Success Work Hypnosis

Wise Word About Hypnotism and Politics from the Father of MkUltra

2024-08-13T02:49:00.000-07:00

Professor George Estabrooks is known mostly by reputation for being the hypnotic mastermind who conceived of some of the more disquieting things to come out of the Cold War, like MK Ultra and the Manchurian Candidate. But he was first and foremost a scientist, and was equally concerned with the inexplicable way dictators could turn sensible people into fanatics, and he wrote at length about it in his book “Hypnotism” (revised 1957, E.P.Dutton). This excerpt is WELL worth a read, and maybe a little self-reflection:

“How can we guarantee that our choice at the polls will be a wise one? Our previous discussion of hypnotism and mob psychology should help. Is this man you listened to on TV last night a genuine leader or is he a rabble rouser? Is he heading a battle of democratic principles or “a battle of the gravy bowl’? We may safely say that, in America, we have the world’s most intelligent electorate and that, on the whole, our politicians are a superior group, so we are not crying panic. On the other hand, as we have said, “when you stop being better, you stop being good,” and on this matter of electing a potential dictator, you will make that mistake once only. From then on, he will take care that your mistakes are always in his favor.

So play a little game with yourself. Sit down and think over that last spellbinder you heard on the platform, over the radio or on television. Behind every argument is someone’s ignorance. You probably are either for him or against him. Why?

Was he appealing largely to your reason or was his appeal largely to your emotions?—especially on such matters as class privilege, the race issue, religious issues. These matters can be handled along the lines of reason, but the temptation to go over to the highly emotional appeal is very marked. In other words, were you listening to a man of reason or to a hypnotist who aimed to limit your field of consciousness? [earlier in the book, the author explains the hypnotic state as one where the subject is led to be hyperfocused on a single topic] You say you cannot be hypnotized against your will. Perhaps you were hypnotized last night as you listened to that political address over your TV. It might be well to give a little thought to this matter. Don’t worry about the hypnotist in his laboratory. You will probably never meet him. The most dangerous hypnotist may be the man you listened to last week over the radio. You were his subject. His appeal was emotional, inflammatory, an excellent example of prestige suggestion [“Prestige” refers to a kind of authoritarian hypnotic influence, and eliciting strong emotion as a way to create an altered state]. You came away determined that something drastic should be done – on, shall we say, the racial issue. As a matter of fact, you were a very excellent subject. Think it over.

And think about the nature of that kind of hypnotist. He may be, he often is, a man of great intelligence. You may have your own opinions about Hitler, Mussolini or Napoleon, but no one ever accused them of being morons. They could and did use the brains they had with great effect. Their outlook was purely selfish. They used their intelligence to further their own ends. But Hitler was excellent within these narrow limits.”

If you want a concrete example of this "mass hypnosis" effect, consider that in the year following the 1973 movie, "The Exorcist," there was an explosion of people believing they were possessed that persisted for years afterwards. Even during the movie, people passed out, vomited, and supposedly there were even a few heart attacks. But all those people did was sit down in a theater for an hour or so.

Book Report: Science of Breath by Yogi Ramacharaka (William Walker Atkinson) (C) 1904

2024-04-19T23:36:00.000-07:00

Background Information: The Publisher, The Yogi Publication Society is a press started by William Walker Atkinson at the turn of the 20tdh century to promote his writings on "New Thought," which was the New Age movement of the time. Atkinson himself was quite a character. He was a prolific writer, with over 150 books to his credit, often under any of several pen names. He rose to prominence at the beginning of the 20th century, but seems to have become forgotten in the following decades, though he and the Yogi Publication books are experiencing a new renaissance at the beginning of the 21 century.
Many of the books were written by Atkinson, but they also published other prominent metaphysical works by other authors. The company has changed hands a number of times, so many that the original history was lost to the current owners, but the books are still in print, and still inspiring spiritual seekers.
The author of this book, Yogi Ramacharaka, was one of William Walker Atkinson's many pen names.

This little book (88 pages) is a classic! Despite being over 100 years old, the breathing exercises it offers are easy to practice and very practical. Beginning at the beginning, it thoroughly discusses the western concept of breath and the Eastern concept and why they're important. Of course there's a discussion of Prana, the Hindu word for the metaphysical energy (AKA Chi, or Ki) that is cultivated both through breath and also through meditation, All these chapters are concise and short and they're followed by both basic and additional exercises.
Specifically, you'll discover the Complete Yogi Breath, The Seven Yogi Developing Exercises, Seven Minor Yogi Exercises, Vibrational Breathing, and some other things you can practice as well. There are techniques to use breath and imagery to empower your meditation, health and visualization.

No New Thought book would be complete without some psychic phenomena exercises and this book includes those as well, so if you want some basic practiced in Thought Projection, Psychic Healing, Charging your Aura and discovering your higher self, that's included too.

Breathing practice is often taught as part of Yoga or Meditation teaching, but it can be practiced all by itself to improve your health and concentration. The book is over 100 years old, so it's no longer protected by copyright. As such, there are a lot of versions available published by a lot of different sources, from the blue hardcover published by Yogi Publication Society, to various paperback versions and even downloadable PDFs that can be found on line. It's well worth a read, and a practical addition to anyone's metaphysical or physical culture book collection.

Body Mass Index --Is the BMI For Real, or is the B for Baloney?

2023-07-23T19:14:00.000-07:00

The Controversy:

The Body Mass Index is a common graph used for determining what a patient’s “normal” weight should be, based on their weight and height. Nevertheless, some have claimed it to be outdated, unscientific, inaccurate and even racist. Yet many doctors and weight loss authorities still use it and feel it is reliable. What is it and is it accurate?

I recently had a visit with my new doctor. Some people dread going to the doctor, but I’ve always looked forward to it. I’m generally pretty healthy. I used to be an athlete, and I still try to keep in pretty good shape. Not great, but pretty good, and usually a little better than my age bracket. A visit to the doctor is normally uneventful, and sometimes even complementary. (Full disclosure: I carry a bit more belly fat than I’d like to, which I credit to years of working long hours, and I’ve got a touch of osteoarthritis from an old car injury). When the COVID lockdown ended, I started hitting the gym nearly every day for an hour or two, and I put on a good bit of muscle, even if I didn't burn much fat.

I wasn’t surprised when the doctor told me, “You have to lose weight!” In fact, I heartily agreed, “I know! After a year in lockdown I could certainly stand to lose about 20 pounds.”

“NO! You have to lose 50 pounds! You’re almost morbidly obese!”

Obese?! For once, I was at a loss for words. Was he even looking at me? There was no one else in the room, but what he was saying didn’t make sense. I’m not a terribly large person, I’m only 5 foot 5”. Twenty pounds lighter and I’d look pretty good. 25 pounds would be pushing it a bit, but FIFTY POUNDS? I’d look like skeleton. Sure I’m a bit chubby, but obese? Morbidly obese?!

“It’s THE BMI! BODY MASS INDEX!” he snapped, “It’s your body composition!”

I thought quickly. “Are you looking at the scale for women, maybe?” I asked, even though he was quoting out of his head. He told me it was the same for men and women. The only factors to consider, he said, were weight and height, but that didn’t make any sense to me. A woman my height might reasonably be much lighter than I am, if she had delicate bone structure and very little muscle or fat. Aside from my spare tire, I’d added enough muscle to my chest and shoulders since the COVID lockdown that the new jacket I bought only a year ago didn’t fit over my shoulders anymore.

At this point, red flags were going up in my mind. I’d never had a doctor say anything like this to me before, and for me, his judgement was coming into question, because what he was saying didn't sound scientific. “You know muscle is heavier than fat?” I felt compelled to ask. He insisted that it didn’t matter. It was all the same, he said, only height and weight mattered. I was flummoxed.

As far as he was concerned, there was no more to discuss. BMI was everything there was. All of this shook my faith in the doctor, but maybe he was right and I was wrong. He was the doctor after all. Could I actually be the thinnest obese man in history?

As I left the office, I suppressed the urge to eat an entire pizza in protest, and decided to learn a bit about the BMI when I got home.

I Have to Educate Myself
As a motivational coach, I’ve dealt with a lot of weight loss clients. I deal with their feelings and motivations, but I leave the technicalities of weight and diet to their health care professionals. I can help the clients get over their mental and emotional hurdles, but I don’t tell them what goals to reach for. So I knew about the Body Mass Index (BMI), but I didn’t know the specifics.

What little I did know was that the very concept of “body composition” is the ratio of muscle to non-muscle tissue, and for practical purposes of weight loss, what mattered was the percentage of fat versus non-fat, and it’s common knowledge that muscle weighs more than fat of the same volume.

I also knew there were other variables involved. Gender matters. Males tend to have denser bone and muscle than females as a result of hormonal changes at puberty. Another thing to be considered is age. A 20-year old is usually going to have a stronger metabolism and naturally fitter body than a 40-year old, even if the 40 year old exercises a whole lot more, and I’m 60! (I don’t look a day over 58, though). Race and genetics are another issue that has to be factored in. Different ethnicities store fat in different ways and in different parts of the body, and may not offer the same weight/height ratios.There are probably other specific variables as well.

There it is, the BMI chart. And sure enough, It says I’m vastly overweight. But you know what? It might say you’re overweight too! You’ll notice there’s no accounting for any of those other, obvious, variables. I thought there might be a more sophisticated version of the chart and searched for it on the web, but there aren’t any. Maybe the doctor was right, but to my mind, simple common sense says this chart is both incorrect and also unscientific--two variables, height and weight, simply aren’t enough to accurately gauge a person’s health.

It didn’t take me long to discover a whole lot more. There’s a lot of material about the BMI available, but it wasn’t the dry science I was expecting.

The Quetelet Scale
Are you Belgian? Are you more than 150 years old? If you answered “no” to these questions, the the BMI may not be right for you!

