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How To Tap The Incredible Secret Powers Of Your Own Mind!!
Part One
The author and publisher of this material are NOT RESPONSIBLE in any manner for any injuries which may occur through reading or following the instructions in this material. Any reader who experiences discomfort from carrying out any of the exercises in this material should seek medical advice. © A.C. Mail Order 1999-2000. All Rights Reserved. Neither the whole nor any part of this document may be reproduced, stored in any data retrieval system or transmitted in any form whatever by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise. Any breach will be enforced at law.
"The biggest block to any man's success is found in his head" I am very pleased to welcome you to "How To Tap The Incredible Secret Power Of Your Own Mind". I know you are going to find enrolling on this course one of the most important steps you have ever taken.
The above statement may seem a hard one to live up to, nevertheless it is one I fully intend to try.
It is my intention to show you how you can take control of your own mind and therefore your own life from this point onwards. By learning the art of Hypnosis and Self Hypnosis you will be able to mould your life the way you want it.
Many who have gone before you were staggered by how their lives could have been so utterly changed for the better simply spending just twenty very relaxing and pleasant minutes twice a day. The idea that something so simple can be so rewarding is hard to understand until you have experienced it.
You will learn:How you can develop the unique talents, powers, and abilities, that we all possess, to undreamed of heights. How to become rich and successful. and get anything you want from life. How you can increase your powers of concentration, memory, or physical stamina. How to control and eradicate any fears or phobias that spoil and disrupt your life and prevent you from enjoying your life to the full. For example fear of flying, fear of insects, of enclosed spaces, or whatever, the list goes on and on. Smoking is one of the few vices that can be cured with one course of Hypnosis! Think of all that money you could save each year if you gave up not to mention the improvement in your health, more breath and energy, better taste of food etc.
How to give up smoking and make £130,000 in the process! Let us assume the average smoker spends £3.00 per day. That comes to £21.00 per week and £1092 per year. Lets assume a smoker gives up and instead puts the money they would have spent on cigarettes into a building society account at say 8% interest. After twenty years they would have amassed £54,000. That is enough to give them a £450 a month income for life. It that person was twenty when they gave up in they would have a staggering £134,000 in the account by the time they reached fifty.
How to lose weight. There is a vast industry selling the public one new diet plan after another which seldom work. All that dieting does is lead people to overeat again. After an initial time the weight might drop off but soon goes up again later, and the whole miserable cycle starts all over again. Would you like to know how to lose weight and maintain that perfect figure? How to improve your golf handicap or your tennis swing. How to give confident public speeches. How to become more popular and make friends easily. How to improve your love and sex life!
In short anything you want from life is yours for the taking and you are going to be shown how to get it in simple easy steps!
I know that to those of you who have not had any experience of Hypnosis and its amazing power for good in our lives might feel that you have read some pretty fanciful claims. They must be too good to be true. Pie in the sky?
Scientific research at the UCLA has established that we only use a tiny percentage of our true mental ability. Early this century scientists believed humans only used about 10% of their brain! Today scientists believe we use less than 2%.
Let me assure you right here and now that those claims are only a fraction of what you can do as a human being. Merely the tip of the iceberg. In America at "Cray Research" they have been carrying out research using a combination of very powerful computers and Hypnosis. Using such advanced techniques they have been able to prove that the human brain can absorb information at phenomenal speeds. Some subjects have been able to process more than 690,000 words per minute! (More on this at later date.)
As a human being you are empowered with talents and abilities that you probably never dreamed of. Did you know that your subconscious mind can deal with over 2,000,000 different pieces of information per second.
Most people go through life without ever having tapped a minuscule amount of their true potential as human beings. You on the other hand have shown that you want to learn how to take control of your life and steer it around in the direction you want it to go. You want to improve the quality of your life and live it to the utmost of your ability!
It never ceases to maze me that most people live out their lives in "Quiet desperation", to quote Oscar Wilde, only to end their lives in bitter resentment and anger thinking of what might have been if only they had had the breaks and chances others seem to have.
I find it very sad that many people are content to base the future happiness of their lives on the random selection of a few ping pong balls falling out of a lottery machine every Saturday night! They prefer to throw a few pounds away every week on a fourteen million to one chance which they know they will never win rather than actually do something about improving their lives. And even if they do win this money there is no guarantee that money alone is going to make them happy and feel fulfilled in their life as many have discovered. After all there are only so many meals you can eat, houses you can live in, cars you can drive, etc.
Do you really know what it is you want from life. I mean really know?
If you just want money and other material riches then that is no problem you will be shown how to get them. lt's relatively easy! You will be shown how to programme your mind to tap your vast creative resources and put them to work for you. But I hope you will gain much much more from this course than just money. If not then I will feel that I have badly let you down.
Maybe you want to increase your ability drastically to retain facts and information so as to get a first class honours degree. Perhaps you want to master several foreign languages. Or maybe you want to perfect your technique at tennis, football, snooker, or at playing the piano.
Perhaps you want to be more patient with your family. Be a calmer driver. Be a better lover. Get less stressed when problems arise. Look younger, lose weight, get fit and trim. Be more popular and make more friends.
Be the best in your field! Dramatically improve your health. Become resilient against illness. Reduce or eliminate pain. (Even reduce and cure cancer). Yes Hypnosis has been, in some cases, successful in treating a number of incurable diseases like cancer!
In short anything you want The only limit is that of your own imagination.
You will be taught how your mind works and how to programme it to help you to get the best life has to offer you! This course is in part a kind of owners instruction manual for your own mind!
Believe me you are about to start out on a fantastic journey of discovery which will change your whole view of life. The really amazing thing is it is so easy to turn your life around. It really is if only you are just shown how.
Hypnosis is probably one of the most misunderstood phenomenon in our lives today. Hypnosis has long been associated with mumbo-jumbo, occult and sinister mystery men bent on controlling your mind. Despite the proof that exists about the remarkably positive effects of Hypnosis it is widely shunned and ignored by many people.
There are many reasons for this not least the recent spate of TV programmes showing stage hypnotists making ordinary members of the audience look complete fools for our entertainment!
I would like to state for the record that I am totally opposed to public displays of Hypnosis for entertainment. Most professional Hypnotists, who use their skills and knowledge to help people, consider stage shows as a bit like watching a surgeon culling off someone's leg for the amusement of an audience!
The problem is that the stage Hypnotist will inevitably be more concerned with the audiences reaction first and the condition and welfare of their participant second. There is very little similarity between a Professional Hypnotist and a stage hypnotist. Just as there is little similarity between a butcher and a surgeon.
In any case It is estimated that a stage Hypnotist can only really work with less than 2% of the population. Despite what the audiences may think even those people he eventually selects for the show will only co-operate with him as far as they really want to.
A Hypnotist cannot make someone do anything against his wishes!
I know the above statement might seem hard to believe after what you may have seen on TV or in a live stage show. People watching others on stage making fools of themselves think that those people have been taken over. They think that the hypnotist has complete control which is not possible.
Having said this hypnosis is without doubt a very powerful tool. I dare say in the wrong hands it could conceivably be used for evil, however you have to get things into perspective. As I have said before I have never come across a case of harm being caused by the proper use of hypnosis. From my point of view I believe everyone should be taught how use hypnosis and in particular self-hypnosis.
You see a stage hypnotist is in effect working with people who are prepared to go along with him and accept his suggestions. This is the whole essence of what hypnosis is anyway, as you will come to learn as you go through this course.
Typically what a stage Hypnotist will do is ask the audience to put their hands together and then make the suggestion that they cannot pull them apart. About two or three percent will go alone with this suggestion and so he now has a few people who are very suggestive. After a few minutes of work with them he will reject a few more until he has enough suitable people for his act. What he is really looking for are those people who secretly want a chance to go up on stage but until now have not had the opportunity or courage. They will do what the Hypnotist wants, and make fools of themselves, because in their mind they put the blame on the hypnotist. This is known as the "social compliance theory".
This kind of thing simply makes people fear the phenomenon which is hypnosis and therefore ignore its potential and amazing power for good.
I know of someone who suffers badly from psoriasis. She has been hospitalised once and has to endure repeated sun bed treatments, which are harmful to the body in the long run, and powerful dangerous drugs which can
only be given so many times in a patient's life time. If only she realised that
hypnosis could probably cure her with NO harmful side effects what-so-ever! I wish the same could be said of conventional treatments she currently has to endure.
I mentioned to her that Hypnosis has had particularly good results with cases of psoriasis and other skin disorders. Unfortunately her local priest had put her oft, saying that hypnosis would expose her to satanic powers! Sad but true. This woman has to go around in long trousers and long sleeved blouses all summer even when temperatures are up in the high eighties.
Obviously you are an open minded person and are not swayed by superstition or ignorance otherwise you would not have enrolled on this course.
Let me just say to you that you already have inside you all that you will ever need to get what you want from life!
As a Hypnotist of many years experience I find it a great shame when people close their minds to something which could be of real significance in their lives. From a purely medical point of view Hypnotherapy offers a completely safe natural way of dealing very effectively with a wide range of complaints without resorting to drugs and other invasive methods. Let me just give you a brief list of what kind of things Hypnosis can do:1. Give you an easy and powerful way of getting the skills and abilities you require in your job. 2. It can enable you to reprogram your mind to think positively and steer yourself towards your goals (Whatever they might be). 3. It can be used to find out what it is you really want from life. That is to say what it is you want and not what someone else wants. 4. It can help you to remove the shackles from the past that limit
you from achieving your true potential.
It can be used to greatly reduce stress in your life.
It can be used to build self-confidence.
As I have already said It can be used to treat Phobias.
8. It can be used to help people stop smoking or reduce eliminate a person s dependence on alcohol or other drugs. 9. It can be used to cut off pain in dentistry, child birth.
10. It can be used to treat conditions like asthma, psoriasis, exema, and other skin disorders. 11. It can even be used to improve a person's eyesight. Some people with short-sightedness, myopia, have had their eyesight improved under Hypnosis by more than 50%. In fact from a medical point of view hypnosis can be used in a vast number of conditions and ailments.
The use of Hypnosis was very popular in the late nineteenth early twentieth century. When the great Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov became depressed and unable to concentrate on his music he, in despair, sought the help of an eminent Doctor in Moscow by the name of Dr Nikolai DahI. Rachmaninov had become very depressed because he had received some bad reviews of one of his recent works. He was treated under Hypnosis and given suggestions of relaxation and for relief of his mental "block". At the right time the Doctor gave him positive feelings of well being and confidence which were fed into his sub conscious mind.
With his powers of concentration revived and increased and the restoration of his confidence he soon went on to compose one of the greatest works in his career, the piano concerto No 2 in C minor. So grateful was Rachmaninov in recognition of the Doctors efforts, he dedicated this work to Doctor Dahl.
It is a widely held belief that if you don't have your health you don't have anything!
After all what is the point of having all the money and wealth in the world if you are not fit or healthy enough to enjoy it?
I don't want to go into specific medical complaints at this stage but would rather prefer to discuss health in more general terms. Most physicians will admit that most if not all illnesses have a psychological element to them. That is to say the mind has an important role to play in the cause and cure of any illness.
Some physicians define psychosomatic illnesses as those which have no apparent physical cause. Perhaps someone complaining about a terrible pain in the leg goes to the doctor who X-rays it and makes other tests but can find no physical reason for the pain. Nowadays many doctors and psychiatrists include illnesses which are physical in nature but are caused by the mind.
Re-educating your mind to help your mind and body become more healthy is the most logical first step to take. Of course defining what healthy means can be a little confusing and depends on your philosophical stance. I hope to give you some useful pointers at a later stage.
Sickness can be, and often is, caused by excessive stress that accumulates in the system. Stress is considered a number one killer in the western world. It manifests itself in many ways the most common being heart attacks, strokes and the development of cancer or other life threatening diseases.
Our modern hectic pace of life today exposes us to many more pressures than perhaps our predecessors had to deal with. Obviously life is easier in material ways but it is the speed and pace that has changed. I personally believe the telephone has a lot to answer for, let alone the fax machine and mobile phone. Nowadays people can be contacted by anyone anywhere twenty four hours a day. It is almost impossible to escape and find a little peace. Stress at its most extreme level is a fight-or-flight reaction to a potentially threatening situation. In times gone by it would have been triggered
If we found ourselves facing a ferocious lion or a pack of wolves. What happens is the brain sends out a message of alarm which in turn releases a flood of adrenaline which speeds through the bloodstream and utterly overturns the normal routine of the body.
Most of the time our cells are preoccupied with renewal of themselves. About 90% of each cell's energy is taken up with the vital task of building proteins and creating new DNA and RNA. However when the brain thinks there is a threat this process is set aside so that it can ensure your body has enough energy to propel your muscles to either fight of fly from the scene and get yourself out of danger. In order to do this the anabolic metabolism changes over to catabolic metabolism which, far from rejuvenating your cells, actually breaks them down.
When the body introduces adrenaline into the blood stream it causes a whole host of reactions within the body. For example it causes the blood pressure to rise, muscles to tense, breathing to become shallow, digestion to stop, among many other things. Of course as a temporary defence mechanism it is vital but if this condition is not stopped in time the effects on our body can be disastrous.
The reasons for stress can be many and varied but hypnosis has been shown to be a very powerful method of combating it. I do not want to give the impression that by eliminating stress you will avoid all illnesses. This would be foolhardy. However being able to remain calm in stressful situations is obviously a useful if not a vital aim and one which we will look at first. It is never the circumstances which cause our bodies to react in a stressful way but how we perceive those circumstances or events. To some people being stuck in a traffic jam for an hour can be incredibly stressful while others simply take it in their stride. There was an interesting study carried out at Harvard fifty years ago were the health of 180 or so students was monitored for forty years. It was found that even those who were perfectly healthy in their youth were likely to die prematurely if they had a tendency to react poorly to stress.
Learning to achieve a relaxed state or peace of mind is of great even vital importance if you want to get everything you want from life.
Your mind is a very complex piece of machinery. You could liken it to an extremely sophisticated computer.
Your brain works best when it is left to work in a relaxed atmosphere. Boxers know, as do the great Taijiquan masters of China, that getting angry in a fight is a recipe for disaster. Anger, which is a form of stress, clouds the
judgement and causes us to make mistakes.
The old saying "you die if you worry and you die if you don't, so why worry?" is a very true. In fact you are more likely to die before your time if you do worry.
Learning to relax is one of the keys to Hypnosis and most practitioners begin by getting their clients to enter a relaxed state. So a little later you will learn some simple techniques that will get you to relax and so make you more responsive to Hypnosis.
One definition of Hypnosis I came across described as:"An altered state of awareness effected by total concentration on the voice of the therapist. it will result in measurable physical, neurophysiological and psychological changes which may produce distortion of emotion, sensation, image and time.
This sounds a bit of a mouth full but don't worry entering into a "trance state" is very simple, natural, and very pleasant. As the course progresses you will learn more about the technical background of Hypnosis but for the time being this is not necessary.
Believe it or not all of us go into a kind of hypnotic trance state at least twice a day. Once just before we drift off to sleep and similarly just before we wake up in the morning. It's that twilight and very enjoyable stage between actual sleep and the waking state.
Even daydreaming could be described as a form of self-hypnosis. After all we seldom know how much time elapses during a daydream.
Simply put most scientists believe the human mind can be split into two different entities. One being the conscious mind and the other the subconscious or unconscious mind.
The conscious mind predominately deals with analytical problems on a day to day basis. It responds to information it receives by processing it and categorising it according to its view of life. For example if someone told you that father Christmas was having a cup of tea in the next room your conscious mind would reject this as impossible. We all know father Christmas only drinks coffee. No seriously the conscious mind obviously does not believe in father Christmas and will not accept this statement at face value. It filters the suggestion and rejects it. This is known as the critical factor.
The subconscious mind is far bigger and does not have a critical factor as such. It is the subconscious mind that keeps your heart beating and gets you to fill your lungs with air without you having to make any conscious effort to do it. If you reach out for a cup of coffee your conscious mind makes the decision to do so but it is the sub-conscious mind that gives all the myriad of instructions to all the muscles involved to bring the cup up to your lips.
The subconscious mind is an incredibly complex kind of computer with a huge memory bank. Basically everything you do or have done in your life is stored there. The memory of every sound you have heard, everything you may have smelled, tasted, or touched. Your brain retains all this information and it is never forgotten unless you suffer some form of brain damage.
Under Hypnosis you can recall memories of your early childhood which your conscious mind has forgotten totally. Your subconscious mind draws on this giant memory bank to solve problems by accessing the information stored there. When you are mulling over one problem and the answer to a totally separate problem suddenly pops into your mind this is when your subconscious mind is at work. It never ever sleeps and is constantly working for you.
The Israeli police force have used Hypnosis to get accurate details of a crime from witnesses. Sometimes people are able to remember the number plates of cars parked in an area a few weeks before a bank robbery. In one instance, under Hypnosis, some witnesses were able to produce accurate descriptions of the occupants who were seen drinking cups of coffee while observing a bank from across the street several days before a robbery. This information may not have appeared important at the time but their subconscious still stored it away.
One of the most important jobs of the subconscious is to control and regulate the involuntary functions of your body. The pace your heart beats at, your blood pressure, your rate of breathing, your digestion, and much more, are all controlled by your subconscious mind. It is for this reason that Hypnosis is such a powerful tool in dealing with psychosomatic illnesses since it can be used to influence your subconscious mind to reduce stress and high blood pressure.
(Of course anyone with health problems should get a competent medical diagnosis and proper treatment. If you have food poisoning or a serious infection Hypnosis may help speed up your recovery but you may need a dose of strong antibiotics.)
Emotions: The subconscious mind is where your emotions are held. If you like it is the real you. If you think about it is our emotions that control the strength of our desires and this is why our subconscious mind will always control our conscious mind since our desires govern our behaviour. Our subconscious
computer has been programmed since birth to believe and behave in a certain way according to the image it has of you. This is why an alcoholic knows full well consciously that his over drinking is doing himself great harm he will continue to drink because his subconscious mind has some hidden reason to make him do so. If our subconscious minds have been programmed badly then our thoughts, decisions and actions will be bad for us and as a result our lives. Our subconscious mind cannot discriminate or analyse what it is told and will believe anything the conscious mind believes and allows through.
You know this to be true because when you dream at night and find yourself being chased down 22nd street in New York by a two hundred foot pink blancmange, (you mean you don't ?), its your subconscious mind at work. Obviously your conscious mind would reject the idea out of hand but the subconscious mind accepts it without question.
Imagination:The subconscious is where our imagination is housed. Our imagination is governed to some extent by our early life experiences. Our upbringing and experiences as children are of vital importance to the way we perceive ourselves later in life. Our imagination is coloured by those experiences. Imagination is a very useful tool when programming the subconscious. There is an interesting theoretical experiment I came across many years ago used to describe how our conscious minds cannot overrule our subconscious mind. It went something like this:Put a twelve foot by half afoot plank of wood on the ground and walk along it to the end This would be quiet easy to do because your subconscious mind finds no objection to your doing this. Now put the same plank between the roofs of two four storey buildings and try to walk across it again. You will find yourself filled with apprehension because your subconscious mind will make you imagine that you could fall. In fact if you attempted to cross you probably would fall! This is despite the fact that your logical conscious mind knows it is the same plank of wood you walked across before quiet safely. Under Hypnosis if your subconscious was told that you could cross the
plank perfectly safely and it was convinced of this then you would be able to do so easily and safely.
Creativity:All creativity is found in the subconscious mind. It is where the great artists, composers, scientists, and inventors draw on their inspiration. Many great men have said that they carried out some of their greatest works while in a kind of trance state or day dream. Mozart, one of the most intuitive composers in history, claimed his compositions were formed in his mind like dreams independent of his will. ln fact the list can go on and on Isaac Newton, Coleridge, Goethe etc.
It is the subconscious mind that gives us the drive to push us through life towards our goals. If you do not decide what those goals should be then it will select them for you. This is why you should know how to direct your subconscious mind in the direction YOU want to go and not the other way round. Without guidance it can direct you in the wrong direction towards illness, failure, and a wasted life, even self destruction, based on faulty programming from the past. It has enormous power and always achieves what it sets out to.
Anyone who has made a success in their life be it as a famous opera singer, Olympic athlete, highly paid entrepreneur, or whatever have chosen to make that success their goal. It does not make any difference how the goal got there that fact remains that in every case their subconscious mind will have been there to give them the inspiration and dynamic energy to push them forward. Those who allow their path to be frustrated by distractions like jealousy, anger, or resentment will find their task a lot harder and may even fail. Many very capable people seem to get so close to success only to throw it all away at the last minute, these people have been programmed to fail and it happens time after time.
The fact is whatever we are in life and whatever we achieve is governed by the view and aspirations our subconscious mind has of ourselves. Even if we just want to do nothing at all but stay in bed all day this goal has been buried in our minds somehow and from somewhere. This is a big subject and it will be covered at a later date.
Remember your subconscious mind is like a guided missile except it will always hit the target it is programmed for. This is why you should make it the servant and not the master of your destiny. The subconscious mind is not meant to reason but to react to the instructions you give it. It is actually meant to serve you that is its role. If you are not happy in life then it is time for you to put that right NOW. It is time you started calling the shots! The fact is that the energy within you can be harnessed for your own good or it can be turned against you. With Self-Hypnosis you can ensure that
this incredible power within you can be directed for your own good and personal development.
In order to use Hypnosis it is necessary to be able to talk to and influence the sub-conscious mind unhindered. ln order to do this we have to be able to go into what is known as a trance state.
The trance state enables us to relax or distract the conscious mind so that the statements and instructions intended for the subconscious mind do not get analysed and rejected by the conscious mind. There are a large number of methods used by Hypnotists to help people into trance and we shall cover these in detail during the course. However the most common method used is the relaxation method. This is where you, if you are using Self-Hypnosis, or the Hypnotist gets you to relax so deeply that the conscious mind is not interested in the messages being sent to the subconscious mind. It cannot be bothered to interfere because it is enjoying the beautiful relaxed state it is in.
By suspending the critical factor or occupying it elsewhere the Hypnotist can implant positive helpful suggestions into the sub-conscious without interference. See fig one and fig two below:-
In Normal Waking State:Fig 1: Suggestion made to a person's subconscious.
Conscious mind hears suggestion and analyse it according to its beliefs and rejects it.
Subconscious mind does not hear suggestions.
In Hypnotic Trance State:Fig2:
Conscious mind does not register suggestion.
Suggestion made to a person's subconscious.
Subconscious mind registers suggestion and accepts and acts upon it.
Hypnosis has proved very useful in dealing with people with serious burns. By putting a person into trance and suggesting that their arm is cooling down much of the blistering and inflammation can be reduced and so lead to a much quicker healing process. Obviously that person's feeling of pain can be reduced. This would be difficult to achieve if the conscious mind was up and running. After all it saw the arch welder burn the arm and it logically knows it must hurt like hell!!
Some people have been Hypnotised into believing that an ordinary coin placed on their arm was red hot. When the coin was removed the body produces a blister in response to the mental image. This is despite the fact that in reality the coin was cold and that no pain was actually experienced.
Your first task is to learn how to induce a simple trance state in yourself Please don't worry it is totally safe and even very good for you. If you have ever practised any sort of meditation then you have already learnt how to induce at trance state. Meditation be it transcendental or otherwise is simply a form of Self Hypnosis by a different name.
RELAXATION EXERCISES:What follows is not a specific Hypnotic technique but merely a very simple relaxation exercise. It is very very simple but extremely effective at calming you down and relieving tension. Don't be fooled by its apparent simplicity. Without going into all the physical details this little exercise alone can greatly help you reduce much muscular tension in the shoulders and neck and will help relax you ready for going into a trance.
Step One:Sit comfortably on a stool or low backed chair. Now take ten slow deep breaths to calm down your system and put more oxygen into your blood. If possible try to breath from the abdomen. When you expel the stale air from your lungs bring you stomach in. When inhaling count in your mind up to six, but if that seems too long hold it for about five or whatever you feel comfortable with, and hold for a maximum count of twenty. Then exhale slowly counting up to ten.
Step Two:1).Gently hold your head up in an upright and central position. Now slowly tip your head forward towards your chest as far as it will comfortably go and hold for a count of ten. 2). Now gently tip your head back slightly and hold for a count of ten. 3). Now you will tip your head forward again like you did before but this time slightly move it to your right and hold for ten and then return to the central position. 4). Once you have done this repeat part 1,2, and 3 but this time tilt your head slightly to the left.
Step Three:1). Repeat step one. Take ten slow deep breaths. While you inhale count up to six, or whatever you are comfortable with, and hold for a maximum count of twenty. 2). Again with your head in an upright position tip your head slowly to the left so that your left ear moves towards your left shoulder and hold for a count of
ten. 3). Now repeat this process but move your head down to the right.
Step Four:1). Repeat step one. 2). From your central position turn your head slowly to the left as far as you can without discomfort so that you can see over your shoulder. Now hold for a count of ten. 3). Now return to the centre. 4). Repeat the exercise but this time move the head to the right. 5). Repeat part 1,2,3 &4. 6). Repeat step one. 7). Finally now Relax. Hopefully by now you will feel a bit more relaxed. You may find that you hear and feel some strange crunching noises at first. Don't be alarmed these will go after a week or so however if you are experiencing pain then stop the exercises and see a doctor.
Try to do these exercises twice a day once in the morning after your shower or bath and once in the evening or afternoon.
After a few days go on to the next section which will teach you how to go into a relaxed and beautiful trance.
GOING INTO TRANCE:Going into trance or Self-Hypnosis is a natural ability we all possess to a greater or lesser degree. The ease and ability to go into trance will vary from one person to another however we can all learn to be better at it with practise and a little time. We all have the ability to use our senses. I have a friend who is in the wine trade and he has developed an uncanny ability to distinguish between one type of wine from another. He can tell you what processes have been used, what country the wine is from, what grape variety, even from what vineyard the wine has come from, and he can sometimes what the vintage is.
Self-Hypnosis is an ability we all have and not something people with special or unique powers can do. Believe it or not you are expected to use this ability which in most people sadly lies dormant. The cultural traditions of many eastern countries are far more aware than we are in the west and meditation is a way of life for many. Meditation is another general term to describe SelfHypnosis.
The important thing to remember about Hypnosis is that you cannot force it. It is not like doing press-ups in the gym or training for the marathon. I heard about a colleague who had a sixty-year-old businessman for a client. This person did not want to work every day anymore since he felt he wanted to spend more of his time on his hobbies and family. His business was performing well but he needed to keep his hand on the tiller and come up with new ideas from time to time otherwise his competitors would get the better of him. The trouble was the harder he tried to come up with new and novel ideas for the business the more difficult and frustrated he became. These frustrations were beginning to cause him health problems and so he sought help.
The Hypnotist told him to work at his office from 9.OQam until 1 .OOpm then have a break for lunch. When he returned to the office in the afternoon he was told to sit in a comfortable chair at the opposite side of the room away from his desk. Apparently this man's hobby was collecting and reading western magazines so he was told to put a pile of these magazines on a table next to him with a pencil and pad.
During the afternoon he was to relax and read through these magazines but write down any interesting ideas that popped into his mind about the business in the meantime.
This businessman was very startled to find that he was doing far more good for his business in the afternoon than he was in the morning. By not trying to think of things consciously he allowed the vast creative resources of his subconscious mind to filter through with the novel ideas he needed. Even
reading his favourite magazines allowed his conscious mind to become distracted long enough for his subconscious mind to come through. What we are really talking about here is a daydreaming state.
The Induction:Induction simply means the change from the waking alert state into the daydreaming one. As I have said there are a large number of ways it is possible to do this and we will go into them in detail at a later date. By the way am not referring to the mystical or weird and wonderful ways like crystal balls, swinging watches, strobe lights etc.
As you know by now the object of the exercise is to allow your conscious mind to concentrate on something so as to allow your subconscious mind to filter through eventually so that you can tell it what you want it to do for you. For the time being we are simply interested in getting you used to going into trance state easily and back to normal consciousness. There are three basic elements to Hypnosis:-
1.) 2.) 3.)
Going into trance - Induction. Using the trance/altered state to achieve a certain aim. Returning to normal consciousness.
To do this you need to have the intention and desire to achieve the altered state in your own way and in your own time. You will need to allocate time and find suitable surroundings where you will not be disturbed. Remember don't try, don't force it, let it just happen. And also remember you will be in total control and that what you are doing is perfectly safe.
The first time you go into Self-Hypnosis allocate twenty to thirty minutes and remember relaxation is your aim in these sessions. If you wear contact lenses it is best to remove them and make sure you don't need the toilet. Also it is best to avoid eating a heavy meal just before going into trance since you might feel uncomfortable. If you are feeling very hungry just eat something light first. The following script could be recorded on to a cassette tape or you could memorise it. If you do record it you should read it slowly and take pauses between sentences and phrases. If you memorise it speak to yourself in the first person i.e. I feel relaxed or I feel sleepy etc. Now let us start:-
1.)Sit in a comfortable chair or lie down. 2.)Look up at the ceiling or towards your eyebrows.
3.) Take a deep breath and hold it for a few seconds. (The earlier exercises will have helped you with this.) Then exhale slowly. 4.) The third time you breath in hold it for a few seconds and then exhale slowly allow your eyelids to close. 5.) Think about how you are breathing and on every out breath imagine you are letting go of the tension in you body. 6.) Let you breathing become slow and calm and regular. Start to relax the toes on you feet starting with the right foot. When your feet feel relaxed simply let the muscles in your ankles go limp and relaxed. Now let the feeling of relaxation drift up into your calf muscles and then on into your thigh muscles. Gradually let your muscles relax around your waist and on up into your stomach. With each breath you take and each time you exhale feel yourself letting go. Let the feeling of relaxation move on up your spine into your shoulders and neck muscles. Just let go now feel your arms begin to relax and feel heavy and lazy.
The following affirmation should be included in all your Hypnotic affirmations: Now you do know and do trust that you will immediately awaken totally alert and in normal consciousness should there be an emergency that needs your attention. You always readily accept the suggestions given while in Hypnosis and reach a perfect balance between the conscious and subconscious mind. Each time you go into trance you find it easier and easier 7.) When you are feeling totally relaxed just let your mind drift. Let any thoughts that come into your mind just wander in and out. Don't try to stop them or hold onto them just float there like an observer watching life go by from a cafe or on a beach.
8.) In your own time when you feel totally relaxed just notice how nice it is just to do nothing. In your imagination talk to the various parts of your body about how nice it is to feel so relaxed. 9.) let that nice feeling of totally calm relaxation be stored in your memory so that you can recreate the sensations at a later date. 10.) Remain in this calm state for fifteen minutes or so. Don't expect too much at this stage just let it all happen. A great many things will be happening of which you are not consciously aware. 11.) When you are ready to come out of trance just count backwards slowly from ten back to one. While you do this imagine yourself feeling wide awake and refreshed. Then gently open your eyes.
The technique you have just used is called "Fractional Relaxation". It may seem a bit long winded at first but it is an excellent method for beginners to use. In a short time you will be able to learn the quicker techniques.
Try not to consciously analyse every aspect of your trance as this will alert your critical factor and take you out of the trance state.
The experience is different for everybody so I won't try to describe it for you except to say it will probably feel familiar. You will almost certainly been there before in that twilight zone just before you go off to sleep or just before you awake.
In time you will get very used to this feeling of "parallel awareness" You will come to recognise being there but part of you being somewhere else. This is not to be confused with being in a dream while asleep as you will see later in the course.
In part two I will show you how to, and how not to, talk to the subconscious in a way that really gets startling results. In part two I will give you a cassette tape to help you go into Self-Hypnosis. In part two you will learn how to programme your mind to help you become more positive and creative in whatever field you desire!
How To Tap The Incredible Secret Powers Of Your Own Mind!
Part Two
The author and publisher of this material are NOT RESPONSIBLE in any manner for any injuries which may occur through reading or following the instructions in this material. Any reader who experiences discomfort from carrying out any of the exercises in this material should seek medical advice. © A.C. Mail Order 1999-2000. All Rights Reserved. Neither the whole nor any part of this document may be reproduced, stored in any data retrieval system or transmitted in any form whatever by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise. Any breach will be enforced at law.
"The true value of Hypnosis is that makes your mind optimally receptive to your own thoughts" Dr H. Spiegel, American Psychiatrist
Welcome back! By now you are probably getting used to and enjoying going into trance state hopefully twice a day. Don't worry if you can't find the time for two sessions each and every day at first but do try and find time for one session a day. Self-Hypnosis is much like anything else in life the more you put in the more you get out. Notice I did not say the more effort you put in the more you get out since that would give you the wrong kind of message.
You will come to realise that "will-power does not really exist when you are dealing with the mind. Since your subconscious mind will make you do what it feels you want or need conscious will power does not really come into It.
If you have ever suffered from insomnia you will recognise the problem that the more you try to get to sleep the harder it becomes! Lets imagine you have that important meeting in the morning and you tell yourself that you must get those vital eight hours otherwise you think you will feel terrible and blow some big deal. This kind of state of mind will almost certainly ensure you will fail in your goal of getting a good night sleep. The Tony Hancock episode called the "sleepless night" illustrates this condition perfectly.
In fact while I think of it you could give yourself the suggestion while in trance to the effect that because you enjoy your trance state so much you always ensure you find the time to go into Self Hypnosis because you know it is so good for you and you love the wonderfully relaxed feeling it brings.
To programme your subconscious mind the very last thing you should do is use brute force! Let your subconscious mind do what it was intended to do. It will not disappoint you! Remember:-
The more relaxed we are the better we perform!
How To Phrase Your Suggestions So That The Subconscious Will EASILY Act On Them:
What we have to remember when dealing with the subconscious mind is that it must react to the suggestions it receives as though they are orders! While the conscious mind is inhibited or subdued by entering trance state it is possible to reach the subconscious mind un-hindered by the conscious mind's critical factor.
In order to get the best results from the subconscious mind we have to follow certain rules when wording our suggestions. If you can create well phrases suggestions you will be able to put this great force for good to work for you without you having to use will power or conscious effort.
I would hope that whatever it is you want to achieve with the help of hypnosis it is something you really want and not just some kind of passing whim. The more you want to succeed then obviously the greater the success you will have. It is no use hypnotising yourself to become a brilliant snooker player if you don't really intend to go down to the pool hail several days a week. Why waste this great force within you and your precious time on something you don't really want. If you order your subconscious mind to help you to earn more money and really mean it then it will move heaven and earth, work day and night until you have achieved your goal. Remember the subconscious mind never sleeps. I have some suggestions to help you decide what it is you really want to achieve but for the time being just read the following rules on how to talk to your subconscious mind:
RULE ONE:In this months release you are going to learn how to condition your mind to become more positive and receptive to new ideas and thought patterns. It is a strange coincidence that in order to talk to the subconscious mind effectively we have to adopt a positive tone of voice and use positive terminology. This is because the subconscious mind houses our emotional thoughts and so responds well to emotion.
For example if you were phrasing a sentence to help yourself with insomnia you might say "I always enjoy a good nights sleep" or "I sleep soundly and deeply all night long".
It would be wrong to say something like "I don't have any trouble getting off to sleep at night. I do not toss and turn all night long". This is because if you include any negative words and phrases in your message it reminds the subconscious of the problem that you have going off to sleep at night. 26
If you are trying to rid yourself of a headache you would not say "When I return to full consciousness my headache will be gone" because you are reminding yourself that you have a headache. Far better to say something like "My head Feels wonderfully good and relaxed".
There is a mental law which states that "What is expected will be realised". This is the Law of Mental expectancy. Even in the Bible there is the saying "For the thing which I so greatly feared is come upon me"
So always phrase your message from the point of view of what it is you are trying to achieve and not what it is you are trying to avoid. So the first rule when getting messages across to your subconscious is to BE POSITIVE!
RULE TWO:The subconscious mind likes to hear instructions in the present tense best. So we put our phrases in the present form like " I am feeling very sleepy". You would not say "I will feel sleepy' because your subconscious mind wants to hear the idea it is receiving as though it is already accomplished. The exception to this rule is if you are recovering from an illness and you want to speed up your rate of progress. For example if you have broken your arm and it is in plaster you cannot tell your subconscious mind that the arm is completely healed, it will not believe you. Your critical factor would be activated and prevent the message from being accepted by your subconscious mind.
After all it knows your have your arm in plaster and so won't be fooled. Instead you have to use a progressive form of the present tense e.g. "Each day my arm is becoming stronger and stronger". You would do far better to ask your doctor how long you would expect your arm to heel under normal circumstances and halve this time in your suggestions. You will be amazed at the results!
If you are constructing suggestions for some future event you still have to use the present tense. lf you wanted to be relaxed giving a speech at a meeting next Tuesday you would phrase you suggestion as follows "Next Tuesday when I give my speech to the meeting I am calm, relaxed, and Feel in total control".
You want to avoid conflicting images been given to the subconscious. For example you would not say" Next Tuesday when I give my speech to the meeting I am far more confident than I was last time". This is because your subconscious mind will dig up negative and unpleasant memories of how you used to be. You obviously want your mind to hold the image of how you want to be or behave.
The present tense is important because it exists now it is immediate and is harder for the subconscious to ignore. "I will eventually be able-or "one day it might be possible For me to " These kind of suggestions are far too wishy washy and indeterminate for the subconscious to hold a firm picture of what it is you are trying to achieve.
RULE THREE:Be as SPECIFIC as you possibly can. This follows on from rule two. The clearer an image or instruction can be the easier it will be for your subconscious mind to accept it and hold. With a clear goal in mind it will be able to run with it and steer you in the direction you need to go!
It is best, particularly at first, to concentrate on one goal at a time. Certainly in one Hypnosis session you want to stick to one specific area of improvement. You do not want to suggest that you have lost two stone, become a better public speaker, stopped smoking, etc. all in one single halfhour session. You want to stick with your chosen aim and stay with it until you feel there is some improvement. How long this will take will depend on many things.
How realistic your chosen goal is will determine how quickly you achieve your chosen goal. If you weigh six stone and are only four feet tall you might find your subconscious mind has a little trouble believing that you are going to be the world heavy weight champion in two weeks
How well your suggestion is worded obviously has a big effect on how successful you are. However if you follow the advice given here you should not have any problems. If you find your rate of progress a little slow at first try to re-work the suggestion a little. A little change here or there can work wonders. Once you feel you are making some progress you can alternate your Hypnosis sessions by introducing another goal. Remember to stick to one goal per session though. If you are trying to get to sleep more easily it would 28
be best to go into trance near to your normal bed time. Perhaps use an early morning slot for some other goal on your list.
RULE FOUR:Set a time limit. As I said when trying to achieve a fast recovery from an illness or a broken arm it is a good idea to give your subconscious a time limit to work to. If you like you are being more specific which as we know is what the subconscious likes. Give it clear quantifiable instructions.
