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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 12, No. 1

Publication Date: January 25, 2025

DOI:10.14738/assrj.121.18181.

Facco, E., Foppiani, E., & Granone, P. (2025). Hypnosis: The Modern Scientific Version of a Timeless Healing Technique. Advances in

Social Sciences Research Journal, 12(1). 124-145.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Hypnosis: The Modern Scientific Version of a Timeless Healing

Technique

Enrico Facco

Studium Patavinum - Dept. of Neurosciences,

University of Padova, Italy and Inst. F. Granone –

Italian Center of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis

(CIICS), Torino (Italy)

Ennio Foppiani

Inst. F. Granone - Italian Center of Clinical and

Experimental Hypnosis (CIICS), Torino (Italy)

Paolo Granone

Inst. F. Granone - Italian Center of Clinical and

Experimental Hypnosis (CIICS), Torino (Italy)

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to envisage possible commonalities between shamanic

rituals, incubation, meditation, lucid dreaming, and hypnosis – a well validated

therapeutic tool, though misunderstood in the past and still underused. The topic is

endowed with huge epistemological implications, calling for a transdisciplinary and

transcultural approach, in order to properly understand the essential common

aspects of these mind-body techniques and their potential for healing. Actually, the

Western rationalist thought has led to mental imagery being misunderstood and

prejudicially rejected as a worthless mind activity, while only in recent years

neurosciences have started to appraise its cognitive and metacognitive value. The

main common aspects of the above-mentioned techniques are eye closure and

mental imagery. The former allows to shift the focus of attention form the outer to

the inner words, a prerequisite to open the doors of mental imagery and plastic

monoideism. The resulting absorption and introspective activity in turn allow to get

a metacognitive control over mind and body, including neurovegetative system and

pain. Therefore, eye closure and mental imagery can be considered as the Ariadne

thread, able to guide us in the knowledge of the apparent labyrinth of healing

techniques that have accompanied the care of the sick in all cultures since time

immemorial.

Keywords: Epistemology, Hypnosis, Incubation, Lucid Dreaming, Meditation, Shamanism.

INTRODUCTION

I’m enough of an artist to draw freely on my imagination.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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Facco, E., Foppiani, E., & Granone, P. (2025). Hypnosis: The Modern Scientific Version of a Timeless Healing Technique. Advances in Social Sciences

Research Journal, 12(1). 124-145.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.121.18181

Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

1

Albert Einstein

The origin of hypnosis – commonly attributed to Franz Anton Mesmer in late18th century – may

be stretched back to ancient Greek and Egyptian medicine and even earlier to prehistoric

shamanism, both Eastern and Western philosophies and medicines originate from [1]. The

topic includes a variety of techniques – especially incubation, meditation, lucid dreaming and

shamanic rituals. As a whole, they call for a transdisciplinary and transcultural approach in

order to understand possible commonalities of different techniques, albeit defined and

formalized in different and ostensibly incompatible ways in different cultures and times. These

techniques have been used all over the world since time immemorial to improve knowledge,

metacognition, spirituality and environmental adaptation, as well as to take care of the sick.

The therapeutic value of shamanic rituals and traditional healing techniques has been analyzed

by transcultural psychiatry, but has been neglected by the positivist inclination of 20th century

psychiatry – mainly conceiving psychiatric disorders as the result of individual biological

disorders, where the patient is conceived as a passive, helpless carrier of it [2,3].

This article is aimed to frame hypnosis in a broader context as the last, scientific version of a

timeless, fundamental way of healing probably originating in the prehistory and then spread all

over the world. Despite incubation, lucid dreaming and meditation are not the same as modern

hypnosis, they may share unexpected aspects worth to be stressed in order to envisage the

common mental processes involved in these techniques.

ORIGIN OF PHILOSOPHY AND MEDICINE

Shamans of all ages (the term shaman, from the Manchu-Tungus word šaman, means man of

knowledge) have probed the reality as a whole − including the visible and the invisible, ordinary

and non-ordinary experiences − in order to comprehend the relationship between the inner

and the outer world, the meaning of life and death, as well as cure diseased people. The term

shaman is broad and, according to Eliade, it is advisable to limit its meaning to those “specialists

of the sacred” who know how to employ the spiritual power and ecstasy for the benefit of

community [4]. Besides the administration of herbal medicines (including psychotropic agents)

and other remedies, their healing procedures and rites included the induction of trance in order

to exploit the potentialities of the soul of both the shaman (e.g., shamanic journeys) and the

patient (e.g., shamanic flights) in the process of healing.

