Observations placeholder
Braid, James – Curing deafness using hypnotherapy
Identifier
026218
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Neurypnology ; or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep, considered in Relation with Animal Magnetism. By James Braid, M.R.C.S., &c. 1843
Nodan, deaf-mute, set. 24, was never considered to have the power of hearing, properly so called, according to the opinion of the head-master of the Deaf and Dumb Institution (Mr. Vaughan), where he was a pupil ; after the first operation (inducing hypnotism, then extending the limbs, and fanning the ears), I satisfied myself he had no sense of hearing ; but after the second, which I carried still further, he could hear, and was so annoyed by the noise of the carts and carriages when going home, after that operation, that he could not be induced to call on me again for some time. He has been operated on only a few times, and has been so much improved, that although he lives in a back street he can now hear a band of music coming along the front street, and will go out to meet it. I lately tested him, and found he could hear in his room on the second floor a gentle knock on the bottom stair. His improvement, therefore, has been both decided and permanent, and is entirely attributable to hypnotism, as no other means were adopted in his case (p. 182).