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Self MasteryThrough Hypnosis

Larry King

First edition

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Contents

Preface

What Can Be Achieved Using Self-Hypnosis

A Look Back

Defining Hypnosis

Mind & Body (Neural Plasticity)

How Does Hypnosis Work

Clearing The Air (common fears)

The Induction

Similarities Between Bio-Feedback, Meditation and

Hypnosis

Qigong

Finding the Zone

Susceptibility Tests and Convincers

Deepening Techniques

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Smoking Cessation

Using a Physical Prop

Losing Weigh

Pain ControlDreams Can Come True

Preparing Your Session

About Your Practice

Self Mastery Conclusion

Appendix (Sample scripts)

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Dedication

I would like to dedicate this work to all theresearchers and scientist who spent their lives and

sometimes gave their reputations to furthering the

study of hypnosis.

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Acknowledgments

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Self Mastery Through Hypnosis

Preface

Self Mastery in the context of this guide refers to your

ability to recognize your full potential as a human

being, specifically focusing on the mind-body

relationship. Balance between mind and body are of

prime importance. In the medical field this balance is

known as homeostasis. It simply means enough of thisand enough of that and when everything is working

right you enjoy good health. Somewhere along the way

in our social evolution, science became the dominant

belief system and many of us refuse to believe

anything that cannot be proven with the scientific

method. This attitude has been beneficial for the most

part as we enjoy a technology more advanced then

even imagined a few decades ago. The price we have

paid, however, for this attitude, is that we have lost

the magic of life. We no longer believe in the witch in

the forest, and the fairies are all gone and dragons are

just a myth. I find it curious that although we no

longer believe in the existence of magic, we still realizethat this belief served a purpose. This belief can be

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seen in the way we keep some of the old myths alive to

our children even today. For example we have the

Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and few adults would

deny the existence of Santa within ear shot of a child.

My grandchildren still go to sleep anticipating the jolly

ones arrival after looking him up on the national

weather services tracking system to make sure he is

on his way to their house.Magic is important to us, and somewhere deep in our

cores we need to believe that there is something secret.

We need to believe that someone has the answers to

our problems.

The secrets of magic that were taught to the shamans

and the wizards and the priests of yesteryear have

been replaced with the magic of science. The shamansand wizards are now chemists and engineers and

physicists who now understand all the magic and have

written down all the secrets and in so doing they have

lost something valuable. The magic of today is

amazing; can you imagine being able to actually clone

a cat! I still marvel at the remote controls, now so

much a part of everyday life. There will come a day

when science can measure the energy of a thought so

specifically they will know what every thought looks

like and all its properties. Turning on an appliance

remotely will be an after thought by then. Destructive

thoughts will be regulated against, and our very minds

and thoughts will be subject to societal values,constraints and enforcements. Even as I write, these

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groups gather to discuss the mind and its relationship

with the body, how we think, where we think, and how

to change the way we think.

Just where the mind is physically located is still up for

grabs. Jung thought there was a universal

consciousness that we could all tap into and that

consciousness of all time resides their and somehow we

are all connected to one another.Most religions believe in some form or another, that we

all came from one source and we will all return to that

source. A favorite metaphor of mine is the ocean.

Each drop of water is evaporated from the sea as mist

and then forms droplets, like individuals, which are

spread across the land and eventually end in a river

which ultimately returns to the maker, the sea. Thepoint being, no one knows or will ever know how our

consciousness, of self comes about, and whether it

resides in or aside from the body, but we do know that

it is very special gift, and for all we do know there is

more that we dont understand.

Our society has lost touch with its core, the individual.

We do not teach our young of their own natures. They

do not know how to focus or how to relax, or how to

remember or even how to learn. This is not to say we

do not educate them, fore we are very good at that.

For some, learning comes naturally, but not for all.

Learning is a process that is assumed and never

addressed directly. We know that some people aremore verbal and others more visual. Some people

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learn more by doing than by seeing, but we never

really define learning to the student as the ability to be

able to apply the knowledge they have been presented.

We never address the mind they use to learn with, we

never teach them of their own abilities. We do not say

you have the ability to focus or not focus and this is

how that is done, we never say, you can warm your

hands or blush your face or send blood to your cold feetor rid yourself of your headache, stop your bleeding,

reduce your pain, numb your finger, even though these

things can be done and have been done and

documented by the men of science. We would not even

venture into emotions. We would not think to say you

can love your enemy, turn the other cheek, create

compassion for your fellow man, experience the joy ofcharity, feel a love deeper than you felt imaginable for

your chosen mate and experience unconditional love,

and this is how you do that, even though in books

currently in print, special men like the Dahle Lama

tell you just exactly how to accomplish these things.

Think of the jobs we would lose, think of the disarray

the health care system would be in, if all the illness

related to stress was eliminated because we

understood how to relax. Self Mastery is about that

kind of knowing. Self Mastery is about understating

your abilities and to heck with your self imposed

limitations Self mastery is the magic of the shaman,

and the mystery of the sorcerer. Self mastery is a lifelong trip into the real last frontier where you will

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discover, you are the magic and on this trip down the

yellow brick road you will come to understand many of

the secrets of the mystic masters of a forgotten era. It

all happens betwixed and between, just as the fairies

said. Come along with me and start your journey.

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What You Can Expect To Achieve

If I were to say you can achieve any goal you set your

mind to, you would likely dismiss self-hypnosis along

with the ads that state you can lose all the weight youwould like in just ten minutes a day! I believe you can

achieve any goal you set your mind to, but you may

have to reassess success and you might have to get

creative in the method you use for its attainment. I

personally try not to limit my own potential with

words likecan

or

impossible

. There are quite afew things that are improbable however, and the fact is

I would have a hard time staying focused on anything I

did not feel was possible, so in essence the things you

can achieve rest completely on your own definition of

possible.

What do you believe is possible? Are you willing to

change your point of view in order to achieve yourgoals? Nothing comes without effort. It is important

you realize you cannot go to a hypnotist and say stop

me from smokingand expect to come away not

smoking any more. Oh sure, they will say its possible

but the truth is probably closer to about 35 percent of

the people who go in, come out non- smokers and the

rest dont bother to communicate with the hypnotistagain. Why? Because if a hypnotist is good at what he

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does he or she is sure to communicate that the

responsibility is in your hands and if you fail, its

because you did not accept the suggestions that were

made. So they apply a little guilt; but the fact is they

cant stop you from smoking, only you can.

A practitioner in hypnosis can help you in several

ways. They can link smoking to an uncomfortable

sensation in hopes you will stop, to prevent yourselffrom experiencing the discomfort. They can try to

instill in you a desire to quit hurting yourself with the

payback being better health and well being. Some

would try to determine what it is you gain from

smoking and replace it with something that will

provide you with the same payback. There are many

ways to help you but you have to want to change. Youhave to make an effort to stop wanting to smoke, and

to be even more effective, you have to want not to

smoke. When you can achieve the perspective that you

just dont want to smoke then you are no longer likely

to feel that you are making some sort of sacrifice and

giving up something you like. You simply are not

doing something you dont like and thats not a

sacrifice. You have to make the effort the

hypnotherapist cannot make the effort for you. It is

the same in self-hypnosis, you have to make the effort

when after finally being able to attain the state of

being deeply relaxed and you feel you are receptive;

you make the suggestion that you will crave a appleinstead of a candy bar at lunch today. Sure enough, at

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lunch you wanted an apple, but low and behold you

didnt bring one, but the candy bar machine is still

there so you fall back into your same old routine and

buy a candy bar. You have to plan for your success.

You are going to have to make an effort for any kind of

program to work.