The BMI, was originally known as The Quetelet Scale, after it’s creator was Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet (1796-1874). Quetelet was possessed of one of those brilliant, inquisitive, scientific minds which this period in history produced so many of. He focused his considerable mental powers on many aspects of the natural sciences and the arts, but his two greatest passions were astronomy and mathematics. Stars aside, He felt that numerical statistics could capture and describe the idealized perfection of nature (which he believed to be graphed as a bell curve). He further felt that once that mathematical ideal was established from a small pool of data, it could be generalized out reliably to a much larger population. To that end, he compiled statistics on all kinds of things, including crime rates, marriage rates and, since he was artistically inclined, perfect human proportions. He came up with the formula for the ideal human body based on the formula: weight x height²^.In other words, 'the weight increases as the square of the height' This formula was based on measurements from the humans he happened to have at hand, and is sort of the way you's measure the volume of a milk bottle. He published his findings in 1830, and the numbers have not been revised since.

He was not a doctor. He didn’t know much about medical or structural variations or about human anatomy, and he didn’t intend the Quetelet Scale to be a diagnostic tool. It was more of a philosophical exercise.

The Quetelet Scale enters a New Century
Ancel Benjamin Keys (1904 – 2004) was another brilliant scientist of a different century, and a trailblazer in the field of nutrition. We can credit him for the our modern understanding of the relationship of cholesterol to heart disease, the benefits of the Mediterranean diet, and a number of other discoveries which have become the cornerstones of modern nutritional science. He helped formulate special meals for the soldiers in WW2 based on their caloric needs and it’s rumored the (in)famous K-Ration of WW2 got the “K” in Keys’ honor.

One of his grandest research projects was the Seven Country Study, which charted the relationship of diet and longevity (particularly heart disease) in seven different countries over a period of several decades. He followed the health histories and measurements of hundreds, possibly thousands, of people over the years in order to get a large sampling of data. In order to process and quantify all the data he was collecting, he chose the Quetelet scale out of convenience, because out of all the existing scales for body mass, he felt the Quetelet Scale was mathematically the most complete, and therefor, convenient for his purposes. When he published some of his findings in 1972, he included the Quetelet Scale, which he renamed The Body Mass Index. But he was clear that it was really only useful for processing large amounts of demographic data, not for use on individuals.

Today
So there we have it. An academic exercise conducted by Belgian astronomer nearly 200 years ago in the search for mathematical perfection, picked up in 1972 as a convenient demographic tool. It does not figure things like muscle vs. fat, activity level, age, gender, nutrition habits or an individual’s genetic variations. It simply calculates the volume of a human body as if it’s a jam jar.

So why on earth would modern doctors today, people of science, take up this bit of outdated ephemera when modern tools and methods could provide better data? To be fair, a lot of medical experts neither use nor endorse it. Many have come up with better alternatives. Yet some doctors have accepted it without questioning it’s obvious flaws. Many sources on the internet present it as simple fact without any discussion of it’s failings. According to what I’ve been able to glean, many medical schools are still teaching it, and the students are accepting and absorbing it (even though their own eyes are probably giving them contradictory data!). So why would medical schools promote something that one’s own sense contradicts?

I don’t know. According to some of the sources below, the BMI was picked up and endorsed not by medical experts, but by health insurance companies who felt is assessed the health risks of their customers accurately (and with a good safety margin for the company, I’d imagine). Apparently, a lot of people who teach it never even thought to question it. It’s just been passed along by tradition.

Are There Better Ways To Measure Fat?
If you want to get an accurate gauge of your weight and health, it goes without saying that you should consult with a health care professional who is trained and qualified. They will know the best course of action for you regarding testing, and for helping you reach your own health and fitness goals.

There are a number other more thorough body mass indices. One that attempts to address the shortcomings of the BMI is the ABSI (A Body Shape Index). The ABSI was created at City College of New York, with an initial pool of test subjects that included over 14,000 people, and it has since been reaffirmed with even larger sample groups. It is still a generalization, but at least it includes more of the obvious, important variables: age, gender, waist diameter as well as height and weight. If more exacting tests are needed, there are a number of them. I’ve listed the common ones below.

Body Composition Testing Methods
Skinfold Caliper Test-- This is a very common test with athletes and body builders, and is considered to be an easy and fairly accurate test for measuring subcutaneous (beneath the skin) fat. It uses a special caliper which pinches the skin in several specific places around the body to measure the thickness of the fat underneath. The thicker the pinch, the more fat. These measurements are then calculated to get an overall average. It can also indicate which parts of the body have the most or least fat stored in them (which can be an important finding in certain situations). There are several obvious shortcomings of this test. It can’t measure fat stored deep inside the body, only under the skin. It can also be inaccurate if too much or too little pressure is applied with the calipers, or if the pinch is too big or too small. Individuals may also have more or less dense skin, regardless of the fat beneath.

Bioelectric Impedance Analysis-- This utilizes a device that sends an imperceptible electric current through the body, and measures the amount of electrical resistance the body offers. Since fat has a greater electrical resistance than muscle or water, measuring the resistance will tell how much fat is conducting the current. For the test, several electrodes are attached to various parts of the body. The test itself can be done fairly quickly. Some sources feel it’s reliability is questionable, just because there are so many things that can potentially throw off the results--exercising before the test, dehydration, skin temperature, room temperature, medication, etc. Nevertheless its fast and convenient and a good starting point. There are even home devices you can hold between your hands, although their accuracy seems questionable.

Hydrostatic Weight Measurement-- This is also considered a very accurate measurement of body composition, though some sources indicate it’s considered a bit old fashioned, perhaps due to the complexity of test. An individual’s weight is measured before the test (dry), and then the individual is submerged in a tank of water and weighed again. The theory behind it is that fat is more buoyant than non-fat, so the individual will weight less when submerged. By noting the difference between the wet and dry weight, they can get a pretty accurate measurement of the actual amount of fat by weight.

Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA or DEXA)-- This involves a special scanner that creates an X-ray imaging of the entire body that also measures the density of the various structures--bones, organs, fat and muscle. This is obviously an extremely accurate way of measuring and seeing the fat in different places, and it can also measure density of bones and other organs. It generally takes about 15 minute or less to do.

Thoughts About The Other Controversial Points
In fairness, the BMI isn’t entirely inaccurate, either. It was based on measurements taken from “average” (not physically active) 19^th century Belgian men, who tended to be somewhat smaller, and lighter due to the their diet and living conditions. So while modern 20-21^st century American and European people across the board are a bit bigger and heavier, the BMI does seem to be more accurate with younger, less physically active women (physical activity tends to add muscle mass and throw off the accuracy).

A number of sources (including a few of the links cited below) state the BMI to be “racist.” By now we’ve established it isn’t a reliable index for any other group except 200 year old Belgians. I don’t know if Quetelet even knew that different human genetic groups had different anatomical specifics, but most likely, he didn’t know or consider it. He wasn’t a medical man. However it’s fair to say it’s application by modern medicine to a broad range of race and body types is, at least, misguided.

When I was discussing this with someone, they asked why the gender discussion is only in terms of male and female and ignores more of the gender variations that are accepted in the 21 century. I have no answer to that, since I didn’t find any data about that. I imagine that this is why it’s important to have qualified professionals interpret the data, and that we’ll see more variation in the future.

***

Note that this article is purely for information and perhaps entertainment value, and is not intended to provide medical advice or diagnose anything. Always consult with the appropriate, qualified professionals about all your health concerns.

***

FURTHER READING:
Quetelet and the BMI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolphe_Quetelet

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17890752/

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/is-bmi-accurate

https://academic.oup.com/ndt/article/23/1/47/1923176
(This excellent article has a much more detailed historical and scientific discussion than most)

https://www.businessinsider.com/bmi-is-bogus-best-way-to-tell-if-youre-a-healthy-weight-2016-9

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439

https://www.cnet.com/health/nutrition/why-your-bmi-just-isnt-that-important/

BMI And Race
https://elemental.medium.com/the-bizarre-and-racist-history-of-the-bmi-7d8dc2aa33bb

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265215

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/bmi-for-black-women

https://www.cnet.com/health/whats-the-difference-between-bmi-and-body-composition/

Ancel Keys and the Seven Country Study
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancel_Keys

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Countries_Study

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31338844/

Better Body Weight Measurements
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5612697/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-71302-5

https://www.absicalculator.eu/

https://www.absi-calculator.com/

Fat Calipers
https://www.muscleandstrength.com/tools/measure-bodyfat

https://www.verywellfit.com/calculate-body-fat-by-measuring-skinfolds-3120273

https://www.fitstream.com/articles/how-to-measure-body-fat-using-calipers-a38

http://www.linear-software.com/online.html
(web page has built in calculators for six different methods)

Bioelectric Impedance Analysis
https://www.verywellfit.com/bioelectrical-impedance-analysis-bia-3495551

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioelectrical_impedance_analysis

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4118362/

https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2891-10-35

X Ray Imaging
https://radiology.ucsf.edu/blog/dxadexa-beats-bmi-using-x-ray-exam-measure-body-composition-fat-loss

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1079847/

https://health.ucdavis.edu/sports-medicine/resources/dxa-info

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261561405002098

Hydrostatic Weight Measurement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrostatic_weighing

https://www.verywellfit.com/what-is-hydrostatic-underwater-weighing-3120276

Book Report: Training Manual for Sight Without Eyes - Through Mind Sight and Perception by Lloyd Hopkins c.1988/2008

2023-07-21T11:20:00.000-07:00

You can't get more straightforward of a book title than the title of this book. It's a 2008 reprint of a booklet originally published in 1988, and apparently it was a free handout at the author's Mind Sight and Perception Research Center in Washington State. (The author, Lloyd Hopkins, died in 1994, and his center is no longer in operation, but his work seems to have inspired others to continue his explorations, including author Sean McNamara in his book "Mind Sight" I believe he is also giving workshops). Hopkins' center seems to have been in operation from 1970 to 1988, and produced a number of successful students and teachers). The book has been reproduced with all the typos intact but that detracts nothing from the material.

