I remember before I became a professional hypnotherapist I read a book about UFO abduction and learned that one of the “tools” that these investigators use to gather details about reported abduction experiences is hypnosis and hypnotic age regression. I don’t know what to think of this, but as Fox Mulder’s poster on the wall of his office stated, “I want to believe.” I’ve seen the X-Files and enjoyed the show a lot. But, I’m sad to say that now, after years of doing hypnosis sessions and conducting thousands of sessions, not one person has reported an UFO abduction experience! I’m a bit disappointed really.
This lack of uncovering UFO experience while clients are undergoing hypnosis also goes for the many hypnotherapists who have worked at the Banyan Hypnosis Center for Training & Services, Inc. who have conducted thousands more sessions. Why is this so? Well, of course there is the distinct possibility that there is no such thing as an alien abduction experience. So far, that hypothesis carries the greatest weight with me, although I must admit that in the back of my mind I would love to have a client reveal such an experience while in hypnosis in my office. And, I would be most likely to see such a session as real evidence of alien abduction if occurred in a specific way, under certain circumstances. Let me give you an idea of what that would be.
First, I would prefer if that person was a scientifically minded person who did not give UFOs much of a thought. This person should be mentally healthy and of normal intelligence. He or she should be coming in to see me for some unrelated issue such as smoking cessation, over eating, motivation, some exaggerated fear of public speaking, or such.
Then I’d like the regression to be spontaneous. By that I mean that while I was conducting an age regression for something else, i.e., to determine the cause of a fear of snakes, we wind up in the middle of the client recounting an alien abduction.
Click here to read the rest of the Alien Abduction Article.
Enjoy,
Cal Banyan
www.HypnosisCenter.com
Today I was writing an email to one of our graduates, who just happens to be a Urologist. We were talking about hypnosis and claims made by some hypnotherapists regarding success using hypnosis to “heal” chronic illness. I thought that I would share with you all what I wrote to him.
“When it comes to hypnosis and the prospect of healing serious chronic illness, I subscribe to the diathesis-stress hypothesis, in that I believe that when someone becomes ill with a serious life threatening illness, often there is some kind of physical predisposition to that particular illness or disease (it could be genetic or acquired during the lifetime of the client/patient through physical trauma, chemical exposure or other diseases), and then when stress is applied, especially chronic stress, then the system breaks down and health cannot be maintained. At this point, cancer or other serious illnesses can develop.
“Then through procedures such as 5-PATH(TM) or 7th Path Self-Hypnosis(TM) or any other process that goes in and reduces the internal stress that the client is carrying within him or herself, the body is then able to either heal itself, or make the best use of the medical interventions or procedure which are being applied to the illness.
“Simply put, I believe that when under stress, some people experience digestive problems, some have headaches, some have skin problems, some have immune problems, and so on. If you then use an appropriate procedure which will relieve the internal stress, i.e., repressed anger, fear, guilt and so on, then you enable the body to heal itself.
“I believe that hypnosis or hypnotherapy does not and cannot heal the body. Only God and your body can heal the body. But the proper use of hypnosis (and other techniques) can remove the stress so that the body can heal itself.
To read more about using hypnosis for medical issues visit our website.
Cal Banyan
www.HypnosisCenter.com
Hello Everyone!
Right now I am taking a break from class. I’m in the middle of teaching the Banyan Hypnosis Center NGH recognized Hypnotherapy Certification Course. I cover the essential NGH curriculum and then go a bit further and teach advanced techniques such as 5-PATH™ and 7th Path Self-Hypnosis™. I have to admit that teaching the class is just SO much work. I’m on my feet for hours on end, day after day, doing something that requires a great deal of energy and enthusiasm, and I love it! (Nope, I’m not complaining. I love my job.)
Most of the students in my class have never taken a course in hypnosis, but some have and are practicing hypnotherapists. I often have counselors, psychologists, nurses and physicians in the courses that I teach. What a mix! But it all makes for some really great chemistry, and sometimes a clash of opinions here and there. But it is always an adventure. And, everyone, including me, always learns a great deal. It is wonderful.
I think the thing that I like the best is the intensity of the whole thing. I have to get about 200 hours worth of information into their heads in just about 90 hours of class time. Fortunately, I can assign homework, and some of it can be accomplished even before they show up for class. For them, it is 10 days of eating, drinking and sleeping hypnosis and hypnotherapy. Everyone has a great time and is completely exhausted by the end of it all. It is a kind of immersion training that really works.
On the subject of training, let me share with you a couple things about hypnosis, hopefully clearing up some misconceptions:
1. Hypnosis is not sleep. Hypnosis is a heightened state of suggestibility. If you fall asleep when you are being hypnotized you will miss the whole thing and it won’t work.
2. We don’t go deeper into hypnosis, we become more suggestible. But, we are used to hear suggestions like “As I count down from 1 to 5 you will go deeper into hypnosis.” It just doesn’t work as well when you suggest, “As I count from 1 down to 5 you will become more suggestible,” so we keep on saying “deeper.” Practicality wins out here.
3. Suggestibility is different from gullibility. Gullibility implies that one is easily fooled. Suggestibility is the ability of an individual to accept suggestions at varying levels such that it either temporarily or permanently affects their perceptions of reality.
