It probably happened some time 6 or 7 thousand years ago. Maybe it was the first time a caveman realized that there were 4 distinct seasons that always happened in the same order. Or maybe it happened when someone noticed that all humans had the same number of fingers. But sometime before we started keeping records, man decided there was something special about numbers. 
Eventually the "wiser" men started to chart patterns. How many days it took for the moon to go through a cycle, how long after the sun arose did the water tides lift. But it wasn't long before someone decided that all this "knowledge" was more than man was meant to know. Organized religions labeled it numerology and determined it was of the devil. Eventually practitioners were hunted down and killed. 

History tells us that one of the greatest collection of ancient wisdom was once stored in a large library in Alexandria, Egypt. It was a place where "wisdom from around the world" was reputed as being stored. But one of the first decrees of the religious "powers that be" once the Romans conquered Alexandria, was that the entire library be burnt down. According to history the reason given was because it was said to contain information about "ungodly knowledge".

It wasn't till centuries later that these "secret" practices evolved into what today is the study of mathematics. But getting there required a demystification process. People needed to be exposed to it enough to realize association wouldn't cause lightning bolts to strike them down.  Alchemistry had a similar journey from occult, to witchcraft to circus side shows to chemistry. And hypnosis has worked it's way through a very long version of a similar path.

Marco Polo describes Egyptian physicians capable of curing patients with a single word. The only way I know of that makes this possible is through post hypnotic suggestion. I remember once, back when I had a fairly busy practice in Los Angeles dealing with a person that suffered from severe asthma attacks.  I began treatment with several session in which I anchored the phrase "You can stop now" to a series of inner control exercises. Whenever I said the phrase (even while he was awake, reacting to a post hypnotic suggestion) his mind would immediately have him; 1) stop breathing for a moment; 2) relax the throat; 
3) wait for the anxiety level to drop down a bit; 4) begin breathing slowly; 5) keep it under control. I got to the point where I could instantly stop an attack in the making in my office by simply getting his attention and ordering him to realize that "You can stop now". To us there was no real mystery in the process. It had taken a considerable amount of work, but it all fell together naturally at my command. Imagine how it must have looked to people sitting in the waiting room. I remember at least 3 or 4 times when I would hear him starting an attack in the other room, I would poke my head out of my office and command, "You can stop now". Without even waiting for a response, I'd go back to what I was doing inside, inwardly smiling at what must have looked like Godly power. Is that what Marco Polo witnessed? We can't know for sure. We do know that the ancient Romans described "sleep clinics", sometime back around the time of Christ, where trained "healers" talked away illnesses in patients that spent a day inside a quiet, serene cave, somewhere between sleep and wakefullness.

So what happened? If hypnosis has been around for at least 2000 years, why aren't we way past the "getting going" stages? Why is it that modern medicine is only recently beginning to consider the possibility that hypnosis may have practical applications in modern day therapy? 

Maybe it's the subjective nature of hypnosis. Unlike taking a blood count, hypnosis is very hard to measure. It's even difficult to duplicate results. The exact same subject may have something come up in their lives the day before a test and suddenly find they aren't able to reach a deep enough trance state to allow experimentation or validation. 
Maybe that's why the French Academy of Science nipped whatever good Mesmer might have done in the bud when their committee determined that hypnosis was actually only the manipulation of impressionable minds, basically an advanced placebo effect. Any of us that have used hypnosis more than a year or two, have probably heard our share of medical experts, using the same argument. It's interesting to note that the committee sent out by the academy was headed by the American Ambassador to France, our own Benjamin Franklin.

Somehow public opinion needed to be moved. In much the same way the side show numerologists and the special effects wizardry of the alchemists made audiences accept these disciplines as non threatening, somebody had to show the common person that hypnosis was safe, normal, and a technique that can, in fact, be practiced on most anybody. I guess if enough people became hypnotherapists and we all agreed to offer free services to everybody for a year we might be able to reach enough people quickly enough to help change popular opinion. My guess is that this isn't scheduled to happen any time soon. As long as scientists are afraid to admit they're doing anything that involves hypnosis, for fear of being labeled as "fringe researchers" and finding their grants cut off, the chances of getting endorsements from the mainstream are just as improbable. I know I have personally worked closely with several Ph.D's who were actively looking into hypnosis, but would never dare admit it. Various University projects hidden under titles like "Placebo Reactions to Outside Stimuli" or "Mental Response to Verbal Commands" have helped our understanding of the mind immensely without ever forcing the mainstream researchers to come out of the proverbial closet.

