Monsters and Magical Sticks: There's No Such Thing as Hypnosis? by Steven Heller ISBN:1935150634

Excerpts

Foreword

help shed new light on the classic question confronting many of us: "Why can't I overcome my problem when I'm so competent in other areas of my life? Why am I continually stuck in this area?"

By creatively evoking, assessing, and utilizing the language of our sensory systems, Heller is able to identify the out-of-conscious sensory system that is generating the system, pain, or unwanted behavior. He then shows us how he playfully and hypnotically helps clients enter into their own out-of-conscious sensory systems to bring back into conscious awareness the innate resources of this pivotal area.

This process facilitates the clients' discoveries of choices in their lives, and activates their abilities to break unwanted patterns of feeling and behavior

there literally is no such thing as hypnosis and we are all in deep hypnosis more of the time than we realize.

Introduction

In Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer, Dr. John Lilly points out in three sentences something that is totally obvious once stated, and yet will totally revolutionize your world once you begin to really understand it:

In the Province of the mind, what is believed true is true or becomes true, within limits to be found experimentally and experientially. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the province of the mind there are no limits.*

Robert Anton Wilson Dublin, Ireland 23 January 1987

Fore-Warned/Acknowledgements

asked what it takes to be an effective hypnotist. My response has been, and is, "You must learn the necessary tools and techniques that help direct individuals to their own inner resources and creativity. Once you have done that, you must then get the hell out of their way."

Hypnosis helps get the individual out of their own way!" In most cases of so-called dysfunction, the individual has been following their own footsteps in a circle

While we are not "NLPers," there are areas in this work that draw on or overlap the NLP approach

1 Into Hypnosis Lightly:

HYPNOSIS — THE FIRST STEP

If, however, we consider hypnosis as a generic term that encompasses all forms of altered consciousness, and do not consider hypnosis as a mystical state, we may then get a more clear picture that feels more comfortable

HYPNOSIS AS COMMUNICATION

Within that word are things like meditation, fantasy, guided imagery, deep muscle relaxation—anything that encourages or precipitates a person's turning inward and having an inner experience that becomes more profound or more important than the outer consensual reality

2 Meta 4 — Change — Life

ILLUSIONS

3 Everyday Hypnosis/Learning

WAKING HYPNOSIS

One classical definition of hypnotic suggestion is: using words that ccause the subject to go back in time and recover a memory that causes an emotional affect

these types of hypnotic transactions occur much more often than most people would believe

If however, we use the word hypnosis to imply any transaction and communication that causes an individual to go into their own experiences and call upon their own imagination in order to respond, we will have a map that will allow us to become aware of the hypnotic transactions occurring around us

Now, let us examine one hypnotic phenomenon called regression. A hypnotist will use words (suggestions) designed to cause the subject to "go back" in time in order to re-experience some past event or to examine some past event

"TA" (Transactional Analysis) therapists follow a concept they call "Life Scripts." They believe that individuals are given a "script" to follow, that, if painful and not changed, will cause that individual to act in ways that are self-defeating

when I had "talked funny" to him, he was holding a coffee pot in his hand. Part of what I had said involved the feeling of warmth. In a way I could have never predicted, his mind had made an instant connection to the coffee pot, the incident, the feelings, and me. In short, a one trial learning experience. Seeing me only triggered a small part of the experience. The coffee pot triggered the whole thing. We could call the whole transaction a learning experience

there are many hypnosis researchers who contend that all learning takes place in a state that is very much like a hypnotic one

Suddenly, a traffic light turns red and—guess what? You stop (hopefully) without thought and almost automatically. You might call your action a "conditioned response," and you might contend that it is different from the stage hypnotist red light example

hypnosis is a form of education. Ideas, beliefs, possibilities, fantasies, and much more, may be "suggested" and, if accepted, and acted upon several times, they may become a conditioned part of your behavior. In addition, under certain circumstances, a conditioned response can be established in one trial without repetition, and without "practice."

It is my belief that all behaviors, useful or not, are learned via some kind of hypnotic transaction.

