Spellbound: James Braid and John Elliotson, Victorian Pioneers of Hypnotism

Best-selling author Ms Wendy Moore will talk about her book, The Mesmerist: The Society Doctor Who Held Victorian London Spellbound, which tells the story of John Elliotson, the esteemed Victorian physician and former president of the Royal Society of Medicine, who introduced hypnotism to Victorian Britain. Elliotson’s battle against an entrenched medical profession helps to explain why today's hypnotherapy remains on the fringes of mainstream medicine.  

Ms Moore is a freelance journalist and the author of five books on medical and social history. Her latest book, Endell Street: The Women Who Ran Britain’s Trailblazing Military Hospital, was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. 

Dr Michael Alan Gow is a general dental practitioner and is the Clinical Director of Dental Anxiety Management at The Berkeley Clinic in Glasgow. Dr Gow has had a passion for helping people who have dental anxiety and phobia for many years and has become well known in this field among the dental profession. He has helped hundreds of very anxious patients, and lectures to dentists all over the world to teach them new ways to help their anxious patients as well. Dr Michael Alan Gow graduated from Glasgow University’s Dental School in 1999 and undertook formal hypnosis training with The British Society of Medical and Dental Hypnosis soon after. In 2003 he trained in the conscious sedation techniques of intravenous and inhalation sedation with The Society for the Advancement of Anesthesiology in Dentistry.  By 2005, he had graduated with a Masters in Hypnosis Applied to Dentistry from University College London having been awarded a ‘distinction’ for the Diploma and then completed a Postgraduate Certificate in the Management of Dental Anxiety from the University of Edinburgh.  

Dr Michael Alan Gow is a Past President (2008-10, 2014-16) of The British Society of Medical and Dental Hypnosis in Scotland, and has gained the European Society of Hypnosis Certificate. He has published many articles, case studies and book chapters on hypnosis and dental anxiety management and has appeared on TV several times (including BBC’s Horizon) demonstrating the use of hypnosis in dental pain control. He has also appeared on ‘The History of Britain’ with Tony Robinson to talk about the history of dentistry. He is Chairman of ‘The Henry Noble History of Dentistry Research Group’. 

Dr Gow is currently preparing a documentary about the life of Dr James Braid- follow @drjamesbraid on social media channels to keep up to date with developments! 

Dr Michael Alan Gow has four young children who all keep him very busy. He enjoys travelling overseas with his wife, going to the football, family tree research, history of dentistry research, history of hypnosis research, collecting antique hypnosis books, fly-fishing and Scotch whisky (he even has an SVQ Diploma in Single Malt Whisky!