ABSTRACT
In contrast to Soviet hypnopedia, there is no evidence whatsoever that Sophrology influenced the development of Suggestopedia. Indeed, it would appear that, in the 1960s, two medical doctors, Georgi Lozanov of Bulgaria and Alfonso Caycedo, of Colombian origin but resident in Spain at the time, discovered independently one of the other that certain yogic techniques of physical and mental relaxation could be used to produce a state of analgesia, or relief from pain, on the one hand, and a state of hypermnesia, or greatly improved memory and concentration, on the other.1 While in Sofia, at the Institute of Suggestology headed by Dr. Lozanov, a team of experts, led by Aleko Novakov, combined yoga relaxation and verbal suggestion with the direct method to produce a unique system of foreign language teaching, at the Instituto Alfonso Caycedo in Barcelona, research in Sophrology, the system founded by Dr. Caycedo, was based on techniques derived from the ancient East, in addition to hypnosis, verbal suggestion and autogenic therapy. (The word “sophrology” combines the Greek words sos [sound], phren [mind] and logos [study] to mean the study of a sound mind or a harmonious consciousness).2