CASE I: SELF-DESTRUCTIVE

A bright and talented young man was referred to me with the presenting problem of "always blowing his opportunities

He was very afraid of his parents, and, as a child, like most children, he believed that they knew everything

Don't you ever try to be better than your father

every time he was about to go beyond his father, something happened which stopped him from being better than his father. He was a very good boy. He was merely doing what his mother had told him.

ANXIETY AND HYPNOSIS

the patient suffering from an anxiety state may not be able to describe the situation that provokes the anxiety; i.e., it may appear to him that his anxiety is without cause

implies that every conscious experience is modified by past experience

"hypnotic phenomena" can be produced not only via words, but through facial expressions, body postures, certain tonalities, and by merely staring

I CAN'T - I WONT

the average client or patient who appears at a clinician's office is not often suffering from such "reality" problems, nor are they in such dire straits. In all probability, their reality situation is not substantially different from that of a general cross section of people. Yet, these individuals maybe anxious, depressed, or even "acting" psychotic

To attempt to apply logical solutions to illogical (and probably hypnotic) problems is, in my opinion, ILLOGICAL therapy.

instead of learning the patient's right-hemispheric (hypnotic) language and utilizing it as the royal road to therapeutic change

For those of you who would like a more complete description of illogical methods that work, may I recommend Dr. Watzlawick's fine book, The Language of Change

I believe that hypnosis is the "language of the right hemisphere" and, therefore, a royal road to therapeutic change.

SVENGALI AND TRILBY

each time the signal is given, the subject will respond in a set, stereotyped sequence of steps. Each individual's responses may be different from that of another, but each will respond in a set, almost compulsive fashion. Now, what I have trouble understanding is this: how does the hypnotic subject's stereotypical responses differ from that of so-called neurotic responses?

4 Forget It

AMNESIA REMEMBERED

Freud defined amnesia as the repression of traumatic material

the traumatic information is still there, but the individual has no conscious awareness of the trauma. If that trauma is still there, then in all probability the affect and the consequences are still active. However, due to the amnesia, the individual will experience unpleasant feelings without knowing their source.

While her explanation appears absurd, she acted as if she believed she was telling the truth. As the professor tried to explain to her how ridiculous her story was, she became anxious, agitated and very defensive

how desperately the subject searched for a "logical" explanation of her actions

Attempting to make sense out of his action and responses will be tedious and probably accomplish very little or less.

CASE 2: FEAR OF HEIGHTS

having someone blowing up time bombs doesn't make any more sense than the original hypnotic trauma, except it works. I have observed people evidencing severe anxiety and then a deep sigh of relief when they have finished

ROCKET LAUNCHING

fear is the fuel that keeps the system going.

PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

The fear of not belonging, the authority of the teacher, and the repetition of suggestion all combine to produce learning. I am not, for a moment, forgetting positive reinforcement in learning

5 Belief Systems

+/- HALLUCINATION

Bandler and Grinder (1975 a,b) contend that we do not operate on the world directly or immediately, but rather through internal maps (belief systems) of the world, and that the "map is not the territory

using language to describe his map (inner belief system), but not necessarily the real world, or his real experiences.

BELIEFS: GOOD OR BAD

The individuals who come into a therapist's office seeking help, also bring with them a whole history, a whole background, a whole set of belief systems.

in areas in which they are evidencing pain and dysfunction, their belief system, in that area, is either "the problem" or prevents them from finding the solution

Those individuals are "sure" of those things because their belief systems exclude any facts that might prove otherwise. Too often, in my opinion, therapists are prone to accept those painful maps as accurate, and then help their patients to "really get into the feelings."

BELIEFS AS MEMORIES

To the same "real"-world situation, there can be, and often is, a multitude of responses and beliefs

These belief systems stem from their own "memories" (metaphors) as to the meaning of a beach to them, and these "memories" have, in fact, become their own individual reality

Belief systems, whether graceful and efficacious, or painful and destructive, are formed in a multitude of ways: modeling; learning models; circumstances; traumas; repetition of events; and suggestions; etc. It is my belief, that no matter how they are formed, they affect all of our behaviors in ways that are similar to that of hypnotic phenomena

It is not a world, but a mosaic of single images which may be interpreted in one way today and differently tomorrow; a pattern of patterns

NEGATIVE BELIEFS

When an individual's "mosaic of single images" is continually interpreted in a stereotyped way, he becomes stuck, and his range of choices is limited

Since that individual has sought help, it is a safe bet to assume that s/he is stuck—at least in some aspect of his/her life. I believe that one of the first and, perhaps, most important tasks at hand, is to discover what keeps that individual from having new choices that would lead to being "unstuck."

