The Transparent Hypnotist

For those who are keeping up or are mildly interested in the projects being pursued on The Unwinding Path, for day two on Sven’s Creative Workbook’s first exercise, I used my sheet of paper to plan for upcoming projects on that blog. Because it is so easy to get immersed or drowned in what we do, for the first long project there, I am going to undertake the exercises in The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. You may think it is not very hypnotic to do so, but I think it is a fine project to allow creativity to flourish and rejuvenate. To stay locked up only in hypnosis is to create a vacuum.

I am posting this as a head’s up if anyone wants to participate as well, even if you do it quietly in the privacy of your own life. The benefits of doing things like this together are large - it creates a support system (okay, how about just bonding a bit). And if you paid attention to the first project we did last week, which was Hypnotic Journaling, the author joined us through out the process. I am not sure it gets better than that, unless of course you have a private workshop with the creator of the project. Also this week, Sven checked in on his project.

So, here is the loose plan for The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain - we will start at the beginning on February 4. We might want to order your copy soon. Stay tuned.

This morning I awake to find that my mind is fairly quiet (or maybe just a bit like thick sludge) and I do not seem to have much to say. I have been doing a lot of reading lately such as The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche, which everyday there is a passage that seems to have something that pertains to me and how I feel, and perhaps today, this is why I am quiet.

You may be wondering what a hypnotist is doing reading a such a book, but it is not a terribly curious thing. I have been around hypnotist who brag about their library and that they are reading this hypnosis book or that, but I have come to appreciate that there is more out than just books about hypnosis. We need a deeper perspective and knowledge base if we are truly going to help others. Meditation and evolution are a large part of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, as is finding a way to ease our own human suffering through consciousness. Sounds like what some of us do in our practices.

So, for those of you hypnotist who have rolled your eyes at this, for shame! For those who are shaking your head positively, good for you!

And since I have not asked this in a while, what books are you reading (hypnosis or otherwise)?

Some might say that football (American style) is perhaps the most American sport out here in the States. However, when I was little, like many of those who had come before me, I equated the United States with the western image. Sure I know about Southern Magnolias, Northern factories, and even gambling in Atlantic City on the east coast. But I still had an image of the quintessential male being a cowboy. Cliche, isn’t it?

Well, one of the first clients I worked with was a cowboy. Seriously, I mean it. He knew how to ride a horse before he could walk, his family owned miles of cattle land and though he was actually a financial analyst (I always ignore that fact when I can get away with it), he had a hankerin’ for bull riding. I figured he meant the mechanic bulls you see in bars (or at least you used to…I image liability is high). However, this was not what he meant. He meant literally riding bulls competitively. Good grief (okay, but I was impressed).

So, why would a big ol’ bull rider come to see little ol’ Ellie Blunt with her reclining hypnosis chair? Well, I’ll tell you. He wanted to work on concentration, balance and holding on (for dear life, I expect). Now I have no way of knowing if he was actually any good, but when I went out to see him practicing once, it seemed like forever that he was on the back of that angry animal.

And now there are tickets to the Pro Bull Riders World Finals (PBR Finals) in Las Vegas, Nevada. There is a part of me that wants to go. In spite of being here for what seems like eons, I still equate American sports competitions to things like the rodeo and bull riding. You know, they have the running of the bulls in Spain, and here it should be bull riding (why else were there mechanical bulls every where for a while). And okay, I tend to cheer for the bull, but every team has its fans, so why should a bull be any different? The sport itself still seems a true test of ability. As for being a spectator, it seems like something one should go to a least once in their life, so yes, I guess I want to go for the experience.

Plus, on a professional side, I cannot help but grin a little when I see notices about bull riding. The sessions I did around its theme were true feel good moments for me, some of the early hypnotic experiences that helped fuel my love for the craft. Does that make sense?

Maybe there is a manic quality. Maybe there is anger. Maybe there is an uncommunicative quality. Maybe there is intense passion. Maybe there is intense fear. And maybe there is nothing but a swoon.

Half dressed and on display, Blanche Marie Wittman does just that in Andrè Brouillet’s portrayal of a Jean-Martin Charcot hypnosis session. Charcot is on the left. If you are in hypnosis, art or neurology circles, you may have seen this painting. Perhaps you wondered about it, perhaps not. But recently, these people came back to life for me, or at least at my imagination. Who are they? To begin with, let’s take the beautiful swooning woman. Just an average Victorian? Not so. She was Blanche Marine Wittman, known as the “Queen of the Hysterics” (5) at the Salpêtrière Hospital. The man to her left? Why that is Jean Jean-Martin Charcot, the subject of this posting. We also briefly met him during our Freudian Esoteric Saturday.

