Modern hypnosis is not Mesmerism. What Franz Anton Mesmer actually practised in the 18th century, and how the two came to be treated as the same thing.
It is often assumed that hypnosis finds its roots in Mesmerism. This is only partially true because what has become known as modern hypnosis is not Mesmerism, modern hypnosis and traditional Mesmerism are as different as what day is from night. Mesmerism was the name given to a healing practice that was discovered and perfected in the 18th century by Franz Anton Mesmer, often referred to as Anton Mesmer; and occasionally, allbeit incorrectly, as Friedrich.
Franz Anton Mesmer was a German Doctor who used energetic manipulations of what he called an "*Etherial Fluid*", to produce a cathartic reaction in his often female patients. However Mesmer's, "Mesmerism," it's methodologies and it's practical applications bear little resembalance to the induction methods that are used to intentionally induce the trance state of Hypnosis. During the process of Mesmerism energetic manipulations are applied by stroking the energy field of the patient (passes) and very few, or no words at all, are spoken during the induction or application of the Mesmeric trance. In contrast to Mesmerism, modern hypnosis ignores any energetic transference and hypnosis is induced primarily by the use of words.
Since the early 1950s traditional hypnosis has been somewhat distilled into various hybrids to the point where it is now more often offered as what is known as Ericksonian Hypnosis, named after the American Psychiatrist Milton Erickson. Erickson was a medical doctor, a Psychiatrist, and a naturally gifted behavioural expert. Most modern practitioners of Ericksonian Hypnosis have nowhere near his scientific or medical education, and none have his natural talents either. Another often pseudo hypnotic technique is NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming. NLP is not true hypnosis in any sense of the word and all studies to date have shown it has no more benefit or lasting effects than attending a good motivational seminar.
Hypnosis in the true sense of the word is Traditional Hypnosis, wherein deep states of trance are induced rather quickly and then the subconscious mind is given direct positive suggestion to change a behaviour, alter the subjects perception, and change or break a habit. The use of traditional hypnosis in the therapeutic arena is rare these days, and practitioners of genuine Mesmerism are even rarer. The Australian Academy of Hypnosis is one of the few Hypnosis Training Institutions that teaches both of the methods.
In contrast to Ericksonian hypnosis and NLP, traditional hypnosis is supported by more than 3000 high quality research papers which attest to its valid existence and lasting benefits that can be gained for all manner of addictions, habits, and illnesses. Rick Collingwood; Mind Motivations; & The Australian Academy of Hypnosis use and teach Mesmerism and traditional fundamental hypnosis.
Modern hypnotism was influenced by Franz Anton Mesmer which is why it is sometimes referred to as Mesmerism. Following in Mesmer's footsteps were the British Doctor James Braid who conceived the word hypnotism, and the Scottish Surgeon James Esdaile who performed over 1700 surgical operations using non verbal Mesmerism as an anesthetic. As Esdaile wrote in one of his early books *"Mesmerism is not purely the use of the imagination, because even the greatest imagination in the world cannot ward off the pain felt and suffered by one as the saw cuts through the muscle and bone during the removal of a diseased arm or leg."*
In 2009 whilst conducting seminars and media interviews in London, Rick Collingwood visited the small town of Meersburg in Germany to pay respects and place flowers on the grave at the monument erected to the memory of Anton Mesmer, the 18th century Doctor who bought hypnosis to the world. At the bottom of this article are a number of photos. If you are interested in fundamental hypnosis then please click here to visit our large collection of o ld hypnosis books , including translations of the original works of Anton Mesmer, James Braid, James Esdaile, and others available to purchase as eBooks from this site.
The saga of Franz Anton Mesmer was exceedingly dramatic and extended far beyond his death. It resulted in a veritable age of Mesmerism, the vitality of which took on international interest and fascination that endured for about 140 years.
Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) was born on the 23rd of May 1733 at the village of Iznang near Switzerland, on the German side of Bodensee (Lake Konstanz). His father was a forester employed by the archbishop of Constance; his mother was the daughter of a locksmith. It was a large Catholic family and not particularly prosperous, Franz Anton was the third of nine children. By all accounts, he was of copious intelligence and a somewhat high-minded individual, whose thinking was completely in keeping with his times.
Indeed such was the strength of Mesmerism that it came to constitute one of the first international movements of any kind. And its international vivacity was such that the anti-energetic sentiments in the mainstream modern sciences did not succeed in deconstructing it until about 1920. Even then, Mesmerism left three long shadows of itself: the first in the guise of hypnotism; the second in the guise of psychical research; the third in the guise of the energetic mysteries.
Modern historians seldom consider him as a person within his times but assess him according to modern standards as they later developed. And by those later standards, Mesmer's activities consisted of one strange folly after another.
After preliminary studies in a local monastic school in Constance, Mesmer commenced the study of philosophy at the Jesuit University of Dillingen, Bavaria, changing in 1752 to theology, presumably as a scholarship student preparing for the priesthood. He continued his studies from 1753 at the University of Ingolstadt, where he soon abandoned theology. It is not known when or from what learning institution he obtained his doctorate in philosophy. A year later he began practice as a member of the faculty of medicine in what was one of Europe's most advanced medical centres; for the Vienna school was then in its prime, owing to the patronage of Maria Theresa and the leadership of Gerhard van Swieten and Jan Ingenhousz.
By the time he began to propound his theory of animal magnetism, or mesmerism, Anton Mesmer had risen through the educational systems of Bavaria and Austria and had advanced to a position of some social prominence in Viennese society partly through association of his marriage two years after his medical graduation to a wealthy Viennese widow of an army Lieutenant Colonel, Maria Anna von Posch, on January 16, 1768. By all accounts, the wedding was a splendid affair conducted in the fourteenth century St Stephen's Cathedral by cardinal Migazzi, the Archbishop of Vienna. However the marriage was not a happy one, Mesmer found Maria stupid, dull, and somewhat crass. Presumably this downside was more than offset by her more positive qualities; she gave him money and respectability, and she already had a teenage son, Franz, and Mesmer had never had any children of his own.
Maria's father must have had reservations about her choice of a spouse, especially one ten years her junior, and although he allowed Mesmer access to her fortune to support his life style, he excluded him from any inheritance of her estate, but bought them a Mansion at 261 Landstrasse, in the most prosperous district of Vienna. The mansion was noted for its gardens, groves, walks and fountains and soon Mesmer also added to the property by building laboratories and a small outdoor theater. Here he often practiced and cultivated his own performances on the cello, clavichord and the glass harmonica. (There is nothing in the history books that alludes to how Mesmer's marriage ended, or what became of Maria Anna von Posch, although Mesmer did leave Vienna for Paris in 1778 ten years after he had married Maria).
