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Hypnosis - The Real Story
By Gayle North
I had the privilege of seeing Don Spencer’s hypnosis stage show recently. It has been a long time since I laughed so long and so hard. It was great fun.
Friends who went with me to Don’s show had a myriad of questions about hypnosis after the show. “How did he get them to do all of those crazy things? Do they remember what they did? Why did he eliminate three of the volunteers in the beginning, couldn’t they be hypnotized?“ A hypnosis show makes hypnosis seem very mysterious and raises all kinds of questions in people.
Hypnotic states are experienced by everyone early in life. Human beings have to learn enormous amounts of information very quickly to survive and be a member of their community. One of the keys to understanding how we can learn so much so quickly and store it in memory may be found in the measurement of the brains fluctuating electrical activity. Electroencephalograms (EEGs) provide “electric head pictures” which reveal a graded range of brain activity.
Although all adults and children show brain wave activity in Delta, Theta, Alpha, and Beta frequencies, but the ranges is limited somewhat by the stage of development. From birth to two years the human brain operates predominantly at the lowest EEG frequency. .05 to 4 cycles per second, known as Delta waves.
From two years to six years the EEG activity is predominantly in the Theta range of 4-8 cycles. From six to twelve years of age higher frequencies in the Alpha range of 8-12 cycles are normally seen. At around twelve years of age EEGs show more Beta wave activity in the range of 12-35 cycles.
Early hypnotic states help us learn. Learning can be positive or negative. The hypnotic brain wave activity of childhood makes it possible to absorb almost unimaginable amounts of information in a short time. As Don pointed out during his performance, the problem with the childhood hypnotic states is that everything a child sees hears or feels can be a post hypnotic suggestion that may last into adulthood.
In our Success Classes which are part of the weight reduction program, students often bring up the fact that they were forced to clean their plates as children. Now, even though they are in their 50’s or 60’s and overweight because of this practice, they still feel compelled to clean their plates.
Hypnosis can help you undo old negative hypnotic programming. The wonderful thing about experiencing hypnosis as an adult is that it can help you to undo the negative programming of the past and help you do anything you want to do. As an adult, you can now choose your programming. You may not want to get up on a stage and act crazy, but remember, the people in Don’s show were volunteers. They wanted to do it!
Without the hypnosis to help them overcome their shyness however, I doubt that any of them would have been so unabashedly into their performance.
What people don’t often realize is that they have already been hypnotized in negative ways. They are stuck in their unwanted habits or behaviors because they have been hypnotized by advertising or images of movie stars or others they looked up to, or were programmed by other influences that have turned them into smoking robots or shopping robots, or restless sleepers.
Hypnosis feels comfortable and natural. As a hypnotherapist, I guide clients into Delta and Theta states to make positive changes like changing unwanted habit, change eating patterns, improve sleeping habits, etc., because it puts people into a more suggestible and programmable state where they can make the changes they desire.
After an initial experience of hypnosis, people usually tell me what a relaxing and comfortable state they were in and that it was not what they expected because they did not black out and they remember everything that happened.
This is because they have all experienced hypnotic brain wave states as children and adults and so it feels familiar and comfortable. Because of the myths about hypnosis, they were expecting something more weird or something different than they have experienced in the past.
Hypnosis cannot make you do anything you don’t want to do. Hypnosis can help you do things you really want to do, but it cannot make you do things that are inconsistent with your values or desires. The reason Don eliminated three of the volunteers was that they did not have a strong desire to be acting crazy on stage and so they were not following instructions.
The participants on stage were able to follow instructions and let go of their inhibitions and do what they really wanted to do which was to entertain people and help them laugh. They let themselves enjoy the experience and were all stars in that sense. They were very entertaining and very funny.
You too can use hypnosis to help you do some of the things you want to do. It might help you to improve your motivation to eat better or exercise more, get over a fear or phobia, clear up test anxiety, improve your sleeping habits, end a gambling or shopping compulsion, manage pain, relieve stress, or even improve your golf game. The possibilities are almost endless.
Your hypnosis session can be recorded on a CD so that you can listen over and over in the privacy of your own home. To find out more about it, just call and make an appointment for a complementary screening and consultation to see if hypnosis might work for you.
Gayle North offers Personal Coaching for Positive Change using recently developed empowerment technologies to clear mental and emotional blocks that keep people stuck in unhealthy habits and prevent them from performing at their highest potential in school, sports, relationships, work and finance. Call 406-837-1214 to learn how you can STOP SMOKING IN ONE HOUR and for coaching in person or by phone.
changeiseasy@montanasky.net www.PositiveChangeInstitute.com
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