Hypnology Magazine: Issue 3

Transcription

Issue 3: June 2014
The journal of hypnosis and consciousness exploration
In This Issue
• • • • • A Note from the Publisher: Thoughts About Limitation
Hypnotic Suggestion–Can You Take It? – Karen Hand, CH
At the Crossroads of Belief – Joseph Mancini, PhD
The Biology of What You Feel – Shelley Stockwell Nicholas, PhD
Hypnosis in Market Research – Jeff Bibik, CH
• • • • CONTENTS FWRD
The ‘Wild’ Universe of James A. Hall – Fred Kutchins,CH
Personal and Transpersonal Projections – George A. Boyd, MA
Rethinking the Inevitability of Aging – Imants Baruss, PhD
Stage Hypnosis as Talent Show – Lewis Dark, C.Ht.
Hypnology Magazine is, for me, a dream come true.
That’s why I am offering a FREE subscription to
the first 1,500 people who see this message and visit
www.hypnologymag.com.
Best wishes,
Fred Kutchins
Publisher
To sign up for this special subscription offer go to:
HypnologyMag.com
BACK CONTENTS FWRD
www.HypnologyMag.com
Copyright ©2014 Fred Kutchins
you have ‘HYPNOTIZED’ YOURSELF A related process is to GO BACK TO THE INTERLIFE
many of us do not actually SEE most of our BELIEFS
Do not BELIEVE ANYTHING!
Do the WORK YOURSELF! MIND has OWN ENERGY. Nothing but PURE CONSCIOUSNESS.
come in with an OPEN MIND
18 DIFFERENT FORMS in which WE CAST OTHERS
Our NERVOUS SYSTEM isn’t just a FICTION, it’s PART OF OUR PHYSICAL BODY
If you DO NOT LIKE YOUR EXPERIENCE, then LOOK WITHIN yourself and CHANGE IT
In This Issue
Click the listing to go
directly to that article.
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A Note from the Publisher: Thoughts About
Limitation by Fred Kutchins, CH
6
Hypnotic Suggestion–Can You Take It?
by Karen Hand, CH
10 At the Crossroads of Belief
by Joseph Mancini, PhD
20 The Biology of What You Feel
by Shelley Stockwell Nicholas, PhD
28 Hypnosis in Market Research
by Jeff Bibik, CH
31 The ‘Wild’ Universe of James A. Hall
by Fred Kutchins, CH
36
39
Personal and Transpersonal Projections
by George A. Boyd, MA
Rethinking the Inevitability of Aging
by Imants Baruss, PhD
42 Stage Hypnosis as Talent Show
Issue 3: June 2014
Fred Kutchins
Editor & Publisher
David Wood
Creative Director/Designer
Lambert Matias
Director of Development
All opinions expressed in any article
herein are strictly those of the author.
The publisher does not have any
control over and does not assume any
responsibility for author or third-party
websites or their content. The ideas,
procedures and suggestions contained
in this publication are not intended as
a substitute for consulting with your
physician. All matters regarding any
aspect of your health require medical
supervision. The publisher shall not
be liable or responsible for any loss
or damage allegedly arising from
any information or suggestion in this
publication.
Please direct all inquiries to:
[email protected]
www.hypnologymag.com
by Lewis Dark, C.Ht.
45 Author Bios
47 Hypnology Sponsors
Copyright ©2014 Fred Kutchins. No part of
this publication may be reproduced except by
permission. Articles herein are copyrighted by
the individual authors thereof.
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RETRACTION
Notice of Correction (for Hypnology Issue 1)
In Hypnology Issue #1 I published an article entitled “Dr. Braid and the Stage.” This article contained historical
inaccuracies. The paragraph on p.28 stating that James Braid ascribed the cause of mesmeric trances to
suggestion, should instead state that Braid concluded that the trance states (for which he coined or adapted the
word “hypnotism”) were a neuro-physical condition caused by fatigue to the eyes, and that is what gave subjects
extraordinary abilities and rendered them amenable to suggestion.
The editor and publisher, through the magic of Internet revision, has made changes to the on-line edition of
Hypnology #1 at my request, and subscribers are encouraged to replace their original downloads with the
revised edition. In addition, any reference to “Doctor” Braid turns out to be incorrect; in Great Britain at that
time physicians and surgeons holding Braid’s qualifications were addressed as “Mister;” “Doctor” was the title
of a different class of medical practitioner.
I am indebted to Lindsay Yeates Ph.D. of the University of New South Wales, Australia, for correcting my error.
He has been generous, informative, and supportive in his voluminous correspondence with me. His doctoral
thesis on Braid and the origins of hypnotism, entitled James Braid: Surgeon, Gentleman Scientist, and
Hypnotist, is fascinating fact-filled reading, and is available as a free download from the University of N.S.W. at
http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:11299/SOURCE01. I recommend it highly.
— Lewis Dark, C.Ht.
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Hypnology magazine | w w w. Hy pno l o gy M ag.c om
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Our NERVOUS SYSTEM isn’t just a FICTION, it’s PART OF OUR PHYSICAL BODY
A Note From the Publisher:
Thoughts About Limitation
In his 1973 autobiography The Original Sin: A Self-Portrait, screen icon Anthony
Quinn relates an anecdote about the legendary Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa.
“When Villa rode to the top of a hill and saw the Pacific for the first time, he stared
at the ocean’s immensity for many minutes without saying a word. Then he reigned
in his horse and started back down the hill. His lieutenant, riding behind him, said,
‘Quite a sight, eh, jefe?’ ‘It’s too small to quench my thirst,’ Pancho said over his
shoulder.’ ”
Although Villa’s hubris was ultimately fatal—he was, in fact, assassinated by
political enemies—there is something to be said for his refusal to be intimidated,
even by the Pacific Ocean. Being intimidated means allowing someone or something
to place a limitation on you. And accepting limitation is like surrendering a part of
your personhood. Why on earth would you ever want to do that?
Nevertheless, limitation is a fact of everyday life for most people. But our limitations
are often self-imposed. For whatever reason, we choose to incorporate into our
subconscious certain limiting beliefs that only serve to stifle and frustrate us. As a
result, we find ourselves thinking, feeling and behaving in ways that are inimical
to our physical and spiritual well-being. As Boris Pasternak says in his novel, Dr.
Zhivago:
“The great majority of us are required to live a life of constant, systematic
duplicity. Your health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say the
opposite of what you feel, if you grovel before what you dislike and rejoice at
what brings you nothing but misfortune. Our nervous system isn’t just a fiction,
it’s part of our physical body, and our soul exists in space and is inside us, like
the teeth in our mouth. It can’t be forever violated with impunity.”
Here’s a revealing experiment: Ask several people—and maybe even yourself—
what they’d like to be doing if they could leave their jobs. You’ll be surprised at what
they tell you. And notice how animated they become when you ask for details. One
friend, a sales and marketing director, told me he’d like to have an athletic shoe store.
Another, a computer programmer, said he’d like to become a physical therapist.
A graphics designer would like to be a veterinarian. A school administrator wishes
she were a chef. My podiatrist wants to be an entertainer. A teacher has fantasies of
running her own gift shop. A businessman said his true love is photo-journalism.
A retired firefighter told me he’d have liked a career in finance.
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The DECISION to ABANDON PSYCHOLOGY CHANGED my LIFE
Now, ask the same folks what they think about their
current occupation and watch the enthusiasm vanish.
In its place will be a shrug and a few words to the
effect that, ‘This is how I’ve made my bed and now I
must sleep in it.’
There are exceptions, of course. We all know people
who love what they do. But job dissatisfaction is
the rule. And it mostly happens because people
feel compelled, at some point in their lives, to put
a lid on their dreams. They feel intimidated by
financial pressures, by family expectations, by
temporary setbacks, by fear of the future, by fear of
embarrassment, by fear of failure, by feelings of low
self-worth, by false personal comparisons or other
limiting factors. If not for such inhibitions, they would
likely have pursued their authentic goals.
Many years ago when I was a junior in high school
and thinking about college, I decided that I wanted
to be a psychologist. I was passionate about it. I read
everything I could find on the subject of psychology
and fancied myself to be quite knowledgeable. In order
to look the part of a budding psychologist, as I naively
conceived of it, I went so far as to acquire a briar pipe
and a tin of Mixture No.79 tobacco. I tried to smoke
the pipe once or twice but mostly posed with it in front
of the bathroom mirror.
The decision to abandon psychology changed my life.
I got my degree in education and took a teaching job.
It didn’t last. I had several other teaching jobs over
the years but never really enjoyed them and never
stayed very long. Finally, I left the field altogether and
wound up in publishing and print sales. But, always,
my intense interest in psychology persisted, though I
never pursued it except as a hobby.
Nowadays, having retired from the corporate world,
I teach, write about and maintain a practice in the
art and science of hypnosis for self-growth. My
new career has given me greater satisfaction than
anything I’ve ever done before. I never did become
a psychologist. But, in a way, I am fulfilling that
dream. And although I don’t really regret anything
that happened in the past, I will admit that sometimes
I wonder what my life might have been like if—way
back in high school—I had simply ignored my fears,
and followed my heart.
Then one day somebody said that the psychology
curriculum includes a class in statistics. This innocent
remark was like a bucket of ice water dumped
on my head—I am one of those people who are
“mathematically challenged”. In those days there
were no pocket calculators, only something called a
slide rule, a device that left me totally mystified. So,
instead of studying psychology, I abruptly decided
to major in secondary education and become an
English instructor. This was mainly because English
was my strongest subject and I could save money by
commuting to a nearby teachers’ college. (As it turned
out, I had to take a course in educational statistics
anyway, which I managed to muddle through with the
help of a kindly professor whose grading curve was
especially generous.)
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INSTINCT and the SUBCONSCIOUS MIND... is going to take over
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (1937 – )
“Acting is just a process of relaxation, actually. Knowing the text
so well and trusting that the instinct and the subconscious mind,
whatever you want to call it, is going to take over.”
The Remains of the Day
MacBeth
The Silence of the Lambs
War and Peace
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come in with an OPEN MIND
Hypnotic Suggestion—Can You Take It?
by Karen Hand, BCH, CI
There is no need to make hypnosis complicated. Despite what stage hypnotists
would like the audience to believe, there’s nothing very magical or mysterious about
hypnotic suggestion. Anything can potentially be hypnosis. Everyone can and does
accept suggestion. And all hypnosis is self-hypnosis.
So, are you willing to accept suggestions from your clients? Oh the things your
clients will teach you…if you will just let them!
I recently received a call from a man who wondered if I could do in reverse what he
saw a stage hypnotist do in a show. The client wanted to be able to eat and enjoy fish.
He witnessed the stage hypnotist change the taste buds of the show participants from
enjoying a lollipop, to thinking the lollipop tasted like poop. And he wondered if I
could change his taste buds from being revolted by fish to thinking it actually tasted
good.
Sure! Why not?
After all, the client had already told me he believed in “the magic” of Hypnosis.
He’d witnessed it with his own eyes. He told me he had a desire to not only eat fish…
but to like it. And as I remained curious, he also told me that when he was a child,
his mother “forced” him to eat fish sticks on Friday every year during Lent. We
scheduled the appointment for the first opening in my calendar.
I don’t use a videotaped pre-talk because every single client is different. Some of
them want to know the “science” behind the magic. Some of them want to be “fixed”.
Some of them even want to prove that it’s not their fault that they’re in a certain
situation because “even hypnosis won’t work on them!” The pre-talk is the place
where the client suggests to me exactly what I can do to make the session a success!
I request that my clients come in with an open mind…so I give them the same
respect. I greet them with a curious open mind to find out what led them to their
current belief pattern. Some of the hypnosis begins right there as I’m discovering
how they arrived at their pattern of thinking and at the same time, in questioning,
opening their eyes to ingrained thinking/self talk that may no longer be valid or
useful.
In this case, I asked the client about being “forced” to eat fish sticks as a child and
he backed off from that original description. He said his mom didn’t “force” him to
eat the fish, but the kids in his family ate what mom put on the table or they went
hungry. He volunteered that he had no animosity toward his mom; he just couldn’t
put enough ketchup or tartar sauce on the fish to stand the taste.
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INSIGHT with how WONDERFUL IT IS to MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS
He also told me that his wife’s best friend is an
excellent cook and has tried several different
preparations trying to get him to like fish. But, he said,
he starts worrying about the taste as soon as he puts in
his fork and flakes the fish away. He said he has never
been able to swallow the friend’s preparations. He’s
tried but ends up spitting it out in the sink unable to
choke it down.
Although he also admitted that he was once out
walking his dog when a neighbor was grilling fish
and offered him a bite of BBQ salmon. I asked how it
was presented, i.e. in a paper cup like a grocery store
sample or on a plate or on a fork? He said the neighbor
pulled off a piece with the cooking fork; my client
took it in his fingers,
popped it into his
mouth, and actually
enjoyed it!
So what did the client
tell me in that valuable
short encounter?
Even though he used
the word “forced” in
reference to fish, he
admitted there was no
actual force, just the
inherent helplessness
of the situation. He
didn’t like it much
better when his wife’s
well-meaning friend offered fish dinners with the
expectation that he eat it and like it because that was
the main course for the evening. Yet, he could quite
comfortably eat (a rather fishy) fish if it was offered
and he chose to take it! We broke down a few of his
long-held beliefs right there! And I knew exactly how
to proceed.
He likes stage hypnosis, so in the pre-talk I used
a “convincer”. Had him clasp his hands, make a
“V” with his pointer fingers and I suggested he had
magnets at the tips of his fingers. The harder he
tried to keep them apart, the stronger the pull of the
magnets. As soon as his fingertips touched, I said,
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“See, you can easily be hypnotized.” I then explained
that just as he believed “the harder he tried to keep his
fingers apart the stronger the pull became“ he also had
allowed himself to believe that the harder he tried to
like fish, the worse the thought of the taste became.
I asked if he was ready for hypnosis to change that
and when he said “yes” I suggested he move to the
recliner. Just as he had been “teaching” me how to
work with his beliefs, the instruction to “sit here and
fill out a form”, the finger magnets suggestibility test,
and then my direction to move to a different chair
for hypnosis were all ways of “teaching” him how to
follow my suggestions.
Now, if I had pre-arranged a number of sessions or if
I had pulled a direct
suggestion script to
use, I might not have
been open to use the
tricks/techniques I
found in my bag as the
session progressed.
I used a fairly quick
induction, locking his
eyes shut and relaxing
his mind with some
counting (convincer/
deepener). As the
session progressed
I told him I’d count
from 3 to 1 and
he’d go right back to the table where he ate fish as
a little boy (regression) and I let him revivify the
uncomfortable lunch. I then instructed the kid to sit
back while his “grown up” self came into the picture
and had a little chat with the boy (Informed Child
Technique).
I suggested the grown up to tell the little boy exactly
what he needed to know about how great it is to be
an adult who can freely make his own decisions
concerning what to eat. And to explain to the little
boy that now as a grown up man, he’s decided to eat
fish for health reasons and so he can enjoy a good fish
restaurant with his wife.