In a nutshell, the author taught people, particularly blind people, to be able to see without the use of their eyes!

This work itself is fairly brief, but still covers a lot of ground. After a health issue in 1968, Hopkins' decided to withdraw from business and devote himself to exploring metaphysical topics that interested him. He doesn't go into any great detail about his beliefs, but seems to have been somewhat influenced by Christianity and he also specifically cites Max Freedom Long's book The Secret Science Behind Miracles, which covers elements of Huna, a system of Hawaiian mysticism.

The book touches on every aspect of Hopkins' Mind Sigh Center, including practice, philosophy, anecdotes about the students and the school, including a number of public demonstrations they gave to various schools, organizations and even the press, which included reading without use of the eyes, being able to perceive events at great distances, and even driving a car sightlessly! The author doesn't attempt to explain how Mind Sight works, but that doesn't appear to have been particularly important.

The practical part of the book presents a series of beginner advanced exercises. Some of his explanations are a bit sparse and vague, but later in the book he includes some short autobiographies of his outstanding students and some go into greater detail about the training methods. He insists that with intense commitment and practice, almost anyone can achieve some lever of success.

If you have an interest in Huna, Psychic skills or Remote Viewing, this book will be a fun and perhaps useful addition to your training materials.

Book Report: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (c)2008

2023-03-16T02:09:00.000-07:00

Background Information: "Malcolm Gladwell is the author of five New York Times bestsellers — The Tipping Point, Blink,Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and David and Goliath. He is also the co-founder of Pushkin Industries, an audio content company that produces the podcasts Revisionist History, which reconsiders things both overlooked and misunderstood, and Broken Record, where he, Rick Rubin, and Bruce Headlam interview musicians across a wide range of genres. Gladwell has been included in the TIME 100 Most Influential People list and touted as one of Foreign Policy’s Top Global Thinkers." (from the Author's web page: https://www.gladwellbooks.com/)

"Outliers" are those people and things that are outside of the normal range of things, the statistically improbable, the rarities. There are a lot of books highlighting the stories of successful people, their struggles and skills and luck, but here, the author has noticed that in every sphere there are some small coincidences. Why were Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and other revolutionaries of the microcomputer age all born within a few years of each other? Why are all the great hockey players born in the Spring, why was Germany vital to the Beatles' success, and why is it so important to consider the events surrounding plane crashes in figuring all this out?

Here's a hint: success isn't just a matter of genius or hard work (although you're read about why the famous "10,000 hour rule of mastery is so important). A person has to enter the scene at the right time and place for that genius to have an opportunity to take root. and that situation has to have the resources to nurture that talent, too. If you're not sure if this is so, be sure to read about the worlds smartest man that you never heard of to put it in perspective.

Not only is the topic clearly presented and researched, but Gladwell's writing skills are both powerful and entertaining. The book is enormously entertaining and readable, and hes careful to continue to fit all the facts he presents into one solid, continuous discussion. There are some books that present facts in a way that you feel you need to keep notes from the previous chapters, but in Gladwell's books, it's a continual build up and reflection so that it's an effortless read.

This book will expand your understanding of how these outliers are both unique talents and products of their environment at the same time.

Book Report: Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior by Leonard Mlodinow (C)2012

2022-09-26T01:18:00.002-07:00

About the Author: Mlodinow is a bestselling author, theoretical physicist, researcher, inventor and screenwriter. He even coauthored a book with Steven Hawking, and has authored episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and McGuyver. He currently teaches at Caltech.

I probably would have bought this book for the cover design alone. In addition to the straightforward title and description on the eye-catching hot green cover, "How your subconscious mind rules your behavior" there's a clever and funny "subliminal" messge printed in glossy, clear varnish all over the book. It's entirely transparent and only seen when the lights hits it in the right way (you can see it in grey on the picture left: Psst... Hey There, Yes, You, Sexy, Buy This Book Now. You know You Want it." The Spine and back cover are overprinted with "BUY! BUY! BUY!"). As a long time Ad-man, myself, this appeals to me enormously.

You can expect the same kind of wry humor throughout the book, and happily it's used to make the science he's presenting readable and fun. The topic of this book is, as you may have guessed, how the subconscious mind works with the conscious mind in ways we're usually unaware of. Now, the subconscious is far to big a topic for any one book or author to cover completely (even if it were possible to know and understand it completely, but new discoveries are being made every day). But there's no question that this book is a valuable and fun addition to the library of anyone serious about getting a better understanding about the mind.

Coming from a scientist, it's no surprise that he's start with history and hard science, and he quickly brings us up to date with the different ways the mind was perceived by scientists as the science rapidly developed. We're also introduced to the way brain structures and neurology affect our perceptions (did you know there's a non-visual part of the brain wired directly to the eyes that recognizes faces even if the visual portion od the brain is totally non-functional? It is possible to recognize facial expressions even if one cannot see the face! It's called the "Fusiform Face Area").

Book Report: Fundamentals of Psychology in Context, Third Edition by Kosslyn and Rosenburg (c) 2007

2022-05-10T03:21:00.000-07:00

Fundamentals of Psychology in Context, Third Edition
by Kosslyn and Rosenburg (c) 2007

I don't know how you spent your lockdown, but (after a long period of doing not very much) I decided to use the time to take some on-line classes, and one of them was revisiting Psych 101, and this was the textbook. Right from the top, it should be noted that this is the third edition. There is a more recent fourth edition, renamed Introducing Psychology: Brain, Person, Group.

When I took classes like this on college, textbooks were a source of dread. They were heavy, expensive, boring, and for all of that, never seemed to provide answers so much as confusion, since they never quite agreed with what the teachers taught, leading us to wonder if they even read these things themselves. Well, times change, and now I'm an old weirdo who actually likes to read textbooks and academic materials, no matter how dry they might seem. And so, as soon as I got the book, I started from page one and read the whole thing.

A great deal of thought seems to have gone into the structure of this book. Every Intro to Psychology course outlines the basics of this discipline, including history, neurology, and different theories, and this book is no different. To it's credit, it's written in a very readable style. Each chapter explores an element of the mind sciences, and each chapter builds on the information in the chapter before it, so it's very logical, and the examples of behavior are taken from examples we all know about including sports movies and public figures, like Tiger Woods and Jackie Chan. Starting with chapters on basic neurology, there are chapters which attempt to clearly define and explain sensation and perception, memory, motivation and emotion, etc. At the end of each chapter there's a 15 question multiple choice quiz (with answers) as well as some topics to inspire further discussion. I probably would have hated that in college, but I found the quizzes very helpful for reviewing the information. on top of that, the publisher offers additional, downloadable material on MP3 to listen to on the go (I have not accessed any of that). every page also highlights key phrases, and marginal notes synopsize important points to make studying easy.

A novel approach (as far as I know) is the book's stress on evaluating ever element of mind and behavior from The Three Levels of Analysis-- brain, person, and group. It's an excellent way of analysis because most things work on all three of these levels at the same time. The level of the Brain is or course neurological and neurochemical, the level of the Person deals with, of course, the person, their behaviors and feelings, and the level of the Group, which involves how those psychological elements help (or hurt) the individual interact with the society around them. Too often we can develop a microscopic or macroscopic view and lose sight of the whole picture, so the frequent use of this model through the chapters is excellent training for thinking in this discipline.

The authors have extensive credits and credentials in their field both in neurology and psychology on staff at Harvard and several others Ivy League institutions. They also have extensive book credits for psych text books.

A few gripes: As a hypnotist, I'm always a little disappointed at how dismissive, if not actually hostile, many psychologists are (except the ones who have learned hypnosis. They usually love it). This book touches on hypnosis only very lightly and in an off hand way. They mention that it might help with memory, it might help with sports performance. No serious discussion of it as a scientific therapeutic modality (though in fairness, that may be more appropriate for a more advanced course).

While the various principles and studies the authors give are all extensively backed by scientific data, as you would expect for a science text, some of it seems a bit.. rushed? Remember when you had a deadline for a paper and you threw in a bunch of examples but didn't really document or explain them them clearly? I kind of got the feeling the authors were working against a deadline. with the advent of Google and the internet, I, or you, can now fact check for inaccuracies (for example getting the dates wrong for Kohlberg's Dilemma, a study of morality and emotional development. They reference related data from 1969 and 1994, while the actual study was from the mid 50s, and that one decade is makes a huge difference. The 1950s was for the most part still the paleolithic era, and it is apparent in some of the roughness of the way the data was organized. The following decade or so would be literally revolutionary, in the sciences as elsewhere). There are minor things and probably corrected in the more recent edition of a book that covers a lot of ground.

A more general gripe, is not with the book but with the standard "academic" way this subject is taught. Looking back at it now, and with years of experience tiptoeing through people psychs, as well as years of experience trying to appeal to people's feelings when working in advertising, I'd much rather hav a class that explored the concepts first, and left all that history and mechanics to more advanced classes. For one thing, the history is a lot more interesting when you have a firm grasp of where the practice is today. For another a person has better retention of the facts when they can fit all that into a fleshed out concept. Save the history and the minutia for later.

Book Report: The Invisible Gorilla by Chabris and Simons (c)2009

2022-03-07T23:44:00.002-08:00

The famous Invisible Gorilla video has been a favorite of people studying cognitive behaviors, as well as just a really fun and interesting video to share with your friends. If you haven't seen the video, or if you want to watch it again, I've embedded it below. There's also a second, follow up video, in case you'd like to see the effect applied with some variation, or if the first video didn't work for you. Go ahead and click on it now, and then I'll continue the discussion below. It's short, so be sure to give it your full attention and follow the directions for best results.