Several data suggest that prehistoric pan-Asiatic shamanism may be considered as the source

of both Eastern and Western philosophies and medicines, as well as native American traditions.

In fact. the first Taoists lived in a region strongly tinged with shamanism [5,6]. In ancient

Greece, a connection route with shamanism was Pontic Olbia − a settlement of Miletus dating

back to the 7th century BC in the coast of the Black Sea close to the Dnepr river’s mouth − where

a strong shamanic tradition was present. It included the worship of Apollo Oulios, as well as

Orphic and Dyionisian mysteries, as suggested by graffiti hinting to life-death-life (i.e.,

reincarnation, a view also shared by Pitagoras, Plato and Empedocles) [7]. Apollo Oulios (a

name related to his role of healer) was also mentioned in Kos as well, the homeland of

1

Interview with G.S. Vierek quoted by Isaacson [1, p. 385]

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Hippocrates [8]. From there it spread to the Ionian cities, where most pre-Socratic

philosophers lived [9–11]. Furthermore, a huge exchange of information between ancient

Greece and the East occurred before the birth of pre-Socratic philosophy, favored by trades

between Greece and India through Egypt, Persian Empire, and Phoenicia. Interestingly,

Parmenides, the great philosopher of Being, was also a great physician, founder of the Eleatic

Medical School. He had the title of Ouliadês (initiated to Apollo worship), iatros (physician),

iatromantis (healer) and phôlarchos (i.e., lord of borrows, a term and indicating his expertise in

incubation by referring to the borrows of snakes sacred to Apollo). In other words, he was a

great sage with shamanic gifts and this might be the reason why Plato named him “venerable

and awesome” in the Theaetetus (183e) [1,13–16]. According to Baldini, the concept of

iatromantis also included the capacity to travel with the soul while the body appeared to lie as

dead and come into contact with gods, in order to explore the secrets of the cosmos and

perform healings and wonders for the community [17].

The whole of these data strongly suggest that Greek culture and philosophy cannot be properly

understood unless oracles, incubation, and initiation rites to Mysteries are taken in due

account. For instance, the initiation to Eleusinian Mysteries included both katábasis (descent

to the underworld) and anábasis (ascent to the upper world) where the initiant experienced

visions and epoptéia (viz., enlightenment), a path paralleling shamanic journeys [11,18].

As far as American native populations are concerned, there is an increasing evidence of their

origin from Siberian population migrated to Americas through the Behring Straits during the

late glacial period (30,000-15,000 BC). This migration allowed humans to pass from Siberia to

the Pacific coast and Plains east of the Canadian Rockies. The first populations spread from

there to North, Central and South America, a fact supported by the genetic compatibility

between Native Americans and populations from Altai and Amur regions in south Siberia

[19,20].

Figure 1 schematically shows the origin and development of human culture from pan-Asiatic

pre-historic shamanism – including Eastern and Western philosophies and medicines, as well

as Native American cultures – up to the birth of the first European universities with their

medical schools. Traditional Chinese medicine belongs to Taoism and its origin is lost in the

mists of time. Likewise, āyurveda medicine [the term āyurveda, from theSanskrit āyus(life) and

veda (knowledge), means knowledge of life] belongs to Veda tradition and dates back to about

5,000 years BC. It shows several links with traditional Chinese medicine, probably favored by

exchange of information through the Silk Road and the spread of Buddhism to China, while

ayurvedic texts have also been translated into Chinese and Greek in 4th century BC [21,22].

Incubation was constantly practiced in ancient Egyptian and Greek medicines for about 3,000

years – from about 2,700 BC to the fifth century AC. However, with the advent of Christendom

paganism was canceled out – including Asclepius’ medicine and incubation – and Christian

physicians and monks started to take care of the sick [1]. Indeed, in the early stage incubation

was practiced in the Cosmedion Cosmas and Damian at Constantinople, in the shrine of the

Egyptian saints Cirus and John at Menouthis (close to Canopus), and in the sanctuaries of St.

Thecla at Seleucia and Aege as a syncretistic remnant of Asclepius’ medicine [14,23]. According

to tradition, the sick fell asleep in the church close to the altar or near the relics of the saints;

then the saints appeared and took care of the incubant by applying remedies, suggesting the

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Facco, E., Foppiani, E., & Granone, P. (2025). Hypnosis: The Modern Scientific Version of a Timeless Healing Technique. Advances in Social Sciences

Research Journal, 12(1). 124-145.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.121.18181

appropriate therapy, or even performing surgery, the signs of which could be observed by the

patient on awakening. Later on, the technique of incubation and even its very name were

irremediably lost in the Dark Ages.

