Hypnotism (I)

Hypnotism among the Arabs (1982)

It may be useful briefly to recall the fact that

a strong likelihood attaches to the early diffusion

of hypnotic practices from Moorish (Arabised) Spain

to Western Europe. The first recorded traces of

'miracle-working' and unexplained powers on the

part of the savants who were credited with being

magicians come from those who attended the Arab

schools of Salamanca, Toledo, etc., up to the

fifteenth century when these centres were the recognised

resorts of Western thinkers. Suffice it to

mention in passing Paracelsus (Philippus Aureolus

Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, c.1493-1541)

who says: "It is possible that my mind, without the

co-operation of my body, and without a sword, can

stab and wound others." He preceded Mesmer (1734-

1815) in saying that the stars and magnets gave off

a force which could affect man. This is no more

than a quotation from the Arab philosopher, Faris

al-Andalusi, whose theory of the quwwat al-Kawakib

(force of the stars) mentions attraction and repulsion

analogously in human beings, animals and

the planets, and is still quoted by contemporary

Arab sages.



C. Agrippa (Henricus Cornelius Agrippa

von Nettesheim, 1486-1535) studied in Spain under

the Moors, and was undoubtedly an hypnotist. He paid

his bills at inns with hallucinated coins which

soon afterwards 'turned into pieces of horn, etc.'.

He hints at hypnotic phenomena in his Occult

Philosophy: "There is a science - known to very few -

which at one step raises the mind from ignorance....

produced mainly by a kind of artificial sleep in

which a man forgets the present....wicked people

can be divested of power by hidden methods". The

Faust-myth (first traced in written form 1587)

which abounds in apparently hypnotic phenomena -

positive and negative hallucinations, and the rest -

is paralleled by countless legends and traditional

tales in the Arab East.

Dr. van Pelt, whose works on hypnotism are

standard reading, has noted the antiquity of

hypnotic procedures among many peoples. The Arab

civilisation, as is well established by historians,

fell heir to several streams of medical and philosophical

thinking and practice. Among these were

the remnants of Graeco-Egyptian science, the ideas

and activities of the Gnostics, and the meditative

lore of the early Christian and pagan Arab anchorites.

This knowledge, in its Arab synthesis, was carried

Westwards into Spain, where it profoundly affected

Western ways of thought (cf. Hitti, History of the

Arabs, and Guillaume, Legacy of Islam, Encyc. Britannica,

etc.). After the Moslem conquest of the Middle East,

Persian and Indian thought was considerably affected as well.

II. The Schools of Psychotherapy

Among the reflective and philosophical schools

which sprang up in the Arabised East and West alike,

disciplines aimed at producing cures through

'psychic' means flourished. Notable among them

were the schools of Sicily (Ibrahim II, A.D. 902,

and Roger I's Arab School, c. 1100); Bari (Italy,

School of Mohammed ibn Ahmad, c. A.D.800); Southern

Portugal (school of Hakim ibn All Ruli) and Bokhara,

in Central Asia, Kufa, Kazimain (Iraq) and Deobund,

in India. While reconquest has wiped out most of

the remains of the traditional schools in the West,

those of the East (apart from the ones now in the

Asiatic areas of the U.S.S.R.) have generally continued

their teachings and therapeutic activities.

In most cases they use books and traditional methods

attributed to the savants of the tenth to fourteenth

centuries A.D. Setting aside as irrelevant to the

present study the numerous purely philosophical and

theological persuasions, there remain a large number

of schools which may be considered as the hard core

of the medical branch of the Sufi (contemplative)

orders. While their beliefs and practices contain

many elements referable to the medieval concept of

'complete knowledge' there is in most cases a heavy

specialisation in therapeutics. 



Belief in the hereditary hypnotic abilities in certain families,

for example, exists. Notable among these are the family of Hashim (Sayeds or Sharifs) whose power to cure a wide range of diseases is unchallenged in general because of their descent from Mohammed. Among the ruling families of this stock are those of Jordan, Morocco and the Yemen. The hypnogenic procedures and suggestive techniques are passed down to the male members of the families by instruction and through emulation of the ceremonies which take place.

Among the non-hereditary practitioners of

suggestive therapy are the Sheikhs and other

prominent members of the Sufi orders. These bodies

resemble in some ways the Western monkish fraternities,

and practise initiation and mental and

physical exercises. They have profoundly affected

the Yoga system of India. Though the reverse process

has been claimed, historical research has

shown that Sufi practices and ways of thinking

developed independently. Their records are certainly

older than any extant ones of India relevant to this

study.




Octagon Press, 1982