Woogie Treatments

As I sit drinking coffee first thing this morning, I am trying to decide where to go with this post. There was a story out on Monday (yes, another one) that has been itching at me. It was another negative slap to hypnosis, so I though I would just ignore it, but it will not let me. So, sadly, I must pass it along.

I am not sure what happened on Monday that caused the press to suddenly feel the need to write disparagingly about hypnosis. Maybe it was that there was a certain time that certain people did things to get caught fanning the fires.

And so, for you Tampa, Florida hypnotists, you carry the burden of another soul's double dealing. From what I hear, Florida has several laws about who can and cannot practice hypnosis. That is tough enough. Then there is counseling. Very often as hypnotists we find clients who want us to fill this role as well. For those who are licensed counselors or psychologist, this is a moot point. But for those of us who do not have the background and proper paperwork, it is a bit illegal for us to provide such services. I have known several hypnotists who become ordained ministers to get past these licensing issues (I speak from no-experience in this realm).

On Monday, Tampa Bay Online reported a story about a man who was on the board of directors at a Unity church (it does not say he was ordained) who was arrested because "he passed himself off as a mental health counselor to treat members of the church, even though he was not licensed to do so." This carries a one year sentence. Well, that is a no no, but why am I up in arms about this? Once again hypnosis is used in an odd way. I quote:

There were six victims in all, with their ages ranging from 18 to 40, and they were either former or current members of the church, Proffitt said. O'Toole often used hypnosis to treat them.

It is too bad he did not tell people he was a "coach." I doubt that would have changed the statement about hypnosis, though. But good grief, it mentions hypnosis like it is a woogie treatment (I could not think of another word and woogie wanted to come out). That is really unnecessary. I suspect he also used "talk-therapy." You do not read about that in such a way.

Well, just...just...YUCK!

Source: Tampa Bay Online

A Cloud on Hypnosis

For a Monday, it is quite beautiful - warm and sunny. The week ahead seems well paced. And yet there is this ugly dark cloud above us. That is right - above US, not just me, but you and I. It is small, so it is probably nothing more than an irritation, but I am not one to enjoy an irritation, no matter how petite.

This cloud is in the form of words - hideous and reeking of misinformation. No, no one has fouled my name (as of today -LOL), but it fouls the good name of honest hypnotists. It comes in the form of a short article in the Lancashire Evening Post with the headline "Man used 'hypnosis' on girls." Granted, this does not say much, but it has a sinister bent (the juxtaposition of Man and girls) and sure enough, it is dark.

The basis story is this: a man played a game with a couple of little girls, "pretending" to catch them and hypnotize them, after which, he kissed and touched them. Perhaps you just breathed a sigh of relief (those more concerned with the good name of "hypnosis" - there is no sigh of relief for the perpetration of a heinous crime) and thought, "he was just pretending to 'hypnotize' the girls - he did not really use hypnosis." However, in my book, there is another crime that has been committed other than the one of sexual nature. It is a crime of ignorance and one that the media is promoting. Perhaps that is actually two crimes.

Here is the break down. The crime is in the misrepresentation of hypnosis. First,when the average joe reads the article, chances are, it will be skimmed or read lightly. Will he or she get that is was just a game and he did not hypnotize the girls? The other horrible side of it is how the idea of hypnosis was used in the game. It sounds as though he (the man) takes on the persona of an Ogre, catches the girls and hypnotizes them. The hypnosis is to...what? Is it to get the girls to do things against their will? Am I making a paranoid leap here? If it is indeed the idea of having someone do something against their will, well, let us take two steps back. Once again, the media's pull is strong when proliferating the myths of hypnotic arts. Yes, for all of you non-hypnosis-knowing people that maybe reading this, it is a myth that you will do things against your will when in hypnosis. This is at the heart of what is bothering me about this small little cloud of an article.

Source: Lancashire Evening Post

Fire Walking!

Today, I think I want to try fire walking. Anyone else?

