No you don't quack like a duck - The truth about hypnosis

One of the most frequent questions I hear from potential clients of Explore with Hypnosis, when I'm speaking during presentations and often in general conversations - "You're a hypnotist. Are you going to make me quack like a duck?" Another friend of mine, a Christian social conservative, asked me why I use magic such as hypnosis. Doesn't Christianity forbid the use of magic? These are just a few questions about hypnosis I encounter on a daily basis. What is hypnosis and what is it not?

Questions like these could be annoying. They could be exasperating - or better yet, they could be a great source of humor. For me, they are the latter. Depending upon the context, I might make some light-hearted comment in reply. I might ask about something crazy they might have done at another time having nothing to do with hypnosis. But beyond the humor, jokes and quips, what do I really need to say when people ask me questions like "what is the truth about hypnosis?" Just what is hypnosis, really?

Have you ever found yourself lost in a daydream? Have you ever had a moment when you were deeply engrossed in some activity and you suddenly realized - "wow, did two hours go by already?" Have you ever found yourself "in the groove" when you were in some sport or hobby? If you've ever done any of these, then you have experienced hypnosis.

When was the last time you got deeply into a good novel - or watched a movie and really enjoyed it? Have you ever shed a tear during a sad movie? Did you feel relieved when the hero narrowly escaped death? Did you find yourself identifying with the characters in the story? If you did any of these, then you have experienced hypnosis. In many ways, the process of hypnosis is no different than that of reading a good novel. It's merely the suspension of disbelief, along with selective focus - allowing yourself to "go with the flow," or to "Get into it."

When reading that novel, once you were into it, did you notice how you could picture the world the author was portraying? You could feel for the characters and perhaps picture whatever lesson the story was portraying. Now, imagine the possibilities for constructive change this process offers. Imagine how, getting beyond the barriers of disbelief and focusing on a healing or improvement goal, you can make positive change within your own mind.

On the other hand, when you were reading a book and/or watching a movie, did you suddenly find a spot where something stuck in your craw? Perhaps you said, "oh that's ridiculous, I don't believe this." Even while you had been into the story, your own discernment filter was still active. When it found something objectionable, it objected. In the same way, while in hypnosis, that skeptical filter in the mind is still active - always ready to step in if something doesn't match what you know to be true. The result, hypnosis is safe - the mind will not allow you to do or believe something you would not otherwise accept.

At this point, I hear many people ask, "well, what about during stage hypnosis shows, when people quack like a duck or do other rather dumb things. What's going on there?"

Watch a good stage hypnotist during a show. Notice how he carefully selects the participants, keeping only those who have vivid imaginations and a willingness to show off - the innate hams of the group. These are the people who, given the right circumstances, would be quite willing to do something outrageous. The trick is to allow the participant to feel safe doing just that, then let the fun begin.

People who have been stage hypnosis participants often tell me they knew all along that they were simply playing. They could have stopped at any moment but they were having too much fun. They simply felt like doing whatever they were doing on the stage.

I often get asked if I'm going to make the client quack like a duck. Frequently I reply that if the person really wants to do that, great. But please do that before coming to my studio, so we can focus on the work they came to see me for. This usually produces a smile or two and the conversation moves on to something else.

So, is hypnosis magic? Will hypnosis cause me to stray spiritually? Can it be dangerous? Could I be influenced by the devil? A surprising number of people ask me questions like these. My answer is to ask them, is reading a novel magic? Is daydreaming magic? They're the same process.

You are in a natural state of hypnosis for a few moments every hour or two as your attention span shifts, a phenomenon called the ultradian rhythm, a natural occurrence. When you experience a moment of spontaneous creativity - suddenly getting an idea - you are experiencing a momentary state of hypnosis. Hypnosis is not magic, and not spiritually or mentally dangerous. It is an everyday experience, a property of the mind that allows humans to be the creative, imaginative beings we are.

Hypnosis is an amazing gift. Yet it is also an everyday occurrence. It is a powerful capability of the mind, like being able to read, do arithmetic or play music. It is a wonderful capability and yet there is nothing magical about it. Hypnosis is a simple everyday property of the mind that allows us to achieve tremendous inner healing and change. And no, you don't have to quack like a duck...

Triggers and Habits - Using your mind to change your mind

Draft of a new article from Explore with Hypnosis, for the Circle of Healing Arts newsletter. 