While he was a medical student at the University of Vienna, Mesmer was impressed by the writings of the astronomer Richard Mead and the Renaissance mystic physician Paracelsus (Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 1493-1541) and attempted to rationalise a belief in astrological influences on human health as the result of planetary forces through a subtle, invisible fluid. It was a friend of his, the astronomer Maximilian Hehl (1720-1792), a court astronomer and Jesuit priest, who used magnets in the treatment of disease, and influenced Mesmer to conduct his first attempts at healing with a steel magnet.
Mesmer became convinced that everybody possessed a magnetic force or fluid which constantly connects all living things and all living human beings at any distance. The immediate source of Mesmer's fluid was Richard Mead's (1673-1754) De imperio solis ac lunae in corpora humana et morbis inde oriundis (London, 1704), a work upon which Mesmer's doctoral thesis drew heavily. Mead had argued that gravity produced tides in the atmosphere as well as in water and that the planets could therefore affect the fluidal balance of the human body. Mesmer was educated in Vienna where he took a degree in medicine.
The thesis that Mesmer submitted for his Doctorate was titled "Dissertatio physicomedice de planetarum influxu"(the influence of planets on the human body). In modern contexts, this document is mistakenly condemned as Mesmer's "astrological thesis". But Mesmer was known for his dislike of astrologers and thought of them as nothing more than Charlatans. His thesis examined Astrological magnetic energetic influences that were thought to be universal in nature.
Mesmer observed that the action of the magnetic influences "consists of alternating effects which may be considered as fluxes" of sympathetic systems. The effects manifest in the human body with properties analogous to the magnet. There are poles, diverse and opposed, which can be communicated, changed, destroyed and reinforced; the phenomena of inclination is also observable. In later summarising his thesis, he indicated *"The property of the animal body which renders it susceptible to the magnetic influence of the celestial bodies, and to the reciprocal action of the environmental ones, I felt prompted to name, from analogy to the magnet, animal magnetism."*
It should be considered that the contexts Mesmer was using referred not to Astrology but to Astronomy and not to "Animal" magnetism, but to ANIMATING magnetism-and that, during his times, this usage was understood and accepted.
Mesmer was one of the many physicians who were exploring cures and healings via magnets. Mesmer apparently innovated, designed, and constructed his own version of magnetic plates. By applying his magnetised plates to patient's limbs, he affected his first cures in about 1773. Unfortunately, what these plates consisted of has been lost. But probably analogous to them are various magnetic plates designed in Japan during the 1980s, which also produce cures. Further, the application of weak electromagnetic currents to bone fractures and ulcerous infections has been scientifically and medically confirmed as speeding up healings and cures.
Mesmer came to special public attention because of a bitter, and quite public, controversy involving the invention of his plates, as the priority of this invention was claimed by his earlier friend, the Jesuit priest having the curious name of Maximillian Hehl, a professor of astronomy/astrology at the University of Vienna. Mesmer won the claim, but was quickly involved in another controversy involving the cure of a blind girl.
At some point between 1770 and 1775, Mesmer was among the many physicians and intellectuals who witnessed a number of cures affected by the strokings of J.J. (Johann) Gassner without the use of magnets. Because of this, Mesmer correctly conceptualised that the human body possessed a magnetic "field," and that such fields could affect each other. Mesmer thereafter disposed of his magnets, and for a fresh start he also abandoned Vienna.
In February 1778 he travelled to Paris, the city of lights and set up what soon became a very lucrative clinic in the Palace Vendôme and another in the nearby village of Créteil. He then began an elaborate campaign to win recognition of his discovery from France's leading scientific bodies. Helped by some influential converts and an ever increasing throng of patients' who testified that they had been cured of everything from paralysis to what the French then called "vapeurs" (hot flushes accompanied by nervous fits and hysterical fainting). In Paris Mesmer seized the public's imagination, and quickly developed novel techniques and equipment to effect cures. The exact nature and materials of the new equipment (Baquet's) have been lost to posterity. But not their impact, resulting scandals, and the extraordinary controversies that came to surface around the name Mesmer.
Once installed in Paris, Mesmer established himself in the Viennese Masonic scene and the occult scene as well; his friends were numerous and included the composer Mozart. He is known to have joined the order of the Gold and Rosy Cross, one of the most prominent esoteric orders of the 18th century. Within the order Mesmer gave lectures and educated some 300 pupils, who were soon active in 40 societies all over France. He achieved a tremendous success with the public, and with the subscription connected to his name by his pupils, he became a rich man and was at the height of his influence. In 1785 one of his pupils, in a breach of confidence, published the doctrines of Mesmer Aphorismes des M. Mesmer, which were supposed to be kept a secret.
Mesmer designed several versions of a large circular vat (in French, BAQUET), that were filled with "certain substances" that apparently consisted of mixtures of various metals and shards of glass. Whatever the substances consisted of, they served to "collect animating magnetism" and transfer it and its sympathetic qualities to the sympathetic systems of the patients. The theory was that the "certain substances" collected and amplified the magnetic forces, and then via hand-held connectors; the forces were transferred to and re-saturated the sympathetic systems inherent in the bodies of the patients.
The methods utilised to affect the transfer tend to boggle the imagination. The patients sat around the vats in communal groups, each holding a metal or glass rod, or a mere copper wire or string of thread, the other end of which was pushed into the substances in the vats. Mesmer erected several circular vats, each about a foot high, and experimented with a number of hand-held "connectors" that served as conduits for the animating and re-animating magnetisms.
There is no doubt that some cures were attained for ailments strictly physical in their cause, but even more cures were obtained regarding illness mental (psychosomatic) in origin. Even Mesmer himself indicated that his "techniques" better dealt with what we today would refer to as conditions psychosomatic in origin. Indeed as a physician, Mesmer usually, and correctly, first sent physically ill patients to other doctors, and otherwise accepted them only if physical remedies were of no effect.
Although the exact material constituents of the circular communal vats have been lost, the nature of the energetic phenomena experienced by the "patients" has not been. As described (usually too briefly) in most sources, these phenomena consisted of "violent convulsions, cries, uncontrollable laughter, and various physical symptoms," followed by "lethargy" after which the cures became apparent.
