Dave Elman

Dave Elman (1900–1967), born David Kopelman in Park River, North Dakota, was an American radio host, entertainer, and one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century hypnosis.

He became fascinated by hypnosis as a child after seeing it ease his ailing father’s pain, and as a young man worked the vaudeville circuit billed as “the world’s youngest and fastest hypnotist.” In mid-life he turned from stage work to teaching, running the Dave Elman Course in Medical Hypnosis for thousands of physicians and dentists.

In 1964 he self-published Findings in Hypnosis, later reissued as Hypnotherapy — a foundational text in the medical use of hypnosis. Elman’s enduring contribution is speed. His rapid-induction method, now universally called the “Elman Induction,” reliably brings a subject into deep trance — often to somnambulism — within minutes, dispensing with the slow progressive relaxation that earlier hypnotists favored.

By proving that depth could be reached fast and by training the medical profession directly, he helped move hypnosis from theatrical spectacle to clinical tool. For the mind-power lineage he represents the technical maturation of suggestion: a clean, teachable procedure for opening the subconscious to direct, therapeutic re-impression.