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clients have the MAGIC DEEP WITHIN THEMSELVES
I had him come back to present time and then
reinforced the new insight with how wonderful it is to
make your own decisions and act on them because you
want to (Ego Strengthening) and how easy it is to act
on our own decisions. The patter included his goal that
everything except steak tastes like chicken (his words
from the pre-talk). “People grill up snake and say it
tastes like chicken. BBQ Salmon is as tasty as BBQ
chicken, alligator…tastes like chicken…frogs legs…
taste exactly like chicken…and fish…tastes just like
chicken!”
Curiously watching and listening with an open mind
to what my client wanted, and what limiting beliefs
stood in his way of getting it, made the hypnosis easy.
My client had already had an experience to convince
him that taste buds can be changed by hypnosis. In
the pre-talk he had hypnosis to show he could indeed
be hypnotized (magnets in his fingers) and a couple
of quick techniques of regression and informed child,
then some belief re-patterning addressed specifically
to the taste buds…and he was on his way to enjoying
a fish dinner!
Post hypnotic suggestion included instructions to
easily make his own decisions about when and what to
order and that fish would easily taste just like chicken!
Not all issues can be solved in one hour-long session.
In fact, some times the client actually expects to make
a change over several sessions or a period of time.
Often the issues are deep enough that much hypnotic
exploration must be done before the beliefs can be
changed. But the most important thing to remember
is: The clients have the magic deep within themselves.
It’s the job of the hypnotist to remain open minded
and to learn from the client exactly what is needed
and how long it might take to help effect the change
as efficiently as possible.
One-hour later he left my office with a CD of the
hypnosis session for reinforcement and a request to
email when he ate his first meal of fish.
Later that evening I received a text message. My client
said he couldn’t wait to tell me…that he’d just finished
dinner with his wife where he’d ordered grilled tilapia
and it was fine! In fact, “it sort of tasted like chicken!!”
Within a week, I had calls from five new clients who’d
been referred by the fish guy!
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based upon his deep and abiding FAITH in the MYSTERY OF LIFE
Vision Quest of the Arapahoe
by Edward S. Curtis (1868 – 1952)
The power of the supernatural was sought by the Arapahoe in a manner
universal among the Indians—namely, by fasting in lonely places. In this
phase of life, they differed from the majority of the Plains tribes in that the
fast was commonly not undertaken at the age of puberty, but after maturity
had been reached. The conception of sexual knowledge as a bar to
communication with the supernatural powers, so frequently encountered,
is entirely foreign to Arapahoe thought.
Men fasted, and had visions, even after passing middle age. To the faster,
“if the powers pitied him” there appeared there the spirit of some animal in
human form, whence it was called, as also by the Piegan, “unreal person”.
The peculiarities of its dress and adornment were to be carefully noted by
the faster and adopted as his own for use on ceremonial or other important
occasions.
When the spirit animal sang, the faster listened attentively, so that he might use the same songs to secure the aid
of this helper. When it directed him to gather leaves, roots, bark earth, which were to be used for healing mind
and body, the faster listened well, and remembered. Finally, when the spirit resolved itself into an animal form,
and disappeared, the vision quest was complete. The period of fasting varied from a day to seven days, with four
days and four nights as the norm.
After awakening from his trance, the faster returned home. As soon as possible, he obtained the things demanded
of his vision. These constituted the contents of his medicine bag, which was, as a rule, the skin, or a part of it,
of the animal spirit with whom he had had communion. Since the supernatural being of the vision became the
faster’s tutelary spirit, men fasted not once, but many times, in the hope of obtaining many spirit helpers. But
medicine power was not only acquired through fasting; it was also inherited or purchased.
In addition to the medicine bags, which were made by direct command of the
spirits, there were also objects that, casually obtained, worked “sympathetic
magic”. Some of these were true fetishes; that is, objects seemingly endowed
with life and capable of exerting supernatural influence. However, many
were talismans, which, though not held to be conscious entities, did possess
some power—if imagined, of their own. Thus, a man cherished the hoof of an
antelope that his horse might win the race; or he kept a special bullet so that
the guns of his enemies might miss their mark; or he had a sacred stone so
that his body might be impenetrable to missiles. In any case, it is clear that the
Arapahoe’s spiritual belief system was as complex as it was simply based upon
his deep and abiding faith in the mystery of life.
—from Prayer to the Great Mystery: The Uncollected Writings and Photography of Edward S. Curtis,
(St. Martin’s Press, 1995) by Gerald Hausman, photography edited by Bob Kapoun.
Edward S. Curtis committed much of his life to creating a monumental 20-volume anthropological series entitled
The North American Indian. His arresting sepia-tinted portraits of the peoples of Native America are today
widely reproduced, although Curtis died in virtual obscurity years before a 1970s revival of interest in his work
had elevated him to international fame.
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any BELIEF is only ONE ANGLE by which to PERCEIVE REALITY
At the Crossroads of Belief
by Joseph Mancini, PhD
With a sigh and a shrug of her shoulders, she gazed down at her hands, her right
index finger tracing circles on one of her jeans-clad thighs. Slouched in the
overstuffed chair opposite my own, she suddenly jerked her head up and said. “But
I’ve tried everything, and I still can’t find the perfect man for me…he just doesn’t
exist!” As she looked right at me, her eyes, imploring me for help, were filled with
fear, sadness, anger, despair, and hope.
What I was seeing and hearing in front of me was not unusual in my hypnotherapy
practice. Heather* was typical of most individuals who came to me, desperate to
understand how they could create change in their lives. Certainly, I, myself, was not
immune to the same quandary, but I had learned some truths about working through
obstacles in order to move ahead.
In the last few years, many people, by watching The Secret and/or by reading books
on manifestation and the Law of Attraction and/or by listening to speakers on the
topic, have discovered keys to bring about some desired change. Most writers agree
that one key is setting an intention about what you seek; another key is “revving-up”
the intention with emotion; and the final key is actually accepting what you asked
for. A process that is simple…until it is not. Throughout the manifestation process,
trouble arises when the beliefs that are often hidden beneath our desires/intentions
intersect at a crossroads and create cross purposes, a subject not often discussed in
depth. Before I can explain these conflicts of beliefs, I must first clarify what a belief
is and is not.
The Nature of Beliefs
So, what are beliefs? They are interpretations, translations, and assessments of
Reality, but are not Reality Itself. Because of the nature of our usual perceptual
ability, which comprises the five senses, no perception/perspective/interpretation/
translation/ assessment, even if it is positive and furthers our agenda, can capture
the whole of Reality, which is infinitely multifaceted, frustrating any attempts to
encompass it. Thus any belief is only one angle by which to perceive Reality. While
that angle or vantage point is valid as far as it goes—that is, it does indeed capture
some aspect of Reality—nevertheless, it inevitably distorts what it captures since
what it records is only part of a whole it cannot ascertain.
Think here about the conundrum of several blind men who meet an elephant for the
first time: one, touching the elephant’s trunk, declares it to be snake-like. Another,
touching its huge ear, argues that the creature is shaped like an enormous wing.
Still another, touching one of its massive legs, insists that his compatriots are fools
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many of us do not actually SEE most of our BELIEFS
in not perceiving that the animal has an affinity with
trees. Each man’s physical blindness is, however,
less important than its psychological counterpart;
for each is blind to the fact that his version of the
reality, while seemingly valid in its limited scope,
does not encompass the whole. As a result, each man
inadvertently creates a misrepresentation of both
the part and the whole, believing the part to be the
whole; and each, if he believes the stakes are high
enough, might actually fight to the death to defend his
perception, believing it is the Truth, rather than only
an imprecise and limited aspect of It.
Like the blind men, many of us do not actually see
most of our beliefs or acknowledge them as such.
Think about when you could not find your car keys,
only to notice, finally, that they were in one of your
hands under the package you were also holding. Or
remember the last time you were looking all over
your desk for a particular envelope that you ultimately
found right in front of you. Or what about your glasses
that, strangely enough, were on top of your head the
entire time you were frantically searching for them.
Why couldn’t you notice these items? The answer is
that your limiting beliefs about where they could be
literally blinded you to the “obvious” whereabouts of
these artifacts. For instance, you might have believed
that you left your keys somewhere in one of the places
you looked for them—in no way could you believe
you were holding them in virtually plain sight. As
for the envelope, well, you believed, knew without
a doubt, that the envelope was the brown, 9” X 11”
type. As you scanned your workplace with this belief,
this template of perception, the white, business-size
envelope right in front of you did not fit this template
and so was literally not seen. And those glasses—
well, you never, ever place them on the top of your
head; and thus that location isn’t part of the search,
even though part of your scalp is actually feeling
the pressure from the clinging temples. Such beliefs
actually keep us from seeing all that is before us,
including the very existence of the beliefs as such. In
the examples above, it never occurs to you that you are
searching for things through a limiting belief, one that
filters out what does not fit its parameters. You simply
know that you are open to everything around you—to
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think otherwise is just plain crazy…uh huh!
Moreover, we very often do not recognize any one
belief as an interpretation of reality because each
one is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because the belief
allows us to perceive only that which it focuses on,
what it focuses on validates the belief as the Truth,
rather than just a perspective on the Truth. You see
what you believe, and then believe what you see. With
its subjective, inadequate spotlight, the belief does
not illuminate any data that would disconfirm its
validity as the Truth. So the young lady in my office
complaining about not finding “the perfect man” is
actually telling her truth; for her limiting beliefs—
about what such a man would be like or how able
she is to attract him—never allow her to see him,
even if he were to sit beside her on a park bench. Her
reality comprises only that which her limiting beliefs
allow her to perceive. Like one of the blind men
adamant about his conception of the elephant, she is,
in effect, trapped in that portion of Reality framed
by her beliefs. And thus her beliefs are so constantly
reinforced/validated that she would be thoroughly
shocked to discover that Reality is quite different from
what she thought It was.
Ontological Shock and Disconfirmed
Beliefs
In fact, the shock might be so great that she
refuses, momentarily or permanently, to accept
the disconfirmation. In such a case, to accept that
Reality is so substantially dissimilar from what she
has held as the Truth would necessitate a complete
reconfiguration, a change of identity, of both self
and the world. Other people, when faced with an
even greater disconfirmation, might fear losing their
sanity if what they deem sane is identified by an
authoritative other as a limiting belief. In Passport
to the Cosmos, one of two books he wrote on alien
encounters and abductions, John E. Mack, M.D, the
late Harvard psychiatrist, uses the term “ontological
shock” to describe the experience that many abductees
go through at the moment when they can no longer
deny that what they have undergone is in some way
real” (p. 52). He goes on to note that “A worldview….
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Heather, who had CAST HERSELF
as the ALL-SUFFERING VICTIM of some OUTSIDE FORCE
is a source of security and a compass to guide us.
For an individual it holds the psyche together. To
destroy someone’s worldview is virtually to destroy
that person….People who present ideas that seriously
challenge a worldview are punished—by death for
heresy in the past and now by ridicule, debunking, and
efforts to destroy their reputation” (p. 34).
While most of us do not have to face this particular
encounter with a much more complex reality,
nevertheless, such psyche-altering situations happen
quite frequently to us in a vast array of physically,
emotionally, intellectually and spiritually traumatic
situations. Even the normal transitions between
life stages, such as adolescence, mid-life, and old
age, can trigger huge shocks that may or may not
result in positive transformations. The ontological
shock is such because the worldview, often called a
paradigm, is not just one belief, but rather a series
of layered/interlocking beliefs that govern most of
what we experience. Thus, these intertwined beliefs
are mutually reinforcing and create a seemingly
impenetrable thicket or matrix, which is fiercely
defended. No wonder some of my hypnotherapy
clients react with a degree of hostility to my efforts to
show them that their limiting beliefs about identity and
Reality frustrate their getting what they say they want.
Such was the case with Heather, who had cast herself
as the all-suffering victim of some outside force that
refused to bring her what she consciously, seriously
thought was her greatest desire. Even after I actively,
empathically listened to her account of innumerable
strategies she had employed to seek out her beloved,
she reacted with narrowed eyes, slightly clenched fists
and even an air of condescension to my wondering if
she was missing something in her analysis. For hadn’t
she just provided me with unassailable proof that what
she said she wanted was actually what she wanted?
The Multi-Dimensional Self: “Parts-ofMe” vs. “I”
What I had next to do was to explain, gently, the
notion of the multi-dimensional self, the idea that
the self is not unitary, but rather a gathering of
many aspects that sometimes function in unison and
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sometimes not. Using common examples—from her
trying to decide what type of ice cream she wants
today to choosing what educational institution she
wants to attend—I demonstrated to Heather how all
of us constantly make choices between one wish,
inclination, or desire and at least one other. The
fact that we have to choose so often between two
or more directions strongly suggests that there are
competing yearnings and therefore competing parts
of the psyche, each of which has its own structure
of beliefs. Unfortunately, when Heather (or anyone
else) tends to speak with “I” as the subject of her
sentences, she fosters the illusion that she is univocal
and that, therefore, there could be no inner conflict.
When I asked her to speak instead with “part-of-me”
as the subject, she at first resisted and then complied,
sensing that that construction was more accurate. She
reluctantly came to understand that there might be
other inner perspectives not totally in alignment with
that part she labeled “I.”
To illustrate more concretely what I was suggesting to
her, I told her the story of a young man who came to
me many years ago when I was a traditional therapist.
A vibrant, good-looking man of 32, Jerry* had been
divorced about a year and a half before he came to
see me. He was managing fairly well as a single
father of two boys, 8 and 10, though sometimes felt
overwhelmed. What Jerry was not managing well
was his love life. Feeling ready to begin dating again,
he described himself as “quite horny,” but could not
find anyone with whom to begin a relationship. Just
after his divorce was final, in order to help himself get
grounded and focused, Jerry committed to a church
which he really enjoyed, except for one thing: there
was a prohibition on pre-marital sex. A conundrum of
the highest order, to say the least!
As I listened, I wondered what this conflict of
yearnings and the beliefs that sustained them would
bring to him. A week later Jerry announced that he
had met an incredibly beautiful woman—a picture
he showed me of her underlined that fact—who
was very sexy and wanting to make love to him. He
might have succumbed to her charms, except for
one problem; she belonged to the same church that
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these BELIEFS are NOT DEEPLY HIDDEN in the SUBCONSCIOUS
frowned on premarital dalliances! After a while, the
sexual/spiritual tension was too great, and they split
up. A couple of weeks later Jerry proclaimed that he
had met another woman, who was nearly as attractive
as the first woman, who was ready to have sex, and
who did not belong to that church. Once again he
might have chosen sex over his religious affiliation,
but—you guessed it!—another problem arose when
she disclosed to him that she was a single mother of
three boys. The thought of managing five boys was
more than overwhelming, and Jerry said goodbye to
her also.
Had all of these occurrences not been so painful to
Jerry, I would have shared my amusement with him.
What happened to him was a perfect illustration of the
Law of Attraction: you get what you focus on. Since
he focused on both celibacy and sexual attraction,
he received in his experience with each woman a
combination of both desires/beliefs.
