Imagine you’re sitting at home, watching your favorite TV show, without a care in the world. When suddenly, someone snaps their fingers and your whole body goes limp. You can no longer willingly control your own movement, but instead someone else tells you to get up, and you must follow their commands. When they snap their fingers again, you return to your seat, with no memory of what has occurred. You’ve been hypnotized! But hypnotism isn’t real, is it? It’s just something we read about in books or see in movies. No one can hypnotize someone else in real life. Or can they? What do you think of when you hear the word hypnosis? Maybe somebody lying on a chaise lounge while somebody else swings a gold watch in front of their face? Or maybe a comedy show where the hypnotist tries to make the victim attempt embarrassing things like clucking like a chicken? Fortunately, none of these things actually happen when …show more content…
Hypnosis is used in the medical field too, some doctors use hypnosis during childbirth so that patients don’t have to use medications for pain and risk their baby being born with birth defects. Some of the most recognized hypnotists are Franz Anton Mesmer, followed by James Braid, and Svengali. Franz Mesmer was the first man to systematically use hypnosis for curative purposes, while James Braid was a passionate critic of mesmerism which he saw as a pseudoscientific and supernatural theory. He modified the techniques of the mesmerists and coined the term “hypnotism”. The word "svengali" refers to a person who, with evil intent, dominates, manipulates, and controls a creative person such as a singer or an actor. In the novel, Svengali transforms a girl who was unable to perform without his help, into a great singer by using