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A few days ago at a social gathering, I found myself in a discussion on politics. I generally try to avoid these but politics is everywhere and predictably, views on the topic ranged widely. One person in particular had all of the answers, at least he thought so. Others inevitably disagreed with him and each moment the discussion continued, I could see him becoming increasingly agitated. Mercifully, that conversation didn't last much longer, but it was fascinating to observe his mannerisms during the discussion. As he encountered potential conflict, he started to fidget, rub his fingertips together and began to stutter slightly. This fascinating moment drove a simple idea home to me - how factors and emotions in daily life drive our habits and behaviors.

Observing your fellow human beings, it's easy to notice habit behaviors. You have them. I have them. They are part of what make us human and they form the foundation of how we move through life. Some habits are good, yet some can be detrimental, even toxic. So what is a habit and how does it get started?

Habits are learned behavior at the most fundamental subconscious level. According to the Wikipedia entry on habit psychology [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habit_(psychology)], "A habit is a more or less fixed way of thinking, willing, or feeling acquired through previous repetition of a mental experience." Wikipedia further states that habituation is an extremely simple form of learning in which one associates a response to an event or context in a nearly automatic or unconscious manner.

Some habits are good - we can improve our driving skills. It’s best to instinctively turn off the stove when you finish cooking a meal or to look both ways before crossing a street. Other habits are not so good, such as smoking, overeating, hair-pulling or nail-biting. Generally, in life we try to deeply engrain positive habits, calling it training or practicing. At the same time, we want to reduce or even remove the negative habits - yet somehow, those annoying mannerisms often seem to stick with us.

Most bad habits I have seen (and probably a few I have myself) seem to occur during times of stress, passion or enthusiasm. When our hormones get going, so do our automatic behaviors. The more stressed we are, the more our habits come into play. Like my friend at the party as the discussion grew more intense, behavior under stress grows increasingly automatic.

Many times, I note how different emotions and contexts seem to trigger different habits. For example, when we talked about politics, my friend fidgeted. When another friend of mine gets a cup of coffee, he lights up a cigarette. It's common to get the munchies while watching a late night movie. Habitual responses are context dependent and each usually has an underlying emotion. We can be happy, sad, stressed, frightened, in love, aroused, there are an endless number of emotions, each triggering specific behaviors in the mind/body.

In similar situations, I often notice how emotions and responses tend to be similar. One might be annoyed when a particular noise occurs, wherever it occurs. A smoker might want to light up a cigarette when getting out of his/her car, or stepping out for a break at work. As one experiences a particular context, unconscious programs influence one's actions and responses for that context. The primitive brain - that deep core of the central nervous system we share with the reptiles - learns these behaviors instinctively, for better or for worse. And in the case of bad habits, it is for the worse.

When helping clients quit smoking, what do we need to do to prevent that nearly automatic desire to light up? First and foremost, we need to find the environmental cues, the elements within their world that triggers the instinctive response. So prior to beginning work with a quit-smoking client, I ask the person to make a note of the circumstances whenever they light a cigarette. What is going on in his/her mind? What are his/her emotions? Are there any common threads among these circumstances?

Similarly, I ask other habit-removal clients to keep a note of times in which the behavior occurs. What is going on when you pull your hair or bite your nails? What are your emotions? What people are around you and how do you feel about those people? The list goes on, but the idea is the same – we want to find whatever triggers the behavior.

Once we understand the state of the person's world, mind and/or emotions, we can begin to focus on how to clear the undesired response. There are many ways to do this, but the simplest is basic deprogramming or reconditioning. When in the situation, try NOT doing the undesired behavior. Just once, go pour a cup of coffee without lighting up a cigarette (yeah, I know, it isn't easy). Go to the buffet table and take only a single egg roll. By breaking the habitual mold you begin to confuse the deeply ingrained patterns that govern the habit. The more you do this, the more you begin to break down the automatic response programming. With enough practice, you can remove the habit and, if you’re consistent, you can even replace it with a desired behavior.

Another way of deprogramming habits involves waking suggestion techniques in Neuro Linguistic Programming or NLP. NLP involves action, thought or language patterns that help the subconscious to change more easily and decisively. Sales literature often employs NLP language patterns such as "Imagine yourself in a new [model of car], today" - words that invite the subconscious mind to create an image of the person liking this car. Another might associate a negative word with the competition - "Imagine [the competitor's product], like a car stuck in traffic - you need to wait and wait, while [our product] is like a car in the fast lane."