There you go. Were you surprised, or did you catch it? In a nutshell, we are always presented with more data than our mind can consciously process. Nevertheless, we always think we can catch it all.

(I have to say I had some frustrations with this book, but I'll get to those later in this article. First let's explore what the book covers).

The gist of the book is that we can fall victims to various "illusions" that compromise our ability to make good decisions, and we don't even know it. Just as many people fail to see the gorilla, many people are unaware of the illusions that affect our judgement, and these illusions actually make us think we're making better decisions than we are. (Fans of the mental sciences know of these as "cognitive biases" and there are over 200, but the authors only deal with the most prevalent ones).

The Gorilla video, introduces us to what they call the Illusion of Attention. We assume the more closely we pay attention, the more accurate our perceptions will be, but the videos demonstrate that close attention can actually foil our complete perceptions of a situation.

There are several of these "illusions" that are explored very thoroughly, with historical cases and experimental data to illustrate how these illusions are responsible for making us deviate from the right decisions while believing we are correct. We learn about the Illusion of Memory, whereby we assume the more detailed our memories are, the more accurate we think they are, the Illusion of Confidence, whereby we assume the more confident person to be the more correct one, when in fact, sometimes the less correct a person is, the more confident they are, and several other cognitive illusions which are good to know. The book concludes with presentations of situations where we are encouraged to spot the illusions at work and a strong case for making deliberate, well thought out, scientifically based decisions in our everyday life.

My Issues with This Book
There were three big klinkers that stuck out about this book:
--Denial of the Existence of the Subconscious Mind
--Reduction of All Decisions into Right and Wrong
--Overemphasis of Experimental Procedures

Denial of the Way The Subconscious Works
This is a book that, like a number of other popular books (including Vedantam's The Hidden Brain and Malcolm Gladwell's Blink covered elsewhere in this blog) uses elements of cognitive sciences shine a light on our everyday thinking.

But while the other two books seek to shine a light on the sometime mysterious processes of the subconscious mind, the authors of these book really deny the existence of the subconscious entirely, and, in a manner which reminded me of several of my older, stuffier, college professors, insist that any decision that is not made with slow, conscious deliberation, is simply wrong, and for me, as a hypnotist runs counter to what I know to be demonstrably true.

When I picked up this book, I expected to be reading a rather dry examination of cognitive and perceptual sciences, perhaps with a dose of neurology thrown in, so I was surprised that they used the "invisible gorilla" as a metaphor for several cognitive biases. Moreover, Malcolm Gladwell, and his books are mentioned a number of times, and by the end of the book, it seems that at least one of the purposes of this book is a refutation of Gladwell's Blink. (In a nutshell, Blink examined how those instantaneous, subconscious decisions are made. Gladwell, is a careful, insightful writer, and researches and explains everything. There is nothing we have to take on faith. His book offers both situations where these fast decisions work when even science has failed, and also cases where intuitive decisions failed badly. (Gladwell's examples include the Getty Kouros, a celebrated "ancient" work of art discovered to be a fraud based on one expert's intuition, as well as the tragic case of Amadou Diallo, shot 40+ times by undercover cops whose instincts went horribly wrong). The book Blink explains the mental mechanics behind these and other situations, what works, what doesn't and how they can be improved.

The Invisible Gorilla keeps stressing that any quick, intuitive decision is going to be less accurate, but they don't really explore why in any great depth. We are led to understand that conscious, well deliberated, decisions are reliable when nothing else is.

Why is this problematic? In a perfect (may I even say, academic?) world, we could deliberate on every decision before committing to action, but in real life, we'd never survive. So many of our most necessary decisions have to be fast, and are often done under stress. Imagine you're driving on a busy street and a child darts out in front of you. Do you hit the breaks and risk the car behind you smashing into your rear, or turn your car into another lane and possibly collide with another car? There's no time to evaluate the options!

The Invisible Gorilla dismisses unconscious decision as baseless, emotional or the result of an unconscious bias, but in fact, subconscious functions of the mind are very specific and have their own logic, different from the conscious mind. Most pertinent, the subconscious mind can maintain and process and enormous amount of simple data at the same time without the conscious mind being aware of it (right now, your subconscious is monitoring all kinds of environmental data, like room temperature, the feeling of the chair you're sitting on, the things around you, etc. It's also aware of internal things, like the operation of your internal organs, but won't bring that information to your conscious mind until something needs attention, like your stomach needing filling or your bladder needing emptying. On top of that, it also maintains all kinds of thoughts and memories and the associations between them). The subconscious mind doesn't handle many complicated or abstract thoughts, but it does compile sets instantaneous behaviors based on conscious behaviors and their results. Going back to our example of driving, a beginning driver has to consciously deliberate on everything he does behind the wheel, from parking brake to steering wheel, but with practice, all those behaviors and their results get compiled into instantaneous actions that most experienced drivers never really even think about anymore.

Reduction of All Results Into Right or Wrong
Since instinctive decisions are short and fast, they can't be as all-encompassing as a consciously deliberated decision. They may not always be the best possible decision, but many times, we don't need the perfect solution, just good enough. The book tends to view all outcomes as either right or wrong (like a professor grading exams!) even when the data they quote shows a broader range of results. In my earlier example of the child running out in front of your car, lets suppose you were afraid there was a car behind you, so you turned into the next lane and had a minor collision. Not a good outcome, but you avoided hitting the little kid in front of you, so you still achieved your goal, albeit at the cost of your fender. Even when you reexamined the scene and discovered there was actually no car behind you, and you would probably have been better off stopping short, you still didn't make the wrong decision, just the best possible one in the time alloted. The only wrong decision would have been to hold off making a decision while you examined all the possibilities.

Overemphasis of The Experimental Method
Fairly early in the book, they compare data collected from actual events ("empirical") versus data taken from controlled experiments, and decree that only experimental data is reliable and valuable due to the controls scientists have in the lab. HUH? Experiments are usually based on empirical data. If you can't observe something already extant (or at least hypothesize it), you cant set up an experiment to examine it further. It's generally accepted that both are important sources of information and both have a certain value, and each has it's limits. For me, this idea was the most unexpected and questionable part of the whole book, and smacks of academic ideology as opposed to science.The authors are correct when they say that experimental data can be very accurate, since the experimenters can control all the elements of the experiment. But one of the most obvious failings of the experimental method is that the researchers can't factor in any element that they're not aware of, even if it's a major influence (For example, once upon a time, scientists didn't even know of the existence of germs. Scientists like Pasteur, Lister and Semmelweis experienced a lot of condemnation from their scientific peers for trying to justify basic sanitary practices). Weirdly, later in the book, they offer several other situations where experiments would be impossible to construct, wither due to ethical reason, magnitude, or the number of variables.

This all comes around the the finale of the book where they advise that the only sensible decisions we should make in our lives are the fully thought out sort. Sure, but when the traffic is bad, we don't always have that opportunity.

Book Report: Psychonavigation Techniques for Travel Beyond Time by John Perkins (c) 1990

2022-02-25T00:39:00.001-08:00

Background Information: Many of the books on this blog are a bit unusual. Many of the authors of these books are a bit unusual. The author of this book may be a bit more unusual than most of those. Many of John Perkins' books discuss metaphysical traditions and the indigenous cultures he learned them from. But his main claim to fame is his book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman," in which he describes his rise from a Peace Corps dropout and butterfly collector to an agent of the NSA utilizing economic incentives to manipulate third-world leaders. It's a fascinating and thought provoking book, even if the NSA has denied a lot of his claims. He has founded several non-profits devoted to environmental issues and indigenous cultures, and offers speaking engagements around the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Perkins_(author)
https://johnperkins.org/

The core of this slim book is a meditational method to move around in your imagination in order to reach and communicate with some sort of a spirit or ancestral guide. It's a fun and potentially useful practice. But just as engaging is the story of the cultures from which the author has learned these methods. They include South American Tribal cultures and East Asian societies.

Book Report: Mental Dominance by Julien Ochorowicz (c)1990-1887

2022-02-24T01:02:00.002-08:00

Background information: This was originally published in 1887 as "La Suggestion Mental" ("Mental Suggestion").
The author, Julien Ochorowicz, was a leading psychologist, inventor and philosopher of his day. At the time, psychology was a budding science, and included more philosophy and spiritualism than what we think of as psychology today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Ochorowicz

If you have an interest in telepathy this will offer both some interesting scientific discussions and also practical theories and exercises to try for yourself. It's also very interesting a a view into a slice of hypnosis history when "modern" Braid-style hypnosis was taking over from Mesmerism.

The current edition (1990) mentions that it's been "updated," so I can't say for sure how much of the book is the original, and how much has been "updated." (There are a few references to telephones and television which made me highly skeptical of it's authenticity, but according to the Ochorowicz Wiki page, he experimented with early forms of telephone and television in the late 1800s!).

Before we go farther, it's useful to get the historical context in which the author was working. More modern, suggestion-based hypnosis was beginning to dominate the psychology world, but older Mesmerism would still have been very common. What that means is that while there was more of an acknowledgement that trance and other mental states could be brought about by verbal suggestions as is practiced with hypnosis.. Mesmerism, the older science, believed that the trance was produced in the subject by the force of the Mesmerist's will which was projected into the subject's body via a magnetic fluid that was a kind of invisible psychic energy. Telepathy and other forms of psychic communication and healing were common parts of Mesmeristic belief and practice.

According to the author's Wiki bio, he worked with a number of the members of the Society for Psychical Research, which included some of the top scientists and thinkers of the day, and seems to have been a mix of skeptics and true-believers, united in applying the latest scientific methods to psychic phenomena. So it's presumable that he pulled his data from a fairly large and well documented pool of information and experiments.

