The “Dangers” of Hypnotism?

Let’s go back to the horse’s mouth and see what the bloke who coined the term “hypnotism”, James Braid, the founder of hypnotherapy, said about the dangers it posed and the extent to which patients could be “controlled” and made to do objectionable things…

While under the hypnotic influence, the patients evince great docility, but there is, however, such a state of the perceptive faculties and judgement that they will be quite as fastidious of correct conduct as when in the natural state. So far as I know, there is no more, or not so much, chance of gaining a knowledge of the thoughts of others than might be attained by giving the patient a glass or two of wine. And I have no experience of any such irresistible influence over individuals for producing those malign effects you refer to. I strongly suspect they only exist in the imagination of the parties operating or operated on. At all events, no such effects result from my operations, although undoubtedly I have been able to produce the most wonderful effects in many instances where ordinary treatment had been unavailing.

This is from an unpublished letter in the archive of his follower, Dr. John Milne Bramwell, who goes on to comment,

[Braid] had never seen a hypnotised patient who did not strenuously resist any attempt at taking a liberty with her. Such patients could not be induced to take off their stockings, for example, or to give a kiss to a gentleman, even should he be a hallucinatory one. On the contrary, they would repel such suggestions with more energy than in the waking condition.

Victorian doctors were, it has to be said, in a better position to test behaviour which might be considered too dubious to propose in a modern psychological experiment, and wouldn’t get approval from a modern ethics committee. Braid recognised that people do sometimes do things they later regret in hypnotism but that this was more often due to other factors such as social compliance, peer pressure, deception, etc., and that it seemed to him more likely to be possible to manipulate people psychologically through the use of alcohol or intoxicating drugs rather than hypnotism.

What might be achieved by systematic and persevering attempts to corrupt a virtuous person during that state, I do not pretend to tell; I should never condescend to witness such attempts being systematically made; but my present convictions are that the same individual might be more readily demoralised when awake, than when in the second conscious state of nervous sleep, which evidently has a tendency with virtuous people to quicken their perceptions and heighten their notions of what would be immoral or highly indecorous, whilst at the same time it renders them most docile and obliging in all which is reasonable and seemly in their estimation. Thus, while they still indignantly repel the proposal to kiss an imaginary gentleman, they will be quite willing to do so to an imaginary child.

Modern research on hypnotism has, overall, supported Braid’s original view and failed to find credible evidence that hypnotic subjects were more complaint than non-hypnotised subjects. It has to be emphasised, in this context, that as Milgram’s famous experiment illustrates, people are surprisingly compliant to social pressure anyway and this is easily confused with the effects of hypnotism.

The 2001 report reviewing the scientific research on hypnotism, commissioned by the British Psychological Society (BPS), concludes,

Hypnotic procedures are not in themselves able to cause people to commit acts against their will. However, the demands of the context in which the procedures take place may exert pressure on the subject to comply with the hypnotist’s instructions. (BPS, 2001)

Essentially this confirms Braid’s original account of hypnotism, which he opposed to the misconception of “mind control” originating in the tendency to confuse hypnotism with Mesmerism.

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.

[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[Pain Control] That this agency may be rendered available in moderating or entirely preventing, the pain incident to patients whilst undergoing surgical operations.
[Muscular Suggestion] That during hypnotism, by manipulating the cranium and face, we can excite certain mental and bodily manifestations, according to the parts touched.

That Hypnosis Never Meant Sleep

It is a common misconception that hypnotism involves a state resembling unconsciousness or sleep. This can be partly attributed to the fact that the word “hypnotism” derives from hypnos, the Greek word for sleep. However, few people realise that the word “hypnotism” is actually an abbreviation for the longer term “neuro-hypnotism”, meaning sleep of the nervous system, as opposed to normal sleep. It was coined around 1841 by James Braid, the Scottish surgeon who many authorities consider to be the founder of hypnotherapy. Braid simply meant that many hypnotic subjects would become physically relaxed and engrossed in a single idea to the exclusion of distraction. Indeed, according to its founder, hypnotism was better characterised as a state of conscious concentration rather than unconsciousness. Braid soon came to regret his use of the term “hypnotism” because of the misconceptions it encouraged, even during his own lifetime. In Hypnotic Therapeutics (1853), Braid writes,

It is of great importance that it should be clearly understood by patients, that it is by no means generally requisite that they should lapse into the state of unconsciousness in order to ensure the salutary effects of the nervous sleep. Many imagine, that unless they become torpid and insensible, no beneficial effect can ensue. This is a complete misapprehension, for the happy results of innumerable cases treated with the greatest success by hypnotism, clearly prove, that cases which had resisted all ordinary treatment by the exhibition of medicines and external applications, have readily yielded to the impression made on the nervous system by this peculiar influence, even when they were perfectly conscious of all that was done, and could remember, after awaking, every circumstance that had happened during the nervous sleep. This was strikingly verified in my own case, when I cured myself of a violent rheumatic attack by throwing myself into the nervous sleep [i.e., into self-hypnosis] for eight or nine minutes, from which I was aroused perfectly free from pain, although I had been perfectly conscious all the while.

Although some subjects entered a state of mind in which they experienced amnesia for the process, which the earlier Mesmerists had termed “artificial somnambulism”, Braid elsewhere makes it clear that only 5-10% of his subjects experienced this response to hypnotism. As Braid implies, the whole notion of self-hypnosis conflicts with the assumption that hypnosis involves unconsciousness or sleep because one cannot very well be both asleep and consciously directing one’s own autosuggestions at the same time. Self-hypnosis requires some degree of conscious concentration, or at least relaxed attention.

