Hypnotism, Mesmerism, Auto-Suggestion, Hypnosis, Self-Hypnosis
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Thanks to my Patreon Supporters
This bibliography will grow, while the pile of hypnotism books on the left-side pull-out
of my desk shrinks. I would not have undertaken this enormous task if someone else had
already done it -- but no one has.
Compiler's Notes on the Contents of This Bibliography:
Books are listed alphabetically by author's surname, but if an author has more than one title,
the books for that author are in chronological order by publication date.
Hypnotism Bibliography Part One
Hypnotism Bibliography Part Two
Hypnotism Bibliography Part Three
Hypnotism Bibliography Part Four
For more information on hypnosis, click this link to read a brief article i wrote
about hypnotism for the Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers in 2021:
"Hypnosis Coaching and Training" by cat yronwode
The URL you are reading it at now is TEMPORARY.
I will write several more parts to this bibliography for my Patrons on individual
pages like this, and these will open to the public after one year, thanks to your kind financial support.
I will compile all of the pages into one long page and unveil it
to the public, with a new URL, at the Yronwode.org home page.
Introduction
Compiling a bibliography of books about hypnotism is not easy. For one thing, there are so
many conflicting ideas about what hypnotism is that the topic shades into other topics
in imperceptible stages, until you suddenly find that you are reading a list of hypnotism
books that includes clinical texts on psychological states of consciousness, or
instructions in stage magic and mentalism, or promises to teach you how to remember past lives, or
holds to the viewpoint that self-hypnotism is a form of New Thought or affirmative prayer,
or tells you how to contact the dead through Spiritualist trances, or offers to put you in touch with
extraterrestrial aliens while you solve the mystery of cattle mutilations.
Hypnotism is real, and it is helpful. It can be used for entertainment or as an adjunct to
therapeutic weight loss, smoking cessation, reduction of anxiety, and pain management. You
can employ it in a spiritual or magical context to explore the mind, find answers to questions,
and open mental doors to new and improved patterns of behaviour.
You can induce a hypnotic trance in yourself or have it done to you.
I have experienced it, and induced it in others, and you definitely can learn how to do
these things through books.
But before you get any farther into this bibliography,
i want you to undertand that i personally do not believe in past lives, nor do i think that
hypnotism will help you to greet visiting UFOs. I do, however, find that older books on
stage hypnotism, even though they are published for the use of entertainers, contain valuable
information about how to induce a trance. I also find popular books on hypnotism to be just as
valuable as books that originate within the clinical community -- in fact, i generally like them more.
Therefore, i am going to set some boundaries.
Within this bibliography you will find:
* Books about Mesmerism and animal magnetism (older terms for hypnosis)
* Books about auto-suggestion (an older term for self-hypnosis, but also a term for self-help)
* Books about hypnosis or inducing a trance state in a client or patient
* Books about using hypnotic techniques to affect a person in a social setting
* Books about self-hypnosis or inducing a trance state in yourself
* Books about stage hypnosis for the purpose of entertain,ent and education
* Books about medical and dental hypnosis for relaxation and pain management
* Books about hypnosis for self improvement and removal of bad habits
* Books about clinical hypnosis that is administered in a therapeutic setting
But you will NOT find:
* Books about extra-terrestrial aliens
* Books about past life regression
* Books about cattle mutilation
* Books about ascended masters
* Books about ghosts or haunted houses
* Books about paranormal experiences
* Books in which Spiritualism or contact with the dead is the major topic
* Books in which New Thought or affirmative prayer is the major topic
(For New Thought books, see the New Thought Bibliography at this site.)
Most of the books listed and shown here come from my own collection, but i have also
consulted other bibliographies and dealer lists for publication information. All annotations
and reviews are mine, unless they are noted as "Publisher's blurb" or "Advertisement," in
which case they derive from the book's back cover or dust-wrapper ends, or from trade
advertisements. I also want to thank the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis for their
bibliography of books on clinical hypnotism published between 1976 and 2017, which i have
consulted to obtain information on books not in my possession
Keyword Concepts Associated with the Topic of Hypnotism
* Animal Magnetism
* Auto-Suggestion
* Cataleptic Trance
* Catalepsy
* Clinical Hypnosis
* Fascination
* Hypno-Coin
* Hypno-Disk
* Hypnotic Trance
* Induction
* Magnetic Healing
* Manchurian Candidate
* Mass Hypnosis
* Medical Hypnosis
* Mesmerism
* Mind Control
* MKULTRA
* Operator
* Oneirosis
* Passes
* Personal Magnetism
* Post-Hypnotic Suggestion
* Self-Help
* Self-Hypnosis
* Somnambulism
* Stage Hypnotist
* Suggestibility
* Subject
* Svengali
* Therapeutic Hypnosis
* Trance States
* Trilby
* Unnatural Sleep
* Vital Magnetism
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BOOK TITLES
Bacon, Axel Wayne. Hypnotism: Course of 17 Practical Self-Study Lessons on Hypnotic Power, How To Develop It and How To Use It.
