This is important . . . any good hypnotist who understands history and technique can tell you this sort of thing has been around for some time . . . seriously, there are huge books of doctors performing surgery with no anaesthetic on folks as far back as the 18th and 19th centuries . . . James Esdaile once performed surgery on a fellow with a testicular tumor so large the patient had been using it as a writing desk, with no anaesthetic, just hypnosis and it went off without a hitch.
Why did doctors stop using hypnosis? Well they found a faster more reliable method . . . drugs . . . when ether was introduced, doctors stopped engaging the patient’s mind and just knocked them out. This coincides with what medical historians observe as a shift in doctor-patient relationships. Patients became objects to be manipulated rather than partners to be engaged.
Today, things have opened up quite a bit as more medical professionals recognize the need to engage the mind in healing and recognize that chemical anaesthetic can have some pretty nasty side effects of its own. Study after study has shown that when hypnosis is used as a replacement to anaesthetic, there is less shock to the body system, healing and recuperation are faster, and there are fewer deaths . . . that last bit is probably important for many folks to take note of. Sure, if there are issues with the hypnosis, then there is a chemical backup but it’s always best to engage the mind first.
There are a few recent news stories that explore this very trend . . . see http://www.examiner.com/article/hypnosis-instead-of-anesthesia-for-major-surgery and http://www.skynews.com.au/health/article.aspx?id=749633 for more.
If you’re in Taipei and interested in hypnosis, check the services page linked to in the top left sidebar. Not in Taipei, check the store for recordings in the same menu area as well as links to lots and lots of info and goodies.
