Intelligence vrs. What?
Another early morning and a long day ahead. Don’t get me wrong, it is all good, just that there is a lot seemingly going on. It is back to back to back to back, so this is going to be short.
What is going through my mind currently (and I sort of wish it were not) is the whole idea of intelligence verses ignorance. When I was receiving my training, my mentor always said it was much easier to help an intelligent client get to a hypnotic place rather than one that is ignorant. I sort of rebelled against this with the idea that with a little hypnosis education, it could level the playing field. If I explained hypnosis well enough, well, the sky’s the limit. Ah, ha. How naive I was.
What I think my mentor should have said was it is easier to hypnotize someone who may be intelligent (even if slightly skeptical) than someone with a lower IQ aptitude in basic reasoning and logic. I think there is a moment when it is easy to fool one’s self into believing that a person who says they think the can’t be hypnotized because they have a strong will is right and it is easy to believe that the person who comes into it embracing the myths will be a piece of cake. Not so. Not even close. I have come to revel in the intelligent give and take of the discussion about strong will. This often includes having the opportunity to truly dispelling the myths and work on real rapport. It is the client who comes in, who is not so versed in logic or reason and believes the myth. It is the ones the are stubborn enough not to let go to their beliefs that I am a puppet master, making them unconscious so they do not have to do anything at all.
I really do not think this has anything to do with intelligence (IQ maybe, though I am not that well versed in the reality of IQ testing). Nor do I believe successful hypnosis has any real bearing upon the strong willed (unless they are strong willed against being hypnotized). I think it is the ones who stubbornly hold onto a concept that hypnosis is magic and they do not have to be a part of the process that are beyond being a challenge.
July 9th, 2008 at 6:27 am
Josh Billings famously said, “The trouble with most folks isn’t so much their ignorance, as knowing so many things that ain’t so.” I think that’s a fair description of what you’re dealing with — what we all deal with — when faced with that client who just won’t let go of the myths.
Intelligence used to be pretty well defined as the ability to reason, to use and understand logic, and to draw conclusions from data. Nowadays it’s popular to fuzzy things up with claims of many types of intelligence, and I often wonder if that isn’t a way of avoiding having to say that some people just aren’t that smart. (”Well, he may not have that kind of intelligence but he’s got lots of this kind…”) But I digress.
The client who clings to the myths may or may not be intelligent (okay, I’m leaning towards not), but I think there is more involved than that. That stubborn clinging to old beliefs in the face of new information is at least partly an emotional response. Maybe it’s fear of having to take responsibility for his/her own life, or fear of success, or something more complicated even. Whatever the source, it’s got little or nothing to do with reason.
<MR>
July 9th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Maybe someone with less perceived intelligence has less with which to confuse and obstruct the trance though? Just a thought…
What about the notion that your own beliefs and perceptions are likely to influence greatly the effectiveness of what you do?… and therefore, you should maybe abandon any notion of deciding whether anyone is more receptive than another. We are all unique, we are all receptive and we are all likely to experience far greater trance states with the help of someone not making decisions about perceived levels of intelligence.
In some ways, I reckon your mentor should not have mentioned anything at all about such a thing…
Big smiles to you Ellie, A.
July 10th, 2008 at 7:55 am
Both of you have really good points. The client I had in mind when I wrote this, is a believe as Michael put it - afraid to take responsibility. However, we have worked on this and I think hypnosis or the sessions have become empowering for him.
And Adam, you are truly wise. My philosophy has always been that everyone has some form of intelligence. I am totally dense when it comes to anything involving math and I know a bunch of folks who are totally lacking common sense, but are in the genius category.
Perhaps stubborn is another way to word it. And I have come to realize the best way to handle that is to tell them that maybe this is not their time for using hypnosis. Most change their tunes when they realize I am not desperate to do hypnosis on them.
Thank you both for your perspectives.