Normally, it is quiet here when I sit down with my cup of tea (Assam) and begin the word flow. But today, my morning was filled with the chaotic (if not happy) sounds of Good Morning America. Did you watch it? Well, if not, maybe you should have.

Diane Sawyer and a team of six or seven took a dare to walk across hot coals using self-hypnosis. To do this, they prepped themselves by individually meeting with Dr. David Spiegel, a psychiatrist at Stanford University. He used a 10 point scale to determine their hypnotize ability. Then as a group he worked with them, teaching them a form of NLP and self-hypnosis (I say NLP because that is what it looked like to me, they do not mention it on the show). After a group session, even the most cynical person said it affected them by making the day a little better. You cannot beat that!

And this morning, they actually walked across the hot coals (a few times actually). Diane Sawyer said she did not even feel the heat from the coals until the third step.

All in all, I think it was a great series about hypnosis.

So, if you are reading this - organizers of Hypnoticon - think about offering it at next year's convention. That would be a sure fire way to totally get Ellie Blunt to commit to joining in the fun. LOL.

Have any of you, my beloved readers, ever fire walked before? If so, what was it like?

And for those who missed this morning show, here are a few clips from the whole series:

GMA and Self-hypnosis
GMA and Fire Walking

Source:
ABC News

Admissable Hypnosis

I am feeling righteous this morning, and the caffeine in the tea seems to be inciting it. Why?

It appears that in South Carolina, a judge is going to allow the prosecutors to present evidence in the form of tape from a hypnosis session. The case is the murder of Stephanie Dover, who was shot on I-20. Her fiancé was driving her and their two children home, when another vehicle (a black truck) shot at them, killing Stephanie.

After a year, John Joseph Moore is standing trial for the murder. He claims that someone in Stephanie's car made an obscene gesture at him (guess he was there then).

Hypnosis comes into this to see if Derrick, Stephanie's fiancé can remember the license tag of the truck through regression hypnosis. And though the judge says in his 17 years he has not seen hypnosis in his courtroom, he will allow it. Apparently there was the usual argument against it from the defense attorneys that it should not be admissible. Blah, blah, blah.

Perhaps the judge is allowing it because they already have the defendant? Would not the fact that Moore said the murder occurred due to that idea that someone in Stephanie's car made a gesture at him?

I guess he has not been proven guilty yet. But aside from the hypnosis interest, what is the deal with the road rage idea? So what if he had a flash of road rage? Does that make it okay? Does that mean that it is an acceptable excuse to kill another person? Have we sunk so low in our humanity that this should even be a factor?

I know there are lawyers rolling there eyes at this post, but you know, if you are going to debate hypnosis, I can blog about court cases.

Source: Wistv.com

What? I Can't Remember

Now I just sat down and knew what I was going to write. It was there on the edge of my mind waiting to spew forth, but now it is gone...wait...it was...no...oh....shoot. It really is gone.

Not really, just a tacky way to segway into the topic of the morning, though this is a tad bit of old news. It is true. Really, I am not kidding. Hypnosis can cause you to forget certain things. Hmmm. Don't we already know this? Perhaps not. Perhaps we do not know the half of it.

In a recent study conducted by Dr Yadin Dudai and peers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, when amnesia is induced with a posthypnotic suggestion, an internal monitoring system is what causes the memory not to be retrieved.

How the study was done:
A group of volunteers (in Isreal) were shown a movie documentary about the day in the life of a young woman. A week later they were hypnotized to forget the movie. Actually the words used in the Daily Mail were " Once in a hypnotic state, subjects were ordered to forget the movie." Now kids, what form of hypnosis is that? (The first person to respond in the comment section and get it right will get 50 entrecard credits).

Apparently, the original group had been divided into two sections - one group was hypnotizable and the other was not. Hmmmm, again. Was this really a division of people who were hypnotizable by a certain form of hypnosis? Might they all be hypnotizable (assuming they wanted to be, yahda, yahda, yahda) with a more permissive form of hypnosis? Any thoughts?