Using the individual's known—and perhaps, painful—belief systems to lead them to new destinations, is a graceful way to bring about change.

INDUCTION VIA BELIEF SYSTEM

During one of my training seminars, a young psychologist was unhappy because he "couldn't" be hypnotized.

When he stated that he could still hear the other person's voice and that nothing different had happened, he had used words that described one of his maps, but not necessarily the "real" world. His map told him that he shouldn't hear the "hypnotist's" voice. I, therefore, asked him to hear his own voice, and I just stopped talking. In addition, I used what he considered "something different happening"— arm catalepsy—to help him alter his state

hypnosis—to help give individuals a new map, may be, in effect, using what they already know to help them learn and experience something new

individuals tend to associate certain external stimuli (cues) with certain stereotyped responses. The external "cue" becomes a symbol, or metaphor, that sets into motion a whole series of responses

ERICKSON — BELIEFS — METAPHORS

perceive all presenting symptoms and complaints as being metaphors that contain a story about the 'real' problem, and that your basic approach is to build metaphors that contain a story about the possible solution

The aim of realistic, responsible therapy can only be increased skill in dealing with life's problems as they arise, but not a problem-free life

6 Systems Two

EXCESS BAGGAGE

One piece of excess baggage we could all do without is the "assumption" that all individuals, more or less, think and process information in a similar fashion.

it is imperative that we know how to translate another's metaphors

CONSCIOUS OUTPUT SYSTEM

I would like you to consider the words we use to communicate our internal experiences to another person as our conscious output system

By the time an individual is about eleven or twelve years old, they have developed a preferred output system

These "output" systems come in three varieties: Visual—Kinesthetic—Auditory

OUTPUT SYSTEM: THE BEACH

where the individual functions gracefully, s/he will tend to utilize all systems more or less equally—with one system a little more equal. Conversely, I believe that you will find a different story in the areas of dysfunction. In those areas, as a general rule, you will find that the individual is more or less "stuck" on one system.

HEAR THE FEELING OF THE PICTURE

Think of each one of the conscious output 'systems as a "person" within us. Where these "persons" are working in ^partnership, we will tend to have more than enough choices available to us.

CASE 3: SYSTEMS FOR INDUCTION

CASE 3: SYSTEMS — PAIN REDUCTION

Where you have an individual who is in physical pain, whether from an accident or illness, that person will be very much into their kinesthetic system. The goal is to help them move into another system; e.g., visual

Changing the "pain patient's" kinesthetic system to a visual one will almost always do the trick

SYSTEM MISMATCH: EXERCISE

Let us suppose a person enters a therapist's office and says that they are suffering from depression. S/he goes on to say that s/he is being crushed by his/her feelings, and is really feeling down. S/he is, at that moment in his/her life, stuck in the kinesthetic system. S/he is in pain, which is a kinesthetic experience. As long as s/he continues to stay in that system, the problem will remain.

CASE 4: SYSTEMS — DEPRESSION

SYSTEMS: RAPPORT

7 GIGO

We will now move into the area of internal systems, processes and programs

As you have already discovered, the way an individual communicates with words indicates what their conscious output system is.