Many people go through life "waiting for their ship to

come in", waiting for the riches they meditate on toarrive. The meditation and the self-hypnosis are great

ways to give fate the push to turn the tide of success in

your favor, but you have to send the ship out for it to

come back. You have to buy a lottery ticket to win the

lottery regardless of how much you want it. You have

to make an effort and then things, amazingly

impossible things, can and will happen, but you haveto make it possible in this physical dimension.

Throughout my research of hypnosis,as well as many

related fields, I have found one of the commonalities to

success in any endeavor is the ability to find the

emotion. The word emotion literally means to move

(Peter, Goleman, Emotional Intelligence)I would put

(Goleman & Peter, year published). In not so many

words, you have to apply energy for change to happen.

Emotion is a motivating factor. Getting excited about

something or feeling great conviction is applying

energy and this will cause movement. If you have

paved the road great things can happen, if you have

not, then more than likely the energy you exerted toget the ball rolling will be wasted when the ball hits

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the first rut in the road and comes to rest once again.

Some people use the term passion; Find your passion

has become a great buzz phrase for the first years of

the new century. You must find what moves you, what

excites you and when you do, you will feel the emotion.

Emotions, whether they are love, hate, revenge, or

jealousies are packed with energy and they will cause

change. The question is have you paved the road?Self-hypnosis is best used to achieve personal

goals that relate to the mind and body. You can stop

smoking, reduce your weight, stop biting your nails,

reduce your anxiety, develop a more caring and loving

attitude for your fellow man, improve yourself control

which may improve your sex life, your performance in

athletic events, and your memory. You can controlpain for trips to the dentist or injuries. Long term pain

takes a little more effort but can certainly be improved,

and of course you would not want to use your skill to

ignore your bodys way of telling you there may be

something wrong. Self-hypnosis used for relaxation in

my opinion could substantially reduce illness. Some

estimates indicate up to ninety percent of modern

diseases are a direct result of prolonged exposure to

stress (Dougans & Ellis 3).(Dougans & Ellis, year

published).

This anxiety and stress presents itself in different

ways and through different behaviors that can lead to

illness. Hypnosis can also be used in law enforcementto help victims remember things they may have

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forgotten, it can be used by therapists to help

remember suppressed memories, and of course there is

the whole entertainment field.

For the purpose of this book I will focus on only

self-hypnosis and primarily the ways you can utilize

hypnosis to achieve self mastery. So with all this

power at your finger tips whats the rub? If

self-hypnosis is so great, why is it not taught to us askids? Why doesnt every one use it to learn more, to

study harder, or excel in sports? Why is there any

pain? There is always a rub! The rub is you have to

practice it; you have to do it frequently to learn what

works for you and then practice it to achieve your

goals. Not unlike other things, you get out what you

put in! So lets do as they say in business and dodiligencein other words, lets make the effort, do the

work required, and then reap the benefits of a job well

done!

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A Look Back

Hypnosis itself has a long history. Self-hypnosis

pre-dates written records because it is a natural

occurrence. People have experimented with thealtered state of consciousness since they have had an

awareness of conscious. Hypnosis itself,when

preformed by someone else,does have a documented

history. For the purpose of this book,I have included a

very brief synopsis of hypnosiss historical heritage as

it validates a persons beliefin the practice by knowingthatothers have shared in this belief.

Trance states have been around for almost as long as

humans. Well before the first century, trance states

were used in civilizations for healing and religious

practices, as well as, for war. If you imagine a person

in a trance as a zombie like creature, you may find it

difficult to picture warriors in a trance. However, ifyou recognize that all trance states, especially those

used in hypnosis, are a tightening down or afocusing

in, of attention to such an extent that onebecomes

unaware of other inputs;then it becomes possible to

see the benefit of being in a trance state during battle.

Warriors in the heat of battle are not thinking about

the celebration of a win or the hurt of a loss, they arefocused on the task at hand. For example,in the Celtic

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culture the warrior who was not focused on the current

task of the battle may loosehis head. The Celtic

religious order was known as the Druids. The Druids

were thought to have used hypnosis around the first

century A.D. When preparing for battle the Celtic

warriors would chant and sing, paint themselves blue,

and go into battle naked. You would have to be in

some type of trance to do that, right?It is known that the Egyptians used a form of hypnosis

to cure the ill at thesleep temples. Roman Emperors

were also supposed to have been gifted healers.

According to the Idiots Guide to Hypnosis, their

subjects would pass before them in order to receive the

royal touchand be cured of their ills. It has been

conjectured that possibly Jesus used hypnotic liketrances to heal the sick; a more likely explanation

would be the placebo effect. The people thought they

would be healed and so they were (Unless of course

there was a more divine intervention taking place).

Anton Mesmer is one of the most well-knownfigures in

the history of hypnosis. He initially believed good

health depended on magnetic flow and that magnets

had a power of their own. Believing that a magnet

could affect health goes back,at least,as far as the

sixteenth century when a Swiss physician, Paracelsus,

believed that health could be affected by magnets.

Mesmer saw people in his home where he constructed

tubs filled with magnetic rods to transfer the magnetichealing propertiesto his patients. His success was so

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great he had to move outside where he supposedly

magnetized a tree; over threethousand people a day

were seen and treated by touching the magnetic tree.

It was later concluded by an investigative committee,

that included Benjamin Franklin, any healingthat

took place was not a result of Mesmer's magnetic tree

(Dave Elman pg 23). Regardless of the validity of

Mesmer's healing, there was little doubt that healingdid take place. Although, the healing was likely

producedwithin the individual, this simply reconfirms

the statement that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis.

In 1841,after seeing a mesmerist from France, James

Braid a surgeon became convinced that there was more

to the process than magnetism and began to use the

process for pain-freesurgery. Dr Briad was one of thefirst to promote a mind body relationship recognizing

the undeniable connection (The Complete idiots Guide

to Hypnosis Pg 61). Following Braid was,Charcot

(1852- 1893),who was a famous neurologist who was

the mentor of the infamous Dr. Sigmund Freud. Freud

and Charcot recognized that hypnosis was able to

soothethe troubled mind. Freud coined the term

psychoanalysis or Talk Therapy. Eventually, he

came to believe that talking was more productive and

abandonedhypnosis. In 1919 Pierre Janet wrote,

There is such a thing as psychobiology. We now

propose to heal the patient not through his stomach or

through the blood but through the mind.

In the early 1900s Milton Erickson began practicing

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hypnosis and is now well known for his

non-authoritarianstyle and his use of metaphors. By

the 1960s the American Medical Association, the

American Psychological Association,the British

Medical Association,and the French Medical Academy

had all accepted hypnosis as a useful tool in the

practice of medicine.

There have been many fine practitioners ofhypnosis since that time. Dave Ellman trained doctors

to use hypnosis in their practice and was known for

several rapid induction techniques. Ellman felt for

hypnosis to be of any value in the medical field you

must be able to rapidly induce any willing person into

a hypnotic state in a very short time; he believed one

minute was long enough. Josephine and ErnestHilgard did a vast amount of research on the use of

hypnosis with pain as did Joseph Barber, Barber felt

suggestion was valuable even if a hypnotic

suggestibility test suggested the client would not be a

good candidate for hypnosis. I do not profess any

extensive knowledge of the history of hypnosis. I will

leave it up to you to do further research if you like.

The main thought I would like to leave you with here is

that hypnosis in some form, has always existed. Man

has recognized that there are many levels of

consciousness, and it is not as simple as subconscious

and conscious, what happens in a trance state and

what is possible when exploring the terrain of the mindbody relationship is that we find extraordinary things

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are possible and in an effort to understand this foreign

terrain, historical figures have applied differing

paradigm to what happens to the entranced person.

