Hypnosis in cultures other than our own may not be quite as common now, since western culture has so many examples of hypnosis from stage shows and magicians to television program and film depictions of hypnosis. Even in comic books, Superman has been know to use his "super hypnosis" ability to hide his secret identity of Clerk Kent from pesky Lois Lane. And the idea of making a member of the stage audience think he or she is a chicken has provided ours of entertainment to people all over North America and Europe.

Hypnosis however has been traced back to cultural and religious rituals in many other civilizations. The aboriginal people of Australia have used hypnosis for thousands of years, and in fact application of what we call hypnosis in our modern culture is one explanation for the aboriginal "Dream Time" altered states of consciousness and, many claim, out of body experience.

Ancient Egypt also commonly used hypnosis. Egyptologists have found hieroglyphics on the walls of tombs in Egypt depicting what many scholars believe to be hypnosis. There are many rather daring theories circulating in fact that the Ancient Egyptians were connected with the perhaps mythical lost continent of Atlantis, making their culture much older than previously thought, and that the Atlanteans used hypnosis as a common tool for their increased mental abilities. Of course, mainstream Egyptologists and the Egyptian government's department of antiquities scoff at such theories. But they do have their adherents.

In Chinese medicine there is a healing system based on hypnotic trance called Oigong, or exorcise of vital energy. Some estimates say that about five percent of the people of China practice this type of hypnosis, making it the most common type of hypnosis to be practiced in the world. Practitioners believe it increase mental and physical energy, but some Chinese mental health officials now believe that it could have harmful effects and are making an effort to ban it.

With hypnosis used for such diverse applications as mental and physical energizing, healing, and religious practices, it is easy to see that the stage show hypnotist we think of as common is only a small part of hypnosis, especially as far as the rest of the world is concerned.