By the way, the above paragraph is packed with language patterns that do all sorts of things with your brain … now let’s just take one of the simpler patterns … and see if you can spot it. Try the first two words ‘well now’ – this saying has a double meaning. At a conscious level you might take the meaning a certain way … particularly when combined with the follow-on sentence (i.e. Well now, that was a longer break …). What happens t an unconscious level with the second meaning? “Well Now” can also be taken as a command … be well now. As in health.

Some don’t believe that this ambiguous language stuff works as a means of planting suggestions. Yet perhaps that is because the whole story has not been told. It’s not that ‘one phrase’ on its own will make a difference – its about using ambiguity as part of a larger game – in which multiple meanings are held open unconsciously and the one that of those meanings is reinforced consistently. The reinforcement may be done at a level that is not perceived consciously by the person on the receiving end of such an endeavor. And the unconscious meaning that is being reinforced does not have to bear any relation to the ‘meaning’ being communicated consciously.

Confused yet?  Ambiguity is a simple concept … its application as part of a bigger game is an art form in its own right! The bigger game takes time to master … and we can^t even begin to open that up here. Let’s just say that two separate conversations are occurring between two individuals when they are communicating … a conscious one and an unconscious one. This happens all the time. We are responding to and advertising unconsciously all the time. What happens when one can begin to ‘control’ what used to be their unconscious conversation with another individual? Is it even possible? You bet it is!

We’ll explore some of these concepts over some coming posts. In  the meantime — great to be back on-board … happy hypnotic wanderings in 2010.

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I will continue my more regular posts to help you on your journey in learning how to hypnotise in another week or so once I get settled back from my wanderings. You can also look forward to the release of my first eReport on developing profound hypnotic states in the new year.

In the meantime – look after yourself and as always …

Good trip

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Some of the advertisements that you will see being plugged on twitter and other social media sites  promise all sorts of things. Let’s take a look some of the ‘tweets’ and the ‘promises’ that will be yours if you just buy that course or eBook:

• How to hypnotize someone to go to bed with you …
• Secretly hypnotize anyone …
• How to hypnotize girls …
• How to covertly mesmerize anyone …

I’m not going to comment on the validity or otherwise of the materials offered when you click on those links.

But just stop for a moment and ask yourself what the underlying motivation is that these ads are appealing to. In my opinion they are appealing to some form of desire to be able to coerce – period.

That’s a dangerous desire folks. Coercion is illegal in many countries. You can’t tell me that trying to get someone to do something that is against their will isn’t coercion. That’s the implication here if you think about it … if you can’t get you way through normal channels … well, just secretly hypnotise them. Hmmmm.

So, just a gentle warning about your motivations in learning how to hypnotise – be careful if you find these ads appealing, you are treading into an ethical and moral minefield. And let’s not forget the law – you don’t want to end up on the wrong side of that.

(There’s also a question about the validity of the claim of being able to secretly hypnotize anyone – some believe it is possible, some don’t … it’s all a matter of definition of what you believe hypnosis is).

Be careful out there!

The wandering hypnotist

Technorati Tags: ethics, how to hypnotise, hypnosis

The 300 delegates voted to supplement the world church’s Health Ministries department guidelines with a list of questionable treatments and therapies officially “discouraged” by the Adventist Church — among them hypnosis, magnet therapy, untested herbal remedies and pendulum diagnosis.

OK – I draw the line here when a religious institution puts hypnosis in the same sentence as ‘untested herbal remedies and pendulum diagnosis’. Come on folks, there are something like over 10,000 scientific papers in the 20th century alone on hypnosis and its effects. I actually have respect for the health institutions this organization has sponsored – but I believe here that they are responding to superstitious 19th century prescriptions against hypnosis (loosing control to the devil and all that rubbish) rather than the ‘evidence’ based claimed for their selection of treatments in the rest of the article.

Posted via web from The Wandering Hypnotist

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I AM about to have my left leg paralysed, my arm taken over by an alien force and, quite possibly, be made blind. I confess I’m a bit nervous. But also, strangely, I hope it all works.

These insults to my body will not be inflicted with a scalpel, but instead induced using hypnosis. The effects, if they occur, will only be temporary, my hypnotist, David Oakley, reassures me.

It’s all being done in the interest of science. Oakley is an emeritus professor at University College London …

This is definitely worth a read. I’m a little concerned with the validity of ‘only 10% are highly hypnotisable” idea, but other than that it’s great to see this sought of research occurring.

Posted via web from The Wandering Hypnotist

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Children can be taught to use their imagination to tackle frequent bouts of stomach pain, research shows.

A relaxation-type CD, asking children to imagine themselves in scenarios like floating on a cloud led to dramatic improvements in abdominal pain.

The US researchers said the technique worked particularly well in children as they have such fertile imaginations.

It has been estimated that frequent stomach pain with no identifiable cause effects up to one in five children.

The research, published in Pediatrics, follows on from studies showing hypnosis is an effective treatment for a range of conditions known as functional abdominal pain, which includes things like irritable bowel syndrome. – (BBC)

Hypnotherapists have known this for years – science is finally ‘catching up’. I’ve used these same hypnosis techniques on adults as well. The hypnosis bit helps to remove the ‘layers of adult conditioning’ and they can re-access their imagination to help them with pain control.

Posted via web from The Wandering Hypnotist

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Here we go … for a bit of light relief. Don’t be fooled … this really works. I grew up on a farm and we did learn to hypnotise rabbits, chickens and a few other “furries” as part of the natural slaughtering process. But that was years ago in a land far far away! This doesn’t mean of-course that this is the same mechanism at play in human beings .

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New research at the University of Geneva suggests that hypnosis alters neural activity by rerouting some of the usual connections between brain regions. Such neurological detours don’t happen when subjects merely imagine a scenario.

Check out this new article from ScienceNews. Too much information to repeat here but for those of you who think hypnosis is made up … read on!

Posted via web from The Wandering Hypnotist

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Swineshead on Watch with Mothers has made the most interesting observation about the hypnosis gig that that I’ve come across so far and also reflects some of my opinion as well. The TV hypnosis gig was a hoot (I like the performance that Derren puts on) and was a  great example of misdirection and something called ‘presuppositions’ (you’ll learn about those if you ever delve into the world of NLP).

If you have any visibility these days on TV then you must have a Social Media presence … this is where the ‘action’ is and your reputation is on display to the world for discussion.

Happy wanderings

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Too many hypnotherapists out there have been trained that they need to relax their client as part of the hypnosis induction routine. There have been a number of discussions in the last couple of weeks in various online hypnosis forums from newbie hypnotherapists asking questions about clients ‘resisting’ their hypnosis induction. Further investigation suggests that ‘going deeper into trance’ is being resisted because the client fears ‘letting go’.

Now, the thing is you see, that hypnosis does not equate necessarily to a ‘relaxed’ state. If you’ve only been taught a set of hypnosis techniques that rely on ‘letting go’ then you are basically stuck as a hypnotherapist if you get someone who polarity responds to your hypnosis routine.

This is where the quality of the training you took really begins to shine through. If you’ve been given a set of techniques and not the principles then you are already in a less flexible situation as a therapist. If you’ve been taught the belief that you need to ‘relax’ the client to effect a hypnotic state then you are even less flexible.

Take care to learn principles and check out if you can the quality of the training you are getting if you are learning how to hypnotise for therapy purposes.

Happy trips

The Wandering Hypnotist

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