The Esdaile State is NOT a Coma
Even though it has been called "the hypnotic coma."
A few days ago, I shared some initial thoughts about hypnosis. Today, I will discuss a very deep state of hypnosis called "The Esdaile State." It has also been called the hypnotic coma, but this is a misnomer because it is not a coma. I have been in this state, and it is blissful and amazing.
The Esdaile State
There is a very deep level of hypnosis called the Esdaile state. In this state, people are completely non-responsive to the point that even amputation can be carried out without anesthesia, but I don't recommend it in modern times, of course. It is named after James Esdaile, the surgeon who first made good use of the state in the early 1800's. He wrote "Mesmerism In India And Its Practical Application In Surgery And Medicine," which can be found in the public domain in the internet archive.
He was a Scottish surgeon. Owing to his poor health, he was sent to a prison hospital in India. India was a British colony back then, and it was believed that the climate would help him. He had a horrifying time at the hospital because, well, without getting graphic, many prisoners had serious conditions requiring operations and anesthesia had not been invented.
Esdaile had heard of Anton Mesmer, and, in the face of screaming patients every day, he decided that it was worth giving it a whirl. His method of inducing deep hypnosis was very tedious. It literally took days and several of his assistants had to spend hours passing their hands just above the patient's body in a darkened room. There are easier ways to do it, we now know.
However, with his method, he was able to reliably place people into a deep enough trance that he did surgery on them without their apparently noticing. When he asked them later, they had no memory of the operation.
News of his methods spread, and soon, although he was working at a prison charity hospital, even wealthy Indians came to see him. Charity hospital or not, no one wants painful surgery without anesthesia, and Esdaile had the only anesthesia that existed.
I think this would probably have become a Big Thing, but, a few years later, chloroform was discovered. Now, of course, we can do better than chloroform for anesthesia.
The Esdaile State was forgotten for a long time. Occasionally, stage hypnotists with vaudeville had subjects who did not respond when they were asked to come out of hypnosis. The local authorities generally put the poor hypnotist in prison until the individual came out of hypnosis.
For many years, it was known that sometimes, some people do not come out of hypnosis when the hypnotist says to do so. This led to the myth that you cannot always easily emerge from hypnosis. People always come out eventually, but it sometimes took a few hours.
Finally, someone had the brilliant idea of actually asking people who did not emerge on command what they were experiencing. It turns out that they were in a state of bliss. Sheer bliss. They felt peace, tranquility, and an absence of any discomfort. They heard the command/request/pleading for them to emerge and thought, "Nah. Not yet." This very deep state is the Esdaile state and, from personal experience, it is pretty awesome, and I find it hard to attain reliably.
By the way, different hypnotists have different "tricks" to pull people out of Esdaile. My favorite is offering to teach them how to attain the state on their own any time they want.
Conclusion
I will discuss the use of the Esdaile state more in future articles. It was believed to be a state that was not useful for doing practical work in hypnosis because the person does not respond. However, we now have methods by which we can use the Esdaile state and get a response.
Furthermore, using modern techniques, it is possible to get someone down to this beautiful state without the huge effort Esdaile put in. In my opinion, teaching someone how to go in and out of this state is one of the best gifts a hypnotist can give someone. Achieving the state takes practice for some people (such as myself). Other people (such as my fiancé) have much more ease going in and out of it. They are lucky. The rest of us need more practice.