Hypnotist posters from around 1900

These fascinating posters give some insight into how hypnosis was used as entertainment over 100 years ago. They also show that people were more open thinking than you may give them credit for!

This set of amusing turn-of-the-century hypnotism posters show hypnotised people up to various strange shenanigans: a group of men wield brooms and umbrellas as though musical instruments; women ride men like horses; and (remembering that it is more than a century ago) a man dresses in women’s clothes, and two men canoodle. With its roots in “mesmerism”, the phenomena of hypnotism began to gain momentum with the work of Scottish surgeon James Braid (1795–1860), an early pioneer of the practise, paving the way for it to hit the mainstream toward the end of the 19th century.

There is not much information available about these five images below only that they were the product of The Donaldson Lithographing Co. based in Newport, Kentucky and seem to be from around 1900. They were discovered by The Public Domain Review

You can see that the top has a blank strip which would have been used to write up the name of the performer and venue when they were posted up around the city where the show was to play.

This first one is fascinating because apart from showing a man who thinks he is fishing, there is also another man who is dressed in ladies formal wear, with a dress and a hat that is covered in feathers. For an image over one hundred years old it's quite remarkable that the cross dressing man would be used for publicity. We may think that years back this may put people off, but clearly it may also attract and even bigger audience. You can also see that there is someone riding some chairs as if they are a horse. This seems to be a theme to these pictures.

This second picture also has the popular image of someone riding a horse. This time the lady is actually riding a gentleman who has a bit between his teeth and she even has a whip in her hand. In the foreground we see another gentleman who is playing a broom like an instrument. This may be somethign we think of from the 70's and a cliche of hypnosis stage shows, but this shows that the idea came about a lot earlier than that.

This next one has yet more horse riding antics. In fact the gentleman riding this chair is not unlike the ex racing commentator John McCririck, with his busy moustache and hat. The old favorite of instrument playing also takes place here.

As you may be noticing there are certain themes that run through, and so we have more musicians playing, although this time the lady riding a man seems to be floating in the air, so perhaps levitation is also playing its part.

This final one seems to be suggesting that perhaps there is also some sort of mentalist act happening. Maybe the blindfold is part of the act and the man with the blackboard will write down what the angles speak to his assistant. 

It is surprising that the act of stage hypnosis and magic may not have seemed to move on as much as you would have imagined.

If you want to watch me speaking about the latest version of hypnosis in entertainment on Television with TV shows like "You're Back in the Room" or the US version called "Hypnotize Me" you can take a look at the youtube video below....

Paul Mckenna appeared on the Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2 as part of the “What makes us Human” series to talk about his new book “Get Control of Sugar” and to talk about his life and work as well as Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy, NLP, Havening and the other techniques that he has championed.

Sitting in for Jeremy was Presenter Amol Rajan, and Paul spoke all about what he does to help people and the breakthroughs in treatment for PTSD with Psychosensory therapy that he has spent much time working with.

Introduced as a self help guru and one of the UKs best selling authors Paul began with his audio essay...

"I have been in the trenches for 30 years as a psychotherapist, working with people who are severly challenged, but also helping a lot of hugh acheivers as well. This is what I have learned about being human...

We all have certain qualities that make us human. On a purely biological level, humans are electrical impulses and chemicals. We are an amazing eco system of thoughts choices and actions, which build themselves into a life that we live. We are a set of multisensory experiences of successive moments of now."

However, there are some things about our humanity that we all know but can’t prove. So, if you ask a neuro-scientist and a poet what love is, although both may be correct in what they say, you will get two very different answers. Well all know what love feels like, but you can’t put it under a microscope.

I like the Buddhist philosophy, the Buddha was not a god he was a man who perfected himself. I am drawn to anything that involves human evolution and perfection.

My job essentially is to give people hope and help people to change. Sometimes, it is to help change behaviour, I do my best to help people to become better versions of themselves. To be more authentic, and I believe that authenticity is at the very heart of being human. 

However, that doesn’t mean that we all have to be perfect. I think that perfectionism is something that can work for us, or against us. I would say that very often some of the biggest learning experiences I have had, or noticed other people have had, have been when they have made mistakes. Those have been important learning experiences. Often it is our imperfections that give us our humanity. "

Paul went on the explain that a robot orchestra may be able to play perfectly but that there would be no soul in it. He spoke about all of the art and creations that the human race has made. 

After speaking to us Paul spoke to Amal who played the song "I didn't know I was Looking for Love" by Everything but the Girl. This was Paul's pick and he explained that it meant a lot because he spent many years not realising that the woman he loved was with him as his personal assistant every day. It wasn't until she told him how she felt that he was able to tell her he loved her too.