You should recognize that each of the individuals

mentioned was involved in helping and healing and

recognized that there was a connection between the

belief of the client and the result they observed. Each

of the early pioneers believed that they were part ofthe process not realizing that hypnosis is totally up to

the individual. History should make clear to you that

the magic of hypnosis has existed in the mind of man

for as long as man has been man. The preceding men

have come along way in determining what is actually

necessary and providing us with a methodology for

inducing the trance state of hypnosis. Some of themlost there reputations and careers trying to promote

the benefits of hypnosis to their piers.

Self-hypnosis is used today and can be seen in several

different environments. Although creative imagery or

visualization is not promoted or even recognized as

being a form of hypnosis, it does posses the basic

requirements to be recognized. Take for example a

current day boxer; before he comes out into the ring he

is in his dressing room preparing himself mentally, he

will exhibit complete focus and if asked afterwards if

he could hear the crowd he will likely say no. His body

will feel little pain while focused and the rate at which

time passes will be altered for him. All these thingsare symptoms of a hypnotic state or a trance state.

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The serious athlete will often prepare mentally and

then put his game faceon. The game face is like

another persona, one who feels no pain one who is

invincible. This persona exists within us all but takes

practice to call up. Professional football players have a

coach who before the game gives a little talk. This talk

is similar to a hypnotic induction taking the player to a

place mentally where they can give there all. Observeany great athlete just before they perform and you will

see self-hypnosis being preformed. The athletes are

psyching them selfs up, getting there bodies in perfect

tune with their minds they are focusing their attention

on only one thing, the task at hand and if they are

successful amazing things can happen! Hypnosis is

not a fad it has stood the test of time and it has existedfor as long as we have had a conscious awareness of

ourselves. What I hope you take away from this brief

historical perspective is that this is not something new,

and it is likely that we have not learned all there is to

learn about the way our perceptions and beliefs can

impact our bodies and minds. One thing is certain;

body, mind and reality are untangleably linked

together. Untangling the knot will lead us to new

realizations and beliefs about our individual abilities

and extra ordinary potential Making personal

achievements, developing new abilities and discarding

poor deleterious habits that tie us to poor health and

unacceptable behaviors lies in our ability to get behindthe curtain of our conscious analytical mind. Each

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The Definition of Hypnosis

Let us first define the phenomena of hypnosis.

Hypnosis has as many definitions as it has writers to

write them. I agree with Dave Elman who wrote thathypnosis was a mood. Hypnosis is like anger of joy or

fear it can come upon you suddenly and leave you in

the same manor. Hypnosis can have a profound effect

on your state of mind and then again you may not ever

realize you had entered into a hypnotic state.

A more general definition is provided by Dylan Morgan

who wrote Hypnosis is an area of knowledgeconcerned with certain naturalistic changes in the

functioning of the mind nervous system. (Dylan

Morgan Principles of Hypnosis). Joseph Barber in his

book Hypnosis and Suggestion in The Treatment of

Pain A Clinical Guide wrote Hypnosis is an altered

condition or state of consciousness characterized by a

markedly increased receptivity to suggestionTheterm state of mindis well debated and I wish to

avoid that discussion altogether but for the most part a

state of mind is an accurate phrase to illustrate the

phenomena of hypnosis. Hypnosis is a mood or a state

in which your attention or focus is drawn to one thing

to the exclusion of all others. You cannot really definehypnosis without using the word mind, and so Dylans

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general definition is also correct, for hypnosis is

concerned with a field of knowledge in which we are

concerned with the ability of mere words to affect the

functioning of the mind. This seems ridicules at first, I

mean can I simply say you are feeling very sleepy and

expect it to happen? Can I say when you wake up you

are going to feel like you just had a long nap and

expect the mind to suddenly change the fact that youhave worked all day and your tired? The simple

answer is yes! Its a lot like that old joke, how many

physiologists does it take to change a light bulb and

the answer was just one but he really has to want to

change. Your mind and body are linked in every

conceivable way and your thoughts have has an effect

on your bodys condition. When your down, you feeltired, when your up you have more energy when your

rested you are more patient or at least I am and I can

go from happy to sad or sad to mad in a instant given

the right stimulus, and my state of mind drags my

body right along causing my heart rate to increase and

my stomach to hurt and my immune system to become

retarded and all this can take place at the prompting of

just words. So now imagine if I actually wanted a

change to take place. If intentionally sit back relax

and allow my mind to believe for just a few moments

that it is on a tropical beach listening to the surf roll in

against the sand which is warm and grainy and the

smell of the salt water is inhaled with the warm breezethat keeps me just the right temperature. Do you

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think I might feel just a little bit more relaxed after a

few minutes of that? The simple answer is again yes!

However, you really have to want to change, because

your critical faculty, that part of your consciousness

that analyzes everything will be saying in the back

ground your not in Hawaii, youre in a chair, the air

doesnt smell like the sea thats the fruit in the trash

you threw out yesterday! Its a challenge to get pastthat conscious mind that wants control, and generally

only gives it up when it cant stay awake any longer.

My definition would be hypnosis is a methodology for

affecting change in the body and the mind using words

as a catalyst and imagination the fuel. Lets talk about

the mind, ok Ill talk you read.The Mind and Body

(Neural Plasticity)The mind and the body are obviously interlinked but I

have always felt that our consciousness is somehow

trapped within a shell we call our body and although

there seems to be a great deal we can control their also

seems to be a great deal that we cannot. The way our

minds developed was never a conscious choice. I do not

ever recall anyone telling me that thought were

controllable. Thoughts just appear, or at least that is

what I always believed. With new research this belief

is changing. Technology can now look right into the

brain and observe thought in action. This new ability

to see what is happening has shown a light on what

was previously just conjecture. The scientific study ofthe brain is concluding that the brain is not as rigid

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and fixed as we once thought. The old paradigm

suggested that we were born with a certain amount of

brain cells and that was it, as those died they were not

replaced. It was thought that we had more then we

would ever use but replacements cells were not in the

realm of possibilities. Research has brought to light a

new term called Neuroplasticity. This term simply

means that the brain is much more flexible and possesthe ability to change even in adulthood. This means

that we are not stuck with old habits that we can

learn new things; it means that through concentrated

effort we can actually change the physical structure of

the brain. We can initiate growth of individual areas

of the brain as well as remap existing real-estate to

meet needs as they arise. This ability to make changesin the brains wiring through our own efforts means

that we can change the way we think and what we

think about. It means you have a way to deal with

smoking and weight gain and that is to change the

brain itself. You cannot get any closer to the problem

then the brain itself. It gives us a whole new way to

evaluate hypnotic analgesia and anesthesia when you

realize that the connections in the brain can be

changed physically with continues effort and

sometimes with unconscious effort. Physical changes

depend for their creation on a mental state in the

mind. The state is called paying attention. Paying

attention matters(Mind & Body pg 224)Generally speaking the public at large is aware of two

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states of consciousness. The two states are the

conscious mind and the subconscious mind. Their

names are self explanatory, but briefly the conscious

mind is those parts of your brain that can be controlled

by your conscious attention, walking, talking, and so

on. The sub-conscious mind controls breathing and

blinking and blood pressure and all of the functions

your conscious mind does not seem to control. Thesefunctions appear to go on in the background. There is

no actually dividing line, nor are there just two states.

