Chakras and Lemon

Another day and this illness lingers. I cannot seem to sleep at night, but as soon as the sun comes out, off to dreamland I go. If this seems a little disjointed this week, you know that I am operating with cotton in the brain.

I am happy to report that #3 on my favorite five throat soothers worked brilliantly for me yesterday. My voice stayed strong, perhaps better than it does during my normal healthy times. I do suspect it is an acquired taste, though.

It has made me wonder about proper voice care during sessions in general. I find that many times, my voice will crack or grow hoarse during a session. I have added a humidifier into the mix and always keep water handy (coffee and caffeinated teas also seem to make it worse). No one has ever mentioned it as a problem, but still it has me curious. Does this happen to anyone else who has a job that involves speaking for a period of time? If so, what do you do to remedy this?

I was once told it is because one of my Chakras is blocked. How does one unblock a Chakra?

Today's Pregnancy Problem

I have a problem this morning and it has nothing to do with hypnosis, other than taking me totally away from it for a few moments. It is a problem that is breaking my heart and driving me mad. But, I shall blog about it because it is what is going on in the transparent hypnotist's life at the moment.

in a I had a visitor arrive two nights ago and she has not left, at least I think it is a she, a pregnant she. Sure, you are thinking, why Ellie, this is perfect, with her condition, there are many ways you could her and what better way to spread the good word about hypnosis. The problem is I doubt she would understand except for things happening at the Alpha level. This visitor is a cat. She is an extremely beautiful cat, well-mannered as such, and very friendly. She has taken up residence on a scrap of newspaper (now a towel that I donated to her cause last night) on the back porch. She is huddled against the wall. Since has refused to leave that spot, even with the threat of my male Tom around, I think there is more to the picture. That is why I think she is pregnant.

I spoke with the local veterinarian to see if anyone had reported her missing. No go. But as I talked with him, he told me to feel her belly if she would let me and see if I felt any hard lumps (babies). And yes, there are a couple of rather large lumps. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear.

I have not feed her. I cannot keep her. My house is way too small for another animal (and I am not sure the allergies could sustain it). I also have an aging, slightly sick indoor cat that prefers the idea of being an only cat.

Oh woe. What to do? What to do?

I am Not the Evil Step Mother!

Brrrrr!

Last night I started thinking about the whole idea of hypnosis in classic fairy tales a little bit more. For awhile I was pleasantly pleased by the idea that fairy tales involve a lot of trance factors. Then it dawned on me (okay, so I am a little slow) that in every instance I could think of that remotely related (all the poisoned apples and finger pricks) were done by the hands of the evil so and so. So much for the mythic trance. Darn. That is awful PR (public relations in this case, not page rank) for us. So, maybe it is time to write our own positive fairy tales where hypnosis saves the day.

A Few RandomThoughts on Hypnotheraphy

This whole college hypnotherapy thing is really nagging me. Technically my training was in hypnotherapy. However, I am in one of those states that will not let one use the word therapy in one's title (or it is suggested that one does not). But perhaps the state is correct in this. When I was trained, I am not so sure I learned much about therapy at the time. Sure I learned technique, but not what it takes a therapist a few years of college to learn. In looking at counselors and even the Sedona Method, it seems like hypnotherapists should have therapy backgrounds of some sort. But then again, in the higher realms of academia, those who have terminal degrees are deemed fit to teach college level courses though they may have no experience, training or schooling in teaching. What an odd world.

Material Request

I am on my last task before closing the door behind me and leaving the world behind. I have begun to do some shopping online for a new digital recorder for the office. The double duty on my one there is getting maddening. I take it home for various things and forget to take it back to the office. Rather than having to make one work for both spaces, I have decided to by another one.

My nephew in the UK has said he wants to present it to me as an early holiday treat (and he hopes I will send him an MP3 of my increasing concentration session). Fair enough. Well, UK pricing is different than the US, and sites that comparison shop are also different. So I have become aware of a new product comparison site in the UK called Save Buckets. I sent that out to him with my request, so we will see what happens. He says he may also try buying a new laptop using the site.

