Book Report Cross Reference by Topic

Before I post too many more book reports, I though it would be useful to cross reference them by topic:

Hypnosis:
Advance Techniques of Hypnosis,
Hypnotism,
Practical Hypnotism and Mesmerism,
The Power of Hypnosis,
Professional Stage Hypnotism,
25 Lessons in Hypnotism,
The Science of Hypnotism,
Master Secrets of Hypnosis and Self-Hypnosis,
The Laws of Psychic Phenomena,
Witchcraft and Folklore of Dartmoor,
Hypnotherapy,
Hypnotism,
Hypnosis: Key to Psychic Power,
Hypnosis: How to Unleash the Power of Your Mind WITHOUT DRUGS!
Clinical Hypnosis (Crasilneck & Hall)

Mesmerism:
Practical Hypnotism and Mesmerism,
The Science of Hypnotism,
The Laws of Psychic Phenomena,
Mesmerism Unveiled!

NLP: Neuro Linguistic Programmming Vol. 1

Auto-suggestion and Self-Hypnosis:
Advance Techniques of Hypnosis,
Self-Mastery Through Conscious Auto-suggestion,
The Practice of Auto-Suggestion,
Self Hypnosis: Creating Your Own Destiny,
Master Secrets of Hypnosis and Self-Hypnosis,
The Self Hypnosis Book,
Hypnosis: How to Unleash the Power of Your Mind WITHOUT DRUGS!
Thresholds of the Mind

Mind Control

Telepathy and ESP:
Dream Telepathy,
Parapsychology Today,
Are You Psychic?,
You Are Psychic!,
Psycho-Kinesis,
The Laws of Psychic Phenomena,
Spiritualism and Clairvoyance for Beginners,
Paravision,
Crystal Gazing,
Hypnosis: Key to Psychic Power,
Mental Dominance,
Training Manual for Sight Without Eyes
Science of Breath
Sorcery 
Mind Control  
Master Guide to Psychism

Scientific Methodology:
Dream Telepathy,
Parapsychology Today,
Science and the Supernatural,
The Invisible Gorilla
Clinical Hypnosis (Crasilneck & Hall)
Thresholds of the Mind

Self-Help and Positive Thinking:
Self-Mastery Through Conscious Auto-suggestion,
The Practice of Auto-Suggestion,
Secret Mental Powers:The Miracle of Mind Magic,
The Magic of Psychic Power,
The Einstein Factor,
Hypnosis:
How to Unleash the Power of Your Mind WITHOUT DRUGS!,
Getting What You Want,
Outliers,
Thresholds of the Mind
Mind Control
Transcendental Meditation

Psychology:
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,
The Hidden Brain,
The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity,
Blink,
Getting What You Want,
The Invisible Gorilla,
Fundamentals of Psychology in Context, 
Clinical Hypnosis (Crasilneck & Hall)

Intelligence:
The Einstein Factor, 
Outliers,

History of Hypnosis:
The Science of Hypnotism,
The Laws of Psychic Phenomena,
25 Lessons in Hypnotism,
Practical Hypnotism and Mesmerism,
Hypnotism

Stage Hypnosis:
Professional Stage Hypnotism, 

Spiritualism:
Spiritualism and Clairvoyance for Beginners,
The Celestine Prophesy,
The Human Dynamo,
Psychonavigation

Symbol Interpretation:
Spiritualism and Clairvoyance for Beginners,
The Einstein Factor

Folklore:
Witchcraft and Folklore of Dartmoor,
Crystal Gazing,
Psychonavigation
Sorcery 

Other Metaphysical:
Astral Travel for Beginners,
The Secret Wisdom of the Qabalah,
Psychonavigation
Science of Breath
Sorcery 

Remote Viewing: 
Training Manual for Sight Without Eye, 
The Laws of Psychic Phenomena

Book Report: Self Hypnosis: Creating Your Own Destiny by Henry Leo Bolduc (c)1992

Self Hypnosis: Creating Your Own Destiny by Henry Leo Bolduc (c)1992

I've been doing hypnosis for a fairly long time, to the point that I have my own particular understandings, approaches and explanations for all the elements of it. But it's precisely for that reason that I love reading books like this -- to get different perspectives and see the things I think I know, but from different angles. Henry Leo Bolduc has his own perspective on hypnosis and self hypnosis, and he explains it very lucidly. 

