Dr. James Esdale (1808-1859) is the father of hypno-anesthesia. His method, used before the invention of chloroform is impressed in golden letters in the history of anesthesia. He was born February 6, 1808, the son a minister, in Scotland. He studied medicine at Edinburgh and graduated in 1830, obtaining a position with the East India Company he came to Calcutta, then the capital of British India, in 1840. He practiced most of his life in India. He acquired the Indian skill of drugless traditional trance therapy from a Bengali country magician.

Dr. Esdale did his first operation under hypnosis on April 4, 1845, at the native hospital at Hooghly (kolkotha). His most famous work was a book originally titled, Mesmerism in India, and later released under the title of Hypnosis in Medicine and Surgery. He left India in 1851. He died at the age of 50 on January 10, 1859.