According to a recent article on Channel 4 News, the amount people pay for gifts is staggering. Many are still paying off last year’s debts. So, it only makes sense to comparison shop. But how on earth have we come to this? I understand the nature of giving (and it is commendable), but at what cost? Should be we buying so much in the gift giving sense that we go into debt? Do our loved ones really want that from us?

Perhaps that last paragraph is hypocritical since this post began with my words about my nephew’s graciousness. But, maybe not (or maybe so and I am just justifying it) since it is more or less a trade for my help. And this way he is not beholden to me.

Well, I definitely need to quiet the mind. So, I am signing off until Monday.

Have a great weekend.

The Big Bounce

Hmmm. The coffee is not cutting this one. Looking at yesterday's mail, I notice that one my client's checks bounced recently. Yikes. Sadly, this does happen, even to those of us with the best intentions. Many of us have been on both sides of this expensive fence and seen the domino effect it has in increasing bank charges to one and all.

And so, I breathe a heavy sigh. The bounced check is from a client who was recently laid off and is working on self-esteem to get back into the work force. We have been increasing his positivity about this situation and how it is a new beginning, a chance to do what he has always wanted to do (he has yet to figure this out). And now this. Well, guess it will be a test to see how well the hypnosis suggestions have worked to keeping him positive.

You know, though, it rather incenses me. Not the bounced check so much, but the banking fees that he will face. And I know, we can talk about responsibility all day long, but it will not change this that has come to pass.

And you know there is actually someone doing something about this in Britain. Soon their Office of Fair Trade will be doing an inquiry into this and have frozen all claims against banks regarding these fees. For those across the pond, they pay between 25 and 38 pounds for bouncing checks. According to a BBC money program, with the technology increasing efficiency with transactions, the cost should only be four pounds. Think how much banks make on all these Unfair Bank Charges. There is a company there that is now helping people with excessive charges called Keypoint, so that is a positive step.

I really think the US should consider looking into such fees, but I guess over here, we are a little side tracked.

Good Morning!

Just thought I would write a quick good morning post as the fog clears in the mind and the caffeine takes hold. For some reason the water seems hotter than usual (same stove, same tea pot). Perhaps I stayed up too late, feeding my horror movie addiction. Funny how some movies get worse with time and others just remain awesome.

Well, I am totally babbling and you are not reading this to hear about Hellraiser. Sadly, it is what is on the brain and is currently creating a small block about what the Monday Poll will be about. Perhaps we will talk about psychology or perhaps it should be related to Halloween. Not sure just yet.

Cheating

As I continue my research for my football playing client, thoughts of cheating come to mind. No, it is not what you think. I certainly will not give suggestions that he do so to get ahead in school. But the question comes about as to whether or not having improvement surgery is cheating, this includes for better eye site, weight loss, or plastic surgery. My client asked me about this and if I thought such things would be cheating.

And I realized I have been assuming a hypocritical demeanor. I have openly scoffed at liposuction and line reducing injections (I am so sorry for any offense you may be taking in reading this). But in really examining it, I find that thought line is totally wrong and hypocritical. If one choses those routes to feel better or to enhance life, then so be it. If these things were cheating, then would not hypnosis be cheating as well? It is some what on the same plan, using a tool to enhance life.

So no, I do not think hypnosis or surgery for non-medical conditions is cheating. It is the means to an end, or for personal change.

The Truth and the Evolution

Today's wandering pondering is ongoing from yesterday's conversation with Michael about subliminals. You cannot but help love all this stuff we learn about the mind and consciousness. One year, one thing is true. The next it is not. Then three years later it is true again. Perhaps this is why I did not do well in science classes when I was younger. There is too much that we do not know. There seems like there is little truth and a whole lot of hypothesis (I did better when we were allowed to do our own hypothesis). And that becomes a question of - is there ever truth? For one second it could seem so, but then reality shifts and bam, what was true is no longer.

Yes, I have been reading metaphysics again, well maybe not metaphysics, but about metaphysical concepts. I just finished Carlos Constanza's Road to Ixland. And I am now beginning The Tibetan Book of the Death and Dying. How odd to find that you might be Buddhist if...But I digress.

