The Transparent Hypnotist

Quotes of the Week

“Hypnosis is like a daydream – but a controlled daydream” –  from hypnotist M. Vance Romane in an article about him in the Peace Arch News.

Never once did I move a muscle, and my brain stayed in a sort of squishy awareness. I found myself absorbed in her words, and I had absolutely no urge to squawk like a chicken — nor was I ever asked to do so – from writer Tonya Bina about the effects of her hypnotic experience for the www.skyhidailynews.com, guided by hypnotist Jodi Choronzy.

Hypnotism puts people in a trance that “allows access to parts of the mind that aren’t available consciously, and that allows for healing that doesn’t happen without a trance.” Hypnosis helps people move their focus from the pain – from York psychologist and hypnotist George Hunter in an article about pain management on www.pennlive.com.

He’s also helped people work through their phobias, including fear of the dark, fear of clowns, and once, fear of armadillos – about hypnotist Sonny Nardone (www.insidenova.com).

The Good

• Last week, here at the transparent hypnotist, we began a discussion of phobia hypnosis, as well as discussing the differences between the notions of fear and phobia. Josette Keelor’s article Overcoming fear on www.nvdaily.com continues more discussion nicely.

• Our blogger friends at the Huffington Post recently ran a posting by Srinivasan Pillay called The Science of Visualization: Maximizing Your Brain’s Potential During The Recession. It offers suggestions for maximizing your visualization experience.

• Words are not everything in hypnosis. In fact, you do not even need them to feel the effects of a hypnotic state. Instead you could try jazz. Yes, you read that correctly, jazz. In the New York Times music section Ben Ratliff wrote about musician Horace Parlan. He wrote about the hypnotic effect of Parlan’s tunes that include repetitive musical phrasing, that only varies slightly. I think it is valid to mention this in today’s news.

• The transparent hypnotist is totally impressed with Resham Ramsay, a junior at Las Lomas High School (Walnut Creek, CA) who organized an anti-stress day at her school. What a productive young person – oh, and yes, hypnosis was included as part of the day (www.mercurynews.com).

Photograph by alfredo lietor

Sitting along in the darkness, she found herself wanting to blend in with the darkness, to become a part of it. She longed for the ability to be invisible, not noticeable, not even a shadow with some bit of distinction, but to merge with the absence of color. But the rapid hear beat, the sweaty-stickiness of her hands, and the idea of not getting quite enough air told her she was not at all merging with the night. Instead she was defined, something a part from that which could not be seen. The crawl space would not conceal her loudness of just being.

The little door concealed behind the bags of winter clothes would be found. Even on the extreme end away from that little door, she just knew she would be discovered and the terror of being detected would fade away into something so much more sinister. There would be pain, flashing through like the ice of cold steel. There would be the momentary warmth of blood, seeping out from imaged wounds, and then a gradual death. Perhaps that would be a release.

These were the thoughts (imagined by me) of a past client. Was she coming to me to deal with the trauma of some fear she had experienced? Was this during a time when her house was burgled by cruel criminals? Was it a fear of an abuser of some sort?

No, this was a phobia. She experienced these ideas often as a child, when her parents would at first bring in new babysitters, and eventually it blossomed into something unmanageable. No one new could come into her living domain.

It seems timely to share this since this week we have been discussing the idea of fear and phobia. In talking about this topic through behind-the-scenes emails and such, the question was bridged about what is the difference between fears and phobias (especially when doing circle therapy). In looking at the first paragraphs of my client’s scenario, her experience could be interpreted as fear (before knowing it was a social phobia) if had she been hiding from a perpetrator of some sort who made her feel threatened (someone had broke into her house or someone was specifically coming to beat her). Fear is an emotional response to a danger or threat. It comes from an external source and causes feelings of wanting to avoid something or escape the danger (1).

Phobias are a bit different in that they are more irrational or their causation stems from a fear gone wild (2). In my client’s instance, she would have the fear reaction to anyone unknown entering the house, be it Girl Scout selling cookies or the girl next door coming over to babysit. She had developed a persistent, irrational fear of a specific thing - people coming into her house and causing her harm.

Phobias are often classified into three direct types (though they are considered anxiety disorders - we will cover that on a different day). These include social phobias (as in my client example), specific phobias, and Agoraphobia. Social phobias deal with responses to other people and social situations. Specific phobias have something that triggers the phobia. This is the rodent, bug, water type phobia. Agoraphobia is experienced by those who have irrational fears of leaving their living space (3).

It is fairly clear-cut in my example and there are of course fine lines that can blur the reality between fear and phobia, but it is good to know where the dividing line is between the two. The fear of flying, for instance - fear or phobia? Both maybe? I guess it would be the perceived threat of immanent death that causes the fear (stemming from either having known someone who was involved in a plane crash or watching the news). Yet, there are statistics that say that flying is safer than being in a moving car…so then the fear is more irrational. Hmmm…

What are your thoughts?

Sources:

1. Ohman, A. (2000). Fear and anxiety: Evolutionary, cognitive, and clinical perspectives. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland-Jones (Eds.). Handbook of emotions. (pp.573-593). New York: The Guilford Press.
2. Edmund J. Bourne, The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook, 4th ed, New Harbinger Publications, 2005.
3. AllPsych Journal | Phobias: Causes and Treatments