Conscious is more like a deep pool of water that has

different currents at different levels. If you were to

stand in the deep pool you could look down at yourself,

you might be able to see maybe to your waste, and the

rest of your body would be obscured, you are stillaware of it, you simply cannot see it. Consciousness is

like that, you know you have levels of awareness below

that which you can see but they are not always

available to view. When you are able to quiet your

mind the water settles and more and more of the body

comes in to view. Hypnosis quiets the mind and allows

you access to what is usually out of your awareness. It

is simpler although not as accurate to simply divide

your awareness into two distinct parts, those you are

always aware of and those you are very infrequently

aware of. The area you are infrequently aware of is

your subconscious. Because you so rarely examine

your subconscious with your mind it is like unknownterritory. There are many metaphors you could use,

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but lets stick to the pool of water. If after many years

of not being aware you have feet you suddenly got a

glimpse of them you might be startled to see how you

had grown. Growth takes place at such a slow rate we

never really notice the small changes. Your

subconscious mind also changes. Every new

experience changes the way you interpret things.

Learning and education shine a light on old beliefs andcause you to challenge ideas you may have held for

some time. This happens because we infrequently

have access to what we have actually stored in our

subconscious. We can be holding on to old behaviors

and still not even be aware of why react the way we do.

These behaviors are stored below our conscious

awareness. A metaphor I like to illustrate therelationship between the conscious and subconscious

mind is the The Wizard Of OZ, if you have ever seen

the wizard of the Wizard of Oz remember back to the

scene where the wizard is about to be discovered by

Dorothy and the others. They are facing the

omnipotent Oz and the giant projection of the head of

Oz is breathing fire and yelling at them, and has their

complete attention. They are in affect sucked in,

seeing and hearing nothing else until Totto, our

heroine Dorothys dog who is unaffected by the great

performance slips behind the curtain that hides the

man who is creating the illusion, and pulls back the

curtain to expose him for what he really is. In thisanalogy the curtain is what separates or conscious

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mind from our unconscious mind. Our conscious mind

analyzes all the sensory input we receive and filters it

and assigns meaning to it based on our past

experiences and the filters we have created. The filters

are known as schemas, and it is thought that it is

through these filters that we interrupt our world, our

reality. Hypnosis provides a small gap; hypnosis is our

Totto, it is a way to slip behind the curtain referred toas the critical faculty and make a change in the filter,

to alter behaviors or perspectives in a positive way.

So once again hypnosis is a body of knowledge that

deals with the relationship of body and nervous system

that involves the focusing of ones attention to such an

extent so as to limit the conscious minds ability to

analyze and process everything through the filters ithas created in its life time.

During hypnosis your physical scenes are turned down

one at a time by a reduction in input and this helps to

focus your attention on whats happening within rather

the outside yourself. It is in this mood, this inward

journey, where associations may be discovered and

removed or new associations may be created in order

to facilitate the goal. The goal could be personal or

professional. The goal could be getting rid of a habit.

For instance, you may bite your nails and wish to stop

but hard as you try, you find that when ever you feel

the least amount of tension you find your nails in your

mouth. It would be wise to try and figure out why youbegan this habit.

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Here comes the disclaimer. I am not a physiologist or

a Doctor. of any kind for that matter, so any

suggestions I might give regarding psychological

function should not be considered that of an expert, but

I believe if you do some research yourself you will find

my suggestions are based in fact. If you can remember

what started you biting your nails you might

presumably evaluate whether the reason you beganstill exists. Perhaps you did this as a nervous habit or

perhaps when you got in trouble, or as a way of

diverting attention away from something you were

afraid of or irritated by. If you could remember, then

you might be able to accept; in the light of this

information, that this behavior may have served a

purpose at the time but now that you are more matureyou no longer need to utilize this method of diverting

attention. You get the idea; its a little bit of self

analysis. Why do I do what I do? What does it give

me? You must determine what you get from this

behavior and insure that aside from the obvious

nutritional value of a finger nail that you do not get

some joy from irritating someone close to you, who

hates it when you put your fingers in your mouth.

Possibly you began this as a way to get attention from

your parents, they hated it and you did it to show them

you could exert some control and bug them a little, at

the same time. It worked for you then but is it still

working? Or is it a little bit of a problem now thatyoure grown and people see you fingers are chewed

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and it doesnt fit the image you are creating for

yourself. Maybe you would like to stop but it seems to

be inbred or something, you just keep doing it. If that

is the case, once you realized why you do it you can

analyze the behavior from a new more grown up

perspective and it is possible you will no longer feel

the need to keep biting your nails. Unfortunately you

may not remember, after all this is not a life or deathissues, it is just an annoying habit you would like to

stop. If you spend some time thinking about and being

reflective of different behaviors you have, you will

likely be able to trace many of their origins to events

that have taken place in your child hood. This insight

is generally a good thing. The scope of this book is

very limited to self improvement and specifically howself-hypnosis can help you to attain more confidence,

perform better, and eliminate bad habits, in addition

to being able to help yourself with painful events like

an unexpected burn or other painful experiences of

short duration like a trip to the dentist. You should of

course seek medical attention any time you need it.

Self-hypnosis will not cure you of an ailment or

disease you may have. With that said keep in mind

that a great deal of the ailments that befall us are due

to stress and a little deep relaxation and reevaluation

of the events that stress us and why, can go along way

toward feeling better overall

Back to the original question which was what ishypnosis. Hypnosis is a means of slipping behind the

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curtain of our conscious and removing associations that

were created at some other time. In my example

regarding nail biting, stress was linked or associated to

nail biting inadvertently when as a youth you wished

to redirect attention from yourself. You were obviously

busy biting your nails and therefore were unavailable

to give the stressful situation your full attention

thereby preventing you from being stressed or so itseemed to you at the time. Its not important weather

or not this was an effective behavior, it is only

important that you linked it to the stressful situation.

There are of course times when traumatic events cause

memories to be repressed and sometimes cause

behaviors as a result. It is this vary survival responses

that helps us survive, but sometimes over the years abehavior that was effective when we were young is no

longer needed or no longer appropriate and we may

wish to be free of it. However if you cannot remember

the source of a behavior you may need to approach the

puzzle from a different perspective.

With that in mind what we need to do is slip

behind the curtain. The curtain represents that

dividing line where things slip from being conscious to

being below your conscious awareness. Once behind

the curtain you can leave your self a note. We are

going to place the note right on top of the behavior that

sends the message, when you feel the need to shift

attention from yourself, move your finger to yourmouth. If we place the note right there, then when

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someone makes us feel self-conscious, our subconscious

will read the note that says fingers are dirty and taste

like liver, just take a deep breath and smile. We will

leave this note on every behavior that reminds you to

put your fingers in your mouth. If we are successful in

creating an association with your fingers and the taste

of liver, presumably a taste you do not like you will

think of liver when you put your fingers in your mouthand consequently this will not be pleasurable and you

will stop the behavior.

The first part of our scenario had to due with

locating an association and removing it by bringing it

to light so you could recognize it is no longer

appropriate or necessary and let your subconscious see

things from a more enlightened point of view, this iswhat hypnotherapists do. Hypnotherapists try to

figure out why and then break the association that is

causing the unacceptable behavior. Hypnotists would

prefer to create an association, like your fingers taste

like liver. Because your fingers taste like liver you stop

putting them in your mouth because you do not like

their taste. It is possible to accomplish the same goal

using either perspective. My feeling is that a little

reflection into our own behaviors is a positive thing,

but if you just dont know why you behave like you do

then it may be best to simply create a link between

your fingers and the taste of liver and stop the problem

that way. I have to leave the decision up to you.One of the goals of this book is to lead you

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through the process of self-hypnosis. It is possible to

experience a trance like state while reading if you are a

visual person. I vividly remember several scenes in a

Stephen King book about a vampire. I dont recall the

title but I sure do remember the way I reacted when a

ship mate of mine snuck up and grabbed me while I

was just at a really scary part of the story. I had been

entranced; I was fully involved in the story to theextent that my mind was creating the scenes I was

reading. There was no intentional induction and there

was no hypnotist to guide my imagery, but short of

that I was hypnotized by the book and the guide was

the author. Reading is a good example of what it feels

like to be hypnotized.