This un-integrated, unresolved combination of
conflicting wishes/beliefs caused Jerry much anguish;
he felt victimized, extremely frustrated and overrun
by something he could not understand. But, with
some gentle prompting from me, he soon began to
discern his competing needs and beliefs; still, we both
sensed something else lying beneath this conflict of
desires. As we turned our focus to how he felt about
his divorce, it was not long before Jerry realized
that he had felt so blown away by his wife’s betrayal
in having an affair for several years that he made a
half-conscious decision not to get close to another
woman again, fearing a repetition of the infidelity.
Hence the conflict between sex and celibacy served
Jerry’s underlying belief that he should not get deeply
involved with a woman again. When we explored
further his near-phobia of intimacy, we found still
more global, limiting and obstructing beliefs, such
as the “fact” that all women (including his mother)
betray men, the “fact” that all women (like his other
girlfriends) use sex for control, and the “fact” that all
men (including his father and uncle) eventually fall
victim to women’s machinations. Though I do not
recall if we checked for the influence of beliefs he
may have imported from one or more past lives, they
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would certainly be another source of relevant, limiting
beliefs, such as the idea that the world is not a safe
place.
Despite his initial bewilderment, once he became
more open, Jerry saw that it was relatively easy to
find those conflicting beliefs that prevented him from
getting what he consciously said he wanted. As Jane
Roberts’ Seth repeatedly says in his dictated books,
for the most part, these beliefs are not deeply hidden
in the subconscious, but are instead mostly conscious
and relatively easy to access if we learn to step back,
change focus and have the courage to ask what inner
perspective may be getting in the way of our getting
what we say we want. However, such access will not
seem easy if we refuse to believe that opposing beliefs
exist—how can they exist if we believe the self is
univocal? Operating from the belief that the self has
one voice, Jerry, at the outset, did not even look for a
competing belief/self.
Nor are we likely to see these beliefs if they are selfreinforcing (as explained above) or if we see through
them as though they were glasses. Those of us who
wear glasses often forget we have them on, even if
they are tinted sunglasses! All glasses distort the
world we see, either to allow us to perceive something
we would not otherwise see as with prescription
lenses; or to appear “cool” or to hide; or to protect our
eyes from sunlight; or to give a “color,” tone, mood to
what we observe. In each case, the distortion serves
a purpose just as all beliefs serve purposes that seem
positive until they are not. Even when the distortions
that are beliefs serve a useful purpose, problems
inevitably arise when we forget we are deliberately
distorting reality or seeing only one aspect of it. What
we need is the reminder that the right side mirror on
most vehicles provides. Inscribed on the mirror itself
is the caution: “Objects are closer than they appear.”
In order to provide the driver with a greater field of
vision, the mirror is shaped to show objects farther
away than they are; but, to prevent an accident, the
mirror reminds us that the useful distortion is still a
distortion.
So, in summary, we often do not notice those beliefs
that obstruct our getting what we say we want because:
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If you DO NOT LIKE YOUR EXPERIENCE, then LOOK WITHIN yourself and CHANGE IT
1) We say that what we perceive is reality and not just
a perspective on reality; 2) We see only what the belief
allows us to see, and thus it is self-reinforcing and
blinds us to disconfirming data; 3) Beliefs interlock
with one another and become woven into our identity,
which we do not want to change; 4) Many of us tend to
think of the self as one-dimensional, instead of multifaceted and thus use “I” when “part of me” is often
a more accurate subject of many sentences we say
about ourselves; 5) Many of us are sure that, if there
are, indeed, competing beliefs, they are beyond reach
in the deep subconscious; 6) Even when we are aware
that beliefs may distort Reality, we usually eventually
forget that fact.
designed and generated by us. To hedge like this is
to disempower ourselves in many ways, including
limiting our ability to see all the other obstacles
listed above that get in the way of what we say we
want. Sometimes we show our hedging in the way
we discuss how our intentions operate. For instance,
a short while ago, a beloved soul companion said
something to me that I have heard often from others:
“What if what we put out there is not what is supposed
to happen? Then what happens?” Implied in this
sentence construction, whether the speaker intended
it or not, is the notion that there is something like God
or the Soul, that ultimately “calls the shots.” In one of
Jane Roberts’ ESP classes in the ‘70s, Seth said:
We Create Our Own Reality (Even Our
Not Getting What We Say We Want)
You form the reality that you know, not esoterically,
not symbolically, and not philosophically. Some great
over soul doesn’t form it for you- you cannot put the
burden there, either. You have in the past, collectively
and individually, blamed a god or a fate for the nature
of your personal realities – those aspects, indeed that
you did not like.
The biggest obstacle to getting what we say we
want is, however, not knowing or not being willing
to know (and function from) the fact that we create
our own reality. Seth has said that this fact is one
of three statements he has made that is not in any
way distorted by Jane Roberts’ channeling, and
is, therefore, not really a belief, but rather a true
reflection of All That Is. Seth calls it a “primary”
or “basic” reality, one operative in every system of
reality/consciousness. Whether we open to this fact
consciously or not, we still create every bit of what we
experience, even our not getting what we say we want.
At every moment, we walk into the materialization of
our thoughts, beliefs and emotions, whether they are
in alignment with each other or not, and explore them,
consciously or not, from the inside. Becoming fully
aware of this truth enables us to be totally conscious
creators of our worlds. To accept the fact that we
create our own reality with no exceptions is deeply
empowering; it allows us immediately to understand
that, notwithstanding what we consciously intend,
what comes to us is always, at the very least, the cocreation of all of our inner selves that are in or not in
alignment with each other.
Yet, even those individuals open to the fact of selfcreation often hedge here or there, thinking and
acting as if some areas of our experience are not
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The personality is given the greatest gift of all; you get
exactly what you want to get. You create from nothing
the experience that is your own. If you do not like your
experience, then look within yourself and change it.
But realize also that you are responsible for your joys
and triumphs, and that the energy to create any of
these realities comes from the inner self. What you do
with it is up to the individual personality.
In saying that the inner self (i.e., the Soul, the Divine
aspect of each of us) provides the personality with a
flow of energy for creation, Seth is declaring that that
flow may have a general direction, but it is ultimately
directed by the personality (with its many parts/egos),
who may even direct the flow against the flow. Thus
the Divine or Soul aspect does not hold the trump
card. And that is so because the personality has free
will! If we did not have free will, our personality
self(ves) would be robotic and learn absolutely nothing
to develop the Soul and contribute to the Divine. The
Divine aspect of who we are needs our personality
self(ves) to be free-will explorers at the edge of what
is known by the Soul; thus, even “detours” from the
main line of development facilitated by the Soul aspect
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A related process is to GO BACK TO THE INTERLIFE
can provide knowledge, including, at the very least,
information about why that route is not entirely useful
to pursue.
In a rough analogy, the Soul is like the voice in my
GPS that offers me the most expeditious route to my
destination, given the time of day, one-way streets, the
traffic situation and other parameters at that particular
moment. (Some GPS systems, like the one on the
Apple iPhone present “equifinality,” giving three
possible routes, each with the same outcome, but with
a different experience, e.g., most scenic route, one
that is quickest, or one that bypasses something.) As
the driver, no matter my reason (including just being
“defiant” as I sometimes am!), I have the freedom to
ignore the GPS voice, which, however, will continue
to offer me new opportunities to reach my goal in the
quickest, least problematic way. Again, any so-called
detour will always provide some new experience even
if it might be relatively more onerous and takes longer
to achieve the goal. The Soul acts in just this way visà-vis the personality, though it does not give up after a
while, as does the GPS voice!
Knowing What We Want: The First
Step to Getting What We Want
Given the information about the nature of beliefs, the
multi-dimensional self, and the fact that we create
our own reality, how do we intentionally bring to us
what we want? The first step, as I noted early in this
post, is to set the intention; but to do that, we have to
know clearly, unequivocally, what we want. And such
knowing is not as easy as some people might think.
For, as I have shown with the case of Jerry, when we
are searching for what we want, often several parts
of us vie for dominance in choosing what is desired.
In fact, if we are not getting what we think we want,
there is no doubt that an inner interplay of conflicting,
obstructing forces is operating.
There are several hypnotic processes that can facilitate
awareness and resolution of this kind of conflict. One
is past-life regression during which the individual’s
subconscious is asked to take the person’s awareness
back to a time when some vow or decision (even
about the degree of ones worthiness or about whether
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ones actions in a prior life can be forgiven) was made
that now, in the present incarnation, if the vow is
accepted by the current personality, inhibits action/
intention in a certain conscious direction. For instance,
an individual who believes he wants to set up a
practice as a psychic recalls a vow never to do so, a
determination made at the end of a lifetime in which
he misused his psychic gifts or was murdered for
speaking of esoteric truths. Or a woman who desires
a career as a gymnast recalls a past life in which, as
a child swinging joyously on tree limbs, she slips and
falls, breaking many bones in her body. In each case,
to bring that part of the individual that is still fearful
or doubtful into alignment with the aspiring part
requires a new perspective, e.g., the individual may
simply acknowledge that circumstances in the present
life are far more advantageous and thus limiting vows
are no longer needed; or may alter the outcome of
the past life to a much more positive, less inhibiting
ending; or may change the fearful part’s role from
anticipating terror to prescribing caution.
A related process is to go back to the Interlife when
plans were being made by the personality with or
without other personalities for the upcoming life.
At least two primary modalities are possible here:
the first is Michael Newton’s Life Between Lives
Hypnotherapy, a thorough, but very long process that
allows the individual in trance to examine not only the
pre-conception contract, but also many other aspects
of the Interlife. A much briefer, though still effective
process developed by David Quigley, the creator
of Alchemical Hypnotherapy, leads the individual
in trance directly to the contract he or she made
with another individual or with God/Higher Self, a
contract that has proved exceedingly burdensome and
inhibiting of progress toward what the individual now
wants. When the contract is with another individual
or small group, the person seeking a change in the
contract needs to “clean up” what caused the contract
to be made in the first place; he or she then does a
replay of the contracting experience more in keeping
with what the person presently wants. The person,
in trance, then communicates the new contract to
the other individual who may or may not accept it;
if the new contract is not accepted, the person who
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all ASPECTS/PARTS/SUBPERSONALITIES must be in ALIGNMENT
desires change will either renegotiate or completely
end the contract. If the contract is made with God or
the Higher Self, the petitioner, in trance, engages that
Entity in a dialogue, hoping to end or at least mitigate
the terms of the contract, especially if most of the
lessons have been learned or if the purpose of the
contract can be served in less painful and inhibiting
ways.
Another hypnotic process to facilitate clear intention
is what NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming)
practitioners do every time they assist an individual
to sumount blocks to achievement: they ask the
subconscious if every part of it agrees to the change.
This is called “checking ecology” (the degree of
integration of parts in the psychic environment) in
such NLP modalities as 6-Step Reframe. A part
that disagrees is summoned to image itself in the
individual’s inner world in a symbolic way that reflects
what/who it is. The part is then asked what its positive
intention is in frustrating the forward movement of the
individual. Always framing the intention as positive
allows the part to feel heard and respected. The
individual is then asked to summon his or her creative
part to help the inhibiting part to accomplish its
intention for the psyche without the present negative
side effects. If the inhibiting part accepts the new way
of accomplishing its goal, the individual then once
again checks the ecology of his inner world of parts
until there are no objections.
Negotiating with inner parts/subpersonalities to
achieve an agreed-upon intention is the overall object
of various other parts therapies, such as Assagioli’s
Psychosynthesis, Gestalt therapy, Hal Stone &
Sidra Winkelman’s Voice Dialogue, and David
Quigley’s Conference Room. Each of these therapies
emphasizes some inner dynamics over others, e.g.,
Gestalt’s focus on Top Dog/Under Dog, Voice
Dialogue’s concentration on the Inner Critic, and
Quigley’s spotlight on the Inner Child. But all of these
modalities agree that the psyche is multi-dimensional
and thus all aspects/parts/subpersonalities must be
in alignment for the person to consciously set an
unequivocal intention for what he or she truly wants.
(Byron Katie’s modality, called “The Work,” while not
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a form of parts therapy, is also useful in questioning
the validity of limiting beliefs, in effect deconstructing
them so that room is left for other, more expansive
beliefs to emerge.)
Emotionalizing What We Want: The
Second Step to Getting What We Want
Once all the parts agree with each other as to what the
intended outcome is to be, that intention requires some
“juice,” which is accomplished by adding emotion to
the mix. No matter how clear the intention, without
our emotionalizing it, the intention loses its power to
materialize. While some individuals might think such
a prerequisite is onerous, they might pause a moment
to reflect on what would happen if this requirement
were not operating: in that case, every thought and
whim, with or without emotion, would be immediately
materialized, creating infinite chaos.
As Seth has said many times in his books, every
thought, no matter how small or insignificant, has
an electromagnetic reality. Thoughts, then, are
“things” of greater or lesser substantiality or energy.
If every thought were amped up and materialized to
the same degree, it would be impossible to have any
meaningful experience on the Earth plane because
of lack of discrimination, prioritization, and overall
organization. When we are outside of this plane, our
creations are instantaneous, but not substantial in
the way manifestations show up on this plane; in the
Other World, then, we are better equipped to deal
with such creations. However, we cannot learn in the
Other World what we can learn here, where creation is
slowed down so we can become much more aware of
and responsible for what we bring into being. Here we
have time to think twice or thrice about our choices;
fortunately, for most of us, wanting to “kill” someone
who has hurt you does not immediately translate
into action as you cool down and understand your
emotions. In a less dramatic scenario, for instance, my
client, Heather, has time to thwart her growing desire
to “swear off” men before she becomes an emotional
hermit.
However, if Heather keeps repeating to herself that
she wants to “swear off” men, then what amounts to a
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she was CONTAINING HER ANGER, concluding that I AM DOWNRIGHT CRAZY
hypnotic auto-suggestion becomes more potent, more
emotionalized through that repetition. Repetition is a
key way to emotionalize and energize, for it produces
a trance, a framework of beliefs, that is self-reinforcing
because of the aforementioned nature of beliefs to
blind one to disconfirming data. In Heather’s case,
her emotionalizing and energizing her limiting beliefs
is mostly unconscious and productive of misery. Yet,
if she was aware of emotionalizing and energizing a
more expansive belief about her possibilities with men,
she would more likely get what she says she wants.
Moreover, if her emotionalizing is accompanied by
her concretely imagining with all of her senses what
she wants (what Neuro-Linguistic Programming calls
“future pacing”) she will truly experience herself as a
conscious co-creator with All That Is.
Still, if we have to add emotion and energy to our
intention, that effort implies that we did not do as
good a job as we could have in seeking the input of all
of our parts about our intended outcome. If all of the
parts had agreed, the emotionalizing and energizing
of the intention would have been automatic because at
least one or more of the parts would amp up intentions.
In doing “parts work,” we often overlook one or more
parts who may be afraid to exercise their powers (for
fear of some retribution), or may be hiding to gain
and exercise power behind the scenes, or are being
repressed by other parts who speak louder and more
insistently.
