What is Hypnosis? There are so many opinions and ideas floating around. Is it an exact science? Is there an absolute definition? How does it work? Does it work?
Hypnosis, in the past, has taken a bad rap. For many years it was clothed in mystery, something from the dark ages. Wizards, witches, sorcerers supposedly used it in practices of the occult and black magic. Today, there are those who still have a dark ages mentality and fear hypnosis. They believe that in Hypnosis your mind is being controlled. Is Hypnosis mind control?
Before we address that, let us look at some of the history of hypnosis. We don’t know the its exact beginning; however, I tend to think that when God put Adam into a sort of "sleep", took a rib and made Eve, that was probably the first instance that mankind experienced hypnosis. We’ve heard stories of the sleep temples of ancient Greeks and Egyptians where people were put to sleep and told they would awaken cured and they often were.
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This includes the original age regression on CD Dr. Bandler did with
Barb Stepp that assisted her in the cancer remission. It also contains
the transcript of the trance in booklet form. The work is magical.
There is a second CD with Barbara’s health strategies, a meditation and
a trance and a third CD with an interview and discussion with Dr.
Bandler on health, NLP, DHE, Hypnosis, belief systems and more. There
are 3 cds and a booklet total. It is valuable for everyone and deals
with wellness on many levels.
Dr. Richard
Bandler is co-creator of Neuro Linguistic Programming, creator of
Design Human Engineering, and Neuro Hypnotic Repatterning.
Barbara Stepp is a Master Trainer of NLP & DHE, Hypnotist, and Hypnosis Instructor.
What is it anyway? Who nose? Hypnosis is everything and everything is Hypnosis. Our best definition is that it is communication.
Hypnosis in neither mystical or scary. It can be either malevolent or benevolent.
It is simply suggestion. We spend a great deal of time hypnotizing ourselves: “I’m afraid,” I can’t do that”, “I can forget about the unreasonable fear”, “I can do this”. “I’m smart”, “I’m intelligent,” ”I look really good”.
Or hypnotizing others: “You look tired”, “Have you been sick?, Are you feeling alright?”, “You look great!”, “Have you lost weight?” “You look hot!”
Milton Erickson, father of American Medical Hypnosis was once asked, “Are you aware of the way in which you use your words?” He replied: “I certainly am, and I want to emphasize the importance of that awareness in all of you. In any work, you are going to use words to influence the psychological life of an individual today; you are going to use words to influence his organic life today; you are going to also influence his psychological and organic life twenty years from now. So you had better know what you are saying. You had better be willing to reflect upon the words you use, to wonder what their meanings are, and to seek out and understand their many associations.”
So, since we are all hypnotists, let’s use our words and language skills for the best possible outcomes for ourselves and others, especially our children.
By now, most of you are familiar with the age regression that Richard Bandler did with me so many years ago. Despite advancing chronology, I still remain energetic and reasonably healthy to this day. I do ok for a lady pushing 70, I think.
For many years I have been asked about my personal experience and have decided to publish it in a booklet and on CD. Publication date is not yet certain, but hopefully, it will be available sometime in June.
Richard will be speaking on the CD as well. We will be discussing Health and Wellness using Hypnosis, NLP™ and DHE™.
The actual age regression will be available. The Soften tape is often referred to by the trainers, “Barb’s tape.” Of course, it is now available on CD, as are the Soften Too, and Soften More CDs by Richard…all age regressions based on the original.
I transcribed my age regression and listened to it every night before sleep. Along with additional strategies, I believe strongly that this guided me to health and an even more energetic life. I continue to use self hypnosis and the age regression of so long ago. Richard did install a youthener and I keep this good hypnosis going.
I will also include examples of others Richard and I have worked with and the amazing results they have created for themselves.
Milton Erickson, the father of modern hypnosis, has said, “You had better be willing to reflect upon the words you use, to wonder what their meanings are, and to seek out and understand their many associations.”
He was speaking in this instance of the use of language in a clinical context. How many of us consider how we use our words in normal everyday life?
Especially, have you considered observing the effects of your own self-talk? Of course, we all know the futility of using the four-letter word “try” (…and fail). Have you ever considered what it would be like if you could follow yourself for a day, and see on your face the effect of your personal language? Did your words make you smile? Did you choose words that make the difficult tasks easier or the boring tasks exciting?
Your other-than-conscious mind is listening.
Sometimes I'll catch myself or somebody else putting themselves down. “I can't do it,” we'll say, “I’m stupid.” And the OTC is listening to this, and it is willing to oblige. “Stupid? I can do stupid. Stupid's easy. One big helping of stupid, coming right up.”