Braid’s Later Theories of Hypnotism

In his two books, Hypnotism: Its History, Practice & Theory (1903) and Hypnotism & Treatment by Suggestion (1909), Bramwell expands Braid’s later thoughts into a more generally suggestion-oriented interpretation of hypnotism, which in many respects pre-empts modern “non-state”, or cognitive-behavioural, research on hypnosis. There is a distinct shift in emphasis from the idea of a special physiological state of nervous sleep, to a range of (ideo-dynamic) psychological mechanisms and their social context, e.g., the role of expectation, habit, imagination, imitation, verbal suggestion, association, attention, etc., become increasingly central to Braid’s approach and the physiology of rigid catalepsy or nervous sleep becomes somewhat less significant.

However, neither Bramwell nor Braid concluded from this that the classical eye-fixation induction should be completely abandoned, because it may have psycho-physiological effects which are helpful, though non-essential. It is also likely that most subjects expect to experience some kind of recognisable induction ritual, and so the eye-fixation technique, or a similar style of working, may itself be a kind of physical suggestion which facilitates subsequent suggestion by satisfying the client’s expectations about hypnotism.

Hypnotism: Its History, Practice & Theory (1903)

Braid’s theories changed as his knowledge increased, and he held in all three distinct and widely differing ones. In the first, he explained hypnosis from an almost purely physical standpoint; in his second, he considered it to be a condition of involuntary monoideism and concentration of the attention. His third theory differed from both of these. In it he recognised that reason and volition were unimpaired, and that the attention could be simultaneously directed to more points than one. The condition, therefore, was not one of involuntary monoideism. Further, he recognised more and more clearly that the state was essentially a conscious one, and that the losses of memory which followed on awaking could always be restored in subsequent hypnoses. Finally, he described as “double consciousness” the condition which he had first termed “hypnotic”, then “monoideistic”. [Bramwell probably meant that Braid wished to reserve the terms “hypnotism” and “monoideism” for special states associated with the use of suggestion, but that he came to see neither as essential to suggestion therapy.] As already noted, few students of hypnotism are acquainted with any of Braid’s theories except the earliest; and his third and latest one, which he promised to put before the public in a more complete form, never saw the light in the manner he intended. [In The Physiology of Fascination (1855), for example, Braid had stated, ‘It is my intention shortly to publish a volume entitled “Psycho-Physiology: embracing Hypnotism, Monoideism, and Mesmerism.”’] My account is drawn from little-known pamphlets, unpublished MS., etc. [Bramwell had acquired most of Braid’s works, including several unpublished pieces.]

The following is a summary of Braid’s latest theories:-

Hypnosis could not be induced by physical means alone.
Hypnotic and so-called Mesmeric phenomena were subjective in origin, and both were excited by direct or by indirect suggestion.
Hypnosis was characterised by physical as well as by psychical changes.
The simultaneous appearance of several phenomena was recognised and much importance was attached to the intelligent action of a secondary consciousness.
Volition was unimpaired, moral sense increased, and suggested crime impossible.
Rapport was a purely artificial condition created by suggestion.
The importance of direct verbal suggestion was fully recognised, as also the mental influence of physical methods.
Suggestion was regarded as the device used for exciting the phenomena, and not considered as sufficient to explain them.
Important differences existed between hypnosis and normal sleep.
Hypnotic phenomena might be induced without the subject having passed through any condition resembling sleep.
The mentally healthy were the easiest, the hysterical the most difficult, to influence.

In this country, during Braid’s lifetime, his earlier views were largely adopted by certain well-known men of science, particularly Professors W.B. Carpenter and J. Hughes Bennett, but they appear to have known little or nothing of his latest theories. [Bramwell, 1903: 293-294]

Hypnotism & Treatment by Suggestion (1909)

Before discussing hypnotic theories, I wish to draw attention to the cases and experiments just cited. In some, the condition termed hypnosis was present. This varied from slight drowsiness or lethargy to apparently profound sleep, followed by amnesia on waking, i.e., the subjects were unable to recall the events of the so-called hypnosis. At first, both Braid and Liébault regarded this as artificially induced sleep, and believed that it must be evoked before patients would respond to suggestions, either curative or experimental. The condition, however, might be more accurately described as “imitation sleep”. The deeply hypnotised subject believed he had been asleep, because he could not afterwards recollect what had happened. Various facts, however, show great dissimilarity between imitation and natural sleep [i.e., between so-called “hypnotic sleep” and natural sleep]. When the subject is re-hypnotised and questioned, he can relate all that took place in the previous hypnosis with the exception of any special sensations inhibited by suggestion. Thus, my patients who had undergone painless hypnotic operations could afterwards describe them, and knew what had been said and done by those around them. They were only unable to recall pain, as that sensation had never reached consciousness. Further, in the so-called lethargic state [the deepest stage of hypnosis according to the Salpêtrière school] the subjects, who lie apparently asleep, hear and respond to the operator’s suggestions, even if these are whispered so softly that they could not have heard them in the normal condition. […] In every instance, where I questioned so-called hypnotic somnambules as to their mental condition in previous hypnoses, I found that they knew where they had been and what they had been doing or thinking about. They felt that they were the same persons in the so-called hypnotic state as in the waking one, and were conscious that their reason and volition were unimpaired. [It was not, therefore, an autonomous “unconscious”, “subconscious”, or “dissociated” mind, but their normal conscious mind, that was listening to the hypnotic suggestions and responding.]

Further, subjects in whom hypnosis had been evoked would afterwards pass into the suggestible condition characteristic of it, at any signal to which they had been taught to respond, and without going through any intermediate state even superficially resembling sleep. […]

In some of the cases nothing even superficially resembling sleep was induced: the patients simply rested in an armchair while suggestions were made. Yet, in many instances, the curative results were as striking as those obtained after the induction of so-called hypnosis.