In quick habit-removal sessions, I often invite the client to imagine their habit behavior, along with the emotional response. Do they derive some immediate short-term pleasure from overeating, smoking or the like? We associate a negative result (opposite of a reward) with the behavior instead. I sometimes invite the smoker to picture a lit cigarette and imagine a foul smell, associating stinky smells - garbage, pollution, or worse - with cigarette smoke. Similarly, one might imagine an unpleasant or distasteful object associated with cigarettes, something one would not want to place in the mouth. The negative response counteracts the positive reward - canceling (or collapsing) the desire to respond to the habit triggers. At the same time, the new ex-smoker can imagine new, constructive behavior in response to the circumstances - breathing clean crisp fresh air as they run or walk faster, thinking of the money they are saving by no longer having to smoke, etc. We replace the bad habits with good ones and practice the good ones.

Being in a challenging situation can make it much more difficult to remove a bad habit. Sometimes the habit response is a means of coping with significant life stress, personal issues, etc. Family strife or work difficulties can drive one to seek comforts such as smoking, drinking, munching, etc. I often invite a client to explore the history of their situations leading to bad habits. I ask him/her to picture the time and circumstance of the habit. What does he/she feel and think when this occurs? These become clues we can use to explore the emotion and response pattern.  Using hypnotherapy we can explore the feelings and the corresponding subconscious programming behind the habit. When did the pattern originate? When did the client learn to associate this emotion and actions to this circumstance? We can find the origin of a pattern and heal the issues associated with it, removing the driver for that habit.

Habits are core to our life experience. They can serve us or they can bring us grief. Using the power of the mind, we can change the underlying patterns within the subconscious, clearing out the undesirable responses, those actions that we, and perhaps those around us, find annoying. In this article we have seen how to truly change your own programming. It's not easy, but anyone can do it - using your mind to change your mind.

The new taxes are coming

Warning, Warning,
Attention Smokers: The new taxes are coming.
They will be here on July 1. 


This is the banner headline I saw on one newspaper a few days ago.
I have talked about this at several recent networking group meetings, including my BNI group on Tuesday morning as I described the benefits of hypnosis to quit smoking and how you can do this effectively at Explore with Hypnosis.

Knowing my interest in helping people quit smoking and clear other habits as well, a friend from my BNI group e-mailed me this picture this morning.

, 

(thank you to Patrice Atkinson, from the New Brighton Parks and Rec dept for e-mailing me this pic)

The purpose of the new tax is to finance some major dollar shortfalls on the new Vikings stadium project in Minneapolis, and probably other things I'm not sure of (politics is not my thing). And from nearly everyone I have heard, the tax (and the stadium overall) are singularly unpleasant topics of conversation - or wonderful opportunities to complain, depending upon your perspective.

Yesterday, as I was walking out of the grocery store, I overheard two older gentlemen standing in the parking lot grousing about the tax hike. One was complaining about how he was going to have to go to North Dakota to stock up on cigarettes. During the conversation, I heard each of them stop at least once during mid sentence to cough. I noted they clearly were short of breath, etc. Yet they were dedicated to the one thing that was burning up their lives - smoking.

So yesterday morning, during my weekly BNI (Business Networking International) meeting, I did a brief 60 second talk on the upcoming cigarette taxes. I presented some numbers as to how one can recover the costs of hypnosis for smoking cessation in six weeks.
Cigarettes are presently something lilke $6.00-plus per pack - at least that's what I saw in a convenience store window a few days ago. Add $1.60 a pack to that and we're talking $7.60 a pack. I have no doubt they will be up to $8.00 a pack in no time flat.

At $8 per pack, if you smoke one pack a day, that means you are burning $240 per month.

From the financial savings alone, you can recover the costs of a series of three hypnosis sessions for smoking cessation in about six weeks. From that point on, it's money in your pocket and fresh air in your lungs. So from a purely financial perspective, quitting smoking is just like getting a big raise. What could you do with that money? I can think of lots of things I'd do with an extra $240 per month.

Few incentives for change hit us as hard as a kick to the pocketbook. And the key factor in quitting smoking is just that, incentive. You save a whole lot of money and you get improved health, too. The last several quit-smoking clients I've had have done spectacularly well for just that reason. They were dedicated to freeing themselves of their addiction, and they had no desire to burn up over two hundred dollars a month supporting a stadium for some rich dudes.

In complaining about taxes, rather than quitting smoking, these two men were missing a tremendous opportunity. What if they didn't need to drive four hundred miles to buy cigarettes (at $3.50 per gallon for gas). What if they didn't have to  pause in mid sentence to cough or catch their breath. What if they didn't have to pay to support a project neither of them were in favor of? They had an alternative - they could quit smoking.

Unfortunately for these two gentlemen, I didn't approach them. Their disposition looked pretty angry and mean and personal safety is a rather high priority for me. Yet I was parked right next to them with a big sign on my car window that says Explore with Hypnosis. They could have seen it, and hopefully it registered within their subconscious mind. One day in the future, hopefully they will notice (or remember) such an opportunity.

