Here is a link to a great blog about Covert Hypnosis. When you think about hypnosis in everyday life, the discussion of covert hypnosis is a prime example. You see, covert hypnosis is simply a way of using hypnosis in everyday conversation. Igor Ledochowski arguably has the best audio course on this topic, and the blog about covert hypnosis is a nice addition.
I wanted to make sure people know that the hypnosis CDs from Dr. Mike Mandel are now available online at www.mikemandelhypnosis.com
Mike Mandel is surely one of the world’s best hypnotists. If you live in Canada and were in University anytime in the last 15 years or so, you probably remember him doing a stage hypnosis show at your school during frosh week. If you are in Toronto, you may have seen him at the Exhibition doing daily stage hypnosis shows.
The stage hypnosis is great entertainment, but the CDs are pure “self-help” if you want to give them a label.
He has one for stress relief, another for peak performance, and finally a CD for memory improvement. I own all three and they were worth every penny. I got them from him in person, and I’m really pleased to see that they are now online so anyone can get them.
As many of you may know, I believe that hypnosis is a part of our daily life. People are constantly going in and out of trance, and constantly hearing (or giving themselves) messages that are a form of post-hypnotic suggestion.
If you do not learn how to harness this power, you are simply in the passenger seat of the car driving down the road of life. Learn to be the driver.
As I said in my last post, I had become the vitcim of negative self-hypnosis regarding my workouts. I promised to use the “swish” pattern on myself to overcome my limitations.
In the swish pattern, you form a mental image of your problem state, and then you form a mental image of a drastically improved state. In my case I made sure to change the attributes of the image in the “improved” form so that it is bigger, closer, brighter, louder, etc. You then (very quickly) see the first mental image and have it blown away by the second image, which visually comes in to smash through the first image. This is a very quick explanation, so I apologize. You can always learn more on Google.
Anyway, long story short … the results were quite good. I did the swish pattern just prior to my workout. I saw myself initially standing next to a pull-up bar, and it was a rear-looking view (as if the camera was behind me) and I was small relative to the equipment. The “improved” version was a mental image of a front view, zoomed in on my upper torso, and at the top of the pull-up position. It was closer to me, much brighter, and the expression on my face was one of total accomplishment.
I ran through the swish technique 10 times (visually replacing the old image with the new one at a high speed). You need to do it at least 5 times, but I chose 10.
I had previously been stuck at 10 reps. My best is about 15. How many you do depends on your form, and I use good form with a full extension of my arms at the bottom of the exercise. So 15 is pretty solid. 10 wasn’t making me happy. I had not “beaten” 10 in months. When I did the swish, I managed to do 13.5, the 14th rep was not completed.
So in conclusion - the swish technique is not magic. It cannot cure the fact that my muscles are in fact slightly weaker than before. But it DID get me past a mental hurdle. That’s the point. I fixed the negative hypnosis.
Stay well.
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I was inspired to write this post today because in my usual blog reading I came across a really fanstastic post by Tim Ferriss, author of the Four Hour Work Week (a great book that everyone should rush out and buy, see link below).
I’ll give you the link to his post in a second. He uses the term “label” where the hypnosis and NLP community would say “frame”. It’s the same damn thing, so I wanted to point that out to everyone.
Framing is how we view a particular situation, person, physical object, personal challenge, problem, relationship, etc.
In NLP, the concept of reframing is taught. How to ask yourself (or others) intelligent questions that end up CHANGING how you frame things (or as Tim might say, using a different label).
He mentions the death of Heath Ledger in his post, and although we do not know if Heath committed suicide or died by accident, it was very sad either way. My wife and I were both shocked when we heard about the 28-year old’s passing.
Every single one of you should read Tim’s post on this subject here.
Tim’s book:
Ok folks - just because I understand how to use hypnosis doesn’t mean I can’t fall victim occassionally to what I’ll call “negative hypnosis”.
Here is today’s example. I was in the gym earlier doing my workout. I started to do a few new bodyweight exercises about two years ago and after about 12 months, I got up to some pretty impressive targets (for example number of handstand pushups I could do).