To rectify this situation, we must go back to any of the
modalities outlined above, e.g., past-life regression,
contract work with others or with God/Higher Self,
Gestalt therapy, Voice Dialogue, NLP ecology work,
Psychosynthesis, or the Conference Room. In parts
therapies, we must ask directly, “Is there anyone here
who objects to giving energy to this intention?” As
when we are asking about the intention itself, parts
may reveal themselves and “speak” through body
sensations (e.g., itches, sharp or dull pain, stomach
rumblings, sudden desire to sneeze or cough, curious
smell) or through images that suddenly surface in the
mind’s eye. We then dialogue with the part, which
may respond with further images, body sensations,
inner voices or automatic writing. Once again,
17
some negotiating needs to take place with the help
of other parts to bring the dissenting part on board.
Occasionally, in doing such dialoguing, a spontaneous
regression to a past life or the past in this life (or even
to the future or the Interlife) may occur as a response
demonstrating the part’s objection. One can also ask
the part directly when it was “born,” when it came into
being a dissenter. For instance, in the case of Jerry,
the part that objects to intimacy with a woman may
have been born in this life, when he saw the effects on
his father of his mother’s infidelity. Or that part may
have been born in response to a past life in which his
female past-life persona was the “other woman” in a
marriage.
For instance, in the case of Jerry, the part that objects
to intimacy with a woman may have been born in
this life, when he saw the effects on his father of his
mother’s infidelity. Or that part may have been born
in response to a past life in which his female past-life
persona was the “other woman” in a marriage.
Receiving What We Want: The Third
and Final Step to Getting What We
Want
So let’s say that your intention is clear and energized,
and you focus on it repeatedly. That should do it,
right? Uh, no, those conditions are not enough for
complete manifestation of your desire. You need to be
open fully to receive what you asked for. Many of us
are not. The adage, “Be careful what you ask for—you
may get it!” is operative here. Whenever I discuss
this part of the manifestation process with clients, I
often get looks of utter shock, of profound disbelief
that I could say something so…stupid! “Why wouldn’t
I want it?” says the typical doubter with annoyed
condescension. When I broached this perspective
with Heather, her narrowed eyes and tight lips told me
she was containing her anger, concluding that I am
downright crazy.
But I am not (at least not in that way!). Yet, I can
understand how Heather could wonder about my
mental stability, given how much time, effort, and
tears she expended to create what she says she wants.
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I reminded her of the PHENOMENON of ONTOLOGICAL SHOCK
When she came down from her haughty perch,
however, I reminded her of the phenomenon of
ontological shock, which I first discussed relative to
ones finding out that the universe is far more complex
than one had thought. Now, in this final phase of
the manifestation process, ontological shock may
emerge once again when some part of the individual
realizes that a great deal may have to change in his or
her environment and in himself or herself–even his/
her identity!–if the manifestation is truly embraced.
For instance, Heather would have to see herself as an
empowered woman instead of as a victim, as someone
honestly open to intimacy instead of someone
pursuing what she is also secretly afraid of because
it is so foreign. We tend to stay with our old, even
painful limiting beliefs because they are frequently
more “comfortable” than the more expansive ones that
nevertheless often seem very strange, if not downright
alien to our usual way of showing up in the world.
Remember what Hamlet said, “Our present fears are
less than horrible imaginings.” Or recall the saying,
“The Devil I know is better than the Devil I don’t
know!”
Unfortunately, many individuals like Heather will not
believe my warning until they have a real chance of
getting what they want. Then, suddenly, they don’t
have the time to receive something new because of
an impending physical relocation for a job, a sudden
illness, or, as in Heather’s situation, the reemergence
18
of an old, but toxic lover. What has really happened is
that still another part of the psyche has been ignored,
not adequately seen or consulted, or downright
repressed. What needs to be heard is that part’s beliefs
about the internal and external changes likely to occur
if the individual gets what she/he says she wants.
Once again, to make contact with the part that
holds off acceptance requires doing some of the
same parts work I outlined for the other two steps
of the manifestation protocol, and/or doing contract
renegotiation, and/or investigating past-life (and
future-life) situations. In doing past-life regression,
for instance, Heather may discover that she is
hesitant in this life to embrace full intimacy because,
in a past-life, her soul-mate may have died soon
after she married him, or because she may have
experienced a conflict between marrying someone
and an opportunity to travel the world experiencing
multiple, very different relationships that made her
feel immensely and exotically desired. Whatever
part is objecting to embracing what the person wants
and receives must be respected and dialogued with if
there is to be total alignment of all the aspects of the
individual.
Only then is the manifestation process complete. Only
then at the crossroads of beliefs is the traffic managed
properly and thus allowed to flow without obstruction.
*Names are changed to protect privacy.
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you have ‘HYPNOTIZED’ YOURSELF
Jane Roberts, in trance, speaks for Seth
“Quite without any inductions you have ‘hypnotized’ yourself
into all the beliefs that you have - this simply means that you
have consciously accepted them, focused upon them, excluded
data to the contrary, narrowed your interests to those
specific points and accordingly activated the unconscious
mechanisms that then materialize these convictions through
physical experience. Formal hypnosis merely brings about an
accelerated version of what goes on all the time.”
—From The Nature of Personal Reality (Prentice-Hall, Inc., © 1974 Jane Roberts),
one of a series of books containing channeled communications from a personality,
an essence, or an intelligence identified as “Seth”, who is credited with originating
the phrase, “You create your own reality.”
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your BRAIN is INFLUENCED by HOW YOU USE IT
The Biology Of What You Feel
by Shelley Stockwell-Nicholas, PhD
Did you ever wonder what makes you think, say and do what you think, say and do?
Ever wonder what makes you feel emotions?
Your biological self!
It recognizes processes, remembers, learns and creates your every behavior.
This same biochemistry decides what you consciously notice and what remains
unconscious. To a hypnotherapist, the conclusion is clear: your body IS your mind!
How this happens is what this is about.
You were born instinctively knowing how to lift your head, roll over or walk. It
was hard-wired into your thoughts and neurology. So was your ability to speak.
Your ear canals, filled with sound amplified amniotic fluid, were so finely tuned
that from birth to four months you could distinguish some 150 sounds that make
up human speech. These miracles came with you as pre-programmed behavioral
instructions. As you evolved and grew, you learned and honed additional behaviors
that dramatically sculpted your molecules, neurons and structural development. Each
biological adjustment in turn affected who you are and what you feel, think, say and
do.
How Your Brain Processes Thought
“Did you ever stop to think and forget to start again?”
Your awesome brain is primarily made of water, fat and protein. No two brains
are the same, and your brain is not the same, moment to moment. Your brain
hemispheres differ in size and distribution of gray and white matter, chemistry and
structure. The very structure of your brain is influenced by how you use it.
Everything you create begins as a conscious or subconscious thought manifested in
your neurology. Every instant, your brain electrochemically alters neurons and their
countless links; puberty, pregnancy, aging, past events and memory cause helpful
structural brain function changes. Your internal and external environment sends a
message to your cells. The cells’ receptors and their ligands then modify according
to the information received and every modification affects your emotions and
physiology. A cell and its modifications influence other cells.
Mind/Body Love Connection
Ever notice how your heart beats rapidly and your breathing changes when you are
excited, angry or in love? Have you observed how your thoughts turn you on or off
sexually? Consider how depression makes you feel physically rotten, super sensitive,
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BACK CONTENTS FWRD
EMOTION is “E-MOTION” or “ENERGY IN MOTION”
or numb, and how happiness makes you free, easy and
more vital.
Emotion is “e-motion” or “energy in motion.” Each
conscious or subconscious emotion is the result of
an intricate biochemical action inside yourself that
then inspires the next thing you feel.
What you think emanates from inside
your bio-computer. So does what you
choose to do. In other words, what you
do and how you feel is biologically
based.
What you see, hear, smell, taste,
feel and intuit is received within a
millisecond and placed into your
memory. This, in turn, affects your
decisions, feelings and imagination,
and colors what next you see, hear,
smell, taste, feel and intuit.
“The first symptoms of poor
blood circulation,” says Dr. H.A.
Parkyn, “appear in your head.” Poor
memory, the inability to concentrate,
sleeplessness, nervousness and
headaches result and then your mental
computer further reduces circulation.
Physical environment affects your
energy. Breathing stale air in a
poorly ventilated room can make
you feel mentally sluggish. Physical
indigestion can cause mental
depression. Conversely, depression
can cause illness and illness can cause
depression. Arthritis-like symptoms,
digestive problems, (gastric ulcers,
irritable bowel syndrome, colitis,
constipation, diarrhea, sinus
problems) headaches (migraines)
difficult breathing (upper respiratory
infections, asthma), heart palpitations,
dizziness, arthritis, fibromyalgia, shingles and
chronic fatigue result from, contribute to and activate
depressing changes in brain chemistry.
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Wisdom Weighs Heavy On The Mind
“The mind, once expanded by a new idea, never
returns to its original size.”
– Oliver Wendell Holmes
The average brain weighs
approximately three pounds, or
51 ounces. You can figure out the
weight of your brain by multiplying
your weight by .01. Most of us lose
about 4% of brain weight per decade.
However, the smarter you are, the
more elaborate the network between
cells, the more your brain weighs.
In a University of California study
of 11 gifted peoples’ brains, Albert
Einstein had four times more
oligodendroglia (glial or brain cells)
than any other and some “childlike”
smoothness not usually seen in adults!
The visual cortex in the brain of
someone with a photographic mind
is twice the thickness of a “regular”
brain.
Neurons (also called brain cells or
nerve cells)
“The number of possible nerve cell
interactions exceeds the number
of particles of matter in the
universe!”
– Richard M. Restak, Neurologist
Neurons transmit billions of messages
per second. These messages allow you
to collect, integrate, send and store
data and enhance or inhibit thoughts,
feelings, behavior and bodily function.
Neurons communicate electrically
and chemically and constantly change
and modify themselves. Neuro-peptide receptors (of
your nucleus-of-barrington) process, filter, switch and
modify sensory input (in-formation)
Dark in color, neurons cluster and appear gray. That’s
where we get the notion of gray matter.
BACK CONTENTS FWRD
Why do you get a CHILL UP YOUR SPINE
To date, science has counted more than one hundred
billion neurons. The quantity is so vast that new
numbers bigger than a zillion like petabytes, exabytes,
yottabytes and zenabytes have been invented. To get
idea of how vast these numbers are; an exabytes
would be all the words ever uttered by everyone who
ever lived!
You were born with twice as many brain cells as you
had at age three. With maturity, neuron loss is more
gradual and as an adult, you have about fifty thousand,
to one hundred thousand (50,000 to 100,000) less then
when you arrived. MSG, drugs or alcohol, can cause
you to lose more than that. But don’t despair, your
brain likes to “clone around” and throughout your life
it can generate new brain cells and bio-chemicals.
A neuron is composed of a central cell body with
branches, called dendrites. Dendrites receive
information aided by receptor “ligands.” Ligands
determine and fingerprint your behavior, physical
activity, mood, and emotion.
Neurons also have long tendrils, called axons.
Axons are thought to communicate by electrically
pulsing and releasing small packets of chemicals
throughout the body. These chemicals are called
“information substances” or “IS.” From the time you
initially formed, your brain produced these chemicalbioelectrical impulses as communication links from
one neuron to another.
Synapses are a sort of telephone line that communicate
and store information. If a synapse is destroyed,
usually the information it stored slips your mind.
Information that neurons send and receive travel long
distances and form complex networks; networks of
brain cells and synapses are called a neural web.
A single neuron can receive more than fifteen
thousand connections from other cells. Over 100
trillion neural connections have been counted; more
than the number of galaxies in the known universe. As
you age, and neuron numbers dwindle, and remaining
neurons send out more dendrites, axons and bio
chemical messengers. As you get older, it’s good to
have connections.
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Hypnotically Soothe Your Neurons
You know how important touch is. Without it a baby
dies. Your skin is highly concentrated with receptors.
Touch and acupuncture activate your touch receptors.
So do verbal suggestions like, “Focus your attention
on your stomach and soothe that place with a pleasant
glow of relaxation.”
Sensory Receptors
Someone gives you a pat on the back and you feel a
rush of pride and confidence. You feel timid about
speaking in front of an audience and you break out
in a cold sweat. Someone you find attractive comes
into the room and you get a flush of excitement
surging through you. How in the world do these things
happen?
Your sensory receptors take and give “in-formation”
to determine how you feel, act and react. And how
you feel, act and react determines the structure and
function of your sensory receptors. How your sensory
receptors take and give “in-formation” also determines
what remains unconscious, and what is moved to
conscious priority.
Why do you get a chill up your spine when you
are surprised, startled or thrilled? Your spinal cord
is loaded with receptors and millions (or perhaps
billions) of neuropeptides in the rows of nerve ganglia.
They instantly receive and return your brain messages.
These amazing sensory receptors aren’t only in your
brain; your solar plexus and the ends of your organs
(where you see, hear, taste, smell and touch) also sport
the highest concentration of them.
Receptors are on the surface of your cells and act like
little satellite dishes. Just as your eyes and ears scan
and sense, receptors scan or sense the right chemical
messenger (neurotransmitters, hormones and tropic
factors) that swim up to them. When the perfect
chemical messenger “key” fits into its special keyhole
they bind. This binding adds energy to the receptor
molecule causing it to fidget, wriggle, wiggle, shimmy,
bend and purr as it dances and modifies back and forth
between two or three favorite shapes or arrangements.
BACK CONTENTS FWRD
Every PHYSICAL CHANGE creates an EMOTIONAL CHANGE
Cybernetic Bio-Feedback
Five Ligands To Know & Love
Structure Influences function and function influences
structure.
Ligand messenger molecules come in five chemical
groups
Emotions and body responses are the same. Jumping
when startled or instantly “chilling out” when you
hear good news is almost instantaneous feedback.
Yogis control heart rate and blood flow with thoughts;
so do you. But to do it consciously, you need to
learn to control your thoughts first. Every physical
change creates an emotional change and every
emotional change creates a physical change. Receptors
interactively give and receive messages with the brain
and other receptors.
1. Peptides, Neuropeptides And PolypeptideS
The Sex Life Of Your Cells
Stockwell’s Ode To a True Living Ligand
Shape shifter, activator; you command my show
You direct the course of cells; you tell them
where to go.
You can cause a merger or split up any cell.
You control my channels when I’m not
feeling well.
You can tell a phosphate to show up or take
a hike.
You can keep me humming or destroy me if
you like.
You are the one who reinvents each molecule
and tissue
You command my vital life; I really want to
kiss you.
The chemical key that turns on your receptors is
called the ligand. The word comes from the Latin
ligare meaning, “that which binds.” Ligands are
molecules on the surface of a protein. They enter
and tickle the molecule to rearrange until, SNAP! It
opens information into the cell and dramatically shape
shifts changes within itself. The entire life of your
cells is determined by the receptors and ligands upon
it. If a cell was acomputer, the receptor would be the
keyboard and the ligand would be the fingers that get
things going.
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“Peptides are the sheet music containing the
notes, phrases and rhythms that allow your
orchestra (the body) to play like an integrated
entity. The music that results in the tone or
feeling that you subjectively experience as
emotions.”
