Stage Hypnosis - A brief history

Please see Alexander's Stage Show, for an overview of a modern stage hypnosis show.

A Brief History of Stage Hypnosis

Hypnosis suggests power, magic, mystery,and the ability to control the mind. A stage hypnotist expresses these qualities theatrically.

The most significant influence on the creation of the modern day hypnotist began in the late 1700's with the work of Franz Anton Mesmer.

Born in the German village of Iznang, Mesmer held a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Viena, and later became a medical doctor in 1765 at the age of 31.

Mesmer's thesis, written
in Latin, shows his interest in the influence of the planets on the human body.

Mesmer theorized that the planets influenced the human body through a subtle fluid he named 'Fluidum".

Mesmer believed he could heal others by influencing their magnetic field, and thus he made magnetic-type passes with his hands in order to cure a variety of maladies.

He attained numerous remarkable cures of functional disorders and his concepts of "animal magnetism" brought him public
notoriety and adoration many years.

The term hypnosis was later coined by a man named Dr. James Braid. Braid was a Scotsman who practiced medicine in Manchester in the 1830's and 1840's.

Braid noticed that subjects in the 'mesmerized' state were more suggestible than usual and that the state resembled sleep.

Stage Hypnotists became popular in the early 1900's as a result of numerous touring hypnotists, who, like magicians, traveled the country with touring shows, fascinating audiences with the power of the mind.

Historical figures and hypnotists such as Mesmer, Bernheim, Charcot and Freud all contributed to emphasize a paternal approach to hypnotizing others in which the hypnotist causes a subject to enter into a passive state.

In the mid 1900's a psychiatrist by the name of Dr. Milton H. Erickson was dubbed the father of modern day hypnosis.

He developed a strategic and brief method of therapeutic trance that heightened the ability of others to realize their own inherent power to change.

Still used by many therapists and hypnotists today, Erickson's method utilizes a variety of unique language patterns. Incorporated into many self hypnosis methods, it is a cooperation approach, and emphasizes accepting and using a clients present reality.

Erickson used hypnosis to potentiate resources within an individual and create a multitude of generative and resourceful new choices.

Stage hypnotists became increasingly popular as corporate entertainment for company events because of the fun, entertaining and intriguing nature of stage hypnotism.

Hypnotism Defined

Hypnosis can be defined as an altered state characterized by heightened responsiveness to suggestion. Self hypnosis is hypnosis induced by an individual. Hetero-hypnosis is the name given to hypnosis and hypnotic trance that is caused by another person or an outside source.