My hypnosis instructor provided his studentswith a good visual. I remember my instructor sitting

in front of the class pretending that he was reading.

He would turn the pages and each time he would say

thats not true, this is not really happening, this is

just a story. He was demonstrating what takes place

in some peoples minds as they attempt to learn to

hypnotize themselves or if they have gone to a

hypnotherapist this inner dialogue may be taking place

as the client listens to the words of the professional

trying to provide a nice visual image that will serve to

relax the client mentally and physically. This mental

noise takes place in your head twenty four hours a day

seven days a week. We all constantly talk to ourselves,relive past experiences, and imagine future ones. To

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allow yourself the luxury of intentionally creating a

pleasant image that is void of the critical facilities

constant analysis, is one of the goals. Your body will

follow where your mind leads but you have to slow

down the babble.

My goal is to present to you here a method that

you can change as you need to create a system that

works for you. You will see references to your mind,your subconscious, your conscious, the hidden observer

from Hilgard's work. All of these people are you. You

are a complex organism thats ability to observe and

critique ones own thinking process makes you unique.

The trick here is not to loose the forest among the

trees. You are all of these things and none of them

exist without the rest. You are your mind and you areyour subconscious and you are the hidden observer.

Our minds have the ability to apply selective attention

to different aspects of itself as a means to understand

an infinitely complex self. Self-hypnosis is a way to

communicate your desire to change, to the layers of

conscious that are not easily connected with on a

conscious level, even though they are a part of you.

Our bodies are so complex that most of us dont have a

clue whats on the inside. We can move ourselves

about, but we dont really know how we do it or what is

taking place. We rely on other people like doctors to

tell us how we work. We live with ourselves twenty

four hours a day and yet many of us have not spent anhour investigating our own potentials since we were

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infants and had to figure out how things worked.

You have more control over your organism than

you might be willing to believe at this point and it is

my goal to show you how to re-open the channels of

communication that have been shut down by our own

life experiences. When we are able to fully

communicatewith ourselves on all levels then we will

stop doing things that we know areself-destructive; Overeating, nail biting, smoking, self

defeating attitudes, poor self-esteem,and an inability

to relax are all things that are done by us,not to us.

We are the only ones who can stop the behavior. Self

mastery is a life long passion andthrough the mastery

processyou can attain seemingly impossible goals. If

you take the time to communicate with yourselfyoucan will see measurable results.

I consider the ability to visualize a skill, not

unlike reading. Visualization is a mental skill that you

can improve with practice. The subconscious mind

reacts to mental imagery just as it would respond to

physical reality. The minds response is so complete

that surgerie has been performed using only

hypnotically induced anesthesia. With practice you can

learn to create associations and to disassociate certain

physical sensations or tactile sensation. when you need

to. We as fellow human beings were born with the

ability to master ourselves Our bodies are amazingly

adaptive and self healing With time and perseveranceyou can learn to communicate at a level that allows

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you a greater amount of control over your bodies

functions. You have the power lets go find it!

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How Does Hypnosis Work?

When we try to explain why we think or behave

in a particular way, we have more questions thananswers. The field of physiology and hypnosis are both

playing in the same field: human behavior.

A hypnotist need not understand all the workings

of the mind to gainandbenefit from tried and true

methodology. Thisis a bit like turning on a light, you

dont have to know why or how it works you just have

to know how to operate the switchMost books go about the business of researching

statistics, looking at what was tried, and honing in on

theskills required to affect change with mere words. It

is my feeling that a basic belief in the plasticity of the

brain is usefulin accepting the facts that hypnosis can

make significant changes in the way the body

processes the information received from the senses.Mind plasticity simply stated,is the belief that

the brains wiring is not static and canbe changed oris

changing all ofthe time. Mind plasticity incorporates

the concept that focused attention can stimulate new

brain function in the area of focus. For instance,

musicians brains have been found to be physically

larger in the area that is responsible for the music

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processes.

Experiments have been conducted to determine

that it is not enough to simply be exposed to a

stimulus; you must be focused upon the stimuli in

order to change the way the brain processes that

stimulus. Hypnosis is all about focusing the mind.

When talking to patients about pain, Joseph Barber

would explain that they, through hypnosis, were goingto attempt to rewire the nervous system, toreroute the

pain signal. On the surface this seems impossible but

the fact is that focused attention can create physical

change in the structure of the brain.

Bio-Feedback is one way of affecting change in

your ability to control your own physiology.

Bio-Feedback is a methodology that provides a clientwith a visual reference as to the effect his thoughts are

having. For example, relaxing your hands and arms

can increase blood flow in those areas; byincreasing

blood flow in the hands you have decreased the overall

pressure in the circulatory system and effectively

reduced your blood pressure. Hypertension means you

are tense and by reliving this tension you increase

blood flow, and decrease the overall pressure of the

system. Moreaccurately you reduce the resistance to

the heart pumping. Blood pressure is annotated by

comparing two numbers, a measure of max pressure is

the first number and then the static pressure, or the

amount of pressure the heart must pump against, isthe second number; 120 /80 equalsa maximum

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pressure of 120 was reached and a static pressure of 80

was detected as the resting pressure between beats.

Fluid retention and other factors do contribute to

hypertension, but stress is a hugefactor. People who

are adept at this technique can alter the temperature

of their hands by simply thinking about it.

Practitionersof bio-feedback can control their blood

pressure by learning to communicate with themselves;by recognizing when they are tense they can mentally

reduce this tension and keep their blood pressure

down. Self-hypnosis can accomplish the same goal by

creating the image in your mind of deep relaxation and

then focusing the attention on the relaxed sensation.

Visual imagery is the way that hypnosis

communicates with your subconscious which directlyaffects your autonomic nervous system. You can have

some control of this system by recognizing that where

your mind goes it takes your body and your

subconscious with it. Your subconscious mind If you

are successful in slipping around the critical faculty of

theconscious mind thenthe subconscious will behave

as if you are really seeing and/ordoing what you have

pictured; itwill take your body along for the ride.

Blistershave been caused on the skin of people who

believed they were touching something hot when they,

in fact, werenot. While in a hypnotic state they were

not analyzing the experience, they were simply

reacting to it.Hypnosis works by communicating to your mind

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the need for a change. Thatmay involve the release of

certain chemicals. We are all aware of how rapidly a

chemical can have an affect on our bodies. You need

only to have observed the change in a child or even

yourself after consuming sugar, caffeine, or alcohol

beyond what our bodies can handle. Some chemicals

are ingested but not all. The body creates some of the

chemicals as it needs them. Take for example the fightor flight response for a moment. You are walking by a

car in the grocery store parking lot, mindingyour own

business, and with yourmind somewhere far removed

from the mundane task of walking back to your car

when a great big dog lunges at you barking and

snarling as his front teeth gnash against the window.

- you reactby jumping back or maybe even running,your heart ratejumps up about twenty beats. If youre

like me, you can actually feel the adrenaline your body

just released hit your fingertips. One second you were

calm the next you were primed and ready to do battle

or run like the devil. No magic, you are perfectly

willing to accept that your mind was totally capable of

releasing a self made chemical into your blood stream.