-Candace Pert, Neuropharmacologist
Biofeedback, yoga and hypnosis, breathing rapidly
or holding your breath cause your brain’s naturally
occurring painkilling peptide opiate endorphins to
disperse throughout your cerebrospinal fluid.
Peptides act upon brain receptors to pep you up and
represent 95% of all ligands. The Scottish research
team, who isolated the ligend for opium produced
within the body, called it an enkaphalin (Greek
for “from the head”). An American research team
renamed it “endorphin.” Endorphines/enkaphalins are
a great example of a peptide.
Peptides like endorphins can be made in the brain
or by white blood cells. Interferon is a peptide made
by blood that releases mood altering endorphins as
well as ACTH, a stress hormone once thought only
to be made by the pituitary gland. Neuropeptides
can alter blood flow from one part of the body to
another. Polypeptides are larger still yet still smaller
than proteins. Usually comprised of 200 or more
amino acids, they protect your nerve endings with
swelling if you are injured. That is why a hypnotic
suggestion, “Let your body’s chemical messengers,
your polypeptides, subside so that the tissue remains
in its normal state as you heal” is very effective.
Angiotensin, both a hormone and peptide, mediates
thirst. Even if you are well-watered, apply a drop of it
to the receptors of your lungs or kidney and within ten
seconds you’ll crave water and your whole system will
work together to conserve water. Immediately, your
lungs exhale less water vapor and your kidneys hold
back urine.
BACK CONTENTS FWRD
ANCIENT PEOPLE honored the MIND/BODY/ENVIRONMENT CONNECTION
2. Neurotransmitters
These small units generally carry information
across the synapses or gaps between neurons.
Neurotransmitters are simple amino acids,
acetylcholine, norepinephrine, dopamine, histamine,
glycine, GABA, and seratonin.
3. Proteins
A cell’s behavior; respiration, digestion, excretion and
movement are coordinated by proteins.
Like an orchestra proteins play your song of life.4.
Hormones and steroids
4. Steroids
Steroids start out as cholesterol and transform into the
sex hormones testosterone, progesterone and estrogen,
and steroid hormones like cortisol, which is secreted
by the outer layer of the adrenal glands when you are
under stress.
5. Factors
Science is still deciding how this factors in.
The Psychosomatic Illusion
What’s love got to do with it?
Ancient people honored the mind/body/environment
connection. Chinese medical and indigenous traditions
still correlate organs and illness with specific mental/
emotional states. The idea is to return one to holistic
balance. Western medical doctors ask about symptoms
and then prescribe drugs. Using mind to understand
body is generally labeled “unscientific” and mind
affecting body “psychosomatic.” Psyche means the
mind or soul, and soma, means body. “The brain and
body are separate entities” is a most prevalent and, in
my opinion, peculiar paradigm.
How did this happen?
Blame it on 17th century, Frenchman, philosopher
and highly touted “father of modern medicine”,
Rene Descartes. He’s the fellow who wrote: “I think
therefore I am”. Descartes wanted to dissect dead
human bodies. To get the powerful Pope to agree,
he had to make this deal: “Anything to do with
the soul, mind or emotions, I leave to the clergy. I
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will only claim the realm of the body”. Because of
this, the medical Cartesian Construct regarded the
body as physical matter, and the mind (or spirit) as
immaterial... two distinct, separate and unrelated
substances. Your body is a mechanical, reactive
machine; a predictable mass of matter and energy.
“Thoughts and behavior are just hardwired reflexes
caused by electrical stimulation across synapses,”
“pathogens cause disease,” and “either your illness can
be physically determined or it’s all in your head” said
that antiquated paradigm. To understand a human all
you had to do is take one apart and study its physical
components.
Also in the seventeenth century, the “father of modern
science,” Sir Isaac Newton, said the universe too is a
“matter” machine. His “Newtonian construct” said
matter is real and all that really mattered.
The New Paradigm
In the 1920’s Dr. Walter Cannon, a physiology
professor at Harvard University coined the phrase
“homeostasis” from the Greek word “homoios”
meaning “similar” and “stasis” meaning “position.”
His studies revealed a relationship between emotions
and perceptions and the physical fight, flight, fright
response. A new paradigm was emerging: the brain
is hooked up to the body and the body is hooked up
to the brain! About the same time, Hans Selye noted
that animals under stress had weakened immune
responses. These ideas led to the modern science we
call psycho-neuro immunology, which studies the
inter-relationship of mind, and body wellness.
Biology Is Big Business
Pharmaceutical manufacturers, with their wellcontrolled medical industry, have been happy to keep
the old “body-machine” attitude. “If you hurt, take
this pill then come back next month so we can sell you
the perfect drug or implant the perfectly engineered
mechanical part or gene and make you as good as
new” is their message.
Genes separated from a living organism can be legally
patented by the US Patent Office. Of the thirty-to-forty
thousand genes isolated by the multi-billion-dollar
BACK CONTENTS FWRD
We do have a
NATURAL “ANIMAL MAGNETISM”
congress funded genome projects, twenty thousand
genes (and related molecules) are now patented.
The idea is that if you own the gene and drugs that
influence that gene, you can introduce it into the
body to generate the right instructions to the protein
receptors.
Pull Down Your Genes Theory
“When a gene product is needed, a signal from its
environment, not an emergent property of the gene
itself, activates expression of that gene.”
– H.F. Nijhout, BioEssayist
Your brain is the control center for your body, right?
So what happens if we remove your brain from
your body?
You’d die of course.
Genetic theory implies that DNA and genes in the
cell nucleus, are the control central of your emotion/
thought. So what happens if we remove the nucleus
(de-nucleate) the DNA and genes from a cell?
No, it doesn’t die…it lives.
How can that be?
Genes are not the master controller of your cell!
If you remove receptors from your cell, the cell
dies. Are receptors the control center of your mind/
body; not genes? And where do the receptors get
their information? They get their information from
the environment (your interior environment and the
environment of the everything else in the universe.)
And armed with these environmental signals, the
receptors’ regulatory proteins control the expression
of the genes. All genes are controlled by signals from
the environment via receptors. Receptors alter genes,
not the other way around. It is the proteins’ receptors
that turn genes on and off. Cancer may correlate to a
specific gene but a specific gene does not cause it. So
much for the genetic determination theory.
Proteomics
Proteins are the orchestra that plays your song of
life. A cell is only alive because protein pathways
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regulate and integrate its function. Proteins
structure and move all the cells in your body and
coordinate their behavior; respiration, digestion,
excretion and movement. They control the firing
of neurotransmitters that allow you to think, your
muscles to move, they switch your genes on and off
and bind your DNA.
Marc Wilkins of Australia coined the word
“proteome” at a scientific conference in Italy in 1994
to describe “all proteins expressed by genome, cell or
tissue.” Proteins are composed of some 20 different
amino acids (as apposed to just 4 building blocks of
the DNA of your genes). And we are clueless as to
their astronomical numbers. At this time, there is no
simple way to identify, or characterize them. The
“proteome project” is now attempting this feat. June
of 2000 to October of 2001 more than $700 million
poured into “proteomics” companies from venture
capitalists and IPO’s.
The primary structure of protein looks like a “pop-it”
bead necklace. Each bead contains twenty different
amino acids in specific sequences. These beads, along
with electromagnetic charges, determine its shape.
The charged molecules resemble magnets! Mesmer
was right! We do have a natural “animal magnetism.”
Dr Mark George, Neurologist at London Hospital
confirms that magnets applied at first about two inches
above the left ear (making the thumb jerk) and, then
moved forward three inches of so along the skull to
the frontal cortex, helps depressed folks sleep better,
cry less and eat more.
Thousands of times a second, charged proteins bind to
molecules and other proteins and alter their electrical
charge distribution as their bead-like “backbones”
adapt with specific movement. When the bond is
severed, a protein usually re-expresses itself back to
its original shape and configuration.
Glycomics
In October of 2001, the U.S. National Institute of
Health (NIH) awarded a five-year, $34-million “glue”
grant to a 54-member Consortium for Functional
Glycomics to identify carbohydrates (simple and
complex sugars) that are known to combine with
BACK CONTENTS FWRD
you DON’T have to TAKE A DRUG to GET HIGH
proteins and fats on cell surfaces and “influence”
cell-to-cell communication. Next to bring in the big
bucks bid will most likely be a study to categorize
fats (lipids).
Emotional Molecules
In the 1970’s, neuro-biology student, Candace Pert
was laid up in a hospital bed enjoying regular shots
of Talwin (a morphine derivative). She so liked the
opiate’s “wonderful feeling of being deeply nourished
and satisfied” she considered taking the drug with her
when she was discharged from the hospital. Though
she resisted that urge, her intense, physical and
emotional experience fascinated her. She wasn’t alone
in her intrigue. Hippies and scientists wanted to know
why heroin, marijuana, Librium and PCP (angel dust)
elicited such radical emotional changes.
Candace wanted to identify the biochemical ligand
behind her feel good reaction to drugs. A ligand she
surmised, only binds with a receptor that is perfect
for it. This is called receptor specificity. A Valium
receptor ligand would then only attach to a Valium
or Valium-like peptide. An opiate receptor ligand,
would then only attach to the perfect opiate group,
like endorphins, morphine or heroine. The thesis;
opium excites a specific ligand that binds to a
receptor and changes the neuron.
She knew that when opium enters the body, it
generates a ligand that binds to a receptor for only a
brief time before it exits as urine. How could Candace
identify such a small unit that comes and goes so
quickly? British scientist, W.D.M. Patton’s “pingpong” theory gave her the solution. His approach
explained how two similar drugs bind with the same
receptor: one drug, the agonist, enters the receptor
and creates cell changes, while the other drug, the
antagonist, blocks the receptor by occupying it. The
magnitude of a drug reaction is proportional to how
many times a drug hits (or pings) the receptor, and
therefore remains on the receptor.
This idea gave her more time to observe the process.
She knew that a few injected milligrams of the drug
Naloxone reversed heroin overdose effects, so she
26
used Naloxone, (labeled with a radioactive isotope)
to act as the antagonist to bump up the heroin from
the receptor. And on October 25, 1972, the brilliant
Candace Pert measured a cell’s opiate receptor ligand,
in a test tube! This put opium receptors into the realm
of science for the first time. Pert’s book, “Molecules of
Emotions” tells of personal challenges in trapping the
morphine molecule on its receptor. It is now known
that you don’t have to take a drug to get high. Your
brain naturally manufactures its own endogenous,
(from within) morphine. How and why we do this goes
back to how we receive and interpret energetic input
from the inside and from the vast universe.
Dr. Shelley’s Conclusions
Here’s what we know about the biochemistry of what
you think say and do:
1. Everything you create begins as a conscious or
subconscious thought manifested in your neurology.
2. There is a direct relationship between emotional
states and the physical body. A physical change
creates an emotional change and an emotional
change creates a physical change.
3. Neurons and their receptors create billions of
messages per second that allow you to collect,
integrate, send and store data and enhance or inhibit
thoughts, feelings, behavior and bodily function.
4. Environment and your reaction to it, creates your
biological actions and reactions.
5. Survival requires effective and accurate receiving
and interpreting environmental signals.
6. Homeostasis and wellness reflect your bio-energy
attunement to resonate rapidly and efficiently on the
molecular and environmental level.
7. How your receptors take and give “in-formation”
determines what remains unconscious, and what is
moved to conscious priority.
Shelley Stockwell-Nicholas PhD, President of the International Hypnosis
Federation, may be reached at [email protected] or at her website
www.hypnosisfederation.com
BACK CONTENTS FWRD
resulted in the BLOCKING OUT of all DISTRACTIONS and NEGATIVE INFLUENCES
How the Real “Rocky” Trained for a Fight
(From The Super Mental Training Book, Copyright © 1990, 2009 by Robert K. Stevenson)
Rocky Marciano, the great undefeated heavyweight boxing champion
from 1952 to 1956, scored a record 49 straight victories in his division.
In training for a fight Marciano went into a form of isolation, which
resulted in the blocking out of all distractions and negative influences.
Comments by Rocky’s opponents or others that might have unnerved
him or created self-doubt in his mind never made it to his eyes or
ears. Meanwhile, Marciano injected a positive element into his
mental preparation; throughout training camp he used visualization,
a close cousin to self-hypnosis. He constantly pictured in his mind:
1) his opponent; and 2) the tactics he needed to employ to defeat the
other boxer. This intense use of visualization during training led
to Marciano’s focus of attention, come fight time, being fixated on
one thing only — winning. Rocky described his pre-fight mental
preparation procedure this way:
“The last month before a fight I don’t even write a letter. The last
ten days I see no mail and get no telephone calls and meet no new
acquaintances. The week before the fight I’m not allowed to shake
Rocky Marciano (1923-1969)
hands or go for a ride in a car. Nobody can get into the kitchen, and
no new foods are introduced. Even the conversation is watched. By that I mean that the fellas keep it pleasant,
with not too much fight talk. My opponent’s name is never mentioned, and I don’t read the write-ups because
somebody might write one idea that might stick in my mind... For two or three months, then, every minute of
my life is planned for one purpose. I don’t even think about what I’m going to do the day after the fight, because
that’s going to be like an adventure and exciting. Everything on my part and on the part of everybody else in
camp is directed toward one goal — to lick the other man. I see him in front of me when I’m punching the bag.
When I run on the road I’ve got him in my mind, and always I’m working on certain moves and punches that I
hope will lick him... When you work and work like that with only one purpose in mind for weeks on end there’s
only one thing you want to do — and that’s get out there and try it in a fight.”*
*Rocky Marciano, “How It Feels to Be Champ,” The Fireside Book of Boxing, (New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1961), p. 275.
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BACK CONTENTS FWRD
he told us we could ‘HEAR’ OUR FEET RELAXING!
Hypnosis in Market Research
by Jeff Bibik, CH
Recently I was selected to participate in a focus group study concerning flea and tick
products. Lucky me! I have been in the database of a market research company for
some time and am often sent questionnaires to see if I qualify for various studies.
Often I know based on early questions that I will not qualify, but having had dogs for
a long time I knew I could be a part of this group. It’s a legitimate company and you
are paid for your participation. I’ve done this several times and it’s always been fun.
What I did not expect was the qualifying question of “Have you ever been
hypnotized?” as this survey group was to be lead by a clinical hypnotist. “In fact, I
have been hypnotized!” I said, and I’d be happy to participate. Though they did ask
my profession, I am still primarily a performing magician, and that is what I told
them. I was selected for the group and scheduled for the event.
When I arrived 6 of us were led into a conference room with a large wall of double
mirrors, behind which, we were told, was a video camera and some personnel. The
survey leader introduced himself and went around asking who had been hypnotized
before. Of the 6, I was the only one. He explained what hypnosis is, and likened it to
daydreaming. He also mentioned highway hypnosis and a little on time distortion. He
assured us it was nothing like what is depicted on TV.
