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The work hypnos is Greek for
"sleep". Hypnosis produces an altered state of consciousness.
Everyone experiences some form of hypnosis. It is believed that hypnosis
can improve memory, concentration, reduce insomnia, stress and anxiety.
Addiction treatment centers use hypnosis to control alcohol, drug and
other substance abuses and addictions. Hypnosis is best know for
weight management, phobias and reframing past events to reduce the
negative effect on present situation.
The hypnotic state is not sleeping. A hypnotic state is the window to the operations of the unconscious and subconscious mind. In the hypnotic state a person can learn to redefine situations and events, release negative, restricting, blocking feelings and emotions and function in a healthier happier manner. A person in a hypnotic state can talk, walk and perform tasks. The use of hypnosis goes back to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. Both cultures had special hypnotic center where people could receive help with their problems. The methods used then are still effective methods used now to discover the nature of dreams, and the dreamer's anxieties. Ancient civilizations had sleep temples for the sick, where music, drugs and repetitious speech were used to induce sleep. When asleep, the "patients" were told that their symptoms would disappear, helping to effect a cure or release of symptoms. Hypnotic Techniques: A variety of methods are used. The include having the client listen to the hypnotist, concentrating on what is being suggested; and, having the client focus on an object above eye level, so that optical muscles becomes tired and the eyes shut. This concentration method may be combined with progressive relaxation. The subject tenses and or eases very muscle and feels "waves of relaxation" washing out the body. The person is encouraged to feel drowsy and that the eyes close involuntarily. Another technique for relaxation is to have a client clench one fist, letting all bodily tension flow into the hand. Unclenching the fist lets built-up tension escape. Sometimes counting backward in ones or threes, while concentrating on what the hypnotist is saying is method used. Hypnotic trances are ended by reversing procedures. Paracelsus, a Swiss physician, believed that the stars influenced humans through some kind of magnetic force. Doctor Van Helmont developed this concept but suggesting that each person radiated an "animal magnetis" which had an influence on others. From these beliefs the background for hypnosis took place during the second half of the 18th century, Franz Anton Mesmer graduated the University of Vienna Medical Faculty. His doctoral thesis addressed the possibility of the stars and plants influencing our powers to cure. He began his medical practice in a conventional manner. Eventually a young female relative come to visit. The female relative suffered from a symptoms of convulsions, depression, temporary blindness and physical spasms. Conventional medicine didn't help. A colleague of Dr. Mesmer's suggested fixing metallic plates to the patient to restore her magnetic harmony. The girl's condition improved. Mesmer returned to the exploration of his doctoral thesis. He theorized that the two halves of the human body acted like magnet poles and that illness was caused by an improper distribution of his magnetism. Dr. Mesmer discovered that he could improve his patients conditions imply by passing his hands over their bodies and downward towards their feet, using no metallic plates, he concluded that his own body must be a magnetic channel. The marquis de Puysegur became interested in Mesmer's work. Puysegur described a state like a modern hypnotic trance in which patients can walk, speak, and follow instructions. He called this artificial somnambulism. Puysegur discovered this by accident. He was treating hysterical convulsions at the time. Puysegur put the patient into a quiet, sleeping stupor. The patient began responding physically to the suggestions Puysegur was giving to him. Puysegur improved his techniques by asking his patients to describe their symptoms and problems while in a trance. This is a common practice in modern hypnotic treatment. James Braid a Scottish surgeon became interested in mesmerism. Braid believed that a trance state was related closely to natural sleep. He believed that protracted eye fixation brought about a state of fatigue to a part of the brain. He believed that a patient entered a condition of nervous sleep that he called "neurohypnotism". The term was shorted to hypnotism. He realized that were was no direct physiological link between a hypnotist and his client. Hypnotism was not used by the medical profession until the 1880s. A French neurologist, Jean-Martin Charcot insisted that hysterical symptoms like paralysis, deafness and blindness could be influenced by hypnosis. His theory encouraged others to use hypnotic techniques. A French doctor, A. A. Liebeault, encouraged the use of hypnosis in general practice. He believed everyone was susceptible to hypnosis. He placed great emphasis on rapport between doctor and patient. He insisted that he possessed no mysterious power. At Yale University, Clark L. Hull began experimental studies of hypnosis in the early 1930s. He and his staff demonstrated that it is possible to influence human behavior by hypnotic suggestion. The also discovered that childhood memories became more accessible. Experiments with hypnosis in the 1950s thru 1960s and standardized scales of suggestibility were devised by E. R. Hilgard of Stanford University in 1961. One interesting finding was that children between 8 and 12 were easiest to hypnotize Young children found concentration difficult and older children were less suggestible. In the first half of the 20th century, most medical personnel were wary of hypnosis. By 1958 the American Medical Association acknowledged that hypnosis could and did have medical applications. Today hypnosis is used to a variety of reasons in various situation to affect desired results.
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