In both groups increased suggestibility had been developed, and a control of the organism obtained far beyond the will-power of ordinary life. Examples of this are found in the influence of suggestion upon menstruation, perspiration, the secretion of milk, the action of the bowels, etc. [That is, despite the absence of anything remotely resembling a sleep-like “trance”, suggestions given in the waking state were found effective and capable of influencing bodily function usually classed as “involuntary”, by means of ideo-dynamic reflex action.] (Bramwell, 1909: 133-135)

Braid’s method. – Braid took a bright object, generally his lancet case, held it in his right hand about a foot away from the patient’s eyes, and at such a distance above the forehead that it could not be seen without straining. The patient was told to look steadily at it and to think of nothing else. The operator then extended and separated the fore and middle fingers of the right hand, and carried them from the object towards the patient’s eyes. The lids generally closed involuntarily; if this did not happen the process was repeated, and rarely failed.

Later, as Braid found that fixed gazing was frequently followed by slight conjunctivitis, he changed his methods: prolonged staring was abandoned, and the patient instructed to close his eyes at an early stage of the proceedings. Hypnosis was induced as easily as before and without unpleasant symptoms. If the body and mind were at rest, Braid found he could hypnotise as readily in the dark as in the light, and he also succeeded with the blind; these facts induced him to abandon his physical theory [of eye-fixation leading to nervous fatigue] and to conclude that the influence was exerted through the mind. He observed that repeated hypnoses increased susceptibility; this arose from habit, association of ideas and imagination. In such cases, if the patients believed something was being done which ought to produce hypnosis, the state appeared. On the other hand, the most expert hypnotist would exert his influence in vain if the patient did not know what was expected and, at the same time, voluntarily yield to the demands of the operator. Later, Braid asserted that direct verbal suggestion was the best method for inducing hypnosis and its phenomena; physical methods were simply indirect suggestions, their influence depending upon the mental states they excited. [Braid had already emphasised that physical manipulation of the body posture and facial expression were likely to evoke corresponding ideas and feelings in the mind of the subject; rather than having a direct physical effect, eye-fixation might suggest the idea of focused attention and sleepiness by mental association.] (Bramwell, 1909: 159-160)

Before describing my later methods, I wish again to draw attention to several points in connection with the so-called hypnotic state. As we have seen, the subject may have his eyes open, and act like a normal individual who is awake. In the lethargic condition, when he appears to be asleep, he still hears all that is said around him. Further, all the phenomena of so-called hypnosis can be induced in the waking state, without the patient having preliminarily passed through any condition resembling sleep. It is to Braid’s earlier work that we owe the theory that it was necessary to induce hypnosis before beginning treatment by suggestion. At first he regarded the condition as an artificial sleep, but pointed out later that only one in ten of those he cured passed into a state even superficially resembling [normal] sleep. He proposed, therefore, to abolish his entire terminology, as it misled the public, and made them believe they could not be cured by suggestion unless they had first been put to sleep. With the majority of Braid’s patients there was not even an apparent loss of consciousness – they simply became slightly drowsy, and afterwards remembered all that had happened – while, with others, hypnotic phenomena were induced, without any previous stage in any way resembling sleep. Further, in those cases where sleep had apparently been present, it could be proved that the condition was really a conscious one, as the recollection of all that had occurred could be evoked by suggestion.

Braid’s later observations passed unnoticed, and, until recent times, nearly all operators proceeded on his earlier lines. They suggested artificial sleep, lethargy or drowsiness, and then began treatment. They did not recognise that the artificial or, more correctly speaking, imitation sleep was only one of the phenomena of increased suggestibility, due to suggestion. Given increased suggestibility, any of the phenomena of hypnosis might be evoked as readily as imitation sleep, and the patient cured just as easily when that state had been omitted.

For many years, [the founder of the Nancy School] Liébault’s methods were similar to Braid’s earlier ones, and he always tried to induce what he called sommeil provoqué [“artificial sleep”]. Gradually the views of the Nancy School were modified till they resembled Braid’s later theories. Now, Bernheim [the leader of the Nancy School] states that there is nothing in hypnotism but the name. All is “suggestion”, and patients can be cured without the induction of artificial sleep. Bernheim’s statement requires some modification: all the phenomena we have been accustomed to call hypnotic are undoubtedly the result of suggestion; but the suggestions must be accepted by the patient before the phenomena can be evoked.

The essence of the whole condition, then, is an increased suggestibility; the production of a preliminary imitation sleep is not necessary, and is simply a waste of time. In some instances, I tried to induce so-called hypnosis [i.e., “artificial sleep”] a hundred times before I succeeded. Now, with the method I shall presently describe, I commence curative treatment at once, and obtain quicker results.