The session started with him asking us to look up at the ceiling at a green piece of
paper he had taped up. Thus began our eye fatigue. It was especially uncomfortable
for me because I was sitting almost underneath the paper. He then began a
progressive relaxation. He made sure to touch on the major senses, telling us we
could feel, see ourselves, and even hear ourselves relaxing. I thought it was a little
funny when he told us we could ‘hear’ our feet relaxing! He then started to count
down from 100 to deepen us, and I was thinking “Oh no, how far is this going to go?’
but he told us that after 96 the numbers would drop away, and they did, along with
this technique.
Continuing with the deepening, he did the chalkboard visualization, having us draw
an imaginary circle, putting in an A, erasing it, putting in a B, etc. This he had us
do on our own until we were all of the way through the alphabet. The next exercise
was to go back in time to last Thanksgiving, and describe it to him. This is where it
became interesting, as he really focused on our adjectives and what they meant to us.
When I said it was a happy time, he would ask “what does happy mean?” If someone
said it was fun, “what does fun mean?” He really focused on this technique, not
exactly challenging our statements, but he kept asking what does this or that mean
for the rest of the 2¼ hour session. You’d think the guy was stupid, he didn’t know
the meaning of ‘fun’!
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BACK CONTENTS FWRD
HYPNOSIS is becoming MORE ACCEPTED in the MAINSTREAM
Finally he got around to the more standard market research questions, all of which involved our experiences
with fleas, flea medications, dogs and veterinarians. What do you take your dog in for, how often, does the vet
recommend flea medications, our feelings (in detail please…) about out vets, how they compare to our family
physicians. Again, there were some challenges to us, why did you buy the fleas meds at the pet store instead of the
vet?” It did get a bit annoying when he started asking why the pet store and not the vet, at one point asking “don’t
you care about your dog?”
It felt as if the session was going pretty long, and I was not as deeply hypnotized at the end as I was for the first
hour or so. Soon he awakened us, found out if we were awake, and dismissed us. We all collected $125.00 for the
survey, and were on our separate ways.
At the conclusion I had one question for him. I asked if he was a market researcher who learned hypnosis or a
hypnotist that does market research. He was coy and said it was a little of both. I don’t think he was from the
Chicago area; he alluded to being from elsewhere, though I did not ask where he was from.
We were told that in hypnosis we would have clearer and more honest answers, and though that is true, it seemed
to me many of the answers would have been the same in a waking state. As in hypnosis, the people who are
willing to participate in these surveys know that truthful answers are expected, even if they seem negative. There
is useful information in the negative as well.
The best part about the experience was realizing that hypnosis is becoming more accepted in the main stream,
and that the power of hypnosis is being recognized as the valuable tool that it is. Indeed, this is a new outlet for
our talents as hypnotists, and I encourage it!
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BACK CONTENTS FWRD
“...I carry with me a
CERTAINTY of the CONTINUITY OF EXISTENCE.”
Mike Nesmith’s Comments on the
Passing of Davy Jones
(As posted on Facebook ®, March 1, 2012)
The Monkees circa 1968
Top – LR: Peter Tork, Mickey Dolenz
Bttm _ LR: Davy Jones, Mike Nesmith
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“While it is jarring, and sometimes seems unjust,
or strange, this transition we call dying and death is
a constant in the mortal experience that we know
almost nothing about. I am of the mind that it is
a transition and I carry with me a certainty of the
continuity of existence. While I don’t exactly know
what happens in these times, there is an ongoing sense
of life that reaches in my mind out far beyond the near
horizons of mortality and into the reaches of infinity.
That David has stepped beyond my view causes me
the sadness that it does many of you. I will miss him,
but I won’t abandon him to mortality. I will think of
him as existing within the animating life that insures
existence. I will think of him and his family with that
gentle regard in spite of all the contrary appearances
on the mortal plane. David’s spirit and soul live well in
my heart, among all the lovely people, who remember
with me the good times, and the healing times, that
were created for so many, including us. I have fond
memories. I wish him safe travels.”
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He had SUFFERED a DEVASTATING STROKE to the PONS
The ‘Wild’ Universe of James A. Hall
Fans of classic TV shows
may recall a chilling
episode of Alfred
Hitchcock Presents entitled
“Breakdown”. It starred
Joseph Cotten as a man
injured in a traffic accident
that leaves him so paralyzed
he seems lifeless. When
help arrives, they think
the man is dead, yet he is
actually still conscious but
unable to move or speak.
This is what happened to
Joseph Cotton as lead character in “Breakdown”, originally aired during the
first season (1955) of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
Dr. James A. Hall (19342013), an eminent Dallas
psychiatrist and Jungian analyst, except his paralysis wasn’t due to an accident.
On April 11, 1991, James flew to Akron for a meeting. During the flight he had
vomited for no apparent reason. Then, driving to his hotel from the airport, he began
to feel ill again and pulled off the road. Moments later, there came a loud ringing in
his ears, he saw blinding flashes of light, and he fell helplessly forward against the
steering wheel of his car. He had suffered a devastating stroke to the pons, an area of
the brain directly above the spinal column that serves as a bridge between body and
brain. Without the ability to communicate, he was now “locked-in”.
Persons with Locked-In Syndrome have no muscle tone and appear corpse-like.
They are cold to the touch, their facial expression fixed. All voluntary muscles are
paralyzed and they are without bodily feeling, sensation or stimuli except for hearing
and limited eye movement; however, in the absence of other brain damage, they
continue to function mentally. James, though he could still hear and see to some
extent, was now, in effect, a mind without a body.
And a brilliant mind it was. James had been a major figure in the Jungian Society
in the United States. He was the author and co-author of seven important books
in Jungian psychology, hypnosis and related subjects, as well as writing 20
articles and chapters on psychiatry, psychotherapy and the Jungian perspective on
parapsychology. He was a Founding Member and past President of the Isthmus
Institute, a non-profit public foundation dedicated to exploring convergences of
31
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working with James to SEE IF HE WAS STILL ‘THERE’
science and religion. He had taught at two medical
schools. He ran a highly successful psychiatric
practice that catered to Dallas society and was a
bon vivant, enjoying all the pleasures and privileges
afforded by his prestigious position and substantial
income. At parties, he loved to show off his skill as an
amateur magician.
But James’ personal life was a shocking contrast to
his professional image. He was addicted to alcohol.
A womanizer, he was eventually sued for sexual
misconduct by two of his paramours, and was, for
a time, suspended from practice in disgrace. His
long-suffering wife Suzanne—whom he had once
“bumped” from a trip to Europe in favor of taking
another woman—began divorce proceedings and he
became estranged from his children. Nevertheless,
those who were closest to James, including Suzanne,
came together to provide help in his hour of need.
Locked In To Life by James A. Hall and Hatton Powell,
PhD. (Tea Road Press, 2002) chronicles the amazing
story of James’ rehabilitation following the stroke, and
his spiritual awakening and redemption. No one can
read this book without asking himself/herself basic
questions about what it means to be a human being.
James’ co-author,
Patton “Pat” Howell,
a longtime friend and
colleague, was a forensic
psychophysiobiologist—
a specialist in brain
waves and the mind/
body interface. He and
psychiatrist Bill Moore
became the architects of
James’s rehabilitation.
Without them, he would
have been terminated.
“Mind is simply another word for brain,” one of
James’ doctors had said during a group conference
held at his bedside. “And where there are no
interactions with the body, there is no mind.” Pat and
Bill set out to prove this bit of conventional wisdom
wrong. In the process they discovered that James’
intellect was as formidable as ever.
32
James, Bill and Pat knew each other intimately. They
would meet in James’ spacious home in Dallas every
month to discuss topics of professional interest. One
could say the three were “blood brothers”. As Bill
once put it, they had established within themselves
“a virtual interior reality of each other’s minds”.
And so Pat, Bill and Suzanne immediately began
working with James to see if he was still ‘there’, using
alphabetical flash cards taped to a board. The idea was
that if James still had cognitive function, and some
control over his eye muscles, he could spell out words
by focusing on individual letters and blinking.
The breakthrough came after many days when James
spelled out what seemed at first like a gibberish
phrase: THE MOST AT. Knowing James so well,
Bill soon realized what had happened. James wanted
the word THERMOSTAT, but had dropped the letter
“R”. Bill concluded that he had noticed Pat sweating
profusely as he held up the spell board inches away
from the thermostat, and he simply wanted the heat
in the stuffy hospital room to be turned down. That
would be just like James! Now, it was clear that he still
had cognitive function. But this must be proved to the
hospital authorities, and time was running out: James’
living will specified that no heroic measures be taken
in the event that he was incapacitated. Pat and Bill
decided to work with James to get one sentence down
letter perfect. It was “I want to live!”
But they weren’t able to get in much practice. The
following day a therapist came into James’ hospital
room with the ominous news that he was to make
an official, and final determination about James’
cognitive function.
The therapist set up a plastic spell board in front of
James as Pat, Bill, Suzanne and two interns stood
nearby. At Bill’s suggestion, the therapist asked, ‘Do
you want to live?’ (Patton assisted with a pointer, as
the letters on the spell board were close together in
contrast to the flash card arrangement they had been
using.)
James’ eyes were floating in his head as he
struggled to blink on individual letters in the
correct sequence. Slowly, after many shifts and
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MIND has OWN ENERGY. false starts, his amazing answer to the therapist
began to form: “I ... IDEMAND ... IDEMANDTO
... IDEMANDTOLIVE ...” And finally,
“IDEMANDTOLIVEASSHOLE.”
The therapist stood in stunned silence; the two
interns laughed. James’ mind was intact. And he was
evidently the same feisty, cocky guy he had always
been. (Incredibly, a special version of the Wechsler
Intelligence Test administered weeks later showed that
his I.Q. remained at 135—the same as it was when he
was a medical student.)
Over the ensuing days and weeks, James continually
improved his ability to communicate via the spell
board. One of the most revealing things he wrote
was a description of his internal dialogue during that
period:
I’ve been thinking 24 hours a day since stroke.
Afraid not to. Mind unraveled when didn’t. Didn’t
see much at first but could soon hear everything.
When U said something I would reply, no one
heard. Repeating conversations to myself kept
mind together.
Here is what I was thinking from the time of the
stroke. Silence. Blackness. Not breathing. Touch.
Nothing to touch. Up or down. Nothing to feel.
Where are legs, hands. Nothing to feel. No pain.
Senses gone. Dead. Hear sounds with no source
can see. Not clearly. Ceiling. Slides past. Fuzzy.
Can’t focus. Whiteness. Is this death?
No! Don’t want to die. Can’t believe this. I’m
somewhere between life and death... Go back to
when my colleagues met in my hospital room to
plan how to murder me. What I heard in different
pontifications was: Kill! Kill! Tell them they’re
wrong, Pat, before it’s too late. Don’t let them kill
me! God! Don’t let them kill me. Pat, find that
stupid paper I wrote and destroy it. (Editor’s note:
A reference to his living will.)
Mind has own energy. Nothing but pure
consciousness. Have all the time there is. Have
absolutely nothing else to do.
33
Nothing but PURE CONSCIOUSNESS.
James understood that since the mind never sleeps, he
had gained round-the-clock, self-conscious control of
a mind now cut off from what he called his “lost and
paralyzed body”. In other words, he was consciously
aware even while dreaming. This is known to science
as lucid dreaming, a condition of particular interest
to him, since dream analysis plays a central role in
Jungian psychology. Soon, James embarked on a
manic campaign of continuous spell boarding that was
driving everybody crazy. Inconvenient though it was
for his trio of helpers, who could blame him?
Fortunately, Western Human Sciences Institute was
generous enough to provide James with a custommade computer that featured an eye-sensitive
keyboard. This meant that he was free to write
without assistance whenever he felt like it—with
perfect spelling and punctuation—and he could even
hold ‘conversations’ with others. Sometime later,
he regained partial use of one finger which enabled
him to peck out communications manually. He also
developed the capacity to count up to 50 in a hushed
whisper.
Moved from the hospital and rehabilitation center
back to his home, James began to build a new life for
himself. He read the Vatican II documents and became
a Catholic although he disagreed with many of the
dogmas. He did this because he felt the Church “ had
wrestled honestly with basic questions”. Amazingly,
he also continued his work in Jungian therapy by
co-founding and leading a dream analysis group that
met in his home on Monday nights. An article in the
New York Times (His Life is His Mind, published on
June 18, 1996) examined aspects of his new life and
outlook:
There is a steady stream of visitors to his home
in the prosperous Inwood section of Dallas—
academics, theologians, psychotherapists, former
patients and many people who met him after his
stroke. To some, he is living proof that the soul
survives the body. Some want to know what it
was like to die. He has been asked the question so
many times, he prints the answer from a file: ‘’I
was drowning. A crouching male figure on shore
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James experienced SEVEN VISIONS
watched me. I have thought a lot about this figure.
Was it the higher self? Was it God? In any case, I
asked it if I could live. It did not answer, nor move,
but somehow I knew—by telepathy?—that I was
destined to live 30 more years.’’ (Ed note: He lived
20+ years)
But the burden of caring for him fell mainly to
Suzanne. Now and then her anger about his infidelities
and emotional abuse poured out in a flood of
bitterness. “God has punished him in ways I never
could,’’ she said, as quoted in the NY Times article.
But although she had spent her whole life nurturing
him, ultimately she was able to free herself of his
domination. It was when she came to the realization
that while she would always love him (as he loved
her), she no longer needed him. From that point on,
she continued to be his caretaker—but on her own
terms and with a new sense of freedom to come and
go as she pleased. James himself willingly—almost
cheerfully—admitted that now their roles were
reversed, and he was completely at her mercy. “Think
of it Suzy,” he wrote. “This is too good an opportunity
to throw away by just walking out. Think of the power
you have at last. Live it up!”
One morning, Suzanne noticed that James was
strangely unresponsive, refusing to open his eyes
when she entered his room. She was not sure if he
even knew she was there. Looking at his computer
screen, she found an essay he had written that night
entitled “A Testament”. Was it a suicide note? No,
it couldn’t be. He sometimes talked about suicide,
but after all James really had no way to actually kill
himself—except by force of will, perhaps—since he
could not move and was being fed through a tube.
Suzanne printed a document and began to read it.
James wrote of how he had yearned to have a body, of
how such thoughts made him selfish, of how he knew
he could never get his body’s emotions back.
(Editor’s note: James believed emotions are, “a body’s way of thinking”.)
“...I’m through with all that,” he wrote. “I propose to
stop thinking rationally and put myself into the hands
of God and the spirit. If I can’t have body’s
34
emotions, perhaps I can have spiritual emotion, the
universal love of God and compassion of God in my
thoughts. And perhaps have rational thought where it’s
appropriate as well. But now I have to give up abstract
thinking and put myself in the hands of God...
“...Do you think that someone like me could be
redeemed? I’m going to bet my life on redemption...
I will go just as far as I can without losing the option
of coming back. In case I shouldn’t come back I want
to leave you with a simple conviction I have acquired.
I have become a being of pure consciousness and
still live as myself—a human being. I am convinced
that in the future there will be souls like me—beings
with only tenuous connections to physical life.
Does the word ‘angel’ describe humankind’s age
old understanding of soul? I have begun to sense
something. If I get back I will bring something
beautiful...”
