A History of Hypnotism II
James Esdaile, M.D. (1808 - 1859)
Discovered he could induce a "deep sleep" by making specific hand passes over the patient's body. Using his system, he reportedly performed over 2,000 surgeries, without anesthesia. Producing the anesthetic condition was called the Hypnotic Coma and the term is still in use today, even though the individual is obviously not in a coma.
Edgar Cayce (1877 - 1945)
Born in Kentucy, Cayce was to become known as the Sleeping Prophet. He was affected by a throat condition, which caused him to lose his voice when he was 20 years old. At various times, stage hypnotists helped him to enter hypnosis, where he eventually diagnosed his own condition and then went on to prescribe the treatment. After his own cure, he went on to deliver over 14,000 readings, all of them while in a state of hypnosis. Many consider Edgar Cayce to have been the greatest psychic healer in the United States.
The 1890's Great Debate
During the 1890's, France had three main schools of magnetism / hypnotism: Saltpetriere, Nancy and
Charity. The debate was one of methods, which were utilized to bring about hypnotic phenomenon. The school at Nancy utilized a more formal verbal method, which ultimately became the style initially utilized by
Sigmund Freud and continues to be utilized to this day by hypnotic practitioners.
1889 Albert Moll
Albert Moll wrote "Hypnotism" in 1889. He was among the first to insist that hypnosis is part of
Psychology. His book emphasized that the hypnotic process is continuous and flows over into the
waking state. Many professionals dismissed Mesmer's findings, however, Moll insisted that they
were valid.
Emile Coue (1857 - 1926)
His book entitled Self Mastery, was first published in 1922. He is considered to be the father of self
development. He taught that if the imagination and the will are in conflict, that the imagination would
win. He is most known for promoting the practice of autosuggestion. "Every day, in every way, I get
better and better" was his most famous patter.
Jean-Martin Charcot, M.D. (1825 - 1893)
Began using magnetism after viewing a stage performance, (like Braid). He worked out of the French
school at Saltpetriere, mostly with hysterical women. He classified various states of depth of the phenomenon, such as Deep Sleep and Light Sleep.
A. Leibeault, M.D. (1823 - 1904)
Worked out of the French school at Nancy and together with H. Bernheim incorporated psychology with verbal suggestion.