*Note the photo series below - this is the reality of Blanche.

Interesting things to know about Charcot:

• He was a professor at the University of Paris for 33 years. (2)
• In 1862 he became involved with the Salpêtrière Hospital, where he established a neurological clinic. He also became director of it. (2)
• He discovered and described many neurological maladies. (3)
• He was opposed to animal testing (a hurray from the animal lovers). (3)
• He utilized hypnosis (yes,this is where it comes in) to study hysteria.

His premise: Hysteria is caused by hereditary that creates a weak neurological system. Traumatic events could cause the hysteria to manifest, and the hysteria would be “progressive and irreversible.” (2)

His hypnotic theory: Hypnosis could induce hysteria. The only people who could be hypnotized were those for a propensity towards hereditary hysteria. He did not use it to cure hysteria or alleviate it; he used only to study hysteria. (2)

So what is so special about Charcot hypnosis? You guess it - hysteria. Through hypnotic means, he studied hysteria in women - inducing it to create universal rules for hysteria attacks. He used hypnosis to support his theories, devised from his profession of being a neurologist.

For those who have not kept up with hypnosis, his findings have been laid to rest and are no longer necessarily believed by practitioners or the psychological community.

But what he also did, was bring back some validity towards hypnosis after poor Mesmer caused it to go out of favor (that is a whole another story for a different rainy day, but suffice to say, Mesmer brought hypnosis into the lime light in the 1800s and it did not go so well).

However, somewhere along the line, the results Charcot was getting may have had more to do with phenomenon related to hypnosis shows of today. In fact, in his demonstrations, he used the Salpêtrière’s amphitheatre and was know for his dramatics. His results were thought to be more like those of hypnosis show, where the desire of the person being hypnotized is to please and give the results that are suggested. (4) Along with putting his subjects in a theatrical light in the amphitheater, he also photographed his clients in the midst’s of their hysteria. (6) See photo to the left.

At some point, Charcot started to doubt his findings and even told his protege, Sigmund Freud that he felt that there is always an underlying reason for hysteria. (1) Later Freud, Alfred Binet, and Pierre Janet, his students, went on in the study of hypnosis, advancing it and disproving that only those who are hysterically minded can be hypnotized. (2)

Sources:

1. Sigmund Freud - Life and Work - Jean-Martin Charcot
2. People and Discoveries - Jean-Martin Charcot
3. Jean-Martin Charcot Biography (1825-1893)
4. Human Intelligence: Jean-Martin Charcot
5. Jean Martin Charcot and Blanche Wittmann
6. Image & Narrative:Gender, Ideology and Display
7. Wikipedia

Just let to you know, I am starting a new project tomorrow on the The Unwinding Path. Though it is not so much about hypnosis, I suppose you could make it as such. It is a project from Svensworld’s Creative Workbook, which is done by a fellow blogger, and it is free. All you need will be six pieces of paper and seven days (just a tad bit of time out of each day). You are invited to do this with me - I’ll even make you a contributor to The Unwinding Path.

Did you follow the progress of our hypnotic journaling process at The Unwinding Road last week? After doing Sophie Nicholl’s five days of exercises, I finally reviewed the book and its process on Saturday.

Here is an excerpt from that review:

It is actually 18 degrees here this morning. Insane. And as the temperature goes down, I am trying to keep the coldness that lingers within at bay. Today, my Sunday question is more about preferences and acknowledgment than hypnosis, and I really would like to hear any other points of view out there.

As you may be aware, I occasionally give shout-outs to cyber locations that I enjoy. I do this especially with Ellie’s Favorite Five, but I also reference other sources and give credit where credit is due. I quote things occasionally (citing sources) and respect copyright laws. However, rarely do I notify the sources beforehand. Personally, when someone links to me or gives me credit on their site, I am usually quite thrilled and flattered (unless of course there is an ugly connotation to it). Any link to this site helps all the ranking stuff. So, I tend to believe, especially when I include someone in Ellie’s Favorite Five, that I might just be making some one’s day just a little more pleasant.

With that said, recently I came across a situation where once I notified the person I had linked to their work (linked, not quote, not published their work, just linked), there was a little trepidation on their part because they no longer owned the rights to the work. When I tried to inform the owners, there was no email, just an email form, which would not let me add the link to tell them about it. I have yet to hear back from them. But the whole thing gave me pause.

