The Transparent Hypnotist

You are probably here either because you have an interest in hypnosis, self-improvement, small business or entrecard (I’d love to know if there are other reasons). Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy your company, but I must, yes, I really must diverge here for this post. I know, I know, it goes against the basic rules of having a niche blog, but it is something I really have to do.

Fellow bloggers, there is a dark sickness among us.  We must not suffer its antagonizing forces against our humble attempts at entertaining in the blogisphere.  What am I talking about, brothers and sisters of the cyber world?  I am talking about rip-off artists. I am sure some of you know a more technical name for it, some trendy, bloggy name, but let us call it what it truly is - ANNOYING with a capital Y because those of YOU who do it should be hit with a wet rag.

How does one know the enemy?  It comes in the form of comments on your blog.  Usually it looks a bit suspicious, maybe it repeats what you have said in your post (verbatim), maybe it says “look at the interesting post I found” and when you click on it, it shows your posting on another blog, or it could be just a URL that is left as a comment.  The evil part of it is that when you follow this suspect link, it takes you to another blog, usually one where you have not the slightest idea who is posting to the blog.  And there it is - your post on their site.  And to be fair, it does link back to your blog when you click “to read more.”

I cannot give you the psychology behind these happenings (if you would like to expound on it, please do).  And though it may seem harmless, it could affect your search engine optimization. From what I have been told by outside sources is that the big, blue G does not like this sort of thing and may penalize you, innocent though you are. And we do not want that, do we?   Not to mention the copy write issues, and those are your rights, brothers and sisters.

So, what can we do about it? Well, at first I tried adding several links back to other posts on my blog, which seemed to help a bit.  Then I noticed these, these wicked sites just cut out and used the unlinked passages.  So, enter Creative Commons.  You will notice it on the right column. So, brothers and sisters, if you do not have a copy write statement on your blog all ready, you might consider going creative commons. Protect yourself anyway that you can.  Will this work?  I have no idea.  But it certainly cannot hurt.

Peace be with you.

Here is a really quick heads-up. Lee Darrow is going to be on the Ghost Divas web radio show tonight (I know, I know, it is quick, but i just got the message).

This is what the message says:

I hope you will tune in! This is live, call-in web radio, so grab your headsets, have a tall, cold one and some munchies, because we’re going to be talking about how NOT to ghost hunt as much as about how TO ghost hunt!

Lee

The show airs tonight at 10 pm (maybe EST) at www.para-x.com.

If any of you who occasionally participate on this blog (commentors, 10 Question participants, guest bloggers, Ellie’s Favorite Five, etc.) have events coming up, let us know, and if we can we will spread the word here.

Rush, rush, rush.  Wednesday’s are the day for it.  So, it’s another quickie.  I read something I rather liked this morning.  It is the idea of getting in touch with your inner critic as a hypnosis tool.

This comes from Georgia Foster in the UK, who is the author of The Drink Less Mind. She is doing workshops based on her book, which look really interesting.  Apparently there are four sessions to each workshop and also time with a nutritionist that speaks about the health of the liver.

Working with the nutritionist is what I find particularly attractive. There are times when I feel hypnosis clients would truly benefit from seeing a complimentary health person in addition to the hypnosis session.  Weight loss is a great example.  Most of us are not trained in nutrition and it would be good to have a team member who is.

Just my thoughts.

Source: The Daily Record 

Once upon a time, there was a left-brain and a right brain. These two brains came together and formed the mind of a human. And once upon a time, the debate about left-brain and right brain raged a bit on this blog. But as the debate waned, the fires turning to glowing coals that began to cool, here I go again fanning the flames.Though some believe that to say left-brain and right brain is an over-simplification, I believe it is terminology that helps us understand the complex science of the mind. For those of you about to become ignited in intellectual rage, I apologize, but I cannot let it go. Granted, I have tried, but I am still, slowly plodding through the exercises of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, and the idea of left and right continually speak to me from all directions.

