Perhaps no condition needs the ability to relax more than hyperpiesia, essential hypertension or high blood pressure. Orthodox medical opinion states that the cause is unknown but admits that it occurs in those who tend to worry, to be over-anxious, to take things too seriously and who are of an excitable disposition. Those who suffer from this complaint are usually people whose way of living involves continued mental or emotional stress or strain.
Further, it is generally agreed that the immediate cause of the condition is an increased resistance to the passage of blood through the smaller arteries and arterioles. This increased resistance is due to a narrowing of the diameter of the blood vessels in response to nervous impulses, and the arteries are said to be in a state of hypertonus.

The cause of hypertonus is said to be unknown; but readers who have seen how worry and anxiety can create nervous tension, which discharges itself as nervous impulses and so disturbs the balance of the autonomic nervous system, will have no difficulty in realizing just how these strong emotions can affect the vascular system of the body.
If the pipes of the body, as we may consider the arteries, are narrowed, it is obvious that the blood pressure must go up. That this is no far-fetched theory is agreed by orthodox medical opinion, which admits that in hyperpiesia the blood pressure becomes normal under ether anaesthesia and is greatly diminished during sleep.

All that happens in these conditions is that the body and mind are put at complete rest. As a result the nervous impulses cease and the blood vessels relax with a resultant fall in blood pressure.
Unfortunately, hyperpiesia or high blood pressure usually has an insidious onset, so that the condition may be fairly well established before it is discovered. This may come about during the course of a medical examination for an entirely different purpose. The commonest early symptoms are a feeling of fullness and perhaps throbbing in the head. Afterwards there may be attacks of giddiness or Tinnitus Aurium (noises in the ears). Other well-known symptoms include flushing, insomnia, palpitation, mental fatigue, headache (especially in the morning), impaired memory, mental irritation and diminished emotional control.

Orthodox medical opinion stresses the importance of rest and relaxation. One eminent authority advises the patient to have ten hours in bed each night and have at least one quiet day a week. Long annual holidays and several shorter ones with limitation of physical and mental effort are stated to be essential. The patient is urged to ‘give up worry’, ‘avoid anxiety’, and ‘take things easy’.
Unfortunately, he is not told how to do it; and the patient who fears he may have a ‘stroke’ at any time finds it difficult to ‘give up worry’ by ordinary means.
Even long annual holidays, supposing the patient can afford them, are unlikely to do much good if the patient’s mind is in a state of worry over his condition. It is strange indeed that hypnotism, which is the ideal method of inducing complete relaxation of mind and body, has been neglected by the medical profession in the treatment of this distressing complaint.

Consider the case of this man, who suffered from high blood pressure. He had already had a slight ‘stroke’ from which he had recovered. Nevertheless, he lived in constant dread of another attack and sought hypnotic treatment to relieve his anxiety. The patient proved to be a poor hypnotic subject and only a very light trance could be induced. Nevertheless, he reported that he felt much better and more confident after several sessions of hypnotic suggestion. His doctor reported that his blood pressure had been reduced.
Even in a case so well established as this one, hypnotism was able to effect considerable improvement. Employed in the early stages of the disease, there is little doubt that it could completely cure the condition.
No claim is made that hypnotism will ‘cure’ long established cases of high blood pressure; but, by inducing complete relaxation of mind and body and teaching the patient to relax himself, together with the instilling of confidence and removal of fear, the condition can be greatly improved and life made far more tolerable.

The same would apply to conditions like Angina Pectoris, a severe form of heart disease where there is always the danger of sudden death. In a complaint such as this, the very fear of the disease predisposes towards further attacks.
Another disease in which there is a big nervous element is Asthma. Orthodox medical opinion admits that the exact cause is unknown but agrees that fatigue, emotion or nervous shock may precipitate an attack. A favourite theory is that the patient is allergic or sensitive to the emanations from certain animals such as horses, cats or dogs. In some cases dust is suspected and the scent or pollen from grasses and flowers is often considered to be the irritant responsible for the attack.
Even in cases where it has been apparently proved that the person is sensitive to a certain thing, it is probable that the real cause is nervous. After all, if the patient is told that he is sensitive to, say, feathers, and must avoid them or else suffer an attack, he will most likely believe it. Thereafter, if he comes in contact with feathers, he fears an attack. As a result of the fear and anxiety, he sets up a state of tension which discharges itself by upsetting the autonomic nervous supply to the lungs, with resultant spasm of the bronchial muscles.

