OH NO! Stuck in trance for five hours!

This story is hilarious! From the UK Telegraph: Trainee hypnotist puts himself in trance using mirror A newly trained hypnotist accidentally put himself into a trance for five hours after practising in front of a mirror. Helmut Kichmeier was ''just starring at himself in the mirror, his pupils were tiny'' Helmut Kichmeier, 27, was found by his wife, Joanna, staring into thin air after the bungle in their north London home as they prepared for a tour. Read it, and check out the picture, here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6936814/Trainee-hypnotist-puts-himself-in-trance-using-mirror.html As much as I'm entertained by the story, I don't think it's true. The idea that an ordinary person can be "trapped in trance" is largely an old wives tale. All hypnosis boils down into self-hypnosis, so it's not likely that a person couldn't get himself out, whether he got into it himself or not. Also the mirror is kind of a giveaway. It may scream self-hypnosis ti the uninitiated, but using a mirror's pretty rare. Now it could be that mentally, he was a little bit different and able to get stuck in such a state, or that he was hyper-suggestible. Or he might have been on a drug (I knew a guy who took acid and stared at a clock for seven hours, waiting for the hands to move. He never saw them move, but he still had a great time). It's also possible that, due to his line of work, he was already able to go into a much deeper state of alternate consciousness than most people, but if that were the case, he'd also probably have a greater control to get back out. True or not, it's a great story and great publicity!

Your age is in your mind!

Heres' a fascinating article that describes a study in which elderly men were asked to act as if they were 20 years younger, in an environment that was decorated to match. In only a week they had greater dexterity, less arthritis and improved posture and even mental acuity! I've observed how attitude affects people I know. I've known athletes in their 80s who move like they're in their 30s, and guys in their 20s who look like they're 60. What do you think? Check out this great Newsweek article by Wray Herbert: http://www.newsweek.com/id/193197

You were doing NLP before you could talk!

I always remind beginning NLP enthusiasts that NLP is all based on things we're already doing naturally. It's just that a bunch of very clever people took the time to really observe what was going on and codify it for us to use.

Turns out, even newborns are savvy to calibration and rapport techniques!

Researchers at University of Würzburg in Germany have discovered that newborn babies from different language-speaking groups cry in the same vocal patterns that their parents speak in. So babies form French-speaking households cry in French vocal patterns, and the ones from German speaking parents cry with German tonality. (Ach du libe!) Said one of the researchers: "Newborns are probably highly motivated to imitate their mother's behavior in order to attract her and hence to foster bonding."

In NLP lingo we'd say they're calibrating the mothers tonality and applying rapport techniques to foster the bond.

So easy a child could do it!

Read the full article here:

http://www.livescience.com/culture/091105-baby-language.html

Self-Hypnosis Basics

Here's a great way to get started in self-hypnosis. The attached PDF is very basic, but really all you need to get started. It's based on the note from two successive sessions we did on the topic. The first page describes the method to bring yourself into a hypnotic trance, and the second describes a good way to get started in crafting suggestions to yourself. I recommend practicing the self hypnosis method for at least a week, or until you feel you can bring yourself into a comfortable, relaxed trance state reliably. Take your time! you'll know when you have it because you'll really enjoy the trance state when you achieve it. Once you've got the self-hypnosis down pat, you can explore crafting suggestions that are right for you. Remember that the suggestions should feel good, and out you into your goal. Don't say "I want to stop smoking," say "I enjoy being a non-smoker." Try one suggestion for about 2-3 weeks, or until you feel good results. You can play with different suggestions until you find the ones that work best for you, and remember, it's different for everybody! I love feedback, so feel free to share questions, comments and experiences. Self Hypnosis Basics (You'll be able to read it, or download it as a PDF or word doc).

True Lies

Here's a great little article on NPR about a new way to approach interrogations to ascertain the truth. Most of the sort of things that are "giveaways" in the movies are just that--dramatic devices. Nervousness, confusion, and so forth aren't proof of lies. In fact, We've all probably experienced liars in the workplace and found thay are typically the smoothest most "believable." How do you tell truth from fiction? There are a few key elements to pay attention to, particularly for NLP fans: --Notice how they expand the scope of the interrogation to collect information rather than just elicit a confession (reframe). --Notice they way they establish a baseline for the truth, so they can calibrate further answers from the suspect (calibration). --Notice the way they open up the suspect's defense by interrupting the suspect's pattern by making them tell the story in a way other than expected(pattern interrupt). http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111809280 If peole would like me to go into some of the skills presented here and some of my own experiences with truth and liars, send me an email.

Touch communicates emotion!

OK, most of us probably already knew that touch communicates emotion to some degree, but a researcher at DePauw University has gone ahead and put some scientific validation to it. Matthew J. Hertenstein, Ph.D. has been researching the way we communicate emotion through voice, facial expression and touch, and discovered some amazing things. He's correlated the likelyhood of divorce based on the degree to which the spouses smile in photographs, analyzed the importance of touch to developing children and how they pick up emotionsal reactions from adults, and most interesting, is discovering to what degree we can interperet a person's emotions purely by thier touch! Check out his site: http://www.depauw.edu/learn/lab/media/

VIDEOS!

It's about time! I've done hypnosis in every conceivable place: bars, restaurants, streets, bookstores... But I've never done it on video, but I've been wanting to. Well, I finally did it. Started to, anyway. We had some technical difficulties with the sound the first time 'round. I'm looking forward to doing a lot more--I had a great time, and everybody I worked with really enjoyed it and felt great. Please check 'em out and tell me what you think. For you technically minded hypnotists: I used a very short and direct approach and equally short direct pretalk (the approach actually took longer!), a fairly quick induction, about a minute's deepeners, 2-3 fractionations, a very general suggestion to feel great and relaxed and so forth, and brought them back, and talked about the experience with them for a few minutes after. The entire experience averaged about six minutes each.