Yes, you can be free, healthy, wealthier - and you can even express a political opinion (whatever that may be) by quitting smoking. And here is your opportunity - the new taxes are coming...

the Launch is taking shape

This week is going to be a busy one for the staff of Explore with Hypnosis (which consists of your's truly). After being away over the weekend (2 days) doing MUFON field work, it seems as if I was gone for a month. The reasons are many, but they all have to do with launching a business. They are many, fast paced and most of all, a lot of fun.

This week, we have pretty well settled into the new digs, the Circle of Healing Arts office is now open for business in full force. We've had a good number of clients now beginning to schedule. I've also had a bunch of work as the official CoHA resident geek - lots of IT stuff. That, too has been a lot of fun.

It's great being part of a business that I am an owner of. Being an owner and being an employee have a world of difference. Working on stuff at the coop is like working on your own home. The motivations are the same, the same TLC, the same sense of personal ownership. It is very different from any job I have ever had.

This week, we are starting to get the ethernet in place, to augment the wireless we've been using for some time. We also have to get our scheduler going, set up office duties, etc. - all part of being in a coop, each of us has our duties to chip in. It's a lot of work, a lot of fun, and a real sense of community.

We are planning a grand open house for some time in September. We are also putting together our press releases and creating wellness workshops for the public. We are planning combined complimentary wellness packages for habit changes, stress management, lift your mood/spirits (a.k.a. reducing depression), and lots more.

It's a vibrant time at Explore with Hypnosis and the Circle of Healing Arts. Stay tuned. There's lots more where this comes from.

Hypnosis, fear and rigid thinking.

I had an interesting experience this week as I was putting together a trade show display for an exposition in a rather socially conservative venue. When I looked at the list of participants, I noted that I was listed as a personal coach, rather than a hypnotherapist. It raised a few alarm bells in my mind - was the expo organizer somehow hiding the "H" word? When I got to the expo with my banner that says "Explore with Hypnosis" would there be a sudden nasty surprise? Needless to say, a lot of clearing of the air needed to be done beforehand.

It turned out that this actually was not that big an issue. The primary concern was that a lot of the people attending the expo tend to be very conservative. Many of them are fundamentalist Christians or social-conservatives. For them, the thought of hypnosis is frightening. So, what causes that fear?

I hear a number of fundamentalist preachers talk about hypnosis opening one up to diabolical influences, and the like. The biggest concern many fundamentalist Christians have is that somehow, hypnosis will open you up to belief in other religions, what they refer to as "straying from the path" of Christianity.

In the article Hypnosis and Yoga Open Up Spiritual Doors, by Dan Delzell, I found several revealing quotes:

• "Christians should never allow themselves to be put in a trance"
• "Altered states of consciousness and other mystical practices open doors in the spiritual realm."
• "You also don't see the spirits that come through these doors."
• "No born again believer should utilize yoga or hypnosis because of the spiritual dangers associated with these practices."
• "Any door other than Christ is just a cheap imitation"

I think that pretty much gives the picture . And to a certain extent, Rev Delzell has some good points, just not the ones he is trying to make.

I have worked with people of all religions, including some of the most conservative religious fundamentalists. Once I explain what hypnosis is, there is usually no problem. Anyone with a reasonable willingness to understand and think for themselves will usually relax at that point and the process continues.

The key is the "think for themselves" part. More on that later. For the moment, let's look at hypnosis itself. What do rigid religious thinkers say about it and what's the real truth?

In his article, Rev. Delzell often refers to altered states of consciousness. He states that any altered state of consciousness can open us up to diabolical influences. So, just what is an altered state of consciousness and when does it occur? Basically, an altered state of consciousness is any state of consciousness other than normal awareness. Sleeping and dreaming are altered states of consciousness. Daydreaming and imagination are also altered states of consciousness. So is focused attention and suspension of disbelief - the process you use when reading a good novel.
Are these dangerous? No. Are they a natural part of the everyday experience? Yes.

There is nothing magic about hypnosis. If you have ever read a book and gotten into it, you've been hypnotized. If you have ever daydreamed, you have been in a state of hypnosis. Hypnosis is merely a state of focused concentration and suspension of disbelief - the same process you use when you read a novel or watch a movie. If you get into the story - if you ever shed a tear in a sad scene or felt relieved when the hero triumphed, then you were momentarily suspending that same disbelief enough to feel the story.