How much better is it to say: “I haven't figured this thing out, yet, and I'm gonna.” Does that bring a curiosity for some insight on the task that hasn't yet been seen? Observe the effects, and if that change of language doesn't improve your outlook, which next one will?
Even in everyday situations, when talking with somebody who is using less-than-helpful language, you can acknowledge their statement using the more-useful language: “I see that you haven't figured that out yet.”
In the coming days, spend a little bit of time considering your use of language in everyday situations.
In his blog entry, Dilbert creator Scott Adams describes his experiences with Spasmodic Dysphonia, a condition that is usually irreversible. He writes:
When I say my brain remapped, that’s the best description I have. During the worst of my voice problems, I would know in advance that I couldn’t get a word out. It was if I could feel the lack of connection between my brain and my vocal cords. But suddenly, yesterday, I felt the connection again. It wasn’t just being able to speak, it was KNOWING how. The knowing returned.
It's a very interesting description of how he essentially relearned how to talk. The story parallels that of Milton Erickson overcoming polio.
Since I do so much ongoing coaching and private client change work, a lot of questions come my way about both. Questions like, “How do I start my business?” “Where do I begin?” “What should my fees be?” “How do I work with a client?” We'll answer a few of them now, from our point of view, of course.
Here are a fewsuggestions that will cost you little except your time:
You can let your social sphere know what you are doing. I started by doing small things complimentary for the practice. I began to get personal referrals. When you do an excellent job, you'll get lots of them. Personal referrals are how I got started and I continue to get many.
Do complimentary speaking engagements and let your audience know that you do coaching and private work. There are many organizations and companies who are looking for a freebee. Check it out. If you do seminars/trainings, let them know you do private sessions. Or if you want to spend a little or a lot of money, create a brochure, print business cards, advertise in local publications, get a web site.
To get down to specifics, what can make your job easier is to have them answer a detailed questionnaire and send it to you in advance of the scheduled session. If they won't do that, then they are probably not committed to the work. When they commit, the change begins. “But”, you say, “NLP is a content-free tool.” Yes, and you do need some information to be effective. The questionnaire should be carefully designed with questions to let you know what their modal operators, metaprograms, beliefs, values, current state and goals/outcomes are… A lot of information, which saves you both time and gives you a jump-start on the task at hand. Perhaps you could do a good job without it. You choose.
In the session, you set up the guidelines. You're the professional. First say hello Other-than-consciously. Use your skills of observation. Pay attention to their OTC™ communication. You’ve already begun the process. Listen to them, they will usually tell you what they want, even if they think they don't know. I ask them, “So why are you here? What specifically do you want?” Avoid letting them get into the therapy mode. You don't need to listen to their long, sad story. Interrupt the pattern and keep them on track.
What you charge for your services is up to you. You know what your time and skills are worth. There are some practitioners who charge by the hour, some by the change, or in ongoing coaching, it can be an established monthly fee. The object is not to build client dependence, but to help them reach their well-formed goals as quickly as possible, so they can get on with their lives as successfully as possible. You do want referrals, right?
Brief example:
This example does not give you everything we did in the session, just highlights. I used formal trance, as well as OTCC™ and No–Fault Psychology™ in the session as well. You can read more about both on my website and Dave’s teachings on CD are available to buy on our store.
Recently I did private client work with a person we'll call Kiwi who was in a lengthy legal proceeding with Mango whom he let intimidate him to the point of terror. Kiwi wanted to manage/eliminate his fear and focus on the issue of winning a legal case.
What I didn't do is get in his face, fixate on his eyes, watch every movement, figure out if I should do a change history or a six step reframe. Just paid attention. His words were, “I'm gonna lose and he's gonna eat me alive, dealing with him is destroying me.” It has been said that language is the mirror of the mind. What do you think?
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out. Kiwi had terrified himself with his own language. And Mango was loud and vicious. "His tonality devastates me." We had him change his position and look at the situation and himself, from a distance, naturally. (Dissociate & break state). His comment was “that looks silly.” He laughed. I asked him how it now he said “better.” I suggested he say to himself in the most sensuous tone, “he's gonna eat me alive.” He began to laugh. He changed Mango’s tonality to a squeaky little voice and shrank him.
The picture, words and feelings are now changed forever. In this session, he learned how to interrupt his own pattern and outgrow ones that do not serve him. I asked him, “What will it be like when you have made these changes… now… in the future as you look back and see what it was like to have had that silly problem as you think about it here and now?”
Kiwi is now in a place to decide in a more positive way what to do here. The bottom line is that in the actual legal proceedings, several years ago now, he had to control his laughter and delight. The fear is gone. Mango lost his control and composure. Kiwi won the case!!