A big part of this book, or this edition, since I don;t know how closely it relates to the 1887 edition, is to identify a working methodology for mind-to-mind communication. It's pretty thorough, and offers plenty of exercises to experiment with.

From the top, it's interesting that, presumably after experimentation, he identifies the ideal mental state as a "monomaniacal trance" which is a trance state resulting from focusing on a single thing to the exclusion of all else. This would be the kind of "modern" hypnotic trance that was used by James Braid (who suggested the term "monoideaism" --focusing on a single-- as a better name for hypnosis). Orochowicz further designates two degrees of this monomaniacal trance-- a slightly deeper, more passive one for recieving, and a slightly more active one for transmitting.

Different scenarios are described, but it is particularly interesting that he observes that while a suggestion may be received, it may take some time for it to emerge from the subconscious of the receiver and be perceived or acted upon. He feels that a strong, persistent suggestion will be transmitted more effe3ctively than an overly intense one, and that combining the mental suggestion with some kind of physical action will be more effective than the mental suggestion alone.

The Fourth part of the book offers exercises to strengthen one's "Animal Magnetism," which include things like visualizing and moving energy through the body, controlling your sensations of cold and heat, self-discipline and controlling emotions, etc.

In an interesting procedure for psychic persuasion of others, the author distinguishes two parts of persuasion: Preparation and Ultimatum. (The procedure involves preparing by cultivating one's energy for a long time before your expected encounter with the person you want to persuade. When you meet them, hold overwhelmingly positive feelings, and hold your desired idea in your mind the entire time, and even imagine hugging them in you mind. Finally you make a definitive statement (mental, presumably) and they should be persuaded!).

Another interesting observation is that these kinds of suggestions can take a longer amount of time than most other authors indicate. For a simple suggestion, this author advises 3-4 weeks of preparation, while a meaningful change of behavior may take 6 months of daily hour-long suggestions. Presumably this was backed up by some experimental data(?).

There's a big section on finding and influencing your soulmate. I find it rather hard to believe that this was part of Ochorowicz' original manuscript, but most likely a contribution of the 1990 edition. Still, it is an interesting discussion and follows the Authors basic methodology. And again, a much longer commitment is recommended-- 40 daily sessions, with a minimum of 15!

Finally, there are a number of visualization exercises to strengthen focus and imagination, and, hopefully, one's psychic abilities.

I can't say I've had the level of discipline to try these techniques as recommended, but if you have had results, I'd love to hear about them!

Almost Everything You Have to Know About SELF HYPNOSIS

2022-01-12T01:03:00.005-08:00

So many people are curious about self hypnosis that I figured I'd put down some of the things I always tell people, and I hope I cover all the basic questions that you have. If there's more you'd like to know, please comment or email me.

If you've ever been formally hypnotized, self-hypnosis is just a matter of reaching that same mental state by yourself. Easy! But if you've never been formally hypnotized, you might not have a clear idea of exactly what hypnosis is, so the first thing we should do is get clear on what hypnosis is.

Hypnosis
We probably all agree that when we think of a hypnotized person, we imagine someone who has been talked into a state of deep relaxation by a hypnotist, and then given some suggestions that will affect them when they wake up.

It's worth noting that there are TWO important elements to consider: the trance state that the subject goes into, and the suggestions that are given while he's in the trance state. Trance without suggestion is deep relaxation, suggestions without trance are affirmations.

Even though the hypnotist's client looks like they may be fast asleep, the hypnotist is very particular to help them maintain their mental focus throughout the session. If a subject is not mentally focused, how can they be given effective suggestions? (James Braid, one of the 19th century pioneers of hypnosis, preferred to use the term "Monoideaism" indicating that the hypnotized subject is focused on a single idea). They may look asleep on the outside, but they're still mentally focused on the inside. In fact, one of the definitions hypnotists like to use to describe hypnosis is: Physical Relaxation combined with Mental Focus to bypass the Conscious Mind. Mental focus? YES! For this reason, it's virtually impossible to give someone a suggestion that they don't want to accept. You can't sneak much past a hypnotized client.

The deeply relaxed trance state is useful for delivering suggestions into a person's mind because they're very relaxed and emotionally neutral, and the conscious mind isn't occupied with any thoughts, so they're open to suggestions (as long as they don't conflict with a person's beliefs or morality).

Typically, a person goes to a hypnotist because they want to change their habits or feelings in some way, get rid of some behaviors or improve others. Sometimes instead of going and having a live session in a hypnotist's office, they'll do a session over the internet or phone, or even listen to prerecorded hypnotic sessions on MP3, CD or cassette (if they still use cassettes!). There is some very good recorded material available on line. The one advantage of a one-on-one session with a hypnotist is that the practitioner can customize the session to the client's specific needs. Recordings tend to be a little more generalized, but people can get good results from both.

In brief:
A hypnotist CAN:
--Make you feel deeply relaxed
--Relieve Stress
--Engage your mental focus
--Give you suggestions to make the changes you want

A hypnotists CAN'T:
--Compel you to do anything you don't want to do
--Force you to go into an unconscious state
--Make you accept suggestions you don't want to accept
--Make you do things against your will
--Force you to expose your secrets
--Read your mind

Well, that's hypnosis. What about Self-Hypnosis?

Self-Hypnosis is very similar, but you do it yourself. A lot of people are drawn to the idea of self-hypnosis because they may be shy of committing to a session with a professional, or they may be curious, but not quite yet curious enough to seek out a professional, or maybe they're just do-it-yourselfers. These are all very acceptable reasons. Self-hypnosis can be a very useful and fun activity, and it's possible to get very good results on your own with a little practice.

With a professional hypnotist, the advantage is that they're like your personal Uber driver-- you can sit in the back seat and they will "drive" your mind to wherever you want to go. With self hypnosis, at first, it's a bit like sitting in the back seat and still trying to drive the car yourself. It feels awkward, but once you get the knack of it you can get very good results.

There are a lot of great resources on self hypnosis. You can find a lot on the web, and there are a lot of good books available (check out the Book Reports section of this blog for some suggestions). Just as with other forms of hypnosis, you're going to want to achieve a state of deep Physical Relaxation combines with Mental Focus. The simplest way is to follow a recorded hypnosis session or a guided meditation. After using it a few times, you'll probably pick up the knack without needing the recording.

The most difficult part of self-hypnosis, for most people, is maintaining their mental focus when they start to get relaxed. Another pitfall is that people don't always relax very deeply just because they're not aware of how deep they can go. The third big pitfall is not composing suggestions in the best possible way. This third one can be a bit trickier, since it takes a lot of skill and experience to compose suggestions that are just right for each person.

Physical relaxation can be achieved in a number of ways. Hypnotists sometimes call these deepeners. Here are a few of the common ones:
--Focusing on relaxing every part of your body, one at a time, from the toes up. Especially focus on relaxing the face.
--Count backwards from 100, exhaling and focusing on relaxation with every number.
--Focus on an object like a coin or a spot, a sound (like a word or the sound of a bell) or a feeling in your body, and gradually let go of your awareness of the environment outside your body.
--Repeating a word, poem, prayer or mantra, slowly, to the exclusion of everything else.
--Imagining sinking deeply down into a comfortable feather bed. Alternatively, imagine flying upwards into the fluffy clouds if you're not comfortable with "sinking."

You can also combine several different deepeners, one after another. This is exactly what a lot of hypnotists would do if they were hypnotizing you. These should be able to get you into a very relaxed state, and by itself, that can be a very useful thing, A state of deep relaxation is great for beating stress, and it's often given credit for all kinds of health benefits. With practice, you'll be able to both achieve deeper, more relaxing states and do it faster and more reliably. (When I was learning hypnosis, I used to challenge myself to slipping into a ten minute trance in on my lunch hour, and I would do it sitting on a bench in the noisiest, most crowded place I could find, which was Rockefeller Center in New York). When you're finished, you can count yourself back from 5 to 1 like a rocket taking off, or just gradually wake up normally. Take a deep breath, wiggle your toes and your fingers and blink your eyes. Because hypnosis is a state of focused attention, you can't "get stuck" in trance, although beginners or people who are overtired might occasionally slip into sleep.

Being able to achieve a controlled state of deep relaxation any time you want it is a terrific accomplishment all by itself, but if you're trying to make very specific changes and improvements to your habits, you're going to want to be able to give yourself suggestions that will work directly with your subconscious. Crafting effective suggestions can be a much more complicated thing than hypnosis or self-hypnosis. A good suggestion is easily accepted by the subconscious without resistance. If a suggestion makes you feel uncomfortable, that can be a sign to reexamine both your desired goal and the kind of suggestion you''re using. You can't force your subconscious mind to accept a suggestion it doesn't like. For example, a lot of people who want to lose weight will tell themselves "I am now at my desired weight and size." If that feels good, it'll work, but if it doesn't quite feel right, that the subconscious mind saying it can't work with that suggestion. The subconscious mind is very literal, and if a person is unhappy with their weight, just trying to accept that they're now at the desired weight obviously won't do the trick. It may be better to work with a suggestion like, "I am now able to easily changing my habits to lose weight and look better." Do you see the difference? The second suggestion does not ask the subconscious mind to accept anything it feels is untrue.

My feeling about effective suggestion is that it should encompass as many different kinds of sensation as possible, and be as dynamic as possible. So if I were creating a suggestion to stop myself from smoking, I might say "I feel great about giving up cigarettes!" But I'd go a little farther. I'd think about all those times and places that I usually smoked and then envision myself doing all those things and enjoying them more without the bitter, smelly, dirty taste and smell of the smoke. I'd feel how proud I was that the people around me didn't have to suffer my smoke, and look forward to my lungs feeling strong and clear. You'll notice all the bold, italicized words are dynamic ones. They have emotional power, and words like that really resonate with the subconscious mind.