WHAT was cured, and WHY it was, remains an historical mystery, confounded by expressions of awe, shock, and professional hysteria. On the face of the brief descriptions of the phenomena, it is difficult to know exactly what was actually meant by "violent convulsions." Later scientific criteria established "convulsions" as consisting of quite serious and very painful involuntary contractions of the muscles during which the nervous system goes haywire, sometimes resulting in a coma.
It is also difficult to understand what is meant by "various physical symptoms," or even what was meant by "cries" and "laughter." However, the sum of all of these phenomena quite clearly falls into the category of catharsis of the ecstatic or ecstasy type. And obvious clues regarding this can be comprehended not by studying the phenomena, but by examining WHO attended upon the vats. Many had no visible ills to cure. If this particular issue is examined, it will be seen that they came just for the thrill of experiencing the animating, magnetic energies.
Mesmer's reputation had preceded him to Paris, and once installed there he acquired numerous supporters. Principal among these at first was Dr Charles d'Eslon, medical adviser to the Count D'Artois, and brother of King Louis XV1. This was high patronage indeed. d'Eslon, was eventually struck off the register for his pains. In time, however, their ways were to part when d'Eslon practising independently annoyed Mesmer.
In September of 1780, d'Eslon asked the Faculty of Medicine to confirm Mesmer's ideas and techniques, a request that was rejected. None the less, public enthusiasm and high patronage support had grown to impressive heights. Then in March 1781, on behalf of the King, the powerful Minister M de Maurepas, offered Mesmer 20,000 livres (a significant amount), and a further annuity of 10,000 if he established a school and agreed to divulge the "secret" of his treatments. Mesmer at first refused, but later accepted a subscription of 340,000 livres for lectures to pupils. (Livre could refer to a weight measurement at the time or to the value of 1 Livre equals 1 Franc) With this financial arrangement, Mesmer increased his vat facilities, and surrounded them with rather impressive environments. These consisted of large rooms noted for the opulence of their furnishings, with enormous reflecting mirrors, the whole room being rather dimly lit.
Mesmer and his vats were mobbed with applicants, among them vast numbers of the aristocracy and royalty. Many memoirs of various members of the aristocracy establish that the mob included even Queen Marie Antoinette and the whole of her court. Well acquainted with the family, he also saw a great deal of the Mozart's. The first production of a Mozart opera, the Bastien and Bastienne, took place in Mesmer's garden at his Viennese mansion, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) later made room for mesmerism in a scene in Cosi fan tutte.
It is from memoirs, often not consulted by biographers of Mesmer, that a complete picture of the "convulsive" catharsis is revealed. There is no doubt at all that those holding the connectors often experienced an aspect of ecstatic catharsis known from ancient times, a kind of involuntary auto-orgasm in females and auto-ejaculatory release in males. Hence the connection among the "convulsions," "cries," "laughter" and subsequent "lethargy" tend to fall into place, since these taken altogether are recognisable and familiar constituents of sexual orgasm. And indeed if the convulsions had been painful or unpleasant, it is quite unlikely that applications to sit at the vats would have been any more numerous than the cases of those willing to try anything and everything to ameliorate their ills.
Also known from ancient times, ecstatic catharsis engendered dramatic and empowering shifts in levels" of consciousness of the kind we would today refer to as heightened or "altered states" and during which many kinds of so-called "paranormal" trance phenomena were experienced. Such phenomena also came to light within many of Mesmer's vat participants. But a perpetual confusion has settled in regarding this matter, in that mesmerist trance phenomena have been historically confused with hypnosis. Hypnotism can easily be confused as an extension of Mesmerist trance, since it too is a type of altered state. But in actual historical fact, hypnotism as such was not identified until about 1842 by the English surgeon, James Braid (1795-1860). Braid first termed the phenomena as "Neuro-hypnotism," a phenomenon that also occasionally aroused involuntary sexualising energies. Types of hypnotism however had earlier been identified in ancient Persia and India, with probably even more ancient antecedents in Egypt. In any event, Mesmer's stay in Paris was cut short, leaving Mesmerist trance phenomena to be investigated later by his followers.
Although a great deal has been written about Mesmer's expulsion from France he never was expelled from France, he left because of the pending French Revolution. He was however railroaded out of Vienna at the behest of his wife and so preceeded to Paris. However in 1784, the "French government" charged the Faculty of Medicine, the Royal Society of Medicine, and the Academy of Sciences, to examine "animal magnetism."
Nine Commissioners were convened under the presidency of Benjamin Franklin, then in Paris, and included the astronomer, Jean Sylvain Bailly and the chemist J.K. Lavoisier, both esteemed scientists of the time who both met their deaths during the French Revolution from the invention of one of the other commissioners whose name was Guillotine. The commissioners were restricted to the activity of attempting to establish evidence of a new physical force that was claimed as the agent of the cures. But it is clear that the actual target was Mesmer himself, and that the actual purpose was to get rid of him.
Having fallen out with his past supporter Dr d'Eslon because of d'Elsons insistence at using all manner of strange contraptions and excuses to support the existence of magnetism, the commission was conducted at d'Eslon's estate. The report of the commission concluded that far from being able to cure disease, Mesmer's ethereal fluid did not exist. They termed him a deceiver and ascribed Mesmer's "healings" to the fantasy of the individual, and physicians using his method were threatened with the loss of their practice. The only member of the commission to speak for Mesmer was the famous botanist Adran Laurent de Jussieu.
Although an independent report was conducted the commission also produced two other reports, but between them the consensus among the Commissioners is quite garbled. Franklin, for example, recommended further examination of the issue. But King Louis XV1, not known for much in the way, of certitude, was somehow stampeded to order Mesmer's expulsion from France, which was effected very quickly.
The French Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of Medicine had initially expressed cautious interest in Mesmerism, and then decided that he was a quack and refused to have anything further to do with him. As Mesmer's clientele and reputation grew, their ire against him escalated into open attacks in magazine articles and the pamphlet press. Mesmer, his followers, and many people he had cured responded by publishing articles and pamphlets of their own, denouncing the medical establishment of the time as a collection of jealous incompetents fighting to maintain their monopoly over medicine at the expense of public health. The resulting frenzy kept the media busy and the public entertained until the beginning of the French Revolution nine years later brought other matters to the forefront of public attention.
