Hiatus

I think I may be taking a hiatus from hypnosis for a while.

I'll be moving out of the country soon and will be busy with making the transition to a new culture, environment and occupation, trying my best to fully experience my new surroundings.

I will probably still be lurking around the Net on various message boards and such, but I probably won't update this blog for a while.

As always, questions and comments are welcome.

BEWARE: Certified Hypnotist

I am now officially a "Certified Hypnotist." Really - I have a certificate that says so and everything.

To date, I have now attended 3 formal NLP/Hypnosis related training seminars:

1) NLP Practitioner Training (Society of NLP)
2) Conversational Persuasion and Influence (California Hypnotherapy)
3) Introduction to Hypnosis: The New Curriculum (Society of Applied Hypnosis)

I've accumulated some more cool experiences and stories. The hypnosis training I recently attended was with Mark Cunningham, a big dog in the hypnosis community. Very cool guy. I like his teaching style, I like his views, I like his attitude. If you are interested in formal hypnosis training, I highly recommend training with Mark. There are also a few other names that come to mind that I hear are very good to train with, but since I have no personal experience training with them, yet, I will not list them.

Funny, I have invested and continue to invest a lot of my time, money, and energy into learning hypnosis and NLP and I don't even have any plans on making a career out of it. A lot of the people I train with are making their living by using hypnosis to help and entertain others every day. How cool is that? To do hypnosis every day (fun), helping people improve their lives (wow) and even entertaining people with stage hypnosis (very fun). Man, now that I actually think about it, I might have to change careers.

Note to self: Post more stories and field reports. Change careers.

Check out all of my new titles (it's like alphabet soup):

CH, Licensed NLP Practitioner, CCNP, BS, SOB

Key:
CH - Certified Hypnotist
Licensed NLP Practitioner - Licensed Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner
CCNP - Cisco Certified Network Professional
BS - Bachelor of Science (or Bull Shit)
SOB (I probably don't need to spell this one out, right?)

My Genius Subconcious Mind

A couple Mondays ago, I went to the LA Sleepwalker meeting in Long Beach. (The Somnambulistic Sleepwalkers is a Hypnosis/NLP practice group.) We practiced the Elman induction that night.

When it was my turn to be hypnotized, after the induction, my partner was saying something about my genius subconscious mind. He talked about walking down some steps and at the bottom of the steps would be a door. On the other side of that door was my genius subconscious mind. When I imagined stepping through that door, I saw a room full of beautiful women. For each trait of my subconscious mind that my partner described, I imagined a different woman in that room (in my mind). Funny, huh?

After a little while, my partner told me to return from that room and close the door and when I was finished closing the door, lift my finger. Once I imagined closing the door, my finger lifted. And I didn't lift it consciously. It was the first time I've experienced any unconscious movement during a formal hypnotic trance, suggested by a hypnotist other than myself. My eyes were closed. I could feel my finger lifting, but it was as if it wasn't my finger. It felt weird. Cool, but weird. I'm glad my partner made that suggestion. The other people that have conducted a formal hypnotic induction while I was the subject didn't suggest anything that convinced me that I was in trance. That convinced me because my finger moved and I didn't try to move it. It was as if it lifted on its own. Well, I guess, my genius subconscious mind did it. That bastard.

Hip knows his is all around us

Hip knows his is all around us. Hip knows his is all around us. Hip knows his is all around us. Have you noticed?

Today's blog entry is just a ramble. I really should catch up on the Field Reports, there're a few more that I want to write about. But today I'd rather just ramble...

As I learn more about NLP and Hypnosis, I begin to notice how bits of both occur naturally all around. I remember when I was back in college, I thought about buying an Infiniti G35 coupe once I could afford it. After I started thinking that, I began to see a lot of G35 coupes everywhere I went. Maybe everyone began to, like me, want to buy a G35 coupe. I can also remember when I first wanted to be really generous to others. It would be nice if everyone began to be like that, too. We'd all help people and everyone would feel better every day. Can you imagine that? Now... I'm not sure if that would happen and, anyways, it probably wasn't more people wanting a G35 coupe, like me, so much as it was just me noticing the existing G35 coupes on the road more often. (Ever had that experience? Not necessarily with G35 coupes, of course.)

Well that's how it seems to be going with hypnosis and NLP. I've begun to notice it all around... While talking to friends, a guy zones out for a few seconds seemingly gazing at nothing, and when he returns to the conversation he can't remember what his friends said to him (that's what some people would call spontaneous post-hypnotic amnesia. Ever experience something like that yourself?) A husband demonstrates how effective a hypnotist he is (though he isn't aware of it) by acting a certain way (the trigger) and his wife immediately responds in a patterned, predictable way (like a hypnotic subject following a post-hypnotic suggestion.) A friend unknowingly drinks a diet soda and thinks it tastes like regular soda, until he looks at the can and realizes it is in fact a diet soda. Then all of a sudden, he notices how it tastes like a diet soda.

