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TRUE HYPNOTISM: UNDERSTANDING ITS SCIENCE AND MASTERING ITS ART is a carefully researched book (available in digital format and downloadable) presenting the significant people, events, and theories in the fascinating history of hypnotism in a new way, leading step-by-step to a clarification of what hypnotism actually is. The major historical and contemporary definitions and explanations of hypnosis are presented, examined, and found to be deficient in terms of providing scientific specificity or practical guidelines for the modern reader to understand hypnotism. Then, with the understanding provided from this coverage, the reader is presented a clear explanation of what true hypnotism is and how it actually works. The book combines the history, biography, theory, and practice of hypnotism in an innovative way which will be welcomed alike by the curious layman, scientists, doctors, psychologists, and beginning students of hypnotism as well as its experienced practitioners. The following is an overview of the contents.
TRUE HYPNOTISM: UNDERSTANDING ITS SCIENCE AND MASTERING ITS ART
by Richard Neil Shrout
DEDICATION
In memory of Dave Elman
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Author's background and rationale for the book ... Brief orientation for the layman ... What hypnosis is not: Not a fake ... Not a maze of mystery ... Not a trivial toy or pasttime...What hypnosis is: A science ... A method of psychological investigation and treatment ... An art ... Definitions of "hypnotism," "hypnosis," and "hypnology" used in this book ...
Chapter 1: PROOF OF A POWER
Describing the prehistoric search to control pain and how that led to the knowledge of rudimentary hypnosis The goddess Sophresene in ancient Greece ... Sleep temples of Egypt ... Druid practices ... James Esdaile, Scot physician in India, performs surgical miracles with hypnoanaesthesia ... He discovers the practice has existed for many centuries in India ... Attempts to explain the power: Brief outline of ancient views The 200-year-old start of the "modern period" ...
Chapter 2: THE MAGNETIC MUDDLE
Mesmer, magnets, and faith healing ... The wand, the hand, and the tub ... Birth of the theory of Animal Magnetism ... Deslon and the Royal Commission ... The Marquis de Puysegur ... Societies of Harmony ... Discovery of somnambulism Victor Race, Mesmerism's most famous somnambulist ... The healing tree at Buzancy ... The creed of the Marquis creates a break with Mesmerism ... The Fluidists versus the Animists: The two branches that developed from Mesmerism ... How they relate to modern theories Psychic theories ... The mysterious Portuguese monk, the Abbe Faria ... Faria's innovative practices and beliefs ...
Chapter 3: ANIMISM, SPIRITISM, AND DEJA VU
James Elliotson ... Phrenology Spiritualism ... The competing medical journals, Lancet and Zoist Discrediting of the Okey sisters ... Elliotson's encounter with the famous medium, D.D. Home and his subsequent religious conversion ...
Chapter 4: BRIGHT LIGHTS AND TIRED EYES
The inadvertent contribution of the stage hypnotist, LaFontaine ...James Braid discovers the principle of eye-fixation ... The word "hypnotism" is coined ...
Chapter 5: THE SOPHISTRY OF SUGGESTION
Liebeault and his pioneer medical work with hypnotism ... Bernheim, who came to scoff and became convinced ... The Nancy School of hypnotism ... Bernheim elaborates the suggestion theory ...3 types of hallucination classified ... How Freud missed an important point ... Bernheim debunks "the effect of drugs at a distance" and "thought transference" ...
Chapter 6: HYSTERIA AND HISTRIONICS
Charcot's research into hypnosis and hysteria ... The Salpetriere asylum ... Blanche Wittman, Queen of the Somnambulists ... Charcot defends Pasteur ... Charcot makes medical hypnotism respectible ... The Paris School of hypnotism How unreformed Mesmerists sabotaged Charcot's work ... Pierre Janet, Master Hypnotist: Janet's early work in hallucinations ... His discovery of Leonie, the woman who could be hypnotized at a distance ... Psychic researchers experiment with Leonie ... Janet rediscovers an ancient secret about Mesmerism ... His famous cure of Achilles, the demon-possessed man only Janet could hypnotize ... Janet's marvellous contributions to hypnotism and why they have been forgotten or ignored ...
Chapter 7: TRANCE AND TRANSFERENCE
Josef Breuer, Freud's early mentor, and his treatment of "Anna O." ... The discovery of psychological catharsis ... How hypnotism led to the foundations of psychoanalysis ... Explanation of Freudian transference and counter-transference, and how they complicated hypnotic and psychoanalytic treatment ... Why Freud Abandoned Hypnosis: Freud's inadequacies as a hypnotist ... The "seductive element" in hypnotism ... Three subjective reasons Freud abandoned hypnosis ... Four objective reasons Freud abandoned hypnosis ... Freud's debt to hypnosis, and modern hypnoanalysts' debt to Freud ... "Father and Mother" Hypnotism: The relationship of "transference" to "rapport" from the Freudian viewpoint ... Demand Characteristics and Antecedent Variables: T.X. Barber's denial of trance and hypnosis as a state ... "Barberian" hypnotists versus "barbarian" hypnotists ... Attempts to diminish importance of traditional hypnotism ... Sacerdote's critique of Barber's views ...