To carry on though - the half deemed hypnotizable were more apt to forget the movie. Each was given a quiz of yes or no answers. The results were no better than chance with the suggestion to forget the movie. Then a trigger
- Now you can remember everything (2), which was given during the hypnotic session, was was activated and the same participants retook the quiz. The results at this point were 80% correct answers.

cortex. This is the area mainly We are not through yet, though. While participants were taking the quiz, they were also being monitered by MRIs. While in the state of suppressed memories, the occipital and temporal lobes remained quiet. At the same time, there was major activity in parts of the prefrontalthougth to be involved with memory retrieval. This may show an interaction between the two, which the prefrontal areas control

Another question I have is the whole idea of the movie itself. Since I have not seen it, it is described as the average, mundane day in the life story, perhaps easily forgettable. I am not sure even without the hypnosis, how well I might remember it in a week.

Source:
The Daily Mail
ScienceNOW Daily News

A Little More Esoteric Lily

Lily Allen has made it back into our hypnotic consciousness. A while ago, she was featured here for using weight loss hypnosis successfully. She is doing it again and effectively becoming the poster child of celebrity hypnosis stories. Go Lily!

The young British songwriter/performer sowed a few wild oats, but is settling down into pregnancy nicely. So, hypnosis for child birth here? Not quite (but I hope so). No, she is getting all healthy on us and quitting the old ciggy habit, no more cancer sticks for her or her unborn child.

Lily is using hypnotist Susan Hepburn for this, the hypnotist who helped her lose weight. Maybe Ms. Hepburn will grace us by answering the 10 questions one week.

Source:
Thaindian News

Turn and Face the Changes

There was a time when writers would say, " the pen is mightier than the sword." What would it be for bloggers? The keyboard is mightier than the AK47?

The other day a report from the Better Business Bureau of Dallas and Northeast Texas reported that Changes International Inc. is on their scam list for weight loss products. This has been itching at me since I saw it. At first, emotion set in and I rolled my eyes thinking, "Oh no, here we go ago again. Another knock against hypnosis."

Changes International is a company who promises results after one session, but does offer a guarantee, in that its participants can come back at any time and attend the session again for free. Also, if by the first break in the seminar, the client decides it is not for them, they can get their money back (past the break, it is a no go). After looking at their web site, the company looks okay. Refunds and guarantees. Most hypnotist do not do either of these. However, it is not so vogue to promise results with one session anymore because sometimes it takes a few session to address and work on everything involved with the change.

So, with that said, I looked them up on the Better Business Bureau web site. They had 18 complaints (in eight different states) in 36months. Ten have been resolved.

What were the complaints?

• Alleged failure to honor contract - work done with out authorization or invalid contract. It has been resolved. (1 complaint)
• Bad customer service. No response. (1 complaint)
• Failure to honor terms of guarantee. (3 complaints that Changes International had addressed, but clients did not notify BBB of their acceptance of it. 3 complaints with no response.)
• Failure to honor refunds. (3 complaints resolved. 4 complaints were address by Changes International, but clients did not notify BBB of their acceptance of it. 1 complaint has no response.)
• One non-defined complaint was resolved and one complaint has no response.

I imagine the Changes International Inc.'s biggest problem, according to the Daily News, was the claim that they are "the only organization of our kind endorsed by the Better Business Bureau." Apparently, the Better Business Bureau does not agree with this statement. Yikes (for Changes International)!

Well, (sigh) at least most of the complaints were about business practices and not so much the hypnosis. But, in the larger picture, I guess when working in the field of hypnosis, it pays to be reliable, do honest business practices and live up to your guarantee and refunds. Its all part of the hypnosis experience.

