James BraidBorn 19 Jun 1795; died 25 Mar 1860 at age 64.Scottish optometrist whose experiments led him to an early theory of hypnosis that dismissed the idea of "animal magnetism." Earlier, Franz Mesmer induced trances with manual manipulations he believed controlled a force field of animal magnetism. Braid discovered such "mesmeric passes were unnecessary. A person fixating on a bright object about 8 to 15 inches above the eyes could easily enter a trance. In his 1841 book, Neurypnology or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep considered in relation with Animal Magnetism, he coined the word "hypnotism" from the Greek word "hypnos" meaning "sleep." Thus hypnotism replaced mesmerism, even though later investigation showed that hypnosis was not, in fact, related to sleep.« |
