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DORMEZ!
The practice of inducing trance(催眠状态) states to promote healing is not new.Several ancient cultures, including those of Egypt and Greece, saw nothing strange about taking their sick to “sleep temples” so they could be cured, while in a sleep-like state, by suggestions from specially trained priests.
In 1027, the Persian physician Avicenna documented the characteristics of the trance state,but its use as a healing therapy was largely abandoned until the German doctor Franz Mesmer reintroduced it in the 18th century.
Mesmer’s treatment involved manipulating the body’s natural, or “animal”, magnetism, through the use of magnets and suggestion. After being “mesmerized(催眠)”, or “magnetized”, some people suffered a convulsion(抽搐), after which they claimed to feel better.
A few years later, Abbé Faria, a Portugese-Goan monk, studied Mesmer’s work and concluded that it was “entirely absurd” to think that magnets were a vital part of the process.The truth was even more extraordinary: the power to fall into trance or “lucid(头脑清醒的) sleep” lay entirely with the individuals concerned. No special forces were necessary, because the phenomena relied only upon the power of suggestion.
"Nothing comes from the magnetizer(磁体); everything comes from the subject and takes place in his imagination."
——Abbé Faria
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Franz Mesmer induced trance through the application of magnets, often to the stomach.These were said to bring the body’s “animal” magnetism back into a harmonious state.
Lucid sleep
Faria saw his role as a “concentrator”, helping his subject get into the right state of mind.In On The Cause of Lucid Sleep, he describes his method:“After selecting subjects with the right aptitude, I ask them to relax in a chair, shut their eyes, concentrate their attention, and think about sleep. As they quietly await further instructions, I gently or commandingly say: ‘Dormez!’ (Sleep!) and they fall into lucid sleep”.
It was from Faria’s lucid sleep that the term “hypnosis(催眠状态)” was coined in 1843 by the Scottish surgeon James Braid, from the Greek hypnos, meaning “sleep” and osis meaning “condition”.Braid concluded that hypnosis is not a type of sleep but a concentration on a single idea, resulting in heightened suggestibility(易受暗示).
After his death, interest in hypnosis largely waned(减弱) until the French neurologist(神经病学家) Jean-Martin Charcot began to use hypnotism(催眠术) systematically in the treatment of traumatic(造成创伤的) hysteria(癔病).This brought hypnosis to the attention of Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud, who were to question the drive behind the hypnotic self, and discover the power of the unconscious.
MORE TO KNOW…
APPROACH
Hypnosis
BEFORE
1027 Persian philosopher and physician Avicenna (Ibn Sina) writes about trances in The Book of Healing.
1779 German physician Franz Mesmer publishes A Memoir on the Discovery of Animal Magnetism.
AFTER
1843 Scottish surgeon James Braid coins the term “neuro-hypnotism” in Neurypnology.
1880s French psychologist Emile Coué discovers the placebo(安慰剂) effect and publishes Self-Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion.
1880s Sigmund Freud investigates hypnosis and its apparent power to control unconscious symptoms.
ABBÉ FARIA
Born in Portuguese Goa, José Custódio de Faria was the son of a wealthy heiress, but his parents separated when he was 15.Armed with introductions to the Portuguese court, Abbé (Abbot) Faria and his father travelled to Portugal where both trained as priests.On one occasion, the young Faria was asked by the queen to preach in her private chapel.
During the sermon, he panicked, but his father whispered, “They are all men of straw – cut the straw!” Faria immediately lost his fear and preached fluently; he later wondered how a simple phrase could so quickly alter his state of mind.He moved to France, where he played a prominent part in the French Revolution and refined his techniques of self-suggestion while imprisoned.
Faria became a professor of philosophy, but his theatre shows demonstrating “lucid sleep” undercut(削弱) his reputation;when he died of a stroke in 1819, he was buried in an unmarked grave in Montmartre, Paris.
Key work
1819 On The Cause of Lucid Sleep