Sources:
The Daily Times
The Better business Bureau

Good PR (public relations) for World Hypnotism Day

As I sit warming up my poor, cold hands on the coffee cup, I have debated long and hard about posting anything about a "news" item that pinged into my email last night. It was infused with so much grumbling, I thought at first it would not be worth it, but thanks to Tom Nicoli and Debbie Lane, I am giving it a go. Please note that this is more of a hurrah! for these two.

Here the gist:

Apparently, the county commissions for Hernando County, Florida, at their December 18 meeting, made a proclamation proclaiming World Hypnotism Day in Hernando County. For many of the readers of this blog, this may not be news. For everyone else, World Hypnotism Day is a time when many of us hypnotist do various things within the community to raise awareness for hypnosis and educate people about its good applications. It is in early January.

So, here are the nice commissioners of Hernando County, who gave the day a thumbs up. It seems like a fairly benign thing all in all - but apparently not to one resident of the county. On Hernando Today, he wrote his woes and issues. Sure sounds like someone had a really bad day, as well as being taken in by media portrayals of evil hypnosis. He moans about hypnosis and the county commissioners being under hypnosis for a little while and then complains about the commissioners' meeting schedule. I cannot quite tell if he is more upset with the idea of hypnosis or the long break between commissioner meetings (they break for about a month). I suspect it is the latter. Perhaps he believes all the county employees have a month off? Somehow I doubt that, but if they do actually get a month off with paid leave, I may well be in the wrong profession. LOL. Then he mentions something about Sunday being a time for family-activities (church-going and the upcoming holidays). What do Sunday's have to do with anything? World Hypnotism Day is on a Friday, and I believe those who celebrate Christmas are doing so on a Tuesday?

But this is exactly why we need World Hypnotism Day. I applaud this man for making the need for the day so evident!

And I applaud both Tom Nicoli and Debbie Webber who responded with comments that were well written and informative in defense of both World hypnotism Day and hypnosis in general. And they were both incredibly kind. Kudos, you two!

Source:
Hernando Today

An Esoteric Chance to Help

Ah, breathing time. Coffee time. Life is good.

And as promised, I am back for an Esoteric Saturday. The topic of today's post is one of hope and mind set. It also heralds from the news, but really is not trivial.

Today's topic is the story about PC Hilario Riviero, a police officer. His is a positive story (hopefully) about self-healing. When responding to an incident in Buen Intento, Princes Town, he was badly beaten and is now at the San Fernando General Hospital. He has been there for a month with spinal and renal injuries after attempting to intervene in an attack on a woman and instead was beaten himself by a father and son team.

Because his injured leg has gone numb, surgery seems a likely consequence. However Riviero is working on self-healing through having a positive mind set and using hypnosis techniques. He has been reading books about the subject. Both he and others believe they see improvement. Where he was not able to move, there is some movement now.

When I read stories like this, I have the huge urge to locate the person involved and voluntarily offer my services to help them. But in this case, it is huge urge with no funds to do so. But...but...maybe just maybe...one of you might be in a position to help? If you are in the Trinidad area, perhaps this is an opportunity to provide a random act of kindness...The hospital's phone number is 1-868-652-3581.

Source:
The Trinidad and Tobago Express

Would You Like a Coke After Your Tonsils are Removed?

During my cleaning process yesterday, I refound an article about a recent tonsillectomy done under hypnosis with fabulous results. Have you read about this yet? If not, read on.

The operation took place in Johannesburg, Africa at the Milpark Hospital. The person who was hypnotized with anesthesia hypnosis was Liesl van Dreau (the article also cites her age at 35 - why do we need to know this?). So, happy recovery Ms. van Dreau and good for you for giving this a go!

According to the article, no painkillers or anesthetics were given during the operation, nor did she use antibiotics or anti-inflammatory tablets after the fact. And the wonderful thing is that not only did she not have to endure the side affects of the painkillers and anesthesia (grogginess, nausea, and all those fabulous things), when in the recovery room, she was able to drink a soda and even eat. She was in recovery for an hour, then discharged from the hospital, and was able to go back to work within three days of the operation. This is great news for those of us who have difficulty with anesthesia and sensitivity to pain killers, but it is also fabulous for everyone else. Who would not want to come out of surgery like that? And I would think the insurance companies would be all over it - so much less time in the hospital equals less money for the procedure.