Well, as I took my first sip of morning tea, a thought struck me about subliminals (okay tapped me, it is to early for a knock-down-drag-em-out mental conversation). The first ideas about them seemed to indicate a positive consumer response to visuals. Is it possible that indeed the old "put an image in the ice cube" type really did work well. Perhaps in those few years since then, our minds have adapted, subtly evolved? Perhaps we evolved enough for it to no longer be so effective. Now we are left with heftier tricks of subtle manipulation like the flashing of the image of a pretty girl and a one word command.

Just a thought.

What dream recall has to do with lucid dreaming

Time for a night cap and I am thinking seriously of heading off to bed as soon as possible. It has been a long day and my eye has been bothering me. Nothing more fun than bright car lights in the dark and a light-sensitive pink eye.

Slowly but slowly, we have gotten more in depth with the concept of lucid dreams. On the last lucid dream post, we discussed using auto suggestion to help create a lucid dream. We may also want to use auto suggestion for dream recall.

Now what does dream recall have to do with lucid dreaming and why is it an important skill to develop if you want to lucid dream? Intellectually dream recall and lucid dreaming seem to go hand in hand, but I have had a hard time understanding why. Now I know. According to the Dream Institute, dream recall helps one's conscious mind to be in sync with the dreaming (subconscious?) mind. Apparently one has a whole different world of people, places, and feelings in the dream state. By recalling these, your conscious mind or the mind that reasons will be more present in dreams. When in the dream state, while experiencing the dream, you will now be more apt to recognize the unfamiliar (wait....what?). Darn it, I almost had it. I am tired. Maybe it does make sense but I am too tired to understand. Or perhaps this post is part of a lucid dream. Hmmm. My hands still look the same (could use a little hand cream, but yes in fact, they are mine).

Okay, enough. To Bed I go. Goodnight.

The Truth

Sometimes I wake up in the morning with a song running through my brain. Today it is something else; it it a phrase that keeps repeating itself.

The truth will set you free.

Very rarely do I have biblical quotes that haunt me, but today it is this one. I have no clue why it is there, but it is.

So, yes, the faithful cup of tea is in my hand, and I am pondering it.

I have been doing some regression work with clients, which is why I think this phrase is coming to mind. And being from the school of thought that believes that the client must come to his or her own conclusions, make their own connections for it to be helpful, there are times when I just have to clamp my mouth shut and sit on my hands. It takes everything not to jump up in the chair and say "don't you see it? It's right there in front of you." So, then I try to ask questions that will bring them to the point (without leading questions).

Well, luckily I do this because the other day when working with someone I know fairly well, this occurred. This person is trying to make some life changing decisions. With everything that he had said, I thought I knew the conclusion he was going to make. IT WAS SO OBVIOUS. But I kept my mouth shut and continued asking him questions about how the experience correlated to his present situation.

And shut me up, blow me down, what he came up with was so beyond my vision or awareness, I was dumbstruck. His answers were profoundly insightful. But it is the case as James Garfield once said:

The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.

And I think this is the crux of the matter. The truth is always there, but sometimes it is so hard to live by the knowledge, to live honestly. I suspect if we all lived honest lives, in that we live the way we really want too or should, life would probably cease to function, sort of like the impossible Utopian world idea.

To do what would set us free is to take a risk, to potentially give up the comfort zones we have created in mediocrity. And so then is it not fear that stops us in our tracks?

But I am ever optimistic (most days, though I have been a bit grumbly this week). I think if one learns "one's truth," it can take hold like a root, and growth happens, perhaps slow and imperceptible, but it is there doing its thing until something fabulous blossoms.

Now you have read my ramblings, feel free to do the same.

c(_)

Good morning! It is a strong coffee-type of day here. Perhaps I should develop a social networking site based on beverage consumption, sort of like the iratemyday.com concept, but you rate your day with what you are drinking. Hmmm. That could be a lot of fun. Too bad I am a hypnotist and not a web developer. So, if anyone is inspired by my beverage idea and wants to use it, please just let me know so I can play, too.

Well people, other than what I just wrote, I feel a bit spent from yesterday's blogging marathon. So, I guess I will hold off a bit before really posting anything of note. Unless inspiration hits (and a little more time opens up) I will see you tomorrow on Esoteric Saturday.

