In 1958, The American Medical Association identified hypnosis to be a valid therapeutic tool in the practice of medicine. Historically, hypnosis was originally studied by de Pusegur (1784), Braid (1843) and Charcot (1882). Hypnosis enjoyed its heyday in the last quarter of the 19th century in the days of C Bernhim, Janet and Freud.

The deviation of the word “hypnosis” has its roots from the Greek word, “hypnos”, which means sleep. However, hypnosis is not a form of sleep Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness. When a participant in hypnosis has been hypnotized in any of several methods, the subject’s perception is that some changes have taken place, resulting from suggestions that have been made in the induction. Relaxation of muscles, drowsiness and other subtle changes are a part of the total experience. A subject after a hypnotic induction often feels more relaxed. The subject may have other feelings such as a sense of detachment from the environment. Increased suggestibility, enhanced imagery and imagination (including the availability of visual memories from the past), the loss of initiative and independence, and reduction of reality testing, all can be characteristic of the altered state of hypnosis. Other aspects including amnesia and changes in the tension function are characteristic. Herbert Speigel and David Speigel (1978), present a helpful definition of hypnosis as “a focus state of intense concentration characterized by heightened responsiveness to suggestions, cues and signals from the surroundings environment, and a subjective experience of involuntariness when the subject, who is in the hypnotic state, responds to suggestion.” The subject during a hypnotic state is able to block out the external surrounding environment and tune into one’s internal reality of the trance as the only reality that exists.

Some of the common myths and misconceptions that surround hypnosis are:
(1) hypnosis is sleep; (2) the subject is under the power and control of the hypnotist; (3) women are more hypnotizable than men; (4) people with weak character are only hypnotized; (5) once a person is hypnotized that person is locked in a trance; (6) hypnosis can be used to accurately recall past events; (7) there is no biological or neurological basis for hypnosis. Is everyone hypnotizable? There are two schools of though. The first, claims to follow the teachings of Milton Erickson. The belief is that everyone is hypnotizable and everyone has the capacity to go into a hypnotic trance. The second school of thought believes that everyone has the capacity to go into a hypnotic trance. This school believes that hypnotic susceptibility relates to personally style, age and degree of psychopathology. Weitzenhoffer (1989) identifies the following clinical signs of hypnosis as:

staring into space
closed eyes with fluttering eyelids
sudden non-talkativeness
catatonic body position
unresponsiveness to communication
change in breathing pattern and mood
dilation of pupils
waxy flexibility or catalepsy
regression
dissociation

Hypnosis has been found to be a helpful tool in the psychotherapeutic treatment of anxiety conditions including phobias, panic, obsessive-compulsive disorders and adjustments disorders. A patient nay be taught hypnotically to relax facilitated by visual and guided imagery. Hypnosis is also useful in the treatment of habit disorders such as cigarette cessation, weight control and pain control regardless of its etiology. Hypnosis is also helpful in the treatment of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociative disorder, sexual dysfunction and eating disorders.