The Transparent Hypnotist

Photography by sandcastlematt

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. That is the sound of one rice cake being devoured.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. That is the word that runs through my mind as I do my Nautilus-based crunches.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. That is the sound of time, clunking and lurching along as continue all of my goals…especially the one in which I am removing excess fat and flab and turning it into healthy, toned-muscle.

On my other blog theunwindingpath.com, I occasionally write about the my experiences of loosing weight. When I first realized I had gained so much, the pounds silently creeping onto my body, I was truly appalled. The incessant whine of pants feeling too tight, odd gaps in anything that buttoned, and the realization that my food choices were not as wonderful as they could be, grew so loud and cumbersome that I had to face reality - I had let something go. Me. Me who is into yoga, vegetables, and hiking. Me. The hypnotist who makes some of her living helping other people lose weight. Other people, not me, are the ones who need help. 

But alas, my vanity has faced itself in the mirror and seen the truth. Now that I am here, I am actually a bit grateful for the overall experience. It is one thing to preach a healthy diet and exercise; it is truly another to go through the process one preaches. It has given me a new appreciation for the challenges of being thin in a world where going to a happy hour means sitting at home or in the office and typing away to one’s social networks. But on the other hand, it has been interesting to read about so many other people’s weight-influenced quests. It feels like support and any sort of support is a good thing. 

I noticed another blogger Dena of Sungrl Loves to Shop has a second blog and like mine other one, hers is going to be about her weight-loss journey. She wrote about it in her post entitled Big Changes. On this other blog, she plans to do weekly weigh-ins and will offer ideas for making the process of losing poundage more appealing. The big thing that she has to offer is camaraderie (which is something I could personally use). So, if you have been keeping up with my journey or are such a journeyer yourself, please stop by Dena’s blogs and cheer her on as well.

Knowing others who are fellow travelers can be a definite morale booster. Weight loss is such a mental thing. My own personal discovery with is that the more positive I am about it, as well as the more honest I am with myself, the easier it is. It is all a mindset. Self-hypnosis has helped me keep with the lifestyle changes I am in the process of creating, so it has been a big part of my successes. But I know that everyone’s philosophies are different. So let us begin a dialogue about it this Sunday.

If you are currently working on weight loss, have lost weight, or are maintaining your weight, what do you feel is the key ingredient for your personal success?

by Dave Mason, PhD © 2009

Affirmations are simple and powerful, but finding the right affirmation can be difficult. This article describes a procedure for automatically creating affirmations that will have just the right words, and are guaranteed to align with your goals.

Note from Ellie

I will be doing this as a project on The Unwinding Path on Monday, March 2. I hope you will join me. Also, please leave some feedback on this process as David would appreciate it.

Photograph by Always Changing Clothing

Today I find myself getting ready for a Mardi Gras party this evening. I am in charge of making dirty rice. Hmmm. There is so much I could do with dirty rice and writing about it, but I fear that will totally get me off topic and though one of my goals in 43things.com is to lose 20 lbs (15 now, thank you), as obsessed as I am with food (healthy cooking) these days, this is not quite a food blog.

In other words, I am in a good mood on this very cold morning. I am still behind, but I plan to be back on some even ground by the beginning of March. What a perfect time to do something a little different. Yes, another project for The Unwinding Path. If you are following that at all, you know I am working on my goals for this year with 43things.com. Now I have a new tool that might help us all in our goals. Hypnotist David Mason recently sent me an article about affirmations to share with you. He has created a new method called The hypknowsis.com Affirmation Method. It is a process to find and use the right affirmations for making positive self changes. Hypno people, does this sound familiar, maybe a lot like creating working suggestions for clients and for self-hypnosis?

Anyway I am just posting this as a bit of a tease at the moment. In the next day or two I will post his article here for you to read. For the non-hypno people who read this blog, this does not necessarily use hypnosis so it is a good general project for anyone who is trying to make changes. David is looking for some feedback on this and the best way to get that is to actually do the process. I will be starting it next Monday on The Unwinding Path, so feel free to join me there as an active participant or a silent partner.

Photograph by bogenfreund

My jeans, slacks, and sweaters are amassed in piles around me. Coffee cups sit abandoned, the brew grown cold. Today I feel like crawling back in bed, warm within the covers. I stood in a hot shower for an entirety, feeling the cold flow down my body like mud. My holiday journey is petering out and plans look like I might be going home tomorrow. I am tired.

In the spirit of moving forward, which if you can tell from the above paragraph is something I need to do, I have decided to seriously utilize the site 43things.com. I mentioned it on the last post of 2008 and how I thought it could be a great way to be productive. Taking my own advice, I have just broken the surface of my goals and have it currently running as a year long project on The Unwinding Path. All the information is on that blog. Please consider visiting me there.

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

Grand adventures await us this week. Are you ready? Have a nice hot cup of tea all set?

Thank Yous

First, let me start off by thanking Debbie Lane again for taking on the Sunday Question yesterday. And do keep up with her; I believe she mentioned she would be releasing a new CD in the near future. Her blog is at www.wisdomhypnosis.blogspot.com.