As I have already said try to be realistic when setting your time limit. Don't expect to play Brahms Second Piano Concerto in one months time if you have only had a couple of lessons and just mastered chop sticks! However if you programmed your mind to do exactly as your teacher tells you and imagine you are an accomplished player you will be truly surprised at your rate of progress. By simply programming your mind to be more alert and retain more information your ability in many area can drastically improve. Remember your subconscious mind can process more than two million bits of information every second and it never forgets anything!
Similarly don't ask your subconscious to make you a millionaire in two weeks if you are currently earning about two hundred pounds each week. However you don't want to underestimate your abilities. I want to go into this in more detail at a later date but I hope you can get the general idea. Basically set yourself a realistic time limit for your goal and you will reach it long before the time limit you have set has expired.
RULE FIVE:When phrasing your suggestions use clear simple language. You have to speak to your subconscious as though it is a clever nine or ten year old child. You are not trying to win some English literature prize or redrafting the law of contract. Use clear simple words that say exactly what it is you want!
Use exaggerating and emotional words. As you already know the subconscious is were your emotional feelings are kept and so you will have greater success if you appeal to your emotions. Use words like:29
Wonderful, Beautiful, Joyous, Exiting, Tremendous, Generous, Blissful, Love, Sexy, Brilliant,
I am sure you get the picture. The more you say or think these words or words like them, with real feeling the greater the impact you will have on your subconscious.
RULE SEVEN:Make sure you repeat the goal often in your suggestion. Rephrase it many times by using different words and feelings. Use the emotive words above. Be descriptive and make your affirmation as attractive to you as you can. Enlarge upon it. Approach it from different angles and in different ways.
The more often you are exposed to the idea you are going to implant the more firmly entrenched it will become in your mind.
If you want to stop biting your nails it may take a little time before your subconscious replaces the thought patterns that cause you to bit your nails. The more often you replace the instructions to bite your nails with new ones the more likely your subconscious mind will respond e.g.:- " Because I like beautifully shaped long and strong nails 1 always take great care of them. My nails grow tremendously strong and look wonderful. They are fantastic "
RULE EIGHT:Always suggest that you are actually able to do something and not that you you have the ability to do something. You would not say "I have the ability to play squash like a professional." You might phrase it as follows:- 'I Play squash like a professional". Not "I have the ability to sleep all through the
night" but rather 'I sleep soundly all through the night". Simply stating the ability to do something distances the action in some way and weakens the affirmation.
Before I give you an example of script for a possible induction lets summarise the rules:-
Rule One:Rule Two:Rule Three:Rule Four:Rule Five:Rule Six:Rule Seven:-
Be as positive as possible. Use the present tense. Be specific in your affirmations. Give your subconscious a time limit to work to. Use clear simple language. Use strongly emotive words in your suggestion. Repeat the goal as often and in many different ways as possible. Suggest you can/are doing something. Not just the ability to do it.
Rule Eight:-
What follows is an example of a possible script to help someone lose weight. Read it through and see how it follows the rules set out earlier. If you have a tape recorder you could record yourself reading the script and play it back after a suitable time has elapsed so that you can go into trance before the script starts. If you recorded some suitably soothing music for about ten minutes or so and then softly bring in the script. You should find the message will get through to the subconscious. Or simply record the induction technique from part one, leave a small pause and then move onto the suggestion after that. If you are lucky enough to have a Multi-Tracking System you will be able to keep the soothing music in the background and superimpose your voice over it and adjust recording levels accordingly. You may have some recordings of music you could use but I will give you a few suggestions. The following recordings have been found to work fairly well. 1. Second movement "Andante" from Concerto for two Pianos and orchestra in E flat major K365 by Mozart. 2. The "Adagio" from Albinoni's
3. The "Romanze Larghetto" from Frederic Chopin's Concerto for Piano and orchestra in E minor No 1. 4. The "Adagio assai" from Maurice's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G major. 5. The slow movement from Mozart's Concerto for Piano in A major K488 6. The slow movement from Handel's Concerti Grossi op 3 number 1.
Don't worry if you don't have these recordings in your collection because your friendly local library will be able to help. The following recordings are only a suggestion you can use what you want really but remember what it is you are trying to achieve here. Obviously some Heavy Metal Band going at full pelt may not bring you to the desired relaxed state you are seeking. For the same reason the music should be kept very much in the background and not too loud. You can isolate a few minutes of a work and loop it round again and repeat it as often as you wish. I know it is not a very musical thing to do but it does work quiet well, it almost takes on the function of a Mantra in meditation.
I have heard it said that "many live on one-third of the food they eat and Doctors and diet organisations live on the other two-thirds". Most slimmers know that dieting nearly always brings about overeating. Weight goes down initially but soon shoots up again. The idea of living a life of deprivation and self denial is very difficult to accept for many people.
Obesity can be a very difficult condition to cure as you can see from the numerous magazines available offering a multitude of diets and theories. Lets face it dieting is very big business. If it could be solved easily then
nobody would have a problem.
Often the seeds of the problem of overeating can start at a very early age. As we grow up there are all sorts of messages programmed into the subconscious in connection with eating. When food is left on the plate you are told not to waste it. You are told that you must have three square meals a day. When a child cries because it has hurt itself the parents will often stick a sweet into its mouth as a comforter. Such messages over time will programme your mind to eat because you feel unhappy or because you are ill or for many other reasons but not because you are actually hungry and need the food as a source of energy and sustenance.
Eat what you want and loose weight!
Yeah I know you have heard it all before but with the use of Hypnosis you can achieve a healthy normal weight and maintain it while eating as much as you want. The crucial difference is that you educate your subconscious mind so that you only eat what your body actually needs. In other words when you are physiologically hungry and not when you are psychologically hungry. You only want to eat what your body needs to function and remain healthy.
Your first step in achieving this is to choose the ideal weight that suits you. That is to say the weight that suits your bone structure and height. Look in a mirror and see yourself in your imagination at your knew ideal weight. Don't worry if you find it difficult to imagine yourself in this way. Some people who have been over weight for a long time can have a little trouble at first however trust me you can do it. Perhaps get a picture of someone from a magazine who's figure you admire and see yourself as that shape. Perhaps superimpose your face onto the body either in your imagination or use a photograph of yourself. The important thing to remember is that your body will take that shape. What your subconscious mind believes and expects Will Happen!! Now as you have already been told Hypnosis cannot make you do what you don't really want so look at yourself in the mirror and decide whether what you see is what you like or do you want to really change. What follows is an affirmation for achieving the superb figure of your choice. This would normally be read out once you are in a suitable trance state as described in part one.
If you are using a tape recorder the induction should be given in a slow soft monotone as said in part one. The suggestion ought to be delivered in a clear businesslike tone. And when you come to the awakening section read it out a bit louder and more forcefully. Take care not to make your changes in timbre from induction to suggestion too abrupt otherwise you will startle yourself out of trance.
Affirmation for achieving the superb figure of your choice:Now do know and do trust that you will immediately awaken totally alert and in normal consciousness should there be an emergency that needs your attention. You always readily accept the suggestions given while in Hypnosis and reach a perfect balance between the conscious and subconscious mind. Each time you go into trance you find it easier and easier Now, as you drift deeper into that beautiful feeling of deep relaxation you know it is your birth right to have a perfectly shaped body and of an ideal size. You know your body to be a truly remarkable creation and you have such a tremendous respect for it You know what your chosen weight and size is for your own body and you constantly see yourself in your mind's eye at this weight and size. Your subconscious mind has a tremendous desire to see you looking and weighing and maintaining your perfect size and weight. Now, relax and let go with each breath you take and go deeper deeper— deeeper Imagine you are standing alone in a large airy room. The room is known only to you as it is a secret place where you come to relax in peace and enjoy being and feeling slim and beautifully attractive——to love being the real you with your perfect figure.
Now see your room as furnished in wonderful colours. And notice one wall is covered with a large immaculate mirror Beautiful sunlight is filling the room and the mirror is radiating this fight and shows the beauty of your room and also reflects your beauty. You feel wonderful As you take gentle breaths you smell the fresh clean air fill your lungs and you feel so happy. You know that you are always your ideal size and weight when you are in this room and you come here often to relax and feel happy. You feel great admiring your terrific figure in the mirror. You turn from one side to the other enjoying the beautiful attractive person that is you. Now you see a comfortable chair or couch, and go and sit down. It is incredibly comfortable and your body sinks back into the soft cushions. As you relax even more you feel absolutely fantastic mentally, physically, and emotionally. You love feeling so healthy slim, and beautiful You are feeling so good and wonder why you haven't done this before. You know you deserve to feel so good and have the best in life. You always do good things for yourself You love yourself and respect your body You are loving your new positive attitude to life. You know that your great respect and love of your body is because of your new eating habits.
You enjoy sitting down when eating, and at your regular mealtimes you love to sit down and have much greater pleasure eating than at any previous time. You like to really savour the taste of the food. You like to take time to taste each mouthful to give your taste buds time to enjoy each bite fully. For this reason you put your knife and fork or spoon down between each mouthful to give yourself enough time to really taste the food. When eating with your fingers you put the item of food down on the plate or onto a napkin until you have finished each mouthful. You only think of what you are eating at that time, you only concentrate on one bite at a time. You enjoy to feel the texture of and nature of the food. You REALLY feel it in your mouth. You find it is the taste of the food that is more important than the food itself or the quantity you are eating. As you savour each mouthful it tastes so-oo good Finally when you have enjoyed your mouthful to the full you eventually swallow it is only then that you think about taking another bite. Of course you are not in a hurry so you can take your time. When you decide to take another bite you savour it even more than your first bite. You enjoy it even more than the first and it is only when you have enjoyed your second bite do you go on to your third. And in this way you repeat the process after each tasty bite enjoying each one the utmost. The sensory centres in your mouth are very grateful you have taken time to really taste each bite fully. And your stomach is grateful you have allowed it to deal with the food slowly and in its own time. It hates that awful feeling of being stuffed like at Christmas time. Your body thanks and loves you because it knows you are letting it become healthy, beautiful energetic and happy.
You always leave some food on your plate. This is because you only eat what your body needs to function. And as you leave some food on your plate you know you do so because you don't want it. The food is no longer required and so can be thrown away into the dustbin. It will not harm the dustbin but will harm your body if you eat something it does not need. After all you are not a dustbin. You care for your body and eat good healthy food which is full of nutrients and rich in vitamins. You enjoy fresh salads and low fat foods. You always drink plenty of fresh water during your meal time. Your take several sips between each bit of food. You feel wonderfully alive and healthy with these new eating habits. Whenever you think of eating food when your body does not need it you know you can simply and easily deal with this. You simply relax yourself, take a dee-eep breath, hold it, and slowly count to ten. Then you close your eyes - exhale - and think the words relax - re-e-lax. With these words your body relaxes all over and you drift effortlessly into dee-eep re-eaxation. Every muscle, every ligament every nerve in your body is going limp and lazy. Now you can go into your secret room if only for a few seconds and see your beautiful, stunningly attractive figure in your mirror. Now open your eyes and think whether you want to eat now or would you prefer to wait until your meal time when you know you will enjoy the taste much better You know you will enjoy it all the more later because you will have saved up your appetite. Your subconscious mind knows very well the difference between real hunger when your body needs food for energy and the stupid desire to eat for some other idiotic reason. Boredom is not hunger nor is worry, neither is disappointment or frustration. These things are nothing to do with eating or feeling hungry. Your subconscious mind is far to clever to allow you to eat for any of these false reasons. Only fools and idiots do this and you know you are not an idiot You can tell when something displeases you or stresses you and you feel a fool's appetite coming. You know you can close your eyes and take a long dee-ep breath, hold it for ten seconds, and just think the words re-eelax. You go into your secret room even if only for an instant and you feel absolutely wonderful You are a beautiful, stunningly attractive, perfectly shaped, human being. You are marvellous. You know the only time you feel hungry is when your body tells you it need nourishment This is good and natural Eating for any other reason is simply harming your body and because you understand this you only eat when your body needs the food in order to function properly. Just like a car that needs petrol to go. You only eat when you are physiologically hungry.
Now go back to your secret room and take another long look at your beautiful figure. This is the real you. You love this real you. And you see and feel yourself becoming this person this shape more and more each and every day. You feel very happy because you know That people can see how good you look. You give out such positive vibes to people around you because you feel so wonderfully good. You feel tremendous because you have complete control of your mind and body You are the boss.
Now relax, relax and go deeper so that these truly beneficial ideas can filter deeper and deeper into your subconscious mind for ever to guide you to your true self. Reelax----.
(Leave a few minutes blank on the tape or have some peaceful music playing in the background while your mind can attune itself to these ideas and then go on to the wake up section that now follows. Remember to use a gradually more positive and alert tone of voice when using the wake up routine.)
Now it is time to return to normal consciousness. You feel so wonderfully rested. 1 will now count from one to five, and as I do so, you will feel energy start to build and pulsate through your body You are wide awake as I count Five. One you are waking up now, as you awaken you feels more and more energetic and alive and good. Two you feel more awake, you feel totally fresh and sprightly from head to toe. really terrific. Three you feel as though you have splashed your face with cold beautiful Crystal clear running water and you feel so refreshed. Four you feel really good, calm and relaxed and at peace with nature. Five eyes open now! Wide awake. Take a deep deep breath and stretch and feel so really good.
Before we go any further I want to discuss some aspects of "Curative Hypnotherapy" and go through some case studies to illustrate its importance.
I chose to write out a possible Hypnotic script to help weight loss because many people seek help in this area. The problem is many clients come with the expressed desire to lose weight and consciously believe that their only problem is simply that they eat too much. They do not know nor have they given any thought as to why they are eating too much.
You might think who cares just treat the symptoms and get on with it.
There are some so called therapists who take this attitude, probably through ignorance, and they seldom do their clients any good at all in fact they can do them harm. Please don't miss understand me. This does NOT mean that hypnotherapy causes them harm.
In many cases whether it be obesity, alcoholism, a stammer, fear of flying, fear of driving, fear of men, fear of women, fear of enclosed spaces, fear of open spaces, or whatever, there will often be a hidden reason buried in the subconscious which pushes a person to react in away which would appear to be detrimental to themselves.
As I have already said when the conscious mind holds one view and the subconscious another the subconscious always wins. It is for this reason the alcoholic may consciously wish to stop drinking because he knows his family are turning away from him in disgust, he will soon lose his job, and he is rapidly heading for cirrhosis of the liver, but he just cannot seem to stop himself from heading for self destruction. Hypnosis can treat symptoms very effectively indeed but unless the cause of the symptoms are removed or neutralised the problem will almost certainly come back or some other far worse symptom may replace it instead.
In such cases people have accepted there is a problem consciously but the subconscious mind is reacting to other outdated or erroneous information on which to justify its actions. This is in effect bad programming from the past.
I could tell you about many cases which have been successfully treated with hypnosis. The following examples may give you some idea as to the power of the subconscious mind and how, if it is not checked, it can cause great anguish, unhappiness, and harm to many individuals.
One example of this was the case of a lady who had been married for nearly ten years but had not been able to have a baby. Apparently her fallopian tubes were always blocked and so her eggs could never travel into the womb to be fertilised. Finally she had surgery whereupon she was only left with one tube remaining. This tube seemed to inexplicably block up.
Under Hypnosis it transpired that her subconscious mind was punishing her because at the age of sixteen she became pregnant and her parents made her have an abortion. She never wanted the abortion but was forced into it. She felt like she had committed murder.
Because she considered herself a murderer her subconscious mind wanted to protect her from making the same mistake again or punish her and prevent her from committing the same crime. It may seem bizarre but this is how the subconscious mind can work. By the use of regression under hypnosis she was able to relive her past and rationalise what had happened. This enabled her to reprogram her subconscious mind and stop it from interfering in her attempts to have a baby. At last she had stopped punishing herself! Last I heard, she had a boy aged four and little girl about eighteen months.
Regression is a vital tool to a Hypnotherapist without which it would not be possible to cure the many thousands of people who turn to Hypnotherapy for a solution to their problem. Sadly for many it is nearly always the option of last resort.
Because the subconscious mind never forgets anything that has occurred in your life there is a vast data bank full of information from your past stored there waiting to be accessed. The conscious mind cannot keep all this information on hand and so has had to forget most of it out of necessity. Under Hypnosis it is possible to go back to your earliest recollections and remember once again what occurred all those years ago. This is what is called Regression.
The reason Regression is so important to a Hypnotist is that often it is an old memory of an event that has been misinterpreted by the subconscious that is the cause of a problem. The conscious mind will have forgotten all about it years ago but the subconscious mind still holds it close by.
All professional Hypnotists have a lot of people coming to them in order to lose weight. It is by no means rare that there is often a deeper psychological reason for that person's obesity.
In one case a girl of twenty eight called Mary had become very overweight, as it turned out, owing to an incident that had occurred when she was only seven years old. One meal time her younger sister pushed her plate full of food on to the floor however nobody realised that this action was due to her having a fit and she was to die from a brain tumour six months later.
For some reason Mary's subconscious had associated her sister's death with her earlier action of pushing her meal onto the floor. Naturally enough she didn't want that kind of thing happening to her, she didn't want to be punished, to die, for wasting her food so she had developed a compulsion to eat
Obviously had she been aware of the real reason for her sister's actions and that it was her illness which made her involuntarily push her plate onto the floor she would not have developed this unnatural desire to eat. Under Hypnosis it was possible for her to review events with an adult attitude and understand that she did not have to eat every scrap of food available.
I know it can sound illogical that the subconscious mind is capable of constructing such an idea but it does happen time and time again. The subconscious mind is not logical and has no commonness. Under Hypnosis it is possible to go back to the original piece of programming which led to a problem. Like any computer if you put bad or erroneous information in you will get a lot of nonsense out the other end. Perhaps the next example will give you a better idea.
Clare had turned to Hypnosis because she was very concerned why her weight had so dramatically increased soon after she had had her baby son. Her weight had gone from an attractive 1251b to 2571b and despite going (9 the doctor nothing that was tried seemed to help.
Apparently tests showed that there was a hormone imbalance but the treatment she was given was not successful in reducing her weight. Her marriage was suffering because her husband did not like to see his wife putting on so much weight and so their sex life was suffering accordingly.
Eventually her doctor had suggested she try Hypnosis in case there was some deeper reason for her condition. After a few sessions it transpired that the cause of her overeating was connected to her having a baby.
Clare's mother had died soon after she had given birth to her son and for some reason this had triggered her desire to overeat. After a some more sessions it became clear Clare had associated having a baby with the cause of her mother's death. On digging deeper there was a connection with someone mentioning the old saying "as one comes into the world another goes out".
Finally after more digging the reason for Clare's problem became clearer. When Clare knew she was pregnant she broke the news to her mother who responded with "What you're pregnant. Oh Clare you will be the death of me!" Shortly after the baby was born Clare's mother died of a stroke.
The shock of her mothers death led her logical subconscious mind to assume that the act of Clare having a baby had led directly to her mother's death. The subconscious mind knew that in to have a baby you have to have sex. It also thought that if Clare were to have another baby someone else may die, possibly her father this time!
It went on to reason that if Clare was to have sex with her husband there was a chance that she might get pregnant again. Her subconscious mind knew that contraception was not 100% effective, especially when there was a life at stake, so it logically had to ensure that Clare did not have sex with her husband. Since her husband did not like fat overweight women it seemed logical that if Glare became fat and unattractive they would be much less likely to have sex.Q.E.D.
Now this was quiet a complex problem and it took many sessions to get to the bottom of it. If she were simply Hypnotised and given basic instructions to eat less she would probably have lost weight however because the underlying problem would not have been dealt with. Her subconscious mind would have fought back and ensured that she would put the weight back on
again or alternatively found some other, more drastic way to prevent her from having sex.
The reason I mention these examples is to point out that it is very important to find out the real reason for a problem and not just treat the symptoms. You have to deal with the cause as well!
Some Hypnotherapists don't bother to find out the real reason behind a problem and so cause more problems for their clients. They simply swap one set of symptoms with worse ones. If you think there might be a deeper reason for some difficulty your having you should consult a Curative Hypnothe rapist
Ask them how they would go about treating you and whether they would use regression to get to the root of your problem.
I am not trying to scare you I just want you to know what options are open to you. I don't want you to try Hypnotherapy and dismiss it out of hand without giving it proper chance.
You might like to know that Clare steadily lost weight without having to diet she was able to eat what she wanted. She eventually returned to her normal weight shedding around 1301b.
I cannot stress often or hard enough that if you have a medical condition you must get yourself checked out by a doctor. Get a competent diagnosis first. For example if you are in constant pain and do not know why go to a doctor before using Hypnosis to numb the pain. Pain is nature's warning signal that something is not right. If you break your arm you would not just use Hypnosis to kill the pain. You would go to hospital and have it put in plaster. (End of Sermon!)
How To Find Out What You Really Want from Life.
I will assume for the sake of argument that you do not have any pressing or urgent health problems that you need to be resolved. I would like you to write down on a piece of paper your answers to the following questions. If you don't think you have enough time to do it properly leave it until later when you do have the time. It only takes a few minutes but does require careful thought and consideration. 1. What five things do you value most in your life? What five things would
you strive for or make sacrifices for?
a)………………………………………………………………………………. b)………………………………………………………………………………. c)………………………………………………………………………………. . e)………………………………………………………………………………. f)………………………………………………………………………………..
2. In no more than thirty (30) seconds write down the three most important goals in your life right now? …………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………….
3. What would you do if you won £1,000,000 tomorrow? What things would you buy? What debts would you pay off? What places would you travel to? ………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………….
4. What would you do if you had no mental or physical limitations placed on you. By this I don't mean would you fly like a bird or would you like to turn into a horse and win the Grand National! What I mean is what do you dream of doing or aspire to do but thus far have been afraid to try? ………………………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………….
5. What would you do if you were told you only had six months to live? That is to say if you had six months to live in perfect health what you do, what would you change, how would you spend your time?
……………………………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………….
6. What have you always wanted to do but never had the opportunity, money, or courage to try? What have you held back from trying?
……………………………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………….
7. What things or actions on your part give you the greatest feeling of self worth, recognition, or importance.
……………………………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………….
8. Imagine you have just found an old bottle on the beach and you uncork it and a Genie rushed out granting you just one wish? What one thing would you ask for if anything could be granted. (Don't write down you would wish to be twelve again or swept back to the time of Henry the eight. Don't limit yourself but use a little common-sense too.) What one thing would you do what one ambition would you realise if you knew you could not fail?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 44
When you have written you answers down I want you to put the paper in a safe place because we will come back to it later. lf you change your mind to any of the questions just write them down on another piece of paper. Don't change the original answers just yet!
What we are trying to do here is find out what makes you tick. What motivates you. What things do you want out of life. What are your real drives and ambition. Unless we find out what it is you are truly and genuinely after it is harder, not impossible but harder, to programme your subconscious to go out and get them.
The clearer the idea or image you have of what it is you want from life the closer you are to achieving your goal. It sounds simple but it is perfectly true. The journey of a thousand miles begins with but one step. The crucial point is that we keep going forwards and not to the side or, God forbid, backwards. With a clear plan or good map we know we will get there and probably a lot sooner than you ever dreamed possible!
In Part Four I will tell you how you can turn the power of your subconscious to thrust you in the direction of achieving your life's dreams and ambitions. It's a fascinating business. In the meantime listen to the tape provided with this months release and practise going into trance as often as you can.
How To Tap The Incredible Secret Powers Of Your Own Mind!!
Part Three
The author and publisher of this material are NOT RESPONSIBLE in any manner for any injuries which may occur through reading or following the instructions in this material. Any reader who experiences discomfort from carrying out any of the exercises in this material should seek medical advice. © A.C. Mail Order 1999-2000. All Rights Reserved. Neither the whole nor any part of this document may be reproduced, stored in any data retrieval system or transmitted in any form whatever by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise. Any breach will be enforced at law.
"Things are neither good nor bad but thinking makes them so"
SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet. This release will probably be the most fascinating part of the programme so far. It is now time for you to learn how to take control of your life and steer it around in the direction you really want it to go. Some of the techniques you will learn here are so powerful that you will not believe the incredible progress you will make towards your life's dreams.
"You are about to get everything you want out of life"
Now I know that some of you will think that it all sounds too good to be true, pie in the sky stuff. You may even think that you have heard all this before. It's all that self improvement rubbish again. I tried all that before it's no good. This is not an unnatural reaction after all it can sound too good to be true or even impossible if you are not familiar with the workings and power of the mind.
However it is true and many thousands people have already used some of the techniques mentioned in this course to get all they want out of life. The strange thing is that the process is very simple. In fact it is deceptively simple and this is often what makes people sceptical.
Don't worry about how it works just accept that it does, I know because I have used it as have thousands of others. As someone once said "some people spend their time studying the roots while others pick the fruit, which end do we want to be on?
If you can suspend your scepticism for a shod while and give yourself a fair chance you won't be sorry I promise. After all you owe it to yourself.
There are a great many books written on self improvement and goal setting. Some are very good many are appalling and have been cobbled together by quick "buck" merchants who only have the vaguest notion of what they are talking about, let alone tried the techniques they attempt to describe.
I decided to include this section in a course on Hypnotism because a
great many of the techniques described in books on self improvement are firmly based on and use Hypnotism.
You would be amazed at the weird and wonderful names people, mostly Americans, can come up with to describe what is undoubtedly a great force within us all. Things like "Dyna/Psyc" or "Neo/Psyc" etc.
I can only assume authors think that were they to use the word Hypnotism it would frighten people off, perhaps for the reasons I gave you in part one.
Of course just using Hypnotism on its own will achieve great results but when you combine it with some other brilliant techniques the results are quiet amazing.
As you know throughout this course you have been learning about the characteristics of your subconscious mind. Well you will not be surprised to learn that it the vital link in all of us which determines whether we fail in achieving our life's dreams or whether we succeed.
Now this point is so vitally important that I want you to really take note! The subconscious mind is the vital link which determines whether we fail in achieving our life's dreams or whether we succeed.
When we understand this basic truth we can start to plan for the future with confidence. You have already read some case histories in part two which clearly illustrate the kind of harm the subconscious can inflict if it is allowed to go unchecked. The subconscious can in the same way either help or hinder us in our desires to improve our lot in life.
The first step in achieving everything we want out of life is to ensure and convince our subconscious mind that we deserve to succeed. It doesn't matter a fig if our conscious mind knows we are extremely capable or more talented or cleverer than the next person, if our subconscious mind has a contrary view or idea then we are in trouble. If your subconscious mind and your conscious mind are working to different agendas then you will fail. It is as simple as that
The significance of the above statement is so important to your success in life that I want to drive it home.I believe it is because this point is not explained fully in some self help books that some people fail despite their obvious conscious eagerness to succeed.
We have to convince the subconscious mind that we are worth and deserve to have everything we want out of life. Remember what your subconscious mind believes and expects will happen.
This may sound simple but it is nevertheless perfectly true. The esteem with which our subconscious considers us can be described as our "Self Image". We all have a self image which is in some degree is either "Positive" or "Negative". It should always be your aim to build up our self image as much as possible so that you have a strong "Positive Self Image".
This is a vital ingredient for any individual if they are going to enjoy a happy and enjoyable life. How much you like yourself is the single most important statement about you as a human being! How much you like yourself determines how well you perform in every area of your life. How much you like yourself is the very core of your personality. Many studies have been carried out on this subject over many many years. It has been found that there is a direct relationship between how much a person likes himself and how successful that person is in forming relationships with others. The more you like yourself the better you perform in your career and in every area in your life.
It is a strange thing but nature gives all of us a large helping of "Positive self Image" or PSI when we start out in life. A baby in its mother's womb feels warm and secure. It has no knowledge of the outside world, its pleasures or its dangers. Once you are born you are exposed to all sorts of influences some of which enforce your PSI and others which detract from it giving you a "Negative Self Image" or NSI, (sometimes described as "Inadequate self image or ISI).
Doctor Eric Berne MD termed these influences in life as "Strokes" and it is the balance of these positive and negative strokes in our life which is responsible for our current level of PSI or NSI. Another important aspect to note is that we are far more vulnerable or impressionable when we are young than when we get older. To quote the old Jesuit saying "give me a boy at a tender age and he will be mine for life". Young minds are more malleable at an early age say seven than at twelve, and more suggestible at twelve than at eighteen. It is for this reason that most Self Images are really formed in our early, or formative, years. Bad strokes can take the form of negative criticisms particularly at an early age. A small child being constantly criticised about having their room in a mess will ultimately grow up to be a messy individual. After all if a small child is constantly told they are messy and sloppy they will come to believe it and act accordingly.
Particularly difficult "bad strokes" can and often do occur when a child feels it is unloved by its parents. Perhaps they don't spend enough time with the child because they have busy lives demanding careers or whatever. Many delinquent children suffer because deep down they feel unwanted by their parents. Sometimes parents will actually say to their children that they are nothing but trouble, they wish they never had them, or "if I didn't have you I could have made something of my life" etc.
One of the worst things a parent can do to a child is to withhold their love. To a small child this kind of treatment can be devastating psychologically.
It is not possible to give a newly born baby too much love and attention. It is thought that the first year is crucial. In several experiments that took place at the beginning of this century, and some in the early forties, a number of newly born baby orphans were divided into two groups. The first group were looked after, talked to, cooed over, and cuddled. The second group were just fed and had their nappies changed. They were deprived of any real normal human contact other than their basic needs. They were given no emotional support at all. Unfortunately this experiment was not stopped in time with disastrous results.
After a short time the first group seemed to thrive however it became very clear that the second group began to suffer and appeared to wither away. Incredibly over ninety percent of the babies in the second group actually shrivelled up and died within the first ninety days of birth! Horrific but true.
Most babies will neither receive constant loving attention nor habitual neglect or abuse. Of course there will be exceptions but in the main they will receive a number of negative strokes and a number of positive strokes. It is hoped that you have received more positive strokes negative ones.
It is well known among most psychiatrists treating patients with eating disorders like anorexia that they have to give these people unconditional love. This is because these people have virtually no self esteem at all. Their PSI is at zero. Now at this point I want you to realise that a person's level of PSI does not necessarily have a direct relationship to their physical or mental capabilities. It is perfectly possible, indeed it is fairly common, to find people with very low PSI's or strong NSI's who appear to be incredibly talented or skilled at their work or at a particular hobby.
This statement may seem contradictory but it nonetheless perfectly true. I have had a friend who is a good example of someone who is extremely capable, very talented, and highly intelligent, but who has an extremely poor PSI. I will call her Karen although it is not her real name. I remember her taking four A levels and she passed them with straight A grades. I swear she only revised for the exams the night before. She never seemed to work hard on her homework because she did it all at school. In fact she said she had to because she needed her time at home to practise the piano. Music was her first love although the school wanted her to try for Oxford and study English.
Eventually it was time for her to audition for a place at one of the prestigious music colleges in the country. She auditioned for the Royal Northern College of Music, the Royal College of Music, the Royal Academy of Music, plus a few other places that I will not bother to mention.
Of course she was awarded places at all of the music colleges she tried for. She could take her pick and she did.
Now here is a person who had great academic ability and considerable talent in the arts. Incidentally I forgot to mention that she was a stunningly beautiful girl as well.
Now you would think that a person like this would have the world at her feet. She had the ability to develop considerable skill in virtually any subject she decided to look at. In fact it was an in joke that give Karen a book on brain surgery in the morning and she would be in the operating theatre by the afternoon. Coupled with all these sickening talents she was also a great linguist!
You might be surprised to learn that Karen was riddled with self doubt and insecurity. Her PSI was almost zero. She was desperately unsure of herself and was riddled with doubts about her own worthiness. To find the cause of lack of self worth you have to look closely at the family background.
Karen's parents were about the most ill matched couple you could imagine. Her father was a good twenty five years older than her mother. The mother married when she was only nineteen (in fact there is some doubt as to whether they ever did actually get married). The father was born in the 1920's in Sicily. He had been married before but the marriage had failed. He was a simple person who never had any real formal education. Nobody did in those days since Sicily was a very poor island. He was born into a large family and his life was tough but he had a happy childhood all the same. His family were very close and there was a lot of love going around. He was basically a nice ordinary bloke with a warm friendly character.
The mother was a very different kind of person altogether. The story goes that she was an only child and was never really wanted in the first place. She was not shown any real love at home and was always made to feel worthless and a nuisance. Although bright at school she was not allowed to go on and take any worthwhile qualifications. As soon as she was old enough she was sent out to get a job.
She got a job at a psychiatric ward in a hospital where she met her future husband. It was probably her first real encounter with the opposite sex. She was emotionally a very needy person.
She was young and inexperienced and he appeared worldly wise and charming. Anyway they soon got together and before long she left her parents home to live with him. With hind sight one could say she took the first opportunity she got to get away from her parents. She craved a little love and affection and so when it was offered she grabbed it with both hands.
When she was only just nineteen she gave birth to Karen. Karen's mother soon felt very frustrated. As I have already said she was bright and could have made something of her life but she now had a young daughter to bring up. Her relationship with her husband became strained with numerous rows which often resulted in him walking out for a few days until things had simmered down. Karen's mother knew she had a small child to bring up and didn't like the idea of doing it on her own so she put up with the relationship as it was. At least this was how she saw it. She had begun what was soon to become her life long role in life that of playing the Martyr
The mother had a very low PSI and ensured that her daughter would also.
She wanted her child to have the opportunities she never had but at the same time she bitterly resented her daughter. She was jealous of her. Karen's father doted on the girl and this reminded Karen's mother of what she had craved for in her own childhood but never had. Sadly the mother became more and more resentful and bitter. She started beating Karen and ruled her life with a rod of iron. Karen would say later that she always felt she was expected to bow down every day and pay homage or penance to her mother in return for all the sacrifices she said she had made on Karen's behalf. She was made to feel ungrateful and selfish. She was rarely allowed to mix with others of her own age let alone have any boy friends. Karen would often be hit with little or no warning. Karen said she got to the stage that she would instinctively flinch when her mother moved her arm suddenly because she expected another swipe.
This kind of treatment obviously took its toll and naturally left Karen with many emotional scars. Little wonder then that she doubted her self worth
as a human being. It explained why despite her undoubted talents her "Self Image" was so low. Karen is a very capable and intelligent woman but sadly she has always found it hard to make a lasting Success at anything. She would put great effort into her career and just as things seemed to be coming together she would lose interest or sabotage it in some way. The same was true of her marriage. She seemed to have everything in life, a good home, two beautiful children, a loving and supportive husband, regular work, and security.
The last I heard of her was that her marriage had failed and that she was teaching music in a run down roughneck school trying to bring up two young children under the age of five single-handed.
I have mentioned this story in a little detail because it shows that no matter how capable a person is, this is known as the ("I CAN FACTOR") by the way, unless there is at least a reasonable level of PSI they are going to have big problems in life.
It is very important you understand that unless our PSI is in a healthy state then it is difficult or virtually impossible to achieve success and happiness in life.
You might consciously desire to have a big house, flashy car, loads of money in the bank, unless your subconscious mind thinks you are worth it then forget it. You should now be aware of the fact that if your subconscious mind does not want you to succeed at something then you won't. Just when you are closing some big deal something totally unexpected will happen to muck things up. "I don't know I seem to be so unlucky everything seems to go wrong for me". If this sounds familiar don't worry it is fairly common and is almost entirely due to the subconscious mind sabotaging your conscious efforts.
It's a bit like an airliner having a bomb on board which will be triggered to go off should the plane clime too high. The bomb is happy provided the plane stays at 25,000 feet but the moment it reaches 30,000 then Boooom!!
Most people experience the same amount of good and bad luck in their lives. Luck is really unimportant. Of course some people win millions on the lottery but the percentage is so small as to be irrelevant. In fact some people who suddenly win relatively vast sums on the lottery end up very confused and depressed even guilty. (Perhaps they don't think they are worth this success?)
How To Build a Strong PSI:I hope you realise that it vitally important that everyone should aim to have the highest PSI possible. If you are a parent it should be one of your goals in life to ensure your children get plenty of encouragement, Love, and praise ,especially in their early years. As you know the level and depth of our respect and love for ourselves is related to what happens to us in our formative years. It can take a little time to rebuild a PSI particularly if you have a tarnished and tattered one to begin with. However the rewards are well worth the effort.
Please don't miss understand me. Liking, or loving, yourself does not mean you have to become vain, arrogant, or obnoxious. As I said earlier the more you like or love yourself the better you will be able to relate to and love others. People who genuinely like and accept themselves only manifest this in positive ways in their relationships with other people. People who are unpleasant, act superior, selfish, and arrogant; these people have behavioural problems and are, in the main, extremes, and in some extreme cases need professional help.
Your subconscious mind has already built up a firm view of what it thinks you are and how you fit in the world around you. You have to remember it is a vastly complex computer and your life experiences thus far have programmed it accordingly. You know for example that drinking bleach or caustic soda is a bad idea. You also know that putting your hand in a fire is painful. This is obvious. Your subconscious computer is there to protect you. The problem is it can be over zealous as we have seen in some of the examples given in part two. Sometimes there seems to be a contradiction in how it goes about doing its job. Remember Clare who put on a lot of weight because she was scared of getting pregnant again. Putting on weight is not a healthy thing to do but her subconscious reasoned that it was necessary to stop her having sex with her husband. It reasoned that if she were to get pregnant again her father would die!
Sometimes the subconscious is very reluctant to change and so merely using conscious logic will not always persuade it to change. In fact cold rational reasoning will almost certainly not work. With Hypnosis we can have a much better chance of getting positive messages through and so alter any negative or harmful programming that may be hiding there. If you already have a strong "Personal Self Image" great then the exercises that follow will simple maintain and build on it. But even the most secure and confident person needs a bit of extra help. I do not want you to analyse these exercises just take them on trust and follow the instructions.
Remember your subconscious mind does not respond to logic or rational argument. Don't be tempted to take short cuts and miss out the odd bits. This will retard your progress. Remember your subconscious has taken many years to build its view of you and the world around you so do not expect to change things over night. These exercises have been tried and tested and they work and work very well.
Don't Look Back Look Forward!
Before we get started there is one thing I will mention. It has some bearing on what I said earlier. Sometimes people are very bitter and angry about their past. They feel a lot of resentment towards a parent or an exspouse or whatever. This state is sometimes called "acting the Victim". Unfortunately anger is a very destructive emotion. It eats away at you inside. It occupies valuable areas of the mind that would be better employed making your life worthwhile and meaningful.
know this is much easier said than done. 1 know of some people who have not spoken to a parent for years on account of something that was said or done years before. Both refuse to be the first one to break the ice. If you can it is good to get this kind of thing off your chest. If you are not bothered whether you speak to someone or not that does not matter. What I am referring to is the kind of nagging resentment that clouds you day from time to time and distracts you from your much more important task/goal of getting the most happiness and satisfaction from your life.