That chemical is adrenalin; it increased your

metabolism, increased your heartbeat, reduced your

pain response, altered your circulation by restricting

blood flow to extremities to prevent excess blood loss

should you get injured during the battle; it caused your

body to stop digesting food, restrict blood flow to someareas, and sent all of the blood to the larger muscles

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for use in running or fighting. In short,the dog scared

you, you perceived you were in danger and whether you

were or not was not important, and the reaction is the

same. In reality you didnt have time to think, your

subconscious reacted to a group of sensations it

recognized as danger. An object moving quickly toward

you or a loud noise can be interpreted as a danger

signal. m sure there were also signals sent by thedogs teeth his eyes, and so on. You perceived danger

and acted appropriately.

Now go back to that vision of a relaxing day in

Hawaii: warm sand , ocean breeze, drinks with little

umbrellas, oh sorry that was my vision., but you get

the idea; what you perceive can change the chemicals

released , the sensations received, even the things yousee and hear can be affected by your thoughts.

Realityis that the real andphysical world is

not interpreted the same for all of us. The way we each

interpret reality changes every day based on our

experiences. Changing your perception of a sensation

or emotion is a way of changing your reality. Should

you endeavor to change a specific sensation, craving,

and/or habityou can make those changes through the

use of self-hypnosis. Byopening communication with

the subconscious; positivechanges can be

made.Clearing the Air

Most people have some reservations about

hypnosis. I know I do, but its not just about hypnosis.I dont like to close my eyes in front of anyone andI do

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not want to put myself in a position where I can be

made fun of or taken advantage of in any way; I would

never volunteerfor a stage hypnotist. However,the

thing to keep in mind is everyone is not like me and

there are many people who like to get up in front of

others and perform for a crowd

In the spirit of putting you at ease,here is a list

of questions you might have and the answers.Will I loose control?

Many people are afraid they will loose their self control

while hypnotized. This is a myth perpetuated by

television and the movies. Hypnosis is not a lack of

control. Actually, on the contrary, being hypnotized

takes the ability to focus ones attention to the

exclusionof all other senses. This ability is shard byathletes of the highest caliber, by intellectuals, and by

great musicians. Focus is a sought after quality

because those who develop it are generally very

successful, they are anything but out of control.

Will I do silly or embarrassing things?

We are primarily talking about self-hypnosis so I doubt

you will instruct youre self to do anything you do not

want to do. Even if you were hypnotized by a

professional you would not allow yourselfto do

anything you don'twant to do. Hypnosis is often a

good excuse to be silly and have fun. However, you will

not overstep your own boundaries unless you are

lookingfor an excuse to do so.Is there a chance I will not wake up?

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You are not asleep to begin with,so the simple answer

is no. A hypnotic state is not sleep, it is a state that is

so relaxed and may lead to fall asleep if you are tired;

you will awake when your rested or givenany of the

normal stimulus that would wake you. You have never

relinquished control of yourself so there is no concern

you will not behave normally. I have personally been

concerned that I might lapse into a sleep state and belate for work or appointments; timedoes not pass at

the normal rate while hypnotized. What can seem as

though hours have passed could have only been a few

minutes, or vice versa. Never the less,your mind has a

pretty good sense of time. When you begin, simply

remind yourself you have twenty minutes and you will

most likely sense exactly when twentyminutes haspassed. Just in case, set an alarm clock so the worry

will not prevent youfromrelaxing. I have not had any

problems so far.

Will I tell secrets?

If you wish to share a secret, you may do so, but you

cannot be compelled to do anything that you don't want

to. You will not respond to suggestions or questions

that are out of the context of your intended visit. In

other words,if you went to the therapist to uncover

repressed memories you might choose to share what

you recalled becausethat is in the context of the visit.

If you were trying to quit smoking and were asked

about some personal event it is likely that you wouldstop responding or get up and leave, as wouldbe

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appropriate.

If I asked you to stand on your head and bark like

a dog, you would refuse unless you came in wanting to

do that. You are in complete control and thats how it

should be. If while you are in a hypnotic state,

someone spoke to you, you would likely evaluate what

they said and choose to respond or not. You do not

loose your awareness;you simply shift your attention.While in a hypnotic state you will accept suggestions

more readily than normal and you will likely take

things very literally because thats the way your

subconscious behaves. As we are concerned here with

self-hypnosis the biggest problem you will have is

trying to stay focused on your goal in your extremely

relaxed and comfortable state.How long does it take?

The more often you go into the mood the easier it

is to get there and the deeper into relaxation you can

go. I can reach a fairly deep state in less then five

minutes, be there for five minutes, which seems like

twenty, and then take five moreminutes to regain my

normal awake state. Fifteen minutes is more than

enough after you've hadsome practice.

How long does it take to quit smoking or lose weight?

Nancy Regan said it best, Just say no. There is

absolutely no point in trying to asses how long it will

take to quit smoking. You have been losing weight

since your last mouthful, and you quit smoking withyour last cigarette. Its not a question of how long it

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will take to quit; it is more a question of how to keep

from everovereating or smoking again. We will cover

methods to help you forget to smoke. Is it quitting if

you forget to do something you dont want to do in the

first place? If you immediately start from a position of,

I have to give something, up you are already losing the

battle, but if you look at it from a different point of

view the taskis not as difficult. For instance, if yousaid to yourselfI dont smoke and I dont want to

startthen you have not stopped anythingyour just

not starting a bad habit. Weight loss is much harder to

control because you cannot just stop eating but, we

have waysto help you change your eating habits.

These "ways"will regulate your system and assume a

healthy weight for you. How long it takesis up to youand depends on how long you feelyou have to suffer

doing things you dont want to? You have the power to

change You might ask your self why you continue to do

something that you no longer wish to do?The moment

you decide to stop smoking its over, you quit, its

instantaneous You nowhave to keep yourself from

going back. Thats the hard part. Hypnosis will help

you to change. It is a self help approach even when

presented by someone else. All hypnosis is

self-hypnosis so lets get to it and start learning how to

master ourselves through self-hypnosis.

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The Induction

The induction process serves to take you from

your normal waking state to a quieter more meditativeself-aware state (a kind of, get ready, get set, go

approach). Its hard to go straight to a trance from a

normal waking state; you need to settle down some

first.

The first step in the induction process is to attain

eye closure. Eye closure was once thought to be

responsible for the hypnotic state itself, but this wasnot thecase. Eye closure serves two purposes when

you are being hypnotized by another. Lets say its

your first time and I ask you to stare at a spot or to

focus your eyes just above where it is comfortable for

you. Your eyes become tired quickly. This stressed

condition will cause them to burn and water and will

likely elicit the impulse to close them so they may rest.The hypnotist realizes this and says your eyes are

getting very tired, very heavy, andwhen you feel that

you would be more comfortable just go ahead and let

them close;if you wish you may continue to focus on

the spot. This phraseology allows the client to close

their eyes without giving up any control The clients

normal reaction to this statement is to avoid the

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fatigue He or she will sooner or later close their eyes at

which time the hypnotist says thats goodrewarding

the client for their cooperation and taking credit for

somehow causing this event to take place. Now days

you will likely be asked to simply close your eyes and

facilitate yourselfpicturing the visual imagery in your

mind. It doesnt matter how you get your eyes closed.

For self-hypnosis just close your eyes. At this point,you are narrowing your range of attention. With your

eyes closed you have just eliminated a huge source of

distraction. Next,you will want to begin reducing the

input from the other scenes as well. For instance, you

will suggest to yourself while you lay perfectly still

you will notice a beautiful white light over your head.

Now you have begun to lie still, with no physicalmovement the sensation from different parts of your

body moving and interacting with the environment has

just been reduced. The environment you choose for

your session should be one where smells are kept to a

minimum and you are at a comfortable temperature,

noise as well should be if not absent at least low.

