Oriental hypnosis - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Oriental Hypnosis is an old India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n method of healing practiced by Sadhus, Fakirs, Yogis and sannyasis (Sannyasa

Sannyasa

Sannyasa is the order of life of the renouncer within the Hindu scheme of āśramas, or life stages. It is considered the topmost and final stage of the ashram systems and is traditionally taken by men or women at or beyond the age of fifty years old or by young monks who wish to renounce worldly...

). These people indulge in self hypnosis by practicing rhythmic breathing exercise method like pranayama
Pranayama
Pranayama is a Sanskrit word meaning "extension of the prana or breath" or more accurately, "extension of the life force". The word is composed of two Sanskrit words, Prāna, life force, or vital energy, particularly, the breath, and "āyāma", to extend, draw out, restrain, or...

and meditation etc.

For hetero hypnosis they used threatening stare and suggestive techniques like loud command “sleep” etc. to bring out the subjects imagination generated from within the mind.

In the west

In the early 19th century Abbe Faria

Abbé Faria

Abbé Faria , or Abbé José Custódio de Faria, , was a colourful Goan Catholic monk who was one of the pioneers of the scientific study of hypnotism, following on from the work of Franz Anton Mesmer...

, Indo-Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

priest, and a contemporary of Mesmer introduced oriental hypnosis to Paris. Later Dr. James Esdaile

James Esdaile

Dr James Esdaile , the eldest son of the Rev. James Esdaile and Margaret Blair, was born on 6 February 1808 in Montrose, Angus, Scotland, is a notable figure in the history of mesmerism. Esdaile married three times.-Education:...

learned some trance techniques from Bengali Hindu fakirs and developed it as mesmeric anesthesia. Famous historian Will Durant writes in his book “The Story of civilizations”:

“Hypnotism as therapy seems to have originated among India

India

ns, who often took their sick to the temples to be cured by hypnotic suggestion. The Englishmen who introduced hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is a therapy that is undertaken with a subject in hypnosis.The word "hypnosis" is an abbreviation of James Braid's term "neuro-hypnotism", meaning "sleep of the nervous system"....

into England — Braid, Esdaile

James Esdaile

, and Elliotson

John Elliotson

John Elliotson was an English physician, born in Southwark, London.He studied medicine first at the University of Edinburgh , where he was influenced by Thomas Brown, M.D...

— "undoubtedly got their ideas, and some of their experience, from contact with India." (p.531 of 1937-edition.)

In the west

Further reading