It takes a big person to admit they were wrong or to make the first move. If you can you should try to bury the hatchet, preferably not the other person's back. If the person you have a grudge against is still alive give them a ring and say you forgive them. You will not believe the relief this can bring.
Often the other person is incredibly relieved as well. If you cannot ring write to them. If they are dead simply talk to them as though you think they can still hear you. I know it sounds daft but can work wonders. There is no room in your life now for any kind of negative thoughts. They are a nuisance and get in the way. You don't want them and you don't need them so throw them away. Put them behind you for ever. Turn the page. What is past is past!
Incidentally you don't have to like the person you are forgiving. This is not necessary. You talk to them in your imagination. The important thing is to mean it and say it with feeling.
I have met people who have spent thirty or more years of their lives feeling bitter and resentful towards someone or something that affected them in their life. It might have been a bitter divorce or a failed business deal, or an opportunity that was never taken at the time. The "what if syndrome" or "if only I had done such and such". Most of us have been prone to this kind of negative harking back to the past from time to time. This kind of thinking is rather like walking down the high street with your head looking permanently backwards over your shoulder. Not only do you get a crick in the neck but you will walk into people and trip over things or even walk in front of a lorry!
I remember very well watching a news item about a forthcoming trip to Japan by a member of the Royal family. There seemed to be two opinions at the time. One group of former prisoners of war, who had been captured by the Japanese during World War Two and endured much torment and hardship, were understandably upset that such a visit should have been contemplated. The other view was put forward that it was now time to forgive and move on in life. They were not saying that we should all forget what had happened but that the war was a long time ago and keeping this hate going all this time was not healthy. The strange thing was that this conciliatory view was expressed by a fair number of other prisoners of war who had also suffered terribly at the hands of the Japanese.
Now this situation had a profound effect on me. lt was obvious that those opposed to the visit were very angry old men and who could blame them. Some of their stories made me feel sick and angry towards the Japanese however I could only be feeling a tiny fraction of the anger they must have felt. You could see the strength of feeling in their whole being. You could tell that the last forty years of their life must have been blighted by their simmering thoughts of hate and resentment..
When the others put their counter view I was humbled by the way in which one ex-veteran in particular spoke about his experiences during captivity. There was an astounding difference in his demeanour and those in the first group. He was a wonderful man and appeared very serene. He didn't defend what the Japanese had done but accepted it was war. He seemed to know in his heart that it was pointless harbouring dark resentful, even vengeful, thoughts towards the Japanese. It was plain that he was more at peace with himself and the world around him, than the others had been. If you like, he had come to terms with his experiences and was obviously more healthy in mind and spirit.
I only mention this because if someone can endure what these people went through and manage to forgive their oppressors surely we can forgive those people who have caused us pain and suffering. I am not using this example as some sort of yard stick of suffering. Suffering is relative to the individual. Some people reading this might feel they have suffered even more
than these prisoners. We are all different. What I am saying is that if you can forgive and put your negative past behind you, you will get much more from your remaining time on this world in terms of quality. The last thing I want to do is turn this into an evangelistic crusade but the Lords prayer does say "forgive us our trespasses and those who trespass against us".
Guilt can be one of the more destructive emotions that can burden our lives. Just as you must forgive "those who have trespassed against you" you must also learn to forgive yourself If you feel guilty about something you have done in the past say out loud that you are sorry. Admit that you acted badly. If necessary ring the person effected or write to them and tell them you are sorry. If this is not possible just say out loud, as I have said, that you are truly sorry for you past actions and regret the harm, heart ache, upset they caused.
Don't waste time going over past regrets, cherishing your past mistakes, shedding tears over opportunities lost! Eleanor Roosevelt was asked how she had so much energy for so many different projects, she replied "be cause I never waste time looking back".
Lets get back to your "Positive Self Image".
If we are going to change and build our PSI we must first remember how the subconscious mind functions. First of all it does not really like cold logical arguments. The subconscious mind responds best to EMOTION and FEELINGS. It also likes IMAGES. So the more we can appeal to these three things the greater our success.
What we have to do is ensure that we get more POSITIVE feelings directed towards us and cut down or eliminate the number of negative emotions that come our way.
Reduce the number of negative strokes in your life!
Now this could be difficult to achieve if you are currently in an unhappy relationship of some kind. This could be an unhappy marriage or it might be that you are still living at home with your parents and there is constant friction in the house. These are two of the most common sources of negative emotion in my experience. Of course there are others. Working for an unkind or bullying boss for example. However out of the three I would say that an
unhappy marriage, or relationship, must be the worst case scenario.
Hopefully for most of you this will not present too many problems and you will be able to skip this section and move on. If you are happy and content in these areas then great you can skip this bit and go on to step two.
Two people who were once close and know everything about each other can do a lot of harm to each other emotionally. They know the weak and vulnerable areas to probe and twist the knife in. If you are in such a relationship you must be very clear in your mind what it is you want. Your options are as follows:-
1). You can leave the relationship. 2). You can decide to salvage it by taking positive active steps and discuss your problems and differences, on your own or with a councillor. (Some of the techniques taught in this course will help here). 3). You can stay as you are.
If you take options one this can be very painful initially but virtually everyone who takes it is nearly always glad that he did!
Option two may seem attractive but can be hard work. It can be very hard work to salvage a damaged relationship but sometimes the effort is worth it. Some marriages/relationships are much stronger as a result.
Option three is not really an option. It is more like emotional suicide. If you really want to be happy and achieve anything in life then forget this one. I cannot think of anything worse than this. Many excuses are given for just sticking together. For the sake of the children is a common one but any child who has experienced an unhappy home life will tell you they would have preferred their parents to have split up. The emotional strain and harm that can be done to a child in my opinion vastly out ways the reasons for slogging it out together. There have been many studies carried out on this subject and the weight of professional opinion tends to back up this up. Apart from anything else what kind of life is for the parents? After all you deserve, or owe it to yourself, to be happy!
STEP TWO. "Give yourself a hug every morning".
What's this? Give yourself a hug? This is getting strange! Well it makes more sense than you might think. Do you remember I told you that you would come across things that sounded strange or bizarre? 1 can assure you that I am deadly serious about everything in this course. It is based on many years of serious research and study. How do you feel when a close friend or loving relative gives you a hug? Do you feel bad? No of course you don't.
To illustrate the point imagine how you would feel if someone you knew came up to you if the street and waved and said it was good to see you. lf this person failed to smile or show any positive body language your subconscious would dismiss the gesture and your PSI would remain unchanged or even harmed in some way. Your subconscious would search for the emotional content and the feelings behind the gesture and find none.
Compare this with someone coming up to you with a beaming smile and putting their arms around you and giving you a big hug but saying nothing? Your subconscious would get that message straight away and your PSI would get a big boost.
The problem is that it is hard to get people to walk up to you and give you hugs all the time. In fact the more you ask people the less inclined they will be to oblige. It is strange but it seems that the people who need the affection from others seem to get it least and those who appear happy, confident, and positive seem to get love and attention all the time. Why is that?
Obviously if you appear to be upset or depressed for some reason people will rally round and show concern and try and help. The problem is if you appear needy on an ongoing basis people will quickly learn to steer clear. So if you cannot rely on a steady line of people to rush up to you each morning and give you a hug you will have to do it yourself!
When I say "give yourself a hug every morning" I am speaking metaphorically of course. The following exercise will probably sound very strange to you but I can assure you it is very powerful. What you have to do is this. Each morning when you get up and go into the bathroom look into the mirror and say one or more of the following things:-
1.) 2). 3). 4). 5).
"I like myself". (you can repeat this as often as you like.) " Good morning, you're looking really great today" "My god your a really terrific guy/girl". "You and I are really going places" . "I feel really terrific this morning".
You probably get the picture. You can add to this list or even use all the ideas given. It is also a good ideas to vary the script a little. The most important point to remember is to feel as positive and warm towards yourself as possible. In fact I would urge you to use the first example each and every day. You can say it or think it as many times as you like. This phrase "I like myself is short and direct and to the point. I guarantee if you say it to yourself twelve times with feeling while looking at yourself in a mirror you will find it impossible not to smile at yourself! Try it and see if I am wrong, but remember to use feeling. Remember your subconscious responds best to emotion.
if you carry out this exercise a few times a day for a month you will start to notice the difference. You will feel your self esteem begin to swell inside you. You will feel more confident and positive. Many people have been taught this technique and have received tremendous benefits. They say that they were surprised that something so simple could be so effective! Don't expect to convince your subconscious that "you like yourself" if the night before you drank a whole bottle of whisky, you have a splitting head ache, and your mouth feels like the inside of a bird cage. You may find that there could be a wee bit of resistance. Remember the subconscious cannot hold two opposing views at once.
Don't look into mirror and say "God I look old" or "I look fat, or ugly". This is the very bad habit to get into. Don't do it!
STEP THREE, Give yourself a treat:Some people feel guilty if they buy anything or do anything for themselves. They feel it's selfish. If they do buy something for themselves they invariably feel obliged to buy things for loads of other people as well. Now if you are the kind of person who regularly does nice things for themselves then good you can skip this part but if not read on.
Patting yourself on the back and rewarding yourself is a perfectly natural and good thing to do. We all know we should encourage children by giving them praise and encouragement so why not do the same for ourselves. I am not talking about being selfish and going on some kind of credit card binge this would create far more problems than it would solve. However you should get into the habit of rewarding yourself from time to time without feeling guilty. If you feel uncomfortable with this suggestion don't worry it is simply because your PSI needs a little work.
Guilt is another of those nasty negative emotions that we all have to learn to deal with. As I have said before guilt is a burden a break on your life and serves no useful purpose. The only solution is to counter it by developing good thoughts about yourself and those around you. Giving yourself little treats now and again will help.
STEP FOUR. Control your own thoughts:There are a number of immutable laws governing the mind the most important of which is that " we become what we most think about". If you constantly dwell on negative or depressing thoughts then don't be surprised if you get or feel depressed. The more positive you can be on a day to day basis the better. If you think you tend to be the kind of person who dwells on the negative side of things then make it your aim to re-educate your mind.
It is known that conscious mind can only hold one idea or thought at any one time so if we can develop the habit of having positive and constructive thoughts in our mind then it is hard for any negative or destructive ones to get through.
The subconscious and conscious minds are a team. They work best when they work in harmony. Problems only really occur when they are in conflict with each other.
I have written a script that you can use in the way described in part two. You can make your own hypnotic tape or use the one I have enclosed with this months release. Ideally you should use it once every two days for a month during your waking hours and every other night when going to bed. Playing the tape a bed time is OK. It does not matter if you fall asleep since your subconscious mind will still get the message. It never sleeps.
The tape will make it much easier to re-educate your mind and help you become a much more positive person. This coupled with other techniques
mentioned here will ensure you will develop the best state of mind possible to achieve all your aims and goals in life with absolute confidence.
I appreciate to some of you the idea of simply thinking positively sounds a bit quirky but it does work. The quality of the content of our mind is what determines how we feel. Do we like to feel angry, depressed, sad, anxious, fearful? Of course we don't but often it seems impossible to change. However all these states of mind are under our control if all but knew it. Let me illustrate a point.
imagine you are getting up to go to work on a Monday morning and it is raining hard outside and the wind is blowing a howling gale. You are running late and when you get to the office you know you have some difficult calls to make or difficult people to deal with. Lets face it you feel daunted. Just before you leave for work the post arrives and you pick it up and stuff it into your brief case to read on the train. Eventually you get to the station after braving the elements.
You feel cold and your feet feel wet and when you get on the train you find there are no seats so you have to stand all the way. After a few moments you remember the post you picked up and so you decide to open it. Apart from the usual bills there is an envelope you don't recognise so you open this first. To your total amazement it's from the Premium Bond Office stating that you have won £50,000.
Now just imagine what your state of mind would be like at this time. In an instant your feelings of doom and gloom would disappear. Your worries about the coming days chores at work would vanish and you know you have the ability and confidence to deal with anything the day could throw at you. Your people at the office would see you breeze in smiling and happy throwing yourself into your work with gusto. Somehow those difficult calls you had to make didn't seem so difficult after all and eventually the day is over and you return home.
You run yourself a hot bath and pour yourself a drink and relax with a big contented smile on your face. You are washed and dressed and feel great when suddenly then the phone rings and its your old mate Fred. Fred is giggling at the other end and unable to contain himself he explains he sent the letter from the Bond office and it was all a joke. Then you realise that today's date is April 1 st.
Now after you have torn a strip off him and called him every name under the sun you stop to think and recall how you felt at that precise moment you got that letter. The letter was a fake but how did you feel and how did you react to your day at work. Were your feelings false or where they true feelings?
You see feelings are always true. You can have good feelings or you can have bad ones. What would you rather have? The point is that you now understand more about how the mind functions and how Hypnosis can help you. You have more control and choice in your life today than at any time in your past.
You have the power to eliminate negative thoughts from your life right now. USE IT!
I want to move onto another important area that needs work if you are to achieve everything you want from life. However before I do let me just give you an example of the effect NSI or inadequate self-image. In America a real estate company were expanding their business and needed to recruit top flight salesmen. They put ads in numerous papers stating the truth that people willing to come to work for them could make $50,000 a year. To their surprise the response was very disappointing so astute advertising man suggested they change one small bit in the advert. Can you guess what it was?
The bit they changed was the figure. Instead of $50,000 they changed it to $20,000. They then ran the advert once more. The response brought in ten times the number of replies. Because of the huge response they were able to pick the very cream of the crop.
Now you understand the effects of NSl and PSI you can see why the first advert failed. Most people do not think themselves worth $50,000, they put a limit on their true worth or value. Fortunately the real estate firm had a training programme to promote strong PSI and many of the salesmen who were taken on for the job went on to earn far more than $50,000.
Incidentally the criteria the company used in making their selection was not age, education, or experience. They chose those people who were willing to learn and to change!
To succeed in life you need to have two things in good supply. A strong PSI and a strong "I Can Factor". A strong PSI is the much more important of the two nevertheless you should aim to build up both if you really want to succeed.
In this last section 1 want to touch on the subject of the "I can factor". This is more usually known as the "I can't factor". This is not the same as PSI or NSI although there are similarities and connections. PSI is to do with how we feel deep down about ourselves. How much we love and respect ourselves. PSI as you know is essential for a happy and fulfilled life.
The "I can factor or lOF is more to do with your feelings as to how able you are to do things. ICF is generally something that is more tangible. Some people are very confident in their abilities. Karen who I mentioned earlier was a very able person. This was obvious from what she achieved in things in her life. She achieved good A level grades, she was a fine and talented musician, she has now become an excellent and highly respected teacher. All these things are tangible. Karen's problems were entirely to do with her deep routed emotions, the intangible things. Karen had a very good ICF otherwise she would never have achieved what she did.
This is not altogether surprising. In Karen's case she felt unloved by her mother and so tried to gain her admiration and attention by being successful in other spheres of her life. Of course it didn't matter what she did it would never be enough for her mother but the compulsion to try would always be there. This kind of behaviour is fairly common.
To find out what your current level of ICF is like I would like you to answer the following questions as truthfully as you can. Tick the answer that you feel most comfortable with.
1. Do you think you have the ability to pass all the exams necessary to fly a plane? Answer; no never, I don't think so, maybe, I think I could, yes of course I could If I really wanted to.
2. Do you think you are capable to speak five different languages fluently?
Answer; no never, I don't think so, maybe, I think I could, yes of course I could If I really wanted to. 3. Do you think you could learn to play Piano or Violin to concert standard? Answer; no never, I don't think so, maybe, I think I could, yes of course I could If I really wanted to.
4. Do you think you could develop the skills necessary to become a formula one driver?
Answer; no never, I don't think so, maybe, I think I could, yes of course I could If I really wanted to. 5. Do you think you could ever study hard enough to become eminent brain surgeon? Answer; no never, I don't think so, maybe, I think I could, yes of course I could If I really wanted to.
6. Do you think you have the ability to generate enough earnings to retire in ten years time without ever having to worry about money again? Answer; no never, I don't think so, maybe, I think I could, yes of course I could If I really wanted to.
Now I depending on you answers I want you to award points in the following way:1. 2. 3. 4. 5. No never = one point. Don't think so = two points. Maybe = three points. I think I could = four points. Yes of course I could if I really wanted to = five points.
I f your total scored between six and ten points then you have a very low ICF and we will have to help you improve on this.
If your score was between twelve and seventeen then you ICF is low and below average. If you scored eighteen to twenty three points then your ICF is average. If you scored twenty four to twenty nine points then you have an IOF which ranges between good to very good. Well done. If you scored thirty points then great your level of ICF is excellent.
The fact is regardless of your score everyone of you could have got and should have got thirty points. I know that if you had only one arm becoming a concert pianist could be a bit of a problem. Although Maurice Ravel composed one of his finest pieces of music for a pianist friend who had lost his right hand in the first world war. The work was of course his famous piano concerto for the left hand. Some may think that flying a plane could be difficult if you had no legs but that didn't stop Douglas Bader the world war two fighter ace.
I want you to realise that we could do all of those things and more if we decided we wanted to.
A lot of people mope around feeling pretty useless at most things when in actual fact everyone has the capability to do practically anything they want. The only limitations are the ones we put on ourselves!
In Part Four I will go into the whole subject of goal setting in detail and why it is so important. You will be shown little known techniques that will catapult you to forward in life. These techniques are incredibly powerful. They work and work well. With these powerful tools at your disposal and your new knowledge of Hypnosis you cannot fail. It is impossible.
How To Tap The Incredible
Secret Powers Of Your Own Mind!
Part Four
The author and publisher of this material are NOT RESPONSIBLE in any manner for any injuries which may occur through reading or following the instructions in this material. Any reader who experiences discomfort from carrying out any of the exercises in this material should seek medical advice. © A.C. Mail Order 1999- 2000. All Rights Reserved. Neither the whole nor any part of this document may be reproduced, stored in any data retrieval system or transmitted in any form whatever by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise. Any breach will be enforced at law.
"If you don't like where you are, change it! You're not a tree." Jim Rohn.
Someone once told me that there are only four steps to achieving anything you want out of life.
Firstly know exactly what you want. Secondly, and most importantly of all, believe that you are worth it. Thirdly, know that you are capable of achieving it. Lastly go out there and get it.
Knowing exactly what you want out of life is the most important step. If you don't know what you want how can you go and get it?
The second step, believing you are worth it, is equally important as I explained last month. A strong PSI is essential if you are going to succeed in anything and have a happy fulfilling life.
Belief in your ability is the next step because if you know what it is you want and you believe you deserve it you must be able to achieve it.
The fourth step is really the least important of all. If you think about it stands to reason. If you know what you want, believe you deserve it, believe you can get it, what is left to stop you? It is just a straight forward matter of going out and getting it. I know some of you will think this is a bit simplistic. Oh yeah it's all right for him so say that but he:………has never had the bad breaks in life l've had. …….. he's not black. ….…..he's probably not poor like me. .……..he's not a woman, if he was he would know it's totally different for us. ………he's probably had a chance to go to college, I never did, my parents couldn't afford to send me.
Last month I told you how to achieve step two. In this month's release I want to help you achieve the other stages.
Step three is concerned with your I Can Factor in other words believing you have the ability to achieve what it is you want. ICF is based on rational objective thought. What concerns us here is building inside of you a belief that you are ABLE to get what you want. This is deferent from last month when we were trying to convince you that you were WORTH having everything you want from life.
A lot of people have a very low expectation of what they can do. This is great shame when in reality virtually all of us are capable of so much. We are alt human beings endowed with amazing properties. As I have already said in part one our brain is the most sophisticated biological computer known and is capable of the most staggering feats. When you consider that we only really use less than 2% of its potential how can anyone doubt their true capabilities.
When we are born we each of us have certain inherited characteristics and perhaps certain latent talent passed down to us. The trouble is when our parents bring us up we tend to accept their view of the world and the limitations that go with it.
Our parents are our first role model and we tend to look up to them and want to be like them. After all it is by copying them that we gain praise and affection. If we try to stray from their path conflict soon follows. It is usually not until our teens that we start to question what we have been told about life the universe and everything.
In America studies have shown that children brought up in families living off the state are much more likely to follow their parent's example and live on welfare hand-outs to. It your parents are professional types who have worked hard and gone to university then it follows that you will probably follow suit. It does not mean you will but at least it will not appear to be something out of the ordinary. If your father or mother went to Oxford university you know you have their genes inside you. It would not seem impossible to you or anyone else if you managed to follow in their footsteps.
If you compare this scenario with a child brought up in a poor household whose parents hardly ever worked and who didn't achieve much at school. It does not take a genius to work out that this child is going to be less likely to go to college. This is going to be particularly true if any success on their part at school goes unrecognised or unsupported.
If you compare this scenario with a child brought up in a poor household whose parents hardly ever worked and who didn't achieve much at school. It does not take a genius to work out that this child is going to be less likely to go to college. This is going to be particularly true if any success on their part at school goes unrecognised or unsupported.
I am not saying here that the child is deprived of love and affection indeed the child might develop a good sense of self worth or PSI. All I am saying is that child is more likely to doubt his or her ability in the academic field even if both children in the above examples had exactly the same IQ.
I am not saying child B is some kind of lesser citizen compared with child A. I am just using this a very basic example to show you one way in which a person can restrict their progress because of a lack of good ICF.
People with low lOF and NSI tend to blame external factors to explain why they have not achieved much in life. If you found yourself agreeing with the remarks I made earlier i.e.:"It's all right for him he had stinking rich parents" or" You can't expect to get on in life with my kind of background, I never had the breaks others had" or "It's so unfair some people get all the luck, why can't I be lucky just once".
Then you almost certainly suffer from a negative self image, NSI, and more than likely a negative ICF.
The above are not the real reasons why people don't get what they want, they are just excuses. There are a great many people in the world who "make it" despite having poor parents, a bad background, or whatever. One of the most extraordinary examples of someone with very strong ICF but disastrously low PSI was a young man called Richard.
Richard had been brought up in a succession of children's homes. He had been badly abused as a child. He had little or extremely poor education and could barely read or write as a result.
But despite these handicaps he managed to build up several highly diverse and successful businesses and made a fortune in the process. From literally nothing he made close to $1,OOO,OOO when he sold his business on.
Sadly because of his background and therefore his poor emotional state he had to spend a lot of time in mental asylums. During his more lucid
moments, when he didn't think he was Napoleon or Jesus, he bought and sold companies for enormous profit. I often think of him when I feel myself sliding back a little. After all if its just money your after he proves that virtually anyone can make a fortune. Richard did this without having inherited a penny from anyone, no education or training, absolutely nothing, Zippo.
Luck is one of the most pointless excuses of all. We all have about the same amount of luck good or bad as the next person. I know some people win the lottery from time to time but these people are so few and far between make no difference. They might win a lot of money, buy an expensive car and drive into a tree and end up dead or paralysed for life.
People who rely on luck to change their situation are wasting the most precious thing they have, their life. They are just dreaming. The following might be a typical example of a response from someone with low ICF:- "Do you speak fluent French?" "Oh no I am useless at languages, I just know a few odd words." Someone with a positive ICF might reply:-
"Do you speak fluent French?" "Oh no I just know a few words really. 1 will learn it properly one day when I get more time though."
You see the difference. You might not want to learn French or fly a plane or become a concert pianist but you could do if you wanted to. One reason people often develop a negative ICF is because they fear failure. This is sometimes described as a fear of success. To say you can't do something gives you a very good excuse for not bothering. Instead of saying you can't do something just say you can't be bothered, the chances are this statement would be more honest.
This is why many people hate to see anyone they know really make a success of their life because it may highlight how dull and unfulfilled their own lives are. It reminds us of what our lives might have been like if we had only tried a little.
There are good reasons why people are like this. You have to remember your subconscious is keen to keep you as you are. Your early life and background have programmed a lot of preconceived ideas and notions about you and how you fit into the world. It will analyse everything you hear, read, see and run it past the fixed view it has of the world it has built up over the years.
As you know with regard to your PSI no amount of reasoned logical argument will persuade it to give up its preconceived ideas about you. Your subconscious will for similar reasons resist you trying to change the level of ICF, however if you work on your PSI then it should be possible to build your ICF at the same time.
This is why hypnosis is so useful. Under hypnosis you can appeal to the emotional side of the subconscious. It may not want to change but that's just too bad. With the right techniques you can change it.
How can you tell the difference between PSI and ICF?
This is a good question. Sometimes it is very difficult, if not to say impossible, to tell the difference because both things are closely connected with each other. This does not mean they are always the same as I hope I have shown, however a NSI will often cause a negative ICF. This is why it is important to work on both fronts. It is harder to build a PSI than it is to build a positive ICF and I will give you some exercises later.
The most important point to remember is whatever the reasons you may have for a poor ICF it is within your power to remedy this situation. The only person who can limit you possibilities to expand and grow, IS YOU!
A lot of people have a hankering to be rich. They would like to be successful millionaires, even famous. However those same people deep down doubt they will ever make more than a modest living wage. In fact most people will retire on a derisory pension after working in some dead end job all their lives.
These same people deep down think that they will never be rich. They don't believe they have what it takes and or they don't think they really deserve to be rich. They have been programmed to expect little out of life and so deep down that is all they will aspire to, for all the reasons I have explained.
I am not saying everyone has this wish but judging by the general public's appetite for the lottery it does seem to be a commonly held dream. Each week millions of people put their faith in a I in 14,000,000 chance of winning the jackpot.
Incidentally 1 have chosen wealth purely as an example you might not crave wealth but I will use it as a convenient goal as an example. What I have said can apply to any goal in life.
The fact is there is absolutely no reason why anyone should not become a millionaire by their own efforts, if that is what they really want.
It is as simple as that but many of you won't believe me. Do you suppose a successful entrepreneur doubts his or her ability to succeed. NO! There was a survey in the USA which questioned many young people who had made more than $1,000,000 before they were thirty.
What was particularly interesting was that without exception they all made their money out of several different unrelated businesses. Often building up one business selling it and moving on to the next. Not all of them were successful straight away many failed, and failed badly, in the early days.
The point is they all believed they would make it one day. Their setbacks didn't put them off course. They stuck to their goals. In other words they refused to doubt their ICF and their PSI. Any setbacks they suffered were regarded as merely obstacles to be overcome. Now this is a vitally important point because it is our perception of life and how react to it which makes the crucial difference. It is our programming which determines our perception. One person might think a business "failure" might be better viewed as a "setback's. What's the difference?
It is just a different word but I think you will agree the effect on your emotions is quite different. Failure carries with it all sorts of negative connotations which we have formed in our minds from an early age. We might have some painful memories associated with the word failure. This one word might cause a person feel depressed. However the word setback wouldn't do anything of the kind. The word setback sounds transitory and temporary.
By changing the way we perceive things we can change
the way we react to them. Your choice of language is all important when building a positive ICF or a PSI for that matter. From this day on I want you to be extremely careful what you say about yourself. Never EVER say anything to anybody about yourself unless you want it to become true. Don't put yourself down in public. "Oh I couldn't play tennis, I am useless, I have got no co-ordination."
This is your Negative ICF talking. By not making negative statements about yourself your will programme your subconscious into believing that you are actually capable of doing ANYTHING.
This is not just confidence building, although there is an element of this, it is more subtle than that. It seems very simple, which it is, but it works.
If someone asks you to go flamenco dancing with them don't say:- "oh god no I've got two left feet I could never do that". A better response would be:-" Well 1 have never done it before but what the hell it could be fun".
Now I want to make a point here you don't have to actually do any of these things. It simply means you could do them if you wanted to. If you simply don't want to do it just say so. "Oh I don't think I would enjoy flamenco dancing. I am sure I could do it if I tried it's just I don't enjoy that kind of music. I went to show once and it was not for me".
If you apply this simple little technique you will be amazed at the changes it will make to your attitude. In fact at first you might be shocked how negative you are about yourself For the first few days you might have to check yourself several times a day however this technique alone can make a vast difference to your ICF.
The next step is to take responsibility for you own life and stop blaming others for the state of your life.
As I mentioned in part three guilt is a very damaging negative emotion and has to be removed from your life. So is the habit of apportioning blame to other people for any misfortunes in your life. It does not matter if they are responsible. It does not matter if you are responsible. This point has already been covered but is worth mentioning again. Don't use expressions like:-
"You make me so angry." "You really hurt my feelings when you do that".
What you really mean is:"I make myself angry". "I let myself feel hurt when you do that".
There is a big difference between these two examples. You are responsible for how you react to a given situation. Obviously if someone punches you in the face for no reason you are going to feel hurt.
If you are being punched in the face on a regular basis you could always take up some form of martial art or avoid a particular area, pub or whatever. The remedy is still under your control. NOW TO BUSINESS!
This next step is vital to your success in building a strong I CAN FACTOR. Don't worry about putting into practise for the moment because I will show you how it all fits together with what you have already learned. Now I would like you to write down a few things for me, you will need them a little later on:Please write down on a piece of clean white good quality paper the following statements. Use a good quality pen. Write carefully and neatly. If you make any mistakes do it again!
I achieve everything I set opportunities I are available to me.
Every single day I become more and more positive in my attitude and actions in life. This makes me more and more open and successful in everything I strive for.
Now keep this paper safe because we will need it later. Now lets move onto the next section.
The Importance of Goal Setting:Why is goal setting so important. Setting goals is a way of crystallising your aims and desires in life. It makes you sit down and think about what it is you are striving for. What's important to you. There have been so many books written about this subject so I don't want to go on and on about it here. However because this is such an important area, if you are at all serious about improving your life, I must say a few words on the subject.
If you have never come across goal setting then you really should read up on it as it is going to be vitally important to you. There was a well known experiment carried out at Harvard University. What they did was to check up on the progress of a number of former students from the 1950's some thirty years later. Out of those that had survived they discovered that 5% owned more than 95% of the total wealth acquired by all these former students. This puzzled the researchers at Harvard so they asked the former students to complete a list of questions to see if there was any way of finding out why so few a number of students could have acquired so much wealth. I wonder if you can guess what the 5% did that the other 95% didn't.
That's right they set themselves regular goals in life.
Setting yourself goals are essential if you want to achieve anything in life however there is a right way and a wrong way to set out your goals. The first step you must take is to decide what you want. Sounds simple doesn't it, but you would be amazed how many people go through life without any real idea about where they are going and what they want from life. Most have the usual flight of fancy about disappearing off into the sunset on a fabulous luxury yacht leaving all their troubles behind them, or of winning the lottery or football pools. But these are just day dreams, they never seriously expect them to come true. Have you ever thought about what you want your life to be like in say ten years time, or five years time, or even one years time? Many people just amble from day to day and let chance or "life" just dictate what will happen to their health, relationships, finances, job prospects, in the years to come. Don't worry if this sounds a bit like you. In fact it is quite common.Just as an experiment and to help you to think a bit about how your life is going I want you to complete the following questionnaire. Please try to fill it out as accurately and as honestly as possible. Also please keep such forms confidential. DO NOT SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH ANYONE ELSE!
Just make a cross in the relevant boxes to each question:BAD NOT TOO BAD OK GOOD VERY GOOD
I normally feel:In another three years my physical health will be:MENTAL HEALTH
I normally feel:In another three years my mental health will be:-
RELATIONSHIP My love and sex life is:My relationship with my mother is (or was):My relationship with my father is (or was):My relationship with my classmates at school was:My relationship with my teachers was:My relationship with fellow workers is:My relationship with employers or those in authority is:In future I think that most of my relationships will be:-
The area where I live is:The area where I work is:The area where I will live will be:The area where I will work will be:-
CAREER/JOB SATISFACTION I think of the way I support myself is:I think of the way I will support myself will be:-
FINANCIAL POSITION My financial position is:During the past five years it has been:Over the next five years it will be:-
God thinks I am:My moral standards are:Most people I just meet think I am:After they have got to know me think I am:My personality is:My looks are:My mother is:My father is:My friends are:My luck is:My common sense is:My performance as a parent is:My judgement of other people is:-
My life now is:In the past five years was:In the nest five years it will be:-
Now the purpose of asking you to do this is fairly obvious. I am trying to make you think a bit about you current condition. If you join the crosses together you will probably get a wavy line. Hopefully you won't have a straight line on the far left and you probably won't have a straight line going down on the far right, although that would be nice. I want to give you some idea of where to concentrate your mind on improving certain areas in your life.
Maybe you are not happy with your relationship. Perhaps you don't like your current state of your health, you might smoke or drink too much. It is possible you find it hard to make ends meet and need to earn more money. Perhaps you wish to retire in a few years time. There are so many areas to think of and only you can make these observations and decide what is really important to you.
Now I want you to know that it is perfectly possible to push that wavy line much further to the right. There is virtually no area in life that cannot be improved if you want to. In fact it is relatively easy if you know how.
It might be that there are many areas which are bothering you and you don't know where to start Don't worry we will take this in easy stages.
Do you remember back in part two I set out a number of questions for you to think about. Now the time to go back over them and read what you wrote down. If you haven't got them don't worry I have set them out again for you below. If you didn't fill them in before please do it now. 1. What five things do you value most in your life? What five things would
you strive for or make sacrifices for?
a)……………………………………………………………………………….. b)……………………………………………………………………………….. c)……………………………………………………………………………….. d)……………………………………………………………………………….. e)………………………………………………………………………………..
2. In no more than thirty (30) seconds write down the three most important
goals in your life right now? …………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………….
3. What would you do if you won £1,000,000 tomorrow? What things would you buy? What debts would you pay off? What places would you travel to? ………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………. 4. What would you do if you had no mental or physical limitations placed on you. By this 1 don't mean would you fly like a bird or would you like to turn into a horse and win the Grand National! What I mean is what do you dream of doing or aspire to do but thus far have been afraid to try? ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………. 5. What would you do if you were told you only had six months to live? That is to say if you had six months to live in perfect health what you do, what would you change, how would you spend your time? ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… 6. What have you always wanted to do but never had the opportunity, money, or courage to try? What have you held back from trying? …………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………….
7. What things or actions on your part give you the greatest feeling of self worth, recognition, or importance.
………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………………………….
8. Imagine you have just found an old bottle on the beach and you uncork it and a Genie rushed out granting you just one wish? What one thing would you ask for if anything could be granted. ( Don't write down you would wish to be twelve again or swept back to the time of Henry the eighth. Don't limit yourself but use a little common-sense too.) What one thing would you do what one ambition would you realise if you knew you could not fail? ……………………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………..
What these questions do is really focus you mind on what really matters to you. The answers you give will be quite revealing and inspirational. After all you have no limits here. What I want you to do now is compare these answers with the earlier questionnaire. And see if there are any areas that coincide or cross over. You should by now have a better idea of what you would like change or improve on.
You should start to recognise what really motivates or excites you. It is in these areas that you should concentrate on because real change will happen in these areas more rapidly. You will find it easier to keep your mind focused.
If you felt your financial situation was in a bad shape and you wanted to improve it your answer to question three, "What would you do if you won £1,000, 000 tomorrow? What things would you buy? What debts would you pay off? What places would you travel to ?" could be very revealing.
1. All the money you will ever need. 2. Any house or houses you want. 3. Any type of car you would like to own. 4. Great sex life and warm, caring relationships. 5. Total freedom from damaging mental and emotional hang ups. 6. Control of your own mind and body. 7. Greatly improved health. (This will be the subject of next month's release. 8. Time to spend exactly how you want. 9. PEACE OF MIND.
I have shown you the above list because it is a basic representation of many peoples goals in life. It is a rough guide and it is not intended that you copy or slavishly apply them to your own life. You will no doubt have many different things you want to include or exclude from it.
Having said that, you may notice that the first three items relate strongly to wealth. You might think money is mentioned a great deal. Even number eight could also involve the subject of money since being able to spend your time as you wish would suggest that you have sufficient funds to let you do this:- i.e. you don't have to go out and work when your boss tells you to.
The fact is money is a tangible item and at the end of the day is a means to an end. I have used it as a convenient example and as I have said before your priorities may be quite different. You might want to spend more time with your family. You might want to reduce you tendency to get stressed in given situations or you might want to learn and master the French language. It does not matter. Whatever you want to achieve you can use the same techniques learned here.
If your goals seem to suggest that you should need to boast your income then that's fine. You might have to calculate exactly how much money you will need and what income you would like to be earning "X" days from now.
What you have to do now is decide on a strategy for the short term, medium term and long term. Also it is a good ideas to start with small goals before going on to the larger and more ambitious ones. Firstly set yourself some tasks or goals say of things you have been putting off for ages. It could be anything. Perhaps making contact with an old friend you have not seen in ages or putting up that shelf in the kitchen that you have been tripping over for the past three months!
This is a good idea because by setting little goals you can rapidly move on to larger ones once you get steady positive results. In other words success
builds on success. Before you can set any goals you learn how to write them down in a way that will have a strong effect on your subconscious and conscious mind. Just making a vague list is no good your success depends on how you phrase your suggestions.
Before going any further I would like you to re-read Part Two of this course particularly the part dealing with how to word your affirmations for use in Hypnosis. I have made a list of the rules you should follow below:Rule One:Rule Two:Rule Three:Rule Four:Rule Five:Rule Six:Rule Seven:Be as positive as possible. Use the present tense. Be specific in your affirmations. Give your subconscious a time limit to work to. Use clear simple language. Use strongly emotive words in your suggestion. Repeat the goal as often and in many different ways as possible. Suggest you can/are doing something. Not just the ability to do it.
Rule Eight:-
Let us assume we are going to set some medium term goals. Just for the sake of argument let us assume today's date is 1st January 1998 and you have some small goals/tasks you want to get started on.
"By 5th January 1998 I have put up the white melamine shelf in the kitchen which makes life much easier for the whole family".
This is a very basic goal but I have made it as up beat and as positive as possible by relative the advantages to the family. After all it is only a kitchen shelf I have used the present tense and been specific as to when the task will be done. Now lets try something else. "Because I wish to be financially secure and independent I enjoy putting money aside regularly. By 1st April 1998 I have doubled my savings in my TESSA account from £1000 to £2000." This is completely useless. It is far too vague. When are you going to save the money? How much? Similarly you would not write:This is a simple specific task but still has an up beat positive suggestion behind it. What you would not do is say something like:82
"Very soon I want to save a lot more money". This is completely useless. It is far too vague. When are you going to save the money? How much? Similarly you would not write:"I would like a big, fancy, £30,000 car".
"By 1st January 1999 I own and drive a black Mercedes model XYZetc with . . .and name every detail you can think of.
Another important point when writing out you goals is that you have write down precisely what you actually mean. You should almost imagine it is a kind of legal document. You would not want to write "By the 1st January 1999 I drive a black Mercedes model etc There is a big difference between owning a Mercedes and just being able to drive one. I mean you could just go out and hire one for the day if that is all you want or get a job as a chauffeur. I hope you see the difference.