He has generalized this over time, and is doing well in other areas of his life. We still keep in touch.
We can all be winners easily. Dissociate from a problematic situation, look at it objectively, change your language, and use humor, all the while trusting that your OTC™ is an excellent problem solver. And as Richard Bandler says,“lighten up, loosen up,” It works.
How do you describe a flower that does not exist? Better than that, how do you go about describing beautiful, artistic arrangements using those self-same, non-existent flowers?
That is what this book is all about.
For years scholars have tried to define the phenomenon labeled "Hypnosis" as if this accomplishment would yield them more skill in its use. For those of you that may be reading this book in an effort to better dissect the noun "Hypnosis", you will be disappointed. This work is not about the man-made label, "Hypnosis" but rather about the seemingly miraculous capacity of the human mind to utilize tremendously potent phenomenon that written history would indicate has survived five thousand years of use.
Science cannot define "Electricity" as anything more than energy. Scientists are evidently comfortable enough with their not knowing about electricity, to spend their energies in developing more skill in the utilization of that phenomenon.
It has taken me years to become comfortable with the not knowing aspects of "Hypnosis" but in gaining that state of mind, it has given me the freedom to really explore the wondrous potentials of this magnificent phenomenon.
Every clinician whether they recognize it or not, has developed their own unique model for therapy, their own concept of the "mythical kingdom" that works for them. This model for the most part, is a complex, inter-weaving of the results of their life experience and formal training. This then becomes the territory that they guide the client through in the process of therapy. It has always been this way, fragile man, fearing the unknown, constructing gods and demons to regulate the unexplained, to give them a sense of peace and security, while secretly knowing it is still out of their control. And in spite of everything, muddling through.
It has only been in the last hundred years or so that we have developed a semblance of scientific language to deal with the subjective inner processes of the mind. For thousands of years persons manifesting aberrational behavior were either stoned, cast out, or shut away from society, not for their benefit, but because of the overwhelming fear of society. The not knowing, of how such a circumstance is possible and the unspoken, screeching fear that I too, could be infected.
This condition has improved considerably now in the latter half of the twentieth century. We no longer stone them to death or cast them out to survive on their own, (our society is no longer nomadic) we do segregate some of them from us for our mutual protection, but most importantly we are making efforts to understand the structure and genesis of these aberrations, to learn about ourselves and with this knowledge intervene constructively and perhaps even repair the damage.
The first modern mapmaker of the mind was Sigmund Freud. Regardless of the name you call the different psychological philosophies, traces of this mapmaker are evident in the language, if not in the concept.
Less than a hundred years ago words like; unconscious, preconscious, ego, Id and super-ego had no meaning, they did not exist at all. They were the names Freud gave to the portions of the mind that he explored, by inference and deduction, labels that persist to this day, describing a process that is indescribable and having meaning only by collective agreement.
Regardless of what one thinks of Freud's concepts and discoveries, one has to admire his courage and determination to delve into an area of human behavior that at that time in history, out of fear, was ignored by society as a whole.
In my mind, I liken him to Christopher Columbus. He too, was literally sailing into the face of popular (established) beliefs and fears. His concept of a round world defied their concept of a "flat" world, and their "reasonable" fear of falling off the edge of the world! It took great courage and much determination to organize and execute his exploration. He did prove the world to be round, but we have since learned that he made a grievous error. He discovered the West Indies, not the East Indies!
It is important to note that in spite of his immense error, (omitting an entire ocean), that it has not deterred us from developing the eastern seaboard, or Miami Beach!
It is when I began to recognize that no matter how society accepted or rejected the ideas of men such as Freud, Pavlov, Jung, Adler, Skinner, Berne, Perls or Janov, it really didn't matter. Each in their own way were describing their own interpretation of this mythical kingdom of the mind. It was this recognition, that each were describing THEIR voyage, and only future knowledge alone will determine the accuracy of their navigation. Recognizing this has given me the courage to share my chart book in these unknown waters with the hope some of you can utilize and expand on my experience, and perhaps enhance your own explorations.
The preceding article is from Dr. Dave Dobson's manuscript.
This includes the original age regression on CD Dr. Bandler did with
Barb Stepp that assisted her in the cancer remission. It also contains
the transcript of the trance in booklet form. The work is magical.
There is a second CD with Barbara’s health strategies, a meditation and
a trance and a third CD with an interview and discussion with Dr.
Bandler on health, NLP, DHE, Hypnosis, belief systems and more. There
are 3 cds and a booklet total. It is valuable for everyone and deals
with wellness on many levels.