Nelson-Hall Inc., 1945. Various editions, both paperback and hardcover with dustjacket. Rep. 1949. Rep. 1959. Rep. 1960
i-xxiiii + 8-266 pages (282 pages). Paperback and hardcover.
Line-art illustrations on pages 161, 171, 211, 217, and 245.
I have acquired and viewed several editions of this book, and the chief difference i have
found between them is in the weight of the paper; the hardcover editions
use the same illustration on their dust-jackets that the paperbacks use on their covers.
The 1945 Nelson-Hall edition, the earliest date for which the publisher claims copyright,
contains a reference on page 15 to "our waning nineteenth
century," and the pen-and-ink illustrations depict people in clothing of the late 1920s
or early 1930s at the latest, so it is obvious that 1949 is not the original publication date.
All that aside, this is an excellent introduction to hypnotism, highly recommended.
It went through so many editions that it is easily found in the used book market,
and it should be in everyone's hypnotism library, if only for its exciting cover art,
which really puts the viewer in a magnetized mood.
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Blair, Forbes Robbins. Instant Self-Hypnosis: How to Hypnotize Yourself with Your Eyes Open.
Sourcebooks, 2004.
208 pages.Paperback
Publisher's blurb: "Hypnosis is a proven technique that allows people to reprogram their
subconscious to change unwanted behaviors. Most books on self-hypnosis require the reader
to memorize or record scripts, then put the book aside while they do their hypnosis work.
But Instant Self-Hypnosis is the only self-hypnosis book that allows you to hypnotize
yourself as you read, with your eyes wide open, without putting down the book.
"The author's fail-proof method allows you to put yourself into a hypnotic state and then use
that state to improve your life in myriad ways. And because the hypnotic state is induced
while you read, you remain aware of your surroundings and can bring yourself back to
normal consciousness slowly and gently, using the instructions provided.
"Forbes Robbins Blair has been teaching and performing hypnosis since
1997 and has a certification in clinical hypnotherapy. He also facilitates dream groups
and teaches classes on dream analysis. He has made numerous appearances on radio and
television. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland."
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Cunningham, Les. HypnoSport: The Creative Use of Hypnosis to Maximize Athletic Performance.
Westwood Publishing Co., 1981
A book that was ahead of its time, HypnoSport by Les Cunningham opens the way for athletes
to realize their full potential, through professional hypnotism and by self-hypnosis.
This is the flip-side to the well-known use of hypnosis to eliminate addictive cravings,
because instead of reducing the negative, the author offers a path to increasing
the positive, emphasizing will-power through access to
the body-brain connection.
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De Dubor, Georges (Translated by G. M. Hort). The Mysteries of Hypnosis (Les Mysteres de l'Hypnose).
William Rider & Son, London, 1922.
Hardcover. Deckled pages.
In addition to hypnotism, the French author Georges de Dubor (1848-1931) also wrote about viticulture,
ancient Assyria and Chaldea, and madrigal music.
The author speaks against Spiritualism as a source of hypnotic trances, and
asserts that most so-called paranormal phenomena, such as dowsing, telepathy, clairvoyance, are
"produced by the agency of living persons, and by means of those supernormal faculties which
are, undoubtedly, possessed, and exercised, by certain exceptional individuals." In this he allies
himself with his contemporaries in the "practical" or "scientific" schools of dowsing and crystal gazing,
for he does not call upon spirits to aid him in the induction of altered states of consciousness
or the receipt of exceptional knowledge.
My favourite part of this book is the author's detailed accounting of the induction methods of
19th century hypnotists. Some of these are quite interesting and rarely encountered in the 21st
century, and de Dubors gives them in each practitioner's own words.
For instance, we learn of Dr. Richet, who says, "I put the
patient in an arm-chair, directly in front of me; and then, taking hold of his thumbs,
one in each hand, I subject them to firm and regular pressure for the space of three or
four minutes" and Dr. Bernheim, who tells
patients, "Look at me, and think of nothing but sleep. You will feel a heaviness of the
eyelids and a weariness of the eyes, which will begin to blink and to water. Your sight
will become blurred. Your eyes will close.”
We also hear from Dr. Moutin, who sits on a chair higher
than the patient and holds their hands while staring into their eyes, and Charcot, whose
employed "rough and violent methods" and would
"flash a light in the patient’s face, cause a tom-tom to be beaten near by, or
uncork a bottle of ammonia under the patient’s nostrils" to induce a trance. And then there is
Dr. Esdaile of Calcutta, who learned hypnotism from the Hindus, and explains that
"the subject reclines upon a bed, in a darkened room, and the magnetiser leans over him, with
eyes fixed upon him, and with his face almost touching that of the subject."
