General Public

Whenever a person wants to look into the future, even if only for a year, a number of approaches come to light. What source do we activate to conduct such endeavors? Tea leaves, a crystal ball, tarot cards, throwing bones, psychic readers, remote viewing and clairvoyant numerology are all possibilities that have left humanity with proven results.

Past and present cultures rely on predicting the future. Most noted are indigenous tribes of the Hopi, Maya, Chinese, Hindu, African and Australian Aborigines.

One thing we do know for sure is that ‘we are the sum total of our entire past”. Present futurists such as David Icke, Jim Marrs, and Jesse Ventura glitter the future of conspiracy theories while in the past we have the predictions of Edgar Cayce and Nostradamus. Even the ‘70s popular past life hypnotist Dick Sutphen conducts present weekly interviews on his Sirius Radio show “Dick Sutphen’s Metaphysical World”. (Recently I concluded my fourth one-hour show with him, looking to more.)

Stop for a moment and think. Think about what happens when you get totally and utterly immersed in a story. What it’s like when you read a book or watch a movie that is so exciting and compelling that the story sucks you right into the reality of that story. You don’t care whether or not what’s happening is possible or real you just eagerly follow along and enjoy the ride.

You can experience physical sensations and emotions like your heart racing as something exciting happens, maybe a feeling of attraction towards one of the characters begins to grow inside of you, the anticipation of what’s to come that keeps you wanting more. All of these feelings all of these emotions are being experienced as if you were a part of that story.

Now all of these sensations are happening inside you while sitting in a room filled with strangers looking at an oversized TV screen, or in solitude with a stack of paper in your hands reading.

How is it possible to have a strong physical reaction to something that isn’t actually happening to you?

Because you were in fact experiencing hypnotic effect at that moment. Yes you were hypnotized.

If you are new to using hypnotherapy or self-hypnosis as a tool for improving your life and health, you may be wondering why the core of it all seems to revolve around relaxing and relieving stress and tension.

Most of the inductions (hypnosis sessions) that you can download online or on CD uses a progressive relaxation process to reach a deep state of trance. Many free downloadable sessions are only focused on deep relaxation and releasing stress and tension from around the body - and nothing else.

Why is that? In today's modern world we expect direct, efficient, cause-and-effect, software-controlled, exact science and results-driven approaches and methods. You may have a dozen issues you would like to address directly with hypnosis, why waste time on this basic relaxation stuff?

A good quote is from Dale Carnegie's book, "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living":

“Seventy per cent of all patients who come to physicians could cure themselves if they got rid of
their fears and worries.”

The impact of a direct suggestion can heavily depend on its meaning to the individual being hypnotized. When offering suggestions, it’s essential to consider the language being used. A good example of this would be a particular case involving an individual from a different country where a common implication (as opposed to their dictionary definition) of the word “fat” would mean healthy, whereas calling someone “fat” in English would commonly be used offensively. In other words we benefit from considering cultural connotations, before we rush to decide that our own language is what works for the person being hypnotized. Rapport building and conversation is key to knowing the best approach. We are not the same, but the same in that we are all different.
Cultural environment plays a factor when indirectly influenced. Since studies have shown that indirect and direct language can equally be effective, it makes sense to consider the cultural desires and dislikes of the client when using indirect suggestion before putting the person into a deep trance.

Single parenthood is extraordinary and unparalleled. There is an assumption, however that in order for single parents to live their dreams, they must wait until a child grows independent. At this time, the parent’s mind grows weary and physical capabilities can diminish if a healthy diet and exercise is not part of their routine. Sometimes a typecast is mentioned as the reason for seeking help. “I’m a single mother” is mentioned as a stigma and not a simple statement of fact. To think independently may seem more difficult than to simply accept how many in society, family, and friends believe a single parent should live. Independence equals creativity. Assuming a role everyone else feels you should play impedes on your overall growth & individuality so that seeking a holistic health practitioner, a life coach or therapist offers little help if the individual is not willing to let go of those belief systems holding them back from reaching desired results.

Perhaps not surprisingly, in hypnotherapy for quitting smoking, the very same methods that work for most people may not work for others. In choosing just what methods to use for a person, I offer various options and follow the person’s gut level response. This is because there is such a wide variety of personal tastes and belief systems among people seeking hypnotherapy and because a gut level response is much more indicative of subconscious agreement. The only way any method can work is with agreement by the subconscious mind.

One of the amazing things about the subconscious mind is that your Imagination is the inner language of that mind. It's like a rehearsal room where you can practice being the person you wish to be. In your imagination, you can be anywhere you desire...just like when you were a kid in a classroom and you gazed out the window and drifted to some other place you'd rather be...perhaps to a beautiful island or transported back to the last few days of summer camp.

In your imagination, you can be anything you desire....a king or queen, a movie star, or a great athlete, or perhaps president. It's your own private place, where you can travel through time and space. And if used correctly it "dreams can come true..." If not, they are merely daydreams and fulfil us at the moment, but do not bring change into our lives.

Hypnosis offers means of communicating with the functions of mind that are below conscious awareness. Anyone who has ever tried to quit smoking cigarettes already knows that the urge to smoke comes from something gravitationally more powerful and monolithically more immune to persuasion than the conscious mind. These deep functions of mind are called the Unconscious, not because they don’t know what the conscious mind is thinking, but because the conscious mind is unconscious of what these deep functions are doing. A fleetingly remembered dream or a embarrassingly timed Freudian slip may give us glimpses into what’s really going on, but on the cruise ships of our lives, most of the action is not happening in the well-appointed first class dining room of consciousness, but in the unseen engine room whose vague pulse is the sound that consciousness has learned to ignore. Alarmingly to those whose identities are well-seated in their intellects, the powerful engines of these deep functions of mind can change and even cause our perceptions, feelings and thoughts.

"One of the great discoveries a man (or woman) makes, one of his/her great surprises, is to find he/she can do what he/she was afraid he/she couldn't do. Most of the bars we beat against are in ourselves --- we put them there, and we can take them down." --- Henry Ford

I would like to add to this quote. Some "bars" are put in our minds by others, and these, too, can be taken down. Consider the following statements that may run through one's mind, "I never keep the weight off," "You'll never amount to anything," "I can't hit a drive today, " "I know I'll fail, " "You're stupid, " "I have to have a cigarette with my cup of coffee, '' "I can't stop eating," "You don't like me. " The list goes on and on. Thoughts such as these reflect one's beliefs.

The previous blog advanced the idea that if you are not sure if you were hypnotized or not during a hypnotherapy appointment, that you can assume that you were hypnotized if you got the results that you desired. The following is an anecdote illustrating this idea.

One day at the Palo Alto School of Hypnotherapy, the director, Josie Hadley, was giving a class in hypnosis for weight reduction. She asked for a volunteer on whom an induction would be demonstrated, and several people responded with alacrity. The lady she chose, whom we’ll call Susie, came to the front of the room and stated that she was carrying an extra fifty pounds as a result of eating.

It seems that whenever her partner left town, she would be besieged by a horde of high quality chocolate-covered ice cream bars named after the bird of peace. When he returned, she could keep the ice cream bars at bay. However, the previous week, she had fallen prey not only to the chocolate-covered bars, but had suffered a skirmish with a key lime pie. The pie had prevailed and had joined itself to her entirely, with not a crumb to spare.