Constant noise would be preferred to sudden

unexpected noise. Next you will say something like,

"all ofthe sounds you hear in the environment will to

help you relax more and more"; slowly you will become

aware of only my voice. Withself-hypnosis you can

still use this approach, asyou are speaking to yourself;

it doesnt seem to matter, you can hear your thoughtsjust as if they were being spoken out loud. Now that

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you have effectively reduced all outward influences:

sound, temperature, tactile sensation, and sight. Your

attention is being limited to what you are hearing and

what your mind is creating for you to see. This is one

of the purposes of the induction, to calm you down,

restrict the input to your brain and to relax. Our next

step is to refocus you mental attention. The

subconscious portion of your brain is alwaysquestioning the information it is being presented with.

This function has been dubbed the critical faculty To

have a image or thought accepted as fact we must

not allow the image to be to closely examined by the

subconscious critical faculty In order to get by the

critical faculty you must engage the mind The way to

do that is to engage it in activity. You might saysomething like this; I now want to follow my breath. I

follow it in as it come in my nose, feeling the air move

over my tongue and down the back of my throat going

all the way until it enters the lungs, then out, back up

the throat over the tongueand out of my mouth.

Continue to follow each breath. You can also use this

time to progressively relax yourself. Providing

suggestions such as,"my shoulders are feeling very

heavy and warm; feel the warmth work its way down

my back; everymuscle and every fiber in my back are

becoming progressively relaxed. Make an attempt to

actually feel the relaxation. If you are unable to relax

then you should tense and relax each muscle, one byone. This will relax each muscleto a greater extent.

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Once you have noticed that you are getting more

relaxed we can move on.

The next step is to take the first step into a

trance state. In order to do this, I suggest you say

something to yourself. While returning to your head

you feel the deep state of relaxation. It is warm and

relaxing, every stress or wrinkle line in your forehead

melts away; the wrinkles are melting away like buttermelting on hot corn. Now you feel that warmth wash

over your eyes, and they seem to get heavier and

heavier. In fact they are so heavy you couldnt possibly

open them; in fact, it is as if they have had small

zippers added to them and they are now zippered down

to your cheeks. As you see this in your imagination,

you see the zippers pull taunt as you attempt to openyour eyes see the zippers holding your eyes temporarily

closed tight If you can see this clearly and only then

test the zippers and feel your eyes being held tight to

your cheeks, see the zippers go taunt under your test,

and then relax your eye lids. This wording may seem

long and repetitive but this is by design. Hold this

vision in your mind as you continue to relax more and

more and even more. This is a key element in the

induction process. Although you could open your eyes

any time you wished, yourability to allow yourself the

illusion of not being able to open your eyes, effectively

pretending, is the path to getting behind the curtain of

your analytical mind. Youmust do this exercisenon-critically, simply experiencing your own

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amusement that you seemingly cannot open your eyes.

This is called a convincer and is used by hypnotists to

prove to the client that they would have opened their

eyes if they could but in reality you are asking them to

simply believe, temporarily, thatthey cannot. You

have to allow yourself to go along, this is not an

exercise in control; its an exercise in being in control

enough to relax into the moment and experience theamusement at experiencing your eyes actually sensing

the zippers holding them shut. This is your

subconscious acting on the information it has. Your

subconscious has taken your imagined situation

literally and it is an indication they you have

transcended the critical faculty that would ordinarily

say this is ridicules, there are no zippers. This is a lotlike mental play, just using your imagination and

allowing yourself to feel what you are visualizing. This

is fun and it is the way to create changes.

The next step is to continue to build on your

momentum. Now thatyou have allowed yourself to

feel your vision,continue by saying something to this

effect, "soon my arm will begin to feel very light". It

may be my right arm or it may be my left arm but very

soon now I will began to sense a slight tingling in the

arm that is beginning to lift. Take a moment now and

sense which arm is the lightest. Imagine that your

arm has balloons filled with helium attached to it at

the wrist, feel the arm growing lighter and lighter asthe balloons catch the breeze and lift your arm from

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your lap. Keep repeating lighter and lighter, lifting

and lifting. This may take you five minutes of twenty

but keep convincing yourself you feel your arm lifting.

Make no attempt to lift your arm, enjoy the

amusement when it in fact begins to lift on its own.

When your arm is at a height you are happy with

deepen your hypnotic state by simply saying on the

count of three my arm will fall to my lap and in sodoing I will go twice as deep into relaxation as I am

now feeling more relaxed then ever before. If you have

been successful you will feel yourself profoundly

relaxed, you should notice that you have more saliva

than usual and you will likely not be noticing what is

transpiring around you as your focus is now completely

internal. If you have reached this state successfullyyou may now give yourself some suggestions in which

to make the changes you have wanted to make. If you

do not feel ready than you should simply awaken

yourselfwith something as simple as, I am going to

wake up at the count of five; as I count I will begin to

feel my self becoming increasingly aware. One, I am

feeling more awake; two, I feel my blood beginning to

move; three, I can wiggle my fingers and my toes; four,

taking deep breaths, I am feeling well rested and

completely awake, feeling terrific for no particular

reason; five I am wide awake, wide awake." If all went

well you will have just experienced your first hypnotic

state, mood, or trance. There is no wrong way to feel.Many people do not believe any change has taken

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place. The fact that you do not realize change has take

place does not preclude you from the benefits. Think of

it this way, in your whole life did you ever notice you

were growing? You may have noticed you had grown

but you most likely did not note the moment change

took place. It did however take place. If I recognize

that I was not hearing outside sounds and was totally

absorbed in the process of the induction, I generallywill consider my session a success, if however I was

unable to relax or just could not rein my mind in

enough to focus; I accept the failure and resolve to try

again at some other time. If you are going to use this

skill as a method for change you would be well advised

to pick a particular time of day and a specific place,

music is not a bad idea either. Anything you can do tomake it easier to focus your attention internally is a

good thing. Do not get caught in the trap of I could not

do it today because I did not have my pillow or my

music or I was not home. All of these are just excuses

the conscious mind provides you to prevent its loss of

control during hypnosis. The conscious mind is not our

enemy you are your conscious mind. You must simply

remind yourself that you must practice your skills

every day to be good. Some locations are better than

others but when you continue to practice in challenging

environments and you have success then you beginto

realize it may be possible to control an impulse for pain

in a emotionally charged situation.

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Common Links Between Bio feedback andMeditation

When you have mastered the skill required to enter thetrance or the hypnotic state then you have taken the

position of hypnotist. Now you must use your skills on

yourself you must attain and maintain an altered state

of consciousness while simultaneously staying in

control and directing the mental activity. This ability

to manipulate your thinking process is closely related

to several other fields. Let us first look atBio-Feedback. Once again, Bio-feedback is a system in

which different instrumentation is used to present you

with feedback related to some bodily function. Let us

take blood pressure for instance. A bio feedback

technician wanting to teach you to lower your blood

pressure would likely first teach you some relaxation

techniques. It is of utmost importance to relax.

Muscle electrodes can be placed on your skin that can

detect current being sent to the muscles of your body.

By listening to a tone or a visual of some sort like a

flashing light you can audibly or visually see your

tension as you reduce it by relaxation you can see or

hear a difference. This feedback system gives you away of perceiving the control you have over these

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muscles. A method used for reducing your blood

pressure is to warm your hands. If you first relax and

then visualize or imagineyour hands being warm, the

subconscious mind responds by relaxing the tension in

your hands and allowing the capillarys to fill with

blood this warm blood warms your hands and reduces

the overall pressure in the circulatory system. This in

effect lowers your blood pressure byplacingtemperature sensitive sensors on your hands or fingers

soyou can be provided with an audible or visual cue

that will tell you if the temperature is indeed rising.