Suggestibility is a very interesting topic. So let me explain it a bit further. For example, the hypnotist suggesting that the client cannot open her eyes, a test for a very light state of hypnosis which is temporary. On the other hand, the suggestion that that an individual is now a non-smoker for the rest of her life, when done right can become permanent.
Let me see if I can make this clearer. In a deep state of hypnosis, it can be suggested that you feel no pain and as a result you can experience complete analgesia or anesthesia! The suggestion alters the perception of pain, such that there is no perceivable level of pain. This cannot be done with a gullible person. No matter how gullible someone is, you can tell him or her that they will not feel pain, but they will still feel it if you pinch or poke them. Big difference!
If you are interested in learning more about using hypnosis as the treatment of chronic pain click this link and learn from Ron Eslinger, and leader in the field.
Well, I have to get back to class. If you are interested in learning more about hypnosis or taking classes, stop by our website.
Well, that is my two cents worth!
Cal Banyan
http://www.hypnosiscenter.com/
Mental Health Survey Says that Half of America is Mentally Ill: APA Land Grab?
I’m sorry I can’t quote who said it. I was watching one of the news channels and the news man was talking to a psychologist about it. Evidently some organization, and that is the part that I missed, I didn’t get the name; created a survey that asked questions about anxiety and depression. When all the surveys were complete they then went to the DSM-IV-TR (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, by the American Psychiatric Association) and found that about 50% of the people that they surveyed were suffering from at least one mental illness AND that as much as one half of those people may be seriously mentally ill.
I don’t know what to make of this. What was the point? Are we the sickest nation on Earth? Or is the whole world in the same boat with us? Or, is the American Psychiatric Association (APA) making one of the greatest land grabs in the turf war that is going on behind the scenes. You see, some factions in the APA is doing are doing thier best to create legislation that would put most professional hypnotherapists out of business. If they can come up with compelling statistics “showing” that at least half of us should only meet with licensed medical practitioners to handle our stress or to improve our mood then, or even to change our bad habits, then they can push to get legislation passed that says so.
Let me tell you what this would do to the use of hypnosis in our country. Most professional hypnotherapists, the highly trained kind, generally spend around an hour and a half with each client for each session. Many schedule longer sessions. Why do they do that? Because they care about helping the client, and powerful techniques such as age regression and parts therapy take a minimum of 30 to 60 minutes to complete. That doesn’t include the time it takes to conduct the rest of the appointment, such as gathering information from the client before and after the time spend doing hypnosis. You simply can’t utilize the very best technology available to the hypnotherapist in a 10 or 15 minute office visit, the typical time spent with a doctor during a visit to his or her office.
Read the rest of the story…
Cal Banyan
www.HypnosisCenter.com
Hi Group,
I just received a question via email. The question is about a client who has been diagnosed with psychosis. The hypnotherapist wants to know if she sees the client is it advisable for the psychiatrist to sit in. (She has a referal from the psychiatrist.)
First off, let me say that I am going to be brutally honest here. Be prepared. Here we go. As I teach in class, I recommend that you do not work with these individuals unless you have training in working with mental illness, such as having at least a BA/BS in Psychology, Counseling, Social Work, or Mental Health Nursing.
There are several reasons for suggesting that you have this kind of training:
1. You need to know the psychological/psychiatric language so that you can speak in a professional way to the other professionals involved.
2. You should be educated on what a particular diagnosis means.
3. You will be better able to work with the client within the mental health system that is providing services.
My second set of recommendations regarding not working with these clients is that:
1. They are going to be very difficult, because they don’t easily bond with therapist in a manner that is conducive to doing hypnotherapy.
2. Typically thought-disordered clients (psychotic and delusional) tend to get worse before they get better, and they may not get better. What will typically happen then is that they will become more symptomatic, decompensate, and have to be hospitalized. Then the doctor and the client’s family will quit on you and hold you responsible for any further problems that the client has down the road, perhaps for the rest of the client’s life. You may even be sued because of what you “did to them.”
If you were to do this kind of work, here are my recommendations:
1. Again you should be trained to work with the mentally ill as I have written above.
2. The family, doctor and all supporting mental health professionals have to be fully informed that this is not going be an easy process, and that the client may get worse before she gets better.
3. You should have very good insurance that covers you working with the mentally ill. If you are sued you can lose everything, even if you win the law suit, you can spend every penny you own defending yourself.
4. I would be more inclined to work with early onset cases, because they have the best results.If things go very well for you, wonderful! You have done a wonderful thing for your client and her family. But probably no one outside of your circle will know about it. If things don’t go well, there may be legal problems, and news reports that reflect poorly on the whole profession.
Futhermore, a case like that “gone wrong” can have an impact where you live and cause laws to be enacted such that it is more difficult for you and other hypnotherapists to practice.Please take all of these things into consideration before conducting hypnotherapy sessions with the mentally ill, especially if you plan on using the powerful hypnotherapeutic techniques commonly used in 5-PATH(TM), such as hypnotic age regression therapy. Tread carefully, and if you decide to do this kind of work, please let me know how it goes for you. Regarding allowing the psychiatrist to sit in, I recommend against it, as he/she does not understand the 5-PATH process, however, if in your judgement, there is greater benefit in having him/her sit in, then do so, but you may want to teach that individual a little bit a about 5-PATH first.
Cal Banyan www.HypnosisCenter.com
