The word Hypnosis is derived from Hypnos, the Greek God of sleep.

James Braid (1795-1860), was the first to try to define Hypnosis in a psychological way. Braid found that eye exhaustion could cause Hypnosis, and caused his subjects to be Hypnotised by staring at various objects for long periods.

Hypnotism was defined as a peculiar condition of the nervous system induced by fixed or abstracted attention on a single object or idea.

Braid found that under light hypnosis, or 'in trance', hearing was about 12 times more acute, and the sense of smell, touch and temperature exaggerated.

Under deep hypnosis or trance however these senses were lost completely, so that subjects could be pinched, pricked or cut without showing a reaction.

Braid believed that the more a person was hypnotised, the easier is was to induce hypnosis again.

He also believed that a person could not be hypnotised against their will, and would only perform acts under hypnosis that they would perform when awake. (i.e. those under stage hypnosis pretending to be chickens, have a natural tendency to 'act the fool'.

Braid found that suggestions made under Hypnosis could cure a variety of ailments that ordinary medicine could not at that time.