What may be even more important is the "programs" they use to generate their conscious experience. I term this system the unconscious input system

In 1969, a gentleman by the name of Bakan discovered a relationship between eye movement and hemispheric recall. His work, along with the works of many others, has established specific relationships between eye position and movement, and the type of "recall" the individual is experiencing. This "recall" may be visual, kinesthetic, auditory, or combinations of all three

For example, what if we were to ask a friend how he was going to do on a job interview? As he begins to respond, he makes a "picture" out of his past. Let us assume that this picture is one in which he made a fool of himself at a grade school recital

He may then say, "I am really scared. I always screw up at interviews." If you could help him become aware of the "real" source of his fear, you could help him to have a new choice

THE EYES HAVE IT

you must first learn what different eye movements and positions mean

go back to the imagined face or the one you have drawn. I would like you to "see" the eyes turning up to that "person's" left—your right, as you look at them. Where an individual is looking up to their left, s/he is triggering that part of the brain in which PAST VISUAL memories are stored*

When that individual looks up to the right—your left as you look at them—they are CONSTRUCTING VISUAL images: that is, s/he is making a picture of a new idea

an individual looks down to their left—your right as you look at them—they are, at that moment, into their internal AUDITORY SYSTEM. In effect, they are having an internal dialogue

When an individual looks down to their right—your left as you look at them—s/he is recalling PAST KINESTHETIC EXPERIENCES

PREFERRED UNCONSCIOUS SYSTEM

each individual tends to utilize one unconscious system far more than the others

Some individuals will, in the vast majority of situations, make reference to their unconscious visual system

You can begin to communicate to that person at both the conscious and unconscious level

PATTERN VARIATIONS

For example, where an individual is planing his/her eyes back and forth on a more or less mid-line, s/he is experiencing an internal (auditory) argument with him/herself

appears to be looking at the listener, but is, instead, generating internal visual experiences

There are two main clues for spotting this program: Staring without blinking, and pupillary dilation

There is one other important variation you need to consider for the auditory/visual pattern. Where an individual seems to be "looking right through you," s/he is really auditorializing and making a picture of what s/he is saying

LEFT - RIGHT - LEFT

SYSTEM MYTHS

OUT OF CONSCIOUS SYSTEM

BLOCKED SYSTEMS: EXAMPLES

OUT OF CONSCIOUS: RECAP

8 Systems — So What?

JIGSAW PUZZLES

With the use of systems, I believe that rapport can, in the majority of cases, be established by learning to communicate in the individual's conscious output system

SYSTEMS: GETTING STARTED

By paying attention to his choice of words, you will discover what his conscious output system is at that moment in time. The next step is for you to "talk in his language.

PLUS (+) VERSUS MINUS (-) SYSTEM: CASE

the next step is to find out if that system changes when s/he is talking about something that is pleasant

I suddenly realized that I was busy running my life by feelings without looking at other ways

CASE REVIEW

FINE POINTS

If you want to "blow" rapport in a matter of a few seconds, move in very close and touch a visual, and stand way back from a kinesthetic.

THE NEXT STEP

you are ready for the next major step. It is now time to learn what the unconscious system is

MAKING UNCONSCIOUS CONSCIOUS

help an individual become aware of the relationship between their unconscious system and what they are experiencing. Once they understand, it is relatively easy to help them learn to stop the process, and to change it

SYSTEM INTERRUPTIONS

interpret the painful pattern, and direct the individual to their successful one

MASTERING OUT OF CONSCIOUS

OUT OF CONSCIOUS TO CONSCIOUS

UNBLOCKING VIA COMMON EXPERIENCE

UTILIZING OUT OF CONSCIOUS SYSTEM

THE SHOCK METHOD

CASE 5: "R"

CASE 6: CHANGE

9 Patterns

HYPNOSIS AND PATTERNS

Patterns are a necessary and important part of our behavior. Most patterns serve as useful functions, and free our mind for new learning experiences

PATTERNS-. AN EXPERIMENT

therapy succeeds, by whatever method or construction, Whenever painful patterns are interrupted and more successful patterns are utilized in their place

PAIN AS A PATTERN

HYPNOSIS — PATTERNS — ERICKSON

consider the results of sudden pattern interruption

spontaneously entered into a hypnotic state

CASE 7: PATTERN INTERRUPTION

INSTANT PATTERN

PATTERNS: BELIEF SYSTEMS — CASE STUDY

CASE EXPLANATION

PATTERNS: PRACTICE

10 Left Meets Right Meets Left

TWO BRAINS

Professor Betty Edwards (1978) conveys the general consensus of brain researches when she states that not only do the two hemispheres specialize, they also perceive reality in their own unique way

SPERRY: SPLIT BRAIN RESEARCH

HEMISPHERIC CYCLES

To reverse the trend toward over utilization of one hemisphere at "the expense of the other," I believe left must meet right must meet left.