I hope you can see the difference between the two. Now look at the next one:-
"By the 1st February 1999 I am living in a wonderful four bedroom house with a double garage, in the Glades area of Esher. The garden is at least an acre of well kept beautiful lawns containing a tennis court."
Most of the rules mentioned earlier have been used here. The goal has a time limit. It is detailed and not woolly. It uses emotive language but is not too complicated or wordy. Now I hope you get the general Idea. What's next?
Verbalise your affirmations or goals:Writing out your goals is important but it is also important to read them out aloud to yourself. This should be done when you are alone. You don't have to shout them out you can just whisper them to yourself but the important thing is to feel strong positive emotion when you do this. Use a positive tone of voice.
Visualisation :This is a very important step which should NOT be skipped. If you were using the goal concerning the house you would want to imagine walking into
your new house on a beautifully sunny day with light streaming through the windows. Look at the wall paper. The colour of the bathroom suite. See how well equipped the kitchen is etc. Visualisation is very important in impressing the subconscious mind. Remember it responds well to emotion.
Key Words And Phrases:Next to each goal you have written out select a key word or phrase which sums up what it is you are striving for. In the example above you might write "Wonderful House" or just "House". Once you have read out each goal you should sit back and close your eyes and go into a trance for a few moments and visualise yourself enjoying the fruits of your goals. Key words or phrases are a good way to encapsulate everything you have written out in your goal. Your subconscious will fill in the rest. If you chant the key word gently to yourself the message will find its way deeper into your subconscious. This step is part of the visualisation process.
How many goals should I write?
Personally I would not write out more than five goals when you are starting out and keep them simple and in the short term to begin with. They might include the kitchen shelf at first, or concern enrolling on a course of French lessons, or starting a correspondence course. However to begin with for the first thirty days I would recommend you stick to the two affirmations mentioned below plus one or two short term goals with a time scale of about one week. 1.) 1 achieve everything I set out to achieve. All opportunities I are available to me. (You can visualise yourself walking down a corridor with hundreds of closed doors. These doors have signs on them like languages, travel, music, sports, anything you can think of You should particularly put mental signs on the doors of any thing that you have fancied doing but up until now have been afraid to try. When you can picture all these closed doors on either side of you simply stroll down the corridor and kick all these doors violently open.) 2.) Every single day I become more and more positive in my attitude and actions in life. This makes me more and more open and successful in everything I strive for.
The first two goals are very important to you and lay the foundations for anything else you do later. The cassette tape you received last month will be of incredible use to you here. If you have been using it regularly then your state of mind should be becoming much more positive and resilient. The techniques described on that tape are very powerful.
It is important that you don't get too impatient at this stage. Many people get too carried away and they overload their minds with too many varying goals all at once. Remember try not to have conflicting goals. Don't say you will be a multimillionaire in twelve months time and say you will only be working two minutes a week, the rest of the time you will be spending on the beach.
As you get more experienced however it is important that you don't limit yourself. If you want to live in a ten bedroom mansion don't make it your goal to live in a three bedroom semi You will not be motivated. Your subconscious will move heaven and earth if it knows you really want something, believe you are worth it, and knows you CAN get it. Don't worry about how you are going to get it. Once you have programmed your subconscious mind correctly you will be amazed as to how many ideas will appear as if by magic and at the most peculiar time. It is for this reason you should always keep a small pad and paper with you at all times especially by the bed.
How To Use Your Very Own Subconscious Computer:If you have an obstacle or "problem" to overcome and you cannot think of a solution try the following technique:-
At the top of a clean piece of paper write out as precisely as possible what the situation is. Then beneath it make two columns for and against. Underneath write down at least twenty possible solutions. It does not matter if these solutions seem un-workable just write down anything and everything that come to mind. Next to each solution write down the potential draw backs that each solution carries. You will find that the five or so solutions will come reasonably easily but as you go on it will get harder.
Now you might find this simple technique alone solves the "problem" /obstacle you are having but if you still cannot solve it consciously ask you subconscious to help. What you do is sit down and calm yourself down and then read out what the "problem" is and go into a light trance and, after about five minutes or so, ask you subconscious computer to give you the solution. If its a pressing matter the it is best to ask it to let you have the solution by a certain time lets say twenty four hours from now.
Once you have done this you can simply forget about it.
You will know when the right answer appears because you get a feeling of "eagerness" or "excitement". The answer will be "complete" or "obvious" often be very detailed. Sometimes you will wonder why you didn't think of it before!
You must act upon the answer it gives you otherwise it will be some time before it works for you again.
It works best if you can get yourself into a state of trust and acceptance. These powers and abilities are perfectly natural. They are not superhuman but simply human and you are supposed to use them. The results can often be astounding. Remember for this technique to work properly you must do the following:-
1. Write down the "problem".
2. Try to find solutions.
3. Ask you subconscious to help.
4. Act upon the answer it gives you.
Putting It All Together:Daily Routine:Goal setting works best if you set aside about ten to fifteen minutes each morning to go through the different stages. You may to set your alarm a bit earlier. This is why you don't want to set yourself too many goals at any one time, it takes too long and tends to water down the effectiveness of the process. You will need to be alone so that you will not be disturbed. Perhaps you will have to leave for work a bit earlier, you can use these techniques away from home in your car or at the office.
Now lets assume you have written out your goals on your piece of good quality paper. This is your master set of goals which you keep very safe. The first thing you will do is to re-write your goals out on a separate piece of paper. This fixes them consciously in your mind.
Next you read them out aloud to yourself or whisper them under your breath but feel positive and good about yourself while you do this.
Now sit back and relax. Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and go into a light trance. Next start to visualise each goal in turn as though you are enjoying them, make them as real as you possibly can. Lastly use your key words for each goal. Chant them to yourself for a few moments and let yourself drift a little deeper into trance. When you have finished slowly come out of you trance to full awakening consciousness.
You can repeat this process at night if you want to or alternatively just do the first two stages of writing your goals out and read them out aloud. When you drift off to sleep your subconscious will do the rest.
Make Lists And Get Organised!
If you are to benefit from all you have learned in Part Three and this release you need to get into some kind of routine otherwise inertia takes hold and nothing gets done. It is all very well just reading about this stuff but putting it into action is what really counts. For this reason I have printed out a weekly check list of things you should do each day so that you can chart your progress.
It combines the daily exercises we covered last month concerning Positive Self Image. Just to jog your memory here they are again:-
1). "I like myself" (You can repeat this as often as you like).
2). "Good morning, you're looking really great today". 3). "My god your a really terrific guy/girl". 4). "You and I are really going places". 5). "I feel really terrific this morning".
If you remember I suggested you look into the bath room mirror each morning and give yourself a metaphorical/emotional hug each morning.
I have also left three spaces for you to put in any daily routines you might think helpful like physical exercise or whatever. I have also left twelve spaces for you to write in those things we all have to do on a day to day basis. It is so easy to forget day to day tasks so 1 find it incredibly useful to make lists in this way.
Just photocopy the page as often as you need.
Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri
P.S.I a.m.
Give yourself a Hug:
Give yourself a Hug:
Goals a.m.
Write: Verbalise: Visualise:
Write: Verbalise
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
There are only four reasons why you might not achieve your Goals:1. You are not serious about or inspired enough about the goals you have chosen. 2. You have not built up your PSI enough and so don't believe you are worth succeeding at your goals. 3. You have not built up a sufficiently strong ICF. 4. Or it is a mixture of all four!
Choosing different goals may be necessary or simply rewriting or rewording them will often work wonders. You can never have enough of a "Positive Self Image" or for that matter an "I Can Factor" so you must never neglect these two vital areas. If you do these things you cannot fail.
Before I go let me leave you with another quote:-
"We generally change ourselves for one of two reasons: inspiration or desperation." Jim Rohn.
I think there is a great deal of truth in this statement you should give it a lot of thought.
The next release is one of the most important so read it carefully! It deals with your health and what part your mind can play in improving it. I promise you it really is a fascinating area.
How To Tap The Incredible
Secret Powers Of Your Own Mind!
Part Five
The author and publisher of this material are NOT RESPONSIBLE in any manner for any injuries which may occur through reading or following the instructions in this material. Any reader who experiences discomfort from carrying out any of the exercises in this material should seek medical advice. © A.C. Mail Order 1999-2000. All Rights Reserved. Neither the whole nor any part of this document may be reproduced, stored in any data retrieval system or transmitted in any form whatever by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise. Any breach will be enforced at law.
Part Five.
"Health is easier to maintain than it is to acquire." Doctor Russ Jaffe
What you are about to read now might seem alien to some people may be even a bit bizarre. I don't want you to dismiss what you are reading here before you have had a chance to fully consider the true implications. Please read this section through at least twice and experiment with exercises given for a reasonable length of time before coming to any finite conclusions about their effectiveness, (I think you will be more than a little surprised)
Far from being faddy or just some new craze most of what you are about to learn is firmly based on tried and tested methods refined over a great many years and firmly based on vast amounts of empirical research.
Western medical research is slowly coming to terms with the fact that our minds have a much more important role in determining our state of health than was previously thought.
In America an experiment involving five year olds revealed some interesting results which are at odds with conventional medical opinion. Saliva samples were taken from the children just before they were shown a video which used glove puppets as characters in a story. One set of puppets played the part of nasty viruses and bacteria trying to invade their bodies while another set of puppets were the good guys who acted as policemen and stopped the nasty bugs. After the video the children were told to lie down and relax while thinking about the good puppets attacking and arresting the nasty bugs. After a few minutes new samples saliva were taken. When they tested the second samples they discovered that they contained double the amount of immune substances.
Scientists working in the relatively new field of Psychoneuroimmunology, this is the study of the mind and how it interacts with our immune systems, have made what are to western medical minds some startling discoveries. The main thrust of their discovery is that the mind can have a significant effect on the effectiveness of our bodies immune defence mechanisms.
Last century the great Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovic Pavlov carried out various experiments in conditioned responses. In his later life hedeveloped an interest in the functions of the brain in relation to
digestion. In one famous experiment he would ring a bell just before bringing a number of dogs their food. On each occasion he would measure the amount of saliva each dog produced. He established that the dogs would produce the same amount of saliva after he rang the bell whether food was present or not. This phenomena was called conditioned reflex.
In one recent set of experiments, which utilised techniques similar to those created by Pavlov, subjects were given a quantity of adrenaline at the same time as they were given a sherbet sweet. Adrenaline has been shown to stimulate the bodies immune system and produce increased quantities of (k.cells) or killer cells which are believed to be effective in fighting some cancers. Before and after each subject is given adrenaline blood samples are taken for analysis.
What excited the researchers was that when a subject was unknowingly given a sweet but no adrenaline, they were just given a placebo instead, their body still produced increased numbers of killer cells. In fact their blood would typically contain nearly double the amount of killer cells after this treatment than before.
This experiment forced scientists to ask the question can we train our mind to fight diseases like cancer.
By chance another interesting discovery was made in a hospital treating cancer patients. Because of the unpleasant nature of Chemo therapy with all the nasty side effects like nausea and so on doctors decided to do something to help them. What they did was teach some patients simple relaxation techniques. After time it was discovered that those patients that were taught how to relax tended to survive longer.
Further trials have been carried out to monitor these levels of killer cells by using control groups where one group practised relaxation and the another group did not. The results have so far astounded researchers. These trials have not finished yet but results so far have shown that those patients who use relaxation and imagery techniques, in other words self-hypnosis, produce significantly greater amounts of killer cells and a much greater chance of survival.
Although western scientists are reluctant to say, for the time being at least, that the mind alone is capable of curing cancer they are prepared to state that the state of your mind does have a pronounced effect on your susceptibility to an illness and its rate of progress.
They have discovered nerve fibres in the thymus, the immune system's master gland, as well as in the spleen, the lymph nodes, and bone marrow. These are all essential parts of our immune system. These immune system cells have receptors for neuropeptides which are chemicals produced inside the brain. From this it would appear that the brain speaks directly to our immune system.
If you read about the history of hypnosis in most books you will no doubt be told about Doctor Mesmer, among others, as being the forefather of Hypnosis. Of course there has been a great deal of speculation as to what Hypnosis really is and how it affects our consciousness.
The idea that we in the west are responsible for discovering the power and techniques of Hypnosis is to my mind a little arrogant to say the least. If you think about it hypnotic induction is in essence simply a means of accessing our subconscious mind. Hypnosis is a bit like an empty syringe which gains access to the mind instead of the blood stream. It is what you put in the syringe that is all important.
In the west we have a great deal of experience in how to deal with numerous medical conditions through the use of hypnosis but we are almost totally unaware of its preventative uses in maintaining our health and strengthening our bodies immune system. In order to fully appreciate the true nature and possibilities that hypnosis offers us we must take the wider view, swallow our western pride and sense of superiority, and look to the east for help and advice.
In the next section I want to discuss how you can use your trance sessions to improve your health and channel to power of your mind to boost the bodies natural defences. Before I can do this I must first give you a bit of background first.
Mystics in the east have for thousands of years known of and learned how to access the power of the subconscious mind and have achieved states of human enlightenment and control of their physical bodies which baffle western science.
Of course the many techniques used in the east to enter trance state or induction, as we call it, come under the general heading of meditation. Many western hypnotists, both medical and even the stage variety, are aware of the different and flashier types of induction that can be used (I will discuss these at a later date). However western experience and knowledge is a fraction of what is known by some exponents in India, China, and of course in Tibet.
Let me give you some examples which are fairly well known and documented in the west. In Tibet there are two particular techniques which have been widely learnt and practised for thousands of years. One is called (Jun g-gom) and the other is known as (tumo).
The art of Lung-gom is where an adept is able to travel very rapidly across rugged ground sometimes travelling for distances of over three hundred miles in thirty hours day and night. This is a useful skill for people living in a very inhospitable part of the country where there are no roads to speak of. They don't walk or run in any manner we would understand but appear to leap with great elasticity from one spot to another. While doing this the adept would be in a trance like state and would keep his vision focused upwards on the horizon.
The training needed to master this technique would appear to most of us as very rigorous. It involves living in complete darkness and seclusion for over three years while practising deep breathing exercises and meditation techniques. This does seem almost barbaric to us but you have to understand to a Tibetan monk such practises are not unusual. They are accustomed to and are great experts in meditation. It is not a hardship in the way we would perceive it and I am told that this form of seclusion is not absolutely necessary, some can achieve similar results without going to such extremes.
I watched a programme recently concerning the training that the Royal Marines have to go through in order to learn how to survive in the arctic wastes of Norway. Their training was very thorough, however I could not help think of those monks who train in isolated areas of Tibet in the art of Tumo.
Tumo, translated as fire in the belly, is probably more widely practised than lung-gom and is the art of combating extreme cold. This is a very useful technique when we consider that Tibet is a country that is almost entirely over ten thousand feet. There is not much fuel to burn for fires although yak done is commonly used.
The adepts train in a similar way to those that learn lung-gom in that they learn a range of complex breathing and meditative exercises and bathe daily in icy streams in the mountains. While in deep trance they sit naked in the snow and imagine or focus their mind on internal fires within their bodies.
When their training is complete the adepts have to under-go a test to see whether they have mastered their training. On a particularly windy night in the middle of winter they are led on to frozen lake whereupon a hole is made through the ice to the water below. A robe is then dipped in to the water until it is soaked. The adept then has to wear this robe and dry it by using their body heat generated by the powers of meditation. This process is repeated throughout the night until the master is satisfied that the adept has mastered this technique.
This ability is not uncommon in the east. There was a prominent Indian guru Swami Brahmachari who was invited to Russia in 1966 to train Russian cosmonauts how to use breath control. On arriving in Moscow the weather was bitterly cold with a strong wind wiping across the airstrip. The Russian entourage where wearing thick overcoats, fur hats and gloves. When the doors of the aircraft opened the Indian stepped out and was only wearing a thin cotton suit he had on when he boarded the plan back in Deli. Upon reaching the ground the Russians tried to offer him a thick overcoat but he declined. The Indian simply stated "I produce my own heat thank you".
Tibet, India, and China have their own forms and techniques of combining breathing exercises and meditation. My own personal experience is with the Chinese forms so I want to explain a little about these. In any case it would be a little strange for me to try and explain how to use self-hypnosis to improve your health if I didn't at least mention some of these techniques. It would be a bit like writing a book on How to drive without saying anything about braking or the use of the accelerator, also there is no point in trying to re-invent the wheel. The Chinese are masters in these matters and have vast experience which has been refined over a great many years.
If you are serious about your health and want to get the most out of self-hypnosis some knowledge of these techniques will be invaluable to you. Even if you are not primarily interested in your health as such, some very simple breathing techniques will make self hypnosis sessions much more effective. They will help you to calm down after all the hassle of the day and enable you to focus your mind on what you are trying to do. For this reason alone it is worth your considering them. (It also enables you to be more selective about some of the more esoteric, crackpot, not mention dangerous, methods of alternative medicine which are becoming more fashionable).
There is strong trend in the world today of combining the benefits of modern western technology with the holistic techniques traditionally favoured in the east. Countries like China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and even Russia have realised that the western habit of treating the human body as some kind of
machine with increasingly expensive technology is not the way forward. By utilising the best of the tried and tested treatments developed in the east over many many years with the amazing diagnostic techniques produced in the west a new and very powerful kind of medicine is being developed.
This pragmatic attitude towards medicine is producing a dramatic improvement in health care in those countries. At a fraction of the cost most Americans have to pay for their health care the Chinese government have been able to deliver effective medical care for a billion relatively impoverished people.
Of course in the west there are powerful vested interests in promoting a purely allopathic chemical-mechanistic approach to medicine. Millions and millions of dollars are spent each year by pharmaceutical companies in developing more and more new drugs and costly treatments. General practitioners are routinely approached by salesmen from these companies to promote these new drugs to their patients.
In the west we are partly to blame because we tend to wait until we are sick and develop a disease before we seek help. In the east it is the tradition to take preventive measures before our body succumbs to an illness. A well known quote from a classic Chinese medical text says:-
Wise physicians do not treat a disease once its has developed but rather treat it before it manifests.They do not wait for symptoms to run out off control but treat them before they develop.Giving medicine once a disease is established is like digging a well after you are already dying of thirst.
(Qigong) or (Chi Kung)...
In China people have traditionally been taught to take responsibility for their health and Qigong practise has been an essential part of this practise for thousands of years.
Qigong can be translated as "energy working". Qigong was first mentioned during the reign of the yellow emperor some 4000 years ago. At that time it was stated that the Qigong techniques were in turn handed down to them by the anciens. So it is very hard to know for certain how long Qigong has been practised in china but it could have been used for at least 6000 years. It is thought that Qigong started out as some form of callisthenics. Then around 500AD an eccentric monk from the Tantric school of Buddhism arrived from India and taught the Chinese the science of breathing called pranayama. This laid the foundation for the Chinese health and longevity exercises as well as their martial arts.
The monk was called Bodhidharma and certainly an interesting character. (It is said he sliced off his own eye lids to stop himself from nodding off during the numerous meditations he practised.) Before he would teach the Chinese anything he insisted on retiring to a monastery for nine years of solitary meditation facing a stone wall "listening to the ants scream'?
Qigong practise counters the many shocks and attacks our immune systems are exposed to on a daily basis. It switches the body's autonomous nervous system over to parasympathetic mode. In other words it calms the system down and revitalises the vital organs, glands, and brain. It has a very strong effect upon the circulation of the blood. This in turn greatly increases the body's ability to deliver many vital immune substances to all the tissues and cells and increases the rate that the body can take away the various waste products that accumulate there.
The common denominator in all eastern cults is the stress they place on the importance of breathing. Ancient tomes on yoga state that "Life is in the breath" and they also believe that the body absorbs life force (Qi or Prana) from the air. Western scientists have discovered that flares in the skin will glow more brightly when subjects breath in pure oxygen indeed this effect is more marked if ionised air is used. One explanation of this phenomena is that surplus electrons from oxygen may provide fuel for our energy field.
If the air we breathe does not contain abundant quantities of negative ions we rapidly feel tired and listless. During the space program extremely physically and mentally fit astronauts soon became exhausted after only a few hours in their space capsule. After many years research in to the problem they
finally discovered what was wrong. The space capsule, being wholly metal, is in effect a perfect faraday cage and so virtually contained no negative ions whatever. Once negative ion generators were filled to the space capsules the astronauts' symptoms disappeared entirely.
It is for reason that many modern factories and offices are equipped with negative ion generators. Air-conditioning, heating, and pollution will drastically deplete the airs natural supply off negative ions. The clean air in the country typically contains about three negative ions to each positive one. In a polluted Gity this ratio drops down to roughly one negative ion to 400 positive ions!
Deep breathing is a vital part of Qigong practise. There are many styles of Qugong as you might imagine after such a long period of time. There are martial and non-martial forms. The most famous martial form is known as (Taijiquan or Tai Chi% Taijiquan is what is known as an internal style as opposed to an external style like karate or Taikondo which rely on muscular force. Taijiquan relies on yielding to an opponents attack and channelling that force against them. The Taiji adept use the intrinsic energy known as (Qi or Chi) which they learn to generate within their own bodies to defeat an attacker. Because the martial concepts used in Taiji are much deeper and more profound than most other styles it is much longer and harder to learn. However the more practise you do the better you will become and your defensive ability will actually improve with age not weaken which tends to be the case with an external form.
Qi is a difficult word to translate because the Chinese have at least forty uses of the word however for our purposes you can think of it as a form of energy or life force. In China many believe that everything in the universe has an energy aura or field. This includes inanimate objects like rocks. Living creatures like animals, insects, and plants have a bigger energy field or life force than inanimate objects.
In Chinese medicine it is thought that good health depends on the Qi being balanced, able to flow and circulate smoothly and uninterruptedly throughout the body. If the flow is interrupted and stagnates for some reason then illness will be the result and if it stops entirely there will be death. Water is often used as a way of describing what they mean, when water stops moving it stagnates and smells.
The Chinese believe that the body has two circulatory systems. One that is known to western science is the blood circulation which is responsible for taking oxygen and nutrients to the cells in the body and carrying away waste products. The other system is the internal energy or Qi circulation which supplies the organs and cells of the body with vital energy.
The channels though which this life force flows are known as meridians. Despite what many western doctors believe these channels are not the same as our nerve networks or blood vessels. This is a fact that any Chinese doctor will vigorously confirm. There are twelve main pairs of Qi meridians in the body but I will not go in to all that now suffice to say you probably have the general idea.
The circulation of Qi keeps every part of the body alive. Qi is sensitive to or affected by weather, the time of year, the food you eat, and your thoughts or mental health.
The Chinese have being studying Qi for many thousands of years and it is their research that has enabled them to develop techniques like acupuncture and many other methods to strengthen and enhance the body and mind. The Chinese have tried to measure Qi using infrasound, low frequency amplitude-modulated infrared radiation, low- frequency magnetic information, particle flow information, visible or superfaint light, and organic ion flow, among others.
When Qi is used for healing purposes they have noticed that there is a marked wave motion and undulation which can produce physiological changes and medical benefits. Tests with have shown that infrared radiation from the palms and fingers of a non-practitioner of Qigong does not have the same wave motion and undulation. The level of infrared heat radiation created by a Qigong master might only measure about a few tenths of a microwatt. This still puzzles researchers because the heat given off by infrared heat radiators currently on the market are a few tenths of a kilowatt, which represents a huge difference in magnitude. The energy given off by a Qigong master, although very faint, has a much stronger healing power. Some experiments have shown that Qi will penetrate lead plates and contains gamma ray wave bands.
Scientists, with the aide of a extremely sensitive galvanometer, have been able to study and measure the electrical current at the various acupuncture points around the body. They discovered that these points gave unusually strong readings. By comparing the different readings of people in good health with those who were ill or very tired they discovered a difference of around six or seven micro-amperes. These figures are very significant when you consider the average healthy person would read about eight micro-amperes.
One of the most important aspects of Chinese Taoist philosophy is that of balance and harmony in all things. Tao is often translated as "the way" or "the path". The Chinese have long been avid students and observers of nature. It is always their wish to work in harmony with nature and not againstit. They believe that the universe consists essentially of two forces Yin and Yang. Examples of Yin and Yang are sometimes described as male and female, positive and negative, sweet and sour, hard and soft. In these examples Yin is soft and Yang is hard.
The first record of the terms Yin and Yang were made in "The Book of Change" about 1200 BC. The concept of Yin described as "a shady side of a hill" and Yang as "a sunny side of a hill". These are useful images because they not only show the polarity of the two conditions they also give us the idea of change. As the earth rotates the sun's shadow will move and what was cast in shadow will now be in the sun and what was in the sun will now be in shadow. What was Yin has become Yang and vice versa. The two states coexist in harmony with each other and are not in conflict. One cannot exist without the other they are relative to each other. For example you cannot have beauty unless there is ugliness to contrast it.
In the west out philosophy is more dualistic. We tend to think in terms of absolute opposites, black and white, right and wrong etc. The Chinese this approach too rigid and in flexible. Flexibility is the key to Taoist thought. In Chinese martial arts this cyclic idea of hard and soft, yield and attack is vitally important. This belief permeates all their sciences from medicine to cooking and is known as the Great Principal. You may have seen the ancient symbol, shown here below in Fig 1, reflecting Yin and Yang.
Fig 1.
Just as a good curative hypnotist will endeavour to find the root cause of a patient's distress, a Chinese doctor will try to establish the root cause of a persons illness. He will not just treat the external symptoms. He will try to find out why there is an imbalance in their intrinsic energies and then balance them. In this way a patient will recover and their symptoms will disappear.
If you have ever practises Qigong! Taiji you will already know that great care is taken to make sure that the exercises are balanced. You never just develop one side or part of the body but exercise it evenly.
Natural Energy Fields:Western science has established that the earth has its own geomagnetic field. Taoists have been aware that the earth has an electromagnetic field for probably six thousand years or more. They considered the sky to be the positive pole (yang) and the earth to have negative or (Yin) polarity. The resultant electromagnetic field that is generated is known as Qi. In Qigong training we as human beings are taught how to interact with this power. You learn how to harmonise the frequency of your own energy with that of the earth's.
From the western scientific point of view electric currents will generate magnetic fields around whatever is passing through, a wire for example. Dr Richard Broeringmeyer, who publishes Bio-Energy Health Newsletter, states "Life is not possible without electromagnetic fields, and optimum health is not possible if the electromagnetic fields are out of balance for long periods of time. Magnetic energy is natures energy in perfect balance." The Chinese have known that fluctuations in the electromagnetic field of the earth effect us by influencing our own energy field . Western science has only just started to grudgingly recognise this fact and describe this phenomena in terms of "biorhythms". Dr Bertram Brown of the US National Institute of Mental Health said:"From the moment of conception until death, rhythm is as much part of our structure as our bones and flesh. Most of us are dimly aware that we fluctuate in energy, mood, well-being, and performance each day, and that there are longer, more subtle behavioural alterations each week, each month, season, and year. Through studies of biological rhythms, many aspects of human variability in symptoms of illness, in response to medical treatment, In learning, and job performance are being illuminated. Already, some of our changes of moods and vulnerability to stress and illness, our peaks of strength and productivity, can be foreseen………………………
It is interesting to note that homing pigeons find their way by focusing on the earth's magnetic field. They have crystals of magnetite on the surface of their brain which is a magnetic mineral. This substance enables a pigeon to locate its destination be in the dark of in thick fog.
Apparently humans also have a quantity of magnetite behind the nasal passages just in front of the pituitary gland. This area has for centuries been highlighted by Taoist and Hindu adepts as the Upper Elixir Field or Celestial Eye. It is considered to be one of the most important centres of energy in the body and many Qigong exercises focus on enhancing this area.
One essential differences between eastern philosophy and western thought is that the Chinese don't separate the mind from the body, they strive to combine the mind body and spirit.
The development of this philosophy enabled the Chinese to develop the most sophisticated and effective medical approach known for thousands of years.
Western civilisation has comparatively recently developed its own medical knowledge and now boasts a vast array of impressive technological equipment. However the problem in the west is that we have concentrated on cure rather than prevention. We have tended to treat the symptoms rather than look at the root causes of an illness.
The Chinese approach has always been much more holistic. They treat the body as a whole rather than just concentrate on one small part of it. To many western minds this approach seems very unscientific or unproved however a lot of doctors in the west are no longer able to ignore this approach and are now taking the Chinese approach more seriously. Acupuncture has been used in the west for quiet a few years now, but other traditional Chinese treatments are being studied. Even in China a great deal of scientific research is being carried out to try and find a "scientific" reason to explain why Qigong is so effective.
In most hospitals in China you will find a Qigong master on the staff. It is common practise for doctors to use Qigong in conjunction with acupuncture for example. It is now a matter of record that a Qigong master, after years of training, can send his energy or Qi from his body to a patients. This might sound a bit far fetched to some of you but I would ask you to bear with me.
What the master does is send his energy into to patient along the same meridian channels used by the acupuncturist. Such is the success of this technique that the Chinese authorities are carrying out a great deal of research and trying to look much deeper into this process. This is far more subtle than simply sending a small electrical current into a patient current through acupuncture needles which has also been tried.
Taoist philosophy represents the longest period of scientific research into health and longevity on record. Taoists view the human entity as the universe in microcosm. They believe we are inexplicably connected with the powers and energies of the universe. This kind of thinking is creeping into the more esoteric areas of western scientific thought. Nuclear physicists studying quantum theory would find that their own theories about matter and the nature of the universe have uncanny similarities with those of the ancient Taoists.
In this day and age it is vital that we take a much greater responsibility for our own health and well being. We cannot necessarily rely on western medicine to keep us healthy. Every day there is one health scare after another. If it is not BSE it is something else.
Much more worrying is the emergence off so called superbugs. These are bugs which seem to be immune to all known antibiotics. Such bugs are particularly dangerous to people with low or damaged immune systems. In the west we are vulnerable because our medicine relies so heavily on antibiotics to fight infections. Doctors have often been criticised for dishing out prescriptions of antibiotics to all and sundry on demand. It is even feared that basic hygienic practises in hospitals are neglected because any infections caused can and are readily treated with antibiotics. Antibiotics are known to have a debilitating effect on our bodies natural immune system anyway!
It is indiscriminate use of these drugs which has caused the problem. There are already strains of tuberculosis which are resistant to any known antibiotic. These strains kill many people each year and it is feared that we may return to the grim old days of the 1920's when people had to be put into isolation hospitals until they recovered or died.
Farmers even use antibiotics on farm animals to promote unnatural growth. So serious is the problem that the House of Lords Select Committee on Health and Technology have recommended that the routine use of antibiotics on farms should be banned. So what can we do?
How to heal yourself by moving energy (Qi) around your body.
Mind is the leader of Qi (energy). Where the mind goes, Qi follows. When a certain part of the body is sick, use the mind to draw Qi to the affected area and it will correct the condition. Dr chang Rui, director of the imperial medical
institute Sung Dynasty AD 1127- 1279.
Anyone who has practised Qigong will have experienced the feeling of heat being generated within the body. Some mistakenly think that this heat is QL The feelings and sensations of heat are in actual fact an indication of Qi being present within the body or circulating within the body but not Qi itself It is rather like testing a wire to see if there is an electric current passing through it. Unless you use a volt meter, or detect heat coming from the wire, or observe some other phenomenon like the presence of a magnetic field, you will not know whether there is electricity present in the wire or not.
Heat and magnetism are manifestations of the flow of electric current but are not electric current in themselves. It is the same thing with Qi. You will be aware of its existence within your body by monitoring and being aware of your bodies reaction to it and the symptoms it produces like heat and feelings of tingling or pins and needles within your limbs.
Now if you have been regularly practising Self-Hypnosis you will no doubt have experienced some very pleasant sensations flowing through your body. These sensations are manifestations of Qi or life force.
In general it is possible to generate Qi in two ways. First is to generate it externally by stimulating different parts of the body through doing special physical exercises, massage, acupressure, and acupuncture.
The second way is by generate it internally. One method of doing this is by practising some breathing patterns or exercises. There are so many exercises to chose from it would easily take many courses to describe them all. However I think it is important to give you a broader picture of what is available. I will give you some simple exercises later on however I hope some of you may wish to explore these areas further on your own. The subject is really so vast and beyond the scope of this course.
The second way to generate energy is by using the mind while in meditation or, from our point of view, a trance state.
Once you have established a light trance state, either sitting or lying down, let you mind relax and experience the pleasant sensations going through your body. There may be different feelings each time you try this, it does not matter. If you experience waves and tingles of heat, or pins and needles don't try and interfere with them just feel were they want to flow to. These feelings often start in the extremities like the feet, hands in general or palms of the hand. This is just the bodies energy flowing through the meridians.
Moving Qi:In order to move Qi you must put your mental intention in front of it. In other words if you can sense Qi in your feet an calf area of your leg just gently let your mind go to the area around your knees and imagine you feel the sensation there. In a very short time you will feel the tingly feeling grow and move to this area.
If you have a particular problem, say a stiff neck or pain in the shoulder, after a little while you can start to learn how to direct this energy to the area in pain. However you should not move the Qi straight from your feet to the neck in one swoop. If you do this you will probably feel a great surge of energy which will rush up into the head. A bit like a sudden rush of blood to the brain. This can cause discomfort and even lead to a mild head ache. It won't do you any harm though. It is better to learn to move Qi around the body in small stages.
So if you wanted to move Qi from the feet to the neck it would be best to start by letting it rise to the knees then move it gently up into to the hips/stomach and gradually through your chest into the affected area.
Once you have collected the energy in the right area just let it rest there. You can now imagine your body healing itself and rebuilding damaged cells or sore muscles. After a while let the Qi move and go where it wants to naturally. If you are perfectly healthy the Qi will move wherever it is needed. Your mind and body knows what is best. However a little experimenting now and again is good fun. Next month I will give a some other ideas on meditation and moving Qi but this will do for now.
Please note that by imagining that you are healing yourself you are not ignoring pain which is natures warning signal that something is wrong. Simply killing the pain is only desirable once you know what the problem is and once the healing process has started.
lf you have a particular medical problem and your doctor has diagnosed what the problem is you can use the above technique to speed up your recovery.
IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE A SERIOUS MEDICAL CONDITION PLEASE SEEK PROFESSIONAL ADVICE. THE TECHNIQUESMENTIONED HERE ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPLACE ACOMPETENT MEDICAL DIAGNOSlS BUT RATHER TO COMPLIMENT IT!
If you have a diagnosed condition and are using pain killers then using Self-Hypnosis to dull the pain, it is probably a good idea. We do have a special Hypnotic tape which you can buy from us if you think you might need some extra help. (Price £9.95 include p&p).
The tape included with this release is primarily concerned with selfhealing. You can use the above technique in addition to the tape The tape does use some other ideas as well which might be useful.
What follows are some basic breathing Qigong exercises as promised. It is impossible to explain the subtlety of these techniques by simply writing them down, however they serve as a small introduction to this ancient and wonderful art. I would say even following a video would only convey a fraction of their true power so consider this a way of wetting your appetite. I have absolutely nothing to gain whether or not you decide to take Taijiquan /Qigong lessons. The point is you have a great deal to gain. It is not necessarily expensive either some adult education departments offer classes which are subsidised 1
This first set of exercises are ideally to be performed a few minutes before you start your trance session. The benefits of Qigong exercises are essentially those of providing balance and harmony. These exercises are always to be performed in slow motion. Some beginners find this very strange and can't see why you we don't just speed them up and rush through them. This is because in our modern existence speed and a hectic pace of life has become the norm. This is why most peoples' central nervous systems are in a constant state of hypertension. This undermines the bodies natural energy reserves which then undermines their health and shortens their lives.
By performing soft, slow, movements while doing deep diaphragmatic breathing you switch the autonomous nervous system over to the parasympathetic mode from the stressed sympathetic mode .By doing this your body can rejuvenate itself, and harmonise all the vital functions, and produce vital essence like hormones and neurochemicals. Diaphragmatic breathing means that you draw the air deep down into our abdomen. This means that your lungs fill with air from the bottom upwards in this way you use all of your lung's capacity. Most people are shallow breathers and only use about 40%. If you study how young babies breath and copy them you will not go far wrong. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart with your hands by your side. Make sure you tuck your bottom in so that your spine is as straight as it can be. It is important that when you do these movements you don't sway out of line but let gravity simply pass through you into the floor. See fig 2(A). The idea is to support your body's frame without using too much effort. Try to relax all the muscles in your legs and don't lock the knees. Don't make yourself stiff. You probably will not get this right over night, it will take a bit of time.
Now breath in deeply and slowly, as you do bring your arms up in front of you as shown in Fig 2 (B), (C). Hold the air in your lungs for about three or four seconds, but don't force it, and lower your arms. As you lower your arms, see Fig 2 (D), breath out slowly and empty your lungs. Now repeat this process for about five minutes or so.
An important point to note. When you bring your arms up they should feel very heavy like lead weights and have as little tension in them as possible. As you lift them up keep your shoulders low, don't raise them. Feel yourself getting support from your feet which are rooted to the ground. Let the movement of your arms co-ordinate with your breaths and just let your mind relax.
After a while you should feel your mind calming down. Try to let the breathing flow naturally, don't force it. Also make your movements slow and graceful and not jerky or sudden.
The next breathing technique can be performed after a session of selfhypnosis or meditation. As before stand with your feet a shoulder width apart with your hands by your side. Place the right hand gently over the back of your left hand at about waist level. Now raise your hands up in front of your chest and then above your head and stretch. During this stage you will be inhaling. Now separate your hands and bring your arms down either side of you, while exhaling. You can repeat this circular breathing motion for about four minutes.
Just in case you didn't know it already I hope you appreciate that Chinese medicine is a very complex area and it takes many years to grasp all the complexities that are involved. Some ignorant people consider Chinese Physicians to be nothing more than quacks, however they probably don't know that it takes around fourteen years to train a traditional Chinese Doctor compared to around five or seven in the west.
When western medicine was only just beginning to raise itself a little above basic superstition and leaches Chinese medicine had already enjoyed a successful track record for at least four thousand years. Various physicians down the ages had refined and catalogued various recipes and cures for a wide range of disorders using various herbs, mineral and animal extracts. By the time western medicine had diagnosed illnesses like beriberi and goitre the Chinese had already found a cure hundreds of years earlier. In fact the west were starting to borrow or steal many cures from China. Quinine as a cure for malaria was taken from southern China by a Jesuit Priest who then passed it off as his own discovery. Similarly the technique of taking vaccines from cow's blood was first perfected in China and also brought back to Europe by Missionaries.