If you have been reading The Unwinding Path, you may have noticed a video on there by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist with a Harvard background. The lecture is about a stroke she had and the awareness that happened for her during that time. In it, she mentions the dynamics between the left and right brain hemisphere.

Then this morning, the good, old New York Times checked in with a story about another scientist, Anne Adams, who suffered a from a disease called frontotemporal dementia. This disease seems to affect people differently, but in the case of this scientist, it substantial increased her creativity.

“By then, the circuits in Dr. Adams’s brain had reorganized. Her left frontal language areas showed atrophy. Meanwhile, areas in the back of her brain on the right side, devoted to visual and spatial processing, appeared to have thickened.

When artists suffer damage to the right posterior brain, they lose the ability to be creative, Dr. Miller said. Dr. Adams’s story is the opposite. Her case and others suggest that artists in general exhibit more right posterior brain dominance. In a healthy brain, these areas help integrate multisensory perception. Colors, sounds, touch and space are intertwined in novel ways. But these posterior regions are usually inhibited by the dominant frontal cortex, he said. When they are released, creativity emerges.”

Anyway, for those interested in the consciousness related to the interaction of brain hemispheres, the article is really fascinating. Just thought you needed to know.

Also, the artwork at the top of this page, is the by Anne Adams.  If you click on it, it will take you other works of art she created.

Source: The New York Times

Sooooooooo….did you all read my silliness as a guest blogger at Wisdom Hypnosis on Friday? Many thanks to Debbie for letting me have some fun on her blog!

Answering yesterday’s question

Do I give into my temptations and lie to clients with ideas about gaining their trust?

I suspect I am guilty of a few white lies here and there or perhaps spinning the truth would be a better answer. These maybe in the form of slight exaggerations and such - I am human.

However, in relationship to how this question came about - the temptation to lie to clients who come to me for help with smoking cessation so I can commiserate with them - I do not lie. First, I am not sure I could be that convincing and unless you have got a really strong personality and conviction, I am not sure such a lie would add rapport. I feel like it might change the balance of the pre-talk, with the energy spent making the lie consistent and convincing, thus taking me away from concentrating on the client.

What I do say if I feel they need me to relate to them more (and any smokers out there are probably going to laugh here) is that I have had coffee addiction. No, I know it is not the same. However, for my own health I needed to cut back on my coffee consumption (and switch to decafe more). My heart did that lovely racing thing and meditation proved to be ineffective. When I tried going cold turkey, you guessed it, headaches abounded, I had the energy of a slug, and from what my loved one’s say, I was unbearable. My doctors said I did not need to give it up completely, just knock it back a lot (the equivalent of two and a half to three pots a day was a bit over the top). So, do enter self-hypnosis from the wings and throw in some nice affirmations, you now are reading the words of someone who has less then a cup of coffee a day and no more than three cups of tea (that includes mint and herbal). No headaches. My energy is good. And no one seemed at the time of the cut back to shy away from me.

It is the closest I can come to a smoking addiction (or other addictions), but I can speak honestly and also use it as a testimony of my own thoughts on the value of self-hypnosis. Did I become a hypnotist just because of that? That is a story for another day.

It has been a few weeks since I actually have done a Sunday Question. What a wonderful luxury it was having guest bloggers do these posts.

Hmmm. Perhaps today’s question should be about white lies. This idea comes to mind every time I work with a client on smoking cessation. You see, I have never smoked, not one cigarette, in my life. I have no clue what it is like to give up nicotine.

Every so often a smoking cessation client will ask if I have smoked and always looks disappointed when I tell them “no.” I see the look that says, “then how can you help me - you don’t get it.” Sometimes it feels like a disconnect in the rapport.

So, I must admit on low energy days, I am so tempted to lie and say something to the effect of, “Sure, I smoked, but I used hypnosis to quit and was so amazed by the ease of it that I became a hypnotist.” What a great thing - and I suspect there are plenty of hypnotists who actually do have this as their rightful story.