Mesmer was not actually forced to leave Paris, and he remained there along with the popularity of the Baqutte's for eight months after the Commissions findings were handed down. Another fact often overlooked or not realised is that none of findings of any of the Commissions, of which there were two official and a private almost secret third, denied the obvious and often swift cures that often resulted from Mesmerism. The reports did not discredit the effectiveness of Mesmerism. The discredited the existance of Mesmers theory of an "Etherial Fluid", which would today be described as the human energy field. Regardless of the lack of understanding of the mechanisms of Mesmerism, nobody has ever decried it's effectiveness or denied its results.
After the findings of the commission Mesmer left Paris for London, and proceeded from there to Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, continually trying to win the universal acclaim he believed he deserved. Eventually he returned to a village near his birthplace, Meersburg, in Germany, where he lived a quiet unobtrusive life until he died on the 5th of March 1815. How it was that Mesmer, a veritable supernova, thereafter consented to a life bordering on obscurity remains something of a mystery.
Despite the negative findings of the commission and all his jealous colleagues, it was however the French revolution that ruined Mesmer's practice. During the revolution he lost his entire fortune and fled initially to England. Then in 1798 he returned to France attempting to regain his fortune. In 1802 he moved to Versaille and made a settlement with the French government, which granted him a small pension. In 1803 he left France for good, first living in Frauenfeld in Thurgau, and then retired to Meersburg, where he practiced medicine from 1807. Here he apparently led a quiet and contented life, doing a little medicine, playing his glass harmonica, and remaining detached from the outside world. In the meantime, animal magnetism was practiced as a therapy all over Germany. In 1812 professor Karl Christian Wolfart (1778-1832) from Berlin visited Mesmer at the request of the Prussian government in order to be educated in his methods. At the same time Johann Ferdinand Koreff (1783-1851) was already in Paris on a similar mission. Wolfart remained Mesmer's staunchest supporter, and instigated the printing of Mesmer's main work, Mesmerismus, oder System der Wechselwirkungen, in Berlin in 1814. In the summer of 1813 Mesmer moved to Constance, one year later to the village of Riedetsweiler near Meersburg, soon moving on to Meersburg, where he died on March 5th, 1815. His memorial at the beautiful cemetery on the hill above the village of Meersburg was designed by Wolfart, and bears large carved Masonic symbols on each of its three sides. Excepting for the theft of the sundial sunk into the top face in 2009; Karl Wolfarts monument at Mesmer's final resting place remains in a very well preserved condition to this day.
Mesmerism became confused with being hypnosis probably because in 1814 the Abbe Faria suggested that the phenomena described by Mesmer were not due to animal magnetism, but was actually due to suggestions. However, there can be found no mention of verbal suggestions being used at the Vats, and in his early writings Mesmer often wrote that the trance state was not necessary for the beneficial effects of magnetism, and with the popularity of Mesmer now being so well established Faria's theories and his hypothesis was mostly ignored and very soon forgotten.
Although through envy and misunderstanding many of his learned contemporaries regarded Mesmer's practice of magnetism as quackery, even now in the 21st century his theory of animal magnetism is still mistakenly credited as having laid the foundations of modern hypnosis and suggestive therapy.
*Having moved to a cottage in Meersburg and then to from his summer chalet at Riedetsweiler, a village nearby. Mesmer died of a stroke on the German side of lake Constance in which he must have swum when a boy. It is from his friend Justinus Kerner, thanks to whose book, published in Frankfurt on the Main in 1856 that we know so much about Mesmer's last years.
Justinus tells us that Mesmer died smiling, a strange thing indeed. Strange, too, is the tale of the magnetisable canary which would fly from its cage, always open, and perch on Mesmer's head to sing him awake every morning; perch on the sugar basin while he ate his breakfast and anticipate his needs by pecking extra lumps into his coffee cup.
The end of the tale, as Kerner relates it, runs; *"One evening Mesmer gave the canary bird an extra affection, the next morning Mesmer lay in repose as though he were still alive, but never again did the canary bird fly on to his head to wake him. It ate no more and sang no more and soon it was found dead in its cage".*
Far stranger, however, to me (Frankau) at any rate, is the impression I have gathered that when it came to clinical treatment, the discoverer of animal magnetism pinned his whole faith to the therapeutic value of the Mesmeric "crises", setting little or no value on the mesmeric "trance". *Taken from the Book: Mesmerism, by Doctor Mesmer (1779) and translated into English by Gilbert Frankau (1948)
Mesmer himself gave much more significance to magnetism and the transference of the Ethereal Fluid than he did to the trance state, confirming that Mesmer considered himself a Magnetist and not a Hypnotist.
*Although it appears that Mesmer moved far and often during his last years; Frauenfeld, Konstanz, and Meersburg are less than twenty kilometres apart. Lake Constance (Konstanz) is bordered by three countries - Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. It may be that the close proximity of the three countries surrounding the lake leads some poorly researched historians confuse Mesmer as being Swiss, Austrian, or German. He was born at Iznang which is in Germany.*
*Nowadays a one hour train journey from Zurich airport passes through Frauenfeld to Konstanz, and modern ferries operate 24 hours a day carrying cars and passengers on a 20 minute crossing of Lake Konstanz to Meersburg.*
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The information pack covers course outlines, the Sydney and Phnom Penh, Cambodia 2027 dates, fees and registration terms.
Accredited training in clinical hypnosis and mesmerism, in class over eight days or online as distance learning. Learn from one of the world's most experienced hypnotists and hypnosis trainers.
The in-class days are practical. Students practise inductions on each other under supervision, and competency is assessed live in the room. Classes are deliberately limited in size.
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Eight days inclusive. USD $4,500. Cambodia is one of the easiest places in the world to obtain a visa.
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Eight days in class, USD $4,500. Cambodia is one of the easiest places in the world to obtain a visa.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, is the Cambodian capital. It is a very safe attractive modern riverside city of broad boulevards fantastic local and international restaurants, and the Cambodian People are among the most friendly and hospitable people in the world.
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If you want the take an opportunity for an extended holiday, close by are the temples of Angkor Wat at Siem Reap, or the riverside town of Kampot. There are numerous sights to please any visitor, such as the Royal Palace and the National Museum of Cambodia, and of course the so called Killing Fields and the notorious S21 torture prison are both in and very close to the city.
Until about 2015 Phnom Penh, Cambodia was rather shabby and run-down due to the long years of war and four years of Khmer Rouge abandonment. The future now looks bright, with many new upscale shopping centres, luxury residence complexes and hotels opening all the time.
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Registration terms are set out in the information pack, alongside the 2027 training dates and full course outlines.