We are actually in hypnosis several minutes in the course of each 90 minute cycle of consciousness - known as the ultradian rhythm. Furthermore, when you take a moment to think about something, letting your thoughts go inside while you consider some question, you are entering a state of spontaneous hypnosis. Does that bring about diabolical influences? No.

Hypnosis does not lead to loss of will. On several occasions, while I was working with someone in hypnotic trance, they heard something they disagreed with. It might have been something I said, or maybe something they remembered during our work. In any case, if they disagreed they told me so - whether in hypnosis or not. The person's will and discernment were solidly intact.

Spiritually, there is nothing intrinsically dangerous about hypnosis. What frightens fundamentalists - or any other rigid thinkers - is that hypnosis and spiritual exploration exercise the mind. Like a physical workout, any mental exercise tends to foster strength and fitness. In this case, that means the ability to think for one's self. People start asking questions, and questions are what rigid thinkers fear most.

Hypnosis is perfectly safe for any person of religious faith. As many of my clients will attest, religious faith actually grows stronger, deeper as a result of the hypnotic process. Faith is a powerful healing tool and in my work with believers, we incorporate that faith into the healing process. The result is win-win for everyone. The person's mind-body health improves, while their faith is deepened.
 In the words of  T.S. Elliot, "We shall never cease from our explorations, and the end result of our journey will be to return home and know the place for the very first time." For many people, hypnosis and meditation can foster deeper thought. So can study of faith-based topics, critical thinking and personal discernment. As a Christian myself, I have found that the process has only deepened my commitment to God.

A good show

I just got done with another great radio show. This one was called "The Military X-Files", with Mack Maloney - an internet radio show on paranormal, UFO and related topics. No two radio shows are the same, and this was no exception. Mac was a great interviewer, asking the right questions to keep the show moving along, keeping the right pace of information flowing and keeping the discussion interesting. 

This particular interview was on my work with close encounter experiencers, and we got into some things that I had not thought about for a little while, principally some of the human-alien encounters, close encounters of the third kind in our everyday world, which we had investigated a few years ago. In cases like this, usually some time long after a particular close encounter, the experiencer subsequently encounters one or a couple of characters that - in a word - do not seem to be completely human. 

In the case I talked about this evening, the experiencer involved in a close encounter a month or two earlier met a strange "Goth" couple while standing in the cashier line at a convenience store. To make a long story short, the couple knew a lot about the woman's experiences, and had uncanny insight into details of her life they could not have known. They seemed to be deeply attuned to the inner details of her life, her mind and her experiences. 

As with many descriptions of men in black and other human-alien encounters, once the experiencer parted company with this couple, they abruptly and mysteriously vanished. When we interviewed her, she recalled how after the conversation ended, she took a few steps toward her car and suddenly realized she had forgotten to ask their names. She turned back to try to catch them before they left, but they were already gone - and there seemed to be no place where they could have gone that quickly. It was as if they had vanished into thin air.

Encounters like this bring an even-more-mysterious element to an already strange phenomenon. It adds a new layer of paradox and apparent illogic. As Carl Sagan stated on several occasions, "One thing we can be sure about aliens, they will be alien." Strange encounters such as those with 'human-aliens' graphically portray this. They present us with mystery, incomprehensibility and paradox. They confound our understanding of how we think the world works and make us look deeper into what we thought we knew.

Now, I will completely shift gears - Last night, I went to a fascinating talk by a spiritual teacher in the Twin Cities named James Ulness. James is a retired professor of psychology and theology, who has spent his life studying and teaching metaphysical insight. He is one of those people you could spend your entire life learning from, and this evening was no exception.

In this particular talk, he spoke about the theology of the mystery and grail legends and the difficulties of being a healer and peacemaker in these days of transition, tying the various topics together into a coherent lesson that knocked my socks off (actually, I was wearing sandals, but whatever...). 

I wouldn't know where to begin to describe his talk, much less summarize the myriad of what he said in only a couple of hours. But like other events of the last few days, this too caused me to take a deep look at things I thought I knew, to question things I though I had understood. 

Sometimes, if we're alert enough, we can get (see and accept) an invitation to pass through the wall blocking our path. Perhaps we thought we might have been the end of the journey, we had it all figured out and were finished now. Yet now this place turns out to be only a brief stopping point. There is a door in the wall, and that door leads to a whole new path, and that path leads us on far beyond our present horizon. 

To me, a good show catches my interest, piques my curiosity and leads me to new paths. And like any good show, the events of the last few days have brought me information, curiosity, confusion and a new view of the path ahead. Whether it was a lecture, a radio interview, or unexpected events in the world around me, they have led me through a door I never noticed before. Yes, the last few days it's all been a good show.