The essay concluded with this sentence: “Mine is not
a story about physical tragedy but about the ability of
the mind to exist without the body.”
Toward morning, James had returned. He wrote of his
experience, “I was spiritually far, far away... but I’m at
peace—no more fake depressions, no more fears about
my mind dissolving. I have had a transcendent vision
of the reality of life. ...My ambivalent fear of losing
my body had decreased. I realized that my orientation
had subtly changed from a nostalgic yearning for my
idealized physical childhood toward an expectation
of what the future might bring in the wild mental
universe.”
In a later essay, he wrote: “Freud considered himself
to have been an adventurer of the mind. Jung, my
patron, thought of his work as an adventure to strange
and exotic mindscapes. We think of these two men
as the great figures of science. They changed the way
the world thinks. Yet adventurers into the dimension
of mind, free of body, may change the world far more
than they.”
Over time, James experienced seven visions, all
of which are listed and defined in an appendix to
Locked In To Life. I reference them here, each with
a descriptive line excerpted from the text:
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ACHIEVED a kind of PERSONAL RECONCILIATION
#1 – The Beginning. At the split second of the beginning of the universe was intangible thought;
#2 – A Great Thought. Everything that happened at the beginning is still with us;
#3 – Immortal Elemental Matter. Black Holes deteriorate and return energy to the universe;
#4 – The Relationships of Molecular Matter. Movement of molecules comes from a higher command
of ideas;
#5 – Molecular Matter – Life is made up of patterns of thought written on DNA;
#6 – Human Beings – “I”, the essential human being, is thought;
#7 – A Return to the Beginning of the Universe – Human beings are on the threshold of a communion
with the beginning of Great Thought.
James and Suzanne ultimately achieved a kind of personal reconciliation. James continued to write books, articles
and poetry and to be a consultant to the end of his life. He passed away on January 22, 2013, some 22 years after
the stroke, having been predeceased by both Suzanne Hall and Patton Howell. I had a brief exchange of emails
with James a year two before his passing. When I thanked him for all I had learned from his books and articles,
he replied saying, “It is nice to be remembered.”
But how could one ever forget such a man as this?
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18 DIFFERENT FORMS in which WE CAST OTHERS
Personal and Transpersonal Projections
© 2002, Boyd George
by George A. Boyd, MA
When we study the projective mechanism of the unconscious mind, we discover
18 different forms in which we cast others. With each form we find there are
associated desires and emotions. These are shown below:
Level
Order
1
2
Subhuman
Devil
5
6
7
8
9
Monster
Desire to destroy
or murder
Desire to flee
Beast
Desire to control
Centaur
(man-Beast)
Child (infant)
Desire to bring out
the humanness
Desire to teach or
guide
Desire to teach
responsibility
Desire to protect
and control
behavior
Desire for love,
romance or
friendship
Desire for guidance
or a mentor
Older child
Adolescent
Adult
Older Adult
Old Age
10
36
Our Desires
3
4
Human
Other’s Form
Desire to learn
from their wisdom
and to avoid the
deterioration of
aging
Our Associated
Emotions
Hatred
Horror,
revulsion
Prejudice,
or repress
bigotry, anger
superiority
Pity mixed with
fear
Kindness,
playfulness, fun
Sternness,
discipline
Confrontation,
caring
Intimacy,
caring, love,
romance
Deference,
guidanceseeking
Respect,
sadness
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you become READY and WILLING to DESTROY that PERSON who
YOU SEE AS DEMONIC
Level
Order
11
12
13
Supernatural
or
Super-human
Other’s Form
Our Desires
Ghost or spirit
Desire to avoid possession
Angel
Desire to avoid supernatural Fear, awe, love
wrath, desire to behold
supernatural beauty
Desire to avoid being
Fear, trembling
dissolved or torn apart by
supernatural force
Desire to abase oneself, to fall Fear, humility, self-abasement
on the floor in worship
Archangel
Fear, suspicion
15
Archetype or
Divine Form
(Elohim)
Divine Spirit
(Shekinah)
16
Presence of God
Desire to contemplate beauty
Awe, wonder, rapture
Bliss of God
Desire to not leave the
wonderful feeling
Cessation of desire, complete
fulfillment and peace
(Nirvana)
Bliss, peace, union
14
17
18
Peace of God
Desire to submit oneself to
Worship, ecstasy, gratitude
the Divine Will and to receive and thanksgiving
love and healing
Through labeling, and by political, religious and
cultural indoctrination, you come to view certain
people as one of forms 1-10. When political labeling
casts someone as an enemy, it evokes the projective
mechanism of demonization. When cast in this way,
you become ready and willing to destroy that person
who you see as demonic. Demonization is a necessary
precursor to indoctrinating others to fight a war.
Transmogrification, the identification of someone as
a monster, leads to your desire to avoid this person
at all costs. The fear of contracting disease or being
injured by a savage or insane person evokes the desire
to stay far away from him or her. Labeling others with
a contagious, disfiguring disease (e.g., leprosy) or a
severe mental illness (e.g., schizophrenia) evokes this
sense of dread and horror in people.
Viewing others as animals (bestialization) leads to
prejudice and exploitation. When you see them as an
animal, you use others as beasts of burden but deny
them human rights and freedom. You control them
and use them. The institution of slavery cannot exist
without bestializing another person. If they are seen
37
Our Associated Emotions
Complete rest and satiety
as beasts, then you see them as being inferior, not
possessing basic humanity or even souls.
Viewing others in theriomorphic form (part man, part
animal) evokes mixed emotions of pity and fear. You
see the human part, with which you can identify, yet
see a dark, subhuman part. When you look at others
with an addiction, a personality disorder or know
them to be criminals, you sometimes may see them
in this form – containing much that is human, yet
with a deformed or subhuman part that we may fear
or distrust.
Viewing others in different aspects of their humanity
(forms 5-10) draws out different responses in you.
This is not strictly limited by chronological age.
For example, you usually look to an older, more
experienced adult for guidance, but you may also seek
guidance from a skilled prodigy. Pedophiles project
sexual and romantic feelings on young children;
people normally reserve these feelings for those
who are older – who they view as eligible adults.
Sublimation, moreover, may turn a romantic interest
into a platonic friendship or a mentor relationship.
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begin to SEE OTHERS as they ARE and not as YOU MIGHT WISH THEM TO BE
Those who pray and meditate may have experiences
with elements of the higher unconscious within
themselves through inner encounters. However,
sometimes you may glimpse the spiritual nature
of others and idealize them. We often speak of one
whom you love as an angel. People often idealize and
visualize the forms of the higher unconscious in their
spiritual leaders. If you view your spiritual Master’s
radiant form within, he or she may appear like an
angel. If you glimpse the radiance of the Master when
he or she ministers the Light, then you may glimpse
the archangelic form or even the form of the Divine
Spirit in your spiritual leader.
You may see the archetypal form of your spiritual
leader or have a vision or his or her highly advanced
Soul (seeing the presence of God within him or her)
in the experience of darshan. In deep meditation,
you may merge with your own Soul or that of your
spiritual Master (Bliss of God) or, even for a moment,
touch the desireless shores of the Divine Rest (called
Nirvana by Buddhists, Moksha by Hindus).
Skillful manipulation by words, with music or graphic
themes creating an atmosphere of persuasion, can
powerfully influence your attitudes and draw out these
types of projections. Through this subtle sophistry,
politicians cast themselves as saviors (as do cult
leaders). Cruel and abusive men may convince their
paramours that they desire love and romance and wish
to protect and cherish them, when in fact they wish to
control and enslave them.
Meditate on these 18 types of projections.
Identify when you have had these experiences before
in your relationships with others.
Try to determine exactly what evoked the emotions
that you felt (what suggestions or environmental cues)
and what you wanted from that person.
Examine how politicians and religious leaders
try to portray themselves and see what these
characterizations draw out in you.
Cast someone in each of these 18 different forms and
notice how you react to them.
By learning to recognize these personal and
transpersonal projective mechanisms of the mind and
how others can manipulate them, you can gradually
wean yourself from their influence. By doing this,
you can begin to see others as they are and not as you
might wish them to be, and live in reality instead of
fantasy.
Online: http://www.mudrashram.com/personaltranprojections.html.
Reprinted with permission from the author.
The Meditative Rose by Salvador Dali
38
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Do not BELIEVE ANYTHING! Do the WORK YOURSELF!
Rethinking the Inevitability of Aging
by Imants Barušs, PhD
I was just reading Thich Nhat Hahn’s new book Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting
through the Storm. Here is what he says: “I am of the nature to grow old. I cannot
escape growing old. That is the first remembrance: ‘Breathing in, I know I am of
the nature to grow old. Breathing out, I know I can’t escape growing old.’... This
contemplation comes from the sutra in the Anguttara Kikaya III 70–71. Surely I will
have to grow old. This is a truth that is universal and inevitable.”1 So, notice what
Thich Nhat Hahn is doing for us. He reaffirms the morphic field of aging for us;
lodging us more firmly into its grasp. And he helps us get even more stuck by citing
some holy book in case we dare to question such absolute truths as these. Morphic
fields can be thought of as possibly existent templates that structure experience.
When I was still a graduate student in mathematics, my thesis advisor, Professor
Verena Dyson, taught me a couple of graduate courses in advanced logic. I was the
only student in the class and her way of teaching me was to tell me that I was going
to come in and lecture to her for two hours a day, twice a week. In other words, she
was not going to teach me anything. I had to learn it myself and then teach her.
But that was not the end of it. I went to pick up one of the first homework
assignments that I had handed in to her for grading. She gave it back to me and
said “I don’t want to see garbage like this from you ever again!” When I looked at
it, everything I had done was correct. Her problem with my work was that it was
too pedestrian. She insisted that I learn to prove mathematical theorems in a more
conceptually sophisticated manner. I pointed out that I had followed the protocols
used by Michael Arbib and Ernest Manes in a textbook that we were using.2 Her
response was: “I don’t care what they did. You have to get it right!” with an emphasis
on the word “right.” I realized at that point that all bets were off. I could trust
no other mathematician’s work because nobody’s standards were up to Verena’s
standards. I realized that I was going to have to do everything myself even if it meant
reconstructing all of mathematics from first principles. And, of course, since we were
working in mathematical foundations, those first principles were in dispute in the
first place. That was probably the most valuable lesson that I learned from Verena:
Do not believe anything! Do the work yourself! It is this independence of thinking
that has allowed me to cut across the various conventions in academia and to follow
the truth using logic and the results of empirical investigation.
I am also reminded of one of my favourite Zen stories: “The Zen master Mu-nan
sent for his disciple Shoju one day and said, ‘I am an old man now, Shoju, and it is
you who will carry on this teaching. Here is a book that has been handed down for
seven generations from master to master. I have myself added some notes to it that
39
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Padampa Sangyey apparently LIVED FOR 572 YEARS
you will find valuable. Here, keep it with you as a sign
that I have made you my successor.’ Shoju burned it
immediately!”3
So, Thich Nhat Hahn is showing us how mindfulness
practice can help us to come to grips with the
inevitability of aging. And certainly, acceptance of
a situation as it is, is the first necessary step in its
transformation. So now that we have accepted the
presence of this morphic field, can we get out from
underneath it so that it does not bind our actions? In
other words, can we stop from getting older?
First of all, we can simply regard aging as a biological
problem, to be solved through advances in medicine.
This is not as crazy as it sounds. “Scientists are
tackling the almost incredibly complicated story
of the biochemistry of the aging organism. A base
of knowledge concerning the normal cell is being
established that makes it possible to recognize and
analyze the pathological cell. However distant the
goal, we are now at last on the road to a successful
solution of this great problem.”4 This statement might
not surprise you, but you might find it interesting that
this is Warren Weaver, who would go on to develop
the notion of “information,” writing in 1948.
So what do we know 65 years later? Well, for one
thing, we have a much better understanding of the role
of nutrition in the development of chronic diseases.
In his new book Whole, Colin Campbell not only
discusses the benefits of a plant-based diet but the
social factors that have contributed to the concealment
of that knowledge.5 There is also ongoing research
into the biochemical processes associated with aging.
For instance, in experiments being carried out at
Yale University, the SENS Research Foundation
Laboratory, and the Institute of Biotechnology at
Cambridge University, researchers are trying to cleave
crosslinked proteins that lead to hardening of the
arteries. At the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative
Medicine efforts are being made to reconstitute the
thymus gland, which is responsible for the production
of some of our immune cells, and which shrinks
with age.6 Through advances in the understanding
of the biochemistry of aging, nutrition, and so on, I
think that we will continue to live longer and longer
40
until we live indefinitely with the body’s aging
process completely neutralized. I sometimes tell my
students that they could be the first generation to live
indefinitely. And once indefinite life becomes the
norm, that will become the morphic field.
But if we wish to live a long life, we might not
individually have enough time for medicine to
catch up to us. However, we might not need to. By
deliberately moving out from underneath the morphic
field of aging, we might be able to achieve some
benefits. Professor Ellen Langer at Harvard University
conducted what she called “the counterclockwise
study.” In 1979, eight elderly men were taken on a
retreat for one week during which time they had
to live as if it were 1959. A control group of eight
men got to experience the same retreat except that
they reminisced about 1959. The participants in
the experimental group had greater improvements
on joint flexibility, finger length, manual dexterity;
higher IQ; better weight, height, gait, and posture than
the participants in the control group. By pretending
that they were twenty years younger, the bodies of
the elderly men in the experimental group became
functionally younger. There were improvements in the
control group as well, so these changes were on top
of those that these men experienced just as a result of
getting out of the nursing homes in which they were
incarcerated.7 In other words, just imagining that it is
20 years ago can cause physical changes in our bodies.
Our bodies follow what our minds imagine.
Perhaps specific knowledge concerning longevity
already exists. The Buddhist practitioner, Padampa
Sangyey apparently lived for 572 years. Of course, it
could just be that Buddhists cannot count. But what
if it turns out that they can? Sangyey’s longevity has
been attributed to his practice of chu len, the ability
to absorb “universal nutrition” without eating any
food. Apparently there are four main ways of carrying
out this practice: “extracting essential nutrient from
flowers, extracting the essence of stone, taking the sky
as food, and living on purified mercury.”8 He used the
first of those techniques whereby a practitioner takes
a few pills made from flowers each day. In writing of
this practice, the second Dalai Lama warns that only
BACK CONTENTS FWRD
this is a LIVING TRADITION with YOGIS
those who “have renunciation that sees the entirety
of samsara as a pit of fire” should engage in it and
that “this teaching should not be imparted to... the
foolhardy meditators who wish to engage in exotic
austerities merely to achieve fame and the material
benefits that come with it.”9
According to the second Dalai Lama, the benefits
of the “practice of living on mystical essence flower
pills” include the following: “It heals every type
of disease, extends lifespan, and increases bodily
vigor. It restores youth and causes signs of age,
such as wrinkles and white hair, to disappear. It
provides immunity to illness and causes insects and
infections to leave and stay away from one’s body...
