Live 1800’s Old Hypnosis Training Demos
Part 6
This trance-induction is really beautiful. Doug masterfully demonstrates an induction which he chose for its uniqueness. It comes from Charles Ricket 1893 as quoted by John Milne Bramwell in the book Hypnotism: Its History, Practice and Theory.
It combines the mesmeric passes with eye fixation and energetic suggestions. This is extremely interesting, since the notion of animal magnetism later on was deemed to have little or no scientific value in the field.
Doug was kind enough to write a short article describing the induction he used. (see below)
What is animal magnetism? The term originates with term proposed by Franz Anton Mesmer in the 1700’s. He observed trance like effects developing in people but attributed them to ‘life energy’ or ‘fluid’ believed to reside in the bodies of living beings. The theory became fashionable at the time and it involved magnetic passes (the passing of the hands close to the body). These movements in conjunction with the intention of the operator made possible (according to Mesmer) the induction of trance.
Abbé Faria (for an induction originating from Abbe Faria click here) was one of the disciples of Mesmer, however he had a different conclusion- “no special force was necessary for the production of the mesmeric phenomena such as the trance, but that the determining cause lay within the subject himself;”1 This says that hypnosis actually works through suggestion and not through magnetic passes.
Although this conclusion seems to throw out mesmerism with the proverbial bath water, hypnosis coexisted with mesmerism (which is still popular to this day in certain parts of Europe) well into the 19th and even the 20th century.
Unfortunately the Royal Commission appointed by Louis XVI in 1784 established that there was no measurable way of proving the existence of this “magnetic fluid”, and thus the notion of energy has been left out of the medical equation in the western medicine’s approach to health ever since.
1 Hull, Clark L (1929). “Hypnotism in Scientific Perspective“. The Scientific Monthly 29 (2): 156. As quoted by Wikipedia.org
Method of Induction by Charles Ricket and Professor Charles Pachet of Paris 1883
By Douglas A Woock
Hypnosis Master Trainer, NLP Trainer, Time Line Therapy® Master Trainer
Source: John Milne Bramwell in the book Hypnotism: Its History, Practice and Theory
Bramwell’s book explored different hypnotic methods that had been practiced up to the time of publishing his book and gave short accounts of some of the more important types and styles that he discovered. His description of Ricket and Pachet induction could be consider a merging of mesmerism style to his own of eye fixation with energetic suggestions of eyelids closing with energetic pass in the direction of the patient’s face with command “Sleep”.
The effectiveness of mesmerist is centered upon the ability to concentrate the mind to single outcome. Mesmerism or animal magnetism focuses on life force energy and its flow through you into the subject. Looking steadily into the eyes of the subject and think thoughts of what you want the subject to do.
Before the actual induction the standard practices of suggestibility testing, pre-talk and permission to touch subject in hands should be covered with subject. The mesmerist eye stare could be described as looking straight through the subject while maintaining peripheral vision.
Induction process:
1. The environment should be as dark and quite as possible and have client sit in an armchair in front of hypnotist. Show client to sit with both feet square on the floor with hands and arms in clients lap with palms down. Now I would like you to have a steady gazing at some object right in front and above the hypnotist. Combine with soft whispered suggestions of relaxation and comfort. Examples: Take a deep breath and hold it, now let it out and send that relaxation all the way from the top of your head down to your tips of your toes. Just listen to the sound of my voice and the sound of my voice can always help you to go deeper and deeper relaxed. You will hear other sounds, the traffic outside, people’s voices (and any sounds that may occur). But none of these sounds will disturb or alarm you in fact; any other sounds that you hear will help you go even deeper into relaxation.
2. In a moment I’m going to take my hands and hold your hands in your lap (use your thumbs so that the inside of your thumbs touch inside of clients thumbs and squeeze them somewhat strongly with uniform pressure continuously for a period of 2 to 3 minutes until the heat of your thumb and clients thumbs equal). I want you to remain relaxed and continue to gaze at the object we discussed. Hypnotist grabs client’s hand and continues to suggest client relax and hypnotic indications (fluttering eyes, slow breathing, lacrimation, red eyes pupil dilation, muscle relaxed, sigh, eyes rolling up, swallowing) say that’s right.
3. A sensation of heaviness in the arms, elbow, and wrist should occur with client. Hypnotist then makes passes with outstretched hands. These consist of uniform movements from above downward in front of the client eyes as close to eyes as possible without touching subject, as if I desired to close them. You can say: take a deep breath and hold it. Now let it out and close your eyes down and relax. Now relax your eyes and the muscles around your eyes, fully and completely. Relax them so completely, that as long as you maintain that relaxation, your eyes will just remain closed. Eye closer should occur if not repeat relaxing suggestion while continuing with hand passes in front of subject’s eyes until eyes close.
At this point if required deepening techniques can be employed and suggestions for therapeutic benefit can be delivered to subject. Emerge subject with your choice of techniques. The common practice of emerge subjects back then was to shout “wake up” or even slap subject in face, so much for subtle transition from trance state to a wake state. It’s very important that the mesmerist or hypnotist make no claims about healing anyone. Remember that the client heals himself or herself, you are just the catalyst. A client who has a mental or physical disease which maybe life- threatening should be advised to seek psychiatric or medical treatment.