The other thing you should know about Ms. van Dreau is that this all came about because she was taking a course in hypnotherapy. An anesthesiologist from Milpark Hospital also took the course and asked a surgeon, Dr Kishen Dayal, if he would do Ms.Van Dreau's tonsil surgery using hypnosis for anesthesia. After meeting with her, Dr. Dayal agreed to try it, using specific surgical instruments to minimize bleeding. In the end, only half a swab was needed for the blood loss.

The hypnotist was Tom Budge (Johannesburg), whom Ms. van Dreau saw twice before the surgery to prepare for it. During the surgery (took her six minutes to be hypnotized), Budge gave her suggestions to control the bleeding, to be pain free and that she was doing well.

Another feather for our cap, I would say!


Source: New24.com

A Little Good New for IBS Sufferers to Start the Day

Good morning! I am a bit foggy today, so I think I will spend this morning's post on an In the News piece. It actually pinged into my inbox yesterday, but it is old news from May. Since I missed it at the time, maybe you did, too.

The subject is Childhood Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and hypnosis. Arine Vliegaer, M.D., Ph.D, of Saint Antonius Hospital in Nieuwegein (Netherlands) headed a randomized controlled trial and found hypnosis created a cure for IBS by the end of treatment in 59% of 53 young patients. This compares to the 12% who received standard care. And here's the really nice part: 85% were cured through hypnosis after a year of follow-up.

The subjects of the study (I think it might be okay to use the word subjects here as it refers to experimentation) were between the ages of eight and 18. All had suffered an average of 3.4 years from abdominal pain and IBS with no evidence of there being a physical problem. Considered a common condition for pediatric office visits, this has a "reported prevalence of between 1% and 19%."

Traditional medical care for IBS includes pain medication and education on sensitive gut. Finding potential triggers is also encouraged.

The Nitty Gritty of the Study
The control group was given standard medical care with six half hour sessions of supportive therapy. The mean pain scores for this group fell, but from 14.5 to only 9.8 by the end, though there was a little more of a drop after a year to 8.0.

The hypnosis group received three months of six half hour hypnotherapy sessions using the Manchester Protocol. The mean pain intensity scores for this group dropped from 13.5 at the beginning of the study to 3.0 at the end.

Only participant did not complete the treatment. This research found an 80% improvement in pain scores.

Source: www.medpagetoday.com

The Verdict

Time is quickly flying by this morning. I have already burned my mouth on a hot tea cup and I should think about dragging the iron out (but I don't want to, so I won't). I always tell myself I will not see clients first thing in the morning, but then I read somewhere that doing regression work and such is best early in the day. At this point I almost would rather substantiate that and sit here in my bathrobe for another hour or two, but alas, that is not to be. And I am as ever, grateful to have the client.

Just thought I would leave with the verdict in a trial from Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Perhaps you have been keeping up with this (or remember our conversations from this past summer), about an appeal from a 2003 murder trial of three Mount Lebanon men. One of the men contended that his little brother had been hypnotized (by their mother) to testify against him. This little brother received immunity for testifying.

Yesterday, a state appeals court upheld the original judge's decision that the witness had not been hypnotized.

Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Thumbs up to PG&E

When I think of winter, an image that comes to mind is one where it is cold, raining or sleeting, and there huddled together at the entranced to buildings are the smokers, taking their five minutes to catch a quick fix. Maybe it is me, but I really am not a fan of the cold. I think that would be so humiliating to be forced to stand out there and give in to the quirks of my subconscious mind.