I know of many people who have turned to Chinese medicine to cure their ills because western medicine cannot help them. This does not mean that western medicine is in some way inferior. In many of the cases that I have personally heard of those people could have avoided their conditions by taking simple preventive means!
Because Chinese medicine is a part of a whole way of life it is but one segment of the whole. Yes it is holistic in nature, in that it treats the whole body, not just a small area that appears to be affected, but it works best when other aspects of life are also taken into consideration. The emphasis is on prevention rather than cure.
Until this century rich Chinese households employed a physician to regularly visit the family in order to monitor the health of the whole family. It would be his job to give advice on their diet, personal habits, and generally regulate their life style to ensure they remained in good health. Should anyone fall sick, the family would suspend his salary until he had restored them to full health, at the physician's expense.
In Taoist philosophy if you live following the certain irrefutable and immutable laws by living in harmony with, instead of against nature, you will not get sick. This is because the bodies natural defences will repel any invasion from attack. If an individual takes care to maintain his or her level of health and immunity then it follows that they should not be vulnerable to disease.
"Health is easier to maintain than it is to acquire."
Doctor Russ Jaffe
The Doctor who made the above statement is a specialist in the treatment of AIDS. It is his assertion that healthy people should not contract the Disease.
You have already taken a huge step in improving your own bodies well being if you did but know it. By having one or two Self-Hypnosis sessions each day you are giving your mind and body a badly needed rest where your heart beat can slow to a murmur. Your blood pressure can reduce and your brain can have a break from all the cacophony which is now modern daily life.
If you went back a few hundred years what do suppose would be the loudest sound we would ever hear? Until gun powder was invented it probably would have been a thunder storm or a large water fall. Think about what most of us have to put up with every day.
Without being consciously aware of it our minds are bombarded by a constant stream of stimuli every minute of the day from when we wake up to when we go to bed. There is electromagnetic and noise pollution, not to mention all the other types of pollution, from radios, television, telephones, mobile phones, faxes, motor traffic, computers the list goes on and on. This is not natural.
This is why people today feel so stressed. This is why it is so important that you have a few precious moments each day when you can calm your system down and let it just be. We all need a time when we can forget about all our troubles and simply exist.
I can personally recommend the techniques described in this release and some others I will tell you about later on. I cannot remember the last time I HAD to go visit a doctor although, because I move around a lot, I sometimes have to register with a doctor and have a compulsory check-up. It amuses me to see the look on their faces when they take my pulse and blood pressure. It is always way below what they would normally expect. I not saying I am perfect I still get the odd sniffle, but very rarely, and they never last long.
I have never known my Taijiquan teacher miss a night because of ill health. The Grand Master of our particular form of Tai Chi, and his wife, are both in their hundreds. They both teach and train every day. There is a Qigong teacher I know who returns to China every year for a month to retrain with his master. His master is a lady who is at least 105 and also teaches, and practises, Qigong every day. What is more I heard she was considering a visit to Europe to give demonstrations! I know that I can feel very tried before a Taijiquan session but after two hours of training I feel greatly invigorated. It works! What I have tried to do here is show you that our state of health is largely in our own hands, or more accurately in our own minds. Some people are very sceptical about alternative methods of health care and have negative gut reaction to them. It is for this reason I have used Chinese cultural and medical examples in this release because their theories are firmly based on research and observation over many thousands of years. I wanted to show you a different way of looking at yourself and your body. You can use Self-Hypnosis to improve your health. Each of us does have a life force, or Qi, within us which can be strengthened and used to keep us healthy. There is a lot more on this subject that I must tell you about, however for now this will have to do.
The Next release will tell you how you can prolong your life and look and feel years younger.
How To Tap The Incredible
Secret Powers Of Your Own Mind!
Part Six
The author and publisher of this material are NOT RESPONSIBLE in any manner for any injuries which may occur through reading or following the instructions in this material. Any reader who experiences discomfort from carrying out any of the exercises in this material should seek medical advice. © A.C. Mail Order 1999 - 2000. All Rights Reserved. Neither the whole nor any part of this document may be reproduced, stored in any data retrieval system or transmitted in any form whatever by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise. Any breach will be enforced at law.
"We are more than the sum of our parts."
This months release is closely connected to last months. Obviously to live a long life it makes sense that you probably have to be at least aware of your state of health and how you feel. Having said that we have all heard stories of people who drink a bottle of whisky and smoke sixty cigarettes a day living to eighty. This is unusual but not unexplainable. I would suggest that these people have an unusually strong and resilient constitution and might have lived a good deal longer if they have followed a different or more moderate path.
As you might expect I will use some ideas from Taoist practise and philosophy since they are tried and tested. But perhaps we should consider the following question:-
Why try and live to a great age?
I think most people would agree that living to a great age in itself should not be our prime objective but rather achieving the best quality of life for as long as possible. Nobody wants to end up vegetating in a nursing home suffering from Parkinson disease or some other ghastly illness. Who wants to end up like Tithonus In the Greek Myth who gained the gift, or curse, of immortality without the gift of eternal youth. I personally feel it is futile to prolong life just because high tech intervention makes it possible.
"Why seek to add more, just to lose it again, wretchedly without joy?" Lucretius.
When I mentioned that some Qigong masters can live into their 100's I also mentioned that they lived active and useful lives. They still enjoyed life. This is quite different from many people who live into their 100's unable to move about, speak, or think coherently.
The great mystics from India, who practise yoga, and the Taoist masters in china all exude great life and vitality/energy you would normally expect from someone half their chronological age. These people are not trying to cling to life or even fear death. On the contrary they welcome death when it eventually comes because it represents their next stage in life. For them life never ends there is no death and so no fear. (It is unimportant whether you believe this or
not I am not pushing any philosophical argument or religious belief here).
The aim of the mystic as he sees it is to develop himself spiritually as far as possible in this life and attain enlightenment. Once they have achieved this they believe it is their time to move on.
Now for us lesser mortals I would assume we mainly want to enrich the quality of our lives and live a long and active existence.
Do you remember that I said that modern science's view of our universe has very strong similarities with the concepts that Taosts, and nearly all other mystics from the east, have held for over a thousand years. Well I need to develop this a little if you are to get anything from this months release.
In the early thirties Modern physics went through a disturbing development. Three physicists Albert Einstein, Boris Podoisky, and Nathan Rosen carried out an experiment the conclusion of which became known as the "Einstien-Podolsky-Rosen paradox" or EPR. The experiment was a "thought experiment" in other words it was carried out on paper since there was no money, time, or equipment, to carry out the experiment any other way. (They did not have access to particle accelerators).
They had decided to take this step because they had come up against problems in their research which could not be solved using existing conventional methods.
EPR has been described as "The Pandora's box of Modern Physics" and it would not be an exaggeration to say that it turned the scientific world upside down. There is no doubt that you need to do some serious mental readjustment to begin to grasp the implications but in essence their concept is really quite a simple idea.
I don't want to go too deeply into all the amazing aspects of this research in this release. I will have to come back to this subject at a later date but I have to tell you little about it because it has a great deal to do with all of us and the question of ageing and longevity.
I also wanted to mention the names of Einstein, Podoisky, and Rosen to show that what I am about to say is not the work of some crank of lunatic but is partly based on the theories of some of this centuries greatest scientific
minds. I don't want you to dismiss what you are about read out of hand. Some of you may well find the contents of this release shocking, and unbelievable. I apologise in advance for this but it cannot be avoided. As always I would ask you to please keep an open mind.
The problem with most people is that they have come to regard their world as a concrete reality. As I write this I am seated on a solid wooden chair which supports my weight. It looks solid and I believe it to be solid because when I touch it, it feels solid. However any physicist could explain to me that the form of the chair in actual fad is made up of space and is far from solid.
The chair consists of millions upon millions of atoms. Each atom consist of a nucleus containing smaller particles called protons and neutrons. Surrounding the nucleus at some distance revolve electrons. In fact through the study of quantum physics we know that 99.9999 of every atom is in effect empty space. You see if we believed our senses we would still think the earth was flat and the ground you stand on does not move. Albert Einstein deduced that time and space are the results of what our five senses observed. In the quantum world there are no definite qualities, lines or boundaries.
The extent of our senses are in actual fact very limited. We can only sense detect a tiny fraction of what is out there. Our view of the world is entirely based on only a tiny fraction of the data that our limited sensory allows us to observe. There are many creatures on this planet which perceive the world very differently. Our hearing is extremely poor compared to a dogs whose sense of smell is also a million times more sensitive. Bats use ultra sound to navigate their way around and snakes can see by using infrared.
It had long been known that nothing really has any solidity but is in effect made up of tiny amounts or bundles of energy. Before the EPR paradox most physicist thought the quantum theory propounded that the universe consisted of a mass of separate parts and energies independent of one another. The view that modern science is slowly moving towards is that the universe is in effect fundamentally linked in some way.
To the mystic this idea is nothing new but has been their fundamental thought for centuries. To the mystic the binding link is an all pervading "cosmic intelligence".
"The universe looks less and less like a great machine and more and more like a great thought!"
Each and everyone of us and everything else in the universe is made up of atoms of matter which have been in existence since the dawn of time. Whether we like it or not we are all part of the Quantum universe which is in a constant flux of change and transformation. It is estimated that there are six trillion reactions taking place in each of our cells every second! The condition and state of the cells in a person's body are unique to that person. Their condition is dependant upon the unique experiences that a person has had throughout their life and how those experiences have been allowed to effect the metabolism of their bodies.
Our bodies are under constant attack every single day from pollution, radiation, ultraviolet light, among many other things. If a cell from your body was removed and placed on a glass slide and left outside for just a few moments it would die.
On the cosmic scale of things there are great forces at work which are ever ready to destroy life. So why does life exist at all?
Entropy:Described as "formal lack of organisation" in my dictionary is in reality the nature of things to move from order to disorder. In other words to breakdown. The existence of entropy has been with us since the dawn of time ever since the "big bang" and the beginnings of our universe. It has been described as a one way track and the process cannot be reversed at least not without intervention.
Negative Entropy:Whenever energy collects with matter and forms orderly systems then the tendency of entropy is temporarily defied. In physics this is what is known as "Negative Entropy". Sometimes these fields of negative entropy last for a very long time, for example galaxies, stars, and planets but eventually they all dissipate. The whole universe is heading in this direction although the final "death" will not be for billions of years.
It is entropy which causes our bodies to age. It is the slow but ever present tendency for order to breakdown into chaos which causes our bodies to deteriorate over time. If you want to stop or slow down this process you have to learn how to stop or slow down entropy.
The mystery of life with its extraordinary complexity is a counter force to entropy. The evolution of life would not be possible without a fundamental intelligence guiding it along. The cosmos has been described as a living entity which is constantly evolving from its early primitive into more and more complex states.
If we could preserve the perfect balance and condition of our bodies as they were when we were first born it is estimated that we could live to two hundred years or more. Although all the substances, chemicals, and elements which go into making a new born baby have been in existence for billions of years they are not new in themselves. However some creative order or power has dictated the shape and form these substances will take, in this case a baby.
The extraordinary thing about the human body is its ability to repair itself against to ravages of entropy. As I have already said our bodies are under constant attack and yet our human DNA contains all the information needed to allow our bodies to renew itself The great mystery is that this process is ninety nine percent efficient. What baffles scientists is what happened to the remaining one percent? To learn the answer to this one we would need to know the secret of life.
After the age of thirty our bodies undergo this slow and almost imperceptible change as our cells repair themselves slightly less efficiently than before. Eventually each cell suffers more damage and ageing occurs. If this were not the case and our cells repaired themselves perfectly all the time we would never age.
Some people have put forward the theory that growing old and death is a product of conditioning rather than the concrete reality most of us assume.
Most of us think that we have a life span of between seventy and maybe ninety years of life but what is a "natural" life span? Over recent years the average life span of people in the western world has risen as better medical techniques have been developed. So it could be argued that people live longer these days because we can keep the ravages of disease and chronic sickness at bay. The World Health Organisation has estimated that people live world-wide to an average of 68 and that this figure will increase to 73 during the early part of the next century.
By the first quarter of the next century people In Britain, for example, can expect to live to 80. In the USA it is expected that life spans of 95 or 100 will be the norm by 2050. Some western scientists predict 140 is achievable.
In the ancient Taoist annals are listed many gifted adepts of the "way" who lived to great ages by carefully nurturing and protecting their vital energies. During the Han Dynasty we learn of a Leng Shou-kang who lived to over 150 and improbable as it sounds there was another named Wu Tzu-tu is reported to have lived to the age of 205. John Blofeld in his book "The Road to Immortality" quotes an article published in 1939 in one of China's main newspapers of the time about a man from Szechuan province.
Born in 1796 having retired as a secretary to the military authorities on the Yangtse River Region he travelled to Tibet in search of rare medicinal plants and herbs. Having gone for so long nobody expected to see him again and thought him dead. However in 1931 he reappeared and many aged people recognised him as somebody they used to know when very young. It was said that despite his great age he did not look any older than 50 and had hardly changed at all!
When I was very young I remember asking my father why a certain relative, who's picture was being shown to me, was not still around today. I was told that he had died. I was intrigued at this and asked how had he died and I was told he had died of "old age". I was not totally satisfied with this but it was a kind of answer. Death and dying are intriguing concepts for the young mind. Most people die from a failure of one or more of the body's mechanisms. It could be the heart, kidneys, whatever. Dying from "old age", which was described by professor Raymond Tallis of Hope Hospital Salford as "the gradual but harmonious failure of all organs", is not that common.
Is Ageing Inevitable?
What is ageing? Some would say that our perception of ourselves and the world around us are personal and unique to each individual. One person's view of themselves and their world around them could be utterly different to another. Two people could be standing in a beautiful garden on a perfect sunny day but have totally different view of the experience. One might feel bored and fed up staring into space while the other could be transfixed and overawed by natures beauty.
The assumption that we all have to grow old, decay, and die within an allotted time span ignores the fact that we are more than just biochemical mechanisms. We are not machines that wear out, breakdown, and are then put on the scrap heap, although this is the firmly held view of most people. You might wonder why I should make such a statement since it flies in the face of everything we have ever learnt or have been told about the so called "real world" or "material world".
There are three ways to judge the age of someone. The first and most obvious is to ask them when they were born and calculate how many years old they are. This is know as "Chronological age".
The next way is to give people a battery of tests to see how they respond. Typical tests include stamina, hearing, co-ordination, blood pressure, levels of cholesterol, and many more besides. This gives an indication of someone's "Biological age" We have all met people who look very young for their age. Some Qigong masters fall into this category. What has happened is their chronological age differs from their biological age.
Lastly but certainly not least is a persons "Psychological age". This is how old you feel inside. I know people who appear to act as though they were fifteen years older. This is very common if someone has been brought up with elderly parents particularly if they were an only child.
Chronological age is fixed and so cannot be altered, however it is the most misleading yard stick of all because it is largely irrelevant to the subject of ageing. Unless you just want to be able to collect your pension! It does not reflect how old you truly are. After all everyone is unique and we all age in our own way.
I know people in their fifties who appear more alert who are fitter than others in their twenties. An athlete in his forties who continues to work out will have developed the same or better muscle tone as someone in their twenties. This where Biological age come in. The trouble with biological age is that because we all age in such a unique way it is difficult to get an accurate picture of what is involved. The athlete in his forties might have the strength and stamina of someone in their twenties but his hearing or eyesight might have deteriorated because of the unique factors effecting him in his life.
Scientists are constantly trying to invent new ways of measuring peoples age but at the end of the day it is very subjective.
What we do know about Biological age is that it is possible to change it. In other words you can reverse your biological age. Many "elderly" who have been put on regimes of healthier diets and regular exercise have managed to reduce the harmful effects of obesity, high blood pressure, and low muscle mass, etc. These are some of the factors which make up a persons Biological age and on average these people can expect to extend their life by about ten years.
Hereditary factors have surprisingly little effect on a persons life expectancy, only somewhere between 2%-3%.
By far the most important factor in influencing a persons age is their Psychological age. How old and how you feel. This is not only the most important influence but it is the most flexible. One of the characteristics of "old age" is stiffness in the body but also a stiffness or rigidity in the mind:-
"When he is born, man is soft and weak" "In death, he becomes stiff and hard" Lao Tze.
In America in the 1950' s a study was made to see if they could find out what personal characteristics centenarians had in common which could explain their ability to reach such a great age. Listed below are some of the things that were considered important factors: 1. An ability to react to change in their life with a positive adaptability. A sense of being free from anxiety. Being able to create. An ability to react positively to new things in their life. A zest for life, a desire to live.
2. 3. 4. 5.
Out of all of this research the single most important factor was how they reacted to stress. It was how they managed to cope psychologically with the stresses in life. Everyone suffers from stress from time to time, whether it be from a bereavement, shock, whatever. However it is the ability to release this stress from our system so that it is not allowed to eat away at us that really counts.
Human beings are capable of altering our physical state, as we have seen in the last release, by the kind of things we think of or situations we react to. Out mental attitude effects our bodies on the smallest level imaginable. Every cell in our body is affected by our thoughts. When we get seriously depressed the effectiveness of our immune system is impaired. When we feel great joy and happiness our immune system is greatly boosted. It is because of this fact, that the mind has such a strong influence on our body that the rate at which we age can be speeded up or slowed down.
There that's shocked some of you. Incidentally this is not a particularly new discovery as you would expect it has been known about in the east for ages. There has been tons of research in the west which confirms this fact.
As soon as you take a bite out of an apple your mouth will start to secret enzymes which start the digestive process. Perhaps there is nothing mysterious about this however if you were to imagine or simply thought about eating an apple your mind would trigger the exact same response even though there is no food present.
This simple example shows you that it is the thought that is important and not the physical reality of food being present or not. Your thoughts are not things however your thoughts turn them into things.
You read last month about the placebo effect in producing K cells (Killer Cells) in fighting cancer. Similar effects have been achieved by giving patients a sugar pill but telling them that it is in fact a powerful pain killer. Between 30% and 40% will experience pain relief when all they have in fact taken is just a sugar pill. This kind of experiment has been tried with patients suffering from all sorts of aliments with a similar degree of success. Even people suffering with advanced stages of cancer have been known to have significant remissions after receiving injections of a salt solution but being told that it is a new strong anti cancer drug.
If a simple sugar pill, i.e. placebo, can produce such a wide range of effects within the body it is logical to assume that the mind and body can produce virtually any biochemical reaction it wants. It only needs the right suggestion to be made and accepted by the subconscious.
So why not give yourself positive affirmations while under self hypnosis that you feel young and full of vitality? You know enough about self hypnosis to be able write out a suitable script. When you done this take a key word and chant it to yourself while in a trance state.
Why is it then that we appear to "grow" old? What is it that makes this happen? This is question which has puzzled most people over many years.
In the animal kingdom many species sole reason for existence would seem to be the recreation of the species. A dragon fly only lives one day and having mated dies. Mice are capable of producing around two hundred offspring and only live for an average of about two years. Their natural life spans are short but are highly energetic. It would be pointless for a mouse to live for two hundred years because their would not be the resources to support them at this rate. In most case in nature the relative life span of a creature is dependant upon resources and their chances for survival due to predators.
Sadly for the mouse there is a very good chance of being eaten. Because of this nature has arranged things so that there should be a good numerical chance that at least some of a couples off-spring will surviving to carry on the dynastic fine.
We differ from animals in an important way, we can reason. We are conscious of what is happening to us. For some researchers this is thought to be the secret to longevity!
Humans on the other hand are not destined to die as soon as they have had a family. In most cases we live on many years later. It seems that there is not the same imperative that we should cease to have any useful function after fulfilling the primary role of reproduction. Men can remain sexually active for many years but women have a relatively short child bearing range however statistics show that women seem to live longer than men. So why should we age at all?
As a new born baby our bodies are free of all the toxic products which affect us as we get older.
Our bodies are undergoing constant change all the time. Outwardly we do not appear to alter at all, however about 98% of our bodies mass will have been changed in any one year. You are undergoing this process of change every second of the day or night. Your whole system is in a constant flux.
After the age of thirty this process of renewal becomes slightly less precise. Imperceptibly at first, at a rate of about 1% per annum, the "average" person starts to become less new than before. This seemingly tiny percentage over time has a disastrous effect and reaps havoc on our bodies over time.
What some people now thinking is it possible to influence this rate of change in some way. By becoming aware can we alter our so called reality?
In western society we state that someone has finished their useful working life at sixty five or sixty. Some people miss the routine of going to work and feel depressed in retirement. They get under the feet of their wives and perhaps made to feel useless. Because of this mental state these can age rapidly and become sick. In societies where elders are respected and continue to enjoy an active life the appearance of old age is less marked.
Conditioning The Mind:Do you remember what I said about your use of language:Never EVER say anything to anybody about yourself unless you want it to become true.
Don't say "Oh I feel so old" when you just mean you feel tired. They are not the same things at all. All the first statement does is to enforce a negative image which is not true any way.
Back in the bad old days of the cold war in the 1970's the soviet regime were anxious to score propaganda point against the west. One of their schemes involved claiming that some of their people lived to incredible ages compared with anyone in the west.
One character in particular was singled out for by the soviets for special mention was Khfaf Lazuria, a woman from Abkhasia. It was claimed that she was 140. Visitors found her to be a small frail woman but very agile with a lively sense of humour. She did not need glasses because her eye sight was good enough to allow her to thread a needle without them.
Unfortunately what the western visitors did not realise was that it is the custom in Abkhasia to exaggerate somewhat and even to tell outright lies to strangers. It was extremely unlikely that anyone in Abkhasia lived to 120 much less 140. The problem was that since the purges under Stalin nearly all the birth and death records had been destroyed. So even the soviet government had no way of telling how old the people were. Most of the population were illiterate and did not know when their birthdays were. But the interesting thing was that as a people they didn't much care about keeping track of time. The situation became even more confusing because some people used the Christian calendar and others the Moslem one (which uses a ten month year).
You may wonder why I am telling you all this. Well there is a point to be made here. The Abkhasians living to a great age is considered a great achievement and virtue. Old people are treated with great respect in their community. Although the claims of people living to 140, 150, could not be verified the soviets did find records of significant numbers of people reaching
ages of 115 and beyond. The important point to note here is that Abkhasians were conditioned to and expected to live to great ages.
Their life style was very much one closely connected to their land and they were very much in touch with the rhythms of nature. They worked in the fields breathed fresh clean air and ate good wholesome food.
Most of the food they ate were vegetables. They also consumed a fair amount of dairy produce. However to my mind one of the most significant things was the importance they placed on the freshness of their food. Vegetables were picked only just before they were cooked. On special occasions when they might eat meat the animal would be slaughtered shortly before the feast. In this way the precious enzymes and nutrients would not be lost in the preparation. In fact most food would be eaten raw but if they did cook they tended to boil it. Nothing appeared to be fried. They are one of the few cultures in the world were they were very aware of the harmful effects of fat in the diet.
This strong attention to diet and their tendency to live very active physical lives obviously had a great influence on their longevity. But I would say it was their mental approach and positive expectation of achieving a long and useful life that played a very crucial role.
In the west old age is considered a curse. Our old people are shut away in nursing homes. To most western minds old age is feared. The west has developed a "youth culture". Youth is respected and venerated. Some companies routinely sack and get rid of their work force when they reach forty. This not only short-sighted but it is stupid and reckless. Some firms consider people past it at thirty!
I believe this is one area where we should re-think our attitude.
The Abkhasians are not an isolated example of a people or culture who attach such importance to exercise, wholesome fresh food, and a zest for life.
Anyone who has studied Yoga or Taoism will know that such things are given great importance.
The Three Treasures:Protecting The Three Treasures:In Taoist philosophy we are all brought into this world empowered with the three treasures. Those who waste and abuse them will suffer sickness, disease and a short life. Those who learn how to enhance and nurture them will enjoy good health and a long life.
The three treasures are as follows:1. 2. 3. ESSENCE. (Jing) ENERGY. (Qi) SPIRIT. (Shen)
Essence relates to our physical bodies, the blood, tissue, particularly our vital fluids like enzymes, hormones, etc. Energy was touched upon in last months release and relates to our life force which permeates every single part of our body and allows us to function. Spirit deals with our thoughts and awareness.
In Taoist philosophy these three treasures should work together in harmony. When we are born we possess a quantity of prenatal energy or "primordial energy" or yuan-qi. This is stored in the adrenal cortex and sexual glands and is of limited supply. We also absorb a form of prenatal energy from the sky and cosmos beyond. We do this mainly through a point called (bahue) on the top of the head and via our skin and eyes.
Once we are born we get postnatal energy known as "dee" which relates to our diet. What food, herbs, other supplements we eat and the water we drink. The body transforms these substances into energy which enables our bodies to function.
When we breathe we absorb energy from the air. This energy can be cultivated to amazing levels by the practise of Qigong as you learned in last months release. When these three energies combine and function together it produces what is known as "True Human Energy" It is the control and enhancement of the energy that forms the guiding principal of Qigong training.
Taoist philosophy is a big subject and goes far beyond the scope of this course however if you are interested there is a very informative and entertaining book that I recommend you read. It is called "The Tao of Health Sex And Longevity" by Daniel Reid . It is described as a modern practical approach to the ancient way and is published by Simon & Schuster.
It really is a great book and you will be fascinated by what you learn from it, not least the section dealing with the ancient sexual techniques!
There is a large section dealing with the subject of diet with some useful information on what foods are effective in curing certain aliments. It explains why eating some foods makes you feel sluggish while eating others makes you feel energised. As with verything else in Taoist philosophy when dealing with your diet they look for a balance of Ying and Yang. They are also very careful about the combination of different foods and their effect on the digestive system:-
Food and drink are relied upon to nurture life. But if one does not know that the natures of substances may be opposed to each other and one consumes them altogether indiscriminately, the vital organs will be thrown out of harmony and disastrous consequences will soon arise. Therefore , those who wish to nurture their lives must carefully avoid doing such damage to themselves.
Chia Ming. ( Essential Knowledge for Eating and Drinking) AD 1368.
Originally our digestive systems were evolved to deal with foods like fruit and vegetables. In time our bodies developed the capacity to digest meat when this became a part of our diet some 75000 years ago. However most dieticians these days warn us not to eat too much red meat like beef, or pork and instead urge us to east poultry or fish.
Taoists have long considered domesticated animals as a poor source of meat. This is due to the fact that such creatures traditionally fed on a diet of left-overs and slops from the kitchen. Today there is also the question of antibiotics and other artificial additives which our animals are routinely fed.
Far better for you is wild game particularly wild venison which is readily available these days. The reason why such meat is better for you is because of what the deer eats, wild nuts, leaves, etc., is natural and full of goodness.
However even this meat won't do you much good if you over cook it. It should be only lightly cooked so as not to destroy all the nutrients, enzymes and vitamins.
Studies show that the incidence of heart disease, strokes, diabetes, in America soared during this century compared with the last century. Then Americans did not eat as much fat and processed food hardly existed. They ate much more fibre and a much greater proportion of vegetables. Consequently chronic disease was lower. Certainly in some primitive cultures where their diet is more natural and consists largely of a vegetarian diet these diseases are almost unknown.
Attention to diet on its own is not the main feature in the character of centenarians but a bad diet is certainly connected to disease and premature ageing.
So it is not a bad idea to give your diet a little thought!
There is a bewildering amount of advice around these days about diets and what you should and should not eat. I am certainly not going to add to this advice because it has already been worked out by much better and more experienced people than I. It is a very large subject and to really understand the basics of what is involved you should read Daniel Reid's book I mentioned earlier. What 1 will do is list some of the basic pointers:
1. Try to eat organic produce if possible. Try to avoid food which has been contaminated with pesticides and other unnatural contaminants. 2. You should eat wholesome food as fresh as you can possibly get it. In this way you eat, and absorb, all the precious nutrients before they get destroyed. 3. Try to eat food as close to its raw state as possible for similar reasons given above. If you can don't ruin the nutritional value of some meat or fish, by over cooking it. 4. Try to eat a greater proportion of vegetables and or salads and cut down on the amount of red meat and pork in your diet
There are a hundred more things I could say but the above points give you the general idea.
I have not mentioned the subject of exercise this is because most people are aware of its importance to your health. Again there are many studies and lots of information which show that regular exercise is very effective in reducing the rate at which our bodies biologically age. It increases muscle mass, strengthens the bones, is good for the heart, blood circulation and blood pressure.
One important point I will make is that you should be careful you don't over do it. Too much physical activity can wear out the body just as easily as it can rejuvenate it. Running marathons at the age of eighty may be a good thing but not if you only started running at the age of seventy five. You have to be sensible.
This is why I am such a fan of (Taijjiquan or Tal Chi). You learn to be aware of your body and how nature intended you to move your body around naturally. Armed with this knowledge other more strenuous physical activity is much more effective and less damaging to the joints etc. However yoga is good, so too is the western technique called "Alexander Technique". Your local library will have books on this subject and can probably put you in touch with a teacher.
Stress Enemy Number One!
Without doubt the most important factor affecting our state of health and so in turn our chance to live to a great age is our ability to deal with stress!
This is why this months' cassette tape deals with how to deal with stress. It is well known that chronic stress is the main cause for immune deficiency in our world today. Unfortunately there is a tendency to treat stress with drugs that appear to give temporary relief but which in fact cause more damage psychologically in the long run.
It is not an exaggeration to say that around 80% or more cancers owe their origins to one kind of stress, mental strain, or similar cause. Scientists have discovered that mental pressures of this kind cause the body to produce neuropeptides which are chemicals which have a powerful suppressive effect on our immune system. They have found a direct pathway from the brain which proves without doubt that these chemicals can stop immune cells in their tracks. Once this happens bacteria, harmful microbes, and cancer cells are able to enter the body!
Meditation and Why You Should Practise It:Meditation and Your Biological Age:Meditation/ Self Hypnosis is with out doubt one of the best ways to reduce the negative effects of stress on the system. The problem with stress is that the body reacts to it extremely quickly so it is hard to counter it consciously before some of the harmful chemicals have been produced in the brain.
Studies have shown that the levels of adrenaline and other substances associated with a stress triggered response are markedly lower in people who habitually practise meditation. Incredibly western medicine did not even suspect that this was the case until around the early 1970's!
Even ignoring the spiritual side of mediation I self hypnosis for the moment the benefits to your health become obvious to anyone who has practised it even for a comparatively short time. Transcendental Meditation was specially singled out for use in the west because it is an amazingly simple technique and very effective. It was thought for reason to be better suited to western minds compared to the more advanced and esoteric methods used in the east.
When some researchers taught transcendental meditation to a group of octogenarians in the Boston area of the USA they discovered that ALL of those who practised TM each day for twenty minutes were still alive three years later! Of the others who did not practise meditation thirty eight percent (38%) had died.
Some air forces train their pilots to use TM because they find it increases their efficiency and concentration.
The object of meditation is to quieten the mind and clear it of all thoughts so that you can simply exist and get close to the real you or the creative intelligence within us all. Their are different schools and techniques of mediation but the goal is normally the same.
It is very difficult to calm the mind because it likes to have lots of random pieces of information flowing in and out all the time. If you don't believe me just try and think of nothing at all. It is virtually impossible because the very act of thinking "there I have cleared my mind" means you mind is no longer clear. The Chinese have many expressions for this problem "taming the monkey" among others.
The way Transcendental Meditation works is really very simple. Rather than trying to empty the mind you simply relax for about thirty seconds and then silently chant a mantra. A mantra is just a word or sound. It would traditionally be a word from Sanskrit. Some try and make out that the mantra has a religious significance but I believe the meaning is irrelevant. In fact the more innocuous the word the better because you are trying to calm the mind. If you use a word with some special significance the chances it will start the mind racing away which is the opposite of what you are trying to do.
When I first learned TM we were told never to divulge our mantra to anyone else because it might be used against you. The teacher would take each of us in turn and whisper a sound in our ears. We were led to believe that each mantra was unique to us and very special, which in a way it was, but I never believed it was unique
Now in a moment I am going to tell you what mantra I was given about twenty years ago. Before I do I want to tell you what I believe to be the purpose of the mantra and why they chose the sound they gave to me.
Clearing the mind is an extremely difficult thing to achieve, as we have already seen, which even masters of Zen Buddhism take many years of long patience and practise. The object is to still your thoughts and go into a deeper level of consciousness. So how do you quieten the mind? Well this is where the mantra comes in. You see if you are focusing on the sound of the mantra it is difficult for any other "more distracting" thoughts to enter your mind. Lets face it your not going to find your inner self if your constantly thinking about "has anyone fed the cat" or "what should I cook for dinner".. etc. The mantra also has to be as gentle and as soft a sound as possible because any abrasive words with too many syllables will only annoy the mind and prevent it from calming down and entering a trance state or altered consciousness. The mantra that was given to me was:-
If you say this to yourself over and over again you will notice that it has a very soft rhythmic sound. The object of the exercise is to occupy the conscious mind with something so that you access your subconscious. This is why I do not make a distinction between hypnosis and meditation.
We were told that from time to time other thoughts would sneak into our conscious thoughts. When we became aware of this we would very gently start to silently chant the mantra once more and the distracting thoughts went away. Now and again the mind would become so still that there would be no extraneous thoughts, not even the mantra being chanted. This is when you reach into your inner self and your mind is perfectly still. This is when your body is most rested and when the most good is achieved from this kind of meditation.
As soon as you are aware of this state you are no longer there of course because the act of being aware is in itself a distraction. After about twenty minutes we would stop chanting the mantra and bring ourselves back to full consciousness.
When we go to sleep, to reach the state of maximum relaxation takes about five hours.
In meditative a state your body consumes much less oxygen and your heart beat slows to a murmur and your body achieves a state of rest at least twice as deep as sleep! In meditation this state can be achieved within about five minutes.
Studies have shown that people who practise mediation regularly score significantly better when tested for: blood pressure, short-sightedness, and hearing. These are typical tests used to gauge a person's biological age.
Tests have shown that if you practise mediation regularly for about five years your biological age will be five years below your chronological age.
If you practise meditation for ten or fifteen years this advantage will increase to the extent that you can appear to be fifteen or more years younger than your chronological age!
I hope you have found this months material useful and that you will try to act on and use some of the information it contains. However if you did nothing else but try a bit of TM now and again you will reap great rewards, you could certainly do a lot worse. Before I go I would like to leave you with a poem from the first century BC written by a Taoist adept called Wen-tzu.
The body is the temple of life. Energy is the force of life. Spirit is the governor of life. If one of them goes off balance, all three are damaged. When the spirit takes command, the body naturally follows it, and this benefits all Three Treasures. When the body leads the way, the spirit goes along, and this harms all Three Treasures.
What he is basically saying try and use self control in your appetites. Don't over do things and perhaps a little of what you fancy does you good. Longevity is inextricably linked to your health so take a little care. You cannot have one without the other.
Anyway on the next page is a summary of some of the points raised this month:-
Forget about your chronological age. It's irrelevant Only think about your psychological age! Improve your diet. Eat as much fresh produce as possible. Take regular exercise. Don't be a couch potato! Use Self-Hypnosis to re-programme your mind to be young and full of the zest for life. Practise periods of quiet meditation. Just let the body rest. Completely still.
2. 3. 4. 5.
Next I want to return to the subject of Hypnosis in more detail. I want to discuss the different types of induction techniques that are often used and much more besides.
How To Tap The Incredible Secret Powers Of Your Own Mind!
Part Seven
The author and publisher of this material are NOT RESPONSIBLE in any manner for any injuries which may occur through reading or following the instructions in this material. Any reader who experiences discomfort from carrying out any of the exercises in this material should seek medical advice. © A.C. Mail Order 1999-2000. All Rights Reserved. Neither the whole nor any part of this document may be reproduced, stored in any data retrieval system or transmitted in any form whatever by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise. Any breach will be enforced at law.
I thought it was about time I returned to the subject of hypnosis and dealt with some important aspects in more detail. The tape that accompanies this month release is a self-hypnotic tape which does not contain any specific message. It is intended for you to use whenever you wish to implant a suggestion of your own choosing. There is a period of time allowed, after the induction process has taken place, for you to use your own affirmation. After this time the tape will bring you back to full waking consciousness.
HYPNOSIS CONTiNUED:From the dawn of time the human race has tried to control the actionsof others by brute force or other more subtle methods. Whether this was for the good of the community or not is immaterial. The chance discovery of this natural state of hypnosis must have been exploited to the full by various people involved in witchcraft, black magic, or even witch doctors in Africa. No doubt the resultant effects of a hypnotic trance on an individual could have been explained away by supernatural forces, spiritual possession etc. These days in the twentieth century it is hoped we can be a little more rational about it, however there are still some unscrupulous organisations who do use hypnotic techniques to further their own goals as I shall explain later!
It is important for you to understand when others are trying to manipulate you and how!
There is still a lot of confusion in the minds of many people as to what hypnosis involves. In fact even today there is still a lot of confusion as to how and why hypnosis works among the many scientists and doctors who study and practise it.
Early Theories about Hypnosis:
In the west our medical origins begin with a brilliant physician called Hypocrites. Hypocrites, who is considered to be the "father of medicine", was born on the Greek island of Cos in 460 BC and died in 377 BC. During his life he practised and taught the healing arts throughout Greece and wrote
many treaties on medicine. It was his theory that all our pleasures and our sorrows, i.e. emotions, emanated from the brain. He further stated that the cause of most aliments, disease, and all forms of anxiety find their origin there.
This concept of a link between the mind and body has been with us for thousands of years and is common to most civilisations. There have been many theories to describe and explain exactly what that link consists of Some five hundred years after Hypocrites another Greek physician called Galen, (AD 129 - 199), developed the ideas established by Hypocrites as to how the mind influences the body and vice versa. His idea was that there was some kind of heavenly fluid which acted as a bridge between the mind and body. He thought that a physical ailment could be caused by a problem in the mind and also that an physical illness could cause mental stress.
This concept of a substance acting as a bridge in this way remained in the minds of scientists and philosophers for many centuries to come. All sorts of theories were developed but it was not until the time of Sir Isaac Newton, (1642-1727) that the notion of animal magnetism gained particular popularity. Magnetism is a curious force, like gravity, which we can prove exists and yet it is invisible to the naked eye. This force seemed a useful way of explaining away the seemingly unexplainable. Of course nowadays it seems too simplistic but in those days it had its uses. In some ways these early theories had in some ways, curious similarities with those held in the east. If we substituted the term animal magnetism for Qi or Prana there would appear to be a connection.
Mesmerism:Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) is worth a mention mainly becauseof the work he did and the fame he achieved, or perhaps notoriety would be a better word, he was responsible for putting Hypnotism, or mesmerism as it was then called, firmly on the medical map.
He trained initially as a priest before studying law before eventually switching to medicine and qualifying as a doctor by the age of thirty two. He was widely read and knew the theories concerning astronomy and Newton's laws of gravity which greatly helped put the theories of animal magnetism to the fore.