HEMISPHERIC: OVERVIEW

HEMISPHERIC: BELIEF SYSTEMS

GOAL: HEMISPHERIC BALANCE

HEMISPHERES: HYPNOSIS

HEMISPHERIC AMNESIA

CASE 8: INTRODUCTION

To underscore the efficacy of hypnotic utilization

CASE 8: TENNIS

CASE 8: SECOND SESSION

11 Reality ... Really???

CONSENSUAL REALM

one general consensus has come into being: There exists a "consensual reality."

INTERNAL REALITY

In "reality" he is not responding to her at all. In effect, "seeing" her caused him to regress through his history and past experiences with women, and his inner "reality" then became more "real" and important than his outer or consensual reality.

NOW ASK YOURSELF...which reality is real...at least for him?

MONSTERS AND MAGICAL STICKS

When my son was about three or four, he decided that his baseball and football became monsters at night

we purchased the kind of box one would put roses into and placed the soon to be "magic stick" inside. We brought the box home and explained to our son that we had been to see a special doctor called the magic doctor

CRAZINESS AND CREATIVITY

I believe, however, that the so-called schizophrenic process, directed toward the solving of problems and the discovery of that which is new, is the creative process. This same process, turned toward building limitations and fears, can be called "craziness."

I&IMAGES OF REALITY

when a patient enters the therapist's office, he brings with him his inner belief systems

may be such that he is blocked from seeing the opportunities and options that are available. In effect, s/he has been hypnotized, or has hypnotized him/herself, into seeing that which s/he has already seen, hearing only what s/he has already heard, and feeling only that which s/he has already felt

The therapist who insists on attacking the patient's belief systems directly is using a hammer as her only tool

Devising an unconscious process that uses the same creativity that produced the problem to solve the problem will be a much more effective approach

HYPNOTIC MONSTER

allow her creative mind to create a horrible monster

It's up to you to decide whether to knock your monster out, or to wiggle your nose and chase it away, or to flap your ears and simply fly away and leave the monster where it belongs—in the past. Now, take your time, because your unconscious mind may want to use a combination of those things, or it may have even better ways." Now, we all know that not one of those instructions makes sense logically*

THE SNOWMAN AS REALITY

To a child, if they are not right there to see it, a snowman gets bigger and bigger. If that's true of a snowman, what about those monsters we built when we were children?

12 Unconscious Versus Conscious

therapists of all types, will pay lip service to the existence of a so-called "unconscious."

Yet, when it comes to doing therapy, they act as if the unconscious doesn't exist

They will attempt to explain to their patients, in specific, logical detail, just what the problem and its solution is. Unless they are dealing with someone from another planet, their patient has probably heard all the logical advice they could give

what are we doing searching here?" "Well," said the couple, "the light is very good here

SUB. VS. UNCONSCIOUS

Some individuals prefer the concept of a subconscious mind. I prefer the concept of the unconscious

There are a multitude of processes that we become aware of (conscious) at different times and circumstances

"THE PSYCHOLOGICAL UNCONSCIOUS"

Dr. Milton Erickson, who has insisted for years that there is an unconscious process, upon hearing about the above "discovery" said, (this is a paraphrase), "I'm not surprised that the scientific community is finally acknowledging the existence of the unconscious. What does surprise me is that they still insist that there is a conscious mind!"

While a separate left hemisphere/conscious mind and a right hemisphere/unconscious mind may or may not exist, I find it a useful metaphor for my work with hypnosis

UNCONSCIOUS PROTECTION

SYMPTOM: TENSION HEADACHE

CASE 9: HEADACHE

CASE 10: BEE PHOBIA

She told me that the bee slowly turned into her husband who was always correcting her and putting her down

WILD CLAIMS

old time hypnotists developed what later became known as the "elevator theory": entering into hypnosis causes the unconscious to rise above the conscious and to become more active; while in the waking state, the conscious is at the higher level

Modern research, scientific instruments, and empirical observation have begun to prove how often those old time hypnotists were right on target

I'm not claiming that the conscious mind is not important. What I do claim is that the average individual has a well-developed conscious mind and an under-utilized unconscious—that is, we have been trained (some might say "hypnotized") to ignore or depreciate its processes.

