Today, hypnosis is used as a psychological technique, and—let’s be honest— sometimes as a party or event activity. Hypnosis dates back thousands of years, with documents supporting the idea that a form of hypnosis was round in the days of the Ancient Greeks, Romans, Persians, and Egyptians. At that time, it was used to cure both physical ailments and emotional disorders. Some researchers believe that hypnosis is even older, as cave paintings can be interpreted as having priests in a trance, with geometric shapes around them, presumably to depict various levels of consciousness.
Modern day hypnosis came to be amongst Islamic scientists in the 9th through 14th centuries. They took the knowledge passed on from ancient civilizations and began to understand more about psychology and the idea of various states of consciousness. Dr. Frantz Anton Mesmer was a physicist in Austria in the 18th century, who was amongst the first to stimulate a trance-like condition through the use of magnets and magnetic forces. Doctors and other medical professionals ostracized Mesmer, believing that his work was merely theatrics, due to there being no tangible results. His work in the field—and his name—gave us the word “mesmerize”. In the late 19th century, Sigmund Freud began work with hypnosis, and it is believed that he quickly moved on from the idea of hypnosis because he did not have the patience to learn the trade.
Following World War I, hypnosis became a common method of treating soldiers who had suffered trauma during their time in the military. This brought about new attention to the method of psychology. Hypnosis wasn’t approved as an official medical treatment and tool until 1955 in the United Kingdom and 1958 in the United States. Years later, the first full-time hypnosis physician, William J. Bryan, Jr., founded the American Institute of Hypnosis. Hypnosis has become a popular self-help method, and has entered the mainstream through means of video tapes and the internet.