It is worth noting that any use of the term “hypnotism” before 1841 is speculative since James Braid was the first to use that term in 1841. Braid adopted the term hypnotism to emphasize the state of the subject, rather than the techniques applied by the operator. Braid’s technique was a subject-centered approach, unlike the operator-centered Mesmerism, Animal Magnetism or the induction of artificial somnabulism.
In November 1841, James Braid, a Scottish surgeon and physician, observed demonstrations given by the traveling French Mesmerist Charles Lafontaine. He became interested in Mesmerism and examined the subjects Mesmerized b Lafontaine. Braid concluded that these subjects where in a different physical state.
Upon reflection, Braid reached a conclusion that what he was observing was a natural psychophysiological mechanism. He followed by delivering a series of five public lectures in Manchester that commenced on 27 November 1841.
In 1843, Braid published a book, largely considered the first book ever written on hypnotism, titled Neurypnology. Later, he was informed of reports concerning the practices of various Oriental meditation techniques. Braid’s interest in meditation developed more concretely after he was introduced to an ancient Persian text called Dabistan-i Mazahib which translates to the “School of Religions” that describes a wide variety of Oriental religious practices. He excitedly stated,
“Last May [1843], a gentleman residing in Edinburgh, personally unknown to me, who had long resided in India, favoured me with a letter expressing his approbation of the views which I had published on the nature and causes of hypnotic and Mesmeric phenomena. In corroboration of my views, he referred to what he had previously witnessed in oriental regions, and recommended me to look into the “Dabistan,” a book lately published, for additional proof to the same effect. On much recommendation I immediately sent for a copy of the “Dabistan”, in which I found many statements corroborative of the fact, that the eastern saints are all self-hypnotisers, adopting means essentially the same as those which I had recommended for similar purposes.”
Braid published a series of articles entitled Magic, Mesmerism, Hypnotism, etc., Historically & Physiologically Considered. In these articles, he discussed the early history of hypnosis, or to be more accurate the historical precursors that lead to hypnosis as known in his time. He drew analogies between his own practice of hypnotism and various forms of Hindu yoga meditation and other ancient spiritual practices. Despite that, Braid disputed all religious interpretations given to such phenomena.
Braid used Oriental meditation as an example and proof that the effects of hypnotism could be produced in solitude, without the presence of an operator (or Magnetizer). As a result he saw meditation and yoga as the historical precursors to hypnosis. He clearly stated that point of view in his book The Power of the Mind over the Body when he said that “there is no need for an exoteric influence to produce the phenomena of Mesmerism.”
Braid further explained,
“Inasmuch as patients can throw themselves into the nervous sleep, and manifest all the usual phenomena of Mesmerism, through their own unaided efforts, as I have so repeatedly proved by causing them to maintain a steady fixed gaze at any point, concentrating their whole mental energies on the idea of the object looked at; or that the same may arise by the patient looking at the point of his own finger, or as the Magi of Persia and Yogi of India have practised for the last 2,400 years, for religious purposes, throwing themselves into their ecstatic trances by each maintaining a steady fixed gaze at the tip of his own nose; it is obvious that there is no need for an exoteric influence to produce the phenomena of Mesmerism. […] The great object in all these processes is to induce a habit of abstraction or concentration of attention, in which the subject is entirely absorbed with one idea, or train of ideas, whilst he is unconscious of, or indifferently conscious to, every other object, purpose, or action.”
It is worth noting that Braid’s hypnotism was significantly different from Lafontaine’s mesmerism. Braid quite intensely opposed the views of the Mesmerists, especially the claim that the effects of Mesmerism came from an invisible force (Animal Magnetism). Braid also opposed all claim that Mesmerised subjects developed paranormal abilities such as ESP.
Braid’s skepticism of the force of Animal Magnetism and ESP stemmed from his adoption of the philosophical school of Scottish Common Sense Realism thus he explained the Mesmeric phenomena with common laws of psychology and physiology. For instance, Braid explained a trance caused by a Mesmerist to be a physiological process resulting from the prolonged fixation on a bright moving object, or any object of fixation for that matter. He speculated that prolonged fixation of ones sight (eyes) caused fatigue to certain parts of the brain causing a trance, this is what he called a “nervous sleep”.
As a result of Braid’s analysis of Mesmerism on the basis scientifically well-established laws of psychology and physiology Braid is considered by many as being the first true hypnotist and the first genuine “hypnotherapist” (in contrast to Mesmerists and other Magnetists that preceded him). Hence, Braid is considered the “Father of Modern Hypnotism.”
After Braid’s death in 1860, interest in hypnotism temporarily decreased and gradually moved out of Britain and into France, where research began to grow, reaching its peak around the 1880s with the work of Hippolyte Bernheim and Jean-Martin Charcot.
