Esoteric Probuditi!

Since our past Esoteric Saturday's were a bit heavy, thought we would hit today with something a little more fun. A children's book. That's right folks, hypnosis has made it into the picture book world for children with Probuditi! Written and illustrated by Caldecott winner Chris Van Allsburg, this is an interesting little foray into our favorite subject.

Not to spoil it for you (it is a super, quick read), it is about a little boy who gets it into his head to hypnotize his pesky, little sister and mayhem ensues. At first, my feathers were ruffled because it seemed to embrace one of the awful myths about hypnosis, but the end shows that it might not be as it seems. It is a subtle ending and it's rather charming. Point taken.

Interestingly enough, when you read the reviews for it in Amazon, no one really mentions the hypnosis angle (which is a major theme). Instead people take the racial topic, which I personally think has nothing to do with the book. But people will read into what they want, I guess. However, last year it was voted one of the 25 best children's books by Time Magazine.

Anyway, if you have read this, let me know your thoughts.

10 Questions with Paul Knight

Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin


Cyber Location: www.hypnotistpaulknight.com






1. Are you a full time hypnotist, part-time or hobbyist?

Full-time. It sure beats working for a living!

2. Do you specialize in any type of hypnosis?

I do it all. Therapy, entertainment and recreational. I decided long ago not to specialize. I think that has made me a better hypnotist since all the skills tend to overlap.

3. Is there any type of hypnosis you do not do? Why?

Very little. I do not work with alcohol or drug abuse due to regulations in my home state (Wisconsin). There are some clients I have learned I do not work well with. An example is a couple where one spouse wants me to hypnotize the other to find out if the other spouse has been cheating. There are some things that ethically and morally I will not do. Those items fall mostly on the recreational side of hypnosis.

4. Do you use self-hypnosis regularly in your life? If so, how?

Not too much any more. I'm perfect and don't need it. (Yeah. Right.) I used self-hypnosis for so long and for so many things that my mind now bypasses the hypnosis part and makes the changes directly (or not).

5. Describe your hypnosis office or work setting.

I make house calls, so its wherever I am working. For stage shows, again, wherever I am. No specific setting. That keeps things interesting.

6. Describe a typical day in your life.

There is no genuinely "typical day". It varies by day of the week and time of the year, if I have a client or am doing a show. Here is approximately an average day: If I am not traveling or have an early client, I tend to get up around 8 - 9 a.m., have a long breakfast then work for a few hours on paperwork, phone calls or whatever needs to be done. I frequently have afternoon clients, so I see them. If not, I lovebicycling, so if the weather is adequate, I go out for a 1-2 hour ride or as long as time permits. I usually have clients or a show in the early evening, so I go there. I tend to get home between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. depending on what I was doing. Then I may do a little bit more work, relax or just go to bed. If I am traveling for a show, then the day is usually spent on driving to the show and back. On those days Imay not get home until 3 or 4 a.m. or later. I am on the road about 90 days per year.

7. Where did you get your training in hypnosis and are you certified?

I am certified. I was originally trained by Gil Boyne and the Hypnosis Training Institute of Los Angeles. I have taken continuing training ever since and have been trained by too many people to mention (or remember). I was also an instructor for a time. Due to state regulations, I am not doing that right now. My stage hypnosis training was from the late, great Ormund McGill. He was every bit as good as his reputation says. My personal favorite instructor who is still offering classes on a regular basis is Gerald Kein of Omni Hypnosis in Florida.

8. Most fabulous hypnosis technique you use?

I don't know if it is the most fabulous, but I like rapid inductions. During a show I frequently use the hand clasp test and convert it into a rapid induction. Instantaneous hypnosis can be fun in the right setting.

9. Worse moment ever in a hypnosis setting that ended up being a
valuable learning experience.

I learned that when suggested she is getting warm, a teenage girl can remove her sweater, t-shirt and sports bra in a single one second maneuver, at which point I also learned a hypnotist can leap across a 50' stage in a single bound.

That may not be my worst moment, but it is one of the more potentially-disastrous-turned-humorous ones. Most of my bad moments have come on stage when something unexpected happens. Bad moments are pretty rare in therapy because there are less distractions and more warning if something ugly is about to happen.

10. Any words of advice to potential clients or other hypnotist.

To clients: Choose your hypnotist carefully. Check out several of them and decide who you are most comfortable with. Don't let letters after the name fool you. Many certified hypnotists are much better at their craft than PhDs. For stage entertainers, check references and watch (or at least skim) a full show. Every hypnotist's highlight DVD is fantastic. But a full show, even though it is their best show, can give you a lot more information about their quality.

To hypnotists: Never stop learning. Always try new things. If you are just beginning, study everything. You never know what you might need when. If you think you will only do stage hypnosis, study hypnotherapy as well (and vice versa). The skills overlap wonderfully. If you are established, challenge yourself. Try new things. Learn new skills every chance you have.

Lighting the Fuse

Last week on The Unwinding Path, a post or two dealt with the making lists of marketing ideas. This has to be the most stressful part of my business (probably yours as well), but it is never ending. That is marketing, not making lists.