How to put it all together-- Practice the deep relaxation work for at least a week or two before trying to add the suggestions, just so you can achieve the trance state reliably. When you're ready to try a little "changework" and you're pretty good at the trance, prepare your suggestions in advance. Write them down, make it as dynamic as possible, and be sure you feel good about them and there's no internal resistance..
Close your eyes and begin your trance process. Go as deep as you are comfortable going, into a safe and neutral state of relaxation where you no longer notice much of the outside world. Enjoy the feeling for a few moments. When you're ready, repeat your suggestion mentally or aloud, and actually imagine living out the suggestion-- feel how it feels, hear how it goes, see yourself and your surroundings. The more vivid it is in your imagination, the stronger it's effect. (If you you feel any inner resistance at this point, make a mental note of it, so you can adjust your suggestion for next time). When you've done it to your satisfaction, and you're feeling good about it, you can come back out of trance. Count yourself back as we described above, or just gradually wake yourself up. Take a deep breath, wiggle your toes and fingers and feel fantastic!

Sometimes people have amazing, immediate results, but just as often it's a gradual process. Most people will require a few weeks of daily practice to make the changes they want.

I hope that provides a clearer view of what goes into self-hypnosis, and even some things you can experiment with yourself. If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask me, or your local hypnotists.

Book Report: Getting What You Want by. J.H. Brennan (c) 1982

2022-01-03T01:30:00.002-08:00

Background Information: J.H. "Herbie" Brennan is a prolific New York Times bestselling author and occultist. He has written over 100 books, including children's books, young adult, fiction and history as well as various occult subjects.

This is a fun and practical little book about achieving your goals, the kind of thing very popular in the 70s and 80s, and again today. It's well written and well structured, and the author is an excellent and witty story teller, so the book flows. It's worth noting that this book is particularly geared towards jobseekers, but it can be applied to all kinds of things. Every self help book seems to have a guiding principle that the author sets out early, and for this book, the author not only sets it out right at the beginning of the book, but also right on the back page: "Your limitations are imaginary." It may sound kind of airy-fairy, but he very practically approaches how we too-readily accept obstacles that are self imposed and also external barriers that may not be as unyielding as we assume them to be. Part of the aim of the first part of the book is changing your attitudes and your subconscious. Of the subconscious mind, the author says "it's like having Superman for a partner, except that most of the time you don't talk to him, so he lets you go your own way."

The first part of the book includes stories to illustrate the concepts clearly to the reader, and there are several in-depth quizzes to help you self-evaluate strengths and weaknesses you may not even know you had, and to help you more clearly define your goals, so that you can adapt the principles on the book to your specific needs.

The second part of the book offers the techniques of that the author calls "Power Play." These are various attitudes and approaches for controlling and dominating not only one's own obstacles, but situations too, like job interviews. "Power Play" includes business psychology to position yourself optimally, as well as techniques to fire up your confidence and initiative, including reframes and breathing techniques.

It's a very useful and practical little book and I'm actually surprised that after it's initial 1977 printing, it was only reprinted once in the 80s. If you come across a copy, I'm sure you'll find it a useful!

Book Report: Mesmerism Unveiled! by Leslie J. Gee (c)1885

2021-12-31T20:06:00.002-08:00

Mesmerism Unveiled! by Leslie J. Gee (c)1885

Background information: From what is inferred in the book, the author was a popular stage performer of mesmerism, although I was unable to find anything about his performances on line. He seems to speak with a great deal of experience and the same kind of passion for his art that most hypnotists have today. This little book (approx 50 pages) was likely an item that he sold at his shows to those interested in learning for themselves.

While I was unable to find any information about his performances, he does include his home address (circa 1885) in order for readers to contact him if they had any questions. There is currently a somewhat rundown single-family house on the site (thanks, Google maps!) that was built in 1890. No record that I could find of the previous house or landowner.

The subtitle of this book is "The Only Work Ever Published Giving Full Instructions How to Practice and Master the Art of Psychology, or Mesmerism" and, indeed, there seems to be material that I have not seen in any other books of Mesmerism, so for novelty value alone, it's a worthwhile little volume.

Today we think of Mesmerism as a primitive kind of hypnosis, but that is not exactly the case. While is did utilize trance and suggestion to effect changes in the client, Mesmerism was based on the idea that there was an actual "magnetic fluid," an invisible energy, that ran through the nervous system, and which, with practice, could be projected to people and things to effect certain kinds of results. While mesmerism is a thing of the past, we find similar concepts surviving in Christian Science, Polarity, Laying on of Hands, Chinese Chi Gung and Indian Pranic healing, and so forth. A Mesmerist would typically wave his hands over his subject, utilizing "magnetic passes" to affect the energy flow of the subject. Because there was a direct exchange of energy between Magnetizer and subject, it was assumed there was some kind of telepathic connection at work, and indeed, the usual expected results that could be achieved from this art included the same that hypnotism is known for, like smoking, drinking, weight management, etc., it was also commonly believed that mesmerism could produce clairvoyance, telepathy and other exotic phenomena.

The book is written in an easy conversational style (albeit a very 19th century style). The most notable thing about this book is that it offers a rapid method of Mesmerism, utilizing touches on certain parts of the subject's head, in addition to the usual magnetic passes. Another thing is that he doesn't dwell on practice and exercises for projecting one's magnetic energy. (many of the books that I've read offer exercises for beginning Mesmerists like pointing your fingers at an empty chair to learn to project energy, or meditative energy gathering exercises). Typically mesmerism is a very slow process of making magnetic passes in front of the subject for at least half an hour, until trance is achieved (L.E.Young actually advised people to use hypnosis and not Mesmerism for stage shows because the Magnetic method was so slow and boring).

The author attempts to demonstrate that Mesmerism is a common phenomenon, and uses the examples of rapport between animals and trainers. He then goes on to describe the science behind it, which is primarily Phrenology (a debunked science of how different parts of the mind work), and a version of neurology which little resembles what we know today.

In addition to his own method, he presents three methods which he describes as being very popular (in his day). One is the slow method of magnetic passes, one is a kind of Mesmerism utilizing eye fixation that is called "Hypnotism" (that was probably brand new at the time!), and a kind of group operation.

For his own method, he goes into depth, including the attitude and emotion the Magnetizer should be using, the importance of will power and persistence, the specific touches and passes he employs on stage for rapid Mesmerism, and how to chose the most responsive subjects (several times in the book he reminds us that while everyone can be mesmerized, only 40 people in 1000 will be really easily brought into trance).
He gives directions on the way a beginner should start, and what to expect, and also some effects that can be done with a subject that are still common today, like spinning hand, acting out suggestions, singing, etc., and some suggestions we wouldn't use today, like pushing sewing needles into their cheek, convincing them to eat candles like candy, making them believe they're chased by snakes or that their house is on fire, etc. Suggestions that are not at all common today but were part and parcel of the Mesmerism were the development of psychic skills like clairvoyance and telepathy, though he does warn that it may take a hundred sessions before some people will develop these abilities. He even offers instruction on "charging" a glass of water in order to bring the magnetic power right to the internal organs.

Overall, the author is very encouraging and stresses persistence and patience in developing this ability. He advises beginners who may have questions to consult their local Mesmerist or Clairvoyant, or even send letters to his home. He even offers some herbal substances that he feels may strengthen the beginner's performance, including quinine and a tonic made of Valerian, Catnip, Skullcap, Coriander and Capsicum (the first three herbs are known for their calming, anti-stress qualities).

I have never had any experience performing Mesmerism, so I can't discuss the efficacy of the book, but as a nice addition to a library of this kind of ephemera. I couldn't even fins an image of the original printing, but the book can be found on the web in PDF form, and facsimile editions can be got from https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en/books/MesmerismUnveiled_10834811

Book Report: Hypnosis (How to Unleash The Power of Your Mind WITHOUT DRUGS!) by H. D. Birns (c) 1968

2021-12-16T13:39:00.000-08:00

This is a very competent introduction to the subject, with good, basic instructions in self hypnosis. As with most other books of this type, it discusses a bit of the history of hypnosis, common conceptions of hypnosis versus actual facts, and a few "case histories" to illustrate how individuals were affected by the use of hypnosis. At the time of writing this book, Hypnosis was practiced primarily by psychologists, and it was one of the possible treatment modalities that they might apply. One interesting historical note is that hypnosis, he says, became popular after WW2 to assist soldiers when there just weren't enough psychologists to go around, and Freudian Analysis (the common approach at the time) took too long.

The title itself is interesting and timely for the '60s when both psychiatric as well as psychedelic/recreational drugs were a hot topic.

The "payload" of this book is a straightforward, basic method of self-hypnosis that readers can use for themselves to create changes in their own habits. He distinguishes three levels of trance to help experimenters get to the levels that are best suited for the changes they want to make, visualization, and post-hypnotic suggestion.. He includes basic instructions for "glove anesthesia" an hypnotic method for pain control, and entire chapters discussing weight control, smoking, drinking anxiety, and general self-improvement.

Further chapters discuss the spookier, more questionable applications of hypnosis that were particularly hot topics in those Cold War years, including commission of crimes, brainwashing, and subliminal advertising. Hypnotists are generally divided over whether a person can be hypnotized to do things they wouldn't normally do. This author feels that it is possible, and offers cases to back himself up, including legal cases, and the kind of brainwashing done by Nazis and by the Communist Chinese. His discussion about "Subliminal Perception" (subliminal advertising) was also a hot topic at the time, and he has great faith in the power of it. Finally, he touches on hypnosis for ESP, and introduces Charles Richet's term "cryptesthesia" for telepathy, and feels hypnosis can enhance it.

