HYPNOTISM: A Complete Scientific and Practical Study

HYPNOTISM: A Complete Scientific and Practical Study

From the Ancient Roots to Modern Neuroscience, Clinical Applications, and the Frontiers of the Mind

Second Edition

For nearly two centuries, hypnosis has occupied one of the most fascinating and contested positions in all of science — simultaneously one of the oldest known psychotherapeutic tools and one of the most vigorously debated phenomena in modern neuroscience. This comprehensive second edition presents the fullest account yet written of what hypnosis is, how it works, where it came from, and what it can genuinely do.

Spanning five parts and fourteen chapters, this book takes the reader from the sleep temples of ancient Egypt and the mesmeric salons of eighteenth-century Paris through the great theoretical battles of the nineteenth century, the neuroscientific revolution of the twentieth, and the cutting-edge neuroimaging research redefining our understanding of the hypnotized brain today.

Inside, you'll find:

The complete history of hypnosis: from Mesmer's baquet and the Franklin Commission of 1784 to Braid, Charcot, Bernheim, Janet, and the birth of modern hypnotherapy

The state vs. non-state controversy — the fundamental theoretical debate still dividing researchers — examined with full fairness to both sides

Neodissociation theory, Hilgard's hidden observer, the sociocognitive framework of Spanos and Kirsch, and the new neuroimaging evidence from fMRI and PET studies

The phenomena of hypnosis in rigorous detail: ideomotor responses, hypnotic analgesia and anesthesia, positive and negative hallucinations, post-hypnotic suggestion, amnesia, and time distortion

Clinical applications with full evidence-base review: pain management, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, PTSD, pediatric hypnosis, surgical applications, and performance enhancement

Induction techniques and deepening methods, from eye fixation to progressive relaxation and rapid induction approaches

Advanced phenomena: age regression, past-life regression, and automatic writing — examined critically

Ethical considerations, forensic controversies, and the persistent mythology of hypnosis as mind control

The heritability and neuroscience of hypnotizability — why 15–20% of people are highly hypnotizable, and what that means

Written with scholarly rigor and genuine intellectual honesty — acknowledging controversy where it exists and certainty where it is earned — this is the definitive single-volume reference on hypnotism for clinicians, researchers, students, and serious readers.