ABCs of Hypnosis: IQ and Brain Function Improvement

Scientists have long known that children who are exposed to rich and varied environmental stimuli at an early age tend to develop a well-rounded knowledge base. They not only excel in math and language, but also in sports and the arts.

Hypnosis can be used to enhance learning abilities by improving memory, focus, concentration, deductive and inductive reasoning, general awareness and by improving sensory acuity.

One of my favorite things to use hypnosis for is synesthesia. Synesthesia is a perceptual condition of mixed sensations whereby stimulus in one sense (e.g., hearing) involuntarily elicits a sensation in another modality (e.g. vision). For example, you look at a tree and you feel warm, or you walk on the beach bare-footed and smell onions.

Rather than me explain it, watch David Eagleman talk about it on his video,

Seeing Sound, Tasting Color: Synesthesia

1.    www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTr1VnXKr4A

Through hypnosis, the experience of synesthesia can be triggered in people who have never experienced it. My belief is that it helps a person widen their view of reality and, thus, enhances creativity.

ABCs of Hypnosis: Happiness Pill

One of the coolest things I get to do as a hypnotist is to give clients a “happiness pill.” The right suggestion can cause a person to release endorphins and serotonin subconsciously.

The result is a better “high” than one can get from most prescription or illegal drugs, but with no negative side effects.

I like to put the button on the back of the hand and then give the suggestion that any time they press it, they get “the same sensations as they would from being in the most favorite time in their lives, having the most fun they’ve ever had” or even better. I reintroduce the happiness pill several times, each time making it stronger and stronger.

I saw the technique demonstrated by two of my mentors at conventions in California. Both times the subject practically floated out of the room and stayed that way for several hours afterward.

Once you see that you can have such a powerful experience using only your own mental capacity, you typically don’t see the use in recreational drugs.

The ABCs of Hypnosis: Game and Sports Enhancement

In thirteen years, I have worked with clients for almost every type of sports enhancement and several games as well.  Researchers have shown that athletes, who practice their sport in their minds, actually improve the muscle groups they use while physically involved in the sport. The Father of Modern Hypnosis, Milton Erickson, said he could tell who was going to be successful in a sport because they appeared more focused.

In the movie “For Love of the Game,” Kevin Costner plays an aging pitcher.  He gives himself a signal (“Clear the mechanism”) before releasing the ball.  For Costner’s character, once he recites the signal, the din of the crowd silences, and he is totally absorbed in the act of throwing the ball.

So focus and execution are two aspects of sports (or game) performance that hypnosis helps. Self-confidence and emotional control are two more.

To improve the latter two aspects mentioned above, I have clients choose a mentor, some they would like to be more like. I then have them imagine what it would be like to be in that body, making those moves with heightened agility and strength. We focus on any prior weak points with additional positive suggestion. For example, the golfer who choked on long putts sees them all falling in the hole easily and effortlessly.

The problem with most athletes and gamers is a mental one, not a physical one. The mental aspect is what makes hypnosis such a useful tool.

ABCs of Hypnosis: Finding Lost Objects and Memories

Finding Lost Objects and Memories

One of the less well known uses for hypnosis is for retrieving lost objects or memories. The most common “lost objects” I’ve helped people find are wedding rings. Next on the list is cash. I also helped a photographer once who had misplaced wedding photographs.

Whether you’re trying to find objects or memories, the process is the same. I have the person tell me as much as they can remember consciously. Then we go into trance and go back through the memories on a movie screen. The movie theatre technique allows them to fast frame, pause, slow-motion review or enhance any of the details, such as a license plate number. The movie theatre also keeps the client in “observer mode,” which is useful if there are any upsetting memories.

I’ve worked with several clients who needed to retrieve memories of a murder. In one case the client was 3-years-old at the time her mother allegedly committed suicide while she was alone in the house with her. She was able to go back to the event and remember how she survived the weekend alone by opening cabinets and eating what she could find inside. She also remembered distinctly the presence of a third person.

Another client was also a toddler when she was the only witness to her mother’s murder. She, too, could go back 30 years and retrieve the memory of crawling in to a kitchen floor filled with blood and a person exiting the room.  Although she could not determine who the killer was from the memory, she was able to release a long-term, and up to that time, unexplained fear of blood.

ABCs of Hypnosis: Eliminating Cravings (Part 2)

I originally talked about eliminating cravings by using hypnosis back in the Mind Power series, http://mooreinspire.wordpress.com/2008/12/02/sixty-days-of-mind-power-techniques-56/ . In that blog post, I mentioned finding a healthy substitute.

An additional means of eliminating cravings with hypnosis is to have the client X out the offending food or beverage or drug and as the item is disappearing or getting smaller, so is the craving for it. The more in depth the sensory experience the better. I have people see it shrinking and feel the craving becoming lessened.

The taste and smell can also be made less attractive if the craving is particularly stubborn. For example, I once had a fellow hypnotist with a craving for gummy worms. She told me before the session that she wanted me to tell her they tasted like maggots.

I don’t usually use such hard-core aversion therapy, but she said she was very addicted to gummy worms and felt she needed to use drastic measures. Weeks after the session, she told me she could no longer even think about gummy worms without gagging.

