There is hardly anybody who has not seen magicians suspending ladies in air or to cut them in half, by hypnotising them. But in fact there is a great difference between Hypnotism in real and as it is acted out on stage by magicians.Hypnotism -- today a common branch of science has its origin in the distant past. It had its existence completely blended in different ancient cultures. We can find the application of the art in different religious and medical fields among the ancient civilizations of India, China and Greece. Before the birth of Christ many people like Solon, Hippocrates, Asclepiades used to heal physical ailments with the help of Hypnotism. We also get instances about it in "The Atharvaveda" and "The Mahabharata". Upto the threshold of the middle-age the art of hypnotism was honoured by all, but its glory faded away during the middle-ages. At this time the subject came to be known as "black-magic", a subject of the fakirs and yogis. It is from the misconceptions which arose at this period that many persons took it in the other way. In the year 1772, an Austrian doctor named Friedrich Anton (Franz) Mesmer took up the idea that there exists a power which he called animal magnetism. In 1778 Mesmer went to Paris where he created a sensation curing diseases at seances. Later it came to be known as "Mesmerism" after the name of Dr. Mesmer.Besides Mesmer a galaxy of scientists from various countries worked for the improvement of the science called hypnotism. Dr. James Braid (who coined the term Hypnotism from its Greek origin "Hipnos," which means sleep), Dr. El Wakeritz, Dr. Liu Bault, Dr. Sheimound Hood are notable Scientists who developed it into a viable scientific theory. Later Sigmund Freud established hypnotism in the field of medical treatment. Still later Indian scientists like Professor S N Bose, Professor Ahmed, Dr. Jagdeb Mitra, Professor Rao researched on the subject to give it its modern form.Today the theory of Mesmer is more or less accepted with an improvement of the same by Hudson. Hudson regarded "Duality of the Mind" as a prime cause of Hypnotism. He explained that man has two minds, one objective and the other subjective. Normally the objective mind analyses and either performs or rejects all normal activities and the subjective mind remains dormant. So hypnotism is nothing but breaking the dormancy of the objective mind and suggesting it to perform any activity according to the hypnotist's will upto a certain extent. To suggest anything to the objective mind is not an easy task. To hypnotise an individual, a hypnotist has to perform two successive steps, firstly to suppress the activity of the subjective mind and secondly to implant suggestions to the objective mind of the individual. For the achievement of these two steps a hypnotist has to utilize three powers, viz. look, touch and will. These three powers can be developed by regular practice for a long time under the supervision of a hypnotism expert. Today hypnotism in its modern form has brought miracles in many spheres of life. It is now widely used for extraction of teeth, curing various diseases like amnasia, kleptomania, neurasthemia, rheumatism and pains, paralysis, hysteria etc. Enriching ones memory or to give up the habit of smoking and drinking can also be possible by hypnotism. Inspite of all these tremendous advantages there are a few curses of hypnotism too. In a very crucial stage of hypnosis people can be made to commit crimes. It has grown into a big problem for the judiciary of Europe to fix responsibility for crimes as one commits not on his own, but on the bidding of others through hypnosis. To resist the misuse of this priceless asset of science it is everyone's duty to safeguard its application.