Self-hypnosis is often a much more difficult thing to achieve than regular hypnosis, because with regular hypnosis, one person, the hypnotist, is leading and the other follows. But with self-hypnosis, there;s only one person to both lead and follow. 

Bolduc starts with a bit of hypnotic history, and he uses very neat ways to describe the self hypnosis and the hypnotic experience in a way that will make sense to anyone trying it for themselves. For example, he cleverly describes hypnosis as a "waking dream" and a "working dream," and presents a model of the self-hypnotic experience as a train driven by relaxation, carrying suggestions and visualizations, on a tack of ideas. As many authors writing these kinds of books do, he warns of hypnotic influences in everyday life, like advertising, friends and family, and the practice of prayer and and encourages the reader to be more aware of them and filter out the negative ones. 

The author seems to be very influenced by Edgar Cayce and quotes him. There are also distinct Ericksonian bits, as well as some NLP. Interestingly, he always includes both direct suggestion, which he feels appeals to the left, rational brain, and visualizations to appeal to the creative right brain. 

The book includes two basic inductions, one more permissive and one more authoritarian, and then adds a series of 23 useful scripts, which he calls cycles, for various self-help purposes, including self-confidence, sports achievement, public speaking, creativity, ending a relationship, health, and other things. They are intended to be recorded and played back as needed. 

There's a second series of 8 cycles, both by the author and by his students, "for higher consciousness," which include cycles for developing psychic abilities, balancing chakras, etc. Some of the scripts are enticingly abstract, like the "Song of Life" cycle which encourages the listener to tune into sounds around him and then into sounds and vibrations inside himself and find the inner music and harmonies. Another was a cycle written by a woman who wanted to be more aware of the kinds of people coming into her life and takes the listener on walk through one's memories of different people. 

Sadly, the author passed away on 2011, but there's a website with interesting articles, and a link where you can download a free PDF of this book. http://henrybolduc.com/

Book Report: The Practice of Auto Suggestion by C. Harry Brooks (C) 1922

The Practice of Auto Suggestion by C. Harry Brooks (C) 1922

Background information: Taken from the foreword of the book written by Emil Coué:
"The materials for this little book were collected by Mr. Brooks during a visit he paid me in the summer of 1921. He was, I think, the first Englishman to come to Nancy with the express purpose of studying my method of conscious autosuggestion. In the course of daily visits extending over some weeks, by attending my consultations, and by private conversations with myself, he obtained a full mastery of the method, and we threshed out a good deal of the theory on which it rests.

The results of this study are contained in the following pages. Mr. Brooks has skilfully seized on the essentials and put them forward in a manner that seems to me both simple and clear. The instructions given are amply sufficient to enable anyone to practise autosuggestion for him or herself, without seeking the help of any other person." 

This book is a bigger, deeper dive into the famous methodology of Emil Coué's practice of autosuggestion. At the turn of the 20th century, Emil Coué, a medical practitioner and adherent of the Nancy school of hypnosis became famous for his use of affirmations to help his clients achieve the changes they wanted in their health. to his credit, Coué, had a very deep understanding of the psychology that motivates people, and developed a very workable method of using affirmations, that was claimed to have had great success with hundreds of people.
(See Coué's booklet here: https://successworkhypnosis.blogspot.com/2021/10/book-report-self-mastery-through.html)

Brooks seems to have had great faith in Coué's methods, and this book attempts to capture as much of the science of auto-suggestion as he could, even describing an average day at the clinic. He includes more techniques and applications including pain management, healing of physical issues, using affirmations with children and more. 

As with Coué's writings, there's a strong emphasis on NOT using will power, but instead, guiding the imagination to the desired goal. As brooks says, "Autosuggestion succeeds by avoiding conflict. 'Resist not evil, but overcome it with good.'" 

There are more psychological discussion about the ways suggestions, imagination, will power and the subconscious interact, and the techniques to best utilize them. 

Interestingly, Brooks compares Coué's approach to that of Charles Baudoin, a well known psychological researcher of the period who was also strongly interested in the curative powers of affirmations for his psychiatric patients, but had a different, more forceful approach. (I have not yet read anything by Baudoin, but apparently he had a lot of unique insights into psychology). 

For hypnotists, fans of affirmations and auto-suggestions and people interested in making persuasive suggestions, this will offer more great insights into making those suggestions work.

Interestingly, this books seems to be extensively available on the web in various downloadable forms on the web, possibly more than any of the other books I've reported on.