13 Utilizing Utilization

HYPNOSIS: MAGIC WORKS

I hope, in this chapter, to share with you the attitude and skills that will enable you to achieve "that state" with more individuals more easily.

Every individual carries with him a set of learned skills, responses, attitudes and belief systems, as well as a preferred "system" (Visual— Kinesthetic—Auditory). To me, it makes far more sense to utilize these factors rather than trying to force the individual into responding according to your belief systems

For the purpose of clarification, I would like to give a brief example.

I would like you to focus on "systems" (Visual—Kinesthetic—Auditory) for a few moments

hypnotists who are highly visual will tend to use visual induction methods

If the individual you are working with happens to match your system, you have a very good chance of being successful. If that individual doesn't "match," you can always label the lack of results as "resistance."

VISUAL INDUCTION

While matching systems is an important part of utilization, it is only a small part. As you continue now to read and learn, I know that you will soon discover how to utilize any and all parts of the individual's behavior to achieve the desired destination

EXAMPLE I:

By asking her to feel the tension, I was utilizing what she was already an expert at, thereby insuring that she would be successful, and beginning the processes of indirect suggestion

Having her "see" what the tense muscles looked like was, in fact, the first step in helping her to disassociate: Tension = Kinesthetic -Changing Kinesthetic to Visual = disconnecting or disassociating from the feeling (tension)

EXAMPLE 2:

While there was no way I could know what the woman's (subject's) general favored system was, I could see that she was staring without blinking. That indicated that, at that moment, she was into her visual system

He was in her way by giving her verbal instructions to do one thing (close her eyes) while he was "showing" her something else (he was staring).

Many people who engage in the practice of hypnosis, and almost all beginning hypnotists, have been hypnotized into believing that the hypnotic state requires eye closure. That is not the case!

EXAMPLE 3:

By his initial comments, the subject had indicated that not only was control a major issue for him, but that he was proud of his "control." Utilization simply required giving him something to control—the towel—and then "helping" him to worry about his control (my threat to take the towel away). As has already been stated, people often enter their own hypnotic state to avoid someone else's

EXAMPLE 4

EXAMPLE 5:

This example is really a consolidation of several individuals who come under the heading of "oppositional" or "paradoxical."

The patient's complaints included not getting along with people in general, and anger at being told what to do

Now I would like you to continue helping me by refusing to do what I tell you.*

OK. That's easy! ME: Wait a minute. You just agreed with me. That's not fair.*

Well, don't go into hypnosis...NOW...Keep on staring at me instead!　

I structured a double bind (or maybe several)

My experience has been that, after two or three sessions of the above craziness, the patient stops being oppositional in therapy. More importantly, they stop being oppositional in the real world.

EXAMPLE 6:

pointed out that as doctors, they did not have to undergo surgery to learn to perform surgery

Since you don't need to have surgery to learn to perform surgery, it stands to reason that you don't have to be hypnotized to learn how to produce the hypnotic state. "S": Yes, that makes sense also.*

Now I'm going to ask you to simply pretend that you are a great hypnotic subject. That will allow your colleagues to learn a great deal, and of course, so will you

The task, therefore, was to find a way to utilize those two factors in some manner that was acceptable to him

Asking a subject or patient to pretend is, in itself, a powerful utilization technique

EXAMPLE 7:

As I would tell him a metaphor, I would lean slightly to my right, and talk softly in a monotone (remember the music). When giving him so-called "factual, logical" information, I would lean to my left, and talk more rapidly and with tonal animation

By leaning right and talking in a slow monotone, I hoped to accomplish two things: The leaning right would itself become an unconscious suggestion to enter into hypnosis; the monotone would recreate his experience of hearing something in the background while he "drifted." His responses to these tactics indicated that they would "do the trick."