Chapter 8: THE DIVIDED MIND: HORIZONTAL OR VERTICAL?
Multiple personalities not to be confused with schizophrenia ... Classification of Multiple Personality Cases ... outstanding examples presented ... Their significance to hypnotism ... "Depth" versus the "Dissociation" Model of the Mind: Analogies of depth and dissociation ... How phenomenon of dissociation affects hypnotic theory ... The "Hidden Observer" -- Perception of meaningful sounds even while anaesthetized ... Cold-pressor and ischemic pain research Experiments on unconscious listening ... Eavesdropping on simultaneous inner dialog ... The neo-dissociation theory of hypnosis ...
Chapter 9: REFLECTIONS ON REFLEXES
Hypnotism in Russia before and after the Communist revolution ... Animal hypnosis ... The "Pavlovian harness" ... Conditioned reflex theory of hypnosis explained ... First and second signal systems of the brain ... Pavlov the man ... Bykov proves internal organs can be conditioned ... Implications for hypnotherapy ... Russian Stages of Hypnosis: Platovov's nine-fold model described Cortical excitation, inhibition, and irradiation ... The "zone of rapport" neurologically explained ... Law of force relations ... Transitory states in Russian hypnosis... Equalization phase ... Paradoxical stage ... Ultraparadoxical stage ... Russian view of Rapport: The "zone of rapport" versus the "sentry post" ... Russian analysis of doctor-patient relationships ... World Influence of Russian Hypnology: How book translations determined the Russian hypnotists' influence ... The Latin American connection ... Synthesis of Freudian and Pavlovian views by Latin American hypnologists (Sophrologists) ...
Chapter 10: COMMUNICATION CANT
The jargon of communication theory invades hypnology ... Madison Avenue advertising and the unconscious motivations of consumers ... Semantic Maps, Metacommunication, and Therapeutic Metaphor: The astounding work of Milton H. Erickson ... NLP or neurolinguistic programming ... Restraints on perception: neurological, social, and linguistic ... Reification ... Generalization, Deletion, and Distortion ... Surface Structure and Deep Structure ... Transformational Grammar: The theory and practice explained and critiqued ... Metaphors and Embedded Suggestions: Analogical marking ... Erickson's famous "tomato plant" induction of hypnosis ... Disadvantages to Ericksonian hypnosis ... Illusions of "permissiveness" and "indirect suggestion" ...
Chapter 11: THE CHEMICAL CONFUSION AND THE MEDITATION MELANGE
LSD and other hallucinogens: History of the use and development of hallucinogens and how that affected the course of modern hypnotism ... The drug subculture influences the civilized world ... Fount of wisdom or Pandora's box of evils unleashed on the world? The Meditation Movement:Influence of Eastern religion in the 1960s and its relation to hypnotists ... Bhakti Yoga ... Indian Tantra ... Tibetan Mahayana and Theravadan Buddhism ... Zen and Zazen ... Koans ... Sufism ... Krishnamurti ... Gurdjieff ... Hypnological Assesment of Meditation: Role of guru as hypnotist Concentration ... "Altered" versus "higher" states of consciousness ... How hypnotism elucidates meditation ... Altered States of Consciousness: How the hippie movement in the 1960s led to serious research in ASCs ... Causes of ASCs: Reduction or increase in stimulation ... Increased alertness or involvement ... Alterations in body chemistry ... Characteristics of ASCs: Alteration in thinking ... Disturbed time sense ... Loss of control .... Change in emotional expression ... Body image change ... Perceptual distortion ... Change in meaning or significance ... A sense of the ineffable Feelings of rejuvenation ... Hypersuggestibility ... "Reality Orientation" -- Ronald Shor's remarkable recent theory of ASCs and hypnosis ... His 22 Propositions ... Three dimensions of trance depth explained ...
Chapter 12: BLIPS, BEEPS, AND BIOFEEDBACK
Definitions of "feedback" and "biofeedback" ... Description of the modalities: thermistors, EMG, and EEG ... How emphasis on ASCs and meditation changed the direction of medical biofeedback ...Alpha training ... Brain-wave training and hypnosis ... Russian explorations of "infraslow oscillation of potentials" (ISOP) of the brain in hypnosis ...