Therefore, today’s question is actually a series of questions:

Do you every tell white lies to help illustrate your point and gain people’s trust? Do you feel this is okay to do in certain situations? Have you done this and has it worked out for you or backfired?

I will tell you if I give in or not tomorrow.

My brother made me aware of this video a few weeks ago as a potential moment for our esoteric Saturdays. It is an interesting illustration of a hypnotic-like experience. It could also be virtual reality or combination of the two. It is a beautiful depiction on how the mind can take you to other realities than just the one you believe you are in. However, at the end, it shows how the mind can bring you back. My brother says the end is like the obscure client who gets a little freaked out from their hypnosis experience. What do you think?

Oh, and just so you know, the band is Groove Armada and the song is At the River.

Cyber Location: dickishyp.com

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

I’m a full time entertainer who is currently doing Stage Hypnosis as events become available.

2. Do you specialize in any type of hypnosis?

Strictly Stage Hypnosis

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

I don’t do hypnotherapy because I’m not a qualified therapist.

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

Yes, I use a variety of scripts that I’ve recorded on mp3.

5. Describe your hypnosis office or work setting.

I don’t have a hypnosis office and usually work on a stage.

6. Describe a typical day in your life.

There is no such thing as typical in the entertainment business. I could be doing marketing, website updates, calling clients, scheduling, duplicating media product, mailing such product, doing site surveys…and the list goes on.

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

I trained under Geoff Ronning and am certified by the Stage Hypnosis Center.

8. Most fabulous hypnosis technique you use?

I’m not sure it’s fabulous, but I use and am generally happy with Ronning’s EKG induction, which is a modified Ellman.

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

Having only 1 out of 6 volunteers go down for a show and later learning that there was a group to my back distracting my subjects during fractionation. Never keep your back to ANYONE!

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

Study, and enjoy!

Photo courtesy PDPhoto.org

There was that whole Charcot thing, remember? My little walk back in hypnosis history led us to his door and I became a bit obsessed with him. At first I thought he was easy to dismiss - brought back hypnosis from Mesmer’s depths, but then it became so distorted in hysteria, that it was hard to take him very seriously in this genre.

But, perhaps, I made judgments too soon. Maybe he really had something going on. Hypnosis has made the news again in a way that brings back the notions of Charcot. He believed that people could study hysteria by inducing a hypnotically hysterical state in people (women). Did Freud and Bernheim dismiss him too quickly? Perhaps.

The Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science has recently been involved in the study of the delusional mind. How? You guessed it - through hypnotic procedures. More specifically they have been studying mirrored-self misidentification, which is when someone looks into a mirror and he or she believes the person looking back is not one’s self.

Apparently it is really hard to study such things in a controlled environment. So, enter hypnosis. Participants (I believe they did not suffer from mirrored-self misidentification) were then hypnotized and given one of three hypnotic suggestions. These suggestions were in the form “of initial thoughts that might ‘seed’ the delusion.” The delusions experienced by the participants were apparently remarkably similar to the malady. Why do this? It is hoped that this will lay a foundation for more research into the delusional mind, creating more understanding and therapies that will help those who truly suffer from delusion.

This is not at all far away from the work of Charcot. His premise was to recreate hysteria in those already suffering from it to study it, though history seems to show that he would did not use hypnosis to try to cure it. Perhaps this new school of thought will inspire scientists to use it as a therapy in itself. Would it not maybe be possible to create a “delusion” or a hypnotic “seed” in those with mirrored-self misidentification that when they do look in a mirror they see themselves?

Source: PhysOrg.com

Well, the day has started like a whirlwind and somehow I have gotten way behind.  With a gulp of tea and a quick shower I must be off with very little content for this post.

So, to keep our energy up:

Two hypnotist walk in to a bar…

You finish the sentence.