Fig. 1: Origin of Eastern and Western philosophies from pan-Asiatic prehistoric shamanism and

the birth of medicines from them, including the use of incubation and meditation (modified

from Facco & Tagliagambe [14]).

Following the abandonment of Elea and the demise of the Eleatic medical school in 6th century

AC, the Schola Medica Salernitana was born in Campania Region around 9th-10th century. It

resulted from a transcultural exchange of ideas belonging to Hebrew, Egyptian, Arabian, Latin,

Greek and Lombard medicine (arguably including the Eleatic medicine), a fact narrated as a tale

in the Chronica Helini, a text of late Middle Ages. In the early Middle Ages it became the most

important European school of medicine, but underwent a slow decline after the foundation of

the Universities of Bologna and Padua in 1220 and 1222, respectively (the first two universities

in the world), followed by Naples in 1224. Finally, it was closed by Joachim Murat in 1811 (the

topic has been analyzed in detail elsewhere [14]).

Eastern philosophies have always merged theoretical and practical philosophy in an

inseparable whole aimed to self-knowledge, wisdom and the knowledge of inner/outer world

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relationship, where meditation is an essential practice allowing to get rid of Māyā, the mask of

illusion of ordinary consciousness – a goal involving the development of metacognition, Self,

self-mastery and resilience [24,25]. Therefore, they may be regarded as philosophy and

psychotherapy at the same time, a fact in line with the recent introduction of Buddhism and

Taoism in the West for an existential-philosophical approach to psychotherapy [26,27].

Medicine belonged to philosophy in both the East and West. Nevertheless, Western philosophy

developed as an essentially theoretical discipline though including masterpieces of practical

philosophy like Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason [28], a fact probably resulting from the loss

of the knowledge of mysteries and incubationy. In fact, the Critique of Practical Reason deals

with moral principles and proper behavior, and defines enlightenment from a conceptual,

rational standpoint, but does not explain how one can pursue them; accordingly, Kant states :

“Consistency is the highest obligation of a philosopher, and yet the most rarely

found” (I, 1).

INCUBATION

Ancient medicine was inseparably connected to religion. The temples of Imhotep in Egypt and

Asclepius in Greece were temple-hospitals where both soul and body were cured with a holistic

approach. The worship of Imhotep – architect of the Pharaoh Djoser in 27th century BC, priest

of Ra and outstanding physician – included the use of incubation [29,30]. Egyptian naturalistic

medicine was also highly developed and specialized. For instance, the Surgical Papyrus (2500-

3000 BC) already described 48 outstanding cases of neurological syndromes following head

and spinal cord injuries– including tetraplegia, aphasia, hemiplegia – and the corresponding

brain lesions; it also described the cerebrospinal fluid, discovered in the West only in 18th

century [31–33]. The Surgical Papyrus clearly shows that the medical science and its sacred

aspects were fully compatible in ancient times. Actually, their opposition is a strong bias

introduced by comparatively recent historical-political circumstances − i.e., the temporal

power of the Church claiming the exclusive competence on the soul and its conflict with the

nascent sciences in 17th century [34,35].

Incubation was an essential practice also in Greek medicine. As with Egyptian medicine, the

caregivers of Greek Asclepeions − including Hippocrates himself – were priests-physicians

inseparably merging the naturalistic medicine with its sacred component. The enlightened

Hippocrates’ rational approach (loghismós) was based on the concept of δύναμις (dýnamis,

power) – i.e., the dynamic interrelationship of the mind-body-environment as an inseparable

whole – an outstanding intuition of the modern theory of complex systems, the modus operandi

of which cannot be properly explained by an inflexible reductionist-determinist perspective

[36,37]. The temples-hospitals were sets of buildings including the stoa (the hostel for patients’

admission), a theater and a gymnasium, to be considered as inseparable parts of a whole,

devoted to take care of the patient’s soul-body. Actually, Greek tragedies performed in the

theater allowed patients to face the darkness of human existence and its profound psychosocial

problems, favoring catharsis and, thus, help relieving pains [38].

In Asclepius’ temples − also called “sleep temples” − the patient was admitted to the Abaton

(impenetrable, i.e., the secluded part forbidden to people), where he/she was incubated and

dreamed the god Asclepius providing instructions for healing. A wealth of data is available on

incubation [14,39–43], but the details on the procedure of induction and deepening are lacking.

