Hypnosis has had a very colorful and long history. Since there have been humans, there has been hypnosis. The earliest examples can be found in ancient tribal ceremonies of our early ancestors. It was used in both healing ceremonies and ceremonies preparing for tribal war. In these early times the hypnotherapist was called a ‘shaman’. The earliest recorded documentation hypnosis was found in an Egyptian tomb dating back to 1500 BC. This lineage was passed on to the Greeks. In the 18th century, an Austrian named Frank Anton Mezmer was credited with the discovery of hypnosis. However, the physicians of the time ridiculed him and believed that people were healed because of their imaginations. It wasn’t until 1840 when a physician named James Braid came on the scene, and hypnosis began to be looked upon in a positive light by the medical community. His research made hypnosis accessible, and many other physicians did their own research and began to incorporate hypnosis into their practice. Dr. James Esdaile was one such physician; he performed over 2500 surgeries in Calcutta (now called Kolkata), India, using hypnosis for anesthesia. In 1957, Sigmund Freud became impressed with hypnosis and began to use it in his practice to treat neurotic disorders. Since then, hypnosis has not only been regarded as a medium for entertainment, profoundly used by magicians, but also a useful therapeutic tool.
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