It is nice to see certain employers actively taking a stand and doing something to try to help these people. And yes, I am aware the employer has everything to gain from doing so: healthier employees may equal a higher quality output (people do still care about that, don't they?), less health care expenses, and maybe even better morale. In a press release today, PG&E announced that they are trying out group hypnosis for their employees to help with smoking cessation. So big clap on the back for PG&E. They are testing this out in San Francisco, Fresno and Sacramento, and if it proves successful they will make it a company wide program.

They started the pilot this past summer and had a 60% success rate for people quitting cold turkey. It is possible this is the number who quit by using hypnosis (it is not clear in the release). The hypnotist involved is Mary Mitchell, who regresses her group back to the time when each member tried his or her first cigarette. Then she uses NLP to replace the thoughts of this moment with the positive suggestions for change.

Source: Sacbee.com

Please Stop Hitting Me While You Sleep

You are abruptly awakened from a sound sleep. You are being thrashed by your partner (yet again). you try to stop them, but as they are in another state of conicousness, it is hard to bring them to awareness of their actions. Then they turnover and seem to go back to sleep. In the morning, you confront his or her (yet again) and they denie it. They have no memory of doing such as thing. And he or she is probably telling the truth. He or she may have a form of parasomnia.

Here is another study for your box of hypnosis-does-good. The Mayo Clinic College of Medicine’s Sleep Disorders Center has done a long-term study on hypnosis and parasomnia. What is parasomnia? This is the distinction and category that sleep disorders such as talking, walking and eating while you sleep, as well as night terrors, restless leg syndrome, and teeth grinding fit nicely into. Also, some people have sex or drive while asleep. We have all seen a few of the later, I expect. However, this is serious stuff, as it causes inappropriate psychical responses during slow-wave sleep or non-REM modes, which means the person with this disorder may hurt themselves or someone else without knowing it or doing it intentionally. These are often triggered by stress or depression.

The five-year study was done to see if hypnotherapy would be useful in treating people with parasomnia. It followed 36 people for this duration to see what the effects of hypnosis would have upon the disorder. The ages of the study participants varied between age sex and 71 years (four were between the ages of six and 16). Each was given one to two sessions of hypnosis with follow-ups at one month, 18 months, and five years. At the one month mark, 45.4% had stopped experiencing parasomnias. At 18 months, 42.2% remained without symptoms, and at five years 40.5% were still free of symptoms.

Did the hypnosis relieve these people of the symptoms or did it work because hypnosis is a great stress reducer or perhaps the depression was released during the process? That is undecided, but in my book, it beats medication.

P.S.
A potential finding of other studies on parasomnias show a link between it and Parkinson Disease. It is possible that the parasomnia is a potential warning sign of it.

Sources:
Insight Journal
WebMD
When the Brain Disrupts the Night (from the New York Times)

Esoteric Theatre Regression

Though today's esoteric media could also be an "In the News" item, it seems more apt here. I am a total sucker for theatre and a good musical. Hence, I must mention On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. Ever see the movie with Barbara Streisand? This comes to mind as the Barnstable Comedy Club in Cape Cod is currently in the throws of this production. It runs through November.

If you are not familiar with the plot, basically it is about a young woman who goes to a psychiatrist for smoking cessation. In the process he regresses her back to a past life as a British heiress. The problems begin when he falls for this heiress.

Fun, Fun, Fun.

The real question is, do psychiatrists still engage in hypnotic procedures? Does anyone in modern society go to psychiatrists for hypnosis? Seriously? And the whole falling in love thing - granted love between psychiatrists and clients is an over romanticized thing, so I guess this would be fairly common. But is it not usually the client that falls for the doctor?

A Recent Study on Smoking Cessation

While cleaning out my email inbox, I have just come across an article that is a perfect resource for anyone doing anything with the Great American Smokeout. It was from a few weeks ago in The Daily News in Newburyport, MA and was written by Julie Kirkwood. It was about a small study by hypnotherapist Karen Pischke (actually a registered nurse) and the doctors at Salem Hospital. The study was designed for smokers who were hospitalized for smoking-related heart or lung problems. They gave the patients a choice of various tools to help them stop smoking, including hypnotherapy. According to their study, each participant that had just one hypnotherapy session had a 50 percent chance of quiting and remaining smoke-free for six months. This compared to the 16 percent of those who used the nicotine replacement patch. For those participants that combined hypnotherapy and the patch, it had the same rate as hypnotherapy alone.