P.S.
Wondering what c(_) is or have you figured it out?

Hypnosis as Religion

Hypnosis as religion. This thought went through my mind during a recent session and it occurred to me that hypnosis and the belief in hypnosis can be really similar to religion. For those of us “believers,” it is a powerful concept, one that transcends reality. It can make possible all sorts of things and transform one’s reality. That is just how it is. And we proselytize about it or perhaps we are more subtle and carry it within, a faith that shines outwards.

Our archangels and saints are people like Erickson (perhaps Gabriel or St. Joan), Mesmer (perhaps the Archangel Michael), and Orman McGill (perhaps Mother Theresa). We read and study it. We utilize it in our daily life. And it brings us together.

This occurred to me while I was dealing with a resistive client, who informed me that he has the urge to giggle whenever thinking about being hypnotized. And so, I found myself listening to my internal dialog as he was saying this and I realized how foreign his point of view was from mine. Why, he was a non-believer. How was that possible? How could he not see how value of this tool?

And then I remembered back to my school days, when I was just a wee pup. I had a friend whose parents were devote Christians. How incensed I was even at that young age, when they told me time and again the only way I could save myself from the torments of Hell was to see their way, see their light.

Never would I have believed myself to have anything in common with these people (and I am sure you see the irony of my comparing hypnosis to religion), but apparently I really do. I have my “way,” I have seen the light. And though I do not condemn others to Hell for not believing in the power of hypnosis, I see how easy it is to get immersed in belief and wonder why everyone else does not see your religion as you do.

Another Snippett

It was good to hear that Paul is still getting the old, "do you use a pocket watch?" question when he tells people of his interest in hypnosis.

I thought of another type of comment I have gotten a few times upon telling people about my involvement with hypnosis.

"That's very interesting. I already quit smoking so I don't really have a need for any hypnosis, but that's very interesting."

This is a fun response because it says so much. It says that they at least heard what you said. It says they know just a little about hypnosis. It says either you are coming off with a marketing pitch in your introductions (which I suppose is quite possible) or that that is how they network: looking for that balance of what can I do for you, what can you do for me. I suspect the answer is how that comment is delivered. It may also say, I would like to hear more or change the subject please. Gosh but I love social communication.

But, no matter what, it is still a great opening for, "Ah, true enough, but there is so much more that hypnosis is used for these days."

That keeps the dialogue flowing and voilà, instant education opportunity.

Perhaps this is arcane subject matter for me to bring up, but there was a time when such comments would end the conversation with me (I can be a little slow on the uptake), but I have gotten it enough that I finally understand it could make for an interesting conversation.

Conversation Snippets

The other night I dined with a few friends, and a few would-be friends (I had just met them). And as we had not met before, one inevitably asked what I do for a living (yes, I am in the states currently). So, I told them. One thought it was pretty cool. And then there was the biological studies major, who informed me he had spent some time studying hypnosis in a psychology class. They had dedicated something like eight hours (I think it may have been six, but I feel generous today) to discussion, theory, and perhaps practice? He told me in that reverent-I-am-in-college-so-I-know way, that the class came to the conclusion that hypnosis only works if you believe in it. Whenever I hear that I cannot help but think of Peter Pan and "clap your hands if you believe in fairies." And then he dismissed the subject and we were on to quantum psychics.

Now in reading that last paragraph you may think I am being condescending to college students, so let me get this straight. Having enough degrees myself, I find college students charming with fresh optimism (and gosh I hope they all keep it) and often self-confidence. When they are new to the world like that they show a wonderful worldliness of experience (their own or that surmised). I say all this is a fond reminiscent way.

This is where I really find people's reactions to hypnosis interesting. As a practitioner, it is so much a part of my life, perhaps I take it for granted. It is there when I need it for self-work, and it is there when clients need it, and seek it. But I find people who are not enmeshed in it a nice break from reality, especially the ones who know just enough to have a conversation.

Then dinner conversation continued on to topics such as future plans, curing cancer, and just as abruptly as changing the subject from hypnosis to quantum psychics, the conversation turned to say-I-think-they-have-bread-pudding-for-dessert.