Lest my readers may be confused by my asserting, on the one hand, that the hypnotic state – i.e., a condition of sleep – does not really exist, and, on the other, by my talking of inducing hypnosis, I will summarise my views. Every stage of the so-called hypnotic condition is a conscious one. In some instances the subjects have their eyes open and are obviously wide awake, in others their eyes are closed and they appear to be asleep; but, even in the most profound condition, the sleep is only apparent, not real, as the subjects retain consciousness, volition and intelligence. The condition described as the hypnotic is essentially one of increased suggestibility. The artificial or imitation sleep, suggested by the operator, is only one amongst the many phenomena which can be evoked by suggestion. In what is described as the deepest stage – i.e., hypnotic somnambulism, followed by amnesia – when the state is terminated, the patients believe they have been asleep, because they do not remember what has happened. This is equally true, whether they have been apparently asleep, or seemingly awake with their eyes open in the “alert” stage. The lost memories of both stages can always be recalled in subsequent hypnosis. Further, it is probable that the amnesia is an artificial one due to the suggestions of the operator. When I use the word hypnosis – and it is almost impossible to avoid doing so until this fresh conception of the condition is accepted – I only mean that I have tried to induce increased suggestibility [as opposed to a sleep-like state] by methods which I shall presently describe. The condition – i.e., increased suggestibility – is sometimes preceded by drowsiness, but this is often absent, and the patients are voluntarily thinking of some restful monotonous subject during the whole process. Sometimes the patients’ minds are filled with the melancholy thoughts of neurasthenia, or obsessional fears; at others their attention is fixed on their hysterical convulsions or other uncontrollable muscular movements; but, despite this, increased suggestibility is frequently induced. Here there has been neither imitation sleep nor restful monotonous thought, but, nevertheless, brilliant therapeutic results are often obtained in such cases.

I will now describe my present methods. In many respects they resemble those I have used for years; the difference between them, more apparent than real, being due to what I believe to be a clearer conception of the so-called hypnotic state. […]

The first suggestions refer to the conditions which I wish to create while the patient is in the armchair. I tell him that each time he comes he will find it easier to rest, to turn his attention away from me and to concentrate it upon something restful [after simply closing his eyes normally]. I have previously explained that I do not wish him to go to sleep, but that, if he can get into the drowsy condition which precedes sleep, the suggestions are likely to be responded to more quickly. (Bramwell, 1909: 162-168)

Did Hypnotism Originate as a Form of Meditation?

For more information see my longer article on this subject,

James Braid on Hypnotic Meditation

Most scholars assume that hypnotism originated in 1841, in the work of James Braid, as a psychological and physiological system contrasted with the more “occult” or supernatural theories of Franz Mesmer and his followers, the “animal mangetists”. Braid originally saw Mesmerism as the predecessor and closest analogy to his method of hypnotism. However, within three years of his discovery, the similarities between hypnotism and various Oriental meditation practices was brought to Braid’s attention. At this time, in the 1840s, knowledge of Oriental meditation was very limited in England. However, Victorian soldiers and officials of the East India company sent word back from the further reaches of the empire. Braid explains, in his final essay, On Hypnotism (1860), written as a summary of his life’s work for the French Academy of Sciences,

I had already worked for three years to define hypnotism, the process which consists in fixing the eyes on a point and concentrating the attention, and I had demonstrated that it was an influence of a subjective nature which caused the sleep, when, in 1844, by carrying out research for a history of magic and witchcraft, as well as Mesmerism and hypnotism, I discovered in The History of Hindoos by [William] Ward and in the Dubistan (History of the religious sects in India) [Dabistān-i Mazāhib, a 17^th century Persian religious text] developments which, through the practices of Fakirs and Yogins [Sufi and Hindu mystics], wholly confirmed my subjective theory.

Braid contrasted his “subjective” theory of hypnotism with the older “objective” theory of the Mesmerists. By this he simply meant that whereas the Mesmerists believed that they were putting their subjects into a trance by channeling an invisible force, “animal magnetism”, into their bodies, Braid and other sceptics disputed the objective reality of this force and argued instead that hypnotism was mainly the result of the psychological (subjective) activity of the hypnotic subject themselves. In other words, as many hypnotists put it today, “All hypnosis is self-hypnosis.”

Indeed, it is notable that there was no such concept or even expression as “self-magnetism” or “self-mesmerism”. Braid, as well as introducing the concept of hypnotism, also coined the term “self-hypnotism” to refer to the fact that one could hypnotise oneself, and he recounts, in a memorable passage, how he used self-hypnotism to manage his own severe attacks of rheumatic pain. Indeed, as Braid defined hypnotism as a state of focused attention upon a single dominant idea or mental image, accompanied by expectation of a response, hypnotism and self-hypnotism were never really two distinct activities. Hypnotism was seen by Braid as a process whereby someone, the hypnotist, assists someone else, the hypnotic subject, to focus their attention for a prolonged period on a single train of thought with a sense of growing confidence in some response occuring. Hypnotism is really just assisted or guided self-hypnosis according to this, the original theory. The analogy with yogic meditation soon became obvious to Braid,

The Fakirs and Yogins have caused ecstatic trance in themselves for 2,400 years, for religious purpose, by a process quite similar to that which I taught my patients so they could hypnotise themselves using, i.e., continual fixation upon the end of the nose or another part of the body or an imaginary object, and with intense attention and while holding or slowing down their breath.

Indeed, Braid usually helped people to focus their attention, inducing hypnotism, by asking them to stare patiently at a single point, e.g., the tip of his silver lancet case, or the top of a bottle, or a chandalier in one case. However, he felt the object of concentration, in this initial (induction) stage, was irrelevant, so long as it was relatively “unexciting”, simple and bland enough for one to focus upon without distraction, to the exclusion of other things. Braid observed that when this was done for a few minutes, the eyes would close and people would often report very vivid and spontaneous bodily sensations of an unusual nature, especially if their attention was drawn to their body and their awareness and expectation heightened. However, he also observed that this “diamond glare” of attention, as one of his followers put it, could be transposed onto some positively therapeutic idea suggested by the hypnotist, or chosen by the subject, such as the idea or image of the body healing some disease or simply a general sense of confidence and wellbeing.