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Facco, E., Foppiani, E., & Granone, P. (2025). Hypnosis: The Modern Scientific Version of a Timeless Healing Technique. Advances in Social Sciences

Research Journal, 12(1). 124-145.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.121.18181

In early period incubation included simple, directive suggestions of recovery; then, it was

implemented over time with therapeutic suggestions − e.g., advises about proper behavior,

dietary regimen and physical activity, according to the development of medical knowledge. In

many cases the god Asclepius personally treated the patient as well, especially when surgery

was performed. In Oneirocritica (V, 61), Artemidorus reported on a patient with an abdominal

abscess who, brought to the temple, dreamed Asclepius operating him (Edelstein & Edelstein,

1998, p. 235):

“A certain man dreamed that, struck in the belly by Asclepius with a sword, he died;

this man, by means of an incision, healed the abscess which had developed in his

belly”.

The incubation was usually depicted with the patient laying in the klinai (bed), the priest- physician inducing incubation behind him/her and the god Asclepius curing the ailment.

Indeed, the structure of these pictures can be considered as four-dimensional, merging the

three-dimensional physical reality of the temple and the imagined realm of the patient being

cured by Asclepius in a whole (for further details, see [1]).

The above-mentioned data strongly suggest that incubation was used in Greek medicine with

medical and surgical indications similar to those of modern hypnosis. actually, both of them can

be conceived as mind-body techniques based on doctor-patient relationship and patient’s

plastic imagination enhanced by a guided procedure. Indeed, illness was considered as an

imbalance of the mind-body unit in ancient times, where mind played a crucial role in both

disease and recovery, as clearly stated by Democritus:

“It is fitting for men that they should make a logos more about the soul than about

the body. For the perfection of the soul puts right the faults of the body. But strength

of body without reasoning improves the soul not one whit” (Fragment DK 68 B187).

Likewise, Plato in Charmindes(156b-157b), speaking about treating a headache, holds the

need for a holistic, psychosomatic approach in patient’s care, including “incantation” (that

one might considere as sort of hypnotic communication):

“I will speak more frankly to you about the incantation, what sort it happens to be.

Just now I was perplexed about how I might show you its power... He [a physician

of the Thracian god Zalmoxis; Authors’ note)] said that the soul is treated, blessed

one, with certain incantations, and that these incantations are beautiful speeches;

that from such speeches sound-mindedness comes to be in souls, and once it has

come to be and is present, then it is easy to provide health both for the head and for

the rest of the body... This is the error common among human beings, that some

attempt to be doctors of these things separately, sound-mindedness and health”.

Accordingly, the Hippocratic School provided a huge amount of rational knowledge, but it

remained inseparably united to its sacred part in a psychosomatic approach, where healing was

achieved combining herbal remedies, surgery, and incubation – defined in the past as an

imagined experience with the body still, like a hibernating animal.

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The practice of incubation persisted for about fifteen centuries in Greece, from the pre-Homeric

period to the 4-5th century AC. As mentioned above, incubation was also practiced at the

beginning of Christianity. On the other hand, the great theocratic design of the Magna Ecclesia

(Great Church) started a hagiographic propaganda aimed to bury paganism to oblivion,

including Asclepius’ medicine. At the same time the first Christian physicians-martyrs were

sanctified and the first Christian hospitals were built [14]. As a result, incubation was buried to

the oblivion forever, but some remnants of it survived in the Middle Ages. In fact, in 9-10th

century AC several miraculous healings were reported spending the night in Christian shrines

close to the tombs of saints. Interestingly, miraculous recoveries were reported in a condition

described as non dormienti, sed clare vigilanti (not sleeping, but clearly aware) [14,44–46], a

locution hinting to a so-called altered stated of consciousness (ASC) and suggesting that the

essential prerequisite for healing was a sort of intermediate condition between ordinary

consciousness and sleep.

All this given, one can legitimately argue that today’s sanctuaries like Lourdes are the remnants

of a thousand-year old tradition starting in the prehistory and technically used for some three

millennia by skilled physicians-priests in Egyptian and Greek temples. Following its deletion,

incubation was reduced to a matter of patient’s hope only, deprived of the technical support by

physician-priests; in this context, the art of healing and its procedure were irremediably lost

and reduced to a matter of patient’s faith and God omnipotence only. At any rate, the belief in

miraculous healing has persisted until today and is clearly witnessed in many churches and

holy places. If this is the case, one can argue that the idea of miraculous healing reflects an

insuppressible need, and probably a capacity of human mind unceasingly persisting since time

immemorial. Therefore, it should not be considered as a plain result of illusion or superstition,

for it may reflect the expression of a clinically relevant psychosomatic potential, though

neglected by the materialist-reductionist metaphysics. On epistemological standpoint,

miraculous healing can be regarded as the result of real but ostensibly implausible, still

unknown mechanisms of recovery, rather than supernatural forces.

