Braid’s work focused on the physical and psychological mechanisms that induce a hypnotic state:
Experts and historical archivists highlight Braid's unique contribution to the transition from occultism to medicine: NEURYPNOLOGY James Braid
He argued that hypnosis is triggered by the fixation of attention on a single object or idea. Braid’s work focused on the physical and psychological
James Braid’s seminal work, Neurypnology; or, the Rationale of Nervous Sleep (1843), is considered the foundational text of modern hypnotism. In it, Braid moved the field away from the mystical "animal magnetism" of Franz Mesmer toward a physiological and scientific understanding of trance as a state of "nervous sleep". Core Principles of Neurypnology the Rationale of Nervous Sleep (1843)