HISTORY

Hypnosis has been used for many years in various forms. In the late 1700's an Austrian physician Franz Mesmer introduced human magnetism which was later renamed as Mesmerism. Mesmer used this technique to cure people of all kinds of ailments. Despite his success, scientists decided they would prove him wrong by showing that no such thing existed and Mesmer was shown to be a fraud.

In 1842 a Scottish surgeon called James Braid used a similar technique to perform operations. His mortality rate was lower than his fellow colleages but not wanting to be called a fraud like Mesmer he used the word "Hypnotic" to describe his technique. This comes from the Greek word "Hypnos" meaning sleep although it is not clear when the word Hypnosis was first used.

comes from the Greek word "Hypnos" meaning sleep