While what you have read about utilization was directed primarily toward producing the hypnotic state, utilization is even more useful as a therapeutic strategy

CREATIVE UTILIZATION

the following hints may be useful for you to utilize: Utilize the compulsive personality's compulsiveness to compulsively carry out assignments that lead to new behaviors, which break up the compulsiveness; utilize the rigid person's need to be right, to have them carry out the assignment of being wrong, just right, and to enter into hypnosis in the "right" way; utilize the phobic's ability to generate feelings (Kinesthetic) from their internal pictures (Visual) to generate new feelings from new internal pictures; utilize the depressive's "skill" of holding on to feelings (depression) no matter what any one says or does, to learn to hold on to good feelings in spite of the ups and downs of life.

look at the presenting problems as a form of unique skill. Once you do that, your task is to discover the method behind that skill, and then to redirect it. The grand master of this form of utilization was the incomparable Milton Erickson

14 Weighing Anchors

RED LIGHT DISTRICT

suddenly a green light turned red, would you...stop now

The red light, through learning processes, has become what behaviorists term an "external stimulus." Other theorists would call the red light an "anchor" or "trigger" (Bandler and Grinder).

They would claim, and I would agree, that the red light now anchors: that is, it has associated with it a whole series of behaviors through a more or less coded, sequential and repetitive manner.

ANCHORS: A SIMPLISTIC DEFINITION

Anchors can be most easily understood if we reduce them to a simple stimulus-response construct

Accepting the easy definition will help you to not learn the subtleties of anchors. For those of you who want it easy, here goes: Anchors (triggers) = any stimulus that triggers a set of internal responses and/or actions.

However, you might want to consider everything within human experience is, in effect, an anchor

In most cases, the word "cumquat" will not evoke the same anchored response as the word "sex" will now! Anchors, like all other experiences (which themselves are anchors), come in different intensities and are different for each one of us.

ANCHORS IN POST-HYPNOTIC RESPONSE

Pavlov, with his development of classical stimulus-response conditioning, was one of the first to recognize anchors and to realize that anything could be used as a stimulus to produce a response

In my clinical practice, I have heard people claim that certain facial expressions, tones of voice, gestures, postures, words, smells, etc. have caused them to: get depressed, get anxious, throw up, get headaches, go crazy, etc., etc. You could consider all of the above conditioned reflex responses or anchors.

ERICKSON AND ANCHORS

Milton Erickson discovered some very powerful uses for anchors which have influenced several individuals

Erickson observed that if he asked a patient to sit just as he had the last time he experienced trance, and Erickson began talking in the same manner and/or about the same subject as the last trance experience, the patient would re-enter the trance state without any so-called induction. Erickson named this technique "recapitulation."

A colleague of mine, David Dobson, and I became fascinated with this phenomenon, and began experimenting with it

Our experiments and observations led us to conclude that individuals were suffering the pain they suffered as a result of more or less powerful anchors which acted as if they were hypnotic suggestions, and produced powerful, repetitive conditional responses

SPONTANEOUS ANCHORS

The chair had become an anchor, or post-hypnotic re-induction, that led him to re-experience his last painful time in that chair

PAVLOV AND ANCHORS

The chair had become a conditioned stimulus—like Pavlov's bell—in one trial; and a person could spend years in therapy trying to find out why they had a phobia about a chair. If a chair could become such a powerful anchor, so too could a word a tone, a touch—or whatever

If an individual could be conditioned to respond in a certain way to a given stimulus, could you use the same stimulus and/or response to trigger a new and different response? For example, if a doorbell triggered anxiety, could you help the individual to either 1) respond in a different way to the doorbell itself so that the doorbell became a trigger for say, relaxation, or 2) help the individual to use the first subjective feelings of anxiety— i.e., tightness—to trigger a response such as relaxation?

the word "hypnosis" was the post-hypnotic "cue" (anchor) that elicited his somewhat weird response.

CALM CONDITIONING

would become part of what I call Unconscious Restructuring®, were very primitive. I called it "Calm Conditioning." Simply put, I would ask an individual to "remember" the last time they were, for example, afraid

PROTOCOL PROCEDURE

it produced excellent results for the majority of people.

I would like to suggest that you...NOW...consider doing this procedure in a more updated form.

