Nuraghi, Hypnosis, Aristotle
What is hypnosis?
Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness characterized by heightened receptivity to suggestions. It is a process where an individual, under the guidance of a hypnotist, enters a state of deep relaxation, concentration, and mental openness. During hypnosis, peripheral awareness is reduced, and attention is focused on specific thoughts, images, sensations, or suggestions. Aristotle, in his treatise “Physics,” mentions a particular characteristic associated with the sleep of the inhabitants of Sardinia. He writes:
“There are people who sleep for a period of time, but when they wake up they have no consciousness of the passage of time”
(Aristotle, Physics, IV, 218b).
(Original Ancient Greek: “ἔνιοι δὲ καθεύδουσι χρόνον καὶ ἐγερθέντες οὐκ ἔχουσιν αἴσθησιν τοῦ παρεληλυθότος χρόνου”)
This passage has sparked numerous speculations about the type of sleep described and how it might be related to specific practices or rituals of the region. Sigmund Freud, at the beginning of his career, used hypnosis as a therapeutic method, particularly inspired by the works of Jean-Martin Charcot and Josef Breuer. Freud used hypnosis to access repressed memories of his patients and to treat disorders such as hysteria. However, over time, Freud moved away from hypnosis in favor of free association, as he believed hypnosis did not allow complete access to the patient’s unconscious.
The notion of regressive hypnosis involves the use of hypnosis to “bring back” an individual to past experiences, often associated with traumas or significant moments. In some more controversial practices, regressive hypnosis has been used to explore alleged “past lives,” although this practice is not universally accepted in the scientific community.
Incorporating these elements, we can postulate that the ancient Sardinian practices related to sleep may have had roots in techniques similar to hypnosis, used for therapeutic, spiritual, or ritual purposes. The statues of Mont’e Prama might represent heroes or deities linked to such practices. Finally, from a Freudian perspective, hypnosis can be seen as a means to access the depths of the unconscious, where memories, traumas, and perhaps traces of our cultural and spiritual histories reside.
Bibliography:
- Aristotle, Physics (350 BC).
- Berti, Enrico, Aristotle in the Twentieth Century (1988). Rome-Bari: Laterza.
- Freud, Sigmund, The Interpretation of Dreams (1899).
- Ugas, Giovanni, The Dawn of the Nuraghi. Cagliari: Fabula Editore (2005).
- Yapko, Michael D., Trancework: An Introduction to the Practice of Clinical Hypnosis. Routledge (2012).
Appendix: Sleeping Beside the Heroes in Sardinia
“Remember, for example, if you have ever had a deep sleep after a prolonged and continuous period of insomnia, as the Poet describes with reference to Odysseus as ‘a sleep more sweet, like unto death.’ At this stage, you know that even if while sleeping you have joined night with day, when you wake up you still think there has been no time in between. Legend has it that something similar happened in Sardinia when people said to have slept beside the heroes awoke. That is, they did not acquire any perception of the passing time while they slept, but joined the moment before sleep with the one after awakening, and in the absence of perception made it a single instant, excluding all the time in between. Thus, when the present moment is truly one and the same, time does not exist; in the same way, people for whom the present is not one, even though it seems so, believe that time does not exist.”
Themistius, On Aristotle’s Physics, IV 218b21
(Original Ancient Greek: “μνημόνευε, οἷον καὶ μὴν πολλὴν ἐν συνεχείᾳ καθεύδοντες ὥσπερ τὸν Ὀδυσσέα, ὃν Ὁμήρῳ καλεῖ, γλυκὺν μὲν ὕπνον ὡς ἄχρι θανάτου. καὶ γὰρ τοῦτο, εἰ καὶ τὴν νύκτα μετὰ τῆς ἡμέρας συνετάξαμεν ἐγρηγορὸς, ἀλλ’ ἐγερθέντες οὐδὲν χρόνον ὑπολαμβάνομεν. λόγος δ’ ὅτι καὶ ἐν Σαρδινίᾳ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον, ὅσοι ἐκείνων καθεύδουσι τῶν ἡρώων, εἶχον. ἀλλ’ οὐδὲν εἶχον αἰσθητόν, χρόνος ὃν καθεύδουσιν, ἀλλ’ ἅμα συνήπτοντο τὸ πρότερον ὕπνον τῷ μετὰ τὴν ἔγερσιν, καὶ ἐκκλείοντες τὸν μεταξὺ χρόνον καθίστασαν. ὡς ὁ μὲν χρόνος εἰ καὶ τὸ παρὸν ἕν ἐστι καὶ αὐτὸ, καὶ τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν χρόνον καὶ ἐν τῷ μέσῳ χρόνῳ, οὐδὲν εἶναι χρόνον.”)
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