Moreover, even in his earliest writings, Braid refers to hypnotism being induced by means of focusing the gaze on the tip of one’s own finger, or some other part of the body, including the centre of the forehead. He was struck by the similarity between this method and the Oriental practice of focusing attention upon the tip of one’s nose or the centre of the forehead in meditation that he soon came to see Oriental meditation as the true precursor of hypnotism, and a closer analogy to it than Mesmerism. Both hypnotism and meditation could be practised by oneself, and were understood as psychological and physiological activities inter-acting, mind-body techniques, whereas animal magnetism was (falsely) assumed to require the presence of a skilled Mesmerist. Hence, the analogy with meditation provided Braid with unlikely support for his debunking of Mesmerism.

I did not know of the practices of Fakirs and Yogins, when I published my method of hypnotising; they confirm, in the most satisfactory manner, my subjective theory, at the expense of the objective theory of the magnetisers.

From the point at which he discovered these books on meditation and began writing articles about them, Braid was undoubtedly encouraged to define hypnotism more and more as a form of “mental abstraction” or “monoideism”, as he later called it, meaning focused attention upon a single idea, image, or train of thought.

Many hypnotherapists today, and their clients, have been exposed to yogic or Buddhist meditation techniques, etc., and immediately intuit some similarity between the theory and practice of hypnotism and those of meditation. It should further reinforce that observation for them to realise that the founder of hypnotherapy, almost from the outset, was aware of this connection and that hypnotism itself evolved, in part, under the influence of Oriental meditation techniques.

The Discovery of Hypnosis

The Discovery of Hypnosis:

The Complete Writings of James Braid, the Father of Hypnotherapy

Foreword by Dr. Michael Heap
Edited with detailed prefatory essays by Donald Robertson
Published by the National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH)

From the author: This is a major new publication which every hypnotherapist should possess. Just as you’d expect every psychoanalyst to have read Freud, every hypnotist should be familiar with the writings of James Braid, the founder of hypnotherapy. Braid’s writings are particularly relevant today with the growing emphasis upon evidence-based practice in psychological therapies. Contrary to popular misconception, which tends to confuse hypnotism with mesmerism, hypnotism actually originated as an early scientific critique of pseudoscientific Victorian therapies such as animal magnetism. Braid, as these writings clearly demonstrate, was an arch-sceptic and passionate empiricist, seeking a rational and common sense explanation for the phenomena of hypnotism.

Braid’s views help to powerfully counteract some of the most common misconceptions which undermine the confidence of clients and other professionals in hypnotherapy. Braid’s common sense approach makes hypnotism understandable and accessible, cutting through the confusion which followed in later decades. His ideas are surprisingly consistent with modern research on hypnosis and pre-empt certain aspects of contemporary cognitive-behavioural therapies (CBT). Braid’s writings even contain “forgotten” hypnotherapy strategies and techniques, which deserve to be revisited in modern times.

Available now from Amazon UK and Amazon.com

You can also browse the whole text online free-of-charge through Google books or visit our website and blog www.James-Braid.com

Some Reviews from Readers on Amazon

An Important Book for All Hypnotherapists – Paul Howard, hypnotherapist

This should be essential reading for all hypnotherapists, and for anyone with an interest in the history of psychology or psychotherapy. Most of Braid’s writings have been pretty much unavailable until now. 150 years on many of Braid’s ideas are still relevant. Braid’s writings show that hypnotism began as a thoroughly scientific therapy, based on criticisms of Victorian quack remedies.

Obligatory Reading – John O’Flynn, hypnotherapist

This quintessential work should be obligatory study for anyone in the field of Hypnotherapy. Donald Robertson unfolds the history of this most powerful therapy, through the words and works, the experiments and demonstrations, of Dr. James Braid, in a straightforward, deeply educational and most enlightening fashion. Excellently researched, it recounts the journey of a highly respected doctor who set out to debunk the follies of Mesmerism and found the jewel of Hypnosis. If you wish to simply understand hypnosis, or study the subject in depth, this is most certainly the book to have. I would go so far as to say, shame on anyone in the field of Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy, who remains ignorant of what this book contains.

Fascinating – Tom Butler-Bowdon, self-help author

Braid was the first to put hypnotherapy on a scientific, rational footing, so today’s hypnotherapists have a lot to thank him for.

A Manchester surgeon, Braid discovered hypnotism reasonably late and like most doctors of his time considered stage hypnotists charlatans. It was only his physical examination of a hypnotised subject that convinced him an actual bodily change had taken place with non-mystical causes.

The Discovery of Hypnosis puts together Braid’s key writings and provides succinct commentary and historical context. This is an exhaustive survey and the editor has obviously mastered the material, revealing an underrated figure in the history of psychology and psychotherapy.

One of Robertson’s fascinating ideas is that Braid should not be considered simply the father of hypnotherapy, but the father of psychotherapy, given his early work into what is now called cognitive behavioural therapy.

Robertson’s clear writing style and to-the-point comments enliven the historical material, and the book itself is large and well laid out. Any hypnotherapist serious about their subject should have this book in their library. It is also a intriguing read for the layman.

Available now from Amazon UK and Amazon.com

You can also browse the whole text online free-of-charge through Google books or visit our website and blog www.James-Braid.com

What Braid Really Said: The Original Meaning of Hypnotism

For more information on the origins of hypnotism see my new book The Discovery of Hypnotism: The Complete Writings of James Braid (2009).

James Braid was the Scottish physician and surgeon who coined the term “hypnotism” and essentially founded hypnotherapy as we know it today, in opposition to the “animal magnetism” of the Mesmerists. Fourteen years after discovering hypnotism, Braid wrote his last book on the subject, The Physiology of Fascination (1855), the text of a lecture to be read before the prestigious British Association. By this time, Braid had come to define hypnotism as “the study of the reciprocal actions and reactions of mind and matter upon each other”, the key term here being “reciprocal” because hypnotism originally involved not only the power of the mind over the body but also the power of the body over the mind.

