The Greeks loved everything Egyptian.
Alexander the Great brought home many customs and practices to Greece, including sleep temples. Sleep temples gained in popularity and were soon adopted by the Romans and, later, by the early Christians.
Then, around the year 1000 AD, church reform brought these healing practices into disrepute.
As the church gained power it became heretical to seek direct contact with the Divine. During the Inquisition, many of the inquisitors were medical practitioners whose motive was to promote rationalized ‘scientific’ medicine. Popular healers were especially targeted for prosecution.
Any views that were contrary to church doctrine were considered heretical.
Astronomer Copernicus (1473 – 1543) theorized that the sun, and not the earth, is at the center of the universe. Being branded a heretic could have brought his family into disrepute and end in imprisonment or even death. So Copernicus kept his views to himself until he was on his deathbed.
In late 1700’s Mesmer emerged with a new healing phenomenon called ‘animal magnetism.’ Stories of miracles spread rapidly and Mesmer came under the scrutiny of the established medical profession. As patients were required to be treated through ‘scientific method’ – primarily blood-letting - Mesmer was sent packing in disrepute.
Fortunately, mesmerism continued and made its way to America.
Some time around 1836, a French mesmerist by the name of Charles Poyen was giving a lecture in Belfast, Maine which so impressed Phineas Parkhust Quimby that he left his job and went on to become a mesmerist.
Quimby became the best-known ‘mental healer’ in America.
Meanwhile, Scottish neurosurgeon, James Braid had begun experimenting on his own methods based on mesmerism. Braid attempted to develop a more scientific approach, which he called ‘rational mesmerism,’ and later ‘neuro-hypnotism.’
Braid, like those before him, soon came under personal attack from the clergy for “satanic agency.”
And hypnotism went the way of the devil.
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