I could go on and on ... but luckily for you, this entire book has been scanned and is
online for free. If you can't afford an original printing, check it out ar Archive.org.
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De Laurence, L. W. Practical Lessons in Hypnotism and Magnetism: Mysteries of Occultism Unveiled
Frederick J. Drake and Company, Chicago, 1902; rep. 1928.
266 pages. Hardcover; illustrated with photographs.
Because L. W. de Lawrence was a notorious book pirate who violated the copyrights of
many authors, it is difficult to determine, without close examination and study,
what he wrote himself and what he republished under his own name. This may actually
be one of his own books, but i am willing to be corrected, if some other bibliographer
knows better. In any case, this is an excellent look at hypnotism from the psychical
and occult viewpoint, supported by many anecdotes, but not many instructions.
The method de Laurence teaches is based on the operator's will-power, intensely focussed gaze,
and verbal suggestions, and hand-passes, which is sometimes known as "the Svengali effect."
He recognizes five levels of induced trance in the subject: (1) passivity, (2) passivity
with attention, (3) acute passivity with acute attention, (4) complete fascination, and (5) hypnosis.
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De Saint-Germain, Comte C. Practical Hypnotism: Theories and Experiments, Ancient Mystery Unveiled
Laird & Lee Publishers, Chicago, 1901.
260 pages. Hardcover and paperback editions exist with varied covers, including a
stamped pictorial cloth binding, a printed art paperback, and plain text covers; illustrated.
This excellent volume covers all facets of the practice of hypnosis and is highly
recommended; like other English-language texts on hypnotism from this era, one of its
aims it to present the work of French hypnotists and mesmerists to a new audience,
and in that it succeeds quite well. As the publisher's blurb has it:
"Compiled from the works of Braid, Charcot, Luys, Liebault, Wetterstrand, Bernheim,
Moll, De Courmelles, etc., the Great Medical Authorities on the Subjects. General
Instructions, Theories and Experiments. Highly illustrated."
The author of this book is not the historical Comte de Saint Germain (1710-1784) nor is he
the ascended master Saint Germain of Theosophy and the I Am Movement; he is instead the
author of several well-regarded late 19th and early 20th century occult teaching books:
"Practical Astrology," "Practical Hypnotism," "Practical Palmistry," and
"The Study of Palmistry for Professional Purposes." All are available as reprints and in
digitized form.
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Fielding, William J.; Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius. Autosuggestion: How It Works
(Little Blue Book No. 447)
Haldeman-Julius Publications, Girard, Kansas, 1923.
64 pages. Stapled wraps.
All of the Little Blue Books edited and published by E. Haldeman Julius
have faded to tan and most of them were printed on
acidic paper which is flaking and crumbling, but they form a remarkable library of
article-length pieces on philosophy, science, politics, and eccentric topics. This book
on Autosuggestion is an excellent, if very brief, introduction to the subject of self-hypnosis.
Publisher's note: "This discussion of Autosuggestion is continued in Autosuggestion and
Health (Little Blue Book no. 449)." (And when i find a copy, you'll see it here!)
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Hammond, D. Corydon, PhD [Editor]. Handbook of Hypnotic Suggestions and Metaphors.
W. W. Norton & Company, 1990.
627 pages.
Publisher's blurb: "D. Corydon Hammond, Ph.D., ABPH, is past president and a fellow of the
American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH), which honored him with a Presidential Award
of Merit in 1989. He also received the ASCH Irving I. Secter Award in 1990 and the Thomas
P. Wall Award for Excellence in Teaching of Clinical Hypnosis in 1994. He is Professor of
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Co-director of the Sex and Marital Therapy Clinic
at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He has written six books, including the
Handbook of Hypnotic Suggestions and Metaphors. He coordinated a national task force on
hypnosis and memory and is the primary author of Clinical Hypnosis and Memory: Guidelines
for Clinicians and for Forensic Hypnosis and of ASCH's Standards of Training in Clinical
Hypnosis."
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Harraden, Lew Alexander. How to Give Hypnotic Exhibitions, with History of Hypnotism
The Betts Publishing Co., Jackson, Michigan. 1900.
64 pages. Paperback, lavishly illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings by "Snyder,".
As Prof. L. A. Harraden, the author gave demonstrations of hypnotism in theaters by
putting random audience members into trance states. This book is a companion to his
Complete Mail Course of Twenty Illustrated Lessons in Hypnotism and
presents his stage techniques.
Pages 1 through 14 comprise a well-written
history of mesmerism and hypnotism through the end of the 19th century.