Over the years I've straddled both sides of the fence. For several years I trained Hypnotherapists out of a center in Los Angeles and felt, at the time, that Stage Hypnosis cheapened the overall image of hypnosis. Who ever heard of a brain surgeon cutting people open "just for show"? What good could come from making people bark like dogs on stage? Wouldn't it scare away otherwise eligible clients? Is it possible for a person who's seen a Stage Hypnotic Show to settle down to legitimate therapy in a controlled environment?
But then, after I sold the center off to someone else, financial considerations and more than a little wanderlust settled in. I decided to go back to doing stage shows, something I had done (rather poorly) to pay my way through college. With years more experience, and the worries of college life behind me, my show looked a lot better. It was snappy and sharp. And people left the room convinced I had an incredible ability to control minds. 

Along with my new image came a very unexpected side effect. Where once I had to pay large amounts of money to advertise around town and try and talk people into believing hypnosis could help them deal with life issues, I was suddenly finding long lines of people, after every show, walking up to see if I could use this "incredible mental power" to help them. I guess the logic path here was that if I could make people change identities and experience loss of sensory control, I must have some magical formula that could unlock the control center of their minds. People were almost inventing problems I might be able to help. They were pulling out money and asking if I thought I could help them increase breast sizes or salvage their marriages. I actually found myself having to develop a list of local hypnotherapists I could refer clients to in each of my larger cities because I couldn't handle it all myself. 

And another amazing thing happened as well. Back in my office therapy days, I usually found myself needing to "play the part" and explain that "nothing magical" is going to happen. At least half my clients left wondering if anything really did happen. Even the convincers fell short of completely doing their job. I remember dragging out the slow inductions so the client would at least feel he had experienced something. Now suddenly I was inviting clients to come into my hotel room, while on the road, where I'd greet them in a pair of jeans and a casual pullover shirt. Except for a pair of headphones and a portable karaoke machine there was nothing "medical" at all about the setting. But as the client sat down, all he could remember was that just a few hours ago he had watched me snap my finger and people suddenly thought they were celebrities at a ritzy party on a cruise ship. Now suddenly just sitting down and looking at me got them in the right frame of mind. And they would comfortably accept a rapid induction, giving me more time to do therapy. And because of the level of authority they associated with me, I suddenly found that suggestions and metaphors anchored in much quicker and effectively. I would start talking and find clients giving me their entire focus almost immediately. With the heightened level of rapport, even suggestions given before the inductions were sticking. And considering the increased demand, my rates went from $50 an hour up to $150.
Just how much did this help hypnotherapy in general? My gut (and probably biased) opinion is that clients that had seen my show, when they visited local hypnotherapists, whether by referral or as walk ins, probably associated the same imagined "power of hypnosis" with the local therapist. I'm sure that a lot of people who never told me they needed help probably left wondering if hypnosis would work for them. 

There can be little doubt that thousands of people yearly buy tickets to watch my show out of curiosity, convinced it's all fake, and stage volunteers are being paid off. Then they watch their wives sign autographs while thinking they're Arnold Schwarzenegger. And I mention that I offer a $50,000 award to anybody who can show I've ever paid anybody to act on stage. And suddenly it all becomes real. At the end of a typical show, as people line up to say goodbye at the back of the room, I hear the expected "I liked your show" comments. Right after that, by far the most common comment is "I would have never believed it is I hadn't seen it myself".  Another comment I hear at  least three or four times after most any show is  "I always thought this stuff was a bunch of mumbo jumbo, but you've made a believer out of me".

I'll be the first to admit that there are more than a few unscrupulous stage hypnotists that have hurt all our reputations with unethical and sleazy displays. But then over the course of 25+ years of doing this kind of thing, I've met my share of questionable Hypnotherapists, Psychologists and Doctors as well. The real issue here is the balance between harm and good that a stage show can offer a typical lay person. 

My personal belief is that even the unscrupulous types ultimately do nothing but hurt themselves and help those of us who go out of our way to promote quality, ethical hypnosis. Imagine you heard of a stage hypnotist who made people do indecent acts on stage and ended up seducing someone's wife after the show. My guess is, more than a few people would immediately line up to condemn that person and his actions. I'm sure at least one preacher looking for something new to present on Sunday morning might mention the incident. But anybody looking for solutions to pressing issues would probably take a different point of view. Granted it may take a little extra convincing to get them to trust you, but it's hard to imagine them not inwardly wondering if that kind of "power" might not be able to help them out. My guess is they wouldn't call the showman down at the local jailhouse, but they might remember the "doctor's surgery looking" office down the street. And if enough of us stand up and let ourselves be counted as the "other kind" of hypnotists, even the unethical types will ultimately alienate themselves.

To my fellow hypnotists I say, next time I'm doing a show in your town, please do feel free to give me a call (or email). I can probably get you in the door for free, and might even be able to put some work your way. But if nothing else, we can talk shop after the show and maybe you can help keep a lonely road warrior from feeling alone, depressed, self conscious, suicidal, out of control and in desperate need of some sort of mental adjustment. But then, enough about me.