Today, I have to admit I have not been able to repeat my best performance in many months. I have essentially hypnotized myself to believe that I was in better shape at that time, so that old maximum is no longer achievable.
Every time I begin a set of the exercise, I max out at a far smaller number of repetitions, which I have simply accepted over the last few months.
This has got to stop. But how?
My strategy is to use NLP on this. In particular, I’m a fan of the “swish pattern”. Google the term if you want to learn more, I’m sure there are all sorts of articles about this.
I used the swish pattern on myself to quit nail biting about 5 years ago. It worked instantly. I’ve used it on others to reduce negative reactions to “scary” things such as talking to beautiful women. There is nothing stopping me from being totally successful with this pattern again, but for my workouts.
Next time I post I’ll provide an update. In the meantime, if you are curious about NLP, do some google homework or post a comment. If you have a question I’ll be happy to address it in another post.
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In the last couple of posts I’ve talked some programs that are available to learn “Conversational Hypnosis”, only one of which I think is worth the money.
But you know what? There are two types of conversations. First, there is the obvious - a conversation with someone else. Second, there is a conversation with yourself.
If you can apply hypnosis in conversation with somebody else, to effect a change of state in that other person, then you can do exactly the same thing to yourself. I realize you won’t drive yourself into a formal “trance” (at least not the way we usually think of in hypnosis). But hypnosis, loosely defined, is a focused state of awareness, and if you ask yourself the right questions to elicit a certain response, you are in effect applying conversational hypnosis on yourself.
So get in the habbit of asking yourself useful questions. “How come I’m such a failure?” is a shitty question. “What can I do differently this time, to really create the outcome that I want?” is much better.
Some good questions to hypnotize yourself with:
1) How amazing will I feel in 3 months time, when I look in the mirror and notice how much better my body has become, having really installed a deep value towards eating healthy and exersising?
2) How much happier will my spouse and children be after I learn to leave my work at the office, and really disengage from it when I’m at home with my family?
Have a great day.
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Hey Folks,
I thought I’d write another quick post because in my last post I talked about a course in “Conversational Hypnosis” by Igor Ledochowski. The course by Igor is good, and I recommend it. That said, I also told you that I thought the sales letter was a bit cheesy. It is cheesy to some extent, but for the most part it seems quite fair. Yeah, they probaby exaggerate with the whole “put people under your spell instantly” bit. But the sales letter clearly talks about the contribution of Milton H. Erickson (the best hypnotist and therapist to ever live), and it doesn’t pretend to offer you “unknown secrets that NOBODY wants you to know”.
Let’s contrast this with another example: “Underground Hypnosis” by Taylor Starr. Once you submit your first name and email address, you are redirected to his sales letter. In my opinion, it’s competely silly. Now, I bet that his course probably DOES contain some good quality information on hypnosis and influence (it seems very heaily weighted towards influencing people rather than helping them to make change). I say this because if it sucked, he’d have a huge return rate. Since it is sold through Clickbank, he cannot deny refunds. Clickbank handles it all.
What bugs me most about Taylor’s sales pitch is that he is SO obviously using the rule of scarcity to convince people to buy. He claims he is not supposed to share his information with anyone, and that over 3,000 people are just begging for his program so he might pull the website at any moment. Yeah, sure. Who in their right mind is going to believe this sales pitch? Logic clearly dictates that he is lying. But clearly people are buying his program.
What this tells us (getting back to the subject of hypnosis) is that his sales letter is succeeding in causing people to react based on emotion, and not logic. Yes, this actually means that his sales letter is hypnotizing people into setting logic aside and envisioning the great powers that they will have after listening to his audio course.
Like I said up front, I have never used his course, and I am willing to bet that it is of lesser quality than Igor Ledochowski’s course. That said, you get what you pay for and it costs half as much. Either way, I think it is probably worth your while just to go to his page so you can read the sales letter to understand what I mean about playing on emotion.
Yes folks, hypnosis is all around you, ESPECIALLY in advertising.