This hospital chose to do their own study because they did not agree with the past studies on hypnotherapy and smoking. Based on the studies published in the Cochrane Library in 1998, the reviews found so many inconsistencies in the results, no conclusions were made. Apparently most of the studies had no controls and it was difficult to tell what sort of hypnotherapy was used.

So this particular study did have a control group comprised of patients who chose to quit cold turkey. Also, they factored in Pishke as a hypnotist and thought that maybe her skills and method may have played an important role in the success factor, even though they tried to standardize her method. Perhaps we need to do a study on methods and hypnotist personality types? They also thought that because the patients were allowed to self-select their quiting method, this could have biased the outcome. Interestingly, more women chose to use hypnosis, where as men choose to quit cold turkey. And then there is the fact that all the participants were motive to quit since they had all just suffered a frightening health events related to their smoking habits. For those who were not interested in quiting, they were not invited to participate and for those who did participate and chose to use hypnosis or nicotine replacement, they had extensive counseling.

Their finding? One needs motivation to quit.

Source: If you want to kick the habit, a local study is finding a hypnotist may be your best bet

Scary Leprechauns

Ah, All Hallows. My favorite holiday. What a busy time, party and all. I got a favorable response to it so it should be fun. The cider is all ready to be spiced, the guided meditation written and my custume hanging on the shower bar.

Are you doing anything fun today?

And onto the scary stuff, no really, I mean scary. It is in the news again...someone having issues from a hypnotism show. What is the deal with this?

If you have not heard this one, it happened in Sydney, Australia at a Peter Powers hypnosis show on October 19. Same old story. Hypnotist hypnotizes skeptic. Skeptic feels bolts of lightening, itchy when triggered, and runs out of the show to chase leprechauns. At least the leprechauns is a charming touch. Apparently Chris (last name withheld from the press) ran out of the Enmore Theatre and into traffic to chase the little creatures. He says he felt terribly paranoid and confused and had reportedly run into traffic. His date to the show ended up calling him on his cell phone and this snapped him out of the hypnosis. He was on the other side of the city with no idea how he got there. This is what today's story said (see the first two articles under cited).

However, Monday's article says a little more. Powers said that he had removed the hypnosis and the man left the stage and theatre. Another audience member followed him, suspecting he was still under hypnosis. Chris was seen running through traffic and acting crazy, by police. Chris later told Powers that he had run because he thought someone was following him, which they apparently were. He had also told Powers this had frightened him. Well, yes, it might frighten me as well.

The disturbing thing is the subtle changes in two of the articles, both by Gemma Jones. Has indeed Chris changed the story and blamed it on Powers? Is the media slanting stories? So, I began wandering about leprechauns and how that got into the story. Early in the show, it was something Powers had participants do, so I think the two stories got blended.

Now as a person who tries to see the good side of things, here is the spin. Even though this seems like more bad press about hypnosis, ultimately it may not be. They do say there is no bad press. But all it really does, whether true or not, is potentially show how powerful hypnosis can be. It sort of plugs the notion of it in an awkward way, at the least the more recent articles do. The firstone really shows what may have happened. Chris got scared by being chased. Now perhaps he is trying to save face or something of the sort.

Your thoughts?

Sources:
news.ninemsn.com.au
Peters Powers 'victim' speaks out
Hypnotised man flees show into path of traffic

In the News - High

Today the coffee maker was reset after a short power outage. This morning the brew is dark and heavy (serving of coffee beans ground was maxed at ten and water was only six cups).

And as I am awakening much more abruptly (thank you coffee maker), it seems like the concept of adding in the random "In the News" segment is perfect.

