HYPNO-CURIOUS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF HEALING HYPNOSIS?
We sometimes think that using Hypnosis to address our problems is a modern approach, but hypnosis has roots in ancient history.
Here are some interesting bits: 3000 year old Ebers Papyrus about Egyptian Soothsayers, & then Sleep temples, located in Egypt & Greece, were holistic healing centres, where various healing techniques, including hypnosis, were used.
The Greeks their Shrines of Healing. Sleep temples were hospitals of sorts, healing a variety of ailments, perhaps many of them psychological in nature. Treatment involved chanting, placing the patient into a trancelike or hypnotic state, and analyzing their dreams in order to determine treatment. In Greece, they were built in honor of Asclepius, the Greek God of Medicine.
Hypnotherapy is the term used to describe the therapeutic use of hypnosis, and can be traced to the early 1800s in the dental field. One of the first documented cases of hypnodontics, or hypnosis in dentistry, was performed in 1829 to assist with analgesia and ease fear during a tooth extraction.
Hypnosis / Dentistry
Hypnosis has many beneficial uses within the dental setting. When done within the proper context — and with appropriate education and training — hypnotherapy can be a valuable adjunct to traditional methods of patient management. Dental professionals, including dental hygienists, can be trained in different levels of hypnosis techniques. Learning these techniques and utilizing them as part of the provider’s treatment toolbox may enhance overall patient comfort, while reducing fear and providing alternative methods of behavior modification.
Hypnosis used during World War I & World War II to treat wounded soldiers that were injured during the war. A full-time program in hypnotherapy for battle trauma cases was developed during World War II in a large Army hospital. This program treated symptoms like anxiety, hysteria, and phobias. Hypnosis was used to control pain on the battlefield. Hypnosis was also used after the war to help veterans suppress traumatic events. After the two wars, soldiers could not forget the war so doctors used hypnotism to help the soldiers forget some events that occurred. The soldiers suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder which caused them to freak out when remembering events that happened to them during the war. The first extensive medical application of hypnosis was used in the American Civil War by doctors in the field for pain management. Hypnosis was reduced after the hypodermic needle and anesthetics were introduced. Soldiers and veterans appreciate not having to be stabbed with painful needles or have to take pills to feel better.
In 1955 the British Medical Association approved the use of Hypnosis in the treatment of conversion hysteria or as an anaesthetic. In 1958, the American Medical Association made the same statement.
Today, hypnotherapy is used to treat a variety of unwanted habits, disorders, phobias & subconscious beliefs that no longer serve. Unlike the past, hypnosis is understood and integrated into modern medical technology. In some ways, the practice has come full circle as it is now used to enhance anaesthesia as well as directly treat both physical and mental conditions.