Guest Bloggers
I am on travel for the next little bit and rather than counting on coffee shops and time to keep up this blog, you will find others being transparent for me (though I will check in for quick hellos and such). Tomorrow Josh Houghton will be posting and then Michael Raugh will be handling the blog until next Monday. Also, our 10 Question Friday will be with Robert Hughes. So, please, continue to stop by and comment.

The Poll
On the poll front - it has been a bumpy ride. No more SodaHead for us. Check back in a bit. I have some other tricks up my sleeve.

The Turning Girl Controversy
And, as the turning girl has continued to create stir on my blogs (nothing like a good controversy, eh? LOL), perhaps I should recap the recent goings on. If you will recall, as it turns out, she is an optical illusion that I mentioned a while ago in my exploration of Betty Edwards’ Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, posted on The Unwinding Path. I posted the turning girl as a fun little experiment to illustrate points in Edwards’ book. The theory behind this particular book is based on the state of consciousness needed for competent drawing (much like a state of hypnosis). The original premise is that the asymmetry of the brain and how it functions is the reference to left-brain or right brain.

Well some of my readers have gotten caught up in it and have begun to debate brain science on this blog. A gentleman with a Harvard email address checked in. Yet, poor Nick, if indeed you are from Harvard, when attempting to email you, my note was returned saying there is no such address. Please check in again if you are reading this. Is it possible we have someone merely using the intellectual property of reputation the Ivy-league? Another, tending to agree with Nick, accuses me of passing on misinformation. So, I though it would be fun to get on the Ellie soapbox.

Science definitely has its place. It is ever changing. New things are discovered. Old ideas are disproved. Old disproved ideas are looked at and proven again. Science is not absolute. That is the beauty of it. We try so hard to pinpoint and grasp the tangible in our egoic needs for structure. But, we cannot rest on these structures. The foundation is air. We have to keep questioning and re-examining. If we did not continue to do this, we would still be using lobotomies to subdue those who suffer mental maladies, not to mention some of the harsher medications that were used for the same purpose.

And science suffers the same issues as everything else - how the results are spun. There are studies upon studies, one proving one thing, another saying something different (and the results may be the same interestingly enough). In the realms of current thought (and it is thought), the two hemispheres of the brain are different. They work hand in hand to create a balance of some sort. It may not be as pretty as logical and creative, but it depends what you read and whom you believe - or on personal experience. The methods Edwards (which is what we are talking about) uses to teach drawing consciousness work (unless you are determined to make it not work). There is a consciousness shift that occurs, much like that felt and observed in hypnosis. It is a different state of mind. It is valid. For those who want to read more about the studies, by all means, please do so. If you enjoy reading abstracts and such, more power to you. But to try to explain it and discourse about it to the laymen (who have every right to discuss what we will), if it takes ideas about left-brain and right brain to do so, it is a way to make it all understandable. For those who feel instead, that I am spreading ignorance, I am sorry you feel that way. In my way of seeing it, I am opening a door to more potential understanding. If we all sat down and bowed to what little we already know, we would be in stasis. Nothing more would be explored or learned. What a sad place this would be.

Suddenly it seems that the turning girl has received much attention, so much so, I decided to address her again (not dress her…anyway). I posted her originally on the Unwinding Path and then on this blog. Here I just mused about using her for an hypnotic induction, but on the other, I mentioned that she could be used as a right brain/left brain test.

Seems I caught the attention of Nick, who has a Harvard email address (that does not seem to work) and is rather passionate about the mind studies. I thought I would share his comment here.

Please keep in mind, Left/Right brain theory is NOT considered fact and is in the realm of pop psychology. Currently, no MRI scanning nor any established study has reinforced this theory. The disparity between direction perception occurs because of depth interpolation, and is not a phenomenon associated with any Left/Right brain neurology.

I don’t like to do this, but misconceptions about neurology has lead to widespread ignorance of the elegant mechanisms at work. In fact, Left/Right brain psychology is a GROSS oversimplification of a truly astonishing process, a bit like saying Monet just painted lilies. There is so much more to it than simple pop psychology. Please, respect your brain and don’t shorthand it.

I can appreciate his sentiment, but I also have much to say about this. First off, perhaps this she (the turning girl) is a bit of an over simplification of concepts, but what it does do, is generate interest. It is a tool for getting people thinking and you cannot beat that. Not everyone is highly motivated to read the academic versions of brain theory, so this sort of thing, be it pop or not, shows a truly amazing thing that may spark someone to go into mind studies or any number of positive things.

In discussing this with my partner, he made an interesting point about Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Since Betty Edwards wrote the first edition, she has changed her pre-talk about on brain shifts, and I suspect it was because of the world of academia crashing down on her. However, with that said, her methods work. I challenge any intellect to go through her process along with me on the Unwinding Path.

Also, when it comes to the brain, there is so much we do not know. Theories come into vogue, shift, change, and evolve. As I said, I appreciate Nick’s comments. And currently, there is no REAL proof about left and right brain modes (with exception of testing as mentioned in “Drawing” but I think that was done before brain scans were used).

Thanks to Jack’s comments sending us to Gabbro B-Sides, who explains the spinning girl phenomena a whole lot more. The effect is what is known as bistable perception. It is an optical illusion. A little bit of a let down, eh? Me, too. But it is a valid optical illusion and it did get us thinking. And you never know, we may see her again in a more psychological setting.

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.

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.

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.