Braid carried out many ingenious experiments to test the claims of the mesmerists and convinced himself that their perceived effects were not due to animal magnetism or any special force or subtle energy transmitted by the mesmerist. Instead, he found that “the condition arose from influences existing within the patient’s own body, viz., the influence of concentrated attention, or dominant ideas, in modifying physical action, and these dynamic changes re-acting on the mind of the subject.” Hence, although the terms “mesmerism” and “hypnotism” are often confused today, Braid was clear that he introduced the term “hypnotism” to distinguish his psychological and physiological theory from the supernatural theory of Mesmer and his many followers. However, after over a decade of experimentation and clinical practice in hypnotism, Braid now proposed to modify his terminology.

First, Braid rejects the notion that hypnotism refers to a single state of mind. “This term has met with most favourable consideration from many able writers on the subject; still it is liable to this grave objection – that it has been used to comprise not a single state, but rather a series of stages or conditions, varying in every conceivable degree, from the slightest reverie, with high exaltation of the functions called into action, on the one hand, to intense nervous coma, with entire abolition of consciousness and voluntary power, on the other.”

The word “hypnotism” was originally an abbreviation for the term “neuro-hypnotism” meaning “nervous sleep”, as Braid puts it, or neurological inhibition, as we might put it today. Braid never intended the term to imply that subjects were asleep in the ordinary sense of the word, and this turn of phrase caused much confusion among his patients.

I am well aware that, in correct phraseology, the term hypnotism ought to be restricted to the phenomena manifested in patients who actually pass into a state of sleep, and who remember nothing on awakening of what transpired during their sleep. All short of this is mere reverie, or dreaming, however provoked, and it, therefore, seems highly desirable to fix upon a terminology capable of accurately characterising these latter modifications which result from hypnotic processes. This is the more requisite from the fact that, of those who may be relieved and cured by hypnotic processes of diseases which obstinately resist ordinary medical treatment, perhaps not more than one in ten ever passes into the state of oblivious sleep, during the processes which they are subjected to. The term hypnotism, therefore, is apt to confuse them, and lead them to suspect that, at all events, they cannot be benefited by processes which fail to produce the most obvious indication which the name imports.

So, according to Braid here, as elsewhere, only 10% of his patients experienced complete amnesia during hypnotism, or anything which could be compared to a sleep-like state. It may surprise many people to realise that this observation agrees with that of Bernheim and most other Victorian hypnotists. Only a small minority of their patients entered the sleep-like state called “somnambulism” and it was not generally considered particularly important to the practice of hypnotherapy.

Braid apparently intended to continue using the established term “hypnotism” to refer to the subject of mind-body interaction in general, when speaking loosely, but to clarify that, strictly speaking, the term “hypnotism” should only be taken to describe a minority of subjects who experience profound amnesia during the process.

Let the term hypnotism be restricted to those cases alone in which, by certain artificial processes, oblivious sleep takes place, in which the subject has no remembrance on awaking of what occurred during his sleep, but of which he shall have the most perfect recollection on passing into a similar stage of hypnotism thereafter. In this mode, hypnotism will comprise those cases only in which what has hitherto been called the double-conscious state ["somnambulism"] occurs; and let the term hypnotic coma denote that still deeper stage of the sleep in which the patient seems to be quite unconscious at the time of all external impressions, and devoid of voluntary power, and in whom no idea of what had been said or done by others during the said state of hypnotic coma can be remembered by the patient on awaking, or at any stage of subsequent hypnotic operations.

Far from sleep, the essence of hypnotism was awareness. Braid now defined hypnotism as a state of mental focus or concentration upon a dominant conscious idea.

Then, inasmuch as I feel satisfied that the mental and physical phenomena which flow from said processes result entirely from the mental impressions, or dominant ideas, excited thereby in the minds of the subjects, changing or modifying the previously existing physical action, and the peculiar physical action thus superinduced re-acting on their minds – and that, whether these dominant, expectant ideas existed in the minds of the subjects previously, or were suggested to them, after passing into the impressible condition, by audible suggestions or sensible impressions excited by manipulations of a second party – under these circumstances, I consider the following terms calculated to realise all the precision which we need desire on this point…

Braid proposed to use the term “monoideism”, and various cognate expressions, instead, meaning the concentration of the mind upon a single dominant idea or train of thought. Braid borrowed the terms “ideo-motor reflex” and “ideo-motor reflex” from his friend Prof. W.B. Carpenter who proposed a theory of unconscious muscular action caused in a semi-reflex manner by certain ideas or images. Braid added the concept of expectation and focused attention to this simple model of suggestion, to form the basis of his theory of hypnotism.

In order that I may do full justice to two esteemed friends, I beg to state, in connection with this term monoideo-dynamics, that, several years ago, Dr. W. B. Carpenter introduced the term ideo-motor to characterise the reflex or automatic muscular motions which arise merely from ideas associated with motion existing in the mind, without any conscious effort of volition. In 1853, in referring to this term, Dr. [Daniel] Noble said, “Ideo-dynamic would probably constitute a phraseology more appropriate, as applicable to a wider range of phenomena.” In this opinion I quite concurred, because I was well aware that an idea could arrest as well as excite motion automatically, not only in the muscles of voluntary motion, but also as regards the condition of every other function of the body. [Braid had long recognised that hypnosis could either stimulate or depress nervous functioning in general.] I have, therefore, adopted the term monoideo-dynamics, as still more comprehensive and characteristic as regards the true mental relations which subsist during all dynamic changes which take place, in every other function of the body, as well as in the muscles of voluntary motion.