You will try differing approaches and use different

visualizations until you hit on one that gives you the

results you are seeking. You must remember the

subconscious works with emotion and pictures. If thevision you create is clear enough, the subconscious will

take care of the rest. Bio- feedback can be used to

teach you to control of many different parts of your

anatomy that you may have never believed you had the

ability to do. We have mentioned blood pressure

temperature, and tension. Bio-Feedback can also help

with the speed of the heart. The heart reacts to many

different stimuli from chemicals in the food to the time

of day but the simplest way to intentionally control

your heart is probably with emotion. If you want it to

slow down, imagine yourself climbing into bed for a

good night sleep or lying on your favorite beach,

something warm cozy and relaxing. Your heart willbegin to respond in tern. If you want it to speed up,

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how about the last spat you had with your employer or

that guy or gal who cut you off on the freeway and then

gestured via a hand signal that this was somehow your

fault (How did I know that happened?). Well thats all

it takes to increase my heart beat.

Now, Imguessing that some of my readers may

think that this is all well and good sitting in a chair

hooked up to monitors but how can you take time fromyour busy day to stop and think of all of this so you can

calm down or lower your blood pressure? You were

driving when the rude driver irked you in the first

place right. You got mad you thought about it for the

next twenty minutes all the while still driving ,

walking , talking and the like . When you relived your

last romantic interlude, be it hot and steamy or mildlyentertaining you do so while doing something else,

working or driving or walking. With a little practice

you will be amazed at how much time you actually do

have to react and control your reaction to things. Lets

compare Bio-feedback and hypnosis. Bio-feedback uses

your ability to create illusions or visualizations to get

your body to relax, so does hypnosis. Creating these

scenarios in your mind via your imaginations has a

physical effect on your body. This is also true of

hypnosis. Bio-feedback relies on instrumentation to

provide you a simple method for viewing results of your

efforts; hypnosis does not. Thegoal of biofeedback is to

take the techniques you learned in the lab out into theworld and without feedback and employee it when

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needed feedback is just the tip of the iceberg when it

comes to making changes in the body with conscious

effort. It merely brings to a conscious level the

changes that are taking place. Its a teaching tool and

the methodology it uses to control the bodily function it

hopes to change is essentially those of self-hypnosis.

Meditation is nothing more than focused

concentration. There are several different types ofmeditation. The first type of meditation is aimed at

quieting the mind and this is accomplished by focusing

the mind on one thing. Usually this is the breath. The

breath is a good choice as it is always with you.

Focusing on the breath, turnyour mind inward. This

shift inward reduces distractions from the outside

world. Focusing your attention on one thing you usethe one to control the many. The mind is like a wild

beast and it will constantly try to run off but through

repetition and persistence you will eventually be able

to quiet it some what. When this happens you become

aware of a connection with things you may have been

unaware of because your mind kept you so busy with

its mental noise. Without going into the metaphysical

side of meditation you can see some similarities first

you have restricted movement by assuming a certain

posture, you closed your eyes also reducing input and

you focused on your breath. It does not matter what

you focus on, the point is you focus on one thing, my

voice your breath it does not matter, it quiets the mind.Meditation should not be underestimated simply

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because it is just focused attention. Focused anything

can be quite powerful, focused water moves mountains,

lasers focus light to cut through solid steal. The

potential of a singularly focused mind is unfathomable.

Just look at the creations of man if you doubt the

ability of a focused mind.

I hope I have drawn sufficient parallels for you to

see that the most significant feature of any of the aforementioned studies of human conscious is the ability to

focus your attention. This skill above all others will

allow you to fulfill your goals This is what self-hypnosis

is trying to achieve and bio feedback , and meditation,

and chi gung, and every teacher you ever had who said

pay attention, focus! They realize if not consciously

that attention is the single most important thing inbuilding, or changing the brain. What you think

about is what you are and so we must be able to control

what we think about

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Qigong

My overall goal is to provide you with some methods

for you to master yourself. No book on self mastery

would be complete with out at least mentioning

Qigong.

The Daoist Canon was compiled around 1145

A.D. mentions the art of Qigong in one of its

Bibliographic references and depicts exercises that arenearly identical to those still being taught in china

today ( Kenneth Cohen, The Way Of Qigong) Its goal

as stated by Kenneth Cohen is to expel disease and

extend life According to the Dao-Yin Classic.

Qigong is a Chinese Exercise System that

emphasizes slow and rhythmic movement combine

with deep breathing and visual imagery is an excellent

tool to achieve that mid body connection that we seek.

Qigong has been called bio feedback without the

instrumentation. The benefits to overall health have

been well documented. This exercise can be done

sitting or standing or even lying down. In addition to

physical exercise, Qigong practitioners also utilizehealing imagery in their meditations. This method of

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communicating intent to the subconscious mind has a

very long history.

By using the exercise listed below I believe you

will find that over time you will benefit from increased

lung function and feel better over all. All of the

exercise descriptions are taken from Kenneth Cohens

book The Way of Qigong. They are sometimes

paraphrased but convey most of the important details.This is a great book on the healing aspects of this art.

Arm swinging:

Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and

your knees slightly bent. Relax shoulders and let you

head hang for a moment. Look forward and gently

swing your arms in front of you allow them to rise only

to your comfort level starting slow after three minutesallow them to settle down on their own , the swinging

will decrease in height slowly until they come to rest

at your sides. Stand and enjoy. You can do this easily

in the time it used to take you to smoke a cigarette

and feel great!

Breathing exercise Inner Nourishing Qigong

Breathe in and out normally using only your

nose. Now inhale and place the tip of your tongue on

the roof of your mouth where teeth meet your gum line

and say to yourself I amwhile holding this breath

say to yourself calm andnow exhale lower your

tongue and think Relaxed. Inhale, tongue upI am

holdCalm and

relax your tongue exhale andrelaxed

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Simple and effective at quieting you and it has strong

curative effects on the respiratory system according to

Cohen.

If you doubt the effect simple thoughts can have think

about how you feel just after getting the finger on the

free way, or think about how you feel when your

favorite love interest whispers some private intention

into your ear. Thoughts and imagination change brainchemistry literally in a heart beat!

Comparing Qigong to hypnosis once again, you have a

quieting of the mind and by focusing on the slow

rhythmic movements your attention is shifted to a

more focused attentive place; this is a place where

learning can take place. When you attempt to feel your

weight shift or feel the energy called Qi, move throughyour body you are taking a new perspective. Even if

you are just imagining it that is what is required to

begin with. If you have never experienced the feeling

of Qi, you have no reference point. You must imagine

it first to create a place in your mind for it and then

you will actually really feel the difference. Its almost

like learning a new language. Even though in the

beginning you dont have the skill to speak fluently you

make an effort and over time your skills developed , its

the same thing in the beginning you just try to feel the

energy and in time you will actually feel it. Hypnosis

and Qi gong share visualization, they share focused

attention, they share the goal of self realization.Something they both do without trying is to reduce the

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separation between subconscious and conscious, slowly

you will began to realize things that you were

previously unaware. You may have what I call

knowings; they are just moments when you know what

others are thinking. You may begin to notice the

things you focus on just start showing up! I was

thinking about marbles the other day, and I was

wondering where I might buy some, apparently myfocus was good because a few days latter I was in my

back yard tilling some ground and up popped a marble,

coincidence? I have never had marbles inmy yard, I

am the first home owner; it was a cow pasture before

my hou

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