Hypnotic thinking...

I just got done reading Joe Montaldo's webpage regarding the Barney and Betty Hill UFO abduction case. Joe claims that the Hill case was actually an abduction by military personnel, rather than by the grays or other alien beings (see www.icar1.com/Betty---Barnie-Hill---Milabs.html). I can't conclude one way or the other about the validity of his argument without doing considerably more study (beginning by finishing Kathy's book, Captured). However something in Joe's argument very much caught my attention - his references to 'hypnotic thinking'.

Joe indicates that if 'hypnotic thinking' exists, it invalidates the usefulness of hypnotic regression as a means of accessing subconscious material. However, hypnotic thinking is very real, and yet hypnotic regression is also very useful - if we understand its limitations.

Unfortunately, regression does not leave the memory intact. In fact, as Ernst L. Rossi states in his book, Psychobiology of Mind Body Healing, 'every access is a reframe'. Put another way, memory is not 'read only,' as if one were playing back a tape or reading computer memory. During each access of a memory, the mind processes it. This makes regression an extremely useful healing tool, but less useful as a means of historical research.

Thus, to a certain extent Joe is right - because hypnotic thinking is different than our everyday critical thinking process, the material reviewed by hypnotic regression often cannot be taken literally. When in deep trance, the mind follows a different pattern of thought than our normal left-brained, beta-state reasoning. This phenomenon is what more than one hypnotherapy book author has referred to as 'trance logic.' It includes thought progression based upon symbolism, metaphor and association, rather than math and logic. It is the thought pattern of the dream, the symbolic processing of the deep subconscious.

In hypnotic trance, the mind can easily overlay different thought patterns, some of them being literal memories, with other symbolic aspects of the subconscious. We can think of the mind as accessing everything as a form of 'memory.' Thus I have often heard types of 'memory' referred to as 'biographical', 'metaphorical', and 'creative.' Often, the skill of the hypnotherapist can be vital when it comes to dealing with these. The hypnotherapist must remain alert for material that is symbolic but not literal.

During hypnotic regression, one can often distinguish creative or metaphorical material from biographical memory using multiple passes through an event. Typically, I have found that memories tend to remain stable during multiple passes through the event. Each retelling of the narrative will remain consistent with the previous pass, while developing additional detail. If this is not the case then perhaps it is more metaphorical or creative in nature. However, these are subjective rules of thumb and it is seldom absolutely clear which is the case. Yet these can provide a useful tool when reviewing events in the subconscious.

During any hypnotherapy session, clean regression is vital. Avoiding leading questions, keeping hypnotic navigation instructions very generic (e.g. 'please continue', 'what's happening now?', 'what else do you notice?', 'let's return to the beginning of the event', etc...), using very neutral wording; all of these can go a long way toward preventing contamination of biographical memories.

Ultimately, the most important task of the hypnotherapist is healing and even when a 'memory' is not biographical it may still be important. When processing material for healing purposes, metaphorical material can be extremely vital. The only thing to remember is that it can not be taken as literally true - any more than dreams can be taken literally.

In his article, Joe claims that the idea of 'hypnotic thinking' invalidates hypnotic regression as a tool for UFO investigation. On the contrary, rather than negating it, we now see this process with a much clearer perspective. We see that there are limits on how useful the subcnoscious can be as a repository of historical information. While hypnotic regression is still a very valid way of understanding past events, it is not the ultimate hidden-information retrieval system that researchers had once hoped for. Regression is useful, but only if we understand its limitations.

Notes from NGH 2010

A few brief notes on this year's annual National Guild of Hypnotists convention. This year's convention was excellent, by (almost) any standards. As usual, I learned alot. This is one of my key training opportunities, and where I update my CEUs for my hypnosis certification. And this year, just as in years past, the weekend was worth every penny.

The only thing that they didn't have at the convention was me as a speaker - no ego here, of course. :-)
I had put in to do a talk on working with UFO experiencers, which the guild powers-that-be didn't accept. Later on, one of the big wheels involved in the decision explained the rationale to me and suggested how next year it could be reworked. In spite of my dislike of conformance, I think he did have a point.

As usual, there was a wide variety of talks - some on marketing, some on the dynamics of the hypnosis session, some on various hypnotic techniques, several talks on spiritual hypnosis techniques, etc. Lots more to say on all of this later, but suffice it to say, it was a rewarding and useful weekend - and one additional speaker who could have made the weekend complete.

One thing I did do while I was there was recruit hypnotists to help with the MUFON abduction research effort. We are in the process of building a referral list of hypnotists, hypnotherapists, psychologists, MDs, etc. - people who can be available if needed, to work with close encounter experiencers. Any certified hypnotherapists who are interested are encouraged to contact me, as I am presently building up a collection of interested parties.

All for now. Lots more later (presumably...)