To practitioners of PLT, the names of Dr. Milton Erickson and Edgar Cayce are well-known. Though different in many ways, each, in his own way, has made rich and significant contributions to our field. The impact of their work continues, still teaching, still guiding, still inspiring. In this article, Henry Leo Bolduc examines these two men.
After decades (even centuries) of disdain for, mistrust of, and even downright antagonism toward hypnotherapy and holistic healing (so-called nontraditional medicine), the medical profession is slowly realizing that such alternative techniques to traditional medicine can, in many cases, equal or even surpass the effectiveness of modern medicine. This realization has been brought about by increasing public awareness of the success of these alternative methods, a success that can no longer be ignored.
Although these nontraditional methods have been totally accepted for centuries in Eastern medicine, they have been for the most part ignored by western medicine until the beginning of this century, when a few pioneers began a revolution in healing techniques. Of these pioneers, two names stand out: Edgar Cayce, the famous “Sleeping Prophet” of Virginia Beach, VA, whose life work led him to be called America’s greatest mystic, and Dr. Milton H. Erickson, considered by many to be the “father” of modern hypnotherapy.