Braid’s Nine Observations on Hypnotism

In concluding his primary text on hypnotism, Neurypnology (1843), James Braid, the founder of hypnotherapy, lists summarises the main points of his theory as follows. 

1. [Eye-fixation]  That the effect of a continued fixation of the mental and visual eye in the manner, and with the concomitant circumstances pointed out, is to throw the nervous system into a new condition, accompanied with a state of somnolence, and a tendency, according to the mode of management, of exciting a variety of phenomena, very different from those we obtain either in ordinary sleep, or during the waking condition.
2. [Hypnotic Stages]  That there is at first a state of high excitement of all the organs of special sense, sight excepted, and a great increase of muscular power; and that the senses afterwards become torpid in a much greater degree than what occurs in natural sleep.
3. [Nervous Excitation & Depression]  That in this condition we have the power of directing or concentrating nervous energy, raising or depressing it in a remarkable degree, at will, locally or generally.
4. [Heart Rate]  That in this state, we have the power of exciting or depressing the force and frequency of the heart’s action, and the state of the circulation, locally or generally, in a surprising degree.
5. [Muscular Tone]  That whilst in this peculiar condition, we have the power of regulating and controlling muscular tone and energy in a remarkable manner and degree.
6. [General Physiological Effects]  That we also thus acquire a power of producing rapid and important changes in the state of the capillary circulation, and of the whole of the secretions and excretions of the body, as proved by the application of chemical tests.
7. [Therapeutic Use]  That this power can be beneficially directed to the cure of a variety of diseases which were most intractable, or altogether incurable, by ordinary treatment.
8. [Pain Control]  That this agency may be rendered available in moderating or entirely preventing, the pain incident to patients whilst undergoing surgical operations.
9. [Muscular Suggestion]  That during hypnotism, by manipulating the cranium and face, we can excite certain mental and bodily manifestations, according to the parts touched.