It makes sense, though. Hypnosis wasn't invented. Somewhere, back in the day, people just began to take notice of it. Somebody noticed it, and eventually learned to recognize it. Then somebody found out how it occurred and figured out how to induce it in a targeted and precise fashion. Some people would refer to somebody like that as a hypnotist. Some people might refer to that somebody as a friend... or a co-worker... or a person with a blog...

Field Report: Office Demo

Summary: I demonstrate to a co-worker some NLP stuff, lead him to different emotional states, and ultimately help him feel a little bit better about a past experience.



This one happened last month. One of my co-workers was in my office and we got to talking about hypnosis and NLP. He asked me what NLP was and so I explained it to him. Then, I decided to give him a little demonstration of some of the techniques.

I asked him to think of a mildy unpleasant experience - like taking out the trash, or cleaning up dog poop, etc. But for some reason, just like a few other people that I've asked that same question, he came up with one that elicited strong unpleasant emotions.

He decided to think of an experience he had the night before at a club. I guess he got in an argument or almost got into a fist fight or something. Whatever it was, it got him pretty angry. As he thought of the experience, his emotional state went from curious and interested (about NLP) to upset (about the last night's little situation).

Anways, I decided to work with that one and did some sub-modality stuff. As we played with the sub-modalities of how he represented his experienece, his states changed pretty dramatically. At one point, he was so infuriated that he was sweating and moving all around the room. After taking him to that extreme, I went the other way and got him to be completely relaxed.

Before going into it, I didn't expect him to experience such a wide range of dramatic emotions. I asked him to think of a mildly unpleasant experience, not an infuriating one. It might have worked out for the better, though, because within the span of about 5 minutes, he went from a little upset, to really mad, to completely relaxed and then even indifferent about the last night's upsetting experience. Nice.

All in all, I think that the demonstration went pretty well.

Field Report: No Pain, No Gain?

Summary: I help a co-worker get temporarily relief from back pain.


This event took place around the second week of January 2005.

It had been raining for the last few days and this day in particular was no different. I was returning from one of the labs at work with a co-worker. As we walked, we were shooting the shit and during the conversation he mentioned that his back was killing him. When I heard that and it was like a light bulb had appeared above my head, lit up, and went "Ding!"

The previous saturday I had gone to a Hypnosis event in Long Beach called Wake-Up America. During a presentation on hypnosis and its use in pain control, the presenter demonstrated one of the techniques with a woman who had rheumatoid arthritis that was acting up that day. Before they began, she rated her discomfort at around an 8 (on a scale from 1 to 10.) It was pretty bad. By the time they were done (about 5 minutes later), her discomfort was down to a 1... and that lasted the rest of the day. (The presentation was given just before lunch. I stayed at the event all day and talked to her just before it ended at around 5pm.)

So when I heard my co-worker was in pain, I immediately wanted to try out the technique I saw that Saturday. I wasn't sure if it would be appropriate to ask him to participate in my little experiment, though. We were at work and some people don't take the idea of hypnosis very lightly (even though everyone experiences some form of hypnosis everyday - some just aren't aware of it.)


*Disclaimer: Using hypnosis/NLP to alleviate medical conditions, such as pain, is no joke. In nearly all cases, a medical professional should be consulted first and/or worked with in conjunction with any hypnosis/NLP type treatment. Pain is information for the brain. Sometimes, it is a symptom of something more serious. Pain lets you know that your body is hurting and that you should take care of it. Pain is a good thing. (... to a certain extent.)

In this case, my co-worker was just going to take some aspirin or ibuprofen anyways, so I decided it would be okay to help without consulting a medical professional.

Here's how it went down:

(I don't remember what happened word for word, but this is the gist of it.)


---------------------------

(My Co-Worker has been talking about how his back is "killing him." I offer to help.)

Me: You know...I don't know if you're interested, but I just learned a technique to relieve pain and I can probably help you out if you want to give it a go.

Co-Worker: What do you mean?

Me: It's just a simple exercise I can run through with you in a few minutes. You'll feel better by the time we're done.

Co-Worker: Really? Shit. I'll give it a go.

Me: On a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest, 10 highest, where would you rate your current discomfort?

(Moves around, seems to be analyzing his situation)

Co-Worker: It's about a 5.

Me: OK. Now, the pain you feel is an indication that something is not right with your body and you should pay attention to the information that it provides you. So, this is only going to provide you with temporary relief. It could last anywhere from an hour to 24 hours, maybe more, maybe less. Is that cool? Are you ready to do this?

Co-Worker: Yeah.

Me: OK. Have a seat.