Chapter 13: RELAXATION AND IMAGINATION
Discovery of stress disease ... The meaning of stress ... Selye's "general disease syndrome" caused by stress and Volgyesi's "general health syndrome" caused by hypnosis... Ergotropic and trophotropic trance explained ... Autogentic Training and Progressive Relaxation: Schultz' development of autogenic training ... Jacobson's system of progressive relaxation ... How these medical methods influenced hypnotism ... Relaxation not mentioned by earlier hypnotists -- Mesmer, DePusegur, Charcot, Janet, Bernheim, Braid ... The Russian exception to the rule ... Description of trance phenomena outside mainstream hypnological literature ... Voodoo, witchcraft, etc, Athletics ... Non-relaxed hypnosis ... Is Hypnosis Just Relaxation? Artifice or essential? ... "Neutral" hypnosis ... Visualization and Guided Imagery: Why visualization methods sometimes prevent hypnosis ... Visualization in cancer treatment. Role-Playing or Role-Taking? -- Significant difference between the two concepts as applied to hypnosis ignored by many ... What a "good subject" for hypnosis really means ...
Chapter 14: TRUE HYPNOTISM REVEALED
Preliminary Remarks: Hypnosis not faith ... Hypnosis not just suggestion ... Hypnosis not just relaxation ... Difference between ordinary relaxation and hypnotic relaxation ... The Extras and the Extraneous: Lighting ... Gadgetry ("hypno-discs," etc, ... Posture ... Theatrical voice and mannerisms ... Sufi tale of Nasrudin's "carrots" ... The True Formula: Dave Elman's life and learning about hypnotism Superiority of his teachings ... The irreducible definition of hypnotism ... The by-pass of the critical faculty plus selective thinking ... "The By-Pass of the Critical Faculty": Inductive and deductive modes of logic related to hypnosis and the subconscious ... What is the critical faculty? ... When is the critical faculty by-passed? ... How is the critical faculty by-passed? ... "Selective Thinking": What it means ... So-called susceptibility or suggestibility scales described ... Friedlander-Sarbin scale Davis-Husband scale ... Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, A, B, and C ... Stanford Hypnotic Clinical Scale (Adult and Child) Children's Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale ... Diagostic Rating Scale ... Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility ... Barber Suggestibility Scale ... Creative Imagination Scale... Hypnotic Induction Profile ... Their importance to experimental hypnosis ... Their irrelevance to clinical hypnosis ... The Laws of Suggestion: Emile Coue and Charles Baudouin ... The New Nancy School of Hypnotism ... The three laws of suggestion Law of Concentrated Attention ... Law of Dominant Affect ... Law of Reverse Effort ... Suggestibility tests described and their defects explained ... Difference between command, persuasion, and suggestion ... What makes a suggestion a "hypnotic" suggestion? The use of the "indefinite future" tense in giving suggestions ... Arm Levitation and Catalepsy Demonstration: Complete verbatim description and analysis of the arm levitation and catalepsy experiment ... When Does Hypnotism Exist? When faith is hypnotism ... When religious healing is hypnotism ... When voodoo is hypnotism ... When meditation is hypnotism ... When ASCs are hypnotism ...
Chapter 15: TRUE HYPNOTISM SIMPLIFIED
Discovery of eye-closure, the "opening wedge to hypnotism" ... What hypnotists mean by eye-closure ... The "Opening Wedge": How eye-closure produces instant relaxation ... How eye-closure by-passes the critical faculty ... Compounding: The amazing principle that multiplies hypnotic effects ... How hypnosis is deepened ... How any suggestion can be made more powerful ... Artificial and True Somnambulism: The real stages of hypnotic depth ... The common problem hypnotists have in getting somnambulism ... The artificial state compared with the true state ... How to produce and test for somnambulism at the same time ... "Five Trips to Bernheim": Bernheim's repeated induction technique and Elman's improvements ... How to compress five weeks of hypnotic conditioning into five minutes ... How Elman gives a subject the equivalent of five weekly trips to Bernheim in three minutes ... The Complete Elman Technique: The fastest way to get the deepest hypnosis ... The induction described from start to finish ... Peculiar characteristics of the deepest stage of hypnosis ... How to test for the deepest stage ... How to awaken a recalcitrant subject by a clever use of the Law of Dominant Affect ... Alternate way of obtaining true hypnotic somnambulism ... Working the hypnotized subject with his eyes open ... How to tell an truly expert hypnotist from novices or even apparently expert hypnotists ... Concluding Remarks: My opinions on the current state of the art of hypnosis and reasons for it ... Hope for the future
BIBLIOGRAPHY (The Online version is completely computer-searchable.)
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