Hypnosis: Attracting Your Success: Mind Control, Self Hypnosis and nlp pdfdrive com

James Braid
The 19th Century Scottish surgeon and scientist, James Braid, is considered to
be the first practicing hypnotherapist. Braid rejected the popular assertion that
hypnosis was a kind of “cure all” for all manner of physical and psychological
illnesses. Instead, he regarded the modern day multi-disciplinarian approach as
the most effective means of curing illness, as it took into account individual
patient needs.
First encountering the idea of magnetism at a public demonstration by Charles
LaFontaine, Braid became convinced of the principles on display, following
three visits to LaFontaine’s demonstrations. He was then to launch his own
investigation into the phenomenon. His first departure from LaFontaine’s claims
was to declare magnetism as invalid as a primary source of the observed
phenomena. Much like Faria, he further claimed that the hypnotic effect did not
arise from any action on the part of those practicing magnetism, but rather from
the subject and the subject alone.
Braid’s first experiments were pursued to confirm his assertion – that the
efficacy of hypnosis is determined by the subject and not the hypnotist, and that
the hypnotist acts only as a guide in the process. He further confirmed this
assertion through self-hypnosis. His research proved that hypnosis was not
dependent on any exceptional quality on the part of the hypnotist, but rather the
subconscious approval of the subject to undergo the process. At the time he
made these assertions, practitioners like LaFontaine were claiming special
powers and extraordinary charisma on their parts as the reason for the
effectiveness of their hypnotic adventures. Braid proved this not to be the case,
thus blowing the pseudo-scientific lid off the hypnosis of his day.
Not unlike Abbe Feria, when news of Braid’s research reached the ears of
religious zealots, he was denounced from the pulpit. Hugh M’Neile delivered a
lengthy sermon accusing both LaFontaine and Braid of “satanic agency”. The

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sermon led Braid to reach out to the controversial minister and invite him to one
of his lectures. To this invitation, M’Neile’s response was to have the entire
contents of his pulpit polemic against mermerism published in Liverpool paper. 
Braid responded with a pamphlet of his own. This pamphlet now stands as a
rare and eloquent defense of hynosis.