The same effect will be observed if the patient thinks he is in contact with feathers, or whatever he is alleged to be sensitive to, although the real object may not be present at all.
It is well known that an asthmatic patient, who believes he is sensitive to roses, will have an attack if shown an artificial rose, providing he does not know it is artificial.

Orthodox medical opinion admits these facts but neglects that very treatment which is most efficacious in all nervous complaints.
Consider the case of the young man who suffered from frequent and severe attacks of asthma all his life. As a result, his general health had suffered and the patient appeared to be very frail and delicate. He had tried all sorts of medical treatment without relief and as a last resort had sought hypnotic treatment.
Being a good hypnotic subject, great improvement was experienced even after the first treatment. A few repeated sessions at weekly intervals were sufficient to keep him free from attacks and apparently cure the condition.
An interesting feature of this case was that the patient reported he had always been sensitive to feathers. Contact with these inevitably produced an attack. After hypnotic treatment, however, he had been able to sleep with a feather pillow and a feather eider-down without the slightest sign of an attack!

Another interesting case of asthma was that of a young married woman. She had suffered from nightly attacks of asthma for many years. The patient was forced to get up every night, with the result that she suffered severely from loss of sleep. She was afraid of the dark and could not sleep without a light. In her case the condition appeared to have been caused by shock. During the war she had been attacked by a man in the ‘black-out’. On this occasion she struggled and fought, eventually managing to escape, and ran home. She arrived there terrified and breathless and had been afraid of the dark ever since. Although happily married she would wake up every night in a panic and promptly develop an asthma attack. After several sessions of hypnosis, she reported herself apparently cured.

Now, in addition to the complaints which have been described, there is a group of painful and obscure conditions, such as Migraine, Trigeminal Neuralgia, Phantom Limb, Cardiospasm and Thrombo-Angiitis Obliterans, which can often be cured or relieved by hypnotism when orthodox methods of medical treatment have failed.
Let us consider the case of a woman who had suffered from severe attacks of migraine for over thirty years. Migraine is a very common complaint and is often known as bilious headache. It is characterized by intensely severe headache, usually one-sided, which is so bad that the patient is forced to lie down. Sometimes there are disturbances of vision or even speech. The headache increases until it is scarcely bearable and is usually followed by vomiting which often relieves the pain.

The patient may be completely incapacitated for several days. Medical science is ignorant of the exact cause of this complaint but, as it occurs only in intelligent and energetic people who worry a good deal, and an attack is usually precipitated by mental or bodily fatigue and emotional disturbances, there is undoubtedly a big nervous element.
The patient was highiy sensitive and nervous and stated that she was of a worrying disposition. She had suffered from migraine ever since the age of ten. The attacks occurred regularly every two weeks and incapacitated the patient for several days each time. 
She had had numerous examinations by specialists and had undergone several operations in the hope of obtaining relief from the condition which was spoiling her whole life. Finally, having been told that there was no medical cure, the patient decided to give up doctors. Hypnotism was sought as a last desperate effort.

The patient proved to be a fairly good subject, and at the time of writing has been completely free from attacks for several years.
Such a result, supported by the evidence of many similar cases, shows the great value of hypnotism in a complaint such as migraine. The pity is that patients only seek hypnotic treatment when all else has failed. In cases such as these, hypnotism should be tried first, when there is no doubt that patients would be spared years of misery and unhappiness.

Another obscure condition which causes a great deal of suffering is Cardiospasm. Here there is an obstruction at the entrance of the stomach so that food remains in the gullet and is often vomited up again. There is no real obstruction but the blockage appears to be due to nervous spasm. As a result, the patient is unable to manage solid food and rapidly loses weight.