15 Anchors Away

15 Anchors Away

BASIC ANCHOR COLLAPSE

I was asked to give a lecture and demonstration to a psychology class at California State University at Northridge. The professor, who was a very nice man, had told me beforehand that he did not believe in hypnosis

When both stimuli were set off at the same time, the animals would appear to be confused and disoriented, and would then not respond to either stimuli

some researchers claim that new learning does not take place without cognitive dissonance

However, I want to caution you: as powerful as this technique can be, it isn't a panacea or a cure. All it does is to help an individual have "lowered emotionality" to a stressful situation

it's not a cure. It only accomplishes in five to ten minutes what three to eight traditional sessions might accomplish

CASE 11: ANCHOR COLLAPSE

left knee

pattern interruption

right knee

right knee.

When he had "neutralized" out, I asked him to "Try Hard" (implying it would be very difficult) to remember the depressed feeling.

I want you to consider personal problems as an anchor or a series of anchors as explained in Chapter XIV, "Weighing Anchors." Your job is to help the individual have a choice as to their response to their painful anchors: that is, to collapse the undesired response or.. .Anchors Away!

ANCHOR COLLAPSE: BASIC PROCEDURE

If possible, you first want to establish a pleasant (+) anchor. While anchors can be set with visual, auditory and/or kinesthetic cues, I am going to recommend you begin with kinesthetic

if your client/patient is already in a bad place—e.g., depressed—don't work like mad to get them in a better place in order to set a + anchor and then throw them back into their bad place for the unpleasant (-) anchor. In that case, Start by anchoring that feeling (- anchor).

I recommend that you sit directly in front of the individual, close enough to be able to touch their knees

TESTING

At this point, in all probability, you will have established a + and a -anchor. You now want to test your work.

COLLAPSING: COMPLETED

Next is Anchors Away, which enables the individual to substantially reduce his painful response—in our example, the feelings of depression when alone

COLLAPSING: SUBTLETIES

BUILDING A NEW RESPONSE

Where the individual's problem is continually being triggered by a real world condition, you must help them to have a new resource for that situation.

ANCHORING ANCHORS

16 Confessions Of A Hypnotist

At times throughout this book, I have referred to the section on Therapeutic Applications, but there will be no such section

actual cases and therapeutic examples have been used in almost every Chapter

Instead of a so-called Therapeutic Applications chapter, I will present several case examples

CASE 12:

Patient is a 45-year-old woman whose presenting problem is phobic fear of flying

CASE 13:

Patient was a 57-year-old male hospitalized with terminal cancer

he was suffering intractable pain, insomnia and extreme agitation

CASE 14:

A 25-year-old, newly-married woman was referred by her physician for what he termed "frigidity." Her history indicated, however, that she was touch phobic.

CASE 15:

man in his mid-forties with a presenting problem of severe headaches resulting from almost constant jaw clenching

17 Ramblings

REVIEW: BELIEF SYSTEMS

When an individual presents him/herself at your office, I believe that they are saying in effect: "My belief system is preventing me from exercising new choices."

Therefore, your first task is to help them expand and/or challenge the belief system that is keeping them stuck. Next, you must consider that a form of self-hypnosis is keeping their belief system going

REVIEW: SYSTEMS

REVIEW: PATTERN INTERRUPTION

I would like you to consider that human beings are energy conserving (some would say lazy). We build machines to do our work, and then machines to run our machines, and then use computers to supervise

People respond in their problem areas (and, perhaps, in their successful areas) as an hypnotic subject would to so-called post-hypnotic suggestion

If you accept this thesis, then it stands to reason that hypnotic techniques are the antidote to hypnotically produced and continued problems and limitations.

REVIEW: ANCHORING

consider anchoring as a different way of producing post-hypnotic suggestion

If you are not aware of anchors (post-hypnotic suggestions), you run the risk of reinforcing them and triggering them

if you will consider all presenting problems as some form of anchor or anchors produced by a form of hypnosis, your tasks will be simplified

Epilogue

Hypnotists: Charlatans. Evildoers. Controllers of men

As you know by now, hypnosis, as practiced by men like Milton Erickson and Steve Heller, has nothing to do with spinning wheels and suggestions of "deeper and deeper."