To this he adds, “as a generic term, comprising the whole of these phenomena which result from the reciprocal actions of mind and matter upon each other, I think no term could be more appropriate than psycho-physiology.” Of course, “psycho-physiology” means something like “mind-body” and Braid prefers it as an umbrella term for the many respects in which the mind and body inter-act reciprocally upon each other. He concludes,

It must be obvious that these terms would comprehend every conceivable variety of phenomenon, according to the function of the part on which the dominant idea of the subject might be concentrated, and the liveliness of his faith. Thus, let the mind of the subject be engrossed with the notion that he is to be irresistibly drawn, repelled, paralysed, or catalepsed, and the monoideo-dynamic or ideational condition of the muscles corresponding with this idea will take place, without any conscious effort of volition of the subject to that effect.

In brief, contrary to popular misconception,

Braid opposed hypnotism to mesmerism, they are not the same thing.
Only 10% of Braid’s subjects felt as if they were asleep or unconscious, and this was not essential to hypnotism.
Far from being a passive state like sleep, hypnotism was defined as a variety of states revolving around focused conscious attention and heightened expectation.
Hypnotism was not simply a theory of the power of suggestion but of the reciprocal power of psycho-physiology, of the mind and body inter-acting in both directions.
In addition to verbal suggestion, therefore, Braid emphasised what he termed “muscular suggestion”, in which subjects changed their body posture or facial expression to evoke mental states.

I hope these brief comments will encourage some hypnotists to read Braid’s work more closely and rediscover the true nature of the original hypnotism, because many of the misconceptions about hypnotherapy which abound today are the result of confusing hypnotism and mesmerism, and a “return to Braid” would allow us to set the record straight in a way that can only benefit our clients.

The Discovery of Hypnosis on Google Books

The Discovery of Hypnosis:
The Complete Writings of James Braid, the Father of Hypnotherapy (2009)

Published by The National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH)
Edited with commentary by Donald Robertson
Foreword by Dr. Michael Heap

You can now browse a free online copy (limited preview) of the complete writings of James Braid with Google Books. James Braid coined the term “hypnotism” in 1841 and was, essentially, the founder of hypnotherapy as we know it today. See our website www.James-Braid.com for more information on Braid’s life and work.

Google Books: The Discovery of Hypnosis: The Complete Writings of James Braid

Review by Tom Butler-Bowdon, author of Fifty Self-Help Classics

Braid was the first to put hypnotherapy on a scientific, rational footing, so today’s hypnotherapists have a lot to thank him for.

Tom Butler-Bowdon, author of 50 Psychology Classics: Who We Are, How We Think, What We Do; Insight and Inspiration from 50 Key Books

Braid’s Theory of Hypnotic Suggestion

Excerpt from The Discovery of Hypnosis: The Complete Writings of James Braid (2009) edited by Donald Robertson.

Contrary to common misconception, Braid appreciated and employed the technique of verbal suggestion in hypnosis. Moreover, he considered suggestion essential to the practice of hypnosis and utilised an array of suggestion methods. Braid clearly distinguishes between suggestions given by the hypnotist and those arising from within the subject, e.g., due to expectant ideas, which we would now call “autosuggestion”.

In Magic, Witchcraft, etc. (1852), Braid acknowledged that in addition to those “fully” hypnotised, many subjects were “partially” hypnotised, and that others did not respond to the induction at all. Nevertheless, they could be influenced by a variety of suggestive factors which he claimed were essential to the production of phenomena even in susceptible hypnotic subjects. In one passage alone, he lists the following six factors, which I have labelled using more contemporary terminology, supplying Braid’s description in quotes,

Spoken Verbal Suggestion. ‘The patients hear the ideas suggested when uttered in a language known to them.’ Braid clearly recognises that changes in voice tonality have a profound effect upon verbal suggestions, and refers to this several times in his later writings.
Written Verbal Suggestion. ‘When they see them written (which is sufficient to affect many).’
Role-Modelling or Imitation. ‘When they can see, by ordinary vision, the movements made in their presence which it is intended they should be forced to imitate, through the power of sympathy and imitation.’
Mental Association. ‘When they feel sensible impressions, associated with certain ideas or previous feelings.’ For instance, the subject may hear a piece of music which reminds them of sad feelings; or sense the hand passes of the Mesmerist, and by association, imagine being a child once again, soothed by its mother’s touch. Note that the Victorian concept of psychological association was a subjective precursor of the later physiological theory of conditioned responses pioneered by Pavlov’s laboratory research.
Muscular Suggestion. ‘When they feel sensible impressions […] which call subjacent muscles into action.’ For instance, when the body posture or facial expression (“Anatomy of Expression”) is manipulated so as to evoke the corresponding idea or state of mind. For instance, the hypnotist may firmly grasp and briskly straighten a subject’s arm in such a way as to suggest that it should become stiff and cataleptic. Alternatively, by clenching a subject’s fist and furrowing his brow, Braid would evoke feelings of aggression, etc. In fact, this was the form of suggestion primarily employed by Braid in Neurypnology (1843), and used by him as the basis of his radical re-interpretation of phrenological phenomena. This notion, perhaps surprisingly, has many parallels in modern therapy, e.g., the notion of “acting as if” in George Kelly’s work and subsequent cognitive-behavioural therapy.
Focused Attention. ‘Direct attention to the special organs of sense, which excites ideas corresponding with the functions of these different organs, or arouses former ideas arbitrarily or accidentally associated with such and such sensible impressions.’ As in the experiments on attention, debunking the Reichenbach phenomena, which show that prolonged or focused attention, can, by itself, lead to hyperacuity or create spontaneous hallucinatory sensations. Several modern studies have likewise shown that merely asking subjects to stare at a wall, or even sit with their eyes closed and contemplate their experience, tends to evoke a flow of surprisingly unusual experiences.