Overall, it's a really good, thorough introduction to the subject with enough practical information on self-hypnosis to get a curious beginner started, but without being overwhelming. He addresses a lot of hot-button issues of the time, which are still timely today, and for all the stories and studies he discusses, he includes the authors and sources, which is often not done.I'm actually surprised I wasn't able to find out more information about the author on line.

Book Report: The Human Dynamo by Hans Holzer (c)1975

2021-12-08T20:20:00.004-08:00

Background Information: Hans Holzer, a tireless researcher of the paranormal, is the author of over 100 books on various aspects of the paranormal, and has been the inspiration for a number of TV shows about the paranormal. He often worked with well known spirit mediums, including Sybil Leek, who was quite popular in the 1960s. Most recently, his work with various mediums and haunted houses, has been revisited by the 2019 TV show, The Holzer Files (fittingly, 13 years after his death).
You can read more about Holzer on the web and here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Holzer

Another of Holzer's many books on metaphysical subjects. As a professional researcher of the paranormal, Holzer was exposed to all kinds of metaphysical phenomena, including religions, and in this book he synthesizes what he'd learned from various religious practices.

The title, "Human Dynamo" refers to connecting to a higher power to achieve one's goals. He explains that every religion attempts to put it's followers in touch with Higher Power, either directly or thought the intermediary of a priest of some sort. He compares different perspectives, how some religions embody that Higher Power in some kind of anthropomorphized deity, how some pursue a direct connection and others not, etc. For people interested in comparative religions, this alone will make the book an interesting discussion. He analyses both religion and prayer separately, and feels that prayer can be effective if it follows certain guidelines, and even that there are certain natural laws governing the effectiveness of it.

This book was written in the 1970s, before Law Of Attraction was a big thing, but there was a great deal of interest in both old religion and New Age spirituality, and this book attempts to satisfy those interests. So he deconstructs prayer into a basic system he feels will be effective based on the "natural laws of prayer." He ferrets out the ten elements for a successful ritual, and finally, posits a modern religion for the new age, including practical prayers, designed to connect with a kind of universal power, although he feels it's perfectly fine to imagine that power as a god or looking like anything that appeals to you, if it helps you to connect.

I found it interesting to not that while he discusses prayer in depth, so far as Asking for assistance, he doesn't really cover the idea of connecting with the Universal Power for it's own sake, as in meditation.

It's an interesting read. Coming from the 21 century, where my email inbox is continually bombarded with people preaching various spins on Law Of Attraction and Various New Age practices, it's interesting to go back to a time where very few people claimed to know anything, and it was an open and uncluttered field.

Book Report: Hypnosis: Key to Psychic Powers by Simeon Edmunds (c) 1968

2021-11-09T01:07:00.005-08:00

Background Information: Simeon Edmunds was a researches for the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) and a hypnotist. He took a very scientific approach to examining psychic phenomena and was generally skeptical of spiritism, but open to psychic phenomena. His writing is clear and readable.
"Paths to Inner Power" is a series of books on various metaphysical and magical practices.

This is a small, straightforward book describing the various psychic phenomena--Clairvoyance, Traveling Clairvoyance (like and out of body Experience), Precognition, Postcognition, Psychokinesis, Suggestion at a Distance and "Exteriorization of Sensation" which is the mechanism behind voodoo dolls.

For such juicy topics, this book is surprisingly straightforward and well defined. If you're looking for an introduction to these topics, this is a good one to start with.

Book Report: The Secret Wisdom of the Qabalah by J.F.C. Fuller

2021-11-05T01:52:00.007-07:00

The Secret Wisdom of the Qabalah by J.F.C. Fuller

Before I can even touch on the content of the book, it's necessary to talk about the author. There are some people and events in history that are just so peculiar, so unlikely, that they test the bounds of believably. Such is the case of JFC "Boney" Fuller, the author of this work. I've got more in-depth links below, but in a nutshell, Fuller's greatest fame is as the father of modern tank warfare. He literally wrote the book on tank strategy (actually several), and much of it is still used today. He had mostly retired from military work after WW1, but was still influential as the tank became a dominant weapon in the theater of war. Despite being British, he was an ardent Fascist and a friend of Adolph Hitler. He was invited to Der Fuhrer's 50th birthday, and upon observing the rank upon rank of tanks and mechanized infantry passing, Hitler asked "How do you like your children?" Fuller responded, "They've grown so fast I hardly recognize them!"

Fuller has been given credit for Blitzkreig warfare. This is the wacky part: Fuller based his concepts of tank warfare on concepts taken from the Kaballah. Life is stranger than you can imagine. Despite being a fascist and Nazi sympathizer he was also an enthusiastic devotee of the ancient Jewish mystical tradition. Go figure.
https://www.historynet.com/jfc-boney-fuller-wacko-genius-of-armored-warfare.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._F._C._Fuller

As for the book itself, I must preface by saying I know very little about this subject, so I can't discuss it from a critical point of view. The book itself sticks to it's topic, and introduces a lot of interesting concepts. We've probably all seen the Kaballah diagram, with it's 3 pillars and 10 particular "sephiroth," and this book does a nice job of explaining them and also reconciling it with modern relatable concepts, as well as religious concepts. The Author describes how all of this represents the evolution of things through three levels from inspiration and concept to it's physical incarnation, but also the changes that a thing can go through during that evolution, and that's what the Kaballah tries to map out. The value of that seems apparent.

Like a lot of people, I'm actually more familiar with the Taoist concept of Yin and Yang, and if you are too, you'll appreciate a lot of similarities. Both systems attempt to create a model inclusive of everything, in such a way as to find a repeatable, accessible, scientific pattern. You'll find a cyclical evolution across two opposite poles (yin/yang in Taoism, Severity/Mercy in Kaballah). While the names in Kaballah may sound more judgemental, they actually represent non-judgemental polar opposites the way yin and yang do. In a way, Kaballah is like Taoism turned 90 degrees, and offers valuable perspectives. As with Taoism, this is a a way of looking at things that one would have to put on for a while like a glasses and endeavor to see the world through if one wants to understand it completely.

Book Report: Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (c)2007

2021-11-03T01:11:00.004-07:00

Another national bestseller that I really wanted to include because it is SO pertinent to people who are interested in the day-to-day functioning of the subconscious mind.

The catchy subtitle to this book is "the Power of Thinking Without Thinking" but more specifically, it's about the way our subconscious mind makes "intuitive" decisions in the blink of an eye, when they work and when they don't. Gladwell's writing is direct and engaging, which makes the book a breezy read even though he touches on a lot of data and from scientific studies and interviews with the experts.

Utilizing a series of situations where important decisions had to be made in the blink of an eye, he first presents that instantaneous decision, and gradually delves deeper into what is going on psychologically that makes this kind of decision so much more than random. Rather, he uses the term "thin slice" to refer to the way we are able to make an appropriate decision based on a thin slice of the information. In many of these cases, the thin-slice decision is contrary to more well-informed and long-deliberated decisions, and is often the right one.

We start a well-authenticated ancient sculpture that just rubbed some of the experts the wrong way, and indeed, turned out to be a forgery, though at the time, the experts were hard-pressed to say why it felt wrong. We'll soon be introduced to scientists, relationship experts, military brass and police who can make snap decisions and seeming mind-reading, and discover what the qualities and criteria are that lets them do it accurately and what causes them to screw up.

Some of the discussions will examine the effect of prior experience on decision making, deliberate research that prepares one for making snap decisions accurately, the effect of too much information on decision making, and how subconscious influences can change our decisions.

This book makes a great companion to Shankar Vedantam's "The Hidden Brain" and even includes some crossover information.
https://successworkhypnosis.blogspot.com/2021/10/book-report-hidden-brain-by-shankar.html

Book Report: Crystal Gazing by Theodore Besterman (c) 1924

2021-10-29T23:25:00.004-07:00

This is not a how-to, but rather an encyclopedic compilation of all kinds of methods of scrying (psychic visualizations utilizing some kind of object). There's certainly nothing that engages the imagination as much as a crystal ball, but as it turns out, people have been staring into all kinds of things seeking cues about the future and answers to their questions, such as staring into water, into ink, into the reflection of a fingernail, and of course, staring into crystals.

Whether you're a fan of psychic phenomena or of folklore, this is an edifying book to spend time with. The author researched and catalogued a vast number of different methods and traditions from different times and places around the world. Some of these techniques make the crystal ball seem positively mundane, like staring at a handful of ink or the reflection in an oiled thumbnail!

The book is divided into chapters based on the technique, culture, famous historical scryers, and so forth. There's also some scientific discussion of the process and it's veracity.

In the first part of the 20th century, there was a great deal of serious research into things like clairvoyance and crystal gazing, and the British Society for Psychical Research was one of the most dedicated. Why a movie has never been made of the place is beyond me, since its members included some of the greatest scientists and public figures of the day, and they were passionately divided between true believers and adamant skeptics (in some cases, such as the curious Miss X, Ada Freer, one person was both an expert scryer and a debunker).

Theodore Besterman was a skeptical member of the society for a number of years before going on to a career as a noted bibliographer and writer. This book is an impressive bit of scolarship, especially since he wrote it when he was only 20 years old!

Book Report: Hypnotism by George Estabrooks (c) 1959

2021-10-29T02:20:00.003-07:00

Background Information: There are a few Hypnotists who are considered the most influential of the 20th century. Dave Elman and Milton Erickson are usually named, but there's good reason to include a George Estabrooks as a third. He isn't known for his technique, but rather his application--he pursued applications for hypnosis far beyond what most people were able, or at any rate, willing, to go, and he did extensive work for the military and with the notorious MKULTRA project.

It's a real pity that this little book is so rare and difficult to find, since it's a excellent addition to any hypnotist's bookshelf. It's not a how-to book (sorry!) but rather an attempt by an expert to fully explain hypnotism to the lay public, and because of Estabrooks rather, uh, unique character and experiences, he can include observations that few other books do.