So, here is the question:

Do you personally feel that you should be notified before your site is favorably linked to another? Why or why not?

*50 entrecredits for the first answer I like. Be sure to post your email or entrecard id.

In the somewhat recent past, Freud has been a topic of conversation. And though Freud is not so esoteric in terms of hypnosis, books the reference him and hypnosis in the same volume seem perfect.

In a recent Sunday Book Review in the New York Times,George Prochnik reviewed George Makari’s Revolution In Mind: The Creation of Psychoanalysis. According to Prochnik (I have to rely on him as I have yet to read this, but it is now on the list), there is discussion about Freud’s background in hypnosis. Apparently one of Freud’s mentors, Jean-Martin Charcot who apparently believed that the affects of hypnosis “depended upon the abnormal nervous condition of the hypnotized.” Apparently, though, Charcot was diagnosed by Hippolyte Bernheim as having moments of hysteria, too. Bernheim’s theory of hypnosis was that hypnosis worked with “exaggerated human credulity” or the idea of suggestibility rather than genetic hysteria. It was with this idea that Freud became the man we all know and love - the psycho analytic theorist. He utilized Bernheims ideas about hypnosis, but changed it a bit with the idea that the mind is more susceptible to suggestions made within rather than form outside sources.

There is a lot more to Procnik’s review, so do check it out, but it is always interesting to see anything about those who helped make hypnosis the tool it is now.

Now that we are beginning the descent down from January with New Year’s Resolutions and new starts turning into habits, we will soon land in February just in time to take a seat on the up-and-down romance roller coaster. I am sure with all the commercialism of Valentine’s Day creeping into the stores, creeping into our consciousness, no one means it to be a cruel reminder of what one may not have. That’s right, amid the boxes of chocolate (please oh,please do not gain weight, I love you just the way you are), the stuffed animals (we really should eliminate clutter), and sentimental cards (how nice, someone else’s words to express how you feel about me), there is an air of something ugly that looms beneath certain surfaces. I would like to say that I am immune to Valentine’s Day - truth is I am not, I enjoy the novelty. But in this profession I have chosen, the misery begins to come out of the wood work near Valentine’s Day. You may have read my posts about a friend who wanted me to hypnotize her to not want a relationship. Well, those postings seem to have started to generate a rash of people wanting the same thing. And I tell them the same thing I did my friend - no go. We can work on the feelings behind the wants, but I would not feel right in even approaching such a suggestion.

And it makes me sad, the pain that comes forth at this time. They say Christmas is bad for loneliness. I would say Valentine’s Day is bad for making one feel the same or even more inadequate, if you are subject to such feelings.

So, I suggest retaking Valentine’s Day. Rather than having expectations that someone else is going to do something romantic for you (and they still may), make it happen for yourself. Either plan it as a total giving event, an act of kindness for others, or how about this, an act of kindness for yourself. Romance yourself on that day. Take yourself out to lunch or dinner. Or even check out different valentines gift ideas in cyber space. Sometimes spending a few dollars on orchids to embrace your inner wildness is not a bad thing to do. Or send someone you know who is not going to be celebrating this holiday of love some carnations, which stand for devotion.

How you deal with the impending holiday is completely in your control. It is all in the mind. Make it what you want it to be.

Location: Essex, England

Cyber Locations:
www.hypnosense.com
www.terencewatts.com
www.essexinstitute.co.uk
www.aphp.net
www.eccellenti.com
www.hypnosisinformation.co.uk

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

Full time therapist, teacher, course developer and writer - 80 hour week.

2. Do you specialize in any type of hypnosis?

Hypnoanalysis

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

None that I can think of.

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

Yes, every day. Self-hypnosis and ‘focus’ on goals.

5. Describe your hypnosis office or work setting.

Mahogany desk, bookcase, Italian soft chairs, some ‘artifacts’ - large
crystals, Buddha figurines (Tibetan and Indian), bronze figurines (The
Embrace; George and the Dragon). Uplighter and wall lights.

6. Describe a typical day in your life.

BUSY!

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

From many teachers, starting 18 years ago. Fellow of many organizations.
Find out more at www.terencewatts.com

8. Most fabulous hypnosis technique you use?

Associated with Warriors, Settlers & Nomads (type it on Google!)

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

None that I can think of.

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

Don’t give up before you find what it is you seek.