At the start of Hypnotic Therapeutics (1853), Braid again writes of ‘suggestions received through words audibly uttered in his hearing [verbal suggestion], or ideas previously existing in his mind [autosuggestion], or excited by sensible impressions made by touches or passes of the operator [association], which direct the attention of the sleeper to different parts [focused attention], or excite into action certain combinations of muscles [muscular suggestion], and thereby direct his current of thought’. To a large extent, Braid’s common sense philosophy of hypnotism and suggestion can be seen as deriving from the three basic laws of psychology adopted in his writings: the law of sympathy and imitation, the law of habit and association, and the ideo-dynamic response, which might be termed the “law of dominant ideas”.

Hypnotic Sleep Therapy: Some Basic Instructions

This is an excerpt from the Coping with Noise self-help workbook from the chapter on improving sleep…

It helps if you can try different methods that other people have found helpful and pick the one that appeals to you, or seems to work best. Try using the techniques you’ve already learned first of all, or the methods below, if they appeal to you. Many different relaxation techniques are known to be effective, but you have to practice most of them regularly to get the most benefit. The most important thing, therefore, is probably that you pick a simple technique that you feel comfortable using, and are willing to use every day for a few weeks or more.

James Braid’s Method of “Sleep at Will”

The physiologist and physician Dr. Edmund Jacobson concluded after many decades of research, conducted at leading universities in the USA, that relaxation of the facial muscles, eyes and voice were particularly conducive to sleep and relaxation. It’s certainly true that people tend to find this kind of technique useful, and similar approaches have been used for over 150 years. James Braid, the Scottish surgeon who invented hypnotism, wrote in 1843 of a method for inducing “sleep at will.” Braid observed quite simply that by relaxing, focusing on the idea of falling asleep and fixing one’s attention on an unexciting image or sound, sleep tended to be induced. He recommends a number of ways of doing this, but a modern account might read as follows,

Focus your gaze. Stare at a point on the ceiling and keep your eyes glued to the spot. Make them feel tired and sleepy, without straining them too much. Close them slowly when they begin to feel tired. This shouldn’t take more than a few minutes, if you really imagine your eyes feeling tired. Alternatively, close your eyes and imagine you’re staring up at an image, like a star in the sky.
Relax your breathing. All the while, act relaxed, lie still, and let your breathing become shallow and steady, as relaxed as possible. Make your body comfortable, and try to feel as pleasantly relaxed as you can throughout the whole process.
Focus your mind on sleep. All the while, keep your attention fixed upon on the idea of falling asleep. Don’t try to force yourself to sleep, that won’t work. There’s a knack to focusing on an idea in a relaxed, pleasant and passive way. Forget about absolutely everything else for a while. Have faith, believe you can do it easily and expect to drift off to sleep.
Rest and repeat. When your eyes close, continue to relax for a few more minutes. If you’re still not falling asleep then fix your gaze again and repeat the process as many times as is necessary and you will fall asleep eventually. It’s unusual to have to repeat it more than 3-4 times, though.

As Braid observed, this kind of technique tends to become much easier with practice, as you get the knack of doing it and your body starts to respond out of habit.

Conscious Autosuggestion

Braid also recommends repeating a monotonous phrase, like a lullaby. This technique was popularised in the 1920s by the French pharmacist Emile Coué, renowned as the father of modern self-help. Coué developed a technique which he called “conscious autosuggestion.” These are his instructions for insomniacs,

Having settled themselves comfortably in bed they will repeat (not gabble) “I am going to sleep, I am going to sleep,” in a quiet, placid, even voice, avoiding of course, the slightest mental effort to obtain the desired result. The soporific [sleep-inducing] result of this droning repetition of the suggestion soon makes itself felt; whereas, if one actually tries to sleep, the spirit of wakefulness is kept alive by the negative idea, according to the law of converted effort. Insomnia indeed affords a striking demonstration of the disastrous effect of the exertion of the will, the result of which is just the contrary of the one desired. (Coué, 1923: 31-32)

Coué’s law of “converted effort” or “reversed effect” is also known as the principle of “paradoxical” effect. It refers to the fact that in many ordinary situations, the more effort we make to do something, the more we may achieve the opposite. One notorious example of this is sleep. The more we try to force ourselves to fall asleep, the more we tend to become tense and alert, and to keep ourselves awake. It’s well-known that when people who suffer from insomnia are asked to try to stay awake as long as possible, paradoxically, they tend to fall asleep more quickly.

In the 1970s, Herbert Benson, another scientist who became a well-known authority on relaxation techniques, developed a similar method called the “Benson method” for inducing what he termed the “relaxation response.” Benson compared many popular relaxation and meditation techniques, and found that although most worked, and produced measurable physiological signs of relaxation, there was little difference between them. They all seemed equally effective, although some were more complicated than others, so he tried to develop a simplified approach that worked as well as the existing ones, but was much easier to learn. Benson’s method simply requires that you sit still with your eyes closed and repeat any word or short phrase over and over for about 20 minutes. Benson found that the most important aspect of the technique was the client’s attitude toward distraction. People who try too hard to relax, or worry about their mind wandering, etc., tend to remain tense, but people who say “So what?”, shrug off distractions, and patiently return to the monotonous exercise, tend to relax more easily and more deeply. Benson’s method is used both to overcome stress and to help people fall asleep. It’s really just a modern variation of the old method introduced by Braid and popularised long ago by Coué.