Mesmer thought that it was possible to restore our state of health by harmonising and balancing these heavenly forces within us. Again these ideas had an uncanny similarity to those long held in the east. The problem was that with all the great discoveries being made in fields of mathematics, electricity,
and magnetism, among others, he really thought he could offer a sound logical and scientific explanation for what was then called animal magnetism.
His treatment of patients involved the use of magnets and other paraphernalia. He himself was reputed to wear a great lilac cloak and held an iron rod in one hand. In the centre of the room he had placed a large vat out of which metal bars were projected. The vat would contain water and iron filings and each patient would sit around it grasping one of these iron bars. Mirrors where carefully positioned around the room so as to reflect a gentle light on the proceedings and soft music was often played to create the right atmosphere. In this amazing setting Mesmer is said to have walked around to each patient and touched them on the shoulder with his iron bar.
Now you have to realise that these people would have been in a very heightened state of expectancy. Many said they experienced very curious sensations through their bodies while others fell about in convulsions. In any case after a few sessions they would state that they felt cured of whatever the illness was they were suffering from.
Today this use of ritual would be considered pointless but at that time it might have provided the necessary catalysis to help the patients cure themselves. It gave them a link to their subconscious mind. It was a bit like using a placebo.
Another technique he used was to strap magnets to a patients body in the belief that this would harmonise the various forces within the body. Again these patients would claim to feel strange feelings running up and down their bodies while having this treatment and would often declare themselves cured.
The success that Mesmer enjoyed and the fame and wealth it attracted also attracted great suspicion and envy, from his more orthodox medical colleagues. Although what I have described here is not strictly speaking hypnosis there are subtle links between two. As you probably now realise a strong positive expectation of a desired outcome can have a very powerful effect on the mind.
It was one Mesmer's pupils who is said to have discovered somnambulism. In this state a person can obey instructions, talk, open their eyes and yet still remain in a trance.
News of Mesmer's work and that of his pupils and associates spread throughout Europe and even to the USA. A number of physicians witnessed demonstrations given by Richard Chenevix, himself a fellow of the Royal Society, in London in 1829. Among the audience was a John Elliotson. Elliotson was born in 1786 the son of a south London chemist. After
graduating from Cambridge and then qualifying as a physician he travelled to
Europe studying in various continental schools. Upon his return he set up his practice near the hospitals of Guy's and St Thomas's.
He was a man of strong views who did not suffer fools gladly and often had problems with figures in authority. He was elected Professor of Medicine at the then new "New University College" of the University of London. The university was non-denominational and this was surprisingly the first time medicine was taught at university level.
Elliotson pioneered many new and important techniques in medicine. He taught medical students at the bedside of the patients in order to give them greater experience. Before this students would serve a five-year apprenticeship with an older doctor. He was the first doctor to use a stethoscope and taught the correct way to examine the chest among many other useful discoveries on the use of drugs.
He became interested in the theories emanating from Europe at the time namely the work of Franz Gall. Gall maintained that our emotions could have a physiological effect on the body and were independent of our will.
This theory laid the foundation for the later work of Sigmond Freud and the study of the subconscious or unconscious mind. Elliotson was originally a little sceptical about mesmerism but soon became a great supporter of its use. He did in fact open the "Mesmeric Hospital" in Fittzroy Square in London.
In his journal "The Zoist" he detailed many of the cases he treated. One such case was that of a woman who had an amputation at the thigh while under mesmerism and who felt no pain. You have to bear in mind that many of his contemporaries were still treating their patients by bleeding them with leeches. Anaesthesia did not exist, except for brandy, and so surgeons had to resort to strapping their patients to the table in order to carry out an operation like an amputation. Against this grisly background Elliotson went on to publish the details of some seventy six similar operations which were carried out where patients felt no pain!
Elliotson was not the only physician using mesmerism as a form of anaesthesia. Other operations were featured in "The Zoist" one concerned a surgeon called "Mr Ward" who amputated a man's leg. There was also a Scottish surgeon called James Esdaile working in Calcutta who carried out literally hundreds of painless operations. He had the patients "mesmerised" for one and a half hours each day for five days. Although he had the total support of the Governor General at the time his reports were rejected by the medical authorities. Despite the fact that there were at the time records of at
least four hundred operations using mesmerism as a method of anaesthesia it was abandoned in 1850's when chloroform and then ether took over.
In 1848 Elliotson published an article called "Cure of a true cancer of the female breast with mesmerism". His patient, a middle aged lady, had developed a large breast tumour. Originally he intended to prepare the patient for surgery. She had been seen by many of the leading surgeons of that time all of whom confirmed the nature of the growth in her breast. Some advised an immediate surgery while some declared the growth inoperable. Elliotson discovered that she was a good hypnotic subject capable of going into deep trance. He mesmerised her often sometimes up to three times a day and kept her in a very happy and peaceful trance for several hours at a time. Her progress was slow initially but she started to put on some weight and her general state of well being and strength increased. Eventually her tumour decreased and after a period of five years had completely disappeared a fact confirmed by those very same eminent surgeons who had diagnosed her condition all those years before.
There were many people experimenting with mesmerism around this time but the practice of using elaborate rituals involving magnets was receding. People were trying hard to explain just what mesmerism was. The concept of animal magnetism and ethereal fluids was dead. Instead a notion that mesmerism was a form of nervous sleep, or hypnos, began to take a hold. Hypnos was the Greek God of sleep and this was obviously where the term hypnosis originated.
Today we have a more scientific explanation and know it to be a psychological as well as a physical condition although there is still a lot we need to discover. There is no doubt it is possible to induce sleep in a subject which is indistinguishable from normal sleep but it is also possible to put a person in a trance who can walk around the room and appear to behave quite normally. Post-hypnotic suggestion, which is where a person is given a suggestion while in trance and told to carry some task on returning to consciousness, is now a well known technique. The point is the subject is still in a form of trance until that task has been executed.
To this day we still do not really know why the subconscious mind reacts to suggestions while in a hypnotic trance. There have been many theories about hypnosis over the past hundred years or so.
Goal-Directed Striving:Robert White from Harvard University in 1941 stated that "hypnotic behaviour is meaningful, goal-directed striving, its most general goal being to
behave like a hypnotised person as this is continuously defined by the operator and understood by the subject". He maintained that a person must want to become hypnotised. While in trance it is possible to put a person in a state of catalepsy this is when a persons limbs can be moved and placed in any position and rigidly remain there. When the hypnotist suggests that the limbs are so stiff they cannot be moved the subject indeed finds that they cannot move them. White maintained that far from the hypnotist having an unnatural power over the subject the subject is in actual fact just co-operating with the hypnotist. If you like the subjects will is not strong enough to resist the suggestions of the hypnotist. This is a very difficult area, and one where a lot of controversy still exists. It was about this time that the concept of "an altered state of the person" took hold.
Theory of Atavism:This theory was put forward by Ainslie Meares an Australian psychiatrist. He reasoned that logical thought was a comparatively recent function. He thought that in primitive man basic ideas and concepts would have been readily accepted without criticism and this process would in pad explain the state of hypnosis. In other words we thought that when we are placed in a trance, we regress to our primitive state of consciousness.
We certainly know that under hypnosis our critical factor is temporally suspended.
The Theory of Role Playing:After some twenty years of studies Dr T. Barber from the USA thought that a hypnotised subject's performance depends upon his attitudes and expectations of how they thought a hypnotised person would behave. The willingness of a subject to co-operate is very important. These ideas are closely related to those of Robert White.
Goal-directed Fantasy:Nich Spanos, an associate of Dr Barber, extended the ideas of "RolePlaying" into what he termed "Goal-directed fantasy". An example of this could be that a hypnotist asks his subject to lift their arm and at the same time the subject imagines their arm resting on a large deflated balloon which then gradually inflates, then the subject is described as taking part in "goal-directed fantasy". Indeed hand levitation exercises are used a lot in hypnosis to test the level of trance in a subject. You could very easily try this yourself When
you feel you are feeling very relaxed just imagine your arm being lifted in the manner just described or imagine some other way in which your arm might be raised on pulleys or whatever.
Most of the theories just mentioned are really comments on hypnotic behaviour rather than a definition of what hypnosis actually is. Most have more than an element of truth about them. What all researchers agree on is that hypnosis is an altered and highly increased state of awareness. The degree to which a subject is receptive to suggestions made depends on the level and deepness of the trance. We will look into the different levels of trance in a moment. What I want to do now is give you an idea as to the physiological nature of hypnosis, what happens to your body while under hypnosis.
The Scientific Nature of Hypnosis:Until about 1952 hypnosis was thought to be a type or form of sleep. It was not possible to get any concrete evidence as to what went on in the human brain during hypnosis until the electroencephalograph, or EEG for short, was used in research.
What an EEG does is record the regular electrical pulses emanating from the brain on a graph. Research into the nature of sleep has shown that we each go through five main stages of sleep.
When we start to doze off to sleep we emit high amplitude waves from between eight or twelve cycles every second known as alpha waves or alpha rhythms. These rhythms are also present when we are deeply relaxed and quiet. When dozing off our eyes make smooth rolling movements. After a few minutes we reach the second stage. At this stage the alpha rhythms are replaced with slower low voltage waves. After a few more minutes the third stage is reached and the waves slow a little more and the eye movements reduce and disappear. In the fourth stage the waves are even slower but the voltage increases. During the fifth stage we emit a low frequency high voltage rhythm around one cycle each second.
Now during our sleep we often have periods where our eyes move more quickly. This stage became known as "Rapid Eye Movement" or REM sleep. At this time our brains emit very fast waves of up to twenty cycles each second known as beta waves. During this period a number of very important things are happening within our bodies. It is at this time that we dream and if awakened we could give accurate descriptions of our dreams. The eye movements are very similar to those that might be made by someone who is
awake and is looking about them. When REM sleep stops the first stage of sleep starts over again.
When a reading is made of a person who is in a hypnotic trance however they do not give the same results. They appear to show that the person is simply relaxed. They will show very similar readings to those given by someone in the first stages of sleep, alpha waves, but when a suggestion is made by the hypnotist these diminish because his mind is alerted. However if the hypnotist gives the suggestion to sleep while under hypnosis the EEG recording will show a reading virtually the same as someone who is asleep.
When readings are taken of a subject while they are being induced to a deeper level of trance the alpha waves maintain their frequency but there is a big reduction in the voltage. The voltage, however, increases if the subject is told to sleep. What this research suggested was that when a person in is hypnosis they are in a very special state of deep relaxation. This would explain why meditation so good for us because in this state our bodies are truly rested. So while in hypnosis we are neither conscious in the normal sense neither are we asleep.
When very sensitive apparatus is used to measure the brains electrical variations there are some very interesting changes that occur while in hypnosis. This is particularly true if a subject is asked to imagine a scene or perhaps imagines he can smell a the scent of a flower. Curiously these changes within the brain do not occur if the person actually smells a flower in a normal waking state. So there is strong physical evidence that hypnosis is an altered state of the mind and brain.
The Central Nervous System:Our central nervous system consists of the spinal cord which is connected to the brain. It contains nerve cells and nerve fibres which transmit information to and from our cells. Our central nervous system balances all the other systems within our bodies and will under normal circumstances keeps things in harmony. Most nerve connections within the body are transmitted to and from the brain via the spinal cord, some other connections are made direct to the brain like sight, hearing, and smell.
Our brains have evolved and developed over many thousands of years. The outer area of the brain is called the cortex and this is the most advanced area. The way in which our brains obtain information from the body is
incredibly complex and it is filtered and processed in the oldest area of the brain called the Ascending Reticular Activating System, or RA. This cluster of nerve fibres comes up from the lower part of the brain known as the fourth ventricle. After the RA it moves on into the thalamus which is situated in the front of the brain with the hypothalamus beneath it. The RA also connects to the limbic system, which is one of our most primitive areas of development, and this in turn is connected to the cortex. The limbic system is thought to be mainly concerned with our human emotions.
The electrical activity within our brain relies on the stimuli it receives from the RA system. Our awareness of our surroundings and our reactions to it are modified via this system and this is why we produce variations on the EEG.
In normal waking consciousness our RA system will register activity on the EEG but if we are very relaxed, sitting quietly in darkness with little or no outside stimuli, or drifting off to sleep, it virtually closes down. When you are awake the RA constantly feeds a steady stream of reminders through to the brain. Like everything else to do with the functioning of the brain this is a very complex area.
The emphasis of one kind of stimuli over another is regulated via the RA system. If you are concentrating on something like a good book or watching a gripping programme on the TV our other conscious senses are overridden and we become unaware of them. If some one speaks to us we may not hear them, we block it out. The RA system can be effected by illness and drugs which reduces awareness.
During a hypnotic induction it is thought that words spoken by the hypnotist passes along the RA's network of nerve fibres and the attention of the subject is totally focused on them. In a state of deep relaxation the RA dampens down all the other stimuli which would otherwise flow through to the central nervous system. Once information is passed in to the limbic system it is then carried on to the appropriate area of the brain. Emotions like excitement, anxiety, among others, are dampened down and so we pass into the state of hypnosis.
Some patients suffering from very aggressive and often dangerous behaviour have undergone small operations to the limbic area. As a result they go through a drastic change in behaviour, most notable of which, is that they no longer show any signs of fear or anger.
Some interesting experiments have shown that different emotions can be triggered by passing a small electrical current into a part of the brain
known as the temporal lobe cortex. Sometimes subjects can remember events from their past which they thought they had long since forgotten. Significantly they not only remembered those events but all the emotions that went with them at the time those events took place.
Apparently these subjects recall events every bit as accurately as other subjects do under hypnosis! Not only do they remember the events and their emotions to them but they also retain their impressions or interpretations of those events whether they were true or false. As we know regressing people under hypnosis is a very useful tool in correcting there present behaviour.
Stages Of Hypnotic Induction:To try and fathom all the different stages of hypnosis as a subject undergoes induction is rather like peeling away the layers of an onion. There are obviously some very subtle changes that take place as they drift from one state of hypnosis into another, it is not really possible to be too dogmatic. The following however will give you a general idea as to what takes place when someone is being hypnotised.
Hypnoidal Condition:This is the first quiet state you achieve while you start to relax and get comfortable. Your eyes are normally closed and you are aware of things going on around you but you slowly concentrate on the sound of the hypnotist's voice, whether it be on a tape or in real life, and you begin to forget your surroundings. In this stage you are not yet receptive to any detailed affirmations, your conscious mind or critical factor has not been distracted. From this state you drift into a deeper state of light trance.
Light Trance:In this state you are more relaxed and your body will appear still and quiet. There is sometimes a slight movement of the eye lids at this stage. After a time the complexion of the face becomes more ruddy as the blood vessels enlarge to allow the circulation to move freely. In a light trance simple suggestions like hand levitation can be attempted. Simple imaginary scenes can be given but the degree to which these scenes can be visualised are often limited at this stage. Some people who are new to hypnosis find it difficult to progress to the next stage at first, however if the relaxation
continues a medium state of trance can be achieved.
Medium Trance:It is at this stage that your breathing slows markedly as your conscious mind quietens down. The colour of your cheeks will become redder as your blood vessels dilate a little more. Your ability to visualise things will be stronger in this state as your conscious mind lets go. In this state mild suggestions to null the bodies sensitivity to pain can often be attempted for things like dentistry. It is also possible to ask a subject to forget things, amnesia, and also to test for catalepsy. What a hypnotist will do is suggest that your arm feels rigid and cannot move even if you tried to. The same sort of thing can be suggested concerning the eye lids by suggesting they cannot open because they are glued together etc. As you try to open them you are told to drift even deeper into hypnosis.
Of course since you are co-operating with the hypnotist you cannot open your eyes because you don't really want to open them. By accepting this state of affairs you are happy to go even deeper in to trance. If you do open them then you either wish to come out of trance or the hypnotist has misjudged the level of trance you have reached.
Deep Trance:As you relax even more you will drift deeper and deeper into deep trance. Your breathing will slow down even more and this is very restful for your brain and the rest of the body. In deep trance most of the therapeutic techniques can be used like regression, more advanced and complex forms of analgesia. Most hypnotists do not feel the need to go any deeper than a deep trance.
Somnambulistic Trance:This is the state whereby a hypnotised person can be given instructions to open their eyes and move around the room, talk, carry out various tasks, hallucinate etc. The term is derived from Latin somnus, which means sleep, and ambulare, which means walk. The most common example of a somnambulistic trance is a person hypnotised by a stage hypnotist. A person can be regressed to an earlier age and talk and behave as a small child. In this state some therapists from earlier time produced enough analgesia to open up the abdomen to allow major surgery!
Stuporous Trance:There is another very special, and relatively, unknown state of hypnosis which some subjects are able to enter known as the "Stuporous Trance". Anyone in this state shows an inability to appreciate the "Self. They lose a total awareness of themselves as individual persons with there own unique characters and reactions. It has been known for medical personnel called in to examine someone in such a trance without being told the subject has been hypnotised, think that they have been drugged or are in some kind of narcotic state. It is comparatively difficult to get someone to enter this state because there is an in-built objection to losing oneself so completely into the control of someone else.
In the East highly trained adepts are able to reach similar deep levels of trance. The loss of "ego" and the concept of "self" is the aim of their meditations in order to reach some deeper meaning of their existence. However these people are experts trained by masters who have in turn being trained by masters throughout the centuries.
Delving into the truly deeper levels of trance and consciousness we are entering the murky areas of "Mind Control" or "Brain Washing" techniques.
In part one I explained that there had not been a case of anyone being harmed by the therapeutic use of Hypnosis and I stand by this statement. I also said that it was not possible to force someone to act against their will simple by putting them in a trance and giving them suggestions. You might recall that I mentioned the Social Cornpliance Theory. This basically states that the subject under Hypnosis is basically co-operating with the Hypnotist mainly because it suits him to do so
It has long been thought that it was not possible to make someone act in a way which would go against their normal beliefs, morals, or wishes etc.. Most hypnotists believe that a hypnotised person would not behave in way that would normally appear out of character unless that person is predisposed to do so!
There is a prevailing idea the hypnosis can only be used for positive effects. People often ask me can hypnosis be used to control someone's mind against their will?
I am also asked if hypnosis is so powerful a tool for good can it not also be used by unscrupulous people to do harm. Many practitioners answer
this sort of question with an emphatic NO. The usual procedure is to say that under hypnosis you cannot force a person to act in away that is against his or her character.
Although this answer is perfectly correct as far as it goes, it is however simplistic. It is true in the main that you cannot force someone to act in a way that is alien to their true character however how do you know what that person's true character is?
Hypnosis is dealing with the subconscious or unconscious mind. A person's subconscious mind may hold all sorts of aims, desires, wants, character traits which the conscious mind keeps back or holds in check because of the restrictions and demands society puts on all of us. In other words we simply cannot just behave exactly as we might wish.
Who really knows what our true character is anyway?
Hypnosis has been around since the dawn of time. It has been used by our ancestors for thousands of years. Everyone has experienced some form of hypnotic trance whether they were aware of it or not. In fact everyone probably experiences something very similar at least twice a day.
Ignorance of the nature and power of hypnosis is probably potentially more harmful or dangerous. Its power for good in our lives vastly out ways any harm that could befall you from using it.
I remember reading about a demonstration of hypnosis where a young male doctor had placed an attractive young lady in a deep trance and had had her carry out various tasks and tests to show the extent of her trance. Someone in the audience asked the very question as to what extent does the therapist have control over the actions of the subject. The hypnotist explained that the therapist does not in actual fact have control over the subject and explained that if he asked the girl to do anything which would be against her normal behaviour or beliefs she would refuse. To prove his point he asked the girl, still in deep trance, to remove her clothes whereupon she awakened from her trance and slapped the young doctor around the face!
Now this impressed the audience. It seemed to prove the doctor's point that he was unable to force his subject into doing something against her will. Deep down she still knew that she was involved in a demonstration of hypnosis and that there was an almost exclusively male audience watching her.
However the situation might have backfired if the girl had some deep routed desires to remove her clothes in company. Also there are ways an unscrupulous hypnotist can engineer the situation to meet his own ends!
Suppose the girl had been given suggestions that she was all alone in her home. If the suggestion was then made that she was now in her bathroom and about to undress in order to take a bath she might well have obliged. This would involve inducing a state of hallucination and amnesia. I have no doubt that in this way it is possible to degrade a person and possibly harm them particularly if the hypnotist is inexperienced.
I would like to stress once again that you must not use the information contained in this course to gain control or gain some advantage over others.
This information is for your own use only and I am giving it to you so that you can achieve a better understanding of how your own mind works and how others might try and use this knowledge against you.
Can Hypnotism Be Used To Cause Harm?
There are some very prestigious medical bodies from around the world who would like nothing better than legislate against the use of hypnosis other than by "qualified therapists" that have been properly trained and have medical qualifications or qualifications in psychotherapy.
In the UK, Parliament passed the "Hypnotism Act 1952" in which clause 2(1) states:No person shall give an exhibition, demonstration or performance of hypnotism on any living person at or in connection with an entertainment to which the public are admitted whether on payment or otherwise unless the controlling bodies authority have authorised that exhibition, demonstration or performance. This did not restrict the use of hypnotism for long because other venues, i.e. clubs where the public are admitted to have dinner etc., have appeared, which seemed to get around the confines of this act.
My own personal view is somewhere in between. I do NOT like to see
exhibitions of hypnosis on the TV merely for the purposes of entertainment.
However hypnotism is such a powerful tool to do good I would not want to see it banned or restricted. It is after all a natural phenomenon which should be more widely available not less. However we must be realistic. Hypnotism is a very powerful force but can it be used to cause harm?
What I am about to reveal to you will sound a bit far fetched even fantastic! You may think I have flipped or been lying in the sun for too long but I can assure you it is all demonstrably true.
There are some unscrupulous organisations who routinely use hypnotic techniques on some unsuspecting members of the public. Because there might be legal consequences if I were to mention these organisations by name I will only mention them in general. If nothing else it will help keep you on your guard should anyone try something similar on you.
Some very well known "religious sects" induce hypnotic trances in their recruits in order to recruit and retain their loyalty. It follows that anyone even vaguely interested in a sect will already be predisposed to their beliefs and philosophy. These quasi religious cults routinely induce a hypnotic trance in their prospective converts as a Part of their mind control methods.
The point is that these unsuspecting recruits are not told what is happening to them. If they were told that their "trainers" were putting them into a hypnotic trance they would be horrified. The fact is the vast majority of the population is ignorant as to what hypnosis is and what it involves and this makes them vulnerable. If you asked most people off the street what they thought hypnosis was they would probably talk about swinging watches and crystal balls etc.
There are a number of ways you can induce a trance in someone and we shall look at these in more detail next month. However the aim is always the same, which is to suspend or distract the critical factor.
In one cult the technique they use to do this is to make a recruit sit in a chair completely motionless while "trainers" take it in turns to monitor them. They are scolded when they twitch or fidget, the aim being to get the recruit to sit totally still for two hours or more. What is happening is that the recruit relinquishes his or her control of their body and emotions to the trainer. The recruit's conscious mind is looking for movement or stimuli but of course there isn't any.
Their conscious mind is totally focused on the trainer which suspends their critical factor and they drift very effectively into a trance. Obviously in this instance they are willing to co-operate with their trainer but this is no different from any session you might have with a hypnotist. After all you have to cooperate with a hypnotist otherwise he cannot help you achieve your goal.
In a religious cult the aim is to teach obedience and collective control. You are taught how to be controlled and how to control others and their methods can be very effective.
You have probably read about families kidnapping members of their family from such cults. The victims themselves often don't want to be rescued. In fact they are often extremely hostile towards their rescuers. In such cases an extensive deprogramming has to be gone through in order to return these people to a "normal" life.
In the main the kind of people who let themselves fall for this kind of thing are very vulnerable and impressionable. The concept of "social compliance" still applies. They want to be controlled in the main and cooperate with the person, often many more than just one, trying to control them. This broadly speaking is what the "Social Compliance Theory" is all about.
One way a cult prevents its recruits from leaving is by using "phobia indoctrination". It is sometimes called "triggered phobic response". What this means is that trainers implant or programme irrational fears into your subconscious mind as to what will happen to you if you ever left the cult. You might typically be told that you will go insane, be hit by a car, get cancer etc. 1 think you get the general idea. Different cults use different phobias and believe me it is very effective! It has been described a prison without bars. Nice people!!
I am telling you these things so that you will be on your guard. Be careful if you find yourself listening to a lecture given by a speaker who uses a soft monotonous tone when speaking. This is particularly true if the setting uses soft lighting and gentle music.
Because most people have a very distorted idea as to what hypnotism really is, they often don't realise it when someone tries to put them into a trance. For this reason I believe everyone should study Self-Hypnosis. By learning how to control your own mind you will learn to detect the signs if someone else tries anything on you without your consent.
Have you ever seen American evangelists on TV, or on stage, where they invoke the holy spirit and just touch a member of the audience, i.e someone they have prepared earlier, on the head and pronounce them cured of whatever ailment they suffer from?
Various government agencies from around the world have carried out experiments in "sensory deprivation". What this basically entails is placing somebody in a situation where they are unable to receive any outside stimuli from their surroundings. In other words their RA system of the brain are effectively shut down because they are not being stimulated. This is often done by placing the person in a waterproof suit with breathing apparatus and immersing them totally in a vat of warm water. After several hours a profound trance state is sometimes achieved. Although this sounds more like a form of torture, and extreme sensory deprivation has been used as a form of torture by certain countries, in the west some companies are offering this technique as a form of relaxation therapyl
There are interesting parallels between this and what some Tibetan monks practise. As part of their training some monks are walled up in a small room for 39 months in total darkness and without contact with the outside world. Their food is provided through a small hole. Now most of us would find this treatment, solitary confinement, intolerable and it would probably result in some form of mental illness. However to a Tibetan monk this period of solitude is eagerly awaited because they have been trained for this moment and expect great rewards from their efforts. They practise deep breathing and meditation techniques during this time. Obviously the solitude is helpful to achieve their desired goal. If I were to tell you about some of the things that Tibetan monks are reported to be able to do, you would not believe me.
The reason I mention sensory deprivation is because it provides us another example of how our mind behaves and how it is possible to reach the deeper recesses of our consciousness.
The book "The Manchurian Candidate" by Richard Condon which was published in 1958 and made into a Hollywood film in the 1960's, tells a story about brain washed, hypnotised, assassins. This film was released around the world but, for reasons that have never been explained, it was not allowed to be seen in the USA for many years.
The CIA carried out experiments in the 50's on brain washing and other mind controlling techniques. They set up a team, which some believe was successful, in creating assassins capable of killing foreign heads of state or prominent American political figures.
I know that to some of you this sounds ridiculous however these historical facts are recorded in the CIA's own memo from the period outlining their experiments.
You might think why bother? After all most countries will have trained assassins on their books who they could call on as needed without resorting to mind control. However to assassinate a prominent political figure is fraught with danger that the killer might get caught and spill the beans.
The operatives the CIA trained however were very special. They would be programmed to kill their victim and then develop total amnesia afterwards. In this way it would be difficult to trace the connection back to the CIA, even under strenuous interrogation.
From the recorded interviews with Sirhan Sirhan, who was executed for the assassination of Robert. F. Kennedy, it is clear that he under went some kind of mental programming and hypnosis. At his trial psychiatrists testified that he had been hypnotised and the prison psychologist pleaded with the judge to be allowed to deprogram Sirhan Sirhan but this was denied. Sirhan Sirhan had no recollection of the assignation despite the fact that he obviously carried it out.
If you think this is incredible wait until you hear the next bit. The component in the CIA who carried out the experiments to produce "manturian candidates" went on carry out what was known as "terminal experiments".
Subjects were programmed to effectively kill themselves.
Horrible though this sounds this not as Incredible as it sounds. Some of the native North American tribes have known about this ability for centuries. Doctors in America have witnessed apparently healthy people simply decide to give up on life and wither away and die. The power of the mind is awesome.
What I have just described has next to nothing to do with hypnosis as it is used everyday. Mind control and brain washing techniques are a perversion of what hypnosis is really all about. The reason some fear hypnosis and what it can do is simply because they know little or nothing about it. lf someone tried to hypnotise me I could go into a hypnotic trance within a few seconds if I wanted to. However if I didn't want to then there is no way they could put me into a trance. Because I know
what is involved, how it works I can either accept it or reject it. I have the control and I have the choice. Everyone should have this knowledge and that choice.
Hypnosis can lead to problems if you are careless. If you let yourself be hypnotised by anyone who has little or no experience, no knowledge of your medical history or psychiatric background, then things might go wrong.
Anxious people might become depressed or more anxious. Depressed people might become even more depressed and even suicidal! Psychotic cases can become more psychotic.
Medical conditions like cerebral tumours, disjunction of the thyroid, and many other conditions can only be diagnosed by properly trained people. These conditions might well show psychological symptoms which can be misdiagnosed by an inexperienced or unqualified hypnotist.
If you are daft enough to let yourself be used in a stage show of hypnotism and problems arise as a result then you have only got yourself to blame. The most common problems that arise from such shows are orthopaedic. What stage hypnotists used to like doing is induce a state of catalepsy, previously mentioned, whereby the subject becomes very rigid. The head of the subject would typically be placed on the seat of one chair while the feet are placed on another. Then other people are invited to sit on the subject's stomach and legs taking their full weight.
Impressive though this might be to an audience it puts enormous pressure on that person's back. If the subject has a history of back pain serious damage can be done.
Hypnosis can be misused as I have tried to show but so can a lot of things. Nearly all of us drive cars but we all know that cars can and do kill on occasions but nobody would propose banning them just for that reason. If hypnotism were not the powerful tool it is then why bother to use it in the first place.
The reason I have told you these things is because in the next Part I want to show you the different techniques hypnotists use to place people into trances. I wanted you to be aware of the problems that can arise if hypnosis is used indiscriminately. Some of the techniques are advanced but very effective.
I am telling you these things for your information only. I don't expect you to rush off down the local pub and start putting people into trances!
End of Sermon
I will to tell you about one of this century's most brilliant exponents of hypnosis. I also want to tell you how you can learn to read a book in only a matter of a few minutes, and a whole load of other incredible stuff!!
How To Tap The Incredible Secret Powers Of Your Own Mind!
Part Eight
The author and publisher of this material are NOT RESPONSIBLE in any manner for any injuries which may occur through reading or following the instructions in this material.Any reader who experiences discomfort from carrying out any of the exercises in this material should seek medical advice. © A.C. Mail Order 1999-2000. All Rights Reserved. Neither the whole nor any part of this document may be reproduced, stored in any data retrieval system or transmitted in any form whatever by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise. Any breach will be enforced at law.
No effort was made to pick him up. Instead, as he paused for breath for fresh screaming, he was told quickly, simply, sympathetically, "That hurts awful, Robert. That hurts terrible." Right then, without any doubt, my son knew that I knew what I was talking about. He could agree with me and he knew I was agreeing with him completely. Therefore he could listen respectfully to me, because I had demonstrated that I understood the situation fully. Rather than reassure the boy, he carried on in the same way:Then I told Robert, "And it will keep right on hurting." In this simple statement, named his own fear confirmed his own judgement of the situation, demonstrated my good intelligent grasp of the entire matter and my entire agreement with him, since right then he could foresee a lifetime of anguish and pain for himself. The next step for him and for me was to declare, as he took another breath, "And you really wish it would stop hurting". . Again, we were in full agreement and he was ratified and even encouraged in this wish. And it was his wish, deriving entirely from within him and constituting his own urgent need. With the situation so defined, I could then offer a suggestion with some certainly of its acceptance. This suggestion was, "Maybe it will stop hurting in a little while, in just a minute or two." This was a suggestion in full accord with his own needs and wishes and, because it was qualified by "maybe it will," it was not in contradiction to his own understandings of the situation. Thus he could accept the idea and initiate his response to it. What you have just read is a case where the son of master hypnotist , MiltonH. Erickson M.D., had fallen down the back stairs of his home and had split his lip and dislodged an upper tooth. To continue:Robert knew that he hurt, that he was a damaged person: he could see his blood upon the pavement, taste it in his mouth and see it on his hands. And yet, like all other human beings, he too could desire narcissistic distinction in his misfortune, along with the desire even more for narcissistic comfort. Nobody wants a headache; since a headache must be endured, let it be so colossal that only the sufferer could endure it. Human pride is so curiously good and comforting! Therefore, Robert 's attention was doubly directed to two vital issues of comprehensible importance to him by the simple statements. "That's an awful lot of blood on the pavement. Is it good, red, strong blood? Look carefully, Mother, and see. 1 think it is, but I want you to be sure.
When Robert looked at the blood he was able to confirm what his father had told him. While doing this he stopped crying and his mother was able to clean him up. When he went to the doctor Robert asked if he was going to have as many stitches as his sister had once had. Apparently no anaesthetic was used while he was stitched up an he was totally absorbed by the whole procedure.
Milton Erickson was acknowledged to be the leading hypnotherapist of his day and many would say he was probably the most brilliant this century!
By training he was a psychiatrist and a psychologist and was a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the pathological Association, as well as being an honorary member of many medical societies of hypnosis from around the world.
Dr Erickson placed great emphasis upon learning how to observe people. He himself had legendary powers of observation which he partly attributed to an attack of polio when he was seventeen. He had lost all sense of body awareness and couldn't even tell the position of his arms or legs. He spent many hours trying to find a sense or feeling in his toes and feet so that he became acutely aware of his movements when his senses started to return. This knowledge enabled his to gain better use of his legs and he was able to walk again albeit with a limp. In the use of hypnosis, being able to accurately observe a subject's subtle movements is very useful in gauging their progress as a hypnotic subject. ("people use those little telltale movements, those adjustive movements that are so revealing if one can notice them.')
Hypnotic Induction Techniques:Last month I said that these days we no longer rely on gimmicks or paraphernalia in order to induce trances in people. Many experiments have shown that imaginary aids are much more effective. In one experiment one group of subjects where taught to induce a trance by staring at a crystal ball six inches away and slightly above their range of vision. When the same group where induced without a crystal ball they had problems and found it difficult. However when they where told to imagine looking at a crystal ball they went into a trance more quickly and the depth of the trance was more profound.
Your imagination is a very powerful tool when used in hypnosis. The problem with external props is that they can actually distract you as you move into a trance. The regular pulse of a physical metronome can disturb you where as an imaginary one will speed up or slow down, get louder or quieter, depending on your needs. While you concentrate on the imaginary prop your
conscious mind is busy.
The skill of the professional hypnotist depends on his ability to interpret a subjects reactions and body movements while they go into trance. In this way he can ensure that his suggestions have the greatest effect. A bad hypnotist will concentrate to much on what he is saying to a subject and not pay enough attention to what the subject is actually feeling and experiencing. For example expressions like sleep, sleepy, and sleeping should be timed to coincide with the movement of a subject's eyelid movements and breathing.
Erikson was acutely aware of this and he would go to great lengths to co-operate with a subjects own desires. On one occasion a subject who seemed unable to go into deep trance after several hours of effort asked if she could advise on the techniques being used. She was a graduate in psychology but had no experience of hypnosis. Erickson readily agreed and she would say things like:"You're talking too fast on that point; you should say that very slowly and emphatically and keep repeating it. Say that very rapidly and wait a while and then repeat it slowly; and please, pause now and then to let me rest, and please don't split your infinitives]'
With her help she obtained a profound almost stuporous trance, which was achieved in only thirty minutes.
Confusion Technique:As with most hypnotic induction techniques what you are trying to do is suspend the critical factor. When using the confusion technique you present a whole series of individually differing, contradictory suggestions, which are at variance with one another. The aim is to cause the subject to make a constant shifts of orientation in order to try and make sense of it all. While the conscious mind is grappling with all this a simple emphatic suggestion to sleep is welcomed by the conscious mind.
If we take hand levitation as an example. I might give someone strong suggestions to raise their right hand while also giving suggestions of immobility of the left hand. Then you give suggestions to levitate the left hand and immobility of the right hand. This is obviously contradictory. As the subject gets used to his confusion, and in so doing starts to co-operate with the suggestions, more suggestions are then given of immobility of both hands at the same time as suggestions of one levitating and the other remaining still, then a return to the original suggestion.
It is important to give your suggestions quickly, insistent, and confident in this way it is hard for the subject to make any sense of it all. What you want is for him to get used to his situation and co-operate as best he can. In this way he learns to yield to the situation you are creating. Eventually he will welcome any positive clear suggestion you make.
Rehearsal Technique:This was often used by Erickson with people who he thought were good potential subjects but who had initially made little response to hypnosis. There are different ways it can be used. Here is one example:- There was once a medical student who said he didn't think he could develop amnesia in trance. He wanted to go into trance but at the same time didn't want to co-operate with Erickson by developing amnesia. The student decided to take part in a demonstration but selected his own proof of amnesia namely the removal of his right shoe.
He achieved a good trance and was given a large number of instructions such as borrowing a student's cigarettes, another's glasses, etc. While he was doing this Erickson repeatedly told him to forget the simple tasks he was carrying out. At some point Erickson slipped in the suggestion that upon awakening, while talking to the class about whether or not he had developed amnesia, he would cross the room , write a sentence on the blackboard, sign his name, while still talking to the class.
When he awoke, he stated that he remembered everything that was said to him and what tasks he had performed. This remark was challenged in the class whereupon he then gave a heated account about what had taken place. While he was still talking to the class he strolled up to the blackboard, wrote the sentence signing his name and returned to his seat.
When the writing on the board was brought to his attention he denied he had written it and triumphantly showed the class his right foot with the shoe still on it and declared that this proved his earlier statement that he had no amnesia. Continuing his remarks he absentmindedly removed his shoe from his right foot! He was unaware he had done this until after Erickson had dismissed the class. He finally agreed that he had indeed developed amnesia without conscious knowledge of the fact. The class returned and he was asked to write out the sentence once more. While he did this Erickson made a few suggestions and the student went back into a deeper trance.
So what happened here was that the student was given a large number of simple tasks to perform seemingly to produce amnesia but in reality to allow
him to succeed again and again which was what he really wanted. What he thought of as failures, i.e. that fact that he could remember these acts, where successful rehearsals leading up to the main theme the development of amnesia. The careful way in which the main suggestion, the writing on the board, made it different from the more emphatic instructions used for the other acts. The little successes of not developing amnesia fuelled his desire for more success which was to actually develop amnesia. The process of writing out the sentence again placed him once more in same situation by that fact that he had already rehearsed this event before, and so a deep trance was made possible.
Multiple Dissociation Technique:Another technique Erickson often used to induce a deep trance and maintaining it is called the "Multiple Dissociation Technique". What happens is the subject is invited to induce multiple hallucinations where different, but connected, objects are visualised. What he sometimes did was ask a subject to create in their mind a crystal ball while in a light trance. In one case he was dealing with a woman in a very depressed state and what he did was ask her to imagine a happy image or incident from her past.