So, lets talk about heights. Last Sunday (October 21) at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena, Ratho, in Scotland, there was a pretty exciting event. The center hosted mass hypnosis for people suffering with acrophobia. Edinburgh-based Brain Train, Dawn and Gary Flockhart, did the hypnosis and NLP work. Once that was done, participants were taken 100 feet off ground level to the arena's aerial assault course. Though harnessed, volunteers had to step off the platform (remember 100 feet off the ground level) into air, then face a twisted zip-slide, not to mention an obstacle course at the end.

There were 50 volunteers aged 11 to 56. Only three of the 50 did not attempt the aerial assault challenge after a thirty minute session. Using a method that involved imagining a picture of themselves in a frightened state, these volunteers were then told to focus on the fear that they experienced with this frightened state. Suggestions were given so that they would chant "sit and float" under their breath as a reminder to remain calm.

I had hoped a few of the participants would have blogged about the experience, but I have as yet to find them. The arena says that there were several success stories that came from that day. It also looked like a few people went through with it, but their phobias were not completely gone when they did the aerial Assault .

I invite any of the participants to comment and share their story (good or bad or if any of you have stumbled onto this blog). Also, if anyone else has any comments or knowledge of the event, please feel free to also post them as well.


Sources:
news.scotsman.com
www.adventurescotland.com

In the News

Good morning! No green tea today, back to black. And as I sit contemplating the first (and maybe only, we will see) post of the day, I think I will start a segment to the blog called In the News.

When I first saw the headline, I clicked on it. I believe I saw it sometime during the weekend, but the link had an error and I could not find the story. It surfaced today. From The Desert Morning News in Utah comes "Hypnotist's show in Logan sends girl to the hospital." It is by a young man names Ben Winslow. He presents the facts:

• There was a hypnotism show at a high school
• A local policeman was at the school for another event.
• He saw a 17 year-old girl being taken out of the school on a gurney.
• He said she was hyperventilating and very panicky.
• He also said the hypnotist was in the audience trying to get other people out of a state of hypnosis.
• Police said other young women had difficulty coming out of hypnosis.

For those who have any notion of the hypnotic process, you are probably thinking something along the lines of "eeek" and maybe even feeling a slightly acidic sensation in the stomach region. For those not experience or with little knowledge of hypnosis, you are probably thinking that this article may have some credibility. Don't.

If you actually click on the link to the story and read it, be sure to read all the comments as well. They are infinitely more interesting. Though I will come to the writer's defense. Yes, the article lacks a lot of information, the name of the hypnotist, what suggestion he/she had given to cause the girl to hyperventilate and be panicky (for if she was still in hypnosis, she would still be acting on that suggestion), and what happened to the girl. But, this story, like so many, is a quick once over of a situation. I suspect that the writer had little knowledge of hypnosis or was doing the journalistic thing of just providing the facts that he was able to gather quickly. So, as for the article being a hoax. I doubt that.

So then what is it? This is one of my greatest fears about doing stage hypnosis, especially in regards to a high school-aged crowd - the fear of having a participant who wants extra attention and feigns not being about to come out of the hypnotic state. Notice the word 'feigns.' She could have done so for the attention alone, not realizing that what she did had no creditability, could ruin the poor hypnotist (my heart goes out to that person), and set the hypnosis profession back a bit in the eyes of certain public. Or worse, maybe she did know all this, maybe it was a plot, but for now I am taking off my conspiracy theory hat.

And here is another thought, maybe it was not that she was stuck in a state of hypnosis, but had problems with how she acted during the show. Perhaps she was embarrassed, or had some odd revelation that distressed her, or anything of that nature. The all knowing "THEY" say that hypnotists should not work with people who have certain mental issues, like schizophrenia, unless the hypnotist has a background (and often licence in psychology). How is a stage hypnotist to know who or what he or she is dealing with in choosing volunteers from an unknown crowd?

Any thoughts?