Reed attempted to reconstruct the ritual of dream incubation and healing rituals in a dream

laboratory, including two main symbols (i.e., the sacred place and the reverent benefactor as

projections of the incubant’s potentiality) and four steps: a) the selection of the dreamer; b) the

preparation of the incubant; c) the incubation ceremony; d) the incubant’s testimony.

Interestingly, the adopted technique for the induction of incubation is hypnotic-like (table 1),

though inserted in a more complex rituality aimed to elicit dreams and allow for help from a

divine benefactor, as done for millennia [47]. Of course, this reconstruction is adjusted to the

present time and one cannot claim that it faithfully mimics the procedures used by ancient

priest-physicians.

Table 1: A partial report of hypnotic-like instructions given to induce incubation, as

reconstucted by Reed [47].

Hold your arm up slightly from the ground ... experience the effort required

to resist the pull of gravity ... gradually yield to gravity, allowing your

arm to sink slowly back to earth ... experience the pleasure of letting go, of

giving in to gravity, of letting the earth support you ... you have done all you

can to work on your problem, and you are now entitled to relax ... you relax

as you allow yourself to experience your arms and legs as heavy ... experience

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Facco, E., Foppiani, E., & Granone, P. (2025). Hypnosis: The Modern Scientific Version of a Timeless Healing Technique. Advances in Social Sciences

Research Journal, 12(1). 124-145.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.121.18181

the pleasure of the sensation of heaviness as you let go of your problem

and let the earth support you ... as you focus on the experience of warmth in

your arms and legs you feel at peace ... focus gently, gently on your breathing,

following it in and out ... as you exhale, let the breath go, and release

yourself from the control of your breathing ... give in to expiration with a

peaceful sign of relief, and then allow your next breath to come to you on its

own ... trust in your breath, and as you inhale, think, &dquo;it breathes me&dquo;

... let go of your breath and trust in inspiration ....

Incubation in the Americas

Incubation, lucid dreaming, trance and ecstatic techniques have been practiced by shamans of

American tribes for healing and rites of passage; their alleged extraordinary spiritual power

allowed for divination and communication with the transcendent world, ability to influence the

outer world and provide for other needs such as weather control, fruitful hunt and fishing.

As mentioned above, shamanism spread from North America up to the Tierra del Fuego since

the prehistory; in the North, over 500 tribes exist today (some of the most widely known have

been reported in figure 1). In its spread to many tribes, shamanism maintained the same

principles, while the rituality – including religious aspects, use of herbal medicine and

psychotropic plants – developed in a variety of forms.

Unlike Western scientific medicine, shamans are more about healing the person, rather than

curing a disease and conceive ailments as the result of the interaction of soul and body with the

community and environment. Therefore, the healer interprets the patient’s condition according

to that system and enacts the shared symbols and myths, in order to improve mind-body

integration, self-development and social relationships [43, pp. 183-230]. The rituals are aimed

to elicit visions able to yield an experiential (say virtual) reality including symbols, myths and

metaphors in order to help individuals restructure their problem and self-transform. This

suggests an unexpected link with Jung and Erickson’s teaching, as well as the capacity of

hypnosis to engender a mind-body trance-formation [49].

The metaphoric language may catalyze meanings and elicit personal changes by engaging the

power involved in “thinking of one thing in terms of another” in the interaction among sensory,

affective, and cognitive elements [50]. The imaginative constructions merge narrative and

bodily experience as well as individual and social factors in a whole, exceeding the questionable

dichotomy between subjective and objective knowledge, and allowing for improved cognitive

and emotional flexibility, metacognition and resilience [3].

There is a close connection between concepts and narration on the one hand, and bodily

functions on the other – including the sensory-motor system and emotions with related

psychosomatic, neurovegetative and endocrine components [51,52]. This close connection is in

line with the relationship and reciprocal interplay between anoetic, noetic and autonoetic levels

in consciousness, memory, emotions and pain [53–55]. Therefore, one can legitimately argue

that communication through symbols, images and metaphors may improve conscious and

unconscious processing, cognition and metacognition, allowing to exceed the limits of existing

convictions, beliefs as well as traumatic memories and dissociative disorders (defined as soul

loss in the shamanic context). In this regard, one might consider shamans as Jungian