Soon she had several crystal balls in existence at the same time each representing a different part of her earlier life. Once she was co-operating in this way he found it easier to help her develop a deep and consistent trance necessary to help her therapeutically. The same technique was used with a musician where he was asked to think of a past experiences while at the same time putting a haunting sound track with it in his mind. The repetitive nature of this technique is very helpful to those people who are normally unresponsive to hypnotic suggestion.
Post - Hypnotic -Techniques:This is a technique where a hypnotist introduces a subtle or unobtrusive suggestion which will allow the subject to develop a spontaneous trance at a later stage. We have already seen an example of how a post hypnotic suggestion worked when the medical student repeated an act he had done previously while in trance, i.e. writing on the black board, which made him much more amenable to going into a second trance. Sometimes a subject finds it difficult to go into a deeper trance and so a post hypnotic suggestion can be a very useful ploy in these cases. If the subject can develop a spontaneous trance by executing a simple post-hypnotic act they can often be taught to deepen it. This method can be repeated at each stage making it easier and easier each time.
"The more casual hypnotic work can be done, the easier it is for the subject to adapt to it".
As you can probably see there is no hard and fast rule as to how a hypnotic trance should be induced it depends on you the subject and how you react to the hypnotist. With self-hypnosis by regularly practising you will be able induce a trance by being more and more aware of your mind and body. Sometimes you might feel too agitated to develop a trance which is fine and perfectly natural. The point is you cannot force it. Try to be relaxed and natural.
Utilisation Techniques:Sometimes you find a subject will resist the techniques of induction. By this I don't mean they are being hypnotised against their will. Often they are desperate to be hypnotised, for whatever reason or problem they have, but their conscious mind frustrates any co-operation. Suggestions to respond to given directions like relax or simple hand levitation exercises are blocked.
By accepting and utilising the resistance and working with it positively you can turn it to your advantage and induce hypnosis. For example someone who is resisting hand levitation might be told:Shortly your right hand, or it maybe your left hand, will begin to lift up, or it may press down, or it may not move at all, but we will wait to see what happens, Maybe the thumb will be first, or you may feel something happening in your little finger, but the really important thing is not whether your hand lifts up or presses down or just remains still; rather, it is your ability to sense fully whatever feelings may develop in your hand"
This kind of wording down plays actual motion, i.e. the lifting up, and pressing down, or no movement at all, cover all eventualities. So a situation is established whereby the subject can resist the process in a constructive and co-operative way. What ever happens to a subject's hand, whether it moves up, presses down, or just rests there, they are now co-operating with the induction process. The hypnotist could go on a little later to give suggestions that the right hand will levitate, but the left hand will not. To resist this the subject must exhibit contrary behaviour. This makes it easier for the subject to co-operate.
"I've made no progress at all in three years of psychoanalysis, and the year I spent in hynpnotherapy was a waste of time. I didn't even go into a trance. I tried hard enough. I just got nowhere. I've been referred to you and I don't see much sense in it. Probably another failure. I just can't conceive of me going into a trance. I don't even know what a trance is."
From these remarks and the notes made by her doctor it was decided that the best way of getting her to go into a trance was to utilise her own words during the induction.
You really can 't conceive of what a trance is---no, I can't, what is it?----yes, what is it?----a psychological state, I suppose----A psychological state you suppose, what else?-- -- I don't know---you really don 't know---no, I don't----you don't, you wonder, you think----think what yes, what do you think, feel sense? (Pause)----1 don't know----but you can wonder----do you go to sleep? so tired, relaxed, sleepy---really tired so very tired and relaxed, what else?----I'm puzzled----puzzles you, you wonder, you think, you feel, what do you feel?----my eyes----yes, your eyes, how?---they seem blurred----blurred closing----(pause)----sleep, tired, relaxed, sleep, breathing deeper----(pause)----eyes closed, breathing deeper. Relaxed, comfortable, so very comfortable, what else? (pause)----I don't know you really don 't know, but really learning to go deeper and deeper----(pause)----Too tired to talk, just sleep---maybe a word or two----I don't know (this was spoken laboriously)----breathing deeper and you really don't know, just going deeper and deeper, sleeping soundly, more and more soundly, not caring just learning, continuing ever deeper and deeper and learning more and more with your unconscious mind.
Once a trance was established she was given a post hypnotic suggestion to create future trances.
Pantomime Technique:The name "pantomime technique" was coined after a visit Doctor Erickson made to a seminar in Mexico City in 1959. It is certainly one of his most impressive efforts in hypnotic induction. As a technique it has some similarities with the confusion technique; in so far as the subject has to be willing to accept any clear, unmistakable suggestions.
A nurse was chosen as a subject for a demonstration of hypnosis. She had no previous knowledge of hypnosis, she knew next to nothing about Doctor Erickson, and could not speak or understand English. Erickson could not speak or understand Spanish! She had been told that the Doctor was from North America and would need her silent co-operation and that neither of them would be able speak to each other because of their language difficulties.
The nurse was obviously uncertain as to what to expect but was eager to help and wanted to understand what was needed of her She was brought out on to the stage to meet Erickson and he walked quickly towards her with a broad smile and his right hand outstretched. He slowly shook hands with her staring at her fully in the eyes and gradually stopped smiling. As he did this he slowly let go of her hand in an irregular way by increasing pressure a little on her thumb, little finger, and then the middle finger. In this way she did not have any clear cut idea as to when he had completely withdrawn his hand. As he did this he altered the focus of his eyes and appeared to look through her. This minimal clue caused her eyes to dilate at which point he let go of her hand completely.
This had the desired effect of leaving her hand resting in mid-air in a cataleptic position. He raised her hand slightly by putting a little upward pressure on the heal of it. Her other hand also showed signs of catalepsy and she remained staring unblinkingly at him. He then slowly closed his eyes and as he did so she followed his example. He then immediately opened his eyes and walked behind her and explained to the audience what he had done in English. The subject appeared not to hear him while he did this.
She did not even react when he touched her ankle and lifted her foot up a little meaning she had to stand on one leg. He then put gently upward pressure on her eye lids which she then opened. Her pupils were still dilated and he pointed to his feet and then her raised foot and hands at which point she looked puzzled even embarrassed. He then gestured to her to lower her foot but the hands remained in catalepsy. A few of the audience were invited to talk to her in Spanish but she still stared fixedly at Erickson and made no response to the others. She also seemed to forget about her hands.
At this point one of the other doctors asked whether she could see the audience as she did not seem to hear them. Erickson then pointed to his eyes and then to hers bringing his fingers close them making a pointless sweeping gesture towards the audience; as if to say where are they, and pulling a suitably surprised face. She did the same thing and asked in Spanish "where are the doctors, they are supposed to be here?" She appeared confused and frightened and a few of the doctors spoke to her trying to reassure her but she still seemed unsettled. Erickson then quickly got her attention by putting his fingers close to hers and then to his own, lifted her hand, admiring a ring on her finger as he did so, and gave her a big, pleased, smile. At this point she lost her fear.
Then a member of the audience asked how could he awaken her? Erickson then showed the girl the second hand on his watch and silently counted out ten seconds with his fingers, synchronised with the watch. Then she saw Erickson close his eyes, count out ten more seconds, and then open his eyes with an assertive nod of his head. He then smiled brightly at her and indicated that he wanted her to do the same thing.
As she closed her eyes Erickson walked back to the far end of the platform where he was originally standing when she first came out on stage. As she opened her eyes she could see him where he originally stood and he walked up to her in the same manner. This re-established the link to the start of the induction and she achieved full awakening consciousness.
They shook hands and he thanked her very much and bowed as if telling her he was finished with her. One on the doctors translated his remarks. She was very confused at being dismissed in this way because she could not remember any of the experiences of being in trance. She had total amnesia of the whole experience.
Until I had read about this account of the pantomime technique I never thought it was possible to put someone into an hypnotic trance unless you could speak to the them in their own language. This just shows what a consummate exponent of the art of hypnosis Erickson was. Of course he made it all look so easy!
The question of amnesia is an interesting one. Some subjects who can easily develop amnesia in a light trance might fail to do so in a deeper trance. Such anomalies arise because of a persons psychological orientation. In a light trance there is a mixture of conscious understanding and co-operation in what is going on. As the trance goes deeper we function much more in the subconscious state. In a deep trance subjects will behave in accordance with their subconscious patterns of awareness which very often differ from their conscious ones.
What can happen is that where people find it difficult to move into deeper trance states because they unwittingly interfere with the process because they have no experience of it. It is for this reason that a hypnotist might need to train a subject how to respond to hypnosis for a few sessions before any therapy or experimentation can take place. Eventually there will be a mixture of understanding between the conscious and subconscious, a kind of co-operation. However once a deeper stage of trance has been reached a subject will function directly at an subconscious level of awareness without interference by the conscious mind.
HOW TO SPEED UP YOUR READING:Before I start to teach you how to drastically speed up your reading we must first find out at what pace you read now. Most people are normally categorised as either slow, average, above average, and fast readers.
What I want you to do is find an ordinary book, preferably a hard back because it will make things easier. Now I want you to find a page to begin reading from and read for exactly one minute. Use a timer of some sort. Make sure you read in your normal fashion. Don't try to speed it up for this test it does not matter whether or not you are a slow reader or a fast reader at this stage.
When you have finished reading I want you to mark the page with a paper clip. Now I want you to find out how many words you have read in a minute. Don't worry you don't have to count them all. Just add up the words in three typical lines and divide that number by three. This will give you an average. Now count up the number of lines you have read, multiply them together and you will have your answer. Please write this number in the box below:
Now I want you to think about the level of understanding you achieved while reading your passage. Was it good, average, or poor. Now I want you to put a tick inside the appropriate box:-
Good Below Average
Most people read between 200 and 350 words a minute. If you managed to get between these figures then you are considered to be an average reader.
There are some people who can naturally read over 1000 words per minute with excellent memory and comprehension. President Kennedy was reputed to have been able to read more than 2500 words per minute naturally. He would read up to six news papers from cover to cover over breakfast every morning.
The British economist and philosopher John Stewart Mill said that the only thing that prevented him from reading faster than he did already was that he could not turn the pages over quickly enough.
Incidentally the intelligence of a person does not have any direct effect on the speed at which they read. Some slow readers are people who have managed to obtain a Ph.D. while some fast readers have been known to have low tQs. So there is no connection between a person's intelligence and how fast they can read. The difference between a fast reader and a slow reader is the way in which they look at the page. To see what I mean open your book once more at random and get ready to read a line from the left hand side. Now just think about how you are focusing on the page. You probably find that your eyes are focused on one line, and perhaps on two or three words in the line.
Now I want you to use an old painters trick, I want you to turn the page upside down. Painters did this with their canvases because it helped them see if they had made any glaring errors in perspective or whatever. What this does is help you see the page in a different way. Obviously I don't expect you to read it like this but I want you to look at the shapes the paragraphs make on the page. See how the different sections of the page are set out.
Now turn the book the right way up and feel how your eyes respond. I expect that they probably start focusing again on the one or two words in the line you were looking at before. The strange thing is there is no reason why you should naturally do this. You do it because you have been taught to read in a particular way many years ago.
Singular Word Reading:What trained speed readers do, and naturally fast readers do, is read groups of words at a time with each fixation of their eyes. This greatly speeds up their reading and also makes it easier to understand and remember what they have read.
Psychologists have discovered that most of us have a short term memory which can naturally absorb up to seven, plus or minus two, units or items at any given time. If you read one word at a time then the chances are
that you probably consider each word as a unit. What this can mean is that if the sentence is more than seven words it is possible to forget what you had just read at its beginning. This is why we sometimes have to re-read certain sentences from time to time. If you learn to scan four words at a time then the chances are that each of your seven units you now will contain four words.
This not only increases your memory but also dramatically increases the speed at which you read by three or four times. In actual fact the effect is to increase your reading speed much more than that because if you read one word at a time it is easy to become bored which means we lose our concentration. This has an adverse affect on our comprehension and memory.
This is another major reason that many people cannot read very quickly. I want you to start reading a short passage from your book again. Can you hear a little voice inside your head speaking the words to you as you read. This what is known as sub-vocalisation. If you pronounce each word silently inside your head as you read you effectively limit your reading speed to the speed at which you speak and not the speed at which you think!
In some people so deep routed is this tendency to vocalise what they are reading that they actually mouth the words as they read. Incidentally it is for this reason that doctors will not allow patients to read if they have just had a deilcate operation on their throat or vocal chords.
There is an interesting statistic which states that there are over one million words in the English language. Out of all those words we have about four hundred structure or linking words like, (and, but, the, of, etc ) These words don't carry any significant meaning on their own, however, amazingly those four hundred words make, on average, up to 60%-65% of what you have ever read or will read in the future.
So if you could stop sub-verbalising these relatively insignificant words while reading you will be able to focus on the other more meaningful words. In this way you can improve your speed and comprehension at the same time.
This does not mean I want you to leave these words out because that would change the meaning but see them but don't try to pronounce them. A lot of our problems we have with reading have to do with the way we view the page.
Regression in this context has nothing to do with hypnosis. What we mean here is the situation whereby we sometimes re-read the same sentence twice. Our eyes simply make a mistake. It is estimated that the average person will re-reads about one sixth of what he is reading. What this does is not only slow down your reading, because your eyes have to readjust but it affects out understanding and concentration as well.
Another factor which is closely linked to regression is called:-
SLOW RECOVERY TIME:This is the time it takes for your eyes to move from the end of one line to the start of the next one. Incredible as it sounds it is estimated that the average reader will spend about one third of their time just trying to find the next line. So if you have just read for an hour you might have spent twenty minutes just staring at empty space looking for the next line. That means you have spent twenty minutes looking at nothing This not only slows down your reading but disrupts your short term memory by fragmenting your ideas as the information is fed into the brain.
So to recap on the main obstacles to fast reading, they are:-
1. 2. 3. 4.
Singular Word Reading. Sub-vocalisation. Regression. Slow Recovery Time.
Now I am going to show you how you can deal with these obstacles. The technique you about to learn is very simple but very effective, but you must practise it regularly over a period of time. What we want to do is improve your :-
1. 2. 3. 4.
Speed at which your read. Your understanding of what you read. Concentration. Memory of what you have read.
In a short space of time you will be able to more than double the rate at which you read. Not only that you will increase your understanding and recall of what you read.
To get started all you need is an index finger. If you are right handed you will use your right index finger and if you are left handed you will use your left one. Fold your other fingers into your hand to make a fist leaving your index finger sticking out.
What you do now is take the book you had earlier and underline each of the lines you read earlier with your finger while focusing your eyes on the words directly above the tip of your finger.
Only go as fast as you feel comfortable. I do not want you to actually read or necessarily understand what you are looking at, you are simply practising a technique at this stage. While you are underlining each line in this way you should move your finger back to the beginning of the next line as fast as you can without making any jerky movements. Try and make your actions as smooth as possible. If your finger makes too awkward a movement this will cause you to be distracted. Let it glide across to the next line.
Fast is good. Smooth is better!
Practise this for a while in order to develop the necessary fluidity before going on to the next step.
Once you have mastered this try the next step. What you are going to do now is do an exercise that widens your range or field of vision. I want you to divide each line into three sections. You are still going to underline each line with your finger but this time there will a minute pause between each section. You must put all your concentration into expanding your field of vision. This exercise is a little harder but you will get there if you practise.
Again you are not trying to understand what you are reading. It is purely an exercise to expand your vision. You should concentrate totally on seeing three or four words at a time. Your eyes are trying to scan each section. They are trying to scan them simultaneously in one swoop. Don't rush this pad but spend about three seconds on each line i.e. one second over each section.
Practise this exercise in one minute bursts and then rest in between. You should spend about ten to fifteen minutes a day for the next month or so. You should notice a bid difference after this time. You will no longer grope around for individual lines but select small phrases.
Speed Drill Exercises Step One:This next step is a little similar to the last exercise except that you will be concentrating on building up you your reading speed. You will not be concerned with comprehension at all at this stage. In fact you will be forcing yourself to scan the lines at speeds so fast that comprehension will be impossible. Why do this?
Speed, as Einstein knew, is entirely relative. When the first trains where invented people were terrified at travelling at speeds of 25 miles per hour. It was even considered dangerous and un-natural. However today this speed would seem unbearably slow. When you first join the motorway, after crawling alone at thirty miles per hour the speed of seventy miles per hour, more ilkely ninety, seems very fast even scary. However after a few minutes you adjust to it and the speed feels quite normal, even slow. If there is a hold up or some congestion on the road you might have to reduce your speed to fifty or even forty miles per hour How fast does your speed feel then? It feels very slow after travelling at seventy five. It is exactly the same with your reading speed.
So how does this apply to speed reading? Well what you are going to do is practise seeing words at rates as high as five thousand words each minute. Now you are not going to be reading at this rate just seeing that number of words. The reason you are doing this is that when you slow your rate down to only one thousand or perhaps eight hundred words a minute you will be able to read, comprehend and remember what you are reading. Now mark the book where you want to start from. Now using your index finder again you are going to scan the lines as before but this time you will go at a much faster pace. You don't want to go so fast that the words are just a blur but certainly faster than you think you can understand them. Remember this is a speed practise not an actual reading practise.
For two minutes just scan down the lines remembering to move quickly and smoothly from the end of one line to the other. if you find that you can actually comprehend what you are scanning then you are going much too slow. So speed up!
Remember the words should appear clear to you and not blurred.
Now when you have being doing this for two minutes, use a kitchen timer or something similar, mark the place in the book where you eventually stop.
Don't worry too much if you felt that you didn't see every single word clearly or that your eyes didn't always keep up with your finger. This is normal when you first try this exercise. You may even feel a bit tired, this is also normal. In time these problems will go eventually, the thing is to keep practising.
Step Two:Now I want you to go back to your first marker. What you are going to do now is repeat the same exercise except this time you are going to cover the same ground in only one minute. That's right only one minute. This is very important. You must get to your marker by the time one minute is up even if you have to scramble through the lines and you experience all the problems mentioned above. You will probably find that some of the words do appear blurred and you lose your hand to eye co-ordination this does not matter, just keep going.
You will be moving at twice the speed. If you have trouble keeping track of time get someone to count down the seconds for you.
If you don't manage to get to your marker in time do this section again. If you past your marker all well and good just move your marker to that point. When you have got used to practising step two you can go on to the next stage. Now you are going to cover the same ground in only thirty seconds.
At this stage you may well find the words appearing blurred to you. In fact you will probably think you can only see part of each line. You will almost certainly have to underline three or four lines which each sweep of your finger.
To make the exercise easier imagine your index finger is like a paint brush. Simply sweep across the page as fast as you can. Now set your timer for thirty seconds. Keep your eyes focused as best you can as you sweep down the page. This exercise should be practised for about fifteen minutes each day for at least three weeks.
If you make it a daily routine to go through these exercises your reading speed and comprehension will increase dramatically. However there is another technique that I am about to tell you about which can give you extraordinary power to process information into your brain:-
Subconscious Reading Power:The technique I am going to outline now is different from the exercises mentioned above. The speed reading exercises are based mainly on using you conscious mind however they will help with you with next technique.
You might remember me telling you that your mind can absorb over two million pieces of information every second. Well it is possible to use this fact to your advantage. Since you will be utilising your subconscious mind you will need to relax your conscious mind sufficiently in order to allow your subconscious the freedom to act.
This technique is not like reading a book in the usual way and you will not necessarily know consciously whether or not you have absorbed any information. You might be wondering why use this technique at all in the first place. Having learnt to scan the book while in a deeply relaxed state your subconscious mind will see and absorb the words on the page at an incredible rate. Having just scanned the book in this way you just seem to obtain knowledge intuitively. It is not a conscious thing. Someone asks you a relevant question about the book and you just seem to know the answer.
Some highly placed sales personnel are now learning this technique in order to get an edge over their competitors. By scan reading it is possible to absorb an astonishing amount of information that would take a hundred times longer doing it the conventional way using conscious effort. It means a sales person could mug up on a particular topic relevant to a customer's needs and be able to converse with them and make the appropriate responses.
Step One:Let yourself drift into a light trance using whatever method works best for you. Imagine your mind being opened up to receive information. It feels relaxed and responsive. You want to be in as quiet a room as possible without any possibility of being disturbed.
Stay in this pleasant state for about ten minutes. In your imagination have a book in front of you and turn to page one. Imagine your eyes acting like a camera, a bit like a spy who photographs documents turning the pages calmly and efficiently. Your eyes simply absorb what on each page. Imagine it feeling perfectly natural and effortless. Don't force it.
Come back to a kind of semi-waking consciousness. Try to retain that feeling of calm and focus. Find a book you would like to practice with and open it to the first page. Now simply turn the pages over as calmly as you can, like you did in your imagination a shod while age, and at a speed which feels appropriate for you. Just keep turning the pages until you finish the book. As you turn the pages silently chant to yourself "Read----Relax Read Relax.
Don't try to read in any conventional sense of the word, simply photograph each page as you go. In that sense it is similar to the earlier exercises. However with this method it is possible to achieve incredible speeds.
It is as simple as that. Remember you will not be consciously aware that you have read anything at all.
This exercise can be used in conjunction with the earlier one. It will probably take a little time for you to accept that your are actually processing this information. Tests have shown that this technique works. People who have read a book in this way, in a matter of just a few minutes, are then given a multiple choice questionnaire. They are generally able to achieve 70% accuracy. This is a figure which is much higher than could be achieve on the basis of pure chance.
Using specially designed computer programmes some people have been able to absorb 690,000 words a minute. What they do is provide the conscious mind with a 3D magic eye picture to look at on a computer screen. At the same time hundreds of pages of words are flashed on the screen at great speed. The subconscious mind simply processes the information because the conscious mind is kept busy elsewhere.
Of course it is all a question of practise. The more used you get to trying these techniques the more you will learn to accept them. If you don't believe you are capable of doing them the chances are you won't. Your critical factor or belief factors might prevent you. However perfectly normal ordinary people have learned to do these things so you can too! Remember keep positive.
How To Tap The Incredible Secret Powers Of Your Own Mind!!
Part Nine
The author and publisher of this material are NOT RESPONSIBLE in any manner for any injuries which may occur through reading or following the instructions in this material. Any reader who experiences discomfort from carrying out any of the exercises in this material should seek medical advice. © A.C. Mail Order 1999-2000. All Rights Reserved. Neither the whole nor any part of this document may be reproduced, stored in any data retrieval system or transmitted in any form whatever by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise. Any breach will be enforced at law.
Part Nine
Learning how to learn.
Imagine if you could enrol in a college, or on a course, which taught a curriculum in such a way that you felt that after only a few weeks you had learnt more than you did after four or five years at school.
Most of us were educated in schools where the children sat in drab uniform rows and information was churned out on a daily basis on all manner of subjects. Much of the information we learnt at school is virtually never used in later life and many people leave school with a profound feeling of failure in one or more subjects.
If we were lucky we were good in one or two subjects and perhaps just OK at others. If we were really lucky we might have excelled at three subjects and been above-average in the others. Of course there will always be some who seem to be brilliant at everything. This might be you!
I find it strange that a large number of children can spend 16 or more years in the state educational system but appear to get very little from it. In some cases if they can just about read or write properly then this is considered a success. I'm not criticising teachers here but merely making an observation of my own.
Can you think back to your school days and remember which subjects interest you most? Which lessons did you eagerly wait to get to and which teachers you most liked and respected? Which teachers have made a difference in your life? Which teachers made their subject come alive and fun and made you want to learn more?
Many psychologists have studied the mind in recent years and have discovered some fascinating things about how it likes to work. I want to share some of this information with you because I think it will have a dramatic effect on your life from this moment on.
If you have ever watched a young child playing you will have noticed how he will pick up a toy or some other object and examine it with fascination and an insatiable curiosity. He will bang it on the floor, he will put it in its mouth, and will wave it slowly in the air and then perhaps move it faster while observing how the light reflects off the surface.
This process of learning is known as "Global learning". This is the most natural way we can learn anything. Infants are not taught to do this it is their natural instinct to learn in this way. Provided a child feel secure and loved within its environment its mind will absorb an immense quantity of information from birth right up to the age of six or seven. A child's mind during these years can be likened to a sponge.
What is more this process is made all the more pleasurable for the child because it is carried out in the stress free environment where the child receives bucket loads of positive feedback and encouragement from its parents and relatives. This is a perfect way in which to learn.
If you have had children yourself, you will remember what a great day it was when your first-born took his first tentative steps. Can you remember how you felt? The fact is it is an amazingly difficult task to learn how to walk but despite this fact we all seem to manage it. Even though we must have all fallen down countless times, sometimes painfully, we never got discouraged or felt a failure in anyway. Have you ever stopped to wonder why that is? Despite all the setbacks and constant falls you never thought of giving up, you simply picked yourself up and tried again. You see at that age you never even considered yourself a failure because you had no idea of this concept.
While you were practising learning to walk your parents were constantly urging you on and encouraging you every step of the way in your quest, because they were sure you would get there in the end. Each time you had a bit of success and managed to take a few more steps on your own your parents would respond by heaping praise on you which in turn encouraged you to seek greater success.
At about the age of two you would have probably taught yourself how to communicate using language. In fact most children will have learnt about 90 per cent of all the words most commonly used by the time they reach the age of five!
It is a well known fact that if you grow up in a family where two languages are spoken you would almost certainly be fluent in both by this time. This is particularly true if your mother spoke a different language to that of the country in which you lived.
By the time you were six you would probably have mastered the basics of what is considered to be the hardest learning task any human can undertake: learning to read.
Then what happened? You went to school! It was probably here that you start to get your first real sense of the concept of failure. Maybe a teacher asked the class a question and you eagerly put up your hand and gave the answer you thought to be correct only to be told that you were wrong. At this point your classmates began giggling at you and you felt embarrassed. This was probably your first feeling of failure.
In America in 1982 a study carried out by Jack Canfield into selfesteem used a sample of a hundred children each assigned to a researcher for the day. Each researcher made a note of the number of positive and negative remarks the child received.
What they found was that on average every child received 460 critical or negative remarks to 75 positive ones! That is a ratio of more than six negative strokes to the one positive one. The effect of this overtime on some children can be devastating. We dealt with some aspects of positive and negative strokes in part three so I don't want to repeat myself here. Suffice to say many children subconsciously give up at school and stop learning at this time. They begin to feel unworthy and a failure.
I can remember my eldest daughter's early years. She managed to learn to read quite early on at about the age of four because we encouraged her and taught her the phonetic alphabet. We were very pleased and proud with the progress she was making and our praise of her made her feel good about herself. This spurred her on make greater efforts and seek more success.
Unfortunately we didn't pay that much attention to her ability in maths. In school she found maths difficult. Because her ability at maths was much lower than her ability at reading she shunned the subject and felt a failure. Anyway like most parents do we tried to help her. At first she was reluctant to try. It was almost as though the subject caused her pain. We made the idea of "doing sums" fun by making it into a game. She soon became absorbed in the subject and as we praised her progress to the rooftops her confidence grew. Soon she would come home from school proudly telling us that she found maths easy and badgered us to play the "sums" game again.
The trouble is some children don't get this kind encouragement at home and the schools don't have the resources to fully counter this lack of support. The situation is aggravated by the fact that the learning environment in school moves away from the more holistic approach, i.e. a global, to a more inflexible language based system.
The situation becomes more common as you progress through the
school system. Typically pupils sit in regimented rows and are lectured to from the front of the class. All the fun and colourful aspects of nursery school or elementary school are gone. What has happened is that the learning process has come to rely on using the left side of the brain, this is known as left brained activity. This imbalance between using the whole brain, as in nature's Global learning approach, to relying on just one side of the brain causes some children to feel confused and a failure. In fact the very words study or learning trigger feelings of tension and loathing.
It is a funny thing but in the work I do and in learning all the techniques involved in personal development I cannot remember learning anything quite like them in school. I can understand that you should give people a balanced education in society but it seems to me that the emphasis is on trying to get young people to absorb large quantities of information regardless of whether they're interested or need it.
Can you remember revising for an exam the night before and frantically trying to cram as much information into your poor mind as you could? Did you go into the examination with a feeling of panic and nausea?
Why is it important to know the date of the battle of Hastings or the American Civil War? Why is it important to know the capital city of Argentina?
If for the sake of argument we assume that it is vital for all our children to know the names and dates of the all the Kings and Queens of England, the names of all the counties, and the provincial towns within those counties etc.. I would have thought that if one of the goals of education is to get young people to learn and retain all this stuff why not teach them the techniques to do this efficiently and easily?
Next month I will show you some simple techniques that you can use to remember a list of a hundred objects, even 500 objects, or a 1000 if you want to. Not only is it possible to remember them it is also possible to remember them in any order! It is relatively easy to do this.
And I don't want you thinking that you are to old to do this because you're never too old to learn this stuff. In fact some the techniques you are going to learn are thousands of years old. The ancient Romans and Ancient Greeks used them.
Do you think that if young children were gradually shown how to do this in a way that was fun and enjoyable it would improve their feeling of self worth and confidence?
If we take the trouble to understand how the brain likes to process information and study ourselves to discover how we as individuals most like to absorb that information we can make learning a much easier, more efficient, and enjoyable process.
Left And Right Brain Activity:In a previous release we discussed some of the functions of the various parts of the brain. What I want to do now is take this a little further. Although our brains can be considered to be constructed in three parts, the stem or reptile brain, the limbic system, and the neocortex, it has long been thought that you can break down these functions into two parts. As far as the thinking processes go we can assume that our brains consist of two hemispheres, left brain (neocortex) and right brain the (limbic system).
Experiments have shown that each one is responsible for different kinds of thinking and will specialise in certain skills. This is obviously an oversimplification and the two hemispheres do interact with each other but broadly speaking each hemisphere of the brain is responsible for different functions. Each side of the brain is responsible for different aspects of human behaviour.
Left Brain (Verbal):The left brain controls the right side of your body and its mode of thinking tends to be on the logical and analytical side. It is highly organised although it can use abstract thought. It controls our language, speech, reading, writing, and hearing associations. It is both rational and logical and likes to deal with the information sequentially. It handles subjects like maths, science, philosophy etc.
Right Brain (Visual):The right brain which controls the left side of your body prefers to deal in random, unordered, and intuitive modes of thought. It is ideally suited to deal with feelings and emotions. It is this side of the brain which deals with spatial awareness, and shape or pattern recognition. It is also the side of your brain which appreciates music, art, and visualisation, in other words controls our creative side.
Both sides of the brain are equally important and if you are lucky you will use both hemispheres in harmony with each other. People who favour each hemisphere equally find the learning process much easier this is because they can call on either side depending on what the subject is that they want to learn. Although people with a dominance on the left side will tend to find learning easier than people with the dominance on the right side. This is because most forms of communication are expressed either by verbal means or in written form which are both left brain activities.
Some psychologists believe that if you favour the left side of your brain more than the right then you should make an effort to carry out some right brain activities. Activity like learning a musical instrument or taking up painting are both good examples. This is because it is believed it is unhealthy to be centred heavily in one area or mode of thought. Do you remember the concept of yin and Yang.
In the West and increasingly in other cultures greater emphasis is placed on the left brain activities.
It maybe that while you were at school you felt you didn't have the right kind of "brain" for certain subjects. Or maybe you felt that your brain was good at other subjects. There may have been some subjects which you felt you would never be able to cope with. The fact is that we are all born with brains that are virtually indistinguishable from one another.
If you wish to improve your learning skills you need to try and find out how you process information in a way that suits you best. If you think you naturally favour one hemisphere more than another then perhaps you should consider doing activities to stretch the less dominant side.
It is not just useful for you to know what your preferences are, it can also be very useful to know the preferences of others because it can help you get your point across to them more effectively. It could help you with your boss, your colleagues at work, your spouse, and your children. In short if you think about it knowing this information could improve your relationships with others on all sorts of levels.
How easily you perceived information is known as your "modality", and how your order and process this information is called your "brain dominance". There are three main modes all modalities of learning. These are: - Visual, auditory, kinaesthetic.
Visual:Visual people not surprisingly prefer to learn via their sight. For example they like to write things down on a piece of paper before they can remember them. If you asked a visual person a particular word they are usually able to see it in their mind's eye or prefer to write it down on a piece of paper. They say things like "I can see what you mean" or "I get the picture".
Visual people are often smart dressers. They tend to speak quickly. There are often good at organising and planning events. Doodling on a piece of paper when making a phone call is sometimes a clue.
Before undertaking a project they need to have an overview in detail before committing to it. They have problems remembering verbal messages and are not easily distracted by noise. The visual person would prefer to have directions in the form of a map rather than rely on spoken instructions. Visual people will often make good artists.
Typical expressions used by visual people are as follows: -
Get a bird's eye view. Take a dim view of that. I see eye to eye with him. In the light of what has occurred, or, in view of what has occurred. I had a mental picture in my mind.
Auditory:Auditory people might say something like "that rings a bell" or "that sounds good to me". They like to read aloud and often talk to themselves. They can be distracted by sounds easily. They prefer to tell you things rather than write them out. They tend to remember things they've heard more easily than things they've seen. They like to spell words out loud rather than write them down on a piece of paper. Auditory people will often be very musical. They might use expressions like: I am all ears. You can call on me any time. He gave me an earful. I hear you loud and clear. I'd never heard of such a thing.
Kinaesthetic:These people often be very tactile and want a touch you in order to get your attention. They will often stand quite close your while they address you. They will often use their arms and hands to express themselves while speaking. When reading they like to use their finger as a pointer. They tend speak more slowly and use words of action. They tend to be physically active and dislike to sit still for prolonged periods of time. These are the people who if given a wardrobe to put together will prefer to experiment with all the bits and pieces rather than rely on the written instructions like a visual person would do. An auditory person would prefer to be told what to do. They might say things like a "I feel the same way". They use expressions like:Get to grips with the problem. Put my cards on the table. Boils down to. Get in touch with. Pulled some strings.
There are no hard and fast rules in determining which category you come under. Most people would use a mixture of those expressions mentioned above however they can give you a fair idea if you are particularly dominant in one area or another.
You can get a pretty fair idea of the modality of another person by the kind words they use. By adapting your behaviour to suit the modality of another you can achieve a great rapport with that person. If you are speaking to somebody whom you believe to be a visual person sit up straight in your chair or stand up. This tends to make you speak more quickly. If you can match the rate at which you speak to the other person's you create a climate of understanding. If you are speaking to a Kinaesthetic person on the phone sit back and put your feet up, this will help you slow down the rate which you speak. As far as increasing your ability to learn and process information is concerned it is useful to know whether you favour one form of modality over another. If you are an auditory type of person for example, you may prefer to attend lectures and use audio cassettes to learn your subject. You could find for example the playing of music and the background of trying to study is too much of a distraction. (Although studies have shown that some kinds of music, particularly baroque music, when played at a certain tempo can be very beneficial).
And a visual person might find studying near large window a distraction because of all the activity that might be going on outside.
In order to improve our learning skills we have to try and stimulate as many of our senses at one and the same time. In the section dealing with note taking you will see what I mean. However knowing what your individual preferences are will help you to develop the most appropriate methods to suit you.
The most important attribute you can have if you are to absorb information and learn effectively is Good Concentration.
How To Develop A Good Concentration: I think most of us would agree that if we are studying or reading about a subject that is particularly close to our hearts we will find it easier to concentrate on it. Our minds will be less likely to wander off and be distracted.
The ability to focus our minds on the subject at hand is very important if we are to be effective in absorbing the information. It helps if we can eliminate outside distractions, as I have previously mentioned, and create a learning environment which is conducive to our own personal preferences.
In general he should aim for an environment which is comfortable. If you're working at a desk make sure that your chair is at the right height. Ensure the lighting is sufficient so that you don't have to strain your eyes. Some people prefer a very ordered unstructured environment in which to work. Others prefer a more casual atmosphere in which to work and perhaps prefer to sit in a comfy armchair or lounge around on a settee when studying and then moved to a desk to make written notes.
However it is the distractions that come from within our own minds which cause us the most problems.
From our study of meditation we have seen how difficult it is to quieten the mind. If we were trying to study while we're in pain from toothache, or whatever, it is much harder to focus on the task in hand.
However you should be at an advantage here because by practising self hypnosis, or meditation, you will develop the ability to quieten the mind naturally. Before you start to study prepare your mind by slowing the breathing down and meditating for a few minutes.
Relaxation is the key to success in most things in life however the other most vital ingredient is to have a positive frame of mind. When revising or learning new material having a positive attitude is as important as anything else. If you're positive that you are going to remember the information you are studying, then you have a much greater chance succeeding.
As an aid to relaxation background music can often be a very good thing. When we are studying hard our pulse and blood pressure tend to rise. Our brain waves speed up and in some cases the muscles can get tense. As we know, when we meditate the opposite is true. However it can be hard to
maintain our concentration while we are deeply relaxed. Some psychologists believe they have discovered a solution to this problem which is to play a certain kind of music in the background while working.
The most effective music was found to be the music of baroque composers like Bach, Handel, Pachelbel, Teleman, to name but a few. Music which has a tempo of 60 beats per minute is particularly effective because this tempo happens to be about the same as the pulse of the average person's heart rate when relaxed.
Tests have shown that it is not just humans that can benefit by listening to this music. Even plants will grow better and more healthily exposed to baroque music. They will even lean towards the speakers in the same way as they might lean or tilt towards the sun! (It is even more interesting to note that the same plants tend to shrivel up and die if they are exposed to loud heavy metal rock music!)
We don't yet know why this is but some scientists believe that because studying tends to be a left brain activity music can activate our intuitive and creative side of the right brain. This means that both sides of our brain can be integrated into the learning process. I'm sure we can all remember situations at meetings or in the school room where we found ourselves dreaming and staring out of the window into space. This is because our right brain was not engaged. Of course once you have finished studying there is nothing wrong with playing something more upbeat if you want to.
To summarise:1. Quieten your mind by meditating for a few moments before revising or studying. 2. Make sure the area in which you are studying is comfortable and conducive to you and, as far as possible, free from outside interference. 3. Ensure that you have a positive attitude towards the work you are doing. 4. Play baroque music at a low volume in the background.
Maintaining a positive attitude while working is obviously desirable but not always easy to achieve. Sometimes we need a little help or extra motivation.
What Will I Get Out Of It?
The problems of concentration tend to arise more frequently when we are learning a subject because we have to and not because we want to. By now you will realise that the state of your mind or your attitude towards something is of vital importance. If you're trying to learn, but at the same time your telling yourself that you hate the subject, or you don't think you will ever be able to learn all this stuff, then you're creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
From time to time we all have to learn things that we would prefer not to. The answer to the problem is to find the motivation to spur us on and achieve our goal. If possible we should look for a positive motivation. Negative motivation takes the form of "I really would like to have another helping of ice-cream but if I do I just know I'll put tons of weight on". Positive motivation on the other hand might take the form of "if I can pass this exam and get a good grade I will be able to go to the university of my choice". Positive motivation is always preferable.
