HMI web TV hypnotherapy television
24/7
you
once the early mesmerist began proposing
new theories and finding new
applications for mesmerism the practice
began to gain more legitimacy among
doctors and scientists moving into the
mid 19th century in 1841 a Scottish
medical doctor James Braid went on to
become one of the most important figures
in the history of hypnosis after he
observed his first Mesmer stroke at the
age of 46 born in rural Scotland James
Braid went on to study medicine at the
University of Edinburgh became a
respected general surgeon in Manchester
England though he may have heard of
mesmerism during his training or career
the first time he actually observed it
was at a traveling show performed by a
Swiss mesmerist and the practice greatly
intrigued him after the show he obtained
permission to closely observe the man
subjects and after months of intense
observation
dr. Breda developed the core of his
theory regarding the practice disliking
the connotations of the term mesmerism
he adopted de qu Vieira's term hypnotism
and hypnotist becoming the first to use
these words in English he explained in
his first book that I have now entirely
separated hypnotism from animal
magnetism I consider it to be merely a
simple speedy and certain mode of
throwing the nervous system into a new
condition which may be rendered
eminently available in the cure of
certain disorders I trust therefore it
may be investigated quite independently
of any bias either for or against the
subject
connected with mesmerism and only by the
fax it can be adduced
I feel quite confident we may have
acquired in this process a valuable
addition to our curative means but I
repudiate the idea of holding it up as a
universal remedy nor do I even pretend
to understand as yet the whole range of
diseases in which it may be useful
dr. braids writings and experiments with
hypnotism quickly made him the leading
figure in hypnosis in the
english-speaking world his scientific
approach and willingness to engage in
debate gave hypnosis a new respectable
face compared to the mystery and
controversy surrounding mesmerism
he clearly summarized his basic I
fascination induction in 1843 book take
any bright object I generally use my
Lancet case between the thumb and the
foreign middle fingers of the left hand
hold it from about 8 to 15 inches from
the eyes at such position above the
forehead as may be necessary to produce
the greatest possible strain upon the
eyes and the eyelids and enable the
patient to maintain a steady fixed stare
at the object
the pupils will be at first contracted
they will certainly begin to dilate and
after they have done so to considerable
extent and have assumed the wavy motion
if the foreign middle fingers of the
right hand are carried from the object
towards the eyes most probably the
eyelids will close involuntarily with a
vibratory motion the renewed scientific
interest in hypnosis prompted by James
Braid not only led to new ways of
thinking and talking about the practice
but to new studies and applications as
well more next time on hypnosis in
history
you