Folks,
I wanted to write a quick post to mention that I just finished a great hypnosis course in audio format. This course is recorded by Igor Ledochowski, a British fellow who is a Master Hypnotist, trained in Ericksonian methods. For those unfamiliar, Ericksonian hypnosis was created by the late Milton H. Erickson, and he was arguably the best hypnotist to ever live. His methods are dramatically different than what most people think of when they imagine learning hypnosis.
I’m a certified practitioner of Ericksonian Hypnosis so I know when somebody knows their stuff versus when they don’t. Igor is an absolute master. His lessons are excellent and I highly recommend you check out his program if you have any interest in learning hypnosis.
Igor Ledochowski teaches what is called “Conversational Hypnosis”, sometimes called “Street Hypnosis”. The idea is that you can use these skills in everyday conversation. This means you could use “hypnosis” to influence your boss, spouse, children, friends, business partners, customers, etc. If you study this stuff and develop some level of mastery, you’ll find it dramatically improves your ability to influence people, and install change in others.
Hypnosis is powerful. Please use it responsibly and ethically.
The link I provide here is to the sales letter, which is supposed to convince you to buy the program. I personally find it to be a bit cheesy, but I’ll look past that given the quality of the program.
It isn’t cheap, but then again, you get what you pay for. For less than $200, if you actually put forth the effort to listen to the program and do the “homework”, I can’t possibly imagine that you’ll do anything other than look back 5 years later and notice how much value hypnosis skills have brought to your life. Besides, it comes with a complete money back guarantee, and it is sold through ClickBank, a very reputable company that handles the transactions and refunds, so you know the refund offer is real (I know I’m always skeptical when I see refund offers).
Igor’s course is certainly not the only one for sale on the Web, but it’s a darn good one.
When we learn language as children, we seem to inevitably pick up a nasty habbit, and that habbit is speaking in negative terms. What does a mother say to a child when that child is learning to climb stairs? “Don’t fall, Suzie!” or something to that effect.
Asking somebody NOT to do something is an automatic hypnotic suggestion to actually DO it. For example, please ensure that you do not think of the colour blue right now. Don’t do it no matter what. Try really hard and do not think of the colour blue.
What happens? It is impossible to avoid having the thought cross your mind. The “not” command can only be interpreted if you think about it in positive terms first, and then mentally tell yourself not to do it. The problem is that once the thought is in your mind, it is in your mind. You are much more likely to do what you are not supposed to do.
The most common that I think you’ll start to notice now is “Don’t forget to …”
Make a habbit of beginning to say instead, “Remember to …” because it simply has more effect.
Hello again!
Right now I’m feeling excellent whereas about 10 minutes ago I was putting my daughter to bed, reading her a story and I honestly felt like I could go to sleep myself. It was 7:45 at night only! During the day I had promised myself I would workout today. I missed a few days due to travel (not like that’s a valid excuse, it is NOT) and I really needed to get back on track. But I felt tired. Anyway, I did my workout and now I feel great.
So what caused the change and motivated me to workout? It was two questions that I asked myself. The first question was, “How good are you going to feel once you get past that first couple of minutes, once the muscles start pumping and the oxygen starts moving?”. The second question was, “What will happen if you keep making lousy excuses such as feeling tired?”.
The first question attacked my desire for pleasure. The second question attacked my desire to avoid pain. Both strategies work in all people, and one usually works better. I just use both on myself and mission accomplished.
For those of you who haven’t yet found the motivation to begin to get yourself into tip top shape and enjoy the best of what life has to offer with a healthy body, I have to recommend Matt Furey’s Combat Conditioning. My friend Adam turned me onto this about 2 years ago and it has permanently changed my view of fitness. Before this all I did was use weights. Now I don’t touch them. I’m stronger, more flexible, more fit, and I feel better. I find Furey totally promotional, but I don’t care. His methods work excellently. I workout for about 15 minutes at a time, which is all you need. If you are sitting there telling yourself that you have no time, or some other crap excuse, ask yourself a couple of probing questions to drive your natural responce to seek out pleasure and avoid pain. Ask yourself what you’d need to believe if you were going to make fitness a part of your life. It will get you a lot closer to completing a very important change in your life.
Life well, and throw your comments below if you have any.