On page 15 the instructions on stage hypnotism begin. These are very thorough, and include entire programs
from start to finish, with exemplary patter. Also shown are
sample advertising handbills that either promote the side-splitting antics that ensue
when the visiting Professor hypnotises your small-town neighbors into
crowing like roosters, or present a more dignified
program of "thorough-going tests of the Wonder-Science of the Century."
Haraden's stage induction was much like a regular hypnotist's office induction. He stood facing the
seated subject, leaned down and asked the subject to focus on the tips of his fingers,
and spoke gently of how sleepy the subject was becoming. He noted that children are the
easiest to put into a trance, but that you should not keep them in a somnambulistic state for too long.
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Verner, Alexander. Medical Hypnotism and Suggestion.
N.P., N.D. "Printed in U.S.A." Circa 1904,
56 pages (37 pages of text and 19 pages of ads for other metaphysical books);
illustrated. Stapled wraps.
Illustrations include a pen-and-ink drawing of a bare-chested man being examined by a doctor with a
stethoscope, signed I. Q. Manool {?], 1904, plis six line-art sketches of the various
forms of trance induction and the results, including rendering a man impervious to pain and testing
the depth of his trance by sticking needles in his arm.
Verner was the self-proclaimed founder of the British Psychological Institute and the author of
five early 20th century metaphysical booklets: "Medical Hypnotism and
Suggestion," "Table Rapping and Automatic Writing," "Practical Psychometry," "How
to Know Your Future," and "How to Converse With Spirit Friends." These little gems were kept
in print well into the 1950s, with varying colours of paper being used for the wrappers. The
ads that ran in the back contain no publisher's address. (My copy was owned by the stage magician
Jeron Criswell King (1907 – 1982), who was known as the Amazing Criswell.)
All of the books advertised, except for those by Verner, were written by William Walker
Atkinson, either under his own name or under his pseudonyms Theron Q. Dumont, Swami
Panchadasi, Swami Bhakta Vishita, and Swami Bramha. As always when i run into a book filled
with ads for Atkinson publications, i have some doubts as to the actual existence of the
stated author. Who was Alexander Verner, F.A.I.P.? What does F.A.I.P. stand for? In
"Practical Psychometry," he mentions the existence of his wife, the psychometrist
"Mrs. Verner." I have
found no footprint for the British Psychological Institute, although the "British
Psychological Society" was founded in 1901 and still does exist.
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Winn, Ralph B., PhD. Scientific Hypnotism: An Introductory Survey of Theory and Practice.
Christopher Publishing House, Boston, 1939
168 pages. Hardcover, Octavo.
Thorson Publishers Limited, London. 2nd Edition, 1956
"Second Edition" with a Forward by Melvin Powers of Powers Publishing / Wilshire Book Co.
"Hypnotism Made Easy: An Introductory Survey of Theory And
Practice" on cover and title page, but is is a facsimile of the 1939 edition, with the running
head "Scientific Hypnotism" throughout. It also has Winn's surname misspelled as "Wynn"
on the front cover, but corectly, as "Winn" on the interior title page.
Wilshire Book Co., Los Angeles. 2nd Edition, 1956, and more, through 1974, 1976, 1978
Paperback.
Also reprinted as "Hypnotism Made Easy: An Introductory Survey of Theory And
Practice" in a kindle edition, 2012.
Publisher's blurb: "The subject of hypnosis needed to be taken off of the vaudeville stage, out of the laboratory, and into the minds of thoughtful persons everywhere.
Its merits are solid and various. It begins by showing that the phenomena of hypnotism are not mystical but natural. As such, they are susceptible to scientific analysis as well as control.
The author then arouses our interest by proceeding to give one of the best descriptions of hypnotic wonders in the literature of hypnosis. These, he shows, are closely connected with hysteria, and with the still better known effects of suggestion and emotion. His running account of all these effects makes the reader feel he owes it to himself to grasp the situation."
"Dr. Ralph B. Winn, a professor of psychology, and an American expatriate living in Paris,
was the author of over twenty volumes on topics such as aesthetics, German
art, philosophy, astronomy, child development, child rearing, collectivism,
communist aesthetics, education, existentialism, Abraham Lincoln, mental health,
mental suggestion, hypnotism, psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy.
He developed a form of light hypnosis (oneirosis), which he used to eradicate
objectionable physical habits and personality faults. He was a member of the
Existentialist philosophical movement."
As for Winn's name being misspelled "Wynn" by Melvin Powers, the same thing happened to Powers
when, after his death, HIS name was misspelled "Melvyn" on the cover of a reprint of his
"A Practical Guide to Self-Hypnosis." Cosmic justice or cosmic joke? You decide!
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to nagasiva yronwode for above-and-beyond scanning and organizational help.
