Looking back through history, we can see that hypnosis has been in use for thousands of years. Back in 1400 BC Hypocrites was the first to record that there was a mind-body connection. Hypnosis's use can still be seen in some primitive peoples' religious and healing ceremonies. These ceremonies show us that the rhythmic chanting, the repetitive beating of drums, and the sparks rising from fires, all give village shaman, witchdoctors or priests the appearance of having magical and/or mystical powers. The village shaman, witchdoctors or priests are able to work miracles through what we today call  ‘the power of suggestion in the trance state’. It was Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer who, in the late 18th century, brought hypnosis and hypnotherapy to the modern western world.  

Sleep Temple or Dream Therapy?

Hypnosis used to be called 'suggestion therapy' and can be traced back over 4000 years to ancient Egypt to the Egyptian priest, Imhotep. The ancient Egyptians used to heal people in what they called "Sleep or Dream Temples." Inscriptions on the walls of these temples tell of miraculous cures. In these Sleep or Dream Temples, sick people were put into a trance like state, where under the influence hypnosis and through religious rituals, it was suggested that healing by the gods would take place. Then through this power of suggestion, the priests were able to appear to cast out bad spirits from the mind and body of the sick.

Even in Greece, in the 4th and 5th centuries BC, Sleep or Dream Temples were renowned as places of great healing and were dedicated to the healing god Æsclepius. Again, healing would take place whilst the person was in a deep trance like state. This trance state would come about by the priest using various forms of chanting. A person could be kept in this trance state for up to three days. During this time the priests by using the power of suggestion would help the person, to obtain a cure for their illness. The sole healing power of the mind cured them.
On the other hand, the ancient Hebrews also used chanting, as well as breathing exercises and fixation on the Hebrew letters that spelled their word for God, to induce a state of what we would, today, call self-hypnosis. Then again, people such as fire-walkers, or even priests that use the religious practices of "the laying on of hands" to make people faint onto the floor, all use the power of suggestion and expectation or auto-hypnosis to bring about an altered state of consciousness.

The Romans also adopted the use of healing sleep/Incubation Temples. The Romans dedicated their Sleep Temples to their god Apollo.  Relics of Roman Sleep Temples can be found throughout what used to be seen as the Roman Empire. Even today people are able to see the remains of Roman Sleep Temples in some parts of Britain.

Science Is Starting To Alter It's Opinion

For many even though it is not true, the belief that hypnosis means being under someone else's control, still persists. This is why, even today, many people will still exhaust all forms of conventional means for the treatment of trauma, anxiety and phobia, as well as stress induced physical problems and addictions before they turn to the possibilities that hypnosis or hypnotherapy by a properly trained Hypnotherapist can offer.

However science is beginning catch up with ancient knowledge. A UK study has just been completed where scientists were able to measure the brain waves of people before during and after being in a hypnotic trance. The narrow band of theta and alpha activity was recorded over anterior and posterior sites in both high and low hypnotically susceptible subjects. The subjects in hypnosis accessed the "7 Hz alpha" frequency, not the "3 Hz theta" (sleep) frequency. These results indicated that, whereas the theta indexes relaxation, alpha indexes the hypnotic experience of susceptibility.

There are also a number of recent studies that have shown that patients in hypnosis have experienced far less pain during treatments. The studies showed that the experience of pain is subjective and that a number of the brain's regions are associated with the experience of pain and that people can’t feel pain at the 7 Hz alpha levels. The study also provided evidence that hypnosis allows the dissociation of the prefrontal cortex from other neural functions. Suggesting that hypnosis can interfere with those regions of the brain that allow people to feel pain.   
On the other hand in a hospital study, in the UK, of 250 unselected patients suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), tests showed that after only 12 sessions of hypnotherapy there was an 80% overall improvement in both the patients' physical and psychological symptoms. A follow-up some 12 months later, showed that the patients retained the benefits provided by their hypnotherapy treatment. The hospital concluded that hypnotherapy was the most cost effective way of treating IBS and now has a team of Hypnotherapists who, along with the doctors, deal with the IBS patients at the hospital. 

Thus these studies are showing through modern techniques and scientific based evidence the potential benefits of hypnosis, something that Clinical Hypnotherapists in countries all over the world have known for thousands of years. 

Closer To Home

In my own practice, an interesting example of the benefits of hypnotherapy can be seen in a patient who after suffering a heart attack and angioplasty treatment was then afflicted with arrhythmia, causing his heartbeat to fluctuate between 30 beats per minute to 200 beats per minute. The client had strongly been advised that he should have both a pacemaker and a cardiac restrictor placed in his chest to control his heartbeat. However not wishing to go through another life threatening operation he decided to see if hypnosis could help. Through a number of sessions of hypnosis, learning to take control of his breathing, releasing past trauma and following the diet and exercise changes, plus the taking of a minimal amount of medication recommended by his doctor, today the patient feels that he has his heart problem 95% under control without the assistance of any medical devices needed. That was 8 years ago and he is still going strong.
The Australian Hypnotherapists’ Association is the oldest hypnotherapy association in Australia and its members has been helping clients since 1949. Hippocrates hit the nail on the head when he called this mind-body connection, “Vis medicatrix natural” (The healing power of nature).

Bruni Brewin is the president emeritus of the Australian Hypnotherapists’ Association. She has a thriving practice in Chipping Norton, NSW.

This article was submitted to the "Art of Healing" Magazine

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