A patient, aged forty, was a typical case. She had suffered from cardiospasm for nearly twenty years, and being unable to eat solid food, was forced to live mainly on ‘slops’. The condition had been diagnozed by X-ray but had defied all medical treatment. Even surgical treatment, in which the opening into the stomach was dilated by metal bougies, failed to relieve the condition. Again, the patient applied for hypnotic treatment as a last resort.
She proved to be a good hypnotic subject and was told among other things that henceforth she would be able to swallow solid food without difficulty.
At the second session, a week later, the patient reported herself apparently cured. She volunteered the information that immediately after the first treatment she had gone to a teashop in the vicinity and had partaken of the largest tea she had eaten for twenty years, without any difficulty. She has been hypnotized several times at intervals to reinforce the cure, and the improvement has been maintained over a considerable period. Consider how much suffering this patient could have been spared had she sought hypnotic treatment at the first signs of her condition.

Thrombo-angiitis obliterans is an obscure complaint in which hypnotism can be helpful. The actual cause of the condition is not known, but it has been established that there is always a big element of vasospasm. This spasm of the arteries causes a deficient supply of blood to the muscles, so that the patient is unable to walk for more than a few minutes without severe cramp-like pains in the legs. The deficient blood supply often leads to ulcers, and in severe cases amputation may be necessary.
Patients who suffer from this complaint are nearly always heavy smokers, and it may be that the nicotine causes spasm by irritating the autonomic nerves which supply the arteries of the legs. Orthodox medical treatment can do little to relieve the condition. Surgical treatment is aimed at cutting the nerves, and is sometimes successful. It is well known that there is increased control over the autonomic nervous system under hypnosis, and it would seem well worth while to give such a simple method a fair trial before undertaking severe and possibly dangerous surgical operations.

A patient, aged forty, was a typical case of this condition. He had already lost two fingers, and suffered from a huge ulcer on the left leg and another on the right foot which threatened to need amputation. He was an extremely heavy smoker. The patient came from a great distance for treatment, and on arrival was unable to stand or walk without great pain. After being hypnotized three times, there was relief of pain and his smoking habit was cured. The patient was able to walk without pain after the first treatment.
Unfortunately, his circumstances made it impossible for him to stay for furher hypnotic treatment, and he returned home with general instructions for rest and ordinary medical treatment in order to give the ulcer time to heal.
Several months later his wife wrote to express her gratitude, and reported the ulcer on the foot healed, but a small ulcer still present on the leg after an attempted skin graft had been performed in hospital. She considered hypnotic treatment had saved his foot, and wrote: ‘I am positive that hypnosis saved his leg when he came for treatment, as he has had no trouble whatever with the foot. It had healed up before he came home, and I feel sure that he would have lost his leg then, only that he tried hypnosis.’

It may be objected that a lay person is unqualified to express an opinion on a medical matter such as this, but anyone can see if an ulcer is healed or not.
No claim is made that hypnotic suggestion ‘cured’ this case, but three treatments undoubtedly improved the patient’s condition. He was able to stop smoking, pain was relieved, and the patient made more optimistic for the future.
At first sight it may appear fantastic that hypnotism can help a complaint such as this. When it is remembered, however, that there is always a big element of vaso-spasm in thrombo-angiitis obliterans, and that spasm anywhere can be abolished by hypnosis, then it does not seem so unreasonable. 
After all, if suggestion can cause the blood vessels of the face to dilate and so produce blushing, there is no reason why it should not produce a better blood supply elsewhere.

Surgeons and many medical men are, of course, sceptical, but even the sceptics are forced to admit that it is possible to exert a considerable degree of control over the circulatory system in hypnosis.
It is well known that bleeding can be controlled by suggestion in the trance - a fact which is often demonstrated by stage hypnotists who pass needles through the arms of their subjects without the slightest trace of bleeding. Many Fakirs and Yogis can pierce their bodies with swords while in a state of trance or self-induced hypnosis.

A classical case of the control of bleeding by hypnosis is that of Rasputin. This evil monk obtained great influence over the Czarina of Russia because he was able to stop the bleeding sickness of her son by hypnosis. The child suffered from haemophilia, in which there are often haemorrhages into the joints. Although his purpose was evil, this ignorant monk was nevertheless able to do by hypnotism that which defied the cleverest doctors in Europe - the control of bleeding in a case of haemophilia.