The Distance Learning Hypnosis Training is the full hypnosis training completed online, in your own time. Study opens the day you register, and the fee is USD $999. If you enrol for an in-class training at any time in the future, that fee is deducted from the in-class fee.
USD $1,500 for both distance learning trainings, a USD $498 reduction. Deducted from a later in-class enrolment.
The training works through practical hypnosis procedures, inductions and deepening, therapeutic application, and working with clients. The material sits in the Hypnosis Training portal of the student training and resource centre, as training manuals and training videos.
The curriculum is written by Rick Collingwood, a therapeutic hypnotist, hypnosis and mesmerism trainer and author who founded Mind Motivations in 1993. His teaching draws on traditional hypnosis, Ericksonian hypnosis, mesmerism, hypnotic fascination, direct and rapid methods, counselling, TFT and NLP.
On registration you receive an acceptance letter with your details, the required training manuals in eBook format, and a password for the online student training and resource centre. Study begins the day you register and is worked through at your own pace.
Every training also includes six online group monthly Zoom trainings of two hours each. Resource centre access is permanent and free, so the material stays available after you qualify.
Assessment is an examination and self-assessments. A Diploma of Advanced Clinical Hypnosis is issued on completion of them.
Practical competency for the in-class training is assessed live, in the room, so that component cannot be completed remotely. Distance learning students who later want it attend one of the scheduled eight-day intakes.
If you enrol for an in-class training at any time in the future, the fees of your distance learning training are automatically deducted from the in-class fee. Nothing is paid twice.
No knowledge is withheld in order to upsell students into another training. The distance learning training is complete in itself.
The training assumes nothing, and many students arrive with no experience in therapy at all. It also suits experienced practitioners folding hypnosis into a practice they already run.
The Academy has taught clinical hypnosis as a modality within the professions of physical and emotional healing since 1993, to an audience that has included doctors and executives.
The Academy is accredited by the Hypnotherapy Council of Australia, the peak body for hypnosis in Australia. The training is also AHA and PHA recognised, which supports graduate membership applications.
No Australian jurisdiction registers hypnotherapists, so practice is governed by professional association membership rather than state registration.
The day you register. Online study opens immediately and is worked through at your own pace, so there is no intake date to wait for.
No. The training assumes nothing, and many students arrive with no experience in therapy at all.
No. The distance learning training requires no travel and no in-class attendance, because it is a complete training in itself. If you enrol for an in-class training later, your distance learning fee is deducted from the in-class fee.
Yes. Enrol for both distance learning trainings and the fee for the two together is USD $1,500, a USD $498 reduction, with access to both portals.
Quoted rates apply when the fee is paid in full on registration. The payment plan conditions are confirmed in the current information pack.
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The Distance Learning Mesmerism and Magnetism Training is completed online, with access to the Mesmerism portal of the student training and resource centre. The fee is USD $999, and study opens the day you register. Enrol for both distance learning trainings and the fee for the two together is USD $1,500.
USD $1,500 for both distance learning trainings, a USD $498 reduction. Deducted from a later in-class enrolment.
The training covers mesmerism and magnetism, the magnetic methods, deep trance work, and historical technique applied in practice. The manuals and training videos sit in the Mesmerism portal of the student training and resource centre.
Mesmerism is taught as a discipline in its own right and as a set of methods that combine with hypnosis in practice. Three of the eight in-class days are given to Advanced Mesmerism and Magnetism for that reason.
Rick Collingwood holds Mesmerismus Magnetista (Mesmerism) among his qualifications, alongside Dip. Hypnosis, Dip. Adv. Hypnosis, Dip. 1-2 Counselling, Dip. Mental Health, B.A. Counselling and Cert IV Workplace Training and Assessment. He is a lifetime member of the Professional Hypnotherapists of Australia.
He holds arguably the largest collection of old and rare hypnosis books in the Southern Hemisphere, and the historical material in this training comes from that source.
On registration you receive an acceptance letter with your details, the required training manuals in eBook format, and a password for the online student training and resource centre. Study begins the day you register and is worked through at your own pace.
Six online group monthly Zoom trainings of two hours each are included, as they are with every training. Resource centre access is permanent and free.
The hypnosis training and the mesmerism and magnetism training are enrolled for separately or together. Together the fee is USD $1,500, a USD $498 reduction on the two enrolled separately, and you receive access to both portals.
Students who enrol for one training first can take the other later. No knowledge is withheld in order to upsell students into another training.
Days six to eight of the eight-day in-class training are Advanced Mesmerism and Magnetism. Distance learning covers the same subject in the Mesmerism portal, worked through in your own time.
If you enrol for an in-class training at any time in the future, the fees of your distance learning training are automatically deducted from the in-class fee.
The two distance learning trainings are enrolled for separately or together, and together the fee is USD $1,500. Any entry requirement is confirmed in the current information pack.
The day you register. The portal opens immediately and the material is worked through at your own pace.
Yes. Days six to eight of the eight-day in-class training are Advanced Mesmerism and Magnetism.
Yes. If you enrol for an in-class training at any time in the future, the fees of your distance learning training are automatically deducted from the in-class fee.
A Diploma of Advanced Clinical Hypnosis, issued on completion of the examination and self-assessments.
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The in-class training runs over eight consecutive days and is where you learn to induce hypnosis under supervision. Two intakes are scheduled for 2027: Sydney from Friday 22 to Friday 29 January, and Phnom Penh, Cambodia, from Friday 5 to Friday 12 March. Places are limited.
USD $4,500 in any other country, and less again for existing distance learning students.
Days one to four are Advanced Hypnosis training conducted by Rick Collingwood. Day five is Advanced Mind Dynamics Training conducted by Michael Nadalin, covering self-hypnosis and using hypnosis for business and marketing a practice.
Days six to eight are Advanced Mesmerism and Magnetism training, including how to combine those methods with hypnosis in practice. The eight days run consecutively, as one block.
Sydney runs from Friday 22 to Friday 29 January 2027, eight days inclusive, at AUD $6,000. Phnom Penh, Cambodia, runs from Friday 5 to Friday 12 March 2027, eight days inclusive, at USD $4,500.
Classes are limited in size, so the earlier you enquire the more choice you have over the intake you join. Accommodation, districts, currency, visas and nearby travel for the Cambodia intake are set out on the Phnom Penh, Cambodia training information page.
The in-class training is hands-on and experiential. You practise on other students under supervision, and no knowledge is withheld in order to upsell you into another training.