What you have to do is try and identify as many benefits of carrying out an action as you can. If you can keep these benefits in mind you will help to focus yourself. You could read out one of these benefits to yourself each time you sit down to study.
Suppose you have just joined an evening class to learn French. However when you come home at night from work in after a long day you feel tired and simply want to put your feet up after dinner. You'll have to run through and your mind what motivated you to the join the class and the first place. But maybe you'd like to go to France on your holidays frequently and would love to be able to wander through the markets and speak to the people about the goods they are selling. Or perhaps you want to buy a property there and maybe retire one-day. Alternatively you might feel under the weather and want an early night after a long day at work. You might come to the conclusion that you probably would not be able to concentrate the way you feel.
We all have to make these kind of decisions on a daily basis from the smallest trivial situation right up to the big life changing decisions.
If there is a subject or a project that you have to study because your course requires it or it is essential to your job, then you have to do it one way or the other. This is where your knowledge of self hypnosis can help. By singling out all the most positive aspects of carrying out and learning the task at hand and writing them down you can help your mind to focus on the positive. Using your self hypnosis tape you received with an earlier release,
imagine that you have completed your task and are reaping all the wonderful benefits that this brings. There might be a promotion, more money upon gaining an extra qualification, anything really. The important thing is to concentrate on something that motivates you.
There is another technique that some people found useful. When sitting down to study instead of saying "Oh God I hate this stuff" do this instead. For five to ten minutes either write down on a piece paper or speak out loud telling yourself that you think / find the subject you are learning fascinating and totally absorbing. Tell yourself that you are learning everything easily. The more you become engrossed in the subject the more fascinating it becomes to you.
It might sound a bit strange but by battering the conscious mind in this way your message can make its way through to the subconscious. The conscious mind will give up and say, OK then you win, this stuff is really fascinating.
Make sure you maintain this positive attitude when you begin to study and persevere with it. Imagine what if feels like to be engrossed in a subject, what sensations you normally experience etc. Recreate these sensations in your own mind.
You can make learning your given subject one of your short term goals as we discussed in part four. Is often a good idea to give yourself a reward once you have completed a given task. It might be a trip to the cinema, or a meal out with a friend, or just a good bottle of wine. (I know which I would prefer)!
Celebration is important part in trying to motivate yourself. You should never ignore this aspect because it reinforces the positive side of what you are trying to do. Once you have succeeded and completed your task you will get a feeling of accomplishment and this will give you the confidence to repeat the process later. By celebrating your achievement you give yourself the motivation for the next new task.
We have just spent some time discussing learning preferences and how concentration is important if you wish to retain information. In order to remember information concentration is very important, however it's now time to see how memory works in more detail.
Your Memory: Whether you know it or not you possess a fantastic memory right now. Some of you might doubt this but I can assure you it's perfectly true. There are many reasons why people think that they have a poor memory but this is only because they haven't been told how the memory works.
If you haven't been shown the techniques you can use to boost your memory you will never understand what you are truly capable of and be able to tap into the incredible power of your mind.
Try to imagine for a moment what a terrific memory would do for you and your life. Being able to remember the names of your clients having met them only once or it might be enough to be able to reel off facts and figures whenever you need them. Or maybe you want to learn a foreign language. It does not matter what you do in life, a good memory is always a real asset.
The subject of memory has fascinated philosophers and scientists for thousands of years. At around 400 BC the Greek philosopher Plato set down one of the first hypotheses about memory. He believed that the mind or the memory functions in a similar way to a wax tablet, which is what they used to write on in those days. When you write on a wax tablet you scratch small amounts of wax off the smooth surface. If you wish to re-use the tablet, you can simply smooth the wax over and start again. Plato believed that many remembered things made small indentations in the mind and that in time these marks would disappear and become smooth again. This would mean that we forgot things.
One of the greatest contributions to the study of memory was made by Plato's famous student Aristotle. He noticed that memory functions by association and we will be going in to this in great detail next month. Aristotle thought that our memories were contained in the heart, and although we know this is not true it wasn't until the 18th century that we discovered that the brain was responsible for memory.
The human brain contains billions of nerve cells called neurones. They communicate with each other through chemical and electrical messages. The number of interactions that are theoretically possible is astronomical, some say the number would be greater than the total number of atoms within the whole universe!
All memories are somehow encoded and stored in our brain. They are transmitted across minuscule gaps between the neurones along minute
branches called "dendrites". The dendrites act as a sort of bridge. Each nerve cell can have thousands of connections. Some scientists believe that this intricate network transmits electrical messages between cells which in turn causes chemical reactions to occur which are then encoded as memory. The greater the number of connections between the cells the greater the memory.
There are some interesting discoveries to show that there are significant differences between the kind of memories that are stored in the different hemispheres of the brain. This information has helped to develop some of the memory recall techniques I am going to teach you later.
The important substance that connects the dendrites is a fatty protein called "Myelin". Myelin is produced by the brain and covers the connection between the dendrites as you learn new information. If this connection is stimulated in the future then more coats are added to aid this connection. As the coat gets thicker, as the specific information is relearned, less effort or energy is needed to make the connection and the connection is said to be "myelinated".
This process has caused some psychologists to believe that information should be taught in concentrated batches. This why the average school lesson lasting approximately thirty or forty minutes is largely ineffectual. Some tests have shown that the normal child will only remember about three or four percent of the information when it is taught like this. Some believe that children, or even adult students for that matter, should be totally immersed in the subject so as to allow the brain to make the proper connections. (One assumes that the children want to learn the stuff in the first place though!)
This is how many business seminars are taught these days. A topic is gone into in great depth all day. Total immersion is a good thing, however it is important to take regular scheduled breaks for reasons I will explain shortly.
The simple fact is that we still do not actually know for sure how memories are stored in the brain but there is currently a great deal of research being carried out in this area.
Does Your Memory Change as You Age?
Most experts will tell you that rather than our memories deteriorating as we get older it is more a question of them getting rusty through lack of use. Tests have shown that older people tested for memory against younger people, who had left college for some time, revealed that there is no significant difference between the two. The fact is that there is evidence to suggest that provided a person is in good health there is no reason why their memory should diminish significantly.
However there is evidence to suggest that if it is not used it can get rusty. There is further evidence to show that by practising memory techniques you can boost your memory power by a huge margin.
Does My Diet Effect My Memory?
If you eat a balanced diet and avoid eating processed food there should not be any reason why your diet should effect your memory. However there are a number of nutrients which are essential if you brain, and memory are to function efficiently. Recent research has found that choline is essential for good memory. In fact it has been used to treat people with all kinds of mental disorders. Choline occurs naturally in Soya beans. Folic acid is also an important nutrient for efficient brain functioning and if you have a deficiency then this can cause you to have problems with concentration and memory. Folic acid occurs naturally in green leafy vegetables like spinach, broccoli, or parsley.
Vitamin B1, B2 & B5 and magnesium are all very important to the general health of out nervous system. B3 has been found to be important to maintain the metabolism of the brain and this in turn helps you concentrate. Also B6, B12, Iron, copper, Zinc, and calcium are all important ingredients. I am not recommending you go out and start popping pills all day and would reiterate that a healthy balanced diet containing fresh produce, preferably organic, is all you probably need to maintain a healthy body and mind. However if you think you may be deficient perhaps you should consult your doctor.
Antibiotics or consumption of alcohol will reduce the level of vital nutrients within the body and so there may be a good case for taking supplements when you are ill or are feeling under the weather. There are problems with most supplements because the body finds it very hard to absorb the vitamins and minerals in pill form so you are really better off ensuring you eat well.
Vitamin C is good for reducing stress within the body and helps remove toxins. We are the only mammal which does not produce vitamin C naturally within the body and so need to obtain it exclusively from our diet. Although many foods do contain Vitamin C many nutritionists recommend that we take vitamin supplements every day, roughly about 500 milligrams per day. If you opt to take Vitamin C supplements you should spread the dosage out throughout the day otherwise the body just flushes out the excess if it is taken all in one go.
Now I want you to guess what factor the experts consider to be particularly bad for the brain and memory in particular?
That's right its Stress!
I'm not going to repeat myself by going into how bad stress is for the system. You should by now appreciate how important it is to eliminate stress as far as possible from your body. I hope you are using the techniques shown in the course and the audio tapes provided to do this.
You don't need me to remind you how stressful it can be to take an exam and have your mind to go blank when you turned the examination paper over. None of the answers come to you when you need them most however once the exam is over and you are outside feeling more relaxed the answers that were so elusive before suddenly come flooding in your mind.
Breathing properly is one of the best ways to keep stress under control and as we know the brain requires a lot of oxygen to function properly.
As we have seen in earlier releases the advanced techniques of meditation, yoga, and martial arts all require that we breathe properly. Although the brain only accounts for about two to three per cent of our body's weight, it is thought to need at least 25 per cent of our oxygen intake. As you know from a previous release oxygenating the blood is a key factor in the physical and mental disciplines from the east and regular exercise is one way to achieve this.
The Psychology Of Memory: Broadly speaking memory falls into two categories. One is called short term memory and the other as long term memory. As the name suggests, short term memory is temporary where as long-term memory is permanent. The short term memory is used to remember immediate information in order to carry out an immediate task. A good example would be if you had to remember someone's telephone number long enough so that you could write it down or dial it. Short-term memory can last anything from 20 seconds up to two days.
Now unless there is some reason why the information learned should be made permanent you will forget it, at least consciously. If there is some important reason why you need to remember the information, then you'll have to make a conscious effort to transfer it into your long-term memory.
Long-term memory has been described as permanent storage and in theory you should be able to retrieve information from it once it has been stored there.
Example of how the short term memory and long-term memory work together is when you read something. Your short term memory has to retain the words within a sentence long enough for the image or concept of what you reading to be transferred into your long-term memory. Once you've grasped the concept the individual words that you have read will be quickly forgotten, at least by your conscious mind.
Research carried out during the late part of the 19th century showed that when we memorise items on a list we tend to remember the items at the very beginning and at the very end better than those in between. It also seems that the majority of the items we forget are forgotten almost immediately after reading them. Approximately 70 per cent of the information learned would be forgotten within 24 hours. However if the list of items was reviewed within that period then there was a much greater chance of transferring information to the long-term memory.
The best way of remembering items in this way is to review them for five minutes duration ten minutes after your first attempt at learning them. Then review the list once more the following day again for about five minutes. The next stage would be to review the list once more about a week's time for approximately three minutes. Your next review should be made a month later again for only three minutes. Your last review should take place six months for about three to five minutes. By this time you should find that the information you are learning will have been transferred effectively to your long-term memory.
So if you have a list of information that you want to commit to your long-term memory the following technique is quite effective.
Memory Technique One: 1. Read through material for the first time. 2. Review the material for five minutes, 10 minutes later. 3. Review the material the week later for approximately three minutes. 4. Review the material one month later again for three minutes. 5. Finally review material six months later for about three minutes.
Now although most information is forgotten immediately after reading, there is some evidence to suggest that memory actually improves for about two to five minutes after learning something. This has been called the reminiscence effect. We are not clear why this should happen but some have theorised that it is at this stage that our conscious mind makes links with the subconscious mind in some way.
This is why it is a good idea to take breaks of about five minutes between learning any new material. If you have a lot of information that you wish to learn it is a good idea to split it up into equal chunks. Each chunk or portion of material should not take more than 30 to 40 minutes to learn. Before moving on to the next portion of information you should take a five-minute break.
By doing this, you help your memory to process the information because each chunk of material will have a beginning and an end. And as you remember we remember items better that occur at the beginning and end of a section. So by splitting your work into many sections you create many more beginnings and endings. By taking regular five-minute breaks in
between you are also making use of the reminiscence effect. Before embarking on learning any new material you should first revise what you have just learnt. For some reason by doing this it helps the memory improve and makes it easier to remember future material. Next month I will go into memory in much greater detail and show you some amazing techniques that you can put to use to vastly improve your ability to remember. The thing to remember about memory is that we don't really forget anything. And as I have already told you during this course, our subconscious minds remember almost everything we see, hear, and do.
The real problem is not memory but how to recall all the information that our subconscious mind has stored away.
Some people believe it would be terrific if we consciously remembered everything we were exposed to. However the fact that our brains allow us to forget day-to-day trivia is very important. For example do you really wish to know what you have for breakfast on the 23rd March 1986? Do you really wish to remember what was said in a school assembly on a particular day when you were seven years old.
It may be that you can remember a particular school assembly when you were young but if you do remember it, it is because it stuck in your mind for some reason. This is the secret to developing a good memory and I shall explain this next month. In the meantime here are three lists of items I want you to memorise for next month. Just do the best you can. Please don't worry if you can't remember them all. I can assure you, you'll soon be able to remember a list five, ten, or more times as long, without any problems.
Tomatoes, carrots, cauliflower, potatoes, peas, beans, lettuce.
broccoli, asparagus,
Apples, bananas, oranges, pineapple, grapes, apricots, peaches, pears, tangerines. Telephone, lorry, office, pushchair, settee, guitar, bicycle, space shuttle, oil tanker, Post Office, Bank, clock, pencil, deep-freeze, train.
How To Tap The Incredible Secret Powers Of Your Own Mind!!
Part Ten
The author and publisher of this material are NOT RESPONSIBLE in any manner for any injuries which may occur through reading or following the instructions in this material. Any reader who experiences discomfort from carrying out any of the exercises in this material should seek medical advice. © A.C. Mail Order 1999- 2000. All Rights Reserved. Neither the whole nor any part of this document may be reproduced, stored in any data retrieval system or transmitted in any form whatever by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise. Any breach will be enforced at law.
(How to develop a fantastic memory!) With a little practise after using the techniques in this month's release you will amazed at how much easier it will be to remember facts, details, and tasks you have to do. You will be able to remember lists of names. telephone numbers, etc. You will be able to give speeches, lectures and presentations with much more confidence. I expect your life, in common with most people, is full of things we have to do, appointments, phone numbers, peoples names, information learned on courses for your work or at college. The list is endless.
Now and again on television we see amazing people dazzle us with feats of memory. Some magicians perfect the technique of remembering people's names and faces even their jobs etc. Sometimes they will be able to recall the names of over two hundred people after only meeting them once!
Doormen of prestigious restaurants make sure they have mastered this technique. At the Canlis restaurant in Seattle the doorman amazed diners with the power of his memory. When they arrived he would park their cars but would never issue them with a ticket or write anything down. When the diners had finished their meal he would observe them through a small window and made sure their car was waiting for them when they left the restaurant.
This man had to deal with hundreds of clients during the week. How could he do this?
If I were to tell you that your memory is probably every bit as phenomenal as the magician's or the doorman's you might find that hard to believe but it is true. In fact you could probably do a lot better with the right techniques and a lot of practise!
Now there is an important point I want to make before we go on. Many people will complain that they have a poor memory when what they actually mean is that they have poor RECALL.
I have said it before but I will say I again. Your brain is able to remember everything you have heard seen or done. In side your mind right now are probably all the names of your classmates from your reception class at infant school. You almost certainly know the address and telephone number of every place you have ever lived. You probably even know what you had for lunch on the 14th March 1985.
The fact that our brains retain all this information is well documented and many studies have been carried out. The problem for us is being able to recall this information which is filled away deep inside our subconscious mind. Now most of this information is of little value and we are not likely to want to remember it. But other information would be very useful to recall when we wanted or needed it.
The trouble is our brains are designed to confine most information into storage unless it thinks there is a good reason to keep it on hand. If we want to recall information we have to use certain techniques to help us get hold of it at a later date.
Your memory will only recall what it considers to be important or meaningful to your life. Your memory will recall items, and situations if they have made a strong impact or have Strong Associations. As we shall see the ability to form associations is the key to most memory techniques.
However your memory remembers things best if they have or use the following characteristics.
1. Memories that stimulate the sensory centres of the brain, particularly visual associations, are easier to recall.
2. Event which have strong emotional content like love, sorrow, or happiness will be easier to remember.
3. Events which involve unusual or outstanding qualities have a habit of sticking in the mind. (Like a flying saucer landing on top of your house). You are not likely to forget something like this.
4. Your mind will make sure you remember anything which has a connection with your survival
5. Repetition is one way of helping your memory to recall certain facts or events.
Sensory/Visual Associations:Any experiences which involve sight, sound, taste, touch, or movement will have particularly strong associations for our memory. The connections
become more vivid for the memory if more than one sense is used. This is why it can help to read out aloud if you are trying to remember something. If you act out what you are learning as well, this involves both your visual, kinaesthetic and auditory senses at the same time.
Emotional Associations:Memories which are charged with great joy and happiness are unlikely to fade away. Lets face it you not going to forget the first person you fell in love with, or the day your son/daughter was born. You are also likely to remember days which are charged with great sorrow like the a bereavement of a loved one for example. The exception to this is where the grief, or experience, is so painful the mind shuts it out to avoid you feeling the pain.
Associations which are Unusual or Outstanding:This is one of the keys to many memory techniques. We tend to remember things better if they are unusual in some way. For example you would notice and remember if you someone parachuted into you garden or if a flying saucer landed on your front lawn and a little green man asked you directions to Andromida. If you were to try and remember the people who were doing their shopping in the local supermarket last Friday you would probably have problems remembering anyone you saw because they didn't stand out any way, they were not unusual.
Intensity:Any situations that involve absurd, colourful, sexual, exaggerated, imaginative even painful associations will be easier to remember. They "stick in the mind" somehow.
Necessary for Survival:You can be sure that you will remember what plants or snakes are poisonous if your life depended on it, or what plants are good to eat and which made you sick. You will remember that it is not a good ideas to stick your tongue in the plug socket.
Repeated Items:This is perhaps the most commonly used method of remembering something although not always the most efficient. Telephone numbers that you constantly use will be stored away in your long term memory and will not
have to be looked up. This is because the connections in the brain will have been sufficiently mylenated. Any physical activity relies on repetition in order to perfect the techniques involved. This is true whether you are learning a new dance routine or mastering a new movement or form in a martial art. Musicians rely on a great deal of repetition to learn a new piece of music particularly if they want to commit it to memory.
In fact music is an interesting example because the process of learning a piece of music involves many senses at one and the same time. There are the visual cues from the printed score, physical cues from the act of playing the notes, to the auditory stimuli of the actual sounds produced. There can also be emotional associations that the music stirs within the performer.
Acronyms:Acronyms are used to summarise a group of items or words by using the initial letters of the words to form new word. For example MAD was used to describe the policy which kept the peace between the Soviet Union and the West during the nuclear age (Mutually Assured Destruction). There are many other very familiar examples NATO, OPEC, etc. These are useful ways of trying to remember some simple concepts.
Another simple technique commonly used in schools is a variation of the acronym system. We are often taught a rhyme in order to memorise a list of items. Most of us who were taught music will remember "Every Good Boy Deserves Football" which was used to teach us what the names of the notes on a stave of music are. However these two examples are very basic techniques of memory recall. I want to show some other less well known methods which are very effective in memorising lists of items and various unrelated facts. As you are now probably aware there is one basic key ingredient which always present in all memory techniques and that is:-
The key factor in being able to remember things is our ability to form associations. Some associations go hand in glove with one another and appear quite natural like swimming and water or sea and beach. Other associations are not so obvious so we have to have a conscious effort to form associations.
The more outrageous you can make the connections between the things you are trying to remember the easier it will be to remember them. What you have to do is to visualise your associations as vividly as you can. Make them silly, ridiculous, humorous, sexy, even frightening. The very act of taking the trouble to form these images in your mind makes the whole process of remembering them much easier.
The Link Method:In part nine I gave you a list of sixteen items for you to try and remember. Telephone, lorry, office, pushchair, settee, guitar, bicycle, space shuttle, oil tanker, Post Office, Bank, clock, pencil, deep-freeze, train.
I want you read through them again for about five minutes and then close this release. Now try to write them down in the order they are given here.
How did you do?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------These items are all unrelated to each other and so connecting them together in some logical way would seem difficult at first sight. What I am going to show you is how you can make links between these objects in a way that one leads you on to the next one and so on. It is rather like connecting the links in a chain.
By using the link method it is easy to remember all these items without having to write them down or carrying out repetition. What is more you will be able to remember them in order and even reverse order. And more over you will be able to retain this information for as long as you want or need to. You can use this method to remember lists of all manner of things. You can use it to remember appointments or main themes in a speech. It is particularly useful if you have to recall any information that has to be recalled in
sequence. It can be hard to simply remember plain words or facts so we must find a way of making these items memorable in some way. In order to be able to do this we must learn how to form strong mental images. There are a few rules we must follow if our mental images more easily we must follow a few simple rules:-
1. Exaggerate our pictures perhaps by making objects much bigger than they really are or by using Vivid Colours. You can exaggerate the quantity of an item or items. Use three dimensions. You can also personify the objects by turning them into cartoon characters. In this way you objects can do seemingly impossible or outrageous things.
2. Whenever you can, provided it is appropriate, you should add movement, action, humour, and, provided it does not offend you sensibilities, add violence or sexual connotations.
3. Try to draw on your own personal experiences when forming you mental pictures. Use people and things you know.
4. Try to use and involve as many of you senses as you can. Add sound, see the images clearly, but also add smell, taste, and touch.
5. Finally while forming your mental pictures you can form memorable associations or links by (a) Placing objects on top of one another, (b) Placing objects underneath one another, (c) Putting objects inside one another, (d) Or by smashing the objects into each other, and (e) You can reverse the items.
Now the first two items on the list I gave you were Telephone and Lorry. Can you form a suitable mental picture to link these two items. Perhaps you can imagine a giant telephone on wheels crashing into a lorry? Or a brightly coloured telephone in the shape of a lorry? Or you could have a lorry take on human characteristics and have it talking down the giant telephone to the office.
The important thing is to make strong mental pictures which mean something to you. These examples are just a few of many thousands of examples you could use. What I have done is make the items interact with one another, in this way the memory of one leads you onto the thought of the next item and it is in this way you can build your chain. In my last example I had the lorry talk down the phone to the office. Imagine the office filled with a giant pushchair. Your could have the pushchair relaxing on a settee. The
settee could be playing the guitar or shaped like a guitar. You could have a guitar riding a bicycle. The bicycle could ride up to the launch pad of the space shuttle which could take off but unfortunately crash into an oil tanker. The huge explosion could set light to a post office many metres away or the oil tanker could be blown right up into the air only to land on top of a post office. The fire from the post office might spread to the Bank next door. Firemen looking like clocks arrive to put the fire out and one uses a brightly coloured pencil instead of a hose! Do you get the idea?
Finally the water to douse to fire is so cold it freezes everything because it is coming out of a huge deep-freeze and the deep freeze is large and heavy it has to be supported on a train.
Now I want you to spend a few moments to form vivid mental pictures of the sequence of events I have just described. I am sure you can think of some better ideas. Now wait a few moments and write out the list again.
I would be surprised if you did not do much better this time. What is more if you test yourself again in two days time the chances are you will still be able to recall these items in perfect order. Don't worry if you have a little trouble with some of the items the thing is it takes practise to form strong mental images but in time it will become second nature!
The Room Method:This technique is a variation on a method to remember a sequence of facts or items that was widely used by the Ancient Romans. A senator giving an important speech to the senate would imagine a long walk and on this imaginary walk there would be key places or objects along the way. What he would do is associate these key points on the walk with the important themes on his speech in his mind.
As he imagined himself making progress on his walk he would come across these key stages or landmarks and this would jog his memory about what the next point he wanted to make in his speech. The landmarks could be anything from a fountain, a shop, or a particular villa etc. The point is it was the association with the landmark that was important and the fact that they were kept in sequence.
The room method is very similar except you use the various rooms in your house or flat. What you do is think of two or three distinctive objects in each room that you can use to form associations with whatever it is you have to remember.
The advantage of this system is that you know the layout of your house very well and this makes forming connections fairly straight forward. Suppose you wanted to remember the items below, all you would have to do is link each one with one or more of the objects in the rooms of your house.
For example in the hall you might use objects like, a table, a clothes peg, and the front door. Try to think of three objects you could use in each of the rooms of our house. Start with the Hall and move around the house using each room in the order you reach them so as to keep them in sequence. For example the hall might lead into the lounge, then the dinning room, then bedroom one, Bedroom two etc. Try to remember the following list of items using the room method. Remember to use the techniques we used before when forming your mental pictures. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Exaggerate. Use Motion, humour etc. Use personal experiences etc Use as many of your senses as possible. Put objects next to or inside one another etc.
Tomatoes, carrots, cauliflower, potatoes, peas, broccoli, asparagus, beans, lettuce.
Apples, bananas, oranges, pineapple, grapes, apricots, peaches, pears, tangerines.
Numeric Memory Systems:As the title suggests numeric memory systems are designed to connect numbers to the items or facts you are trying to remember. One of the most simple techniques you can use is the "rhyming system".
Rhyming System:What you do here is create key words, normally of tangible objects, to represent numbers. In this way you can recall items or appointments in the correct sequence. For example:1. Could be BUN. 2. Could be. 3. Is TREE. 4. Is Door. 5. Is Hive. 6. Is STICKS. 7. Is DEVON or HEAVEN. 8. Is SKATE. 9. Is WINE. 10. Is DEN.
You could try to make associations between the first list of items I gave you and the key words I have given here. The benefit of this system is that you will be able to think of an item out of sequence and give the number associated with it. For example the ninth item on the list below is Oil Tanker. If you associated this with the key word WINE you would know that Oil Tanker was the ninth item on the list, and so on. Have a go at forming connections with the following items this time use the key words given above.
Telephone, lorry, office, pushchair, settee, guitar, bicycle, space shuttle, oil tanker, Post Office.
Another system which is similar to the rhyme system is the "SHAPE SYSTEM". What you do here is think of objects or key words who's shape remind you of the image of a number. For example the number one (1) might make you think of a pencil or pen, (2) could represent a swan, and so on. If you are a visual person then this approach might work better for you than say the rhyming system. This methods can work well if you want to remember short lists or appointments or perhaps main ideas for a presentation.
The Phonetic Memory System:I now want to show you what known as the most powerful numeric system yet devised. It is a little more complicated than the other two systems just mentioned but once you have mastered the basics it will give you the ability to recall vast amounts of data. You will be able to remember peoples telephone numbers, account numbers, formulae, technical equations, in fact it has can have a vast number of applications. If you have not come across this system before then prepare to be amazed! All the numeric systems are designed to relate abstract numbers to concrete or tangible items or facts.
As the name suggests we are going to use the sounds of consonants to represent the numbers from 0 to 9. Vowels don't count in this system neither will silent consonants. Here is list of the sounds that we will be using:-
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 0.
= = = = = = = = = =
(t). (n). (m). (r). (l). (j). (k). (f). (p). (z).
Now these sounds are not as random s you might think. The letter (t) looks a bit like the number one and the letter (n) has two legs going down and the letter (m) representing the number three has three legs. The fourth letter in the word four is an (r). Not all the key letters have such a logical connection and it might seem a bit complicated at first but once you have mastered the basics it really is very easy.
The next step is to put some key, sometimes called peg, words to each of these sounds. Remember vowels and silent consonants don't count.
1. (t) tea. 2. (n) Noah (as Noah' ark). 3. (m) mow. (as in mowing the lawn). 4. (r) ray. 5. (l) law. 6. (j) Jaw. 7. (k) key. 8. (f) fee. 9. (p) pie. 10. (s) sea.
Now these are examples you could create your own peg words in fact it is a good idea to do so however you may wish to stick with these until you know what you are doing. In order to make it easier to find words to represent numbers we can use other sounds to represent the same number. See the chart below:-
Once you have mastered your basic key words of phonetic sounds you can expand your list of words. If you think about it all the numbers we use have the digits 0-9 in them. For example if you wanted a peg word to represent the number 11 you would choose a word with two (t) sounds in it like (tattoo). The first two (t(s) in tattoo represent the two 11 in eleven the third (t) does not count because it is silent and of course the vowels don't count either.
For the number 12 you might choose the peg word (tin). Again one is represented by the (t) and the two by the sound (n). Here is a list of the next few peg words up to twenty so that you get the general idea:209
10. = 11. = 12. = 13. = 14. = 15. =
toes. tattoo. tin. team tar. tail.
16. = tissue (this uses a soft ss sound so can represent the number 6). If you prefer you could have teach. 17. = 18. = 19. = 20. = tack. toffee. tap. nose.
Once you have become proficient in creating you peg words to represent the numbers you need you can go on an on indefinitely. I think you will probably see how it is possible to memorise a list of at least a hundred items in any order you like. Provided you can make strong associations in your mind's eye with the thing you are trying to remember you should not have any real trouble. It does take practise to convert words into numbers. See if you can work out what numbers the following words make:-
Market, Paint, Rarity, Gentleman, Medicine.
) (
) (
) (
) (
Answers:Cauliflower = 7584, Market 3471, Gentleman = 621532, Medicine = 3102. Paint 921, Rarity = 441,
How to use the Phonetic system to memorise telephone numbers:You may have noticed that some of the words have many numbers representing them like gentleman. Now this can present problems trying to find words which go with certain numbers. The more numbers you use the harder it is to find an appropriate word. For example try and find a word to represent 742821937. It is for this reason we tend to only use the first three syllables of a word when ascribing numbers to them. So gentleman would in fact represent 621 and not 621532. This makes it easier to find words which have meaning and with which we can make visual associations.
So lets see if we can create some peg words to represent the following telephone numbers:-
850 847
323 4423
555 8486
345 713
The first number 850 for me signifies the word (flies) and 847 represents (fork). Once I have these two images all I have to do is imagine the person who's telephone number it is being chased around the garden by a host of flies carrying a garden fork. I visualise the scene like a Tom and Jerry cartoon.
Lets take the next number 323 4423. What I would recommend you do here is find a peg word for the first three numbers 323 and then two other peg words to represent the numbers 44 and 23 respectively. Personally I think of the word Monument to represent the number 323. For 44 you could have the word Rare or Roar. For the number 23 you could use the word Numb. However, for me, another word sprang to mind for the number 23 which conjures up a very vivid picture in my mind when I put all three words together to form a link or association. What about the word enema. Lets face it the words monument (323) roar (44) and enema (23) conjure up a particularly strong image which your not likely to forget in a hurry. I am sure I don't have to spell it out for you! All you have to do now is associate the person or organisation with that image.
You see this is a good example because this image follows the rules laid down earlier. To my mind the image is strong and vivid. It is amusing, well it is to my warped sense of humour anyway. It has powerful visual content. It also used sound as in the word roar. So this association appeals to our different senses which will make it much easier to remember later on. This is the key to developing a good memory. Things simply have to be made memorable.
What's in a Name?
Suppose you want to be able to remember peoples faces after only having met them once? This techniques is widely used by business people and salesmen because they know it gives them a considerable edge when dealing with their customers. People are very flattered when you remember them particularly if you can also remember their name. It shows that you have made an effort on their part or thought them important enough to want to remember them.
There are a number of characteristics that make up a person's face. First of all there is the overall shape of the head.
The head can be:Square, Rectangle, Round, Bulging at the back, Egg shaped, Flat on top, or Flat at the back. The face similarly be:Square, Rectangle, Full, Round, Triangular (With the level appearing at the top or at the bottom), Narrow. The forehead can be:Low, High, Wide, Narrow, Receding, Bulging, Vertical or Horizontal. The nose can be:Straight, Convex, Concave, Flat, Pug, Pointed, or Bulged. The eyes can be:Large, Small, protruding, Receding, Almond-shaped, Slanting, Crosseyed. The Eyebrows can be:Bushy, Thin, Straight, Arch, Meeting in the middle, Separated. The mouth can be:Long, Short, Full lips, Straight lips, Protruding, Long, Short.
The ear can be:Large, Small, Triangle, Rectangle, Round, Sticking out, Close to the head. The chin can be:Round, Square, Pointed, Jutting, Receding, Cleft, Double. Dimpled.
You can also consider the colour of the hair. Shape of Moustache or beard, hopefully not on a woman! . I bet you had never considered all those points before. You see if you can identify one or more strong characteristics form a person's face you are half way there to making an association between their looks and their name. You have to be careful about the hair because people can often change their hairstyles sometime quite dramatically. I have not even described the shape or nature of a persons teeth. Do they stick out, do they have gaps between them, do they have too many, what colour are they? You can go on and on. The point is you don't have to use all these items but just select the ones that seem appropriate. The very fact that you are aware of these characteristics means that you have a large number of associations, or hooks, that can be used to help you make a mental picture in your mind. Some people have a bad memory for faces because they think that all faces look more or less alike but we all know that is not really true, ignoring identical twins for the moment and even then there are often some slight tell tale differences. What you have to do is try and identify the most prominent aspects of a person's features. What you should try and do is go through a kind of check list every time you met someone new:Age……. Face shape…………………… Eyes(Colour and Shape)……………….. Hair(Colour and Shape/Style)……………. Forehead………………………. Nose……………………………. Lips…………………………….. Ears……………………………. Chin…………………………….
By developing you powers of observation you will be well along the way to being able to remember a person's face. Most of us find it more difficult to remember a person's name compared to their face. This because again most of us tend to remember visual impressions better than what we hear. This is partly because we probably study things with our eyes for longer periods of time. This is particularly true when you are introduced to somebody new and you are told their name. We are able to study a person's face for a considerable period of time but perhaps only hear a person's name once. There are a few steps you can take to help you remember a person's name:-
1. Whenever you are introduced to someone make sure you hear the name clearly. As a rule most people fail to make enough of an effort to actually hear the name of the person they have been introduced to. If you did not hear the name clearly the first time ask them to repeat it again. If you are still not sure ask the person who introduced you how the name is spelt. You will be surprised that most people will feel flattered that you are taking such trouble to show an interest in them. 2. Always repeat the name to yourself or better still out aloud once you have heard it. You might say that " I am very pleased to met you Mr Whitebed." If his name is actually Mr Whithead then they will correct you. Either way you get to hear the name out aloud. Try to repeat the name during the conversation. 3. If you can try to form an association between their name and their appearance. Some names which suggest a colour like Black, White, Green, or an occupation like Carpenter, Taylor, make it easier to form the connection. So to do names like Spring, March, Winter which denote seasons make associations easier. If the person's surname is Spring you could imagine them standing on an enormous spring bouncing around the room. The more outrageous, humorous, or ridiculous the image the better it will be fixed in your mind. Famous names are also easy to form associations with like Churchill, Clinton, Nixon, Dillon, Lennon, or McCartney. We all probably have a strong image in our minds when we hear those names. All you have to do then is link the person you have just met to that image. Again try to make it more memorable in some way. If the name is Clinton I am sure there are a number of associations which could be made! It does not matter if they are sexual or lewd in some way provided you remember them. You not going to tell the person what you are thinking. Try not to burst out laughing if you association is particularly good! You can use this technique if the person has a same name as someone else you know well. In the same way you can make some kind of connection between them. 4. If the name does not have any descriptive meaning and so you cannot find an obvious connection try and find a descriptive word which come close to the phonetic sound of the name. For example if the person's name is "Pickering" you could form an association using the words (Pickerel, picket, or pickled as in herring). Perhaps visualise them having their
pockets filled with pickled herring. Or imagine them eating a vast plate filled with herring. The bigger the plate the better of course.
So to summarise:1. Make sure you hear the name correctly. 2. Repeat the name as soon as you hear it. 3. Form an association between a meaningful name and the person preferably using some aspect of their appearance. 4. If there is no meaning in the name find something similar and use that. Now there is a lot more I could say about the various systems I have just mentioned however to do this subject justice would take up another course in its own right. For example it is possible to combine the different methods to produce a phenomenally powerful system. You can compartmentalise the various systems. You can use the link method in combination with the phonetic system. Or you can use the room method with the phonetic system. Basically the sky is the limit. What I hope I have done is introduce to you some ideas and techniques which will enable you to dramatically boost your memory power. The tape enclosed is designed to word on your subconscious mind because many people think they can't remember things because they have just got into the habit of forgetting. You don't have that excuse any more!
Some memory experts believe that in order to develop a great memory you should stop writing things down or making lists. They believe you should get into the habit of storing everything in the mind. Perhaps they are correct but personally I really like making lists I enjoy writing things down it is probably because I have a bias towards the visual side of things, also some things are just so boring I don't want to clutter up my mind with them! Basically there is no right or wrong way to use these techniques you can tailor them to suit your own needs.
Before I close on this release I just want to go through the basics of a memory system which some people use to remember foreign languages. Obviously if you have a good grounding in a language it makes life a lot easier particularly if you were taught Latin at school and you want to learn a European language. People with a classical background tend to be better at languages because they know what the root of the various words are. However for the rest of us we need a little extra help.
I will use the French language as an example but this system will work with all languages provided you have imagination and are adaptable. It works best with remembering the names of items, i.e. (nouns). One of the biggest
problems English people have is remembering the correct genders of words. As you probably know Latin based European languages require you to know whether an item is masculine or feminine! If your studying German you have to deal with an extra category. Now I cannot go too far with this here but the general principle is that you have to make an association between the French word you are learning with an English word or expression that will give you the phonetic sound as close as possible to the French word. This is not to be confused with the phonetic system mentioned earlier that is quite different. This is your first step. The next step is to associate the word with the actual item in question. Finally you want to put a gender in there as well. I know this all sounds a bit tricky but it is not as hard as you think. For example:The French word for bedroom is chambre and it is feminine. Phonetically this word sounds like shambre however the words I would use to remember chambre charm and bra or charm-bra. Now this may sound a bit weird at first but I have no problem associating a lady taking off her charming bra in her bedroom or thinking of a bedroom filled with charming brightly coloured bras. Obviously the word bra has feminine associations so this one is an easy example. Also most nouns which in e are feminine anyway but not all! Here is another example:-
The French word for tap is robinet (m). The way I remember this is to think of a friend called Robin dancing on top of a gigantic bathroom tap. I imagine him losing his footing and falling into a net i.e. Robin-net. My friend is male and so that takes care of the gender. If the word was feminine then I would try and think of a girl called robin.
Now I could go on and on with many examples but I hope I have given you the general idea. The key with this system as with all others is to form strong associations. Again I could write several releases on this topic alone but I just want to give you the general idea for the moment.
I hope you have found this information useful and I wish you luck in using them in your everyday life. Incidentally I have a friend who is widely considered to be brilliant at playing bridge. Apparently he used a system based on the principals outlined in this course to memorise the cards!
The cassette enclosed with this months release is designed to work on the subconscious mind and feed it with positive suggestions which will help you improve your memory on the unconscious level.
Good Luck!
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