The Transparent Hypnotist

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Well, I am back on track and ready for the week ahead. How about you?

To catch us up, we have just completed a project at The Unwinding Path. You know it is never to late to participate in these projects, even if you do not participate on the blog. This past one, taken from Sven’s Creative Workbook, turned out to be completely worthwhile.

Here is an excerpt from the final review:

So, I created To Do Lists on the notepaper of my daily organizer (typed up real pretty and little more vague here to maintain my sanity and ideas - I will keep you posted on my progress and you may eventually see the note paper). These list ranged from an upcoming project, to personal crisis management, to educational interests, programming on this blog, and marketing.

What did I gain from it all? I gained pathways with specific direction in how to proceed. My paper usage ended up being more toward brainstorming, but it showed me the possibilities. It stopped the frantic “what do I have to do today” and added some calm.

Now here is my question to you, do you create To Do List and actually use them or follow through?

And moving on a bit, what does this week bring with the transparent hypnotist? Well, you might just find a little somethin’, somethin’ on:

• animal hypnosis
• continuing forms of hypnosis discussion
• resources from the fathers of hypnosis
• Friday’s 10 Questions with Paul Knight
• whatever is going on in my hypnotic world

Since we have been going down the Charcot road, perhaps that is a good break in our travels to stop for this week’s contemplation. Let’s see, Charcot believed early on that only those suffering from a heredity disorder that caused hysteria could be hypnotized. He mainly studied woman, so that means hysterical females could only be hypnotized. In some circles this translates to weak-minded females. Now mind you, this view only lasted for a few years during the Victorian period. The theories around hypnosis and who could be hypnotized along with how has changed drastically.

But, here we have it, perhaps also the beginning of the development of many potential myths about hypnosis. So, let’s get a little personal and take a few steps back.

Here is the question:

What are the best mental conditions for successfully hypnotizing someone or being hypnotized yourself?

Maybe you saw this coming, maybe you did not, but I am not completely done with The Napoleon of the Neuroses, Jean-Martin Charcot, who by the way, was given this nickname for his public hypnosis sessions. Apparently a man of decent charisma and demeanor, the nickname stuck.

And so, we enter this Saturday’s esoteric bout with
Some Historic, Some Hysteric. How fitting for a Napoleonic character to have a play written about the going-ons in one’s practice. This particular play, taken from some of Charcot’s transcripts of his famous “Tuesday Lectures,” Invention of Hysteria: Charcot and the Photographic Iconography of the Salpetriere, The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick, Victorian Maidservant (Douglass Series on Women’s Lives & the Meaning of Gender), and quotes by Freud, portrays the hysterics that Charcot induced hypnotically and observed at the Salpêtrière Hospital, the largest hospital in the world at that time. In this production he is called “The Caesar of the Salpêtrière.” His lectures were open to the public. I really think Charcot may have been the beginning of stage hypnosis.

Though this play has closed, hopefully someone will revive it again.

Sources:
New Stage Theatre Company
TheaterMania.com

You are probably here today in expectation of the “10 Question” segment I normally run on this day. Call it mixed karma or other things happening in the universe, this segment will return next Friday. It has been one of those weeks (months) were things are connecting in a way that has nothing to do with my preferences.

And for those keeping up with my obsessively, time draining cat story from yesterday, she made it through the night (a terribly cold one), but no kittens as yet. I bought her one of those NASA space heater things - it is silver and reflects body heat back. You put a blanket over it and it helps to keep the animal warm. When I fed her this morning and put my hand in the little house I made for it, it still seems fairly cool in there.

I was reading Wangbu’s Hulga blog this morning and found a phrase that I thought was quite sufficient in describing how I feel (though I am still on the over emotional and worried side) about this cat. The phrase is Hopeful Resignation. It is described in terms of a dying lung cancer patient, and though my problem is far from this, the phrase embodies it all. Normally I always try for acceptance, but I think this is probably a very close relative to it, maybe the part one gets to right before acceptance.

Anyway, I will leave you with those thoughts - but with an addition - I think I may delve a little into a form of hypnosis a bit later, time providing. A nice discussion on animal hypnosis might be fun, don’t you think?

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?