One thing that has helped on the marketing front has been social networking. You meet all sorts of people and can gain an audience quickly. The only thing is, I suspect, you might want to be fairly swanky in advertising to these people - not over do it, but do not remain silent either.

Then there came Buzzfuse, which I have tried out to help get the word out about my free guided meditation I did earlier this month. Buzzfuse is a site to help one market their products, writing, audios, or anything cyber-real really. There is a free component, which I have signed up for and you can see the results on my free, guided meditation page. The goal of this marketing site is to expand the reach for your product, provide an interactive audience experience (a rating system), help you understand your market better, and maybe provide an opportunity to make money. On the free side, I signed up, put the widget on my page that I want promoted, and am at a stand still at the moment. It wants my Gmail friends' email address to market my product to them. Before it goes any farther, it wants ten addresses. I really wish it would use my Stumble friends or those on Blogcatalog, rather than my contacts on Gmail.

Rather than just doing this, if you would like to be included in my Buzzfuse friend list, let me know and I will gladly add you. In fact, Entrecard people, if you provide your email in a comment on this posting or message me through Entrecard with your email, not only will I added you to my friends on Buzzfuse, I will give you 25 entrecard points for doing so. It would be good to move forward here.

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

The Spinning Disk

You have to love the classic, now cliche, spinning disk as a hypnotic tool. You know the one - the disk is divided into four parts, two black and two white that merge together when spun. Simply mesmerizing.

Well, in the interest in studying the famous masters of this art form and our talk about Charcot's hypnotic sessions, I was hoping to find an induction that he used. I have not given up on it, but it is taking some time. But what I did come across was a reference to a tool he or his assistants may have utilized for hypnotizing his patients. Indeed it was a spinning disk. However, it is described as being a four-inch long cylinder that is about one and half inches in diameter. Within this is a little spinning disk, black and white segmented as mentioned above. Without spinning the disk, it is placed three inches away from a midpoint between the eye brows (eye fatigue inducing). After a few moments there is a button on the cylinder that starts the revolution of the disk. The patient is told to concentrate on it. The theory is that as the patient does this it causes a state of suggestibility.

It is good to know that somethings don't change.

Source:
Hypnotism by L. W. deLaurence

The Java Obsession

Well. Happy Tuesday. I have been busy researching a few thing of interest for this blog, but alas not much has come together at this point. It will have to wait then for the greater good.

Instead, you get me, pure Ellie and her tales from the sessions. Oh dear, do I see another segment forming? Hmmm.

Recently, I had a client who wanted help with giving up over indulgences, an interesting and enlightened idea. She had a caffeine habit that she wanted to quell. Hers was a problem of the old coffee pot at work thing, where there is always a pot full and ready for consumption. She would start the morning with a cup and thoughts of having just one, but the morning would pass into afternoon and she would end up consuming the whole pot. Yet, when she was not at the office, she said she would not even really think about making coffee for herself and did just fine. I find that to be highly interesting. Caffeine addiction or even a warped addiction that is space and time based? Is that possible?

I gave her a few choices in the direction we could go with the session - traditional hypnosis and suggestion work or a client-based procedure. And internally I bet she would go for traditional, but she did not. She asked for the more involved, client-based type. Using ideometric hand signals (for those new to such things, this means having the client respond to yes, no, and don't know questions using finger gesture responses), she indicated that her issues with over-indulgence was an imprint from her mother. Diving into this, the coffee over indulgence came from her mother's coping system of dealing with a large family and staying awake, as well as tossing the java back during the stressful times. Hmmmm. Sounds really familiar (well, not the large family part).

From there we began to search for solutions to help my client control the over indulgence, which ultimately became the suggestions and a plan. We worked on differentiating my client's world from her mother's and used a suggestion about enjoying a cup a day to its fullest extent and being satisfied with it. After the session, she put together a list of subtle changes she would make, like making really good coffee at home and bringing it to work in a travel mug to keeping a running count of cups of coffee she consumes.

The good thing is that she choose the direction of the session (as do all of my clients) and I would have sworn she was more of a traditional hypnosis gal, but when we were done she thought the experience was better than she had imagined it would be. Nice.

A Digital Project, Maybe

Just thought I would remind you again that the next upcoming project on The Unwinding Path is going to be The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards.

My copy just arrived moments ago, so I am pretty ready to get going on it, but I am holding off until next Monday. That way if you want to join me in the process, you can.

Something I have been thinking about though is the idea of doing the exercises digitally rather than using a sketch pad. I would really like to get a bit better with my digital drawing tablet and pen (you may know I have an inclination towards animation) and this seems like it would be a great way to do both. My thoughts would be to do this in Photoshop. Photoshop Brushes are really diverse in textures and styles, and there are some really awesome free brushes available that can add even more creativity to the palettes. Perhaps this may be overstepping the exercises, but I like the idea of drawing on various background patterns. It makes it more interesting in my mind.

Tomorrow I will be posting more information on The Unwinding Path.