(He sits down, I stand to his left.)

Me: The first thing we need to do is find out something that you consider more important than your current discomfort.

(I take a couple minutes to describe to him what I mean...)

Me: So, can you think of something, an experience, a feeling, anything, that's more important to you than your current discomfort?

(He looks up while he searches for that something.)

Co-Worker: Yeah.

Me: You got it? (He nods.) OK, whatever you've thought of, I'd like you to think of an experience or situation where you have that. I want you to re-live that experience for a moment. Be there. See what's around you from your own eyes, hear with your ears, and really feel whatever it is you feel in that situation.

(He closes his eyes for a couple seconds. I touch his left arm and hold it for a little bit.)

Me: OK. Great.

(His eyes are now open.)

Me: By the way, what is that?

(I point to an object on the table in front of us.)

Co-Worker: Hmm... I think it's a wallet.

Me; Oh, OK... OK. Now, I want you to focus on the area of your body where you feel that discomfort. Really get a feel for it.

(He tenses up, breathing changes. I touch his left arm below where I touched it before and hold it for a while.)

Me: OK, you got it?

Co-Worker: Yeah.

Me: Hmm... I wonder whose wallet that is, do you know?

Co-Worker: No.

Me: Oh, OK, whatever. Now, I'd like you to count out loud from 1 to 5.

(I touch both spots on his left arm that I touched before and hold both while he counts)

Co-Worker: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Me: Shit. I wonder whose wallet that is. Who'd leave their wallet out there like that?

Co-Worker: Huh? Yeah, I don't know.

Me: Anyways. OK. Now, this may sound silly, but it works. Do you know the song "Row, row, row your boat?"

Co-Worker: Yeah

Me: OK. Sing that song for a couple verses. I'll let you know when to stop.

(His eyebrows contract, as if he was confused, then relaxes and he begins to sing)

Co-Worker: "Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream..."

(As he sings I touch his left arm again where I touched it the first time and brush my hand down his arm a few times, as if brushing off some lint)

Me: OK. Now, how do you feel? You can get up and really test it out.

(He gets up, walks around, stretches to touch his toes, twists at his waist a few times.)

Co-Worker: Yeaaaah. Wow. It still hurts, I can feel it, but it's better. Before I couldn't even walk normal. Yeah, it's better. Man. What is that Voodoo shit?

Me: Haha. So what would you rate it now?

Co-Worker: About a 2.

Me: Are you good? Do you want to bring that down some more?

Co-Worker: Hmm... I'm good. It still hurts, but it's a lot better. I can live with this. But, hey, if you can get rid of it. Let's do it.

Me: I'm not going to get rid of it completely, because I don't want you to forget about it and possibly do more damage because of that, but I can bring it down some more.

Co-Worker: Let's do it.

---------------------------


We do the same process again. When we're done, he rates his discomfort between 1 and 2, and we stop there. He's happy with that and thanks me about 5 more times throughout the rest of the day. Nice.

Field Report: Antsy Shmantsy

Summary: I help a friend get some relief from her feelings of restlessness.


One night I was hanging out with one of my friends when she got antsy and it was clear to me that she was uncomfortable with that. As soon as I noticed it, I dug into my bag of tricks to see if there was something I could do.

I had just read about some technique called 3DMind (www.essential-skills.com) and even though I had only read a very cursory overview, I had enough of an idea of it to play with, so I did. Within about a minute, literally, she had calmed down and totally relaxed. There was no more antsy in her. Nice.

We're not offering you something that's true

"We call ourselves modelers. What we essentially do is to pay very little attention to what people say they do and a great deal of attention to what they do. And then we build ourselves a model of what they do. We are not psychologists, and we're also not theologians or theoreticians. We have no idea about the "real" nature of things, and we're not particularly interested in what's "true." The function of modeling is to arrive at descriptions which are useful. So, if we happen to mention something that you know from a scientific study, or from statistics, is inaccurate, realize that a different level of experience is being offered you here. We're not offering you something that's true, just things that are useful." (Frogs Into Princes, p. 7)


A few useful tidbits for the nlp practitioner:

1) "How do you know ..."
As in, "How do you know when you are afraid of snakes?" or "How do you know when you want to smoke?"

2) You will always get answers to your questions insofar as you have the sensory apparatus to notice the reponses.

3) Let's say I had to fill in for you for a day... What do I do?

At any moment...

"At any moment that you find yourself hesitating, or if at any moment you find yourself putting off until tomorrow trying some new piece of behavior that you could do today, or doing something you've done before, then all you need to do is glance over your left shoulder and there will be a fleeting shadow. That shadow represents your death, and at any moment it might step forward, place its hand on your shoulder and take you. So that the act that you are presently engaged in might be your very last act and therefore fully representative of you as your last act on this planet."

- Don Juan