Yikes!

ABC’s of Hypnosis: Eliminating Cravings/Everything is Hypnosis

One of the easiest things to correct in the weight loss category of hypnosis is cravings.

Much of the success of hypnosis happens when people can see instant results, and cravings-elimination sessions do just that. Imagine how excited my customer was who wrote, “I haven’t had a coke in 6 weeks since our session on cravings!”

When you believe the hypnosis is working for you, the compounding effect starts to happen. Once you see you can make one change with hypnosis, you then believe you can make other changes. And, once the subconscious mind is programmed for success using hypnosis, breakthroughs happen.

That’s why it’s really important not to sure information about what you’re doing with naysayers. If you feel really good about the progress you are making with hypnosis and then go and speak to a “Doubting Thomas,” they can actually hypnotize you to fail.

As my mentor, Shelley Stockwell Nicholas says, “Everything is hypnosis.”

So, whether you’re talking to a doctor who is convincing you that you only have six weeks to live, a boyfriend who convinces you that you are the most beautiful woman alive or the TV commercial that convinces you to try a new product, it’s all hypnosis.

ABC’s of Hypnosis: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

• No matter why someone comes for hypnosis, common feedback is, “Things that used to bother me, just don’t seem to matter anymore.”
• It’s true. Hypnosis will keep you from sweating the small stuff.Here’s my theory why:Trance works like scrubbing bubbles for the body, mind, and spirit. When you scrub away the old anger or frustration, for example, you are able to deal with more of it without exploding.

  Likewise, the subconscious has no concept of past or future. To the subconscious, everything is happening right now. And the secret to being joyful is living in the present moment.

  So, hypnosis scrubs away the dark and adds light, resulting in a more easy-going nature.

• Think of it this way: Let’s say we each have a cup of space to deal with life’s “frustrations.” The more frustrations we let pile up without letting go of them, the more full the cup gets.  Once it overflows, we have a melt down.
• Hypnosis basically washes out the cup so we never getting to the meltdown point.

The ABC’S of Hypnosis: Charisma Booster

If you look in the Success Stories section of my website (http://www.mooreinspire.com/success_stories_1.html),

You can read K.O’s (not his real name) story. K.O. came in for hypnosis because he was having trouble meeting women. He could meet women casually with no problems, but, if he was interested in the woman as a potential romantic partner, he froze.

Dale (not his real name) was going through a messy divorce from a wife who had decided after 10 years that she wanted to “date other people.” His self-esteem was in the toilet. He also had problems standing up to his boss when he believed he was being treated unfairly or simply to ask for time off.

Romantic issues are not the only reason that a charisma booster is recommended through hypnosis. Sales people, politicians or would-be politicians, entertainers, and leaders of all types can benefit from increased charisma.

The technique involves a combination of direct suggestion and mimicking. I ask the client who their role model is for the desired behavior (also used in sports enhancement). For example, suppose Bill told me he would like to attract women as well as Matthew McConaughey.

Under trance, I would have him imagine what he would hear the actor say, how it would feel to be in his body, how he would see potential dates reacting and so forth. Then I suggest to him that he is now acting just as McConaughey would and getting the same or better results.

The results of this type of session are dramatic and powerful. I typically get several referrals from one charisma session.

Coming Next: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

ABC’s of Hypnosis: Brain Rejuvenator

One of the biggest advantages of using hypnosis (that I hear over and over again from clients) is how refreshed they feel.

When I’m working with clients, I frequently use imagery like this:

“Imagine you are standing outside on a perfect Spring day. Above you is a warm, refreshing ball of healing sunshine. Breathe in now and imagine that healing sunshine flowing down into every single brain cell. Just like scrubbing bubbles, it is washing away all old, tired, negative thoughts, feelings, beliefs or experiences.”

You don’t have to spend an hour listening to a hypnosis CD to get the rejuvenating benefits either. You could simply take a minute or two to imagine being in the scenario listed above. You could repeat the process several times a day or anytime you started to feel your energy waning.

Try it now for a minute or two. Just close your eyes and imagine breathing in that healing sunshine. Then open your eyes and notice any changes in how your feel.

ABC’s of Hypnosis: Affirm your Heart’s Desire

I’ve written before in this blog about affirmations. Blogs are my own preferred self-hypnosis technique. They are easy to write, easy to use and very flexible. You can read more about affirmations at Affirmation for Smooth Transitions

Here’s how to create an award-winning affirmation in 5 easy steps:

1. Decide what you are trying to accomplish.

2. Write your goal down in words that are meaningful and attention-grabbing for you.

For example, let’s say you want a better paying, more secure, and more fulfilling job.

3. Start the affirmation with “I am” or I and the action verb that applies. In this case, I would

Probably use “I easily attract a secure, fulfilling, job that provides all the money and benefits I want or need.”

I like to use easily attract because I prefer great jobs to just “fall in my lap.” You probably would like that, too.

4. Then write your affirmation on your favorite color sticky note and put them places where you will be reminded to read them to yourself.

5. As a bonus, you can make a collage (I have two on my bedroom wall) that shows images related to your affirmation. The more real you make the affirmation the easier it will be for you to manifest what you want.