[It] increases wisdom, generates a clearer intellect,
and, by freeing one from negative means of livelihood,
makes it easy for profound insight and realization to
be accomplished and the spiritual path traversed. One
will become loved by people, guided by the divinities,
and will achieve every joy and happiness.”10 While
there have not been any scientific studies to examine
these claims, this is a living tradition with yogis
engaging in the ritual of making the flower pills and
with some having apparently ceased to eat ordinary
food and able to subsist solely on the flower pills.
We started with the assumption that aging is
inevitable, but even within a few minutes of thinking
about it critically, we can see that perhaps it is not.
41
Endnotes
1. Hahn, T. N. (2012). Fear: Essential wisdom for getting through the
storm. New York: HarperOne. pp. 30–31
2. Arbib, M. A. & E. G. Manes (1975). Arrows, structures and
functors—The categorical imperative. New York: Academic
Press.
3. Feldman, C. & Kornfield, J. (Eds.) (1991). Stories of the spirit,
stories of the heart: Parables of the spiritual path from around the
world. New York: HarperSanFrancisco. p. 257
4. Weaver, W. (1948). Science and complexity. American Scientist,
36. 536–544. p. 540
5. Campbell, T. C. (2013). Whole: Rethinking the science of
nutrition. Dallas, Texas: BenBella Books.
6. SENS Research Foundation, Annual Report, April 2013. (SENS
Research Foundation, 110 Pioneer Way, Suite J – Mountain
View, CA 94041 – USA)
7. Langer, E. (2009). Counter clockwise: Mindful health and the
power of possibility. New York: Ballentine.
8. Mullin, G. (Ed.) (2006). The Dalai Lamas on tantra. Ithaca, New
York: Snow Lion Publications. p. 319
York: Snow Lion Publications. pp. 326–327
York: Snow Lion Publications. p. 331
Note: This excerpt from “Learning to Forget: Deprogramming
as a Precondition for the Occurrence of Non-Dual States of
Consciousness”, as published in the October 2013 issue of The
Journal of Consciousness (www.JCER.com), has been edited by
the author for reprinting in Hypnology Magazine. You can read
the complete article at http://www.jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/
view/326.
BACK CONTENTS FWRD
they FREEZE in sometimes the most AMAZING POSITIONS
Stage Hypnosis as Talent Show
by Lewis Dark, C.Ht
Pity us poor stage hypnotists: uninformed people avoid looking us in the eye, claim
we are voodoo magicians, accuse us of messing with people’s minds, and otherwise
make it hard for us to arrange good PR and score paying gigs. Meanwhile, some
educated people accuse us of misusing or trivializing a valuable mental-health
technique, if not actually endangering the public.
This is why so much time in a hypnosis stage show is spent simply explaining
the hypnotic facts: It is a natural, if unusual, state of mind. It is learning, not
submission. It is the activation of a person’s less-than-conscious abilities by means of
communication not unlike simple salesmanship. It is infinitely helpful in the fields of
counseling, medicine, psychology, habit control, and simple self-improvement; and it
is such a common aspect of everyday life (akin to daydreaming or viewing television)
that it can be used safely as pure recreation, and observed and experienced for
entertainment.
I repeat the truism that hypnotized subjects, who are definitely not automatons, will
use trance states for their own purposes, in ways that sometimes you can anticipate
and sometimes not, in ways you can sometimes utilize for entertainment and
sometimes not. Sometimes you take the pratfall, sometimes you roll right back up
and make it look like it was all planned.
I watched a colleague of mine perform the famous routine in which the volunteer is
made to forget a number, let’s say it was the number six. With the hypnotist holding
the mike to his face, this volunteer post-hypnotically kept counting his fingers, and
came up with eleven each time, much to his bafflement. Suddenly he grabbed the
hypnotist’s hands, crying out, “Let me count yours!”
It was the best laugh my peer got all evening and it wasn’t in the script.
Sometimes, however, subjects are creative (or become uninhibited) in
embarrassing ways.
I have a routine that is both a talent show and a proof of the genuineness of
hypnosis. The volunteers act out, as a group, the roles I assign them, until I shout
the word “Freeze!” (I have carefully instructed them that “freeze” means to become
unmoving, not to become cold – your subconscious takes language literally, and
not just in hypnosis!) After each of their stints as cowboys, traffic cops, orchestra
conductors, hip-hop DJs, gym-shoe models and the like, they freeze in sometimes
the most amazing positions, difficult for a fully-conscious person to maintain, and
frequently accompanied by the blank, unblinking stare that only people deeply
involved in hypnosis or watching television exhibit.
42
BACK CONTENTS FWRD
Sometimes the HYPNOTIST NEEDS his or her OWN CREATIVE TALENTS
One of the bits in the routine goes as follows: “A big
star that you have a crush on is in the back of the
audience. Get their attention!” The volunteers blow
kisses, give come-hither looks, toss out air-hugs. I
say “Freeze,” and they do. “Now your worst enemy is
in the back of the audience, and their back is turned.
Express yourselves!” I have seen snarls, vicious
expressions, pantomimed shouting and shooting,
imaginary rocks being thrown, and this:
At a rural post-prom, a young man had frozen leaning
forward in his chair, showing his teeth, eyes wide
open, and flipping the bird at the audience. This was
a huge (if unplanned) laugh in itself, and I would
never have deliberately suggested it. I walked over to
him, said to the audience, “We can’t have that, this
is a family show!” and carefully folded the offending
middle finger down into his fist before starting the
next bit. This got even a bigger laugh. He did not move
a muscle while I did this, and never blinked, which
proved just how hypnotized he was.
(The next bit, by the way, is: “They’ve turned around!
Look innocent!”)
43
I have a routine in which I have all the volunteers
experience incredible relaxation, and become so
immune to distraction that they do not react as I lean
them over into each other like dominoes, stack them
atop one another, and lay them across each others’
laps. (The soundtrack for this is Brahm’s “Lullaby,”
to complete the joke.) At this same post-prom, while
I was suggesting the relaxation, a female volunteer
threw her leg onto the back of the boy next to her, who
had bent over face-first into his own lap. Then she
sank back into her chair, making it so that they were
literally “sleeping together.”
I walked over to her and asked the audience: “Does
she like him, perhaps?” I was answered with a chorus
of “No way!” I replied, “We can’t have this, then, it’s
disrespectful!” I picked up the girl’s foot by her toes,
held it up high as if it stank, and let it drop to the
floor. Her leg was utterly limp and without reflex; she
reacted not a whit when her foot landed. This both got
a laugh and again proved up the hypnosis.
Sometimes the hypnotist needs his or her own creative
talents, in a hurry. At another rural post-prom, my
BACK CONTENTS FWRD
STAGE HYPNOSIS as that it DISCOVERS and NURTURES NATURAL TALENTS
subjects were acting out at their enemies, and I
shouted “Freeze!” I spotted a girl at the far end of the
stage who had frozen with her tongue sticking out.
My muses struck me: I ran over to a spot behind her,
touched her on the shoulder, and said: “Just you. When
I say ‘Go!’ you will be a frog, who has just caught a
big, delicious fly. Go!” She gulped, grinned, and got us
both a great laugh. I re-froze her in a more dignified
position.
One of the best justifications for stage hypnosis as that
it discovers and nurtures natural talents. The stage
hypnotist Arthur Ellen was performing a show in Los
Angeles back in the 1950s, and among his volunteers
was a teenaged boy who seemed to be a good subject.
One of Ellen’s routines was a talent show. He asked for
audience suggestions; the boy’s grandmother shouted
out: “Tell him to sing! He’s got a great voice but
terrible stage fright!” When the boy sang, he knocked
everyone’s socks off, including the talent agent who
was in attendance. The boy was signed to a contract
that day; his name was Johnny Mathis.
One of Ellen’s other routines was to turn volunteers
into famous people, and let them act out. At a show
a few years later one of his volunteers proved to be
44
supremely talented at impersonating celebrities. The
man worked as a salesman; after that day he worked
as a professional impressionist and actor in nightclubs
and on television. His name was Frank Gorshin: those
of us who are old enough remember him as a regular
on The Tonight Show, and playing the villainous
Riddler character on the Batman television series.
This talent-show aspect also allows the volunteer
subjects access to inner abilities that may not get
them into show business but might help round out
their lives. At a post-prom in Minnesota I led a
climactic group routine in which my female volunteers
became fashion models, and the male volunteers
became weightlifters. Then I had them switch gender
roles. Then they turned into cheerleaders, statues,
politicians, and rock stars.
There was one good-looking young man who showed
particularly vivid and uninhibited skill at this miming.
After the show I surmised to management that he was
the class clown. I was told: “No, he’s usually so shy
at school!” Looking back., I suppose now that he had
plenty to talk about with his classmates for the rest of
the year.
©2012 Lewis Dark
BACK CONTENTS FWRD
hypnosis and consciousness EXPLORERS
Contributors to this Issue of Hypnology
Fred Kutchins, CH, is a consulting hypnotist and founder of the Braid Institute, an educational forum pertaining
to hypnosis and motivation. For more information, visit www.fredkutchins.com.
Karen Hand, CH, received the Hypnotist of the Year Award at the 2010 Mid-America Hypnosis Conference and
in 2013 she was appointed a member of the Board of Directors of MAHC. .Karen is an NGH Board Certified
Hypnotist and Hypnosis Instructor, NLP Practitioner, and EFT Facilitator. She has helped thousands of clients
make amazing changes in their lives that include greater self esteem and self acceptance; a lasting positive
attitude; release of limiting beliefs or elimination of paralyzing fears. Karen specializes in and teaches 5-PATH®
Hypnotherapy. She also teaches hypnosis certification classes scheduled throughout the year and conducts
ongoing workshops for conferences and small groups. You can reach Karen at 312.315.2100 or through her
website at www.KarenHand.com
Joseph Mancini, Jr., PhD, is a Clinical Hypnotherapist Certified by the American Council of Hypnotist
Examiners (ACHE), the International Hypnosis Association (IHA), and the American Board of Hypnotherapy
(ABH). He is also a Transpersonal Hypnotherapist registered with the National Association of Transpersonal
Hypnotherapists (NATH), a Regression/Past Life Practitioner Certified by the International Association of
Regression Research and Therapies (IARRT), and a Clinical Hypnotherapist Specializing in Alchemical
Hypnotherapy certified by the Alchemy Institute of Hypnosis. He has trained in many other healing modalities as
well and is a national business consultant. Joe received a Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Harvard
University (where he received special recognition for his teaching), a Master’s in Organization Development
(M.S.O.D.) from the American University/National Training Lab, an M.S.W. in Clinical Social Work (with a
4.0 average) from the University of Maryland School of Social Work, and a B.A. with honors in English and
History from Providence College. For further information or to contact him, please visit:
www.lifetransforminghypnotherapy.com
Shelley Stockwell-Nicholas, PhD, is President of the International Hypnosis Federation. She is an award-winning
instructor and the best-selling author of fourteen self-help books, and 35 CDs and DVD courses. Her goal is to
give you the best hands-on instructor’s training personally tailored to your needs and style. She was the host of
the nationally syndicated television show “Backtrack” (“Regressiones” in Spanish) and makes guest appearances
on hundreds of radio and television shows including Phil Donahue, Channel 9 News, Channel 11 News, Mike &
Maty, The Other Side, Strange Universe, Van Praague’s Beyond, The Oxygen Network, and David Letterman.
Dr. Shelley is regularly featured in periodicals like Entrepreneur Magazine, Redbook, USA Today, The Los
Angeles Times, Women First, Women’s Day, and of course, The National Enquirer. For further information
or to contact her, please visit www.hypnosisfederation.com.
Jeff Bibik, CH, is a Certified Master Hypnotist, magician, comedian and author based in Chicago and travelling
the world. For information, please visit http://americasgreatesthypnotist.com.
(continued on next page)
45
BACK CONTENTS FWRD
hypnosis and consciousness EXPLORERS
Contributors to this Issue of Hypnology (cont.)
George A. Boyd, MA, is a meditation teacher, counselor, metavisional reader, lecturer, author and poet who has
been offering a variety of services to the public since 1983. George has studied and practiced meditation since
1965. He is an expert meditation teacher and an innovator in the field of meditation. George developed a system
of integral meditation in 1983 that he has taught to groups and individuals since that time. He was listed in Who’s
Who Among Young American Professionals in 1988 for his work in this field. George holds a BA in Psychology
from UCLA, an MA in Clinical Psychology from California State University, Dominguez Hills and an Alchohol
Drug Counseling Certificate from UCLA Extension. He has additional training in Psychosynthesis, Voice
Dialogue, Focusing, hypnotherapy, and Movement Expression™ dance work. George has many other trainings
and achievements in counseling and is the author of numerous books. For information, write to
[email protected].
Imants Barušs, Bsc, Msc, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at King’s University College at the University of
Western Ontario. He teaches courses in psychology, mostly about consciousness, and has written or co-authored
4 books, 27 papers, and 17 reviews, and given 64 presentations, mostly about fundamental issues concerning
consciousness. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Lewis Dark, C.Ht, has seriously studied hypnotism since the 1970’s, counting among his teachers Larry Garrett
CH, Linda Williamson CHI, Klaus Boettcher, Norma Baretta Ph. D. and Phil Baretta AAMFT. He has performed
as a professional stage hypnotist since 1995, primarily in the Chicago area but also across the Midwest United
States. He is a Certified Hypnotist affiliated with the National Guild of Hypnotists and a member in good
standing of the Association to Advance Ethical Hypnosis (IL Chapter 2). He has lectured to his fellow hypnotists
at the AAEH, the Mid-America Hypnosis Conference, and the Leidecker Institute. He is based in Chicago. Learn
more at his website, www.findyourhypnotist.com.
46
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Hypnology EVENTS
The Sunday Circle
Interested in Hypnosis? You’re Invited!
The Sunday Circle brings together an amazing group
of people who are open to new ideas and are willing
to discuss much of what others just dream of. We
meet on the first Sunday of every month at 1:00 PM
at the Garrett Hypnosis and Wellness Center. We
discuss a variety of topics which may teach us a way
of feeling healthier in life—physically, emotionally
and spiritually. Join us for great interaction with
like minded friends who are here to explore the
possibilities of improving life. There is no charge.
Garrett Hypnosis and Wellness Center
3020 N. Kimball Ave.
Chicago, IL 60618
(773) 395-6100.
www.garrettwellnesscenter.com
AAEH
(Association to Advance Ethical Hypnosis)
Monthly Meeting
When: Second Tuesday of every month
Where: Leaning Tower YMCA,
6300 W. Touhy Ave., 9th Floor,
Niles, IL 60714
Time: 8:00pm
Email: [email protected]
Always a MESMERIZING speaker!
($5.00 donation)
2014 marks the 31st Anniversary of the
Mid-America Hypnosis Conference
Join us October 17th–19th, 2014 and celebrate
years of The Magic of Your Mind
31
Join Us for the Best Hypnosis Learning Event of the Year!
October 17th–19th, 2014 at the Crowne Plaza
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To register, visit www.mid-americaconference.com
or call (847) 451-9303 for registration information
If you would like to join our growing association of Sponsors or to add an Event please contact Fred Kutchins at:
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Hypnology Magazine: Issue 3

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