If Elman was the master of "Authoritative" hypnosis, and Erickson was the impish master of "Permissive" hypnosis, Estabrooks comes across as an Evil Scientist of hypnosis, right out of a 60s spy movie. Well, maybe not quite "evil." He fully explains his position: he feels that, as a scientist, his job is to pursue the truth wherever it leads, without regard to social mores or even morality. In many way he's not wrong. This attitude allowed him to really examine Hitler's techniques for mob control scientifically and dispassionately, and he even makes the statement that he felt Hitler was the greatest (albeit evilest) hypnotist of all time. On the other hand, Esterbrooks also worked enthusiastically with the military and the CIA on various secret mind control projects, including the notorious MKUltra.
(Interestingly, it was probably not known at the time, but Hitler actually was coached in dealing with crowds by an Austrian-Jewish friend --Erik Jan Hanussen-- who was a theatrical hypnotist and mentalist, famous throughout Europe for his incredible and elaborate presentations that seemed to entrance the entire theater. It is very likely that the infamous Nuremberg Rallies were choreographed based on Hanussen's teachings).

Throughout the book, it seems the author takes a certain glee at his own amorality, such as when he jubilantly describes the way he felt hypnosis could be used to embed secrets in the memory of a spy and no matter how much he was tortured, he'd never reveal the secret, or even know he had it in his head. I don't know how true that is, but his claims that it could be done, as well as his claim that he could turn someone into a "Manchurian candidate"-style assassin certainly captured the imagination of many conspiracy theory fans. To me it seems more like the work of a professor who just enjoys shocking his audience, but who knows?

Nevertheless, Estabrooks' book is primarily written to inform the public about the hypnotic nature of the mind and what hypnosis is from a scientific point of view--not a magic power to be feared, but a psychological function that operates by certain rules of it's own, and one that can be harnessed by others, accidentally or deliberately.

In one of the more important passages of the book, he specifies that the public has no reason to feat a scientist in a lab, since they will never have any interaction with the public, but rather that the ordinary person should be wary when they hear a seemingly ordinary speaker or politician on TV who's speech is so stirring that the listener feels compelled to get up and do something.

If you can get your hands on a copy, do read it. I was lucky enough to have found a copy of the paperback for about five bucks, with the stylish cover designed by the well known designer Milton Glaser (who would go on to redefine graphic design of the 60s and 70s), but foolishly gave it away to a friend. If you're interested in the design, here's a link to other M. Glaser book cover designs: https://archives.sva.edu/blog/post/milton-glasers-early-book-covers

Here's a very interesting article by a British hypnotist, Dan Jones, based on Estabrooks analysis of how Hitler turned a civilized country into a rabid, bloodthirsty mob: https://pressroom.journolink.com/dan-jones/release/the_components_of_mass_mind_control__inciting_mobs_uncovered_for_new_educational_video_by_hypnothera_8199

Book Report: Hypnotherapy by Dave Elman (c) 1970

2021-10-28T22:18:00.002-07:00

Background Information: Dave Elman is one of the two or three "big names" in 20th century hypnosis (the others being Milton Erickson and George Estabrooks). Regardless what style of hypnosis you do or are interested in, you will have encountered some "Elman" elements. Elman was a radio personality and amateur hypnotist, but his technique was so reliable that it was embraced by scientists and medical people.
https://daveelmanhypnosisinstitute.com/DaveElman-pg2.html

If you're interested in practicing hypnosis, or you just want a better understanding of the nuts-and-bolts of the hypnotizing process, this book is a must have. Elman is considered the main figure of "Authoritarian" or "Prestige" hypnosis, which simply means that it's a more formal process, when the practitioner gives the subject formal suggestions to follow. The well known "Elman Induction" is a series of mental imageries ("deepeners") and exercises that a hypnotist can present to his subject that reliably bring that person into a state of hypnotic trance (an induction is the verbal patter that the hypnotist uses to guide the subject into an hypnotic trance). With a little bit of basic knowledge, you could probably read an Elman Induction off a sheet of paper and reliably talk someone into an hypnotic state. This book describes how each single element of the Elman Induction came about, and what it does (Personally, I don't think they're quite as cut-and-dried in real life as they are in the book, but you'll have to be the judge of that). At the time he was writing this book, he was teaching his technique to a lot of dentists for painless extractions, so you can imagine that's a tough sell if the techniques didn't work!

So if you want to demystify The Staircase, The Lost Numbers and other hypnotic goodies, you have to read this book. It's a cornerstone of modern hypnosis.

Book Report: Astral Travel for Beginners by Richard Webster (c) 1998

2021-10-28T01:23:00.005-07:00

Background Information: Richard Webster is an award winning author and one of New Zealand's most successful and prolific authors, having written over 100 books on the subjects that he's passionate about, including New Age topics, magic tricks and mentalism. He's has written beginner's guides to all sorts of metaphysical topics.
https://www.richardwebster.co.nz/

A pretty thorough guide to going places while staying home! The author discusses the history and lore of Astral Travel, also known as an Out-of-Body-Experience (OOBE of OBE) as well as all it's variations, like mind travel, deliberate and spontaneous travel, bilocation, etheric doubles and more. Much of the book is a collection of various techniques and their histories, so that the aspiring traveler can find the one that appeals to them the most. Various preparatory relaxation and meditation exercises are also included.

Book Report: Neuro Linguistic Programming Vol. 1, by Dilts, Grinder, Bandler, DeLozier (c) 1980

2021-10-27T01:07:00.000-07:00

This book may be too dry and technical for the curious layman, but for the experienced practitioner, it is an invaluable resource, and highly recommended. It is so full of engaging perspectives and techniques that my biggest frustration was not having enough people around to try everything out on.

I came to this book after having learned and done NLP professionally for a number of years, and even though this dates back to the early days of NLP, it really is a treasure chest!

The NLP that I've learned from a lot of different sources and teachers is a big amalgam of thought and technique based on so many different things that I usually refer to it as a kind of "toolbox." For nearly any situation, I can reach in and pull out just the right thing tool for the job. But being able to go back to the early days of the science, I could really clearly see how, at the root level, it really is all about defining the existing patterns of behavior that the client is currently employing both internally and in their interactions with the world.
"...how to..unpack and repack behavior..into efficient and communicable sequences that will be available to every member of the species." (P.2)

Being a book who's partial purpose is to introduce a new science to a critical audience, they are careful to offer rational, scientific explanations of everything they discus. If you're a practitioner and you've had to deal with people who are critical of the science behind NLP, here you may find answers to back you up if you've been needing them.

Utilizing the basic sensory modalities of Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic (VAK) as the things through which we interact with our world, the book shows us how structures are built up into strategies, and how to work with them. The TOTE (Test, Operate, Test, Exit) model is very much used as the basic logical structure, and you find the kind of VAK/thought diagramming of processes that was the hallmark of those early years, and betrays the cybernetic thinking that went into it.

Of course you'll find all the techniques you know and love, anchoring, modeling and so forth, all clearly delineated within the framework, and there's a big emphasis on ecology checks.

There just so much practical and theoretical material, as well as tips and tricks, that it's a book worth whatever you pay for it.

Book Report: The Celestine Prophesy by James Redfield (c) 1993

2021-10-27T00:04:00.004-07:00

This book of pop-philosophy found the perfect formula to rocket it to a New York Times Bestseller-- it's a novel, full of interesting, relatable characters who go off on a quest to discover the "9 Insights of the Celestine Prophesy." It's exciting, fast paced and full of movement. The Insights talk of a coming worldwide spiritual awakening, what to expect, and how to deal with it when it comes. It's very inspirational, and some of the Insights warn that there will be difficult times ahead, but it's all part of the grand scheme.

Clearly a lot of people loved this book and the sequels, and found real, practical value in what the author offered, and I think that's great. And if you liked this book, or you're curious to read it, by all means do so and form your own opinions.

SPOILER ALERT-- GROUCHFEST TO FOLLOW!!!

A lot of the books in my collection are pretty cheesy, as you've probably noticed already. Some were obviously banged out to make a buck, others were earnestly written by true believers. I usually find something useful in even the least plausible of them. I generally try to keep my opinions, good or bad, out of the reports, since other people may have different perspectives and tastes. While there is surely useful stuff in this particular book, the entire thing really rubbed me the wrong way.

Right off the top, the Nine Insights of the Celestine Prophesy, that they have to go questing all over the world to find, are from an ancient Mayan Text from 600BC., which was written in Aramaic and found in Peru! NONE of that makes any sense, and no later explanation --I'm guessing there will be in some later volume-- can excuse this. Mayans are a Central and South American culture. Aramaic is a Middle Eastern Language. I'm not sure if either of those was around in 600BC, and they weren't in the same sides of the Earth. Even if they were, it probably wouldn't be Peru, because the Incas were already there, not the Mayans or the middle Easterners. On top of that, it seems like every character in the book, including random strangers, already knows the secrets, or knows where to find them, EXCEPT our heroes, which makes the narrative really wooden and simple.

For what it's worth, Packaging the core Insights in the form of an adventure novel is brilliant marketing, but the whole thing just rubbed me the wrong way.

Book Report: The Self Hypnosis Book by Cherith Powell and Greg Ford (c)1995

2021-10-26T23:15:00.002-07:00

This is a pretty standard and useful book on self hypnosis. It thoroughly describes how hypnosis works and how you can use it.

It starts with basic hypnotic inductions and goes on to scripts for various practical goals, like weight loss, healing, confidence and so forth.

With it, you can easily make your own self-hypnosis recordings to axchieve your goals.

This book originally came with a tape cassette of the hypnotic sessions. (Mine didn't include it, so I can't comment on the quality of the recordings).