Because the days run as a block rather than weekly evenings, most students complete the in-class requirement in a single period of leave. Online theory opens the day you register, so study begins well before the practical days.
The in-class training requires completion of the eight days, together with an examination and self-assessments. Practical competency is assessed live, in the room, which is why this component cannot be completed remotely.
A Diploma of Advanced Clinical Hypnosis is issued on successful completion.
In-class students gain automatic access to the student training and resource centre and to the materials in both the Hypnosis and Mesmerism portals, including all training manuals and training videos. Six online group monthly Zoom trainings of two hours each are included.
In-class students can also repeat any future training at a very low cost. Resource centre access is permanent and free.
The fee is AUD $6,000 in Australia and USD $4,500 in any other country, and less again for existing distance learning students. If you studied online first, those fees are automatically deducted from the in-class fee.
Travel and accommodation for the in-class days are not included, and neither are professional association membership or insurance fees once you qualify.
No. Practical competency is assessed live, in the room, so the in-class component cannot be completed remotely or by video.
Yes. The eight days run consecutively as one block, and attendance across all of them is required because competency is assessed live.
Two intakes are scheduled for 2027. Sydney runs from 22 to 29 January and Phnom Penh, Cambodia, runs from 5 to 12 March, so students choose whichever suits their travel.
Those fees are automatically deducted from the in-class fee, and the in-class fee is less again for existing distance learning students. The exact figure is confirmed in the current information pack.
No. Travel and accommodation for the in-class days are arranged and paid for by the student.
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This page lists the twelve Diploma video lesson topics and where enrolled students access them. The videos sit in the "Monthly Diploma Videos" section of the student training and resource centre. It is a reference for students who are already enrolled.
All the Diploma of Clinical Hypnotherapy videos and topics are found in the "Monthly Diploma Videos" section in the student training and resource centre at www.rickcollingwoodhypnosis.com.
How suggestion given in hypnosis reaches the body, and what that link means in clinical work.
What an abreaction is, how it presents during a session, and how the hypnotist responds when one occurs.
Applying hypnosis to the management of pain, and the boundaries of that work alongside conventional medical treatment.
Regression work covering both present-life material and past-life material.
Writing hypnotic scripts for a client, and the methods used to deepen a trance once it is established.
The magnetism material that also runs through the Mesmerism and Magnetism training, and how energy is shifted in a session.
How transference arises between hypnotist and subject, and how it is managed in a clinical setting.
How hypnosis is adapted when the subject is a child, and how that differs from work with adults.
How the conscious and subconscious minds are addressed in hypnosis, and how a hypnotist works across both.
Induction methods that reliably produce trance, and what gains subconscious compliance once the subject is under.
Applying hypnosis to addiction and substance abuse presentations in clinical practice.
The ethical obligations of a practising hypnotherapist, and the practical side of running a clinical practice.
Enrolment includes the student training and resource centre, the training manuals, the training videos, and six two-hour online group monthly Zoom trainings. Distance learning students have access to the portal for the training they enrolled in: the Hypnosis portal, the Mesmerism portal, or both.
In-class students receive automatic access to the resource centre and the materials in both portals, and can repeat any future training at a very low cost. Resource centre access is permanent and free.
Access questions, missing lessons and enrolment queries go through the contact page. The Academy is a training organisation and does not take hypnotherapy treatment enquiries from members of the public.
For the full curriculum outline rather than the video list, see the hypnotherapy courses page.
Rick Collingwood's articles on hypnosis, technique, client work and the history of mesmerism, alongside notes on the training. The back catalogue is republished here at its original dates.
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The information pack covers course outlines, the Sydney and Phnom Penh, Cambodia 2027 dates, fees and registration terms.
Try the material before you commit to a qualification. Register once and we send an introductory lesson, a hypnosis MP3, an induction walkthrough and the full prospectus.
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The Global Hypnosis Academy training is second to none. Both the in-class and the online distance learning trainings are thorough and structured so that every student learns the theoretical and practical skills needed to become a confident, competent hypnotherapist.
An acceptance letter with your dates and details, all required training manuals in eBook format, and a password for the Academy's comprehensive online student training and resource centre, filled with training videos and relevant books.
You keep permanent free access to the resource centre, and you can begin your training at your own pace immediately upon registration.
Dates and venues are listed on the training locations page.
The in-class Diploma of Clinical Hypnotherapy requires the completion of those eight days, together with a 150-question open-book examination and five self-assessments.
On successful completion, all students receive a professional Diploma of Clinical Hypnotherapy and a Transcript of Studies. If you would rather read it all in one document first, download the prospectus.
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Distance learning is USD $999 for the Hypnosis training and USD $999 for the Mesmerism training, or USD $1,500 for both. The eight-day in-class training is AUD $6,000 in Australia and USD $4,500 in any other country.
If you study online first and later attend an in-class training, your distance learning fees are automatically deducted from the in-class fee.
Two in-class intakes are scheduled: Sydney from Friday 22 to Friday 29 January 2027, and Phnom Penh, Cambodia from Friday 5 to Friday 12 March 2027. Online study begins the day you register, from anywhere. Choose your city for travel and enrolment detail.
Venue address and start times are confirmed with your acceptance letter. International trainings are scheduled on request.
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The qualification is deliberately split. Theory, history, ethics and case work are delivered online through the students resource centre, which you work through at your own pace from {{ cityName }}. The practical component - inductions, supervised practice and assessment - happens in the room, in Sydney, because competency is assessed live.
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{{ cityAcademyLine }} See the Sydney training detail.
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Get the information pack: course outlines, the Sydney and Phnom Penh, Cambodia 2027 dates, fees and registration terms.
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Rick Collingwood is a therapeutic hypnotist, hypnosis and mesmerism trainer, lecturer, public speaker and author. He is the founder and president of Mind Motivations, established in 1993. He has trained hypnosis in Australia and internationally for the past 31 years and is the founder and president of the Global Hypnosis Academy.
He developed a unique style of hypnosis from a combination of traditional hypnosis, Ericksonian hypnosis and mesmerism. Drawing on the direct and rapid methods used by both modern hypnotists and the hypnotists of the past, he moulded those techniques into a therapeutic model - and that model is what the Academy teaches. The curriculum is created, formatted and updated by him.
He has personally assisted many thousands of people. His clients have included international movie stars, commercial airline pilots, psychologists, medical professionals, sales motivators, business people, homemakers and children, facing challenges from stress disorders, nicotine and drug dependency and gambling addiction to pain management, depression, panic disorder, insomnia, chronic fatigue syndrome and cancer.
Peer acknowledged as one of the world's most skilled professional hypnotists and hypnosis trainers, he has trained more than 5,000 students in the correct and effective use of his hypnosis styles.
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In 2005, in conjunction with pharmacist Nathan Elliott, Rick conducted Australia's first monitored clinical study evaluating improvements in quality of life using hypnosis as an adjunct to conventional medical treatment. The participants were nine doctor-referred and doctor-monitored volunteers living with various cancers at various stages of progression.
The advanced techniques used in that trial became Hypnosis Field Therapy - a deep trance methodology that works on the subconscious patterns underlying a habit, emotional issue or health concern. They have been developed further across thousands of hours of clinical experiment and research since.
Read the full trial report: the method, the results, the nine participant records and the references.
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Founded in 1993, the Academy has taught clinical hypnosis as a significant and valuable modality within the professions of physical and emotional healing for three decades. More than 5,000 students have been trained in Australia and internationally.
Graduates practise in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the UK, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Iceland, Fiji, South Africa, Holland and Costa Rica. Training is recognised by the major hypnosis associations in Australia and accredited by the Hypnotherapy Council of Australia.
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In 2005 in Perth, Western Australia, Rick Collingwood and pharmacist Nathan Elliott ran a clinical trial measuring what specialised mind body hypnosis did to the quality of life of cancer patients. Nine patients took part. Eight completed all six sessions. The full report is below, unedited.
The trial measured quality of life. It did not test whether hypnosis treats or cures cancer, and it makes no such claim. Rick Collingwood's own position, in his words from the report: asked whether hypnosis can cure cancer, his answer is definitely not.
Every participant obtained a referral from their treating doctor and stayed on their conventional medical treatment throughout. Anyone diagnosed with cancer should listen first to their oncologist and medical doctor.
I have spent more than twenty years in full time practice as a clinical hypnotherapist and I have been training hypnosis since 1996. During that time I have helped thousands of individuals afflicted with a vast array of physical and emotional challenges. Most have been able to move beyond their restricting belief systems and gain some benefit, but there are always a few exceptions.
There is endless speculation from all quarters regarding the causes of and cures for cancer, and there are even more therapies available to the afflicted, but there is no panacea or magic bullet. While billions of dollars are spent every year on research, cancer itself continues to spread throughout the world, striking randomly and leaving too much physical, mental, emotional and financial destruction in its wake.
There is a school of thought that all sickness, and cancer especially, results from emotional imbalances. In my opinion there must be an emotional and stress component to many diseases, but to state that all cancer is caused by an emotional conflict is foolish and incorrect, because many of the emotional associations to a disease take hold after a conscious awareness of it. Cancer is caused by many reasons and they are as different and individual as the many types of disease called cancer. The fundamental cause is largely unknown, but the reasons include environmental, genetic and emotional factors to varying degrees, or a combination of all three.
For most cancers the fact remains that there is no cure, and I would advise all seekers to steer a wide berth around any person who claims that all cancer is caused by the mind, or that they can cure cancer, if those claims cannot be backed up with valid and verifiable scientific evidence. I would also advise any person diagnosed with cancer to listen firstly to their oncologist and medical doctor. Common sense dictates that a healthy attitude, fresh food, clean water, some daily sunshine, exercise and good sleep is an idealistic pattern for all, whether presently healthy or not.
There are many derivatives of hypnosis facading behind snappy names and acronyms, which sometimes purport remarkable or instant remedies for all manner of ills. I propose that apparently miraculous cures often miraculously reverse into the non-permanence of wishful thinking. Just because an individual who has been sick may feel better, it does not mean that they are in fact well.
Firstly, I was having successes using hypnosis to alleviate the crippling effects in sufferers of chronic fatigue syndrome and non-insulin dependent diabetes. Then I did experimental work with Parkinson's disease which yielded significant results in the amelioration of symptoms. I stress that I insist any sick person I work with must remain under their doctor's care and stay on their prescribed medications.
The final reason was the numerous testimonials arriving in my inbox from people all over Australia reporting significant benefits from regular use of my Mind-Body Healing Program. All of the participants in the clinical study were required to use the program daily as an adjunct to their weekly in-person hypnosis sessions for the entire duration of the protocol.
Beyond my years as a therapist, I learned a lot from this study. I learned about excruciating physical and emotional pain. I learned about hope. I learned about fear. I learned about faith and the strength of the human spirit. But mostly I learned about respect. Not only for the sufferers who took part, but for every victim of cancer and their families, and for those people from all of the caring professions who work tirelessly to bring healing and comfort to the sufferers of cancer.
In my opinion this study has been a success beyond my expectations, and I believe beyond the expectations of the participants. I would like to thank them all, and to thank my colleague Nathan Elliott, a pharmacist also endowed with the knowledge and skills of hypnosis. Without Nathan's academic and professional expertise this trial would not have been possible. This was our trial, not mine alone. Thanks also to the medical doctors and oncologists who had the open-mindedness to approve their patients into the trial.
I do not believe that anything can cure most cancers, but I do believe that cancer is sometimes created from within, and that once a sufferer has a conscious awareness of the diagnosis then the mind plays a significant part in the experience and the outcome of the treatment.
Because there are now so many modalities that profess to be hypnosis but are actually only aspects of it, I strongly discourage any person from using hypnosis for curative purposes without first consulting their medical doctor. Also ensure that the hypnotherapist has adequate knowledge and training in the use of hypnosis, and experience with the specialist techniques required to work with pain management.
This trial and all my cancer work was and is undertaken using traditional hypnosis, not snappy named hybrids. It is far more involved than just relaxing someone and having them imagine an army of good soldiers hunting down cancer cells. It took me five years of experimental work to formulate the correct procedures and terminologies to get the results presented here.
Collingwood BR, Elliott NJ
Hypnosis as an allied therapy to improve the quality of life of cancer patients
Australian Academy of Hypnosis and Advanced Mind Dynamics Pty Ltd, Perth, Australia
Complementary and alternative medicine used by cancer patients is becoming much more prevalent the world over. Many beneficial outcomes have been seen from the addition of hypnosis to conventional protocols. As with all treatments, the focus of the hypnotherapy is to ameliorate the effects of pain and to restore a level of psychological and physical wellbeing and functioning. The EORTC QLQ-C30 core questionnaire was used to assess changes in perceived quality of life. Each patient received six hypnotherapy sessions, conducted by the same hypnotherapist each time, and questionnaires were completed prior to induction of trance.
Responses were evaluated comparing the initial questionnaire with the final questionnaire. Statistically significant improvements were noted with fatigue, global health status, insomnia and physical functioning. All aspects of the questionnaire showed improvement following the six sessions. Overall, patients experienced the benefit of hypnosis in reducing symptoms and increasing their overall quality of life. Many commented that commencing hypnosis at the time of diagnosis, and continuing throughout their treatment, would have been greatly beneficial.
Complementary and alternative medicine used by cancer patients is becoming much more prevalent around the world. Patients with all tumour types and stages use it in the hope of cure, disease control, longer survival, improved quality of life and palliation. Most is used in addition to current conventional medical treatment, therefore it does not reduce health costs, and disclosure to physicians is usually incomplete. Breast cancer patients who use it tend to have higher levels of psychosocial distress.
During the period surrounding a diagnosis of cancer, people can experience anxiety, emotional and physical distress and mood disturbance. During treatment these symptoms are often compounded by side-effects including nausea, vomiting, and procedural and disease related physical pain. Conventional medicine targets pain, distress and depression, however conventional treatments do not always relieve these symptoms to patient satisfaction. Often these patients will opt for complementary and alternative medicine such as acupuncture, naturopathy, homoeopathy and mind-body techniques in an attempt to reduce symptoms, and even in the hope of a cure.
The National Institutes of Health define mind-body therapies as interventions that use a variety of techniques designed to facilitate the mind's capacity to affect bodily functions and symptoms. Many hospitals are seeing the benefit of these therapies in conjunction with current treatments and establishing mind-body cancer research programs. Hypnosis has been used to reduce side-effects and allow patients to function better emotionally and physically, and many literature reviews describe beneficial outcomes from its addition to conventional protocols.
Quality of life in cancer patients is one common measure for treatment success, particularly in palliation. Symptoms relating to psychological distress and existential concerns are even more prevalent than pain and other physical symptoms among those with life-limiting conditions. Specific non-Ericksonian hypnosis techniques were used in the study that follows.
The study was conducted on nine patients, four male and five female, with various cancers: one prostate, two bowel, three breast and two oesophageal. To participate, patients obtained a referral from their treating doctor and were required to remain on current conventional medical treatment unless modified by that doctor. The EORTC QLQ-C30 core questionnaire was used to assess changes in perceived quality of life, completed at the initial interview and then prior to each hypnosis session. All patients completed the questionnaires unassisted and all questions were answered. Patients were also given a hypnosis recording to listen to once a day for the course of the study. Each patient received six hypnotherapy sessions with the same hypnotherapist. Statistical analysis was performed using paired t-test analysis.
Of the nine patients commencing the study, eight completed all six sessions. One female patient withdrew after four sessions due to weakness following intensive radiotherapy. The average age of male patients was 63 years, range 50 to 76. The average age of female patients was 56 years, range 47 to 64. All patients completing the study maintained regular contact with their doctor.
Functional scales improve as the number rises. Symptom scales improve as the number falls. Every scale moved in the direction of improvement.
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Patients rated their lack of sleep over the previous week on a four-point scale. Three quarters reported no insomnia at all by the sixth session.
Scored 0 to 100. Every patient scored zero at the sixth session, and the group reduced its as-required anti-nausea medication over the same period.
Scored 0 to 100. Fatigue showed the largest statistical response of any measure in the trial.
Insomnia is a prevalent form of sleep difficulty which reduces quality of life, decreases work potential and increases health care utilisation. One of the most statistically significant improvements in the analysis was in insomnia. The patients' initial responses were slightly higher than those suggested for the general population, which would be expected as disease and mood factors influence insomnia. The response to hypnosis was rapid, with most patients reporting dramatic improvement within the first three sessions, and that improvement was then maintained for the remainder of the study. Emotional functioning issues like irritability, tension, anxiety and depression all decreased over the same period, which may have added to it.
Many symptoms patients experience during cancer treatment are related either to their medication or directly to the cancer. Gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhoea and constipation can lead to nausea and appetite loss. Throughout the study period the participants showed increased appetite and reduced nausea and vomiting. One patient was amazed by the return of normal taste sensation instead of a metallic taste, and another began to put on weight while undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Over the study period patients reduced their as-required anti-nausea medication, which indicates the reduction was not merely in their perception of the symptom or an increased effect of current medication.
Physical functioning covers the ability to take a long or short walk, the need to spend time in bed or a chair, the ability to carry out daily activities and the ability to perform strenuous activity. During the study there were changes in patients' perception of daily activities. Initially many described a long walk as a distance of one kilometre. At the conclusion of the study many perceived a long walk to be four kilometres or more. The increase in energy described by patients, and the change in their perception of a long walk, may indicate direct effects on the body's energy levels from the hypnosis, not just an increase in sleep reducing fatigue.
Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms experienced by cancer patients and is associated with significant impairment in functioning and overall quality of life. It showed the greatest response statistically, with all patients describing increased energy levels, decreased time spent at rest and a greater ability to live their lives the way they wish.
Global health status represents a patient's feeling as to their overall wellbeing, based upon that individual's beliefs and experiences. During the study some participants' global health status measure dipped dramatically after the second session, even with improvements in all other aspects of their questionnaire. When questioned about this decline, they stated that they had previously been comparing their quality of life with when they were sick, and now compared it to how they felt before they had any symptoms. All patients in their subsequent questionnaires then showed improved global health status, which indicates the change in outlook of participants to their quality of life.
The hypnotic techniques used in this study demonstrated significant improvements in all aspects of the patients' quality of life. Patients had more energy, were more active after hypnosis and were more able to cope with the difficulties they face in their everyday lives. A clinically significant improvement was seen with insomnia, nausea, physical functioning and global health status.
Hypnosis can affect perception of symptoms, however in this study the results seemed to point to a deeper change, with energy and fatigue being modified positively. The experience of hypnosis was described as beneficial by all patients. Patients commented that they would have seen the best benefit if hypnosis was begun around the time of diagnosis and continued throughout their treatment.
In this study, hypnosis has been beneficial for symptom control and for increasing the quality of life in patients with cancer. Further research into the use of specific non-Ericksonian hypnosis techniques for symptom control and improved quality of life, involving a larger number of participants, is needed to support these results.
Each participant kept a verbal record at every session. The reports are reproduced as they were taken. Participants are unnamed in the original.
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