2. A Brief History of Hypnosis. (Draft 1)

Fritz Anton Mesmer (1783 to 1815) was the originator of what we call today, hypnosis or hypnotism. It is his name which gives us the term mesmerism. Interestingly enough, Mesmer was a medical doctor and his original application of mesmerism was used to treat illnesses, believing that most, if not all illness was the result of an imbalance in the body's electrical fields which manifested themselves as disease. 
Despite conventional medicine, there is still a substantial population which believes that a proper balance of energy within the body can eliminate the symptoms of organic disease. There is certainly some evidence that one’s state of mind can directly affect one’s health.

Mesmer's work was followed up on and expanded by James Braid (1795 to 1860), a Scottish medical doctor who coined the term hypnotism which was actually a shortened version of the term neuro-hypnotism which meant "sleep of the nerves."

It is interesting to note that hypnotherapy and hypnosis in general was originally developed as a medical therapeutic process. It wasn't until much later that hypnosis became a carnival sideshow attraction and a form of entertainment.

Today, both the allopathic (MD) and osteopathic (DO) medical professions recognize hypnosis as a valid form of therapy. Hypnotherapy is used for such objectives as smoking cessation, weight control, and pain management. In the many instances, hypnosis has been seen as defective as drugs for pain management and relief.

Even today, some practitioners credit the balancing of bodily energies through hypnosis as a way to ameliorate the effects of disease caused by microorganisms, viruses and injury. We must date however that there is insufficient clinical evidence to state that conclusively. However, there is substantial anecdotal evidence to support the position.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending upon your point of view, hypnotism and hypnotherapy are largely unregulated in the United States and Canada. There are a few sanctioning bodies for hypnotherapy practitioners. And still, there seems to be no prohibition on using hypnosis as a carnival sideshow act. As a result, the efficacy